Air Gear

Air Trecks, also known as AT, are motorized and futuristic inline skates that are the new craze taking the nation by storm. Although each AT comes with a speed limiter, a community of daredevils known as the "Storm Riders" are brave enough to tamper with the device. Utilizing AT's in underground battles, individual teams wager valuable AT parts or team emblems—their symbol of pride—to dominate the streets.

Living in this era is Itsuki Minami, a middle school student notorious for engaging in street fights. Always wanting to reach heights no one else is able to, the reckless punk will break through any obstacle that stands in his way, alongside his best friends Kazuma Mikura and Onigiri. However, it is when he discovers a pair of Air Trecks in his house that the path to his true desire finally opens: to rule the skies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Minami, Itsuki Main

Kamakari, Kenta Japanese

Mikura, Kazuma Main

KENN Japanese

Noyamano, Ringo Main

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Onigiri Main

Kikuchi, Masami Japanese

Wanijima, Agito Supporting

Kikuchi, Kokoro Japanese

Simca Supporting

Tanaka, Rie Japanese

Spitfire Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Takeuchi, Sora Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Yoshitsune Supporting

Madono, Mitsuaki Japanese

Mihotoke, Issa Supporting

Bifu, Hitoshi Japanese

Chung, Jin Ho Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Yoshizawa, Takao Producer

Kamegaki, Hajime Director, Episode Director

Reviews

Jun 4, 2007

jupiterjazz

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 29, 2015

re11ding

Mixed Feelings

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 27, 2013

iSheep

Not Recommended

I think I have a newfound respect for anybody that enjoys this show. Not because it's a bad show, but because it's a bad show that somehow gathers a respectable amount of fans. Air Gear is bad. It's not just bad, it's probably the worst show I've ever seen.

Have you ever seen a review with big bold caps streaming the headline blatantly screaming to you "WORST SHOW EVER"? Everybody that writes a bad review often tells it that way, but it means there are about a hundred other "WORST SHOWS EVER". I admit to watching plenty of shows within the span of my daily life, ... and it takes me a while to rethink a show and decide whether or not I like it. Some for better, some for worse, but the truth is, I've never seen an anime show that I've truly regret watching, not even those I would want to watch again. Air Gear is radically different.

Story: I rated the story 7/10. This is well-deserved and dignified, because let's face it, how often do you see an anime show about rollerblades? In Air Gear's defense, it may be the only one of its kind. The issue I had with the story is the really quick pickup towards the last couple episodes, where suddenly the plot dove full-throttle into a wall, as if this was a show wishing for itself to end. What can I say to that, aside from calm down and flow a little more naturally? Nothing much, especially when the first couple of episodes emphasized falling over and over again. It was nice to see him falling without the slightest clue as to what he was doing the first times, but how about an episode where he DOESN'T fall from something every so often? You're not a factory, so please stop your blatant repetition.

Art: The animation is world-class, similar to how you would say Shingeki no Kyojin has some of the best art direction in an anime show, but for the first couple of episodes, I had to readjust my preferences until the art style sank in, unlike Shingeki no Kyojin which doesn't borrow elements from the "common" anime yet still managed to draw me in the moment it began (without regards to what was actually happening). The look as a whole did remind me of Samurai Champloo, especially with the presence of Minami Itsuki who vaguely resembled Mugen, and given the setting in a modern-day urban environment, I was pretty much sold. It looks good and the story is nice, that should give me an incentive to stick around.

Sound: Another anime with a badass soundtrack, a sick opening theme, and better sprites and sound effects than can be produced with a Korg synthesizer (of course I'm exaggerating), the music is something to behold for sure. If I could say so myself, Air Gear has one of the best soundtracks out there, behind a musical, in which music is the main focus. Based on Story, Art, and Sound, I was almost convinced that I would be watching another masterpiece.

ALMOST convinced.

Characters: I was thoroughly disappointed with the characters. Minami Itsuki lives in a world where he happens to be the main protagonist of a sports show, so what's up with this guy? He has no shame and even used the "public restroom" during one of the battles, and just like all the other guys in this show, they're ALL perverts. That brings me to the case of Noyamano Ringo, a girl that Itsuki lives with. She must have some insane type of unrequited love, especially to fall in love with a guy like Itsuki. In fact, what about Simca, who is supposedly "in love" with Itsuki? She obviously takes kindly to being the whore of the AT world, especially when it becomes a hobby to show up nude in front of a guy that you didn't like at the very beginning.These characters have a lack of common sense, and unlike a comedy that recognizes stupid characters, Air Gear simply allows them to happen, and to this day, I believe they're dead serious about it.

Enjoyment: What's the genre for Air Gear, sports? I also believe that they've thrown in a couple of other genres in there, like Comedy, Action, Romance, all the typical anime genres. That's the thing I found strange about Air Gear. Its genre is so confused, if Air Gear were human and you ran a sexuality test on it, the reading would come out as "inconclusive". Air Gear FAILS to recognize its own genre, and instead of giving it the right amount of comedy, action, and romance, Air Gear throws all of them into a blender, minces it, and hopes it tastes good. By this time, the formula is bitter, and you can't even taste what it was supposed to be to begin with.

And Air Gear doesn't stop at trying to mix the genres above. It also adds more to a formula that it can't get correctly. Instead of identifying what it's supposed to be and allowing them to exist without twisting them into a quite unpleasant experience, it's also trying to tell you, "oh yeah, did we mention we're also an Ecchi?" If you did not understand any bit of my analogy, this is what it means: Air Gear tries to blend Comedy, Action, and Romance, and also tries to get by on adding an ecchi scene "here and there". It's the reverse order, in reality. Air Gear is an Ecchi show before anything. THEN it gets to be a Romantic Action Comedy that doesn't happen to be funny, nor romantic, and it just happens to have action in it. Air Gear's genre is so confused that it allows serious events to be complemented with a terrible sense of humor, comedy that's hardly impressive and so lackluster that you could watch with a straight face.

Overall: The art is appealing, the sound is studded with quality, and the story is decent minus that enormous quirk at the very end, but the characters are hardly notable and trying to find the non-Ecchi parts of Air Gear is like searching for a needle in a haystack: you need to be searching actively to find those parts.

Don't get me wrong. The show has its incredible moments. High-velocity action sequences, a badass soundtrack, and some of the best art direction to ever be found in an anime show, but take it down to the other elements and there's no redeeming qualities in the fields of characters, enjoyment, and content. There's simply nothing about those three categories that could pick this show up off its feet and allow it to compete with even the most generic of shows.

Air Gear seriously has the potential to be something amazing, taking something generally "uncool" and giving it a reboot into something much easier to appreciate, but the very fact that it can't mix genres well and can't even identify what it is to begin with leaves it much to be desired. I know it has the potential to be amazing, but it can't be unless it throws out the Ecchi, the horrid Comedy, the forgettable characters, and learns to blend its own elements correctly.

However, I've just come to the realization that I described the entire show. I guess there's simply no way I will ever like this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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