Anime isn't all giant robots and fan service-laden romantic comedies. There are plenty of titles with plots that center around sports, focusing on a player or team aiming to get to the top of their game through all sorts of struggles, both personal and professional. Naturally, in this age of “extreme” sports, there would be an anime focusing on one, albeit with some slight sci-fi edge to it. That series is “Air Gear”, which revolves around Air Trecks, or ATs, in-line skates with small engines that allow those using them--called “Storm Riders”--to move at incredible speeds and perform stunts that couldn't be done with normal skates. It's not the greatest series in the world, and contains characters and situations that aren't new to anime or done in ways that seem all that different, but it still makes for a good piece of entertainment.
The player at the center of this series, based on the manga created by Oh!Great, is Ikki Minami, your usual tough, streetwise kid who tends to be all talk whose mouth and attitude get him into trouble, whether it be with local gangs like the Skull Saders or with the Noyamanos, the four beautiful sisters he lives with (he does have the usual “heart of gold” characters of this type have, with a sense of honor that comes into play throughout the series). Following a humiliating fight with the Skull Saders, Ikki sneaks a peek into an “off-limits” room at the Noyamano house and discovers a surprising (to him, at least) secret: the sisters are Storm Riders themselves. “Borrowing” (okay, stealing) a pair of ATs, Ikki takes up the sport himself and discovers a world he never expected as he forms his own team and learns how to kick butt and take names.
Admittedly, there's really not a whole lot that's new about “Air Gear” that most folks haven't seen before. For the sports-based part of the series, you got the rookie player who learns the sport as he goes (thus helping the audience learn at the same time, which admittedly is a necessary element), the other more experienced players of various personalities from goofy to downright mean, and the dream to aim for the top, meeting all challenges along the way. Many of the teams in the series seem more like street gangs, terrorizing students and neighborhoods when they're not challenging each other. Perhaps in a unique anime twist, the teams that have shown up so far have members that all wear masks of some type, making them seem like the “faceless minions” you might see on a “Power Ranger”-type show, with only the leaders showing their faces. Kind of goofy in a sense, since I'm not sure if even real life Japanese gangs are like this, but it sort of works for this show.
There's also some romantic comedy elements thrown into the mix, mostly with Ikki and his situation with the Noyamano sisters. He clashes repeatedly with their varying personalities, whether its short-tempered tomboy Mikan's disciplinary actions or youngest sister Shiraume's creation of creepy, ghoul-like dolls. He also has the traditional “relationship” with second-youngest sister Ringo, where she obviously has feelings for him but still gets irked by his antics and reacting in the usual manner (in other words, beats him up). Naturally, she also becomes jealous of Ikki's interest in the beautiful Storm Rider Simca, who seems to have her own interest in our hero, and denies any suggestion of feelings with her actions saying otherwise. Nothing a whole lot most of us haven't seen before, but still funny as hell, though it does make you wonder why Ikki stays with these girls if they treat him like crap.
Thankfully, the Air Treck stunts and battles are what help make this series entertaining to watch. Anyone who's into skateboarding or rollerblading will be interested in this aspect of the show, and because “Air Gear” is an animated show the characters can pull off stunts and tricks that would be next to impossible in real life (without CGI, of course). And all this thanks to the little engine that powers the skates, which the Storm Rider still needs to learn how to control, which Ikki learns the hard way. There even seems to be a sort of spiritual aspect to using ATs; during his first challenge, Ikki somehow envisions a “road” that allows him to perform some amazing stunts for his first time riding ATs, which end rather predictably since he is a rookie. It's another common element among sports-themed anime, and helps make “Air Gear” interesting to watch.
The fights themselves are a sort of combination of racing and street fights, where two competitors race to a certain point along a certain path, doing tricks along the way. This is where having a team comes in, since your opponent's teammates can and will try and stop you from winning the race, usually by any means necessary. This is also where the comparison to street gangs comes into play for a lot of teams, the best example being the Skull Saders who really seem to fight dirty, though there are some decent and honorable teams like the Rez-Boa-Dogs who try and balance it out. There are also plenty of rules and regulations to the fights, but that'd take too long to fully explain here and you pretty much have to watch the show to really get the gist of it.
ADV manages to provide a good dub track for the series, with some very appropriate voices for each character, such as Chris Patton for Ikki and Luci Christian for Ringo. The disc also boasts an impressive 5.1 surround sound track for the dub, which REALLY comes out during the show's opening sequence and the main bass line. When that comes on and you have the volume up, you WILL feel it, trust me. What the disc lacks is a decent list of bonus material, just the standard clean opening and closing animations and some ADV previews. You'd think ADV could provide something to help spice things up, like some character designs or even some “documentaries” about how the ATs work, but I guess not.
Cliches and lack of bonus material aside, “Air Gear” is still quite an entertaining piece to watch, particularly if you enjoy sports-themed shows. It's definitely worth checking out, at least, though adding it to your collection is up to you and your personal tastes.
Released by: ADV Films
Rating: 16+
Running time: 4 episodes, 100 minutes
Score: 7 out of 10
