🥚ꏂꍌꍌ🥚

"I hope so"

his phone case has penguins on it

Ok so I'm no diehard anime critic. I actually suck at watching any type of series because I have the attention span of a fruit fly. I tend to forget about series I'm in the middle of and if its not engaging, I'm gonna lose interest. But I just finished the first six episodes of Skate Leading Stars and I just have some things to say about it. In fact I'm not even critiquing the anime I'm jst gonna say shit that annoyed me

BE WARNED SPOILERS!

Kensei, our main character, is arrogant, argumentative and a bit annoying. He relies too much in his ability to copy things instead of focusing on his basics and foundations and actually learning how to skate lead. From what I've seen, skate leading is completely different to figure skating. There are 4-5 other people there on the ice with you. That four other people you have to sync with at all times, keep in mind when moving and just timing everything together with. He just does what he wants, whether the team likes it or not. I will admit that he does learn to more of a team player by episode six though, which leads me to the next point.

Wth??? They ragged on him SO hard for not skate leading properly and doing the routine exactly as it's choreographed and when he does, its apparently the wrong thing to do? And then they put so much pressure on him after that, telling him to skate freely instead for their free skate. Like? DO you want him to be a team skater or what?! And the whole "when we say conform to our skating we dont actually mean conform!" Like dude what do you want him to do?! The fact that they rely on him, a first year, so much that they think changing the way he skates is what will make or break the team is just.. no. no good.

This also leads me to the timeskips and whatever the fuck that training camp was. Idk if I've been spoiled by other sports animes and getting to actually see things like practice matches, training camp arcs and official matches, but I think SLS really lacks in story. I feel absolutely no connection to the characters. They have no bonding moments, hell they barely have dialogue. We barely get snippets of the other boys and mostly their screen time is really dependant on their interactions with Kensei. In my opinion this anime does a lot of telling and little showing. We go from an episode where Kensei gets challenged to be more of a team skater and jumps immediately to him doing that perfectly in the next episode. There's no showing of the process, they literally just say in the beginning of epipsode 6 that Kensei got better at following the rules and then he does.

So far I've watched 6 episodes, but I still can't get a sense of any themes in this anime. There isnt much friendship or team connection. There is no real story of hardship- our MC being great at skating- and being underdogs. The rivalry is barely even there because Reo (the supposed antagonist) is hardly in any of the scenes and mostly doesnt interact with the MC. Maybe I'm jumping the gun, it is only 6 episodes but like, in 6 episodes Haikyuu created the quick duo, KnB formed their shadow and light pair, PoT showed the skills of their regulars and MC etc. This anime is so fast paced and gives little return for the amount of ground they cover. Like we're already finished with the First competition of the Grand Prix series.

They dont really show the routines, in fact their free skate in episode 6 was just passing images that showed nothing. I'm not sure where theyre going with this anime but it feels like an anime you put on when you want to pass time without taking anything in. They actually need to show more of Aki, Yuki, the captain (i forgot his name sry) and Itsuki, preferably outside the orbit of Kensei, pls

The only thing i like abt this anime was Sasugai Hayato. He's funny, determined, smart and flip flops btwn reigning in Kensei and egging him on. Its hilarious. He's got an ugly attitude but i love him. Still, he doesn't add much to the story other than another angle for the whole Reo rival thing.

I can feel the frustration.

and then he's sulking.