Medalist
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| Inori's hard work paid off but she's still got a lot of competition. I think most prominently, Hikaru is someone to watch out for because she's extremely talented. I love the competitive energy in this show though. Everyone kinda approaches it differently but all have the same goal in mind. Looking forward to more of Inori's development. |
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| The kid who acts like a brat to be honest never had a chance after the last episode, I mean from a rational point of view, we just can’t have our main girl losing to someone who was annoyingly rude to her right? Wrose, she kinda messed up as well. Would be a good learning experience for her, but yeah, all that matters is, Inori took the first prize, rightfully. Though hey, I’d like to see more of her and her coach going forward, just because of how good their bonding looks. The animation for performances is holding up decently enough till now, I mean the kind of dread everyone thought it’d be isn’t anywhere to be seen. I mean I really liked Hikaru’s performance in the second half. I know the bare minimum about figure skating and haven’t actually watched a single performance live, so it could be that as well, but yeah, I’d love to see more of these kinds of performances. Everyone was in awe, I mean, after Hikaru’s turn. Btw hey, you don’t treat someone THAT way when they've fallen on their head lmaoooo. The guy who looks full of edge actually should try not to talk edgy as well... I liked Tsukasa's reply to him, really, in the end. |
| I mean after seeing my queen Inori going crazy on the rink just minutes before, I think anyone would be anxious to see how they could top it off. But yeah, I feel for her. While she acts like a kid, it's natural, she's, well, a kid lol. It's natural that she feels the way she did feel. I'm glad to see that Tsukasa isn't the only goat sensei around here. Cat girl's sensei is also an amazing one. And hey, nice to see that they are back on good terms again. GREAT terms if anything, I mean, girl was taking a nap on Inori's lap and everything xD But yeah, everyone has glazers for a reason, and when it comes to Hikaru, I can COMPLETLY understand why she has glazers. She is fucking INSANE. I though Inori went crazy last episode, NAH SHE WENT EVENNNNN CRAZIER. But yeah, we finally meet her sensei as well, and bro is just the aura king apparently. Tsukasa being the badass he is as usual though, bro cooked him. Can't wait to see where it goes from here. |
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| Greatest sports animanga ever idc. Mike’s faces during her routine really killing me man. You know it’s funny, her whole thing was about bucking whatever adults told her and she attacked Inori for following Tsukasa advice so much, but if she listened to her coach more she would’ve done better. Good on her for realizing she needs to change her attitude to succeed. That’s all you can ask for It’s so sweet how all the athletes have coaches that are PERFECT for them too. Miké’s coach is just a grown up version of herself. Very beautiful moment with them making up, I’m proud of her. Inori helping her up on the podium was so cute too. So now Inori has a goal to strive towards in Hikaru and someone who’s chasing her in Miké. We’ve got the sports anime love triangle 😂 Speaking of Hikaru, I’m speechless. That performance was incredible. Just when you think Inori and Miké did a great job you see the talent and experience gap between them and Hikaru. Such elegance and refinement in every spin and turn. It’s like watching poetry in motion and the classic music used during her performance reflects that. Lmaooo Inori out here assassinating coaches on some Tonya Harding type shit. Good on Tsukasa for standing up for Inori against Jun. Idk what made him so jaded, but dashing a little girl’s dreams is cruel. He seems way meaner than Hikaru.. but something had to have happened to make him that way. I wonder what. Really sweet episode as per now I can’t wait to see where things go from here |
Marinate1016Feb 1, 2025 1:37 PM
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| Congratulations Inori on taking first place she was just on another level. Hikaru was also just as amazing in her performance no wonder she is adored. |
| Why bother with lame stuff like hard work when you're as efficient at assassinating coaches as Inori is? She'd rise to stardom in no time while her earthworm buddies take care of the corpses. On a serious note though, watching Tsukasa defend Inori's honor against that edgelord was beyond cathartic. Ryoka accepting the realization that she needs a personality overhaul was a neat moment too. |
| nah I'm convinced, they're cookin with the 3D sequences |
| Hearing Saint-Saens was not on my checklist for anime this season, but I am absolutely not going to complain. Hikaru's rendition to Danse Macabre was breathtaking. The animation and the storytelling are top-notch. Add in the bit of drama there at the end and I'm thoroughly enjoying this so far. |
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| The old anime trope, after getting defeat the rival becomes the very clingy. In this case glued to the person. I guess after so many times people raining on Inori's parade, I feel indifference about the Yodaka Jun-guy assertion. |
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| while I would still prefer if this wasn't in CG this is exactly what I was hoping for those long nearly uncut routines, great episode can't wait for when they start going more advanced techniques |
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| another great ep the coach is not afraid to use big words!!! |
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| What is up with these 5 minute episodes? It was PEAK. The CGI in Hikaru's performance is genuinely so impressive, my eyes were glued to the screen the whole time. Glad Inori and Miketa were able to make up. And Tsukasa defending Inori at the end there, man I love this anime so much |
| Ngl, I got chills from everyone's performance. The cgi and camera work are fantastic. And I really like Miketa and her coach's relationship. I think she's someone who's got the potential and tenacity to climb to the top. She's still 2 year younger than both Inori and Hikaru afterall. Also that mini horror scene at the end and Inori's reaction are hilarious. |
| INORIIIIIII CONGRATSSSSS |
| The way Mike latched onto inori was so cute 🥺 Idk how our bbgirl is gonna catch up to THAT level of performance from Hikaru but I'm rooting for her and hope she can prove Hikaru's coach wrong someday!!!! |
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| Stunning performance from Hikaru. 3D CG animation sure is something else. As much as I like hand-drawn dancing, it could look a little rough at times (Yuri on Ice). But here, it just feels so smooth and free. Hikaru's program music is Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. The piece was composed in 1874, based on a poem about an old French superstition in which Death comes out on Halloween night to play his fiddle and raise the skeletons from their graves so they can dance till daylight. |
--- edit --- Official channel has just released the scene on Youtube. |
kuroneko99Feb 7, 2025 3:19 AM
| This episode is so lit. Hikaru's dance is trully pure fiction 🙌 and Jun vs Tsukasa coaching is absolute cinema🙌 |
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| cgi done right. refreshing |
| ヘルソン |
| Yay, Inori won! Felt sorry for Ryouka. Aww, now she's gonna be clingy. Jun is a funny dude. Hikaru's too good! |
| Inori: Top notch ice figure skater in the making, but also a secret top notch assassin racking up the kills before you know it! XD Putting that hilarious moment aside, this was another stellar episode. Watching Mittens and her performance did show how good she was, but also how much more she has to learn, so seeing her being honest with her faults towards her coach was good character growth for her. Not only that, but she was so happy that Inori still wanted to be friends with her that she latched onto Inori and stayed like that for a while. Then came along Hikaru and her performance on the rink was simply amazing. Not only were her moves done with perfection, but she also had an excellent song, Danse Macabre, that matched up to her moves from start to finish. Not to forget, but the CGI used for her performance was probably the best yet for this series so far, which was pretty impressive. Tsukasa also deserves praise for standing up for Inori after Hikaru's coach, Jun, criticised her ambitions for wanting to be able to skate at Hikaru's level. With that determination and passion, I hope that Tsukasa is true to his word and helps Inori to get to Hikaru's level someday. =) |
  this is after landing her jump. j/k |
| Powered by「アニソン」。 'anison' (ANIme SONg). RAW and NOT DILUTED (aka NOT REMIXED [there are exceptions]) AND NOT THE WESTERN/GAIJIN EMPHASIS ON OST/BGM, but...OPs, EDs, INsert Songs, & Character Songs! |
| How is ENGI doing this? They have even less excuse for their shit prior to this one now. The skating sequences were absolutely stunning. Beautiful work with the CG. Beautiful work all-around. Mittens scene with her coach was very touching. Also glad her and Inori grew closer. Their moments were very cute. The ending of the episode was hilarious and then badass all in the same scene. The source obviously helps a lot, but ENGI and whoever they are outsourcing deserves a lot of credit. Now, I'm officially all-in on this adaptation. If they fuck it up somehow after this glorious start, I'm going to be very aggravated. TLDR: Goddamn, that was good! |
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| Ok wtf??? There is no way this episode was 20 minutes long, I swear I just started watching the episode and then the next thing I knew, the episode ended. Damn...this episode was amazing. If I'm being completely honest, I didn't enjoy watching Ryouka's performance very much (the facial expressions and movements were very odd-looking), and even Inori's performance in the previous episode (I feel so guilty just typing this out), but wow, Hikaru's performance was on another level. I could barely even tell it was CGI. It was stunning, I can watch it on repeat several times. Hikaru's coach is cool. I can't dislike him since I would have a hard time believing Inori had a chance against Hikaru if I was a bystander, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Inori's journey in making that a reality. |
  "As promised, all that you seek, all that we desire, is prepared up there. On top of the Tower." |
| As the credit says "figure skating execution (by)", I consulted with Google and found the skating scenes are motion-captured like this. It seems Suzuki-san played some character's skating. Incidentally, the manga only depicted very limited portion of the skating of this episode. So, they may have complemented the lack of the sequence. --- PurpleMario said: The show explained it sort of vaguely, but the manga explains it briefly in a footnote: "You have to execute 4 different jumps for first jumps in this competition." (As for general short programs, you can read the detail here. It seems it is written well, but I haven't read it.)This episode sure was amazing, but I, as someone who knows absolutely nothing about figure skating, have one single question. What was so wrong with Mike's performance? Maybe I missed a line or something, but, yeah, I understand that she skipped a jump in her programme or something, but in the end Tsukasa and Hitomi looked kinda awkward and mentioned something about her doing the same jump twice... is that something bad? I like spokons because you can always learn some new things, so I'm trying to understand what happened there. Anyway, she redid the same first jump (2S) as a jump combination and it was counted as invalid. As her coach said she should execute 1F+1A instead of scheduled 1F to add points. |
kuroneko99Feb 3, 2025 5:35 AM
| Miketarou's relationship with her coach sure is an interesting one. Though I'm not sure if I fully agree with her coach's way to encouragement. I mean, no one is telling the kid to change her personality/way of being. Just don't act like an unbearable brat to people who don't deserve it. Simple as that. Other than that, it was another superb episode with Inori winning her first official competition, Hikaru's stellar presentation and Tsukasa going full GAR at the end to defend Inori's honor. Apparently, dude's nowhere near black-haired edgelord's level yet he's ready to go to war for his kid despite everything and I absolutely love that. |
Reply to SouthRzVa
Miketarou's relationship with her coach sure is an interesting one. Though I'm not sure if I fully agree with her coach's way to encouragement. I mean, no one is telling the kid to change her personality/way of being. Just don't act like an unbearable brat to people who don't deserve it. Simple as that.
Other than that, it was another superb episode with Inori winning her first official competition, Hikaru's stellar presentation and Tsukasa going full GAR at the end to defend Inori's honor. Apparently, dude's nowhere near black-haired edgelord's level yet he's ready to go to war for his kid despite everything and I absolutely love that.
Other than that, it was another superb episode with Inori winning her first official competition, Hikaru's stellar presentation and Tsukasa going full GAR at the end to defend Inori's honor. Apparently, dude's nowhere near black-haired edgelord's level yet he's ready to go to war for his kid despite everything and I absolutely love that.
SouthRzVa said: Though I'm not sure if I fully agree with her coach's way to encouragement. I mean, no one is telling the kid to change her personality/way of being. I thought Nacchin did a good thing here. If Mike was unrepentant and throwing a tantrum, then that might be a different story; she should be reprimanded and start working on her aggression and stubbornness. But her morale was completely shattered here, and she herself recognized that her personality was problematic. Or rather, she admitted what she's always known and felt insecure about. To be a little overdramatic, it's almost like she was questioning the very core of her being. To say "yeah, you suck, glad you finally realized it" is not a good move. Even if it was true (which it isn't, imo). I think what was important here was to focus on the positives of her personality, which is undeniable. Her personality is what drives her and helps her excel. Mike was already rethinking her actions anyway, even after Nacchin's "just win" speech, as we see her scared and embarrassed to face Inori afterwards. (And to be a little cynical here, being a brat and upsetting some people is a small price to pay if it helps you succeed in this hyper-competitive environment... That's a big if, though) Note that I do think there might be other ways to approach this that are also valid. But this was a pretty good lesson for this specific kid in this specific situation. |
| Inori over there killing people left and right, she cracks me up. |
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