Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Air Gear - Trick 19

Rating: 7.5/10

Crows: 0 - But we still have some shots of Ringo and Simca. Plus I guess the girl with one leg. No panorama’s or anything though.

Not a horrible episode, but not the episode I had expected it to be either. Parts of it felt like it dragged on a little bit, and the fighting wasn’t super great. One thing I did enjoy though, is Ikki’s style of fighting. He always seems to have fun and is pretty carefree compared to how others would act in the same situation.

Sorry if the quality of the pics seems a bit low, I took the first subbed version that was released and unfortunately their goal is speed.

The comedic relief was classic Air Gear humor. The episode basically starts right off the bat with some humor, and naturally its so dumb I broke into a little cackle.

A pretty big reoccurring theme to this fight is the scenes where Ikki stops fighting to admire Akira and how “cool” he is. This totally ruins the mood, which is fine by me because it’s Ikki’s style. He usually finds a way to have fun in every situation, and that’s what’s so damn cool about him. This scene was so ridiculous. I don’t want to know how he managed to switch himself with a rock, but he did and that’s all that maters. Yup. No questions asked.

The whole first fight scene was decent. It was nice to see Ikki and Agito working together to whoop some ass. It just wasn’t as cool as I had hoped it to be. I wanted something along the lines of Agito vs Akira’s fight. That was pretty sweet, but this one seemed a little dull in comparison. At least seeing Teary-eyes smack Akira in disgust gave me a little bit of satisfaction.

I don’t know why, but I already hate this couple. The flashbacks gave us some important information about how Agito/Akito lost his regalia to Udou Akira, but they were a tad long. All the way through the flashback, I was thinking something like: “Omg where’s the fighting? I wanna see Ikki! Where’s Ringo?!? She’s still in her s&m outfit! More pics please! How long is this gonna be?! *sucks thumb* I want my crows..” But in the end, you kind of go “ahhhh, so that’s how it happened.” No doubt some background was much needed, but damn, in the middle of the fight?! Sheesh.

In any case, the flashback was pretty weird as well. I dunno if it’s just me, but when Akira pwns Ren’s brother, she seems strangely calm and composed. Oh sure she cries for about 3 seconds, but then she starts saying he was breaking the law and wow AT’s they let you fly, how amazing. I was like HUH?! Then suddenly they’re going on dates?!? Geez. Then of course she uses Akira to take Agito/Akito’s regalia, and what came of that? Was there a reason to take the regalia other than her dead brother wanted it? Aieee. Unanswered questions!

Apparently, the Fang Regalia has some interesting skills, such as nuking the opponent. WTF? Although, I did appreciate the way Ren saying, “Regalia Howl” made the scene a whole lot more intense. Also, it stops people from flying?! I won’t ask how because it seems to be accepted that it just does. But it just seems like a cheap way to keep Ikki on the ground, I guess that works. Another Ikki being amazed moment here. I loved Agito with his “Hai?” when Ikki zipped over and was floatting around Akira’s dick regalia like it was the biggest coolest thing in the world. This scene, coupled with the first scene, might have saved this episode. I was looking for a serious, fighting episode, but when they failed to deliver just that, the humor helped a little bit.

I’m not sure how many more episodes there will be of this arc, but it could easily last 5 more episodes if they wanted to drag it out. I’m hopping we get some closure soon, and some damn good fighting. This episode they barely even touched each other and the flashback wasn’t all that exciting. I want either: (a) zipping around on AT’s with punches and shit, (b) lots more comedy, or (c) lots more fanservice. If the episodes go either of those routes, I tend to be relatively happy. It’s when they try to do a small bit of all three that they forget what they’re doing.

Overall, this episode wasn’t that bad, it just felt like it was confused. I know they’ll find their groove somewhere and pound out a few stellar episodes here in the end. Hopefully we get a good dose of a, b, or c. <3

-Retsgip