【Air Gear】A high-speed action manga that took the world by storm!! 31st Kodansha Manga Award Winner of the shonen category!!!

Air Gear is a high-speed action manga series written and illustrated by Ito Ogure (known professionally as Oh! great). The manga was serialized from November 2002 to May 2012 in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine. As of August 2020, Air Gear has sold over 18 million copies and won the 31st Kodansha Manga Award for the shonen category in 2006.

Because of its huge popularity, Air Gear was adapted into a 25-episode anime TV series by Toei Animation, which aired on TV Tokyo from April to September 2006. Later, a 3-episode OVA named Air Gear: Break on the Sky, produced by Satelight, was released from November 2010 to June 2011.

Air Gear was even adapted into a musical called Musical Air Gear, which made its debut on January 2007. The first run of the musical adaptation was so successful that a rerun was scheduled in May 2007, named Musical Air Gear vs. Bacchus Super Range Remix. Finally in April 2010, there was a third run of the musical named Musical Air Gear vs. Bacchus Top Gear Remix.

The story of Air Gear started as the crowd gathered to spectate the fight between the strongest in the East Gang – nicknamed “Baby Face”, against the West Gang. Everyone went wild as “Baby Face” Minami Itsuki performed his trademark super-killer fighting skill called “Back-drive” and knocked his opponent out in one move.

Itsuki was loved and well-respected among his peers as he had successfully defended the East Gang territory again this year. When the fight was over, Noyamano Ringo, Itsuki’s childhood friend had come over to pick him up and they went home together.

When Itsuki was out of sight, the remaining of the West Gang mentioned that they were good friends with a notorious group known as the Skull Saders. The Skull Saders were rumored to be a gang of thugs who would use air treks to drive the dark streets. They were the strongest and most evil crowd amongst the storm-riders – a term for air trek users, that would scare even the worst delinquents. And these storm-riders would rain hell on the East Gang as revenge for today.

Air trek (or A-T for short) was introduced as a futuristic evolution of aggressive skating gears. It allowed the user to freely become one with the wind and able to perform various tricks in the air.

Arriving at home, Itsuki was welcomed by a drop-kick from one of the girls he was living with. He was so caught up in the fight that he was two hours late from buying the grocery.

Itsuki was living with the Noyamano family consisting of four sisters. Their parents were old friend of each other, and when the parents passed away, all five of them decided to live together under the same roof.

After lunch, Itsuki was sitting at his favorite spot when Ringo came looking for him. Apparently, he was waiting for the “swallow” to fly through.

As Ringo was pondering what he meant by that, the screeching sound of air trek grinding against metal ringed from afar. In the small gap between the houses, a small shadow rushed through with the speed of wind.

From that gap flew a long-haired girl that resembled the movement of a swallow. She flew from rooftop to rooftop with air trek on her feet.

Itsuki had been watching her practicing there every day, admiring how she could freely fly. Seeing that, Ringo light-heartedly suggested that maybe he should try practicing using the air trek to get along with his “swallow”.

Called out by his friend from the East Gang, Itsuki went back to their usual gathering place. There, Itsuki found out that the guys from his gang were all beaten on the ground by none other than the Skull Saders.

Itsuki tried to fight them and grabbed onto one of the storm-riders. Usually no one could have escaped Itsuki’s grip, but the storm-rider used his air trek and carried Itsuki to the top of the building. From there, he slammed Itsuki to the ground, only stopped a few centimeters short of killing him.

The shock of a near-death experience made Itsuki wet his pants. Beaten and humiliated, unable to defend his fallen friends, Itsuki broke down in frustration and cried.

When he found his way home, Itsuki hid in his room and wallowed in self-pity. Ringo and the girls learned about what happened, and Ringo said that she would never forgive the Skull Saders for the way they used air trek to terrorize other people.

That night, Itsuki heard strange knocking sounds on his window. When he went and opened it, Itsuki found the girls outside on the rooftop. They were wearing their storm-rider outfits and had their air trek on. It were then revealed that the Noyamano girls were also storm-riders all along.

When Itsuki was confused and hadn’t quite grasped what was going on, Ringo told him that he was about to learn that great feeling which was better than a bird flying. She then announced that this would officially be Itsuki’s debut as a storm-rider.

Let’s follow Itsuki on his journey to become a storm-rider and learn the secret of the wonderous world of air treks!