English Dub Review: Skate-Leading Stars “Self-Centered”

Overview(Possible Spoilers):

Three episodes in and we finally get to see some skate-leading, and it seems interesting. So far we just got a three-person version of it. Maeshima doesn’t think of his teammates during their part of the competition. Still makes the team somehow. Himekawa who was a part of Maeshima’s group withdraws from the team.

Our Take: 

We finally got to the competition to see what skate-leading is. To be honest I see the potential for some cool stuff here so it wins my attention for a bit longer. If you’ve been following along and keep to the three-episode rule I won’t blame you if you stop here. Though in my opinion, it’s about to get at least a little bit interesting.

The characters are… not great. I can’t really think of one redeeming thing about Maeshima so far but that is usually how these types of shows go. We have to build to that but usually, there is at least something that makes you like them a little bit. So far with Maeshima, there is none of that. I’ve seen a lot of sports anime so believe me when I say Maeshima is pretty insufferable.

I mentioned last week that Sasugai is my favorite character and that hasn’t changed. He hasn’t really done much but that just shows how little the rest of the cast stands out. Sure his thinking ahead is cool and all but it’s been done before. It was kind of funny how he wasn’t on the school register because he didn’t want to have to transfer twice if they lost. Way to think ahead buddy.

I get that we want to get to competitions as soon as possible but having Maeshima’s team lose the competition only to still get a spot on the team felt cheap to me. Sure, ultimately for the story he needs to be on the team but I just that an opportunity for character growth was lost there.

There was one moment I found interesting but it almost seems like they aren’t going to do anything with it. During the competition, one of the people in Maeshima’s group, Himekawa did the best he’s done. In order to keep up with Maeshima, he had to reach deep down and surpass his limits. This suggests that Maeshima brings the best out of people which was the direction I thought they were going with letting him on the team. However, the episode ends with the team receiving Himekawa’s withdrawal notice.

This was the best episode so far though, to be honest, that isn’t really saying too much. I will say finally seeing the potential of skate-leading as a sport did a whole lot to peak my interest. Even if I wasn’t reviewing this I would give it a couple more episodes before I quit.