SK∞

A heated, lasciviously steamy (the director of Iwatobi Swim Club and Banana Fish) adrenaline-fueled skateboard ride with the sterling message that the most important thing is to have fun. It doesn't matter if you break every bone in your body in the process or if you break someone else's, skateboarding with your friend/rival will either solve all your problems or clear your mind so that you always know the right thing to do afterwards. It's a successful advertisement for skateboarding, and the series has focused on making the action scenes extremely effective and efficient. The tension during it comes in kilo pack portions, the tricks (supernatural in places) have a bite that made my hair bristle with excitement, and the cosmopolitan art with the thumping sound of the rides is wonderful. For me, these aspects blended positively and were mainly delivered through the character of the creepy, demonic and "Hisoka-esque" villain ADAM, whose colorfully overdone love-outfit and deranged demeanor with the voice of the highly entertained Takehito Koyas added a level of extra glamour to the anime. The main duo's bromance, with its rather clichéd unraveling and subsequent tearful reconnection through the power of friendship, didn't do much for me; those endlessly repeated new and relatively childish realizations followed seconds later by another, then several severely underdeveloped amateurish attempts at deeper branching, and a glued-on ending with a dysfunctional character resolution, thoroughly stomped out whatever optimism the ride had earned. If you can overlook these narrative shortcomings and focus your attention purely on the show's sporting themes, relatively likable characters, and excellent audiovisual work from Bones (both the opening and closing songs are cool), you'll be rewarded handsomely by Sk8. For quite some time I was inclining toward 4 stars; in the end I am landing on a very strong 3 stars. (08/06/2021)