Death Analysis: Itsuki Minami (Air Gear)

 



“There’s something you can’t see unless you’re standing at the top, to experience that for the first time, I’m struggling to a higher place than anyone else, isn’t that what freedom is?"

In 2002, one of the most enigmatic content creators of the time named Ogure Ito (Oh! Great) would start publishing a certain manga in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine. Not very popular but recognized for its excellent design quality and dynamism, a work without a doubt that recalls the times of the biggest trends of the 2000s, whether it is the growing innovation in technology, the popularity of extreme sports and anime fanservice, Air Gear is a manga that has a lot to talk about, with an animated adaptation at the hands of Toei, if Air Gear is fondly remembered with something, it is its incredible style, OST and way of telling its story.
 
This blog is quite special for me, since it is the analysis of my favorite character in all of fiction, the Kogarasumaru's crow leader, Itsuki "Ikki" Minami.
 
Discretion is requested before reading, as it contains both story spoilers and sensitive content (in case you are not a fan of fanservice).
 

Background


Ikki was brought to the Noyamano sisters' home at a young age by a mysterious scientist behind the Gravity Children project, named Rinta Minami. The sisters would adopt him and Rika (the older sister), would be in charge of raising him during his stay, which in the long run was not easy, due to Ikki's wild, impulsive and strong nature. 

From a young age, Ikki always drew attention wherever he went, which usually caused a feeling of inferiority in his oldest friend, Kazuma Mikura, Ikki was not the good boy friend as he could constantly tell and bullied him in every competition or game that came his way, although Ikki never thought of himself as a "good boy friend", but he was a good boy friend.

If something can be known about Ikki, however, among his eccentricities, is his strange obsession with the sky and flying. Because he always put himself in constant danger, his sister Ringo always lived worried about him, chasing him wherever he went even though she lived complexed by multiple factors in her childhood, that concern turning into admiration for the dreamy young man that Ikki was, showing himself on the spot Ikki and Ringo spent their time there, where Ikki demonstrated his fascination for the vast sky. Although one day this would get out of hand, Ikki climbed a huge tower by himself with the intention of seemingly finding "His and Ringo's real parents", but by mistake he ended up falling, happening what no one would have thought of, and that is that a huge old crow rescued him from the imminent precipice, from that day the whole world knew that Ikki was something else, he was the kid loved by the wind.

Already in high school, being a temporary leader of his school's gang of thugs, the East Side Gunz. Ikki had a confrontation with a rival gang "Skull Saders", the difference is that they used some peculiar skates that allowed them to have an advantage over any common person, these were the Air Trecks, humiliating Ikki in a huge way making him literally pee his pants, calling him since then like the "Pissing Crow". Returning home, this affected Ikki heavily emotionally, that until his sisters made him aware of the world's new reality, high-speed motorized skates with the ability to cross the skies appeared in the world, the Air Trecks. Fascinating with this concept, even more after meeting his crush who pushed him forward (Simca), Ikki faced multiple challenges with his new team made up of his closest friends and former enemies, Kogarasumaru was born and ready to impart their ability. However, at one point a plot made by his much loved Simca, Ikki would be put at stake since his enormous potential made him the perfect candidate to become the next King of the Sky in the world of Air Treck, Ikki's internal battle was generated between his supporting the huge group known as Genesis, or the main team of his sisters known as Sleeping Forest. He decided to support Genesis and their mission to take the Tropaeum Tower for supposedly a better world, getting different admirers, such as Kururu, one of the girls belonging to the "Tool Tou To", or like the deranged runner of the flame "Aeon Clock", but none had the level of impact on him as the former leader of the Sleeping Forest, a close crush of his older sister Rika, Sora Takeuchi.

Sora and Ikki developed more than a pupil and teacher, Ikki mirrored Sora due to their connections and Ikki's sympathy due Sora's tragedy stopped him from following his dreams, but between moments of support and mentoring, Sora turned against Ikki, demonstrating his dark intentions in taking the position of King of the Sky with the purpose of ruling the world having access to all Regalia. Devastated and broken Itsuki believed that this would be the end of his career to reach the sky and love Air Treck in the same way, that of course until almost like a ray of hope, all those whom he faced, met and helped gave him a boost of confidence in himself again, his "wings" had been rebuilt, his courage grew even more, Itsuki was willing to face Sora face to face, no matter what, fighting in the Gram Scale Tournament, in which the strongest teams will fight for the fate of everything.

Equipment

Air Trecks


Air Trecks can be generalized as "high-end, customizable, motorized inline skates". They are composed of three major components: Wheel Motor, Hydraulic Cushion System, and Power Injection System. A Braking System is incorporated with most, equipped with a power-lock switch built on the outer sole of the skates. This overrides the acceleration system and enable Air Trecks to operate as normal inline skates as well. However most Riders (Air Treck users) use a Spin-Turn Stop technique, instead of a regular deceleration system to come to rest. However, the speed of Air Trecks is generated proportional to the power of the user's leg; the assist motor accelerates based on the force of a kick. Air Trecks are simply 'self-propelled shoes equipped with powerful suspension, air cushion systems, and ultra-small motors in the wheels'. Each pair comes installed with a special memory stick which connects to "Inorganic Net", a cyber world which allows riders to fight against other riders virtually. A-T's also come installed with a program called R.E.A.D. which also connects to the "Inorganic Net" and can allow the rider to access performance date on another rider from the data stored on the memory card inserted inside the A-T. The biggest "thrill" of Air Trecks is the precisely calibrated air cushion system, which gives these self-propelled trick skates their juice, allowing the Riders to "fly". This aspect is the major theme of the Air Gear story.

Kuu



Kuu is a small crow that used to accompany Ikki most of the time, he really doesn't do that much, but Ikki once used him as a surprise attack in the form of a cannon.

Abilities and Techniques

Hurricane Road


Ikki's personal Road and the one which he executes all his techniques.

The Roads in Air Gear are manifestations of the will/ soul and style of its users. Since each one is governed by a principle in its use of the wind around it. The hurricane path derives from the principles of the "Wing Road" and the "Over Road". Wing Road users are those who, by interacting with the wind, are able to understand the wind as a transmission method, and their own gravity. Being one with the wind, it can be hit after breaking that "barrier" , reduce damage from other users and control the direction of wind/ atmosphere.

But given Ikki's abrasive and impactful style, he is credited with using principles of the "Over Road", belonging to Yoshitsune, as by manipulating the wind and taking it as his own or blocking it, he can return it with tenacious power.

Wheel Spin Drop


Using one of the basic principles of the A-T, Ikki is able to use the pressure of the A-T while standing still to accelerate them and release it in a quick dropkick.

Dimensional Ubication


It is not known exactly what Ikki is, it is believed to be some kind of Gravity Children or Brain Charger, but since the manga did not leave any kind of answer, this peculiar ability can only be compared to the closest thing shown in the series.

And it is that just like Kilik's demonstrations, Ikki is capable of generating calculations in his brain at high speeds of the environment in which he finds himself, a power to manifest reality in 3rd dimension and predict enemy attacks. Learning each of the paths of a place just by looking at it, knowing depending on the distance in how many seconds he can fall and using enemy attacks in an unusual way.

Kilik in his case, was also able to use this Gravity Children ability to detect any trace of an opponent within hundreds of meters around.

Upper Soul


Ikki is able to master a straight stick-like surface like a school pole through a "Soul Grind", in which he constantly rotates like a corkscrew. An incredibly difficult trick by Spitfire's words.

Ikki's 1800 Wallride


Mimicking Buccha's Wallride Overbank 1800 technique, Ikki is able to do his own version, which involves constantly spinning backwards without losing his balance to accelerate through a straight wall.

Moonrider


The Moonrider is the technical evolution of the trick of the leader of Sable Tiger, who advanced at great speed backwards, however Ikki used the principle of using force in his jump, stabilizing his center of gravity and using power in the axis of his legs. This move had the effect of sending air into Natsumi Iriya. 

This trick even improved him by the end of the series in the Tropaeum Tower race, dominating his gravity axis enough to avoid a bad fall.

AT Typhoon


Using the centrifugal force of his tornado-like move, Itsuki is able to hit his opponents harder, enough to literally match Bando's Hammer Road.

Air Line


Ikki is capable of generating an electric shock by grinding a power cord. This ability is capable of influencing the creation of Nue's electrical illusions via disrupting them.

Moonstruck Numberless Grapper


Gathering a bunch of debris due sheer force, Itsuki is able to manifest this deadly technique which acts like a wall of wind with hundreds of objects around it increasing their speed and potency. For a better look at it, in the animated version (OVA) it also creates a small hurricane.

Pile Tornado


Manipulating the airflow around, Itsuki is able to launch with his A-T a powerful arrow-shaped gust of wind called Pile Tornado, with this technique Ikki can also accelerate his speed through the Limited Express sub-technique, where he is able to travel through his own Pile Tornado.


Wind Barrier


A technique taught by Sora, with which Ikki is able to generate a super dense wind barrier, with it he can block attacks. Although Ikki in the final fight at Tropaeum Tower, he was also able to learn how to deflect them, as was the case with one of Rika's abilities.

Moon Drop Missile


Copying Sora's technique in the Inorganic Net Battle, Ikki can use the Moon Drop Missile, which involves manipulating the air above the opponent and then generating enough pressure to hammer them. Ikki has been capable enough of spawning several at the same time.

Impact Wind


Ikki is able to free himself from situations that imprison him in some way through the use of a violent wind, as in the case that Nue wrapped him with his iron wires.

Super Extra Velocity


Super Extra Velocity is a technique in which Ikki boosts his speed by breaking the sound barrier, with which he is able to lower the tropaeum tower with ease.

Vacuum Ball


After his battle with Sleipnir, Ikki was able to learn Thor's technique of creating vacuums in space, the principle of it, is based on using two forces of wind and compressing them together enough so that they end up repelling each other, thus creating a void.

This vacuum acts just like that of outer space, where there are no ways to transmit waves or wind, in addition to being trapped in one of these spheres, due to the effects that gravity normally applies to the internal fluids that maintain the body, when it comes into contact with the victim, boils the blood into gas, making its opponents explode like fireworks.

Ikki is able to use this technique even better than Thor, as he was able to generate dozens of them to use as transportation methods, as this prevented Sora from using his normally accurate future prediction method based on reading the movement of the wind. By constantly going through these voids, Ikki was able to speed him up to ridiculous amounts, even worse considering that Ikki was sufficiently able to sustain himself after being brutally affected by the effect of these voids.

Wind Blast


Ikki is able to send out a lot of wind, using the principles of wind control. He used this specific technique in a certain range, since according to the theory of perception given in the manga, although sound in an atmosphere is normally slower than light, at a certain distance (15 meters for example), it is possible that sound is much faster than light. Sora managed to narrowly evade it while trying to capture that "Light"

Astral Magus


The Astral Magus is a technique which is an evolution of the Null Wind, both are connected because they have exactly the same principles and being the Infinity Atmosphere of the Hurricane Road. Since in both cases enormous amounts of wind attacks are used, which when using that sum of forces, end up causing Ikki to generate a gigantic hurricane which surpasses any wind in size, making the center of it have no wind, making any attempt to use any wind technique or transmit waves useless.

Backflip 4200 Raven Hide


In order to keep up with Simca at the end of the story and her impressive trick (A 3600), Ikki showed that he still had his potential in the bag despite being 6 months he hasn't really got to ride, being able to easily do a 4200.

Feats

Overall

Strenght

Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

Scaling

Kogarasumaru


The main team of the series, constantly training each other and proving their potential in every fight, as their leader Ikki is more than capable of easily scaling over any of them with no problem.

Kazu

Buccha

Emily

Nue


Being both King level riders, Itsuki decided to face Nue once in the battle in the Genesis ship, which ended up in Ikki far surpassing him.

Yoshitsune


Having Yoshitsune teach him about the Over Road and facing him once, there's no reason as why Ikki wouldn't scale to him.

Takeuichi Brothers


Ikki may have not faced Nike head to head, but he has kept up against Sora in the end of the story, both under similar conditions with no Regalia.

Adressing: Inorganic Net and Sky Link


The president of the United States, JOHN OMAHA is one of the main people know the deal with the Inorganic Net, a massive virtual space created for A-T riders to fight in simulations due the memory data and their experience. And is not like a simple virtual space and that's it, but actually all the entirety of this space is what the Sky Regalia fuels on, due being the Regalia connected to all of the Air Trecks in the world, controlling them and the technology, this is because every single one is connected in something known as the "Skylink", protected by Chronos, a massive statue on it's inside.

Ikki and his team, fought against an old saved version of Sleeping Forest, homever the effects of this place have actual damage to the riders in real life. This is important to understand as this is likely an explanation of the massiveness of the Sky Regalia's power.


Adressing: The Storm Regalia


The Storm Regalia has actually had two phases in the entire series, the first being when Kururu designed a prototype for it by using the core, Moonstruck Drop Bagram (Wind Regalia) that was given to Ikki from the start. With this Ikki achieved inhuman tricks like the Moonstruck Numberless Grappler, the Infinity Atmosphere of this Regalia and that came together with the Wing Road. However, given its enormous power and Ikki's inexperience, it was easily dismantled.

However, this would return some time later, almost at the end of the story to put together its "definitive" version, in order to make the countermeasure of the Sky Regalia, which Sora was about to activate to completely dominate the world. This countermeasure consisted of nothing more and nothing less than using the cores of the most important Regalia of the entire series: Wind Regalia, Fang Regalia, Thunder Regalia, Gem Regalia, Rumble Regalia and Fire Regalia. Only missing the Thorn Regalia, due it being in hands of Rika, but so was Sora's Sky Regalia, due it needing the rune of Thorn that Orca possesed. The idea was for Itsuki to use it, so for a definitive match, Ikki did a tuning with Ringo so that this energy would finish materializing, but given Ikki's high ingenuity, he gave the Regalia to Ringo to fool Sora in the worst way imaginable. Ringo had to carry this power, performing some of the most impressive feats in all of manga. The idea of this list below is to cite all the things that can be achieved with it, and in case, I feel and even if Ikki did not use it, it is worth thinking about giving it to him.

Summary


"A long time there… There was a balloon man, right? When I first heard that story, I was so stupid that I actually enjoyed it… But really, the story was horrible. Driven solely by his dreams he used his balloons to disapear into the sky. The people watching made a big fuss about it… But no one really tried to stop it. There’s no telling where the wind will take you. And he knew that one day his fuel, his ”freedom” would run out, and he’d fall into the black ocean. To fly… that feeling is the most important thing. But instead of the dark clouds that drive people from the sky… There must be a chain to keep them grounded. The time will come, for those with the ability to fly away, while everyone else can only watch. Using their own wings, their own power… soaring as far as they can without aid. Because… Because that is what it means to fly."

A character that I have absolutely no hope of appearing in Death Battle, and that's fine. Even though people have divided opinions on the series, which I completely understand, I still manage to empathize and love this character beyond any other, be it his super will that moves whatever is in his path, his humanity that makes him accept his mistakes, his insight when it comes to making plans and winning, but above all his way of seeing the world, traveling by yourself is important, but flying with others is even better.

His powers are super epic, I like them.

No clue where to place him in stats, all calcs would be appreciated thought.

Possible Opponents

Tsunayoshi Sawada


Both of them are young 2000s anime characters, despite their opposite personalities they often have to face the hard reality of the world they live in, the mafia and darkest depths of air treck world often affect their viewpoint in what really matters to them in life, their friends. So full of determination and resolve, they will have to assume the fact of becoming the next generation's main head of some of this massive criminal groups. Being the chosen ones, showcased very well in their prodigy like abilities both are the embodiment of the real meaning of the vast sky that connects everyone, even if they end up falling or defeated, they will keep saving everyone.

More than connections, themes, contrasts and how much this two mean to me in life, I'd like to adress that the amount of debate and power interaction is very huge, having a near perfect counter for each other. Plus the OST potential is kind of self explanatory.

Sonic the Hedgehog 


Both Sonic and Ikki are the embodiment of freedom, in the sense that they definetly love the things they do, the sensations this causes them in simply riding and hanging out. I think you may say they are just the coolest guys, and is that is kinda on point with their character, being always the one everyone talks about but wouldn't be the same without their pals.

I wished Sonic wasn't all that powerful, lol.








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