There’s nothing like a tournament arc to restore an ensemble feel to your sports anime. This episode tried to capture the viewpoints of as many skaters as it could in just twenty minutes, and did a pretty good job of it in my view. The dial on Reki’s angst returned to human levels, allowing SK8 to get out of his head and show us how Langa has been impacted by their separation. Joe and Cherry’s races created a ‘main cast’ feeling that they’d previously lacked, giving them strong roles outside of providing sagely advice and appearing in flashbacks. We got a bit of context for Adam’s present-day insanity, and a closely-related figure who I recently criticized as a “non-character” turned out to be far more important than I’d anticipated. Even Shadow, who’s been relentlessly clowned on since the series’ early days, was taken somewhat seriously! He still got a handful of his own firecrackers kickflipped into his face, but he took those miniature explosions like a champ – that’s a win where I’m from.
My favorite moment this week was the appearance of the kickflipper in that Shadow scenario: Tadashi, Adam’s personal assistant. Despite being introduced as “Snake” and concealing his face with a ball cap, his identity became clear the moment that Adam dropped his cigarette in shock – there was no one else who could have pulled that sort of reaction from him. I was more surprised by the idea that Tadashi had taught his master to skateboard, a fact that we learned from their post-race confrontation. There’s a very silly Garden of Eden theme running through this story, with Tadashi (Snake) introducing skating (the forbidden fruit) to Ainosuke (Adam), thus sowing the seeds of his corruption. Of course, it’s Adam’s family who’s truly to blame for his current state, or at least that’s what the show is selling. His dad burned his skateboard in the previous episode’s flashback, and in this one we saw his aunts administering corporal punishment while claiming to love him (which explains his present obsession with the term). I’ll need more than sub-30 second glimpses if I’m going to sympathize with a lunatic like Adam, though.
It’s much easier to feel for someone like Langa, whose straightforward love for skateboarding is the cause of his troubles. Reki was his first friend in Japan, the one who taught him to skateboard – and now he’s little more than a classmate. In the same way, Tadashi was likely Ainosuke’s first friend, and taught him to skate – and then that connection was severed. There are big differences between the two pairs, of course: Langa has a functioning conscience while Adam does not, Reki can’t keep up with the big dogs while Tadashi can, etc. The parallel is still interesting to note, however, and it makes me wonder about the future of both relationships. We know how Reki and Langa will reunite, since Reki stumbled across a convenient TV interview this week to remind him of his skills as a mechanic (you literally work at a skate shop, dude), but will Tadashi be able to reach Adam in a similar way? Perhaps he’ll knock Adam out of his own tournament and become his “Eve,” thus ending his employer’s reign of terror over the underground skating world. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Tadashi victory to undercut the hype for Langa and Adam’s rematch – SK8 is clearly a show that’s up for anything.
The last thing I want to touch on is the conversation between Langa and his mother, which was the first time we’ve seen them sit down for a meal in quite a while. I remember noting the prominence of the main duo’s families in episode 2, and though their involvement has been minimized since then, this week gave us another hit of maternal influence, which I was happy about. Langa’s mom still trembles at thought of her teenage son coming to her for advice, but she handled herself well during their talk – except for the assumption that his relationship issues had to do with a girl. “Is Langa gay?” is an interesting question, and though I doubt SK8 will ever concretely answer it, he did admit to “liking” the person they were talking about, even as his mom labored under the belief that they were discussing romantic interest. Also, this show is directed by Hiroko Utsumi of Free and Banana Fish fame, so I think it’s safe to raise your pride flags if you got ’em. As for me, I ride or die Team Joe – but there’ll be more to say about him next week.
