English Dub Review: Skate-Leading Stars “Sworn Friends”

Overview:

Ionodai leaves everything out on the ice as they skate their hearts out. Shinozaki reveals why Maeshima wanting to beat him bothered him. Ionodai manages to pull out the win and now everyone is moving on. Some people go on to the national team while others keep working with their team. Maeshima and Shinozaki seem to have found a level of respect and friendship. Sasugai and Maeshima will continue to work together.

Our Take:

Was there any doubt they were going to win? I mean that’s what it was all leading up to right? I would have honestly been impressed with the show if they did have them lose. That would have been bold but that wasn’t going to happen. This show is many things but bold is not one of them.

This episode did redeem Shinozaki and also his relationship with Maeshima a bit. Shinozaki always enjoyed watching Maeshima skate and thought he was different. So, when he said he was going to beat Shinozaki just like everyone else he lost a lot of respect for Shinozaki. But Maeshima was in fact the first one to beat him and it looks like a great friendship has blossomed. Honestly, where were this kind of character depth and interaction earlier? I get wanting to keep some things for a big reveal but seriously.

The Ionodai performance was animated beautifully and I really enjoyed it this time. It’s like the budget for this show was all saved up for the final couple of episodes. It’s really disappointing because seeing where this show could go and what we got is just a massive gap.

I will get into more of that with my season review. As far as this episode goes, it was really good! Never thought I would say that for this show. There were a lot of problems but I liked a lot of the character interactions. I didn’t like the choice to not show what they scored at the competition and tease us with a flash-forward but oh well.

There is also a lot of sequel bait. Shinozaki and Maeshima seem to be close friends now. Sasugai wants to continue working with Maeshima and of course what happens with Ionodai now that the upperclassmen and their coach have left. It might be shocking with how I have dogged this show but I would actually watch the sequel. All the boring stuff has already been set up and THAT type of story sounds interesting to me. Only time will tell but I doubt it will happen and by the time it does I imagine I will have already forgotten about this show.