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War Junkies and Air Gears

I don't care what his excuses are- Hazman is a war junkie and he is very much in denial about it. Sure, war has been a part of history but that is no reason to teach history 'to form 3 boys who will join the army anyway'. War junkie. I hope I can kill you someday slowly. See war, see Postdam, see Auschwitz, see war veterans with scars all over them. I have. You have not. So shut the fuck up you little war junkie and play with your little toy soldiers. You have no guts, let alone any brains.
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That aside, I have another review (which no one will probablly read):

This time it's a popular anime in Japan and the States, AIR GEAR.



I had heard that even the dub of this anime was better than one would expect, although I rarely watch dubs (out of availablity issues, really). I did fancy myself some shonen anime for a change, apart from the TV diet of Slam Dunk and Appleseed (plus the Vagrant shorts). So I got myself the first season of Air Gear on DVD and let it rip.

The first thing that hits you in the face is the awesome drum and bass (ish) soundtrack by Skankfunk. Every episode was a blast to watch because of the soundtrack ,which was perfect for this sort of anime with all the racing and high tempo action. Even the closing theme was thubthumping. It certainly helped me watch this anime in a good mood and was a refreshing change from metal guitar or orchestral backgrounds from a lot of anime I've seen lately (not that they are bad, just overused).

The concept of Air Treks, which are basically two wheeled rollerblades with engines and computer chips could have gone overboard but I'm glad it didn't. The idea of 'flying' with blades is something any 90s kid (like me) can appreciate, and the anime does a good job of demonstrating just how liberating the feeling is, even for the huge Buccha- a flying 7 foot guy in a pink shirt is so very anime. The animation could be a bit smoother, but barring CGI I can't really see how it could have been done justice. The idea of racing up vertical walls is crazy- I love it!

The show has some pretty interesting moments, particularly the Parts Wars that involve a lot of physics, falling down and racing. Our 'baby face' main character is shown to be a quick learner (Sakuragi Hanamichi but with less restraint) on the Treks, although I really loved the moment when upside-down rider Onigiri actually defeats a succubus-type character. I loved it everytime Buccha's "tank" appeared, I felt like running away from the screen each time it appeared.

That brings me to another strong point of the anime- characters. I was dreading that it would be an "Ikki and friends" show but it seems to be about everyone all at once, despite the main character being the Black Crow himself. Kazu , the loyal second is not given the chance to shine (the anime does not cover even half of the current ongoing manga story) as much as I would have liked but that's the problem with 26 episode anime these days; too many plotlines, not enough episode time. Ah, to reminisce about the old days when anime had 40 plus episodes....
A lot of the characters who show up are not really well used , partly due to their roles in the manga occuring later; Takenuchi Sora is particuarly not telling half his story, which might disappoint manga fans , at least until there is a second season.

Overall though, the characters are strong and make you think about them from the flighty nude-addict Simca (read the manga for more), the red haired flame King Spitfire and naturally, Ikki's four adopted sisters who all have wierd personalities apart from Ringo, the one everyone will root to end up with him (again, read the manga for more). Despite the lack of focus on many supporting characters everyone is there to be counted, which is pretty good in any anime ,a genre where a lot of characters are mere cameos for no reason. In sticking with my previous pattern of character relationship preferences, I'm not so glad that there are hardly any overt romantic relationships apart from Rika and Sora, which in the manga is a thing of the past but just restarted in the anime.

When the series degenerated into fighting teams near the end it ran the risk of becoming an 'arena combat' type of show . I was liking the F and E class matches where there was a creative goal to be reached, or the A-Class match where the tag is attached to a balloon that everyone has to chase. The matches with Behemoth were hardly a coda for anyone apart from Onigiri (just watch how he wins, it's hilarious), and the Kyoto arc that follows is not really worth being the ending of the series, especially since nothing at all has been tied up. The plot seemed written for more episodes but I was disappointed with the sudden halt to proceedings with nothing but a big Air Trek jump to show for it.

Another sticking point is the fan service- I know this is also prevalent in all of OhGreat!'s work but the story needs to be told before anything should be bandied about. It's much more interesting when it's really comedic, accidental or meaningful to the character (look at Onigiri's "honey", for instance) rather than Simca suddenly appearing in Ikki's bed naked for no reason other than to titliate him. It ain't funny, at least not to me.

How shall I rate it? I would normally give my grade for average shows with some noticable flaws (7) but thanks to the soundtrack still in my head I will push it over the barrier and award an

8/10.
(Heroic Age review postponed)