Air Master

Hugely entertaining in a campy way, this is a hideous looking martial arts anime from 2003 where a giant teenage girl engages in fights for no particular reasons and hangs out with her group of girlfriends including one of the biggest gremlins you will find in anime. The general vibe is basically Baki except the plot is a more straightforward "meet someone, fight someone" type of formula. The characters the main character fights do hang around, and there is a vague tournament plot in the latter half of the anime, but trust me it is not important at all. The finale is particularly nonsensical. Visually, ... it was made right at that transition from cell to digital where most anime looked real bad, and this one in particular the faces just look derpy and frequently off model The fights do look perfectly decent although probably not anything to attract modern sakuga fans. Saying that, this show is entertaining because it knows it's a stupid romp, and it fully delivers at being a romp.

This show is definitely not for everyone. If you see many fan service in this anime then it is not for you or if you hate it after 2 or 3 episode then you don't need to go further. It won't really get better in term of story wise or animation wised. Also don't watch this if you're expecting it to be like other anime because it won't. At least from most anime I have seen Air Master still stand as pretty unique from others. Of course not because it's good but it just doesn't follow rules that makes a story good. I'll try to ... explain it short.

Story; 3
Art; 7 (If kanon(2006) and clannads(2007) faces are good then air master(2003) is good)
Sound; 7
Character; 4 (Decent enough to not bore but not good enough to remember)
Enjoyment; 9 (Good flow/directing so it's good to mindlessly binge)
Overall; 6


For example, it's hard to spoil this show because the anime is almost episodic, thus, don't really have any plot to follow or to spoil. Then for an almost episodic story, it would need a good cast don't you think? Not necessarily, this series don't have cute cast like Lucky Star or funny cast like How I met your Mother. At least not in the typical term of cute or funny. Think of this show as Naruto but without Naruto wanting to become Hokage, and his friends got no ambitions other than to follow him. Though Maki might resemble Sasake more than Naruto. Hopefully, you see that setting won't work... at least not for some. Not everyone has a taste for seeing and hearing a motive less character even with fights. This is what I can understand why some people don't like it.

It's not like I'm a special snowflake who likes quirky character or thing, it's almost weird to actually enjoy Renge's character yet I do. If you can't find charm in weirdly and annoying character with too much ego then that's fine for not liking this anime. However, something like art style or animation argument is mostly BS to me. After this sentence it'll mostly rant so you can stop reading here.

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People who argument about the art. Stop right fucking there. For me if anything is done right in this anime it's the art. Sure the animation is bad comparing to FMA from 2003. Yet the art is unique and honestly good. Maki being a hunk is pretty expected if she's going to withstand a blow that can break a fucking wall. Though sure to break a wall you might need to look like a character from Baki but the point is. Their proportions are good to used in a fight. Also if this anime had the Clannad anime style or Kyoto Animation's style (no offense) it wouldn't be about the fight but how pretty the fight is instead.

Okay so here's about the fighting. Sure the anime lack good animation but that's where a good directing comes in. It's Daisuke Nishio whom directed this anime. He has directed Dragon Ball series, One Piece and more. Those I've seen are One Piece and Futari wa Pretty Cure. Both shows has a lot of actions with less frames, however, has a lot of "force" in every hit. That's what he is good at and that's what make the fighting good without the Naruto/Baki like actions. Also the fighting seems more down to earth and powerful when you can see and follow how each hits connects.

Lastly, I want to mention the "fanservice"... If those white panties turns you on then leave this anime. It's not even trying to bring attention to those panties and Mina's big boobs are so cartoonishly over fucking exaggerated that only retards can get turn on from it. It's so obvious that is supposed to be made fun of and if they want to sexualize the panties then why would they not shade the genitals to make it look more provocative and eye catching? I never even once batted an eyes on them. Sure I may be a girl but I don't look at guys crotch either. Either way there's no boob movement in the fight like High School of the Dead and there no showing of them in any fights either. (I'm not counting Maki's first fight with Julietta as it clearly wasn't a fight.) Stop these retarded horny comments on this anime please.

That's it for me.

So, Air Master is a really bad show, but it's mildly entertaining in a campy way. I think I need to somewhat summarize how weird this series truly is.

• Seven foot, 14-year-old girl challenges an incredible amount of aberrant-looking (and acting people) to street brawls, along with her lesbian lover that has breasts that look like two bean bag chairs. Seriously, Mina has boobs as big as that gelatinous monster from Occultic;Nine. Oh, and she's voiced by Yukana (C.C.)? And there’s a shrieking midget… girl? The gender is more on the ambiguous side, but our main heroine is no different. Seeing as she could ... contend with Conor McGregor in stature.

• The aforementioned heavy-weight champion in-training, Maki weighs like 250 pounds, she specializes in aerial attacks, and manages to fly through the air, despite having a body like a primal man from the Paleolithic ages, and often flashing her panties. There's a lot of surrealist humor, and buckets of fanservice. I'm not usually a person who likes copious amounts of fanservice, but the comedy makes it acceptable to watch. Though disgusting, but I think that's the point?

• I would describe Air Master like: What if Grappler Baki met Eiken. Or Peepochu. It's raunchy, gory, and somehow hilarious in its over-the-top depictions of characters. I feel like this would be the type of show to get drunk or high with your friends and watch, but probably not something worth watching on your own, or if you're sober.

• The animation and the art are possibly the worst part of this train-wreck of a show, it was almost unwatchable, at times, with how bad the animation was. If you value that aspect of a series, don't watch. I feel like you only have to watch one or two episodes to get all of the enjoyment that you're going to get from this series.

• All of the men in this series are perverted rapists (especially Julieta Sakamoto), but I guess, what do you expect when you seen a panty shot or boobs jiggling every few seconds? This series could have been a bizarre street fighting hentai with how fucking strange and awkward everything is.

• There is no existent plot, just insanity ensuing. It's just plain absurdist twaddle, with the addition of the mentally-impaired main girl, I mean ogre, beating the crap out of characters on the street, while her merry band of freaks that accompany her do not amplify the case show’s image.

• The satire and mocking of the fighting genre is the biggest achievement of this show, but no one can deny how awful it is. I particularly didn't like the ending of the show, it tried to be something, even though it was best at doing nothing, and then answered no questions. Who are The Eternals? Should we even care?

• Overall, should you watch Air Master? No. ONLY if you're bored and want to get a laugh out of something weird. You're better off watching a Yoshiyuki Tomino reject series, like Garzey's Wing. I give Air Master a 3/10.