(L) Air Gear

[Majek]

[DOT].L just write what you think. It's not liek we've got anything better to do

[MrProphet]

There is a Makoto Sakurai in the manga, he appears in volume 11 or 12. But he doesn't look anything like this guy.

[tritoch]

I just bought the North American manga from Del Ray. Oh boy

They named the school Higashi!

brb im still reading it.

[[DOT].L]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

There is a Makoto Sakurai in the manga, he appears in volume 11 or 12. But he doesn't look anything like this guy.

Nope, it's Makoto Sakura. No extra "i" after Sakura.

My theory concerning this issue is actually quite simple. It goes something like this:

The scan provided by MrP states that it is the preliminary sketch for the character Makoto Sakura. The very fact that it is only a prelim sketch is strange. If you recall other prelim sketches such as Sano and Goshogawara, you'd notice those are quite rough (fitting for prelim quality) and the text is hand written, whereas Sakura's is highly detailed and the text is clearly rendered afterwards by means other than Oh!Great's pen. Again going back to Sano and Goshogawara's prelim, one can see that the prelims are very similar to their final published counterparts, while Sakura's appearance is radically different. Such inconsistencies compared to other prelim art is unusual to say at the least.
The character in Asuka Shinn's (will be abbreviated as AS from now on) scan sports an uncanny resemblance to the prelim sketch Makoto Sakura. If one has read Oh!Great's other series, Tenjou Tenge, the presentation of characters in AS's scan is highly reminiscent of a specific scene that appears multiple times in T.T., which is why some readers (including myself) is led to assume the character standing over Ikki may be his old man. Yet, physical evidence (such as the scan MrP provided) suggest otherwise.

Here's my take on why: The prelim Makoto Sakura was originally intended as the character design for Mr.Minami. The high art quality of the prelim sketch suggest this character has been planned by Oh!Great from the very beginning. The formal font, on the other hand, may have been added later after the removal of the handwritten text when Oh!Great decided to change the identity of the character. As MrP stated previously, there has been more than a few blatant parallels between AG and T.T.. The scene presented in AS's scan is unarguably one of them. Perhaps Oh!Great realized this somewhere along the line, and decided to drop the "father vs son" thing and replace it with something else. The reason why O!G altered Sakura's final look may be that he wanted to sever his connect with the shadow man (in AS's scan), because in the same chapter Sakura appears Ikki gets another flash back to the man in AS's scan. I won't pretend I understand the meaning behind all this, because I sure as hell don't. The only way to validate my claim is for Air Gear to end, and that's not going to be any time soon. Which is why I'm being cautious here since much of what I just proposed is extremely dependant on whether the shadow man will make his appearance in the manga.

[tritoch]

Could be one of those gangsters that Ikki hate. Maybe Ikki and that guy had a fistfight and Ikki lost.

We dont know but im wondering who that is too.

[[DOT].L]

Originally Posted by tritoch

Could be one of those gangsters that Ikki hate. Maybe Ikki and that guy had a fistfight and Ikki lost.

We dont know but im wondering who that is too.

The second flashback Ikki has of the shadow man is in Chapter 86 if I'm not mistaken; the same chapter where Makoto Sakura makes his debut in the manga as a NFA athlete. Ikki's memory states that this man has challenged him many, many times in the past (persumably fist-fights), and Ikki was not able to win against him even once. What readers should make of this is beyond me. -_-

[Shiroth]

In Chapter/Trick 18, juring his battle with Buucha - Ikki remembers the feelings being the same as that day, and we see a shadow image of a male.

Now, they both look the same - so correct me if i'm wrong when i say that man was Makoto Sakura?

[[DOT].L]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

In Chapter/Trick 18, juring his battle with Buucha - Ikki remembers the feelings being the same as that day, and we see a shadow image of a male.

Now, they both look the same - so correct me if i'm wrong when i say that man was Makoto Sakura?

If you're asking whether the shadow figure in Chp 18 is the same as the shadow figure in Chp 86, then yes, they are the same individual. But due to the fact that his features are obscured by shadows it'd be somewhat unreasonable to assume what his identity may be as of right now.

[Asuka Shinn]

Originally Posted by [DOT].L

The second flashback Ikki has of the shadow man is in Chapter 86 if I'm not mistaken; the same chapter where Makoto Sakura makes his debut in the manga as a NFA athlete. Ikki's memory states that this man has challenged him many, many times in the past (persumably fist-fights), and Ikki was not able to win against him even once. What readers should make of this is beyond me. -_-

Like I said, that character could be someone from Ikki's past (father, rival, etc.) and may or may not show up in the future. Just like dot said, that character could just be a planned character in the beginning, but OG changed his mind about the character. But then again, OG may just use that character to show up later in the series. I just realized it because when I was going back to read the AG from the beginning, I was like hmmm.....who the hell is this person. At first I thought that it was Rika, but it's obvious that, that's not her. And yes, that scene appeared again during the football challenge thingy. I posted the pic somewhere earlier in my post. The thing I wanted to know most when I posted/asked about that person is:

1) Who the hell is he?
2) Will he be an important character later in the series?
3) Is he a one time character? By that I mean will OG just forget about him?

Thanks to MrP and Dot, there's no clear answer.......yet.

[tritoch]

Hmm... so anyone wanna summarize 138? =p

[[DOT].L]

Originally Posted by tritoch

Hmm... so anyone wanna summarize 138? =p

Haven't seen it yet..

[Asuka Shinn]

summary usally comes around wed-thurs and MrP's the one who gives it to us.

[tritoch]

Hmm back to the mysterious shadow. Its the same dude in that NFA match

http://jonaspelayo.googlepages.com/AirGearv11-028.jpg

Considering their age, Ikki is just 13-14, that picture of a small Ikki is not far off.

[Cloudy]

Originally Posted by Asuka Shinn

That's what I was thinking..........I mean maybe OG has a thing about the main character having problems with good ol' dad.....

and is this a depiction of Ikki's bird animal...........??? cuz it sure looks weird

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3110/36tj8.gif

It looks cool and reminds me of Kagutsuchi from mai-hime.

[Majek]

i just hope we won't have another 134 or 135 crisis right now :/

[tritoch]

We did! =p

[Asuka Shinn]

well it's out today so it'll be just a matter of time. i'd say by wed/thurs.

[Majek]

it's out now to read it - read that look at the pics

so from what i can tell this battle is just getting startedand ikki is finally starting to use the skills Sora taught him.

and is that a nipple? oh yeah

[tritoch]

ooohhh 138...... hot title page! hahaha

I really like Kururu now. =)

[Eurys]

Ringo fanservice!
Gah, I don't want to see Ringo lose. Unfair, unfair, unfair!
I hope she'll stop loving Ikki after that...