Air Gear

Story: 8/10 Not too bad all things considered.
When I started up the first episode of Air Gear I was pretty skeptical. I almost let this one pass by just on the basis that it was based on kids with motorized roller blades. However by the third episode I was completely hooked. I then proceeded to cram 25 episodes in over the span of the night. I must say given the fact that this is based on roller blading I was very impressed with the story presentation, and by the end of the 25th episode I was left begging for a second season. I can only hope that the anime gods are working on granting me this wish right now. Along with Berserk that is.

Animation: 10/10 Gotta love the fan service.
Everything looks great. Women are well endowed as it should be, and a couple of them don't mind being slutty. Giggity giggity goo. Hell Ikki even busts out some master Roshi style nose bleeds. The scenes where they are racing or battling are truly amazing. It makes you yearn to be in their shoes as they race from rooftop to rooftop flying through the whole city, or how about kicking your worst enemy in the face going about 60 m.p.h? It does suffer from some pauses during the middle of battles, but it isn't enough to deter you as it really helps with character development.

Sound: 9/10
The music really helps set the pace of the series, especially during the action sequences. My only problem with it is sometimes it gives away what is about to happen. By that I mean they key it in during the end of a battle or when someone is about to make a big accomplishment. Still it helps to keep you on the edge of your seat waiting in suspense.

Character, Enjoyment: 10/10 Hand-in-hand.
An excellent job. The focus on character development is truly what makes the world of Air Treks enjoyable. I'll admit some of the characters are pretty anime cliche, but Air Gear goes a lot further by flushing them out well. Characters are easy to understand, and feel. Almost everyone in the series has their humorous moments whether it's being perverted, clumsy, or just plain sleazy you'll love it.

Overall my main enjoyment came from all the characters. Al though sometimes their actions are enough to make you wince, you'll still fall in love with them all.

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Air Gear is one of those anime shows that you will either love to death or be turned away from it by its weird style. Its very....how should I put it, "open," in a way like Tenjou Tenje is. The girls are revealing, the main character, Ikki, has no shame (as this is shown by him taking a dump in front of EVERYONE while a skating match is going on). Nevertheless, if you enjoy this kind of humor or can get by it, Air Gear shapes up to be a good introduction anime from its manga counterpart.

The story is relatively the same, as with many other sport anime shows. Ikki wants to be an amazing Air Trek rider (that is what they call themselves) and what he does not know is that the people he lives with are part of the legendary Sleeping Forest Air Trek team. They try to persuade Ikki from rollerblading because they do not want him to be involved with the drama that comes along with it, but of course, they fail. Otherwise, this anime would have ended at episode 2.

Basically, each Trek team has the goal of reaching the top of the pyramid, to the A class - to be the best team and trekkers in the world. And in order for them to do so, they must compete in various kinds of competitions to win the badge of the other team.

Animation is top-notch, clean, smooth and colorful. They have done a great job and many of the characters and their details. The women in the show all look gorgeous, to say the least.

Since its been awhile since I have seen this show, I honestly don't remember how good the music is. However, as I listen to some of the songs that I have on my computer, I find it being so-so, so I gave it a rating accordingly. But don't trust me too much on this topic. Hehe. ^_^.

As I have already mentioned, all of the characters are drawn well and have somewhat different personalities. However, nobody is unique in the sense that you'll be like "Whoa! I have never seen that in any other anime before." As you will find that a lot of the personalties people have can be compared to other characters in other anime shows. Again, character development is mainly measured by development in their Air Trekking skills. There really isn't too much of a change in personality in each character to give it much distinction.

Overall, if you are looking for an intense, action-packed sport, look no further than Air Gear. The big disappointing thing I have with this show is that the first 25 episodes cover only a very small portion of the manga and I have yet to see any updates in a season 2 of the show. So I don't know the status of the future of Air Gear at the moment.

I haven't read the manga yet, but I heard from many people that it is amazing and a must-read if you have the time. So once you are introduced to the world of Air Gear with the anime, I would advise to pick up the manga and become even further immersed with the story.

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All things given, this is my first review. Please don't hit on me too hard for what I say as I'm inexperienced when it comes to writing reviews. I'll get better as I write more.

I'm gonna start things off with saying how I watched the dubbed version of this. Though I can't imagine it mattering much when it comes to this show, it'd be helpful knowledge regardless. Air gear.. was a bit disappointing. The show had great potential and yet was executed poorly.

Story 5/10

Air Gear's story was bland. One kid finds these things called ATs, loves them, and apparently is the destined king or something. He comes naturally good at them. This kind of story has been retold in probably many anime; Air Gear just doesn't tell it as well as some others do. It's predictable, poorly paced where it feels there are filler episodes at strange places, and even the end was abrupt and boring.

Art 8/10

The art of the show is pretty darn good. The style represented the dark feel of the show when needed but had a light undertone when things were bright and cheery. Character designs were nice and very different from one another. Even if you couldn't remember the names of characters, each character looked so different that it would be impossible to mix them up. Props for that. The animation was pretty good too when it wasn't trying to intentionally be cheesy.

Sound 9/10

I'd be a liar if I said that the music of this show didn't pump me up when it needed to. It knew when to play sad, happy, intense, or whatever atmosphere you needed at the time. They reuse the same theme quite a bit, but it never seemed to get tiring.

Characters 4/10

I'm sorry but.. Tom-Tom.. Why was she a character? Rant aside, some characters were written pretty well while others just flopped. The main character was in between as he often did things that would seem just over the top, even for him. Some characters revolved around being pervs. Others improved themselves as the show went on. My favorite character however had a neat perk that's been done before in different ways. If people remember Lunch/Launch from Dragon Ball, it's sort of like that. The big difference being the character's split personality was triggered by an eye patch covering the other persona's eye and that said persona's were aware of the others existence and knew some of the things the other did.

Overall 6/10

I've watch anime that has me hooked with formulas like these and Air Gear failed to do that. It felt like a chore to watch with all the fan service it throws at you. It's enough to make someone sick. Not only that though, the story's blandness and the predictability the show has doesn't compliment the art or the sound well. The show also seems to forget a sub-plot they were trying to form near the end. The fact that the end is abrupt makes you assume there'd be a sequel of some kind, bringing that sub-plot back but nope. That was it. I'd stay away from this show.

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Air Gear is a pretty cool Shounen, Sports, Comedy anime about a teenage boy Itsuki Minami “Ikki” who ends up thrown into the competitive sport of Air Trek. Being drawn into this extreme sport, Ikki makes it his goal to reach the pinnacle of AT. Although it would have done better without the typical clichés, inconsistent plot and countless fan service. ^_^

At first glance you might just think of it as rollerblading, with add-ons in the form of an anime but Air Gear manages to pull of a pretty exciting anime with this basic concept. From the beginning something that helps this average-length show is the pace the story and the characters development that will leave you feeling satisfied after each episode. Speaking of the characters, most of their personalities are fairly clichéd like Ikki who is the sort of male protagonist who’s good at heart but doesn’t take crap from anyone. Apart from all the rollerblading there’s also some action in the series but sometimes it could have done better without. Well of course this can’t be a true shounen anime without the action, comedy and fan service.

The quality of animation is a good for the show, with it able to convey the sports, comedy and fan service side of things well. It’s only the lack of fluid animation that is a problem and this anime would have been so much better, if only a production studio like “Madhouse” took it on.

The music is perfectly incorporated into the show with a variety of hip hop, alternative rock and J-pop. The show’s opening theme is what exemplifies the possibility of these types of music complimenting each other.

Overall Air Gear turns out to be a pretty exciting sports anime to watch with the main story easy enough to follow that kids can watch it, but with all the fanservice, its not advised. Even though the story develops well enough, there is a lot of stuff that is randomly added in which further complicates this anime (like Regalia and Genesis). In the end this is an anime that deserves a second series and hopefully by then the animation quality would be better.

^_^

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