Air Master
| Air Master | |
|---|---|
| Original Manga | |
| Director/Artist | Daisuke Nishio |
| Format | Anime (TV) |
| Made By | Sunrise |
| Episode Length | |
| # of Eps/Volumes | 27 |
Contents
Genre
Sum it up in a Sentence:
Former gymnast-turned-street fighter defies physics, beats people up.
Main Description
Giant red-haired girl saves a group of high school girls from a pack of street thugs, then gets into a fight with a luchador. However, she bests the luchador thanks to the gravity-defying "Air Spin Driver" technique and then becomes friends with the group and later they go on crazy adventures together. Her name is Maki Aikawa, she was once a gymnast but then something happened in her past that made her use her aerial acrobatic skills in street fighting, earning her the nickname "Airmaster" for all the flips and kicks she does on other people's faces.
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Personal Opinions
DrSunshine
Just finished the 27th episode last night. My god, the writing for this show was absolutely atrocious. Basically each "arc" -- if you can call a handwavey justification to see lots of fights -- was just something randomly slapped on and bootstrapped in for the sake of continuity. The characters were barely more than cardboard cutouts, and the art style is consistently terrible. I am glad that there was only occasional fanservice (even though I was told that this was a "girls fighting" anime that didn't have the same level of ickiness as, say, Ikki Tousen) because what there was was really trashy and poorly done.
I almost gave up after episode 8, the obligatory Beach Episode. But I was bored one day, and decided to try the rest of it. At least it doesn't sink to the depths that it does in that episode.
Now, what about the action? For the most part, pretty good, actually! People kicking and punching each other in the face is practically the only thing they ever do bother animating. The last episode really disappointed me, though, because it seemed to have abysmally worse animation than the first one. I was expecting a really cool fight, and what I got was a lot of screaming and a building collapsing. Instead I was just let down by it all. And what's with the spirits and ghosts and stuff? Why bring in a supernatural element out of nowhere at the end??
The whole thing just reeks of bad planning and poor writing. Maki's motivations and past are never really revealed, none of the characters really change, and the awesome guy with the staff never comes back from his long training in India.
The only redeeming point here is one single person: Sakiyama Kaori. Her voice actor was truly remarkable, and put a whole lot of energy and effort into portraying someone who is quite possibly the most hot blooded female character in anime history. You really do get the sense that she's just this one woman who is extremely frustrated with life and whose sole means of relief is to struggle as hard as she can to be a fighter (and failing at that even). I really liked her!!
So yes. Sorry if that was a bit longer than this show really deserved, but after the recommendations I've gotten I feel obligated to say that Airmaster was a little less than what I'd expected based on some viewers' words, and based on the first few episodes.
4.5/10
Kleptobot
If I have to hear or see Renge one more fucking time I am going to strangle a cat and then beat her voice actress to death with the body. Hell, that strangled cat would sound much better.
As for the rest of the show, if you're looking for a ton of fighting scenes with very little plot and occasional creepy sexual undertones, you could do worse I guess. At the same time, there are anime with much better plot and others with much better fanservice out there. Don't bother watching this one unless you really have nothing better to do with your time.
Links
- FUNimation's subbed Air Master episode archive (note: you might need a US IP address to view the videos)
- MyAnimeList Air Master page
- TVTropes Air Master page
