I Reads You Review: AIR GEAR, VOL. 11

Creator: Oh!great; Makoto Yukon (translation and adaptation)

Publishing Information: Del Rey Manga, paperback, 202 pages, $10.99 (US), $12.50 CAN

Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-0-345-50814-0 (ISBN-13)

Rating “OT for Ages 16+”

Air Gear is a shonen manga created by manga-ka, Ito Ōgure, who works under the pen name, Oh!great. The series takes place in a world where the most popular sport is Air Trecks, a highly advanced form of inline skating. The series focuses on Itsuki “Ikki” Minami. A student and juvenile delinquent, he is also a prodigy at Air Trecks and may become the “Sky Keeper.” To compete with other Air Trecks teams, Ikki and his friends form their own team, Kogarasumaru.

In Air Gear, Vol. 11, Ikki becomes something of a rock star in the world of Air Trecks, but now he’s forgetting where he came from and also his friends. In a bid to move Kogarasumaru up in the rankings, Ikki challenges Team Potemkin to a fight on their home turf, Shinonome Battleship Island, an island partly made of boats. Also, a trip to Kyoto brings Kogarasumaru into conflict before and during the trip.

Air Gear is like a combination of the shonen manga, Yakitate!! Japan and Reborn! Air Gear is full of fantastic weird characters like both, and focuses on the dynamics of a gang or criminal organization – like Reborn! Like both, Air Gear is an action comedy, and creator Oh!great is good at drawing both action and comedy.

In the action scenes, the artist displays solid draftsmanship with imaginative compositions. The storytelling is a bit wild and incomprehensible, at times – the kiss of death in graphic storytelling, but here, is much less catastrophic for the narrative. He’s great at drawing objects, landscapes, cityscapes, etc. He can also warp and deform anatomy and backgrounds for the appropriate comic effect or whatever comic tone is appropriate for a particular scene.

Although I had a hard time following Air Gear and catching onto the concept, I would read this again. The idea of football played by athletes wearing inline skates or high-flying martial arts done while wearing inline skates intrigues me. Air Gear is more weird than stupid, or at least that is what a fool for shonen manga would say.