English Dub Review: SK8: The Infinity “Steamy Mystery Skating?!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Joe takes Reki, Langa, Miya, and Shadow (along with Cherry who coincidentally goes too) to a vacation spot to help Reki recover from his injuries with Adam. Reki is also starting to realize that Langa is actually surpassing him in skating, which worries him, but that is soon forgotten by weird local festival traditions getting everyone attacked and covered in smelly stuff. The group then heads home very confused. Also, Adam decides to put together a skating tournament.

OUR TAKE

This episode acts as a little breather between all the ruckus last episode with Adam and the upcoming tournament shenanigans that will be taking over the remainder of the series, but also helps to lay the groundwork for other plots to come. The main one of these being Reki’s growing inferiority complex with Langa, who is quickly overtaking him in terms of skill and reputation, which must suck given that Reki is the one who taught Langa the basics of skating, and now he’s suddenly getting all of this attention that Reki never got and can’t seem to achieve. It’s certainly not the expected route for these types of stories, where I imagine Reki would more likely be the one at the center stage of events, but that doesn’t seem to be were this show is taking things, so I’m pretty intrigued. That and I am still a big sucker for tournament arcs, which actually helps this story by giving it a clear end point to reach. It did seem for awhile like the show didn’t really have a conclusion in mind or much of a sense of urgency around it, but now we have a target to reach so that’s good.

We also got to kinda get to know our main band of friends a bit more. Joe and Cherry have been pretty much on the sidelines thus far, mainly either being bystanders with a lot of influence or offering support where they can. And while we still haven’t seen them be very active in the story, it’s good to see them acting as functioning members of the group dynamic, with Joe’s womanizing playing off Cherry’s sophisticated stoicism. Shadow has also been showing some layers to him lately, having it revealed that he works at a flower shop, which is pretty far from what you would have expected from him when he first showed up in Episode 1. Along with Joe, Cherry, and Adam, we’re learning that a lot of skaters here have a notable amount of duality to them, though I still can’t quite fathom why being skaters is meant to be this big secret they all have to hold, aside from Adam who is clearly using it as some sort of fetish. Speaking of, apparently some investigator is looking into his weird involvement with skating, which is…definitely a plot. Whether good or bad is unclear at the moment.