Air Gear [56k for the birds]

[Crube]

So yet another Oh! Great manga has made it to the small screen: Air Gear!

Air Gear was recently licensed for release in the USA by Del Rey and the first volume will be available on July 25 2006. Normally, with an Oh! Great book, this is where I would talk about how much porn it has. Well, Air Gear is not the case, apparently. What fanservice they DO give us, tends to be either subtle or even comedic. So let's talk about the show.

AirGear is about a middle-school boy, Minami Itsuki "Ikki". He lives with the Noyamano family, 4 sisters, no parents. While you think he might be lucky, you'll see that he is not. He's often treated as the family pet, except by Ringo.

One of the girls he lives with is a year older than him, Ringo. She's about the only one who treats Ikki with any sort of respect or gentleness. Now, the central theme of Air Gear is 'Air Treck', a sort of high-tech rollerblades capable of more maneuverability than what they should be, as well as self-propulsion, to extreme speeds. Ringo is a surprisingly accomplished Air Treck artist.

Ringo's three sisters are also Air Treck pros, as well as members of the secretive team 'Sleeping Forest'

Rika is the oldest, and the caretaker of everyone.

Mikan is the second oldest, and Ikki's main abuser.

And little Shiraume (Ume), is weird, careless and often just plain strange.

That's it for the Noyamano family, but it wouldn't be complete if we didn't list Simca (Tsubame no Shimuka), another AirTreck user who Ikki seems to be infatuated with for her crazy acrobatics.

Akito is an innocent, cute and cheerful boy who has a double personality. When the eye patch is covering the right eye, he is in dominance of the body. He has a major crush on Ikki after he shows him the meaning of freedom and 'rescued' (upon which Akito stole a kiss from Ikki) him from his abusive brother. He now lives with Ikki and the Noyamano sisters, and attends Higachu Junior High School. Akito is one of the five founding members of Kogarasumaru.

Agito is Akito's dark half. When the eye patch is covering the left eye, he is in dominance of the body. He is very bloodthirsty and carves his road on people's bodies. Agito is the Fang King (although he lost the regalia to Udo Akira for a while before regaining it) and was part of the Wind SWAT team which catches people who abuse AT for crimes. He is often characterized as a shark. After Akito is 'rescued' by Ikki and joined Kogarasumaru, he becomes an unwilling member of the group. Agito is a level A AT user.

[TeleportSandwich]

animation sucks ass and the Cover Crow's piss me off.

[HappyLittleBoozer]

The premise sounds like it was thought up by a kindergartener and the characters are pretty much generic.