English Dub Review: SK8: The Infinity “Awesome for the First Time!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Despite his come from behind victory over Shadow last night that has a lot of people talkinkg, Langa doesn’t actually know how to properly ride a skateboard, so Reki decides to teach him. The two become fast friends, even getting employed at the skate shop together, and Langa even learns how to do an ollie after only a couple weeks of training, something that should take months. However, he is soon challenged by up and coming skater Miya Chinen.

OUR TAKE

Whereas the first episode was about introducing us to how expansive the world of skating is in the setting of the show, as well as introducing us to the primary cast, this episode shows the reverberations of Langa winning so suddenly by just using his snowboarding skills. We get further introductions of a few likely important for later supporting characters who are all interested as heck in this newcomer who has made a name for himself despite only just showing up and seemingly having no skill. Of note are Kojiro and Kaoru, AKA “Cherry Blossom” and “Joe”, who seem to be legends amongst the skating crowd and will likely play into things later. And as we learn from his training and bonding with Reki, Langa’s snowboarding (which he has apparently been doing since he was two) isn’t nothing and looks to be giving him a unique edge and signature style, but it’s definitely not a substitute for knowing how to use this type of board. And Langa’s lack of knowledge ends up working for people like me in the audience without the slightest hint of skating knowledge, as him being a viewpoint character allows for explanations of seemingly basic things like board types and such.

Although, while I don’t think I can call this a detriment quite yet, I find myself a bit perplexed as to how important skating is to the characters in this show. I mean I’ve definitely seen other shows that make a huge deal about the sport they focus on, whether that’s tennis in Prince of Tennis, roller blading in Air Gear, or even children’s card games in Yugioh, but I guess I just don’t buy right now that skating is that big a deal for this world, though that may change over time. I’m reminded in particular of Megalo Box and how that specific type of boxing was the main focus sport, but that made sense because there was a big competition for characters to engage in, even if they weren’t passionate about the sport itself. Maybe SK8 will gain that as the show goes on, though there doesn’t seem to be much of a hint of it in the first handful of episodes, and this is only a twelve episode long series. Still, I am liking the characters I’ve met so far, and the designs are quite vibrant and unique, so that will get me quite far in this, but only so much.