YMMV / Air Gear

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Is Nike a lost, lonely man who started fighting and killing because he was forced to have nothing else in his life and is now a broken shell of a person who sees what he was deprived of but feels he can no longer embrace it, or did he get off lightly thanks to the sympathies of other characters and the presence of a sad backstory that he personally doesn't care about?
  • Is Sora a Well-Intentioned Extremist who honestly wants to make the world a better place, and who will do whatever he must and who will sacrifice whatever he must to do so, or is he a power-hungry bastard who couldn't care less about all the pain and death he leaves in his wake as he attempts to rule the world?
• Angst? What Angst?: Konomi cheerfully tells Ringo that she was so poor at one point that she was living off of the food that a supermarket threw away.
• Base-Breaking Character: Simca is disliked by some for manipulating Ikki by using her attractive body and his feelings for her in order to get him to do what she wants him to in a sort of All Take and No Give relationship. But others like her as she develops real feelings for Ikki and actually wants him to become Sky King by manipulating those who oppose him instead.
• Broken Base: Some fans like the new direction Air Gear took with the introduction of Genesis and The Sky Regalia, feeling that the material is a good blend of both styles while going in a new direction. Others hate it, feeling that the series became too complicated and completely abandoned the tone and style of the earlier chapters. There is next-to-no middle ground.
• Canon Fodder: The question of what exactly is Ikki; whether he's actually a normal human or Dr. Minami's masterpiece — greater than both the Gravity Children and the Brain Chargers — is left unanswered and several fans have picked up on that.
• Common Knowledge: Hideki Naganuma's contributions to the anime's music were far less major than what the majority had assumed for years. Beyond "Sky-2-High" and "Love Sensation", the rest of the show's score was done by the obscure composition group Wall5 Project. To add more fuel to the confusing fire, the What a Groovy Trick!! and Who Wants More Groovy Track!!?? soundtracks were graced with cover art that featured the pseudonym skankfunk. ^note The alias Naganuma was credited under thanks to contractual reasons
• Crosses the Line Twice: An old lady choking Ikki with sagging prehensile breasts should be disgusting but ends up as hilarious.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Agito/any male fans tend to really detest Yayoi. When they started getting Ship Tease, it apparently got so bad that bitchy fans made online petitions to pressure Oh!Great into splitting them up.
  • Many Ikki/Kururu fans have always vehemently despised Ringo, to the protest of many people, even other Kururu/Ikki shippers who think the haters are out of line, and after Ikki and Ringo got together, many of these haters began calling for Ringo's death in the final battle.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Until Ikki chose Ringo, Kururu was the most popular of his love interests. Even many IkkixRingo shippers admitted that despite their hopes, Ikki would probably end up with her anyway.
  • However, after several scenes showing just how close Ikki and Ringo are, and of course after their Relationship Upgrade, many fans are actually supporting that couple, and although the Ikki/Kururu ship still has its supporters, the Ikki/Ringo ship now seems to be the largest.
• Fridge Horror: Agito/Akito's third personality Lind is actually the personality of their mother Gazelle who is very much still in love with Kaito and will even highjack Agito/Akito against their will if Kaito is getting hurt. Let me make it even clearer: Gazelle, the mother of Agito/Akito is still in love with Agito/Akito's father Kaito and has no problems highjacking her son's body when necessary. Or when she feels like it. Ewww.
  • Just how many people was Agito forced to kill because of his brother?
  • The final battle of the manga causes gravity to stop on a global scale until it eventually came back after the battle was finished. The number of people who must've died from plummeting to the ground must be staggering.
• Growing the Beard: The point when the conflict between The Sleeping Forest and Genesis over the Sky Regalia became more central to the story is this to some people, as it gave the plot more direction than Ikki simply trying to be the best at using A-Ts.
• Ho Yay: See the page.
• Jerkass Woobie: Kilik. Given how his ideals were betrayed by all of his friends, it's easy to see how he became such a prick.
• Narm Charm: Everything that Inuyama says in the anime is so over the top and hammy that you'll find it difficult to take him seriously. However, this just makes him more entertaining.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: IkkixKururu vs. IkkixRingo, with the (smaller) IkkixSimca getting some shots in as well. This combat is a bit more one-sided than most, with relatively few Ringo fans actively bashing the girls supported by other shippers, but a great deal of Kururu and Simca shippers take potshots at Ringo. However, there has always been a significant portion of the IkkixKururu fanbase that is quite civil and is rather disgusted by other shippers' behavior.
• Squick: Mari fantasizing about being raped by her underage male students, and not-so-subtly getting off to it. This can be partially offensive in light of the #metoo movement where woman often have their rape accusations doubted and ignored.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many people felt that relegating Emily to being Omaha's body was a waste of a character that was just getting interesting.