English Dub Review: SK8: The Infinity “Undesired Hero”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Langa is challenged by Miya Chinen, a skating prodigy who is also a hopeful for the Olympics, with Reki used as a prize. The two primary colored hair boys train in earnest to help Langa win, but Miya reflects on how his initial fun with the sport and eventual rise to fame ended up alienating him from his friends as his reputation grew. The day of the race soon arrives, with a timely modification to Langa’s board ending up netting him the win, but they say Langa’s win came from him approaching skating for fun, while Miya only cares about winning now. But deep down, he actually wants to have friends, which he gets when Reki and Langa ask him to skate again soon. However, their good times are interrupted by the arrival of Adam, a matador themed skater who says that Miya has nothing left after losing and starts creeping on Langa. Reki then challenges Adam to a race for his creepiness.

OUR TAKE
This week brings us a bit of a formulaic story, that being the kind where a starter rival shows up and is quickly befriended, but it handles that formula quite well. In a strange coincidence, the issues in Miya’s somewhat tragic backstory partially mirror those of Leo in later episodes of Gymnastics Samurai, that being the problems of feeling isolated from others because a thing that was once fun and got you famous now makes you a celebrity with expectations and a brand to uphold. Though I think that just has more to do with that being a common problem amongst those who achieve any level of fame or status, whether that’s as a skater or a ballet dancer or what have you. And it being common means that is very easily relatable, as it speaks to a yearning for connection and the anxiety that comes from losing them as you’re pushed forward towards what seems to be making everyone else happy except you.

This is not to say that Miya or really anyone in this show is an especially deep character. But they don’t really need to be as long as they’re given enough life to make them worth following in these adventures, which I would say this show does well enough. The more fluid animation and vibrant character designs help with that a lot, as well as skating as a sport being one that requires a lot of speed and movement along with sharp maneuvering and tricks that make it an inherently entertaining sport. I mean, I have yet to see why skating was picked out of all other types of sport to be the vessel for this show’s themes and ideas, most of which so far seem to amount to “do things for fun” and “friends are great”. Which, to be fair, are good things to preach even if they aren’t exactly saying anything revolutionary. If someone wants to chill out and watch multicolored pretty boys do the anime version of Rocket Power, there are far worse ways of spending one’s time. I guess what I am most curious about is how the show will use its remaining three quarters to help me understand why skating is such a big deal in this story and also what the hell Adam’s deal is with being all creepy. Plenty to come on that front, I’m sure! And at the very least, it’ll look fine as hell.