Air Gear

Title: Air Gear

Genre: Action

Company: Toei Animation

Format: 25 episodes

Dates: 4 Apr 2006 – 27 Sep 2006

Synopsis: Ikki Minami, leader of a petty high school gang, spends his days as an anonymous high school delinquent. After being severely beaten by a rival gang, he discovers a pair of Air Trecks “high-performance inline skates” and immediately finds himself hooked to this latest trend. With this discovery, he unearths an underground scene full of like-minded fans, competing to the best. With nothing but his pair of skates and innate talent and ability, he begins to climb the ladder with the inevitable goal of being the “Air King.”

The Highlights

Animation: High quality and stylized.

Soundtrack: Possibly one of the best; absolutely phenomenal.

Story: Completely unravels and lacking in coherency.

Ending: Nonexistent.

At first, Air Gear makes no effort to conceal its blatantly shounen premise. This by itself isn’t necessarily horrible since the result can be exceptional; however, the end result is nowhere near the caliber of such shows as Fighting Spirit and Gantz. Instead, the series suffers from a severe lack of genre identity, and ultimately its ambition exceeds its limitation.

Firmly falling into the action genre, much of the enjoyment relies on stylized animation to relay the impact of the events on-screen. Thankfully, Air Gear excels in this, with remarkably clean and smooth animation. This is complemented by its soundtrack, which is unbelievably well done; the smooth techno tracks are not only extremely catchy and high quality, but complement the feel of the show almost perfectly. Both visually and aurally, Air Gear manages to convincingly establish an urban setting, which helps portray much of the action that occurs throughout the series.

Despite its outstanding production values, the major fault of Air Gear lies in its excruciatingly poor storyline. Initially the anime tends to be very solid, if not particularly profound, and the fast-paced street races and visceral excitement made for a very enjoyable beginning. However, about a quarter of the way through, the anime decided to try and distinguish itself from other shounen anime and embark on a much more epic storyline. Unfortunately, while the plot does indeed become much more ambitious, the originally laudable execution quickly turns into a mishmash of random plot twists with little coherency or connection to the overall plot. On top of this, the original focus of the show was completely tossed aside; the contest-oriented nature of the AT battles is phased out, and replaced with literal fighting so the anime basically becomes DBZwith rollerblades.

On top of the abysmal shift in plot and execution, several new characters are suddenly introduced into the plot very abruptly, and each bring their own convoluted history and storyline. Instead of developing the characters and bringing out their backstories gradually, the information is simply thrown out there and ultimately becomes inconsequential to the plot. Frustratingly, all of this confusion and chaos culminates in a terrible ending which explains nothing and ends with no closure whatsoever. Characters are suddenly discarded and never appear again, some suddenly change their allegiance, and in general all logic is tossed out the window.

I tried to like Air Gear, I really did. The amazing soundtrack, animation, and decent plot structure in the beginning all added up to the making of a very entertaining, if not extraordinary anime. However, as the series progressed, the director tried to do just that: make an extraordinary and genre-breaking series. While they should be applauded for their ambition, it ultimately leads to a show which achieves little of what it set out to do, and fails in capturing what made it enjoyable in the first place. Ultimately, Air Geartries to fix what isn’t broken, and thus comes up short as an anime.

Sailor Moon

In 1992, 14-year-old Usagi Tsukino made her debut on the Japanese

television series Sailor Moon. Usagi didn’t

seem to be the stuff of which heroines are made: She confessed to being

something of a klutz. She overslept and was late to school almost every day.

She did badly on exams, and was so easily distracted, she made Dug in Uplook focused.

Yet Usagi altered the course of animation and fandom on both

sides of the Pacific. Naoko Takeuchi’s 1991 manga and the original 43-episode

program “Bishojo Senshi Sera Mun” (variously

translated as “Pretty Soldier, Guardian or Scout, Sailor Moon”) led to

additional broadcast series, theatrical movies, video games, stage musicals, a

live action TV show and a stream of license products.

In 1995, DIC reworked the storylines of the animated series

to make it more acceptable for younger viewers in the US. Prior to Sailor Moon, anime fandom had been a

boys’ club: Few girls frequented comic book stores or the odd little shops that

dealt in anime paraphernalia. But when American girls began tuning in to Sailor Moon, the audience grew rapidly,

leading to the release of more shojo (girl’s)

series and a boom in anime fandom among young women.

Usagi believes she’s just an ordinary junior high student until

Luna, the talking cat, explains she’s really one of the Sailor Scouts charged

with fighting evil and finding the lost the Moon Princess. (The name Usagi(“Rabbit”) emphasizes her link to

the moon: In Japanese folklore, there’s a Rabbit, rather than a Man in the Moon,

who pounds rice into mochi.)

In the first half of the initial season, Usagi and Luna find

two additional Scouts: The brilliant Ami, who is Sailor Venus, and shrine

maiden Rei, who becomes Sailor Mars. Also on hand is the dashing, debonair hero

Tuxedo Mask, who comes to Usagi’s aid when needed. Together, the Sailor Scouts defeat

the unsavory servants of evil Queen Beryl, who pillage the delicate feelings and

energy of vulnerable humans for their dark overlord.

Although Sailor Moon

presents a message of female empowerment, it’s wrapped in what Americans would

regard as old-fashioned girly-girl idioms. she adores deserts and nurtures

crushes on various guys. Although she invariably triumphs over the evil-doers,

Usagi whines, fusses and sheds tears like a lawn sprinkler in critical

situations. Ami is calmer and more sensible; Rei, bolder and more outspoken. In

every episode, Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon, just as Clark Kent ducked

into a phone booth to change clothes in every Superman cartoon.  Instead of

a cape and tights, Usagi sports a mini-skirted schoolgirl’s uniform (which

resembles a sailor suit), gloves, a tiara, a magic wand and high-heeled boots

on her impossibly long legs.

She’s still a klutz, but when she declares, “In

the name of the Moon, I will punish you!” it’s no empty threat. Her

tiara becomes a sort of weaponized frisbee that reduces supernatural evil-doers

to dust. Ami and Rei fight with bubbles and fire. The repeated storyline of

fragile young girls drawing on hidden reserves to defeat powerful villains

echoes countless fairy tales.

This new set from Viz restores the original storyline. The

pace feels slow by American standards, and the episodes are often repetious.

But for the legions of Sailor Moon fans

they represent the genuine article, untainted by rewrites and censorship. There

are a few minor racy moments: under the spell of an evil Tarot card, the nerdy

Umino flips up their teacher’s skirt and tries to kiss Usagi. But the series

would have trouble getting a PG-rating today.

Manga artist Takeuchi originally intended to make Sailor Moon a short, 14-chapter adventure.

But when it proved so popular, her editors convinced her to expand it, and the

anime followed suit. More than two decades later, the influence of Sailor Moon is still evident. In the

current hit fantasy-adventure “Fairy Tail,” the formidable wizard Erza dons her

magical armor in a transformation scene that recalls Sailor Moon.

Never underestimate the staying power of a pretty girl in a

sailor suit.