Air Gear, taking a sport to the extreme

I have always been fascinated with roller blades and through my lifetime have owned two or three pairs. However my balance being what it is and the roads being rather gravely I have not been all that active with them but have always wanted to skate. So when I saw Air Gear was about skating I was all in and just had to watch their antics.

• Genre: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Shounen, Sports
• Number of Episodes: 25 +3 OVA’s
• Duration to watch all episodes: +/- 10 hours plus 1 hour for the OVA’s
• Season: 1
• Age restriction: R+ – Mild Nudity
• Release date: April 2006
• Animation Studio: Toei Animation
• Kanji: エア・ギア

About:

‘Air Treks’ has taken over and gangs are being formed that compete in various events using their A-T’s. Street-fighting punk, Ikki is a middle-school boy who is the toughest on the east side of town. He lives with 4 adopted sisters. Soon Ikki discovers the world of A-T and soon gets mixed up in a few A-T battles and is thrown into a fate he had not foreseen, learning about his past and making a number of storm riding allies on the way as well as a few enemies.

My Thoughts:

First thing’s first, how could the animation go from epic to what the hell?

 

This seems rather common for a lot of anime and manga so I can bring myself to ignore it since it was not a giant chunk of the show, nor was it a main focus. Rather it was used to show the various emotions and break the tension.

I could relate to the guys learning to skate, when they were all wobbly and clumsy. Although I wish I could improve as quickly as they do.

Now onto the actual story line, I found it interesting. The rivalry between the groups and going along with Ikki learning how the A-T world worked and how they could gain rank and fame. The relationship between the characters was developed well and you could see their bond as well as understand why they were like they were.

The ‘romance’ was not a main focal point but added a needed distraction from all of the action. It also gave a reason for the way a few of the characters behaved.  I was not really sold by Ikki and preferred Akito/Agito/Lind Wanijima. The split personality and history really appealed to me, although Agito is my personal favourite of the personalities. The characters were diverse and the different motives of the teams was enough to keep me entertained throughout the episodes.

I was surprised at the sudden inclusion of a ‘gay’ crush in what is obviously an ecchi anime.

I was extremely disappointed and frustrated to learn that there was no season 2 and that the story was just left hanging. Then I found the OVA’s and only found that they were more of a let down since they seemed to randomly pick up the story at an odd point and things were not fully resolved even withing the OVA’s. Which makes sense since they were bundled with the 30th volume of the manga.

Have you watched Air Gear? Will you watch it? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments below! Also what anime do you think took a sport to the extreme?