Sleeping Forest

The Noyamano Family/Sleeping Forest (眠りの森, Nemuri no Mori) is a fictional team from Oh! great's manga Air Gear and whose members are considered the current kings of Air Trecks. In the past they were led by Sora Takeuchi and dominated the world of Air Trecks and Stormriders, becoming the undisputed champions of the underground hobby.

Background

Sleeping Forest was created by Sora Takeuchi in order to collect the eight Kings and prepare for the appearance of the Sky King; unfortunately, they were betrayed by Kilik who defeated the Kings and stole the Wind Regalia from Sora. during this quarrel, two member of sleeping forest which led by Sora; Rika and falko, missing under uknown circumtances. Right now, Sleeping Forest is being led by Ringo, the Thorn Queen, and it is rumored that it still is composed of eight Kings. However, Ringo's leader status is mainly due to her unique ability to fight unhindered inside the Tower where the air pressure becomes abnormally high. The person who is actually commanding the team is Kilik, who destroyed the original Sleeping Forest and rebuilt the new one in his own 'image'. Kilik's goal is to prevent anyone from obtaining the Sky Regalia. They truly are a force to be reckoned with as illustrated by the poem that describes them:

All the trees entwine their arms and stretch towards the sky;
Gathering the leaves, it devours the light.
The darkness of the forest deepens...
The hunter does not see the eyes and fangs of beasts lurking in the darkness.
Tonight, the hunter will be hunted by the beast:
This is the Sleeping Forest.

Team Members

Current Team Members

Ringo Noyamano

File:Noyamano Ringo.jpg

Ringo Noyamano

• Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese); Luci Christian (English)

Ringo Noyamano (野山野 林檎, Noyamano Ringo) looks like your everyday junior high school girl. However, she is actually the successor of the legendary Storm Riders team, Sleeping Forest . She is also the current Thorn King (Queen) of the eight 'Kings' in the AT world. Ringo is in love with Ikki but does not dare to tell him. She helps Kogarasumaru in times of trouble under the guise of Croissant Mask (Croissant Kamen). Ringo is a King Class AT user, wielding the techniques of Sonia Road; meaning she has superhuman agility at the price of suffering every blow she deals to her opponent. Also, just like Ikki; she too, has "trick pass" and "Hawk eye" ability.

She is determined to show Ikki the "fear" of flying through the air because she doesn't want to see him suffer the same fate the last 'Wind King' did. To this end she was willing to bar his way, even going so far as to brutally attack him using her 'Thorn Regalia'. She completely out-classes Ikki due to her superior experience (specifically, that each of her moves wastes and requires much less energy than Ikki's do) during the race and in the earlier stages of the battle. However, Kururu Sumeragi saves the latter with a mid-air installation of the Bagram prototype cores. Ikki then becomes more than a match for Ringo. The fight then ends in a draw when Ringo surprisingly collapses a few feet from the finish line. She is then carried back home. After that battle Ikki leaves the Noyamano residence, but not before Ringo finally reveals her feelings for Ikki and kisses him goodbye. Later in the Tower of Tropheum, Killik reveals the true purpose of Ringo as leader of Sleeping Forest. In the final battle for the Sky King that takes place where not only the air is incredibly dense but the atmosphere is also giving off the feeling of crushing anyone in it, Ringo is completely immune to it, thus making her the perfect warrior to protect the Sky Regalia.

Ringo often depicted to be a warrior in an armor, with a shield and blade, and a pair of wings made out of blades. At this point in her introduction, she is usually in the middle of a forest with dead bodies sprawled around her. Her introduction stays the same throughout the manga: "The Fruit of the Forbidden Forest Which Lures One into a Deep Slumber... Crazy Apple." (A play on her name since "Ringo" means apple in Japanese.)

Ringo (along with Mikan and Ume) are not biological sisters of Rika. A year or so after the creation of the original Sleeping Forest, it was revealed by Kilik that three unknown "gravity children" are staying with Rika, implying that the research for Air Treck is still going on somewhere else. In chapter 174, Ringo is seen watching Kogarasumaru training for their B-Class match against White Wolf clan, then she sees Hako talking to a mysterious girl that was seen with the Sora brothers on chapter 163.

Her measurments are:B84/ W57/ H81

Mikan Noyamano

File:Noyamano Mikan.jpg

Mikan Noyamano

• Voiced by: Seika Hosokawa (Japanese); Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Mikan Noyamano (野山野 蜜柑, Noyamano Mikan) is the second eldest of the Noyamano sisters. A tomboyish girl with short messy hair, she's the disciplinarian of the group and is the one who usually punishes Ikki for his misdeeds or any reason she can think up. All she mostly does is complain about Ikki and treats him horribly.(More so in the anime but comically on the Manga.) She also seems to enjoy teasing Ringo about her 'marital problems' with Ikki (especially later on when Akito/Agito moves in with them). She has a soft spot for retro games, something which Simca uses to initially gain her favor. Later on however, she confronts Simca on the issue of who's side Simca is really on. Like Ringo and the rest of the Sleeping Forest team, she was revealed to be a Gravity Child. Like Crazy Apple, Mikan is known as Mad Orange.

Shiraume Noyamano

File:NoyamanoShiraume.png

Shiraume Noyamano

• Voiced by: Yukika Hanioka (Japanese); Hillary Haag (English)

Shiraume Noyamano (野山野 白梅, Noyamano Shiraume), known as Ume to her family, the youngest of the sisters. Her hobby is the creation of puppets in the guise of gorgons (which creeps out Ringo and Ikki to no end), and she's always seen carrying one with her. Other than that she's also quite handy with machines despite her age. She's the one who introduces Kogarasumaru to Kei Machida, the pro emblem designer who designs their team logo. She is supposedly the weakest member of Sleeping Forest in terms of AT fighting skills. She is also sometimes sarcastic. Her latest appearance involves her revealing herself as a Gravity Child. She is able to successfully attack Ikki, something she could never achieve in normal gravity, due to both his underestimating her and his inability to adjust to the gravity-less area they were in.

Gabishi

Gabishi (蛾媚刺) is the current Horn King and is a rider for Sleeping forest that has a penchant for removing the faces of his victims using his AT's "Hatch-Venom." He has a similar technique to the Agito's "Wind Fangs", but instead of directing the force in a wave he kicks it forward, pushing the heat resulting from his sudden stop into an "Air Cannon". He defeated Nue, Thunder King of Genesis (though Nue claims it was because he wasn't "in-tune" with his regalia), and Sano Yasuyoshi. Gabishi would have taken Sano's face, too, if not for Adachi Emily and for Nue's quick recovery. He was finally defeated after Nue used his "Get Together, Maximum Atmosphere." Often depicted by a mechanized human-size mantis with large cannons for arms.

Though captured by Genesis, where he was given various amounts and different kinds of torture, he was released with Om after her loss. Rather than being killed, Killik spared them from death. He is shown in the Trophaeum with the rest of Sleeping Forest. Gabishi doesn't seem to be heartless as he went as far as saying "That's great, your determination calls for praise" when he was being held back by Emily after hearing her reason for fighting against him. Along with Kilik, Om, and the two other unidentified members, he once fought against the original Sleeping Forest, which was then led by Sora Takeuchi.

Om

File:Om-Air-Gear.jpg

Om

Om (王蟲, Ōmu) is the current Water King. At first sight, she was confused for a deformed dwarf. Om has the unique ability to saturate air into water with her AT's using her Lather Road. She uses this ability to pull off an attack called 'Bubblegum Crisis' (possibly a reference to the anime of the same name), which she uses to cripple Simca and force her to use a wheelchair. Om was defeated by Benkei in a Class C "air" battle when Benkei discovered the major weakness of Om's regalia. It can only attack from the rear which is why Om constantly had her butt facing Benkei and co. Om, apparently, also has a big sweet tooth; she often sucks on multiple lollipops at the same time. Interestingly, her design seem based on Chun-Li from the Street Fighter Alpha series.

Though she tried to commit suicide during the battle with Benkei, she was saved by an "awakened" Kazu who was able to catch after activating the Flame Road in order to reach her. She was later taken by Genesis, though it appears she wasn't tortured at all, only returned to Killik. In trick 123 it was stated she likes sweet things and strong guys.

Kilik

File:Kilik.jpg

Kilik

Kilik (キリク, Kiriku) is the former Gem King of the first Sleeping Forest and currently one of the main antagonists, though he is sided against the other two as well. He used to be good friends with Takeuchi Sora and had a crush on Noyamano Rika. Due to different opinions regarding the Sky Regalia, he split from the original group and gathered other gravity children to help him dethrone Sora. After successfully taking the Wind Regalia (and crippling Sora to prevent him from trying to take the Sky Regalia again) he loses his own regalia to an enraged Nike. He seems to take a back seat on fighting, preferring to pull the strings of events than to put himself at the forefront. He had Ikki brought to the Trophaeum in order to gauge his strength as Wind King. By using a hundred point deduction system, he was both impressed and depressed by Ikki's actions.

Unfortunately, mid-test Takeuchi Sora called them, revealing himself as fully capable of using AT's again. A discussion was brought forward when Kilik questioned him about the "New Wind King Development Program" Genesis was running with Ikki as the subject. Sora laughed it off saying that a wind as good as this, referring to the Regalia, was way too good for a kid like him, referring to Ikki. It was then that Kilik questioned him after stating that the regalia Kururu had built was superior to Sora's one and that Ikki was becoming too powerful. At that, Sora stood silent, continuing to ignore Ikki's cries for explanation. He reappears during the match between Kogarasumaru and White Wolf Clan talking to Hangedman. He explained the fact that Ikki is starting to "awake" his true riding and that his team has a lot of potential, claiming that even he would have trouble countering them, but they don't know it. Currently, he is seen with Om, training his body to endure incredible pressure by turning it as hard as diamonds to fight against Sora's powerful winds.

Other Members

There are two other unknown members shown, but not yet named.

Former Team Members

Sora Takeuchi

Main article: Sora Takeuchi

The former team leader of Sleeping Forest.

Spitfire

File:Spitfireairgear.png

Spitfire

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese); Jay Hickman (English)

Spitfire (スピット・ファイア, Supitto Faia) was the Flame King, and one of the last two members of the original Sleeping Forest still holding their titles at the beginning of the story. He is first seen in the series when ikki accidently went to a secret meeting that was going on with AT riders. He claimed that Ikki, being only an 'F' class rider, would only have a 1% chance of defeating Buccha, and was surprised by the result. In the anime, he is introduced in the first episode after watching the leader of the Skullsaders challenge Ikki to a battle. He is in control of three teams with 41, 68, and 86 members, and is a highly sought hair stylist in everyday life. His speed creates the illusion of flames due to the heat caused by the friction of his wheels on the ground. In recent chapters, he engaged Sora in an AT battle. During the fight, Sano joins in and saves Spitfire and the two challenge Nike. It is revealed that Spitfire is also able to stop time, similar to how Sano is able to, claiming that while Nike is the strongest of Genesis, he cannot break the flames of time. The fight drags on, and Spitfire comes to a conclusion that they cannot win. By his request, Sano then gives Spitfire enough time to grab Kazu and flee, forcefully giving Kazu the Flame Regalia. Shortly after returning to the battle, the two - Sano and Spitfire - are killed by Sora and Nike. Before his death, Spifire had foreseen this outcome and left a video explaining the true intentions of Genesis and how, after watching the fight between Kogarasumaru and Behemoth, he had been reminded that what he really wanted to do was fly freely in the sky. Spitfire had also predicted that Ikki would "lose his wings" due to Sora's betrayal and part of the reason for the video was to bring Ikki back to the AT world, at the end of the message Spitfire showed mild concern that his plan might not work.

Despite his death, Spitfire still helps out Kogarasumaru via the video he left to help train them for the Gram Scale tournament. However the video itself seems to be so alive that Kogarasumaru questions if Spitfire is really dead.

Spitfire (and the Flame Road in general) seems to be characterized by a flaming fox with nine tails, a reference to the Kitsune from Japanese Mythology.

In the English dub, he has a cockney accent.

Rika Noyamano

File:Rika.jpg

Rika

Voiced by: Naoko Matsui (Japanese); Christine Auten (English)

Rika Noyamano (野山野 梨花, Noyamano Rika) is the eldest of the Noyamano sisters, was given responsibility of taking care of Ikki when she was only eight. She acts like the typical older sister and takes care of the family. To support the family, she works as Destler Bartlett, a female pro-wrestler and for most of the early part of the story, during the time when Ikki discovers AT, she's out on a national tour with her wrestling promotion. Later on it is revealed that she used to be Sleeping Forest's Thorn Queen and follower of the Thorn Road (also called the "Sonia Road"). This road utilizes her hip joints as the base of her moves (which are composed of a wide array of kicks that mimic the motions of a thorn whip), however the disadvantage of this road is that this takes quite a toll on her body making her tire easily. Some time ago, she decided to quit AT for good due to the accident that left her boyfriend Sora (then leader of Sleeping Forest) unable to use his legs. She's very much aware of Ikki's talent and fears that Ikki may suffer the same fate as Sora so she tries her best to make him quit AT to the point of challenging him to B class battle (though she wasn't on ATs). Ikki manages to win the challenge and she decides instead to help with his training. She doesn't know Sora's true intentions for obtaining the Sky Regalia.