Skate-Leading☆Stars

While watching this anime , I checked many reviews and many of them were from people that only watched 4 episodes , which i find dumb because you only watched 33% of the anime..
Anyways , this anime is overall good , its the basic story of a childhood "war" between the main character and a support/main character, the art is good and the characters were differentiated , the sound was fair tho it was many times repeated the same song, mostly on the first few episodes.
The anime had everything to be better if it wasn't rushed and didnt end the way it did , and ... of course if it had more episodes.

I feel like this winter it came out alot of good animes with alot of potential , tho I liked this anime , I don't think there's that big of a fandom willing to watch the next season.

Skate-Leading☆Stars is... I don't really know. Honestly, I was hoping for much better, and I still am. Still, it's worth checking out.

The story itself is pretty average, with the main character's only motivation being to beat his childhood rival. Maeshima said he would quit ice-skating if he lost to Shinozaki when they were kids, and he lost by less than a point and came in second place. He quit skating, and continued to be a sore loser about it. When Shinozaki switches over to skate-leading, his brother decides to get Maeshima to help him beat out Shinozaki in skate-leading. There's not really any drive for ... self improvement, creating friendships, or making skate-leading into a career for himself. All Maeshima is concerned about is beating out Shinozaki, and then... who knows. It feels pretty lackluster, so I'm not really sure what direction they're going to go with the plot.

The art itself and animation is good, no complaints there. The art style is more simplistic, but that fits the show well in this case.

The ED isn't too great, but the OP is really catchy and stuck in my head. I'm not too sure if that's a good thing or not, but it made its way into my playlist, so that counts for something. The sound effects match the setting and the atmosphere, which helps them match with the visuals and world itself and sound realistic enough.

The characters are the biggest fault of the show. More specifically, the main characters, Maeshima and Shinozaki. Shinozaki just seems detached from everything in general, more so than what would seem natural for a detached, nonchalant character. Maeshima on the other hand, manages to get on every single one of my nerves. He's cocky, annoying, stubborn, arrogant, loud, and just frustrating to watch. He doesn't ever really think about others, and is only concerned about beating Shinozaki. He makes messes and causes problems without thinking about the effects of them, and typically drags others into those problems. I'm really hoping he gets some character development, and it seems the other characters in the show hope so too.

Overall, it's pretty fun to watch, as Maeshima's annoying moments are pretty brief. The story should begin to pick up soon, as they begin to train for competitions and actually compete.

Would this be my first recommendation for someone looking for a new anime to watch? Absolutely not. But if you like ice skating and attractive-ish boys, then sure, give it a whirl and see how you like it. I'm a pretty hopeful person, so I still give it a 7 overall with expectations for the plot to expand upon itself and for lots of character development. If I were you, I'd watch the first couple episodes and see for myself if I enjoy it or not, but you won't really miss out on anything by not watching it.


Hope this helped and have a great day :)

i love everything about this anime except for the fact that it was rushed. i wish it is a 24 episodes anime so they can show more like the routine, the practice, character development and a friendly match with other schools just like they did in haikyuu. it's a sport anime after all. if only this anime has 24 episodes, it wouldn't get that much bad reviews and then season 2 wouldn't get cancelled. it's sad because i enjoy this anime so much. i want to watch and know more about them.

i love the art style. the only reason i started watching this anime because ... a skate leading stars video show up on my tiktok fyp. when i saw maeshima, i knew i had to watch it. i don't have regret. even though the anime was rushed, it is very enjoyable.

Its bad that the reason why I watched this was because its about ice skating and I loved Yuri!!! On Ice, but my expectations REALLY LOW

Even when I binged episodes 1-3, I was already intrigued with the story. I was willing to know the characters. In fact, I got attached to them too. I already get excited every time a new episode comes out which made me realize how much I enjoy this underrated anime.

My only complaint is the fact that it's only 12 episodes long. Like any 12 episode anime, some of the plots were rushed and the character development.

I honestly want more of ... this anime, if there's a season 2 I'll probably blow up ;-;

This is my first time writing a review so I’m sorry if it’ll be choppy !

I’ve been binge watching some sports animes this year and skate leading stars is not the best among them but it’s not that bad either. Personally the art style in my opinion is pretty good! Though the animation can be better. The story is rather cliche and simple (Main character wanting to beat/take revenge on a rival) The characters are not that great though, I’m still giving the character development a chance since as I am writing this I’m only one episode 6. I think Shinozaki and Maeshima will have ... some sort of character development judging from the episode I’m currently at and I hope it will be at least decent character development. So far the only character I’m interested in is Sasugai.

So, overall..the story is simple, the art style is good, the animation is still not the best, and the characters are not the best either. I suggest you should at least watch one episode and see if you’ll like it or not, but do I recommend it to everyone? No, not really. If you like figure skating with a simple story to it then yea, go for it. For now I give it a 7 since I’m still giving it a chance to make some improvements.

As someone who enjoyed Yuri on Ice and figure skating, I was extremely excited by this anime. Though Skate-Leading Stars was able to feed that craving, it wasn't the BEST. It's a nice show to burn some time, and the story and plot is very simple and cliché, nothing too different or extraordinary (except for the fact Skate-Leading isn't even a real sport but that's fine it was a nicely made up). Personally, I was still very entertained with the characters and it really highlights the big performance moments when it needs to. Overall, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, but ... if you enjoy these types of sports anime that don't really have a revolutionary plot, its a nice one to watch.