Medalist

[MFauli]

Becoming an ice dancer was not what Tsukasa Akeuraji had aimed for when he decided to take on the figure skating world. However, it is where he ended up, as he "started too late" to follow his true solo-skating dreams.

For years, he was content with being a shell of his former ambitions—that is, until he met a little girl in whom he saw himself. Inori Yuitsuka, a fifth-grader so desperate to skate that she practiced in secret, had visited Tsukasa's rink with her mother to ask for lessons. She was branded as useless by everyone around her, told it was "too late" for her to begin, and that catching up to other skaters was impossible.

With a newfound conviction and unwillingness to let another passionate skater go down the same road as him, Tsukasa takes on the responsibility of coaching her and promises to make Inori a medalist.

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Episode 3:

This has turned into a nice, classic sports anime at this point. I do find the character designs too "loli" for my liking and the weird, slutty hotpants+kneesocks combo doesn't help. But the actual ice skating is nicely done and we're seeing real progress.

Now to wait what the first competition will bring. With sports anime, there's mostly 2 routes: Always win, or often lose and only win at some later stage. I hope she wins this.

[neflight86]

Haven't gotten around to trying this out yet, but I shall. Love some good sports anime.

[neflight86]

1-3

Straight into my veins! That's the stuff. A serviceable start that mixes optimism with looming hardship in a pretty compelling ratio that keeps either from being overpowering and diluting the story. That is extra important as skating isn't, going by these first few episodes, a super technical sport beyond the basics of core strength, balance, and elegance. That also makes it easier to digest and less... nerdy for lack of a better term, to watch. Both main leads are a joy to watch, the gags break up the seriousness well yet don't overstay their welcome, and the mixed use of CG and cells for the more impressive skating moves is very satisfying; just short of awe inspiring. No real complaints here.

Very solid show so far.

[David75]

It is extremely technical, but they managed to just give the minimum needed pointers as how you can teach that a kid and an untrained audience.
My only gripe with that show is that girl's VA and caricatures at times.

[MFauli]

Only thing that saddens me a bit is that the couch seems to have given up his real career even though he is so young himself. Japan really loves to give up on adults :(

[David75]

We're not sure how old he is, but my guess is he is way past selections. His level is probably that of a 14/15 yo top level skater and that's not enough to compete for the top at a regional or national level.
If you are 25 yo good footballer but can't outshine a 16 yo top level player, no coach will invest time to try and up your level. There is a huge crowd of younger talents pusshing you out of the game, with 10 more years of growth available.

[MFauli]

Episode 4:

That was some nice 3d-animation.

However, she's WAY too good already, lol. Every little girl watching this anime will NOT want to start ice skating, because they'll think "omg, I have to be that good at the very beginning?!"

Now let's see whether Mittens wins next week. I hope she loses, both so that Inori makes progress in catching up to her rival, and because Mittens winning would probably mess up her spoiled personality even more.

[David75]

There's a lot of unseen practice and grinding not shown. And Inori is inherently gifted, although shackled by her personality.
She's in the genius category that can learn level 10 tricks at level 1 just but watching them once, but also can still mess level one tricks.
I'm not that surprised. And she needs to catch up to her age group fast and even grow faster than that.
Remember that B level girl, that's who she needs to compete with and beat for her olympian dreams, because that's only Japan, the world stage will bring even thougher athletes.