Sk8 the Infinity

Episode 4

So we all know what ‘cool’ actually is, right? Like, fundamentally? It's not especially about style, or pure attractiveness, or even the skill with which you do something. Sure, Sk8 the Infinity does look extremely distinctive and technically impressive in what it's doing, but all the absurd ideas it's including and its over-the-top manner might come off as trying too hard – that is, if it also seemed like it gave a single solitary squirt how anyone might judge those choices. But like all the coolest people, it rolls in with pure, unflappable confidence in what it's doing. Last week ended on the proper debut of an overdramatic skateboard Dracula who calls himself Adam, the Matador of Love, whom Reki immediately challenged to a downhill duel. This Big Bad of Boarding ‘glides’ around by standing on his skateboard and seemingly willing it to roll him wherever he wants. Ridiculous, sputter-worthy even, yet still very, very cool.

Not to diminish the ridiculous resources Sk8 the Infinity clearly has at its disposal – it continues to be a lovely-looking show overall – but I genuinely think the power of the series comes from how it knows to deploy said resources. Any show can have beautifully-drawn backgrounds, but SK8 continues to use differentiation to specifically hammer home the various feelings it's depicting. Reki's boastful challenge to Adam is framed by the riotous party lighting of the warehouse at S, giving way to his questionable attempts at training and practicing across its earthy orange trails, before we catch up with him and all his weary, genuine concerns while he skates through a dryly realistic city environment. It's not just a question of what feels ‘real’ to Reki as he thinks more and more on the gravity of the challenge he forced himself into, but how caught up he is in the moment of his own possibilities. It's that principle of coolness: When Reki is confident, the episode looks its coolest, and when he's wavering, it eases off into noticeable, calculated simplicity.

The cool confidence of its characters isn't an element that Sk8 the Infinity just puts on display' it actively and pointedly propels them at us, dictating the audience's focus in ways only those seasoned in visual mediums can succeed at. Several times throughout this episode, characters will originate lurking in the background only to pull into focus and relevancy a shot or two later. They do it with Miya as he drops in to school Reki in the park, and they pull it again with Adam's brusque butler boyfriend. It's not just a neat visual storytelling flow, it's a mark of the series encouraging us to look at all the backdrops and background characters it's filled itself out with, because dammit, they clearly worked hard on them! I've been picking up on it for a while now, but the growing crowds at the behest of Adam's promised spectacle in this episode really make clear the effort the designers went to in making all the various extras in the backs of shots have their own distinctive style and personality. That old anime gag game of ‘Spot the main character amongst this horde of generics’ might actually be harder to play with Sk8 the Infinity, and the series' appeal is richer for it.

You might think I'm spending too much time heaping praise just on the backgrounds for one episode of this show, but it really is appropriate, since ‘background’ is an ironically foregrounded aspect of this week's entry. It was here I realized we actually hadn't learned much about Reki's past, what got him into skating and led him to where he was before he met Langa, and the encroaching encounter with Adam codifies some of the more dramatic elements of that. We get just the faintest vague flashbacks, but they make clear that Reki had another skate-mate in his past who may have had to give the sport up due to a debilitating injury. It paints a powerful threat to Reki only after he's formally set to follow through on his challenge to Adam, as he learns the mean matador specifically seeks to maim his skating opponents. Adam's own background, how he may have rolled down that dark half-pipe, is likewise alluded to by Cherry Blossom and Joe, who we learn are founding members of S along with him. There are not many actual details given in these backgrounds besides establishing them, but the show wants us to know they're there all the same so we keep an eye on them for more details to emerge, the same way people in its presented backdrops come into relief throughout this episode.

As such, it's hard for me to speculate too much on where so much stuff in this episode is going, especially with regards to Adam. He's an antagonist who certainly invites inquisition; his toxic, dangerous attitude towards competition contrasting with how he's just as much fun to watch as anything else in this ridiculous show. Sure, he extolls the virtues of smoking to impressionable kids and seems to be actively trying to kill Reki in a sexually-charged skateboard smackdown, but when he shoves the kid down into a spark-shooting million-miles-per-hour rolling kabe-don, well, how can we not cheer just a little bit? It reinforces the idea of Sk8 the Infinity having absolute confidence in whatever it's doing at any given moment, which helps us get on board through each of those moments.

Though SK8 seamlessly kick-flips through some of the inconsistencies in its presentation, they're still there for us to notice. Just a few times as the threat of injury was floated as a serious potential consequence Reki was facing through this episode, I found myself questioning how it could be presentationally different from all of the more amusing bails we've seen the cast suffer already (and every week in the ending sequence!). Sk8 the Infinity is a series that thrives on depictions in the moment, and indeed Reki's bloody fate at the end of this episode lands with the intended gravitas because the pacing of the show was so expertly tuned to lead us there. But the concerns are still there, compounded by the writing being so brazen as to even bring up the subject of helmets in a series where everyone skates without them! It's like the show is just daring me to keep suspending my disbelief, and to its credit, I know I've blinked first several times already. That's the power of confidence, of being assured in how cool you are.

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Sk8 the Infinity is currently streaming on FUNimation Entertainment.