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soniaroadsqueenAbout Air Gear, Ringo's Canon
Air Gear is a manga series about the invention of physics-breaking super-efficient electric motors which, naturally, are first tested, and primarily used, in modified roller blades called "Air Trek". With that as background, the series is largely about the numerous teenagers (because, of course) who are the driving force behind world Air Trek culture, and the vast conspiracy to use the power of Air Trek to, um... Look, it's not entirely clear, and the villains have some pretty hand-wavy and nonsensical motivations, but basically it would be really bad if they won.
The main arc of the series follows Ikki, a boy who first discovers Air Trek at the beginning of the series, and his evolution into the Air Trek messiah. Ikki forms a team of other new(ish) riders and by the power of being the protagonists they take on all-comers and defeat them. Ultimately, Ikki and his childhood friend (and secret badass) Ringo race the bad guys 30km down a space elevator and win to teach everyone in the world that Air Trek is meant to free people, give them wings, and let them fly. And it shouldn't be used for evil purposes. Obviously.
Along the way we're introduced to a huge cast of characters with constantly escalating super-powers that are all, somehow, accredited to Air Trek technology. People who can punch through walls, kick out sonic booms, use the power of electricity to make people hallucinate, jump from paper airplane to paper airplane without losing altitude. You know, perfectly logical extensions of physics-breaking electric motors.
As Ikki's team engage in various competitions and battles against other teams, they win and teach everyone involved the importance of having fun and just doing whatever you want. And somewhere in there (series meta for) President Obama gets body swapped with a teenaged Japanese girl and gives an inspirational speech about freedom.
If all this sounds interesting, I feel like I should give you fair warning: the series is more cracky than good, and I honestly can't recommend it, even though it is fully of some really cool ideas and the occasional amazing art.
About Ringo Nonayamo
Ringo Noyamano is Ikki's childhood friend and sort-of-adoptive sister as Ikki was taken in by the Noyamano family at a young age. She's studious and friendly, worrying about those around her and encouraging them to take their responsibilities seriously. She loves Air Trek and introducing new people to the joys of being able to do perfectly logical things like ride up vertical surfaces and go 50 miles an hour down the highway with your super skates.
Ringo is also secretly a genetically-modified human called a "gravity child", specially designed to be really good at Air Trek via additional brain functionality which allows them to navigate 3d-spaces extremely well. As such, she inherited leadership of a powerful Air Trek group called Sleeping Forest which is charged with protecting a major Air Trek mcguffin from the bad guys who would mis-use it if they got their hands on it.
She spends most of the series torn between her responsibility to lead Sleeping Forest and fight off bad guys, and her desire to just have fun and to help everyone understand the joy of Air Trek without any fighting.
That said, Ringo has a serious side, too. Usually when it comes to things she feels responsibility for. People who know her from the Air Trek scene refer to this side of Ringo as "Crazy Apple", and consider her to be absolutely ruthless, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish what she thinks she's supposed to. In canon we see her beat someone up badly enough to leave them in a wheel chair for months. The Crazy Apple side of Ringo doesn't come up very often, but it's there under the surface for when the stakes get high enough.
About AirTrek (or ATs), the crazy technology of Air Gear
As a gravity child, Ringo has been genetically engineered to have a highly intuitive grasp of her surroundings, and to basically have perfect kinesthesia. This means that she can't get dizzy, that she can do crazy aerial tricks that make no sense, and that she can do stuff like be blindfolded as she's taken somewhere and perfectly trace her way back to where she came from.
Further, all the high level Air Trek riders in the series follow a specific style called a "road", and the best rider of a particular road is the King (or Queen) of it. Ringo is the queen of the "Sonia Road", sometimes called the "Thorn Queen". The Sonia Road involves the highly scientific ability to extract nitrogen from the air they breathe and cause it to come out of solution and form air bubbles in the body. Basically, it's the ability to cause decompression sickness at will. Except that it also somehow involves the ability to control where in the body those bubbles form. Sonia Road riders concentrate these air bubbles around their joints to enable superhuman flexibility and grace. This comes at the cost of extreme stress on the body, increasing the pain and long-term damage to the body the more the technique is used.
Air Trek kings and queens also have special Air Treks designed specifically to take advantage of their particular road. These Air Trek are called "regalia", and Ringo's regalia is a pair of Air Trek that can extend long whips which she can use to strike people as part of her skating, and which can also go fast enough to unleash a sonic boom at people. As you do.
Air Gear is a manga series about the invention of physics-breaking super-efficient electric motors which, naturally, are first tested, and primarily used, in modified roller blades called "Air Trek". With that as background, the series is largely about the numerous teenagers (because, of course) who are the driving force behind world Air Trek culture, and the vast conspiracy to use the power of Air Trek to, um... Look, it's not entirely clear, and the villains have some pretty hand-wavy and nonsensical motivations, but basically it would be really bad if they won.
The main arc of the series follows Ikki, a boy who first discovers Air Trek at the beginning of the series, and his evolution into the Air Trek messiah. Ikki forms a team of other new(ish) riders and by the power of being the protagonists they take on all-comers and defeat them. Ultimately, Ikki and his childhood friend (and secret badass) Ringo race the bad guys 30km down a space elevator and win to teach everyone in the world that Air Trek is meant to free people, give them wings, and let them fly. And it shouldn't be used for evil purposes. Obviously.
Along the way we're introduced to a huge cast of characters with constantly escalating super-powers that are all, somehow, accredited to Air Trek technology. People who can punch through walls, kick out sonic booms, use the power of electricity to make people hallucinate, jump from paper airplane to paper airplane without losing altitude. You know, perfectly logical extensions of physics-breaking electric motors.
As Ikki's team engage in various competitions and battles against other teams, they win and teach everyone involved the importance of having fun and just doing whatever you want. And somewhere in there (series meta for) President Obama gets body swapped with a teenaged Japanese girl and gives an inspirational speech about freedom.
If all this sounds interesting, I feel like I should give you fair warning: the series is more cracky than good, and I honestly can't recommend it, even though it is fully of some really cool ideas and the occasional amazing art.
About Ringo Nonayamo
Ringo Noyamano is Ikki's childhood friend and sort-of-adoptive sister as Ikki was taken in by the Noyamano family at a young age. She's studious and friendly, worrying about those around her and encouraging them to take their responsibilities seriously. She loves Air Trek and introducing new people to the joys of being able to do perfectly logical things like ride up vertical surfaces and go 50 miles an hour down the highway with your super skates.
Ringo is also secretly a genetically-modified human called a "gravity child", specially designed to be really good at Air Trek via additional brain functionality which allows them to navigate 3d-spaces extremely well. As such, she inherited leadership of a powerful Air Trek group called Sleeping Forest which is charged with protecting a major Air Trek mcguffin from the bad guys who would mis-use it if they got their hands on it.
She spends most of the series torn between her responsibility to lead Sleeping Forest and fight off bad guys, and her desire to just have fun and to help everyone understand the joy of Air Trek without any fighting.
That said, Ringo has a serious side, too. Usually when it comes to things she feels responsibility for. People who know her from the Air Trek scene refer to this side of Ringo as "Crazy Apple", and consider her to be absolutely ruthless, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish what she thinks she's supposed to. In canon we see her beat someone up badly enough to leave them in a wheel chair for months. The Crazy Apple side of Ringo doesn't come up very often, but it's there under the surface for when the stakes get high enough.
About AirTrek (or ATs), the crazy technology of Air Gear
As a gravity child, Ringo has been genetically engineered to have a highly intuitive grasp of her surroundings, and to basically have perfect kinesthesia. This means that she can't get dizzy, that she can do crazy aerial tricks that make no sense, and that she can do stuff like be blindfolded as she's taken somewhere and perfectly trace her way back to where she came from.
Further, all the high level Air Trek riders in the series follow a specific style called a "road", and the best rider of a particular road is the King (or Queen) of it. Ringo is the queen of the "Sonia Road", sometimes called the "Thorn Queen". The Sonia Road involves the highly scientific ability to extract nitrogen from the air they breathe and cause it to come out of solution and form air bubbles in the body. Basically, it's the ability to cause decompression sickness at will. Except that it also somehow involves the ability to control where in the body those bubbles form. Sonia Road riders concentrate these air bubbles around their joints to enable superhuman flexibility and grace. This comes at the cost of extreme stress on the body, increasing the pain and long-term damage to the body the more the technique is used.
Air Trek kings and queens also have special Air Treks designed specifically to take advantage of their particular road. These Air Trek are called "regalia", and Ringo's regalia is a pair of Air Trek that can extend long whips which she can use to strike people as part of her skating, and which can also go fast enough to unleash a sonic boom at people. As you do.
