white sonata

Air Gear Ep01

Shonen series. Sports. I've been looking forward to seeing Air Gear animated for awhile, mainly because the action scenes would lend themselves to some very cool animation. As of yet, I'm not thrilled, but it's not terrible either. Welcome to the world where Air Trek is the hottest underground sport. Rocket-powered roller blades give players the ability to do all sorts of cool tricks, tantamount to flight itself. Meet Ikki, a loser kid who looks like Ichigo from Bleach attempting to cosplay L from Death Note. He lives with four beautiful girls, but they tend to treat him like dirt, save for Ringo who clearly has feelings for him.


Ikki has a little problem. He looks like a tough guy, and acts like one to, but lately he had a run-in with the Skull Saders, a gang that uses Air Trek. The leader pwned Ikki to the point that he had a little "accident" in his pants and became the laughingstock of the school and most of the gangs in the area. At least he has good friends.



Afraid that he's sulking about his defeat, Ringo looks for Ikki and finds him with birds circling overhead, as always. The spot he's in right now is a special place. He comes here every day to watch her.


And her is a beautiful, pantless, Air Trekking chick who skates by at the same time every day.


After some antics at night, we're granted a shower scene. However, we don't get any fanservice, and neither does Ikki, even though he tries valiantly.


As a better exercise of his time, Ikki decides to enter the forbidden room, where he finds Air Trek equipment and a strange logo. I kinda wonder why he never thought to go in there before...



Ikki yoinks a pair of Air Trek blades and heads out, but even with use of the instructions he's not very good.


He finally gets the hang of it long enough to find himself at a shady stand in the middle of the city. The owner recognizes his Sleeping Forest logo and tells him how to find an Air Trek gathering that's currently going down.



When he arrives, Ikki is delighted to find her: Simca. She seems to be pretty popular among the trekkers, and when he sees a guy slap an emblem on her butt, he follows suit with the Sleeping Forest emblem that he stole from the girls. Everyone is surprised that some noob has the emblem of Sleeping Forest.


The Skull Saders show up, and the leader asks Ikki if he'd like another pummeling. Mr. Hair Gel Man also arrives, and trades some unkind words with the Skull Saders. He appears to be in a relationship with Simca, although the actual relationship has not been determined.


Before any real action can go down, the Police Force shows up. Apparently the Police Force in this city is made entirely of evil bishonen. Everyone scatters, including Ikki and the Skull Saders (which would be a good name for a band). The leader skates away, and Ikki chases after him, keen on getting his revenge.


As he's chasing, three of the girls catch up to him. They're Sleeping Forest, a notorious all-girl Air Trek gang (and it's hard for me to type that with a straight face). I'm not really sure what makes them notorious or why they felt they had to keep their nightlife a secret from Ikki. Point is: they're really hot.


The girls make quick work of the Skull Sader goons, leaving Ikki to chase after the leader.


As Ikki is skating, he suddenly finds himself in another world where he must become the priestess and summon Suzaku...wait, not like that. He finds himself in another 'zone' that only a true Air Trekker could experience (or someone on drugs, but that's another story). It feels like he's flying. Go him.


Also, is it just me, or did one of Nao's goons get lost and wind up on Air Gear?

Anyway. The first episode wasn't too bad. The opening animation really disappointed me. I was expecting a lot of work and effort put into animating some hardcore tricks or other stuff, but instead we get a couple guys chasing a meganeko. Oh well. The use of CG in the show is appropriate, but it still looks a little weird. ^_^;; The music throughout the show fits well with the content, so no complaints there. Verdict: Decent. I'll watch this just because I want to see some cool action scenes. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.

--topleka

posted by topleka @ 7:46 AM