Air Master, Vol. 1
The title character of the broadcast seriesAirmaster(2003) is ex-gymnastics "queen" Maki Aikawa, who has reinvented herself as a champion street fighter. At her new high school, Maki is adopted by a group of girls that includes diminutive loudmouth Renge and super-stacked Mina. Maki lives to fight, and coolly pounds every street fighter she meets intomochiwhile her new friends cheer her on. Her gravity-defying leaps and spins win the admiration of everyone she pummels, and the affection of martial artist Shinnosuke. As Maki wears a plaid micro-skirt, the show offers lots of fan-service panty shots, and numerous jokes about how Mina's enormous breasts attract hordes of guys. Although the filmmakers hint that Maki conceals a tragic past, the characters inAirmasterfeel flatter than the 2-D artwork. (Rated 13 and older, more appropriate for 16 and older: violence, violence against women, brief nudity, risqué humor, profanity, alcohol use)--Charles Solomon