First before I start with this review, i want to say I was very hesitant when I heard this was an anime that, like many others, was distanced from that of the manga. With that in mind, as well as having read the manga, I think that this is a great series even with a limited amount of episodes. If you do want to know the whole story, I'd recommend watching the anime first, then reading the manga.
Now then, here's the outline for my review:
STORY - So Air Gear is pretty simple when it comes to the story. You have the main character Itsuki Minami,
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or Ikki, who starts out as a rookie to Air Treks, but is fascinated by the sight of them and wants to become an AT master. Later on in the story, he creates his own team to compete in "parts wars" with other AT gangs. The anime story distances itself off just a tad bit from the manga during the course of it, and that is to be expected when there is only so many episodes. It's better to have some unanswered stuff and action than thorough explanation and almost no action. Simple structure, but it gets pretty deep. 8/10
ART - Air Gear has some damn good art. Being the anime that it is, it comes to no surprise that there are thousands upon thousands of people who are huge fans of the art in Air Gear. I'm a sucker for a couple of cool looking things, but usually it isn't the art or animation that tends to win me over, and Air Gear definitely does a good job with it. It's really close to a 10 for me, but i'd say it deserves a 9/10
SOUND - This is definitely where I get the most out of this anime. The tracks and songs are spectacular. The best part is that most fight scenes have their own unique track as well (not all, but a few). Honestly, if it weren't for both the beautiful animations and great sound, I might have dropped this anime a while down the road. Personally, You can give me any terrible anime with zero plot, but if it has a kick-ass playlist, I will watch every last minute of it. 10/10
Character - Alright, so for the I have a mixed opinion of the characters. The anime doesn't explain every (main) character in too much detail, but that is just something to be expected from an adaption of a 300+ chapter manga. With this in mind, the anime had a lot to improve upon when it comes to in depth character analysis.
Let's start with one of my favorites: Agito/Akito. The concept of these two personalities in one body seems interesting of course, but it never was truly answered in the anime I feel. Again, there is better character analysis in the manga. For the most part, i'd say this anime has interesting characters with different backgrounds, but not good enough analysis to understand why this character matters, or why this character does this or that. 7.5/10
ENJOYMENT - Air Gear is a really fascinating anime, and almost every episode left me with the enjoyment that I was looking for. The enjoyment only started ending around the last episodes because of some unanswered stuff. Still, there are some great action scenes and interesting story details and almost no filler episodes, which is something I value a lot when it comes to any action anime. I'm glad it had 25 interesting episodes instead of 40 filler episodes out of 100 episodes. 8.5/10
OVERALL - I REALLY want to give this anime a higher rating than what I am giving it since I know the full story, but after I finished the anime in the first place, it felt empty. *NOTE: After this point, there will be spoilers. You have been warned.*
(SPOILERS) I honestly thought the ending was rather incomplete and had no answer to what we all really wanted, which was Ikki becoming the sky king. And then what about Genesis? He intended to bring war to them, and the OVA/special kind of answers it, but I want the answer in the actual anime, not more fillers after the series is done. It was really disappointing to me since I realized I had to read through the hundred something chapters to figure out my answer. It's more of an "oh well" then a "wow that was awful" sort of thing. (/SPOILERS)
*No more spoilers.* Lastly, I will keep on saying this, but this anime is great, I enjoyed it thoroughly, it could have been better, but if you like action anime along with a good story, definitely give Air Gear a shot.
FINAL SCORE - 8.5
Oct 13, 2013
First before I start with this review, i want to say I was very hesitant when I heard this was an anime that, like many others, was distanced from that of the manga. With that in mind, as well as having read the manga, I think that this is a great series even with a limited amount of episodes. If you do want to know the whole story, I'd recommend watching the anime first, then reading the manga.
Now then, here's the outline for my review: STORY - So Air Gear is pretty simple when it comes to the story. You have the main character Itsuki Minami, ... |