English Dub Review: Skate-Leading Stars “Resolve”

Overview:

Ionodai did not do well in their competition, and they learned their coach has a special move. Maeshima wants to learn it but coach isn’t budging. Sasugai disappears and everyone fears the worst, they track down his address and find all the work he has put in. He begs the coach to teach them his move.

Our Take:

Yes, this week was better but it’s kind of like putting seasoning and sauce on a turd. Doesn’t matter how much you put on it, it’s still a turd. At least we had some decent character moments from Maeshima and he wasn’t the worst person on Earth for a change.

There was one moment near the end of the episode where everyone gathered and saw him training. He responded with concern asking if he did something to upset everyone again. A rare moment of self-awareness from an otherwise oblivious guy. Doesn’t make up for all the other times he acted like a petulant child but hey it’s a start.

This might be the first time I have made a mention of bad voice acting but it was so jarring I have to mention it. There was a moment where the coach Adachi was getting angry. It just wasn’t delivered very well, the character looked angrier than the voice sounded. I feel that’s more on the ADR than the voice actor but it was a missed opportunity. Adachi hasn’t got many moments to actually act like a coach so when one of the few ones falls flat it’s upsetting.

I also wasn’t too big a fan of the suicide joke or maybe it wasn’t supposed to be? That is the problem. I couldn’t tell if they seriously thought Sasugai might have killed himself or they were joking about it. Pick one or the other and I’m fine with it but when you straddle the line like that it comes off in poor taste, to me at least. I’ve dealt with stuff like that all my life and jokes about it don’t offend me but it was just oddly handled. It came off as a joke at first but then there was concern and it was just very confusing to me.

As I said earlier this episode was better but not by much. It might build to something but my hope for that is pretty much gone at this point. It seems like this show is just spinning its wheels and doesn’t really know what to do with itself. Well, we’re in the same boat there… I don’t know what to do with you either Skate-Leading Stars.