Del Rey Acquires Air Gear manga

[jboncha]

(New York, NY; January 20, 2006)—Del Rey Manga, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, announced today the acquisition of AIR GEAR, a Kodansha property by manga legend Oh! Great, creator of Tenjho Tenge.

With 12 volumes and over 5.5 million copies in print in Japan, great anticipation has been building for the U.S. debut of AIR GEAR. AIR GEAR, translated from the original Japanese and completely unedited, follows the adventures of Itsuki Minami, the toughest strongest wrestler at Higashi JHS, who is easy on the eyes, but dangerously rough when he needs to be in a ring. Itsuki lives with the mysterious and sexy Noyamono sisters--so this lucky boy's life isn't exactly dull. But it takes a turn for the even more unreal when Itsuki leads his school to victory over some vindictive Westside punks with gangster connections. Now he stands to lose his school, his friends, and everything he cares about. In his darkest hour, the Noyamano girls come to Itsuki's aid. They can teach him how to use Air Trecks to save their school from the gangster's seige—and bring Itsuki to a thrilling, and terrifying, new world.

“This is definitely one of our biggest releases for 2006,” said manga director Dallas Middaugh. “The story will have you on the edge of your seat, and the art will keep your eyes super-glued to the page.”

AIR GEAR will be rated for ages 16 and up. The first volume will go on sale July 25, 2006.

This press release was posted on AnimeOnDVD.com on: 2006-01-20 11:28:00

[apple pro]

is this supposed to be an awesome manga on par with _________?

i've heard of it but tenjo tenge has been so raped by CMX that i don't know how good Oh! is...

please elaborate people! hype me up!

[Professor H]

well as i mentioned elsewhere oh! great genrally is known for doing stories that are often quite dark with a fair bit of brutality oh and for drawing women who presumable have sever balance problems

[Inkthinker]

Air Gear is pretty awesome... it's not as brutally violent as Tenjho Tenge and actually contains no nudity (though there's a fair amount of nekkidness, just artfully covered, and his women are still a bit top-heavy at best). It's about a group of skaters in a near future where "Air Trek" is the hottest sport, a sort of hi-powered motorized in-line skating.

Oh Great's artwork is, simply put, amazing on most every level. I don't know if it's because of his team, or if it's all just him, but it's not to be missed.

I'm really hoping that Del Rey handles this better than CMX did, it would seem like a no-brainer after the TJTG fiasco that the only way to do this is to publish it as unedited as possible. Considering that I don't know of anything in Air Gear that goes beyond titillating, and considering how Del Rey handled Negima! and other stories, I think there's at least room for hope. I'm a little disturbed by their descripton of Ikki as a "wrestler"... to my understanding, he's basically a gang thug who uses powerbombs and suplexes, not someone on the team, and his motives are hardly altruistic, but we'll just have to see.

[Professor H]

he isn't a wresler he is just a bit of a delinquent so it does seam that they are giving him a bit of a charactor redisign to make him more clean cut

which is something of a pity as oh great genrally like to make his lead charactors rather morally ambiguous

although the eldest sister is a wrestler so perhaps they are trying to put an angle across with that ... i dunno

[Cowlander]

Yeah Oh! Greats work on Air Gear is amazing. If its his team or him like IT said is unknown, But there this definitely upswing in his work as he releases a new series. THis is is wayy nicer to me than Tenge. Which is way nicer than Silky whip etc. He keeps getting better.

Is there an Art Book for Air Gear?

[G_Man]

Yeah Oh! Greats work on Air Gear is amazing. If its his team or him like IT said is unknown, But there this definitely upswing in his work as he releases a new series. THis is is wayy nicer to me than Tenge. Which is way nicer than Silky whip etc. He keeps getting better.

Is there an Art Book for Air Gear?

Wait, Oh! Great was the artist for Silky Whip?! :eek:

[Melchior]

Wait, Oh! Great was the artist for Silky Whip?! :eek:

Yep, among other things. The American/Canadian version is less censured than the Japanese version. Why else did you think everyone was upset at the Tenjo Tenge edits? We know the guy has no problem with what he draws.

[Professor H]

i always thought his stuff was perverted untill i got a hold of some of his full on hentai .... that stuff makes tenten look like U catagory

[Inkthinker]

TJTG is pretty light on the sex, all things considered... it's the ultraviolence that's really pornographic in that book.

[Pikachu]

Air Gear is a mixed genre manga. Where as Tenjou Tenge can be classified as your typical fighting style book, Air Gear combines elements of action, sports, highschool drama, and wraps it tightly with in sciencefiction genre.

Air Gear's art is more streamlined, and has more of a graphic design feeling to it. The panel's are much busier and drawn with maticulous detail to aesthetics, and Ogure throws in some grafitti style art now and again to keep things interesting. I would say, as far as manga go, Air Gear is one of the more visually artistic pieces out there today.

It's also targeted at teens... so there is less explicit or graphic material than seen in Tenjou. Also, Air Gear ups the humor and adolescent gags quite a bit, making it much more light hearted and enjoyable to read.

Pika!

[apple pro]

BTW, del rey takes a dig at CMX in their latest newsletter! ha!

also, Love Roma is coming out this month — checek it out!

[Inkthinker]

Hopefully something along the lines of "we know better than to squiggle all over the man's art", right? Some sort of at least implied assurance that they won't go changing stuff, even if it's a little racy?

[apple pro]

Hopefully something along the lines of "we know better than to squiggle all over the man's art", right? Some sort of at least implied assurance that they won't go changing stuff, even if it's a little racy?


Del Rey Manga Newsletter – January 2006 Newsletter

Del Rey Manga launched its first list in May 2004, as a lot of you may recall. This means that we actually started working on it late in 2003, and THAT means that we've been at this for over two years now. It's hard to believe. It feels like just last month that I got that call from Random House to direct the program. What a fun ride it's been. We've had the opportunity to release all kinds of series, from the shonen wackiness of NEGIMA, to the shojo madness of WALLFLOWER, to the seinen drama of NODAME CANTABILE, to the quirky comedy of LOVE ROMA. I'm reminded almost every day that I've got one of the coolest jobs in the world. And a few more reminders have come across my desk in recent days.

AIR GEAR!!

That's right, I can finally tell you about one of our biggest announcements for 2006 - the August debut of Oh! Great's masterpiece, Air Gear. I'm pleased to report that I've just finished going over the first volume, and it's stellar. The art is amazing - so crisp and original and action-packed. And the story is a lot of fun. I'm really happy with the translation on this one. It really flows—Makoto Yukon's translation has just the right mix of accuracy and slang, and she's included a great set of translation notes, too.

Okay, here're the details on the series from the press release, just in case you aren't familiar with it already.

AIR GEAR is a wild new manga that follows the adventures of Itsuki Minami, the toughest kid at Higashi JHS, who's easy on the eyes, but dangerously rough when he needs to be. Plus he lives with the mysterious and sexy Noyamono sisters—so this lucky boy's life isn't exactly dull. But it takes a turn for the even more unreal when Itsuki leads his school to victory over some vindictive Westside punks with gangster connections. Now he stands to lose his school, his friends, and everything he cares about. In his darkest hour, the Noyamano girls come to Itsuki's aid. They can teach him how to use Air Trecks to save their school from the gangster's siege—and bring Itsuki to a thrilling, and terrifying, new world.

The anime debuts in Japan in April, and if it's half as good as the manga, we're in for a treat. And just so we're clear on this, we will not be altering or editing the art in any way, but we will shrinkwrap the book and rate it at 16+. Look for AIR GEAR coming July 25, 2006.

i bolded it

[Inkthinker]

I notice they stopped talking about him as a "wrestler", as though he were on the Greco-Roman team.

Now I wonder if they'll talk about the fact that he is, in fact, a member of a gang himself. It doesn't come up much, but it plays a plot point in vol. 4 (I think).

I really hope they stand by their word on the edits. The series is still pretty racy (lotta camel toe, lotta breast with the nipples conveniently obscured by the artist, lotta sexual humour of a juvenile sort) but I don't think they need to mess with it, espescially for a 16+ market.

Here's to Air Gear blowing up the charts and shoving some numbers into CMX's face. Maybe that'll wake 'em up.