Air Gear – Episode 18

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Brief Summary:
Continuation of the Behemoth vs. Kogarasumaru battle. Focuses on Onigiri, Ikki and Agito’s battles with Gorgon Bombshell, Cyclops Hammer and Super Beast respectively.
Onigiri wins. Agito is saved by Ikki’s plan and the two team up against Bandou and Akira.

Detailed Summary:
The current fansubbed episode of Air Gear (18) provides a continuation of the battle between Akira’s Behemoth and Ikki’s Kogarasumaru.
From the start, we see the aftermath of the battles focused on in episode 17. Despite their efforts, both Kazuma and Buccha are eventually overpowered by their Behemoth counterparts. Hecatoncheir Bomb finally finishes off Buccha by grappling him on the ceiling. Despite Buccha’s struggles, he inevitably loses conciousness. The result of Kazuma’s battle was decided in the last episode as seen through the Iron Clock’s finishing punch.

As predicted, the current episode focuses mainly on the outcome of Onigiri’s battle with the Gorgon Bombshell, and then the struggles of Ikki and Agito against Bandou and Akira respectively.

Initially, the story centers on Onigiri. As suspected, the Gorgon Bombshell’s ability is to use her sultry dance to essentially “paralyze” her male opponent. Eventually, she follows up with a critical blow to Onigiri’s family jewels and the battle is presumed to be over.
In the meantime, Ringo decides to finally act and help out Ikki’s cause. Unbeknownst to her, Simca secretly switched costumes with her, resulting in Ringo wearing a very revealing swimsuit and a bag over her head out of embarassment. She claims that since Onigiri technically only has one air trek on, the battle is illegal and she must take his place as “Croissant Mask” savior of Kogarasumaru. Simca reappears to foil her plans by dressing up in Ringo’s actual swimsuit-wig-mask get up. As a result, the audience is foiled and attention is diverted from the ongoing battles to the confrontation between the two women.

Ringo (as well as Spitfire and a newly arrived Nue) all see through Simca’s disguise. Ringo, angry from Simca’s continual interference in her involvement with Ikki, reveals her true nature as Ringo (Crazy Apple), the King of the Thorn Road. Due to this, the nearby regalia owned by Nue and Spitfire begin emitting their power as well.
Ultimately, Simca points out that even though Ringo desires to help Kogarasumaru, it is their fight and she should not underestimate their abilities. As if right on cue, the attention is diverted to Onigiri’s battle where he somehow recovers from his damage and begins to “power up” (for lack of a better term).

Somehow, Onigiri’s constant staring and perverted personality manages to affect Gorgon Bombshell, essentially making her… well… horny it seems. For whatever reason, Onigiri forces her to undress and run around naked in the cube. With this, comes the first victory for team Kogarasumaru.
Kogarasumaru – 1 // Behemoth – 2
Ringo, upon seeing this result, seems to have some acceptance for the time being.

In Ikki’s fight, the battle has turned into a paper-rock-scissors match. Surprisingly, Bandou appears to be the one losing. As it turns out, Bandou’s superior wrist and arm strength are hindering him in reaction time. Spitfire and Nue come to the realization that Ikki is in fact, cheating Bandou and thus, earning many cheap attacks. Despite this, Ikki appears to be purposely losing every 5 games, allowing Bandou to punch and damage portions of the cube wall. The reason for this will become apparent in a little bit.

In the Agito and Akira fight, the audience is mesmerized by the magnitude of the battle. Through Agito’s self reflection, we begin to realize that formerly, Akito was in fact the true Fang King. Through some bizarre events involving his brother, Akito was caged up which resulted in the surfacing of his dual personality, Agito. It was through some interaction with Ikki that caused some sort of reaction from the Akito and Agito relationship.
I may be wrong, but it even appears that during this battle, Agito has accepted that he will never return for some bizarre reason
The battle rages on and Agito is visibally recieving a beating by Akira. During the near end, Agito begins kicking Akira in the side weakly, resulting in no damage whatsoever. Akira pities what Agito/Akito has become, and prepares to finish him off. Right in this instance, however, Ikki’s plan finally succeeds as the floor in Agito and Akira’s cube crumbles away.

It turns out, Ikki’s plan was to have Bandou wreck the cube that they were fighting in, causing Agito and Akira’s cube to join up into a… rectangle? Something like that, lol. Everyone is visibly surprised by Ikki’s strategy including his own team member, Agito, who has a comic-relief argument with Ikki.
Agito then asks Ikki if Akito had asked Ikki to stop him earlier. Ikki replies that whether he did or not doesn’t matter. He emphasizes that it would be more fun to fight two on two against Akira and Bandou together.

With a renewed vigor, Agito complies. The episode ends with a synchronized middle finger taunt by both Ikki and Agito.

Reflection:
Finally, the continuation of the battle between Behemoth and Kogarasumaru.

This episode was filled with a lot of action throughout the battle as well as dramatic reflections and… well… fanservice, lol. Then again, what else can we expect from Oh Great!’s work.
I personally found Onigiri’s battle to be funny, but also very very strange. He wins by making Gorgon horny and strip off all her clothes? Come on, lol. I dunno, I suppose a win is a win in the end?

Eitherway, it’s nice to get some more background on the confounding character of Akito/Agito. From earlier on, you don’t really garner much information regarding him other than that he has a split personality and is an A-class skater. I personally really like the character of Akito/Agito, simply because he’s badass, but also oddly funny… especially with all the bizarre events Akito has with Ikki (Hmm… the bed, bath and kisses come to mind).

Ikki proceeds to act cool, as expected in a shounen anime/manga, and we get some screentime for Ringo and Simca. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the conclusion of the Agito/Ikki vs. Akira/Bandou battle.

Episode Rating: B+
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