As people dive into the anime world some of the first distinguished traits within the medium is shōnen and shōjo. One means young boy and the other means young girl. The terms are derived from the manga magazines marketed toward both those audiences, Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat respectively. Within our community we have come to use this term as a genre tag, which is controversial in a lot of cases and turns out not to be very helpful in distinguishing a show. Well welcome to Air Gear, where the tag shōnen is absolutely appropriate. Its full of adventures of a young boy, who is surrounded by challenges to overcome as a perceived underdog and surrounded by females in his life. But don't write this off as a To love Ru love child with the sports genre, even though it is definitely tempting at first.
Plot
What not to expect from this show, a deep character drama with deep philosophical explorations of the human soul and mind. The story itself is also not something amazing. Yet what it does have is unique and genuinely interesting world building. The weaknesses of Air Gear is found within every part of what you would call a review, but it's balanced out by what your expectation of the show brings. When you watch the first episode of this show, you are presented with mystery, comedic and old school character introduction tags. The strength of the story is in its simplicity, because it leaves room for over the top comedic and action scenes. Now considering comedic aspects, you have to always think about the type of person you are writing to and I can say for a fact this was written for comedic purposes toward young boys. The show falls flat on really good romance, instead uses basic tsundere tropes quite often. Yet even though the tropes are a common appearance in the show, it is surprisingly refreshing because you can clearly distinguish motives of the different women in his life. It is certainly not a harem by any means, and some of the shenanigans between our main character and some of the women are fun, cute and at times very mysterious. The action is absolutely fun, and never ceases to surprise you with the craziness of using roller blades in the way that they do within this show. The story within itself is limited by its own goals, but keeps those goals very mysterious and does a great job at revealing them to both us as viewers and the main character of the story. Quality story even though it lost some potential with the romantic aspect I don't think that affected the quality of it as a pure shōnen. Story - 3/3
Art Style
This is certainly an older style of animation, Air gear was released in 2006 as an Anime and follow an adaption of the manga quite closely in terms of story and style. The Manga itself started near the end of 2002, so what you should expect is a style from that time - perhaps if you have seen Naruto that would be a good lens to view it under. It's nothing out of the ordinary as you would see in something like 5 centimetres per second, but it has its moments of excellence. Generally the frames are very jagged and paused snap shots, but that is not to limit the ability of the animators instead it is a purposed style. As you continue watching it starts surprising you with some amazing art of tricks they pull off in action scenes, they use the lack of fantastic animation all the time to really put emphasis on the characters experience of using Air Trek roller blades. Now unfortunately the best quality you will find Air Gear in is 480p and 720p if you are lucky due to when it was produced, but neither takes away from the experience the art style is enough to keep you actively enjoying the show. Art Style - 2/2
Music
Uniquely this show starts off with an opening song as the start of the first episode, the song is called Chain and it does a fantastic job at introducing the show. The opening song captures the experience of watching Air Gear, in the adventure, in the thrill of the action and the wonder of flying through the air with wings on your feet. The over all sound track really does a great job at pumping you up for the action scenes, with a really retro and city electronic experience. You are also presented with really ambient tracks as the characters contemplates issues they face, while at the same time having very comedic tracks to add to the silliness of the show. However there are times where a track seems really ridiculous and just a bit too much for what we are watching, now I am not a big fan of electronic music but I can appreciate good tracks from the genre. So regardless of my slight bias it is really a hit and miss with some of the tracks. Music - 1/2
In conclusion, Air gear was one of my first Anime experiences as an adult and I thoroughly enjoyed it regardless of the fan service and the boyish shenanigans. It is one of those shows with an underdog that attempts to overcome the adversary in front of him while building some fun relationships along the way. It truly makes you interested in rollerblading and keeps your attention as a comedy, action. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for something fun and dumb to watch, and perhaps it will inspire you to discover your first dream or pursue one you abandoned a long time ago. P.S friendly warning there are some scenes with nudity in it, beee careful.
7/10
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