In the Air

This webcomic was discovered while I was browsing through wirepop.com. I kept seeing the cover image in the header or in the sidebar so I decided to click on it and see what it was about. The synopsis made it sound like a cute, fun read with some elemental magic thrown in for good measure (and romance) so I quickly dived in and finished volume one in one sitting. Note to all, if I knew I'd have to wait until next year for volume 2 I would have tried to take my time and savour this manga.

The story starts off with our main character Sandra Tansin having a dream that she's standing at the edge of a cliff and then quickly she wakes up and we know that she has had this dream before. Soon, after she wakes up, she spots her aunt spying on the neighbours and finds out there is a new boy around her age, soon after this we find out that the Sandra, despite being really cute, has low self-confidence. Now usually when an MC has low self-confidence I put my guard up because that's a signal for future “woe is me” type thoughts and no one likes being around a mopey person let alone reading about a mopey MC. I continued reading however and found out that the reason Sandra tends to keep to herself and not standout is that she's picked on at school and is called things like “weird” and “freak”, why? You don't find this out until near the end of the book where we get to see Sandra become a much stronger person.

Putting aside Sandra's social issues for the moment let's move onto the cool elemental magic. Things immediately begin to change when adorable Fred or as I like to call him Phaidros moves next door to Sandra. Not only does she discover that she can control air but that both her and Phaidros have met before, what else do we find out? Phaidros has a secret; he's on the run from something called the Hepta Sophoi or Seven Sages (as I have google translated), what is this? Who are they? I have no idea because in this first volume all we get is build-up and a surprise visit from one of the members of this...organization looking to bring Phaidros back with her and she's not too nice about it.

Action, comedy, and cute scenes - In the Air is recommended for readers who are looking for something that is both light and fun with many lovable characters. The art is very manga inspired with its sweat drops, chibis and over exaggerated expressions but Brenda Hickey's style chooses not to go down the route of large eyes and almost non-existent nose and lips. In fact, there were occasions where I thought the noses and lips were too large for my tastes but I'm not too picky that I let it bother me and neither should you.