Category: Finished Series: Sports

Forget jumping the shark – SK8 the Infinity just jumped the cliff.

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 10-11 [Dap Without Words/King vs Nobody]” →

When I heard that SK8 would be getting a mid-cour recap episode, I figured I’d just delay my viewing of “We Were Special Back Then” and blog it during the show’s off week. Waiting may have been the wrong decision, though, as my interest in the series has dulled significantly since the last time I tuned in. This episode didn’t do much to change that, even with its array of crazy moves: wall kicks, handstand planks, steel beam surfing, and skateboards used as blunt instruments. To be fair, that last one did leave me grinning in disbelief, but there was a predictable air to the entire ‘Joe vs Snow’ race that sorely disappointed me. Whenever Joe pulled ahead via some feat of physical strength, Langa caught up as a matter of course, meaning that only the final minute of the race maintained any sort of tension. At one point Langa was trailing by a huge margin, having lost interest in the competition, when who should appear on the sidelines but his best friend Reki, screaming his name – and thus the gap was closed yet again. I’d be glad to see a nail in that trope’s coffin, but SK8 won’t be the show to put it there.

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 09 [We Were Special Back Then]” →

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.

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 08 [The Fated Tournament!]” →

The screencaps above are a pretty good summation of my thoughts on SK8’s last two weeks. The vacation episode was bright and lively, while the angst episode was, well, angsty. The two weren’t totally divorced from one another, as the seeds of Reki and Langa’s breakup were carried through both installments until they bore fruit at the end of episode 7. That sort of continuity is a good thing, but when the payoff at the end is so emotionally blunt, it makes me wish the show would stick to the fun stuff. In that spirit, let’s start with the positives and talk about “Steamy Mystery Skating” after the jump!

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 6-7 [Steamy Mystery Skating/We Don’t Balance Out]” →

One word, four letters: ADAM. Actually, let’s go with “Adam” from now on, as the show has started caps-locking a bunch of other skater pseudonyms as well, and I can’t be bothered to replicate them every time. Adam is this series’ breakout character without question, possessing a villainous, flamboyant energy that only Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter could dream of matching. I’ve written previously about how these traits could pose a problem for SK8 without proper context, and while this episode did send his crazy levels soaring to unforeseen heights, it also planted an important seed regarding his past – he used to be partners with Cherry and Joe. I was highly impressed with this reveal, not only for the casual way it was incorporated into the script, but also because it promised to build two side characters into something more than window dressing, then show us their former teammate’s heel turn. For a show that made its final boss so visible so early, what could be more promising than that?

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 05 [Passionate Dancing Night!]” →

I think it’s safe to say that SK8 the Infinity has abandoned the mask it wore during its first two episodes. This is no longer an anime about having a rad time skateboarding with your bros – now it’s about settling beef with your bros, and I’m not talking about the burgers that Miya refused to eat at A&W. Everyone wants to start beef with ADAM, a bloodthirsty politician from a well-to-do family who channels his aggression through extreme skateboarding. This is such an insane premise that the only way to make it work is by leaning completely into the insanity, which this episode did without hesitation. And it worked! By the end, I was laughing at everything ADAM said and did, from skating uphill groin-first to villainously licking Reki’s blood off his cheek (framed with a Dutch angle, no less). I still miss the version of SK8 that we glimpsed two weeks ago, but at least this new model is demonstrating some knowledge of its own stupidity.

Continue reading “SK8 the Infinity – 04 [ADAM, The Matador of Love]” →