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 , andof 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.

Well well, what a disappointment of a show indeed to no one's surprise. I have rephrased this many times in my reviews over the last few years, and it is that: Even if you have high-profile people working on shows, it's not indicative of any results unless we the viewers can see whether the talent or inspiration has been carried over from past shows with their name carved as a household name. And yet still, even with legendary director Gorou Taniguchi on board, Skate-Leading☆Stars still feels like a ham-fisted show with an unique setting already grounded by the likes of Yuri on Ice!! (creating the malederivative to the females' CGDCT of "Handsome Bishounens Doing Handsome Troupes"), but the script and storywriting itself is written by someone who's had the idea of creating a story that's just being the equivalent to the usual "child's play" of a stupid and nonsensical "revenge game" plot. Bear in mind that at the time of this review, Gorou Taniguchi is also helming directorial duties for another show this season: Back Arrow (the mech series that fit most of his work ethos). That's why the production team had to get another director to oversee this show, and it had to be Major's director Toshinori Fukushima since he has a lot of background on sports anime, and hoped that his director position would salvage the best parts of the show (which he did, but often is limited due to the simple storytelling). The story and plot of this show is just the simple, typical childhood "war" of the main trio of brotherly characters: Kensei Maeshima, Hayato Sasugai and Reo Shinozaki. The former a dropout from figure skating; the latter being someone who used to compete on the grounds, but due to a serious injury he is relegated to being a team strategist; and the last is the arrogant champion-type person who only aspires to go beyond than where he is now, all else are stepping stones to his main goal. Together with the enrollment of their respective regional schools, and "un"intenionally sucking teammates into their rivalry, the "road to stardom" ensues to trump over challenges and be the top gun that reigns supreme. Now tell me how rather dull, boring and predictable all of this sounds. The characters aren't anything to write home about (much less remember their names), despite being designed by another legend: Yana Toboso of Black Butler. It just feels like overtime you're trying to understand where the characters come from, but seemingly most of their actions either halt or impede further warranted actions of proof, despite trying their absolute best to deliver the best they could. At best, they aren't as annoying, but at worst, they can get obnoxious and grinding on your ears, especially the "red-haired bull dog" Maeshima with his complete temperament of a character indeed being a yapping dog that just couldn't shut up and always have to prove by words instead of his actions (and I thank God that Hayato is always the one to stop him, he's a caretaker too that plays the game differently). The best character IMO is Izumi Himekawa, being the figure skater that somehow couldn't mesh together with the Ionodai High School team, he transferred over to another school's team to broaden his horizons, and that was what I wanted to see: at least SOME character development done decently, even if the majority of the cast are of cliques in the same regard. It's J.C.Staff back at it for the animation and visuals, and literally it just looked...OK at best. Even though there was nothing that blew me away, at least the presentation for the figure-skating scenes were a touch above average. Once again, you can't compare this to the infinitely superior Production I.G.'s Yuri on Ice!!, so at least there is a distinction between the two shows. And also, sad to say that even though the sound directing legend Jin Aketagawa is helping out (as is with many anime in this day and age), I'd say he'd be better off not being hired to be part of this variety-lacking of a show. Same goes with the OST, while it's catchy on the Bishounen level, there isn't as much appeal of Seiyuus helming OPs and/or EDs if their fanbase in Japan isn't as big as the others (say Daisuke Ono for example). All in all, you could have better if you have watched Yuri on Ice!! instead of this shallow-minded thought process of a mediocre show that should not have been worth the time for legendary people to have worked on, and get decreasing popularity overtime. To the minority that enjoyed this (even if this was targeted to the Shoujo audience), I'm sorry but this isn't really worth your time either due to how BS the story plot and characters are by themselves, and having plot holes to fill from the viewers' behalf. Just pass this one up, and follow the feels-satisfyingly-good figure-skating, skate-leading path to greatness with...you've guessed it: Yuri on Ice!!.

No. This is not Yuri!!! On Ice. I have seen so many comparisons and expectations online about SLS contrasting it with YOI. Believe me, it has its own merits that it managed to present its own identity as ice skating sports anime. From the premise, it's a group sports, thus, it heightens more spirit and soul as sports genre. There is an immense difference in the plot narrative, however, you can sense the quick phasing of the competition to the extent that it needed to compromise most of the skating performances. For a 12-episode anime, it lacked so much in sports action. Hence, in compensation,it focused on another domain which is characterization. Since it is group sports, the names and faces to be remembered doubled. Nonetheless, most of the characters are written good. You can at least distinguish which is which. The characterization is far from perfect also, there is no really astounding with these boys. Nothing remarkable. They seemed like normal high school teens flared with their courage to win, and they have different cores clashing, and whoever wins will be the best. That's it, nothing more. But things get better until the end, I was a bit sleeping from the early episodes but when the Grand Prix Final ticked, you just can't leave the screen. The last episodes finally manifested what a sports genre should be-- the thrill, excitement, and nerve-wracking moments. The questions of, "Will they gonna make it?" "Can they actually beat them as underdogs?". As I questioned myself about this, it finally hit me that it is actually getting good for a sports genre. Maybe a bit late, but at least, it managed to embody the expectations that I have. I have to admit, it is mediocre but you will remember the characters for sure. It is best to watch when you thirst for good-looking hot boys, I'm not kidding because they really put much budget to them (lol)

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 becausea 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.

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