SK8 The Infinity

Yuri On Ice Without The Ice. Except For Sometimes, There Be Ice.

What to say about this but that I binged the entire season in one night?

It’s a really easy watch and while it doesn’t have you hanging onto details or completely entranced by character developments, it’s a great shonen and sports anime and I’d love to see if they develop more of this or if they do a snowboarding anime next.

I’m not much of a skater (occasionally using a board to travel from point A to point B and face planting several times along the way) so seeing these anime character pop ollies and literally fly through the air made me want to learn a trick or two. I could use a good conversation starter at parties.

The characters are likable enough and I hardcore vibed with how everyone was just...so...shippable. Their interactions and their obvious love for each other was palpable and you wanted them to reconcile or skate together again and it really felt like friends having an eccentric conversation through sports.

There is no official romantic inclination advertised between the main cast, but there are a few hints dropped here and there, particularly when Langa is asking his mom for advice for how to fix a relationship and how all of their skate friends get this knowing look like “ah yes a lover’s quarrel huehuehue” which is equal parts infuriating and equal parts gratifying.

Call it a bromance. Call it dudes hanging with dudes. The main friendships we see budding are wholesome and free from unnecessary toxic masculinity.

Some jealousy and inferiority complexes are sprinkled into their relationships but it’s not over done and actually makes a lot of sense for how the story progresses from mediocre “beefs” (competitions between skaters to settle bets or to assert dominance) to grandiose, high skill beefs. The low point for our main character Reki feels real and painful especially since he’s still so young and is feeling left behind by his more talented friend, Langa.

I will say that Adam as a character made me feel uncomfortable anytime he showed up on screen and no matter how many flashbacks they showed and character development they wrung out of his C storyline, I would physically cringe every time I saw him. He’s everything our protagonists aren’t: possessive, violent, cruel, flamboyant. He was an ideal foil to Langa but his sad backstory in no way justified his current, perverse actions, and similarly, his motivations just didn’t make sense to me.

Overall a great watch. I still go back to watch the skate scenes because they’re just so beautifully well done.