Reviewed on February 22nd, 2007

Visually

Oh! Great-sensei has done it again with a superbly modeled storyline with babes and skates. What more could any guy want? With the successful hit of his Fighting manga turned anime Tenjho Tenge, Oh! Great-mangaka has transformed his new found drawing talent to drawing customized motor roller-blades.
The animation is crisp and clean, yet lacks the obvious depth that most manga turned anime generally has. Overall, the color detail and the attention the background settings is over-the-top in this top-notch show.

Audio

The soundtrack this show has to offer is probably one of the best I have heard from an anime OST for a long while.
With the rocking new band on the J-Rock scene: Back-ON, they have pulled out a sensational Opening theme for Air Gear by the name of “Chain”, one of the best scores of music I have heard from a Japanese Rock band for a while.
Inspired by Linkin Park, the band uses soft guitar strings and scratching of discs which is much like the slicing of the roller-blades in this show.
Also, the ending theme “Sky2High” by “Skankfunk” is also another of the musical scores to be reckoned with.
Skankfunk also provides most of the background music this show has and its very easy to get into the beat with its up-tuned rhythm and frantic storyline that moves at break-neck speed.

Storyline

As an ardent fan of the manga, I myself have not been able to give a perfect score for the storyline but I have found it frighteningly accurate to the manga storyline (which is still ongoing by the way) and am pleased to say that viewers will not be upset.
It follows the story of a young rebellious student by the name of Minami Itsuki who is the leader of a gang of delinquents known as the “East Side Gunz”.
After an uneventful fight which left him morally down, the four sisters of the Noyamano household who give shelter to “Ikki”, introduce Ikki to Air Treck: A type of rollerblade sport with the use of in-built motors inside rollerblades. Ikki is then swept up in the dangerous sport of Air Treck and finds more than he had bargained for; clans, kings, roads, special devices called regalias…etc.
What ensues is a hilarious and upbeat turn of events which sweeps viewers of their feet in the show and quickly spreads the message about letting go of restraints and reaching for the sky.

DVD

The usual features, including audio and subtitle options. Opening menu is very classy, with the Air Gear font in the original Japanese font…worth buying volume by volume.

Overall

Definitely Worth spending money for! This show is top-notch in all departments: any easily likeable array of characters, buxom beautiful girls for every guy’s every whimsical fantasy, upbeat soundtrack to keep viewers on the edge of their seat and squeal in delight after the successful completion of a new fangled trick and of course, the superb animation which is very much the epitome of anime.

by Tiger