This Week in Anime

Sk8 for Your Life

Nicky
Hell yeah, I'm super psyched to talk about mayhaps one of my favorite anime of the season, and well-anticipated too! From director Hiroko Utsumi and Studio BONES, Sk8 the Infinity is a tubular tale between two bros and their love of all things boarding.

I've been a big fan of Utsumi's work as a series director ever since her debut with Free! and I've really been longing for her to take her" skillz" to the next level into something more ambitious. But since her last series Banana Fish was a more self-serious adaption, I wasn't able to get into it as much. Utsumi's style truly shines when she's able to balance both intense fun with the intense drama. So when Sk8 just bursts out with all this energy from the starting line, I knew I was in for a real treat.

Free! also focused more on the slice-of-life side of sports anime and its sports battles stuck firmly to the ground (water?) of reality even if they can be deeply emotional. Sk8, while displaying a serious love for its sport, really takes everything to the X-TREME and quickly flies off into the realm of fantasy in a way that only anime can.

Excuse you, she has a name, and it's Carla.

Look, I'd hesitate to call Cherry an extreme sadist compared to the show's main antagonist. Once "Blue-haired skating vampire ringmaster DIO" enters the screen, any sort of suspension of disbelief just washes away. But that's part of what makes Sk8 great.

God, I love these two sk8er boiz. While Sk8 might be full of spectacle, it's also got a sweet side. It's characters are warm like a sunny beach, and part of what makes it all work is its ability to really mingle with them.

While Reki is the expert and our doorway to the skating realm and all its wonders, Langa is the new kid on the block. He and his mom moved to the island of Okinawa, Japan all the way from the far-way snowy mountains of Canada. He starts out as a pure layman for the audience, but quickly applies his previous knowledge of snowboarding into becoming a real pro.

Speaking of slapstick, the smash cuts in this show are so good! I especially love how the ED just shows all the different ways you can bail.

Though the show also expresses a philosophy of "No Pain, No Gain!" You can't get better without having a few wipe-outs! It does make me wish some characters would invest in helmets, though. I just presume they were left out so the animators don't want to have to draw them.

So much of this show needs a Parental Advisory label. For example, I'm already against children becoming GAMERS and also catboys, but especially Gamer Catboys. That there is the real danger.

But I guess these are just the things you can expect when you literally name your underground illegal skating race after that one Cool S every edgy middle-schooler inexplicably knows how to draw in their notebook once they reach age 12.

But the cast of Sk8 aren't just kids though. As an extreme sport, most of the participants are actually adults. Lots of anime focus on high schoolers, which was fine when I was a teenager. But as an adult woman, I'm pretty thankful Sk8 has Cherry Blossom, JOE, and SHADOW. They are pretty fun in their own right when normally they wouldn't be considered part of the main cast.

Everyone in the S ring has to have their own Skatesona, which is what we'll be using to refer to most of the characters. Y'know in order to protect their identities or something?? Not that it really stops the characters from crashing into each other during the day. Seeing everyone running about trying to function in their everyday lives when you know they're all reckless 2 Fool 4 Skool skating demons creates a more multifaceted picture. For example, Cherry is a professional calligraphy artist and JOE is a chef with his own Italian restaurant. And then you can use that information to do these great little bits in the interstitials.

During the race Cherry is, as stated before, actually a cyber-surfing NINJA, and Joe is well uhh.....

Bless Utsumi for this meal.

Oh yeah, their rapport ranges from "petty exes" to "old married couple" most of the time: always bickering, competing, and talking about the "old days". It's pretty obvious they have a history they can never truly separate from because of their shared love for the sport. Both of these characters have tons of female fans in the background but you never see them with as much energy interacting with them as they do with each other.

I really like how they're dressed up, lol.

Cherry and Joe aren't just long-time rivals though. They're respected members of the community and their history creates a window where we view the main antagonist and analyze the real conflicts of the show.

ADAM, the progenitor of the S race, is a force of fuckin' nature. While initially shrouded in mystery, it's nearly impossible for the viewer to take their eyes off of him when he's in the spotlight. Also he's voiced by Takehito Koyasu in the same style of DIO BRANDO from Jojo's, and he's just an incredibly striking villain.

ADAM comes in after Langa's beef with MIYA and immediately any sort of veil about the show is gone. He's not called "The Matador of Love" for nothing. This man exudes energy to an exciting, terrifying, and mesmerizing degree. While bailing is a normal part of the sport, ADAM pushes everything to the edge and ends up shredding his opponents to pieces out of "love." He represents the real threat of someone who gets too engrossed in the thrilling aspect of the sport. Even going so far as to mid-fight kabedon-ing Reki so hard he can't help but piss his pants at just the thought for the rest of the show.

And that's not even touching his signature "Love Hug" in which he turns so fast to skate UPHILL towards his opponent into an embrace so they'll freak out.

Again, ADAM, or Ainosuke, is really the character were all subtext goes off to die. He has every marker of a Japanese man deep "in the closet", wanting to unleash the shackles of respectable society in order to live the more exciting and tantalizing nightlife of his own creation. Complete with his very traditional tea-sipping aunties who keep emphasizing how important it is that he doesn't ruin the family name because they love him so much.

Once he takes interest in Langa he pretty much pursues him like a starving Wile E. Coyote chases after Road Runner. Dude is relentless and he's not coy about it. Much to Reki's dismay.

Yeah, but Langa is very similar to ADAM in that he also gets high on the thrills. This drives a rift between him and his best bro. Reki, having lost his previous skating-bro to injury from ADAM, becomes deeply concerned and fearful. Langa, meanwhile, continues to ignore the warning signs and exceeds to a level where Reki can no longer compare in order to get closer to defeating ADAM. Drifting them further apart.

Reki's arc is a little befuddled as he fumbles between wanting to simply be supportive and feeling left behind by everyone, but it's no less heartbreaking.

And it's got every bone in my body rooting for these boys to kiss and make-up already. Langa's mom agrees.

Though she might not be ready to accept that her son has a boyfriend, she's very supportive all the same.

The show definitely goes out of its way to show how skating is something that is supposed to bring people together. ADAM's vision of love is sadistic but not disingenuous. He's totally sincere. Rather, because of his strict (and abusive) upbringing his expression of love is ultimately broken and warped. It's not something that stems from skating itself like others might believe.

Even his childhood friend and lackey Tadashi feels guilty because he feels he created a monster for simply trying to bond with someone.

That's one way to tell off your ex that you're not into them anymore.

All I can think about is how painful it is to get his long hair caught in it.

But man, just everything about Sk8 is a joyride. It pulls you along with the characters and takes you on such a rollercoaster that sometimes I worry I'm the one that's gonna end up in the hospital when all is said and done.

I just love every one of these adrenaline-crazed puppy dogs so much, I can't help but stick around to see what happens.

Don't say "See you later" to these good Sk8er Boiz!! They're exactly the kind of thing I needed. It might be Utsumi's best series yet and Bone's animation is absolutely vibrant. With a few episodes left, I'm just hoping they've reserved the best tricks for last.

I'm gonna practice not blinking so I don't miss a second of it.