__-This review will contain spoilers.
-If you don't get the pun in the title of the review, then I'm genuinely old as fuck, or you have way better taste in music than 13-year old me back then.__

Are you interested in knowing what happens when a clown gets obsessed with a teenager? then this is for you. All jokes aside, SK8 was probably one of my favourite shows this past season. COVID has affected every single area of everyone's life, and even though the quarantine is not in full force in plenty of countries, mine included, traveling is still very much not recommended. I cannot explain to you how boring life feels lately since there is not really a lot of stuff to do outside.

SK8 is like the summer experience I've been missing out on since last year. It is a pretty fun show to watch, has a fantastic and fun cast, the animation is very fluid (Bones continues to be a great studio), and also made me wanna pick up a skateboard (which I won't ultimately do, as I do not want to fall flat on my ass and break bones. Such is the sad realization of getting older).

Going into this show I wasn't sure what to expect. The poster was cool, but as soon as I saw the director was none other than Hiroko Utsumi, my trust issues skyrocketed. Hiroko Utsumi has directed very fun shows such as "Free!" and "K-on!", but she has also directed shows like: "Dororo", "Clannad: After Story", and "Banana fish", which all very much gave me depression. Needless to say, I wouldn't have been expecting a dude to fall dead in an anime about skating if she wasn't the director.

I was pleasantly surprised that nobody fucking died. Seriously, I am one more gay man dying away from having a nervous breakdown (This is kinda the quote from 21 Jump Street except not fully but credit where credit is due) Nobody dying doesn't mean this show is shy from beating the living crap out of anybody, however, since the skating races are anything but PG friendly. People will bleed, get scarred for life, almost die, get body parts wrecked, you name it.

Probably one of the best assets of SK8 is the comedy. There are two types of comedy I personally like. The first one is where random shit happens just because (think: Golden Kamuy, Gintama), and the second one is character-centric comedy, which as the name says, is based around the quirks each character has and/or their relationship with others (One Piece, Gintama again, Dorohedoro). SK8 has a mix of both.

The show is able to utilize every mannerism each character has to make it work for a pun or any other comedic scene. Langa is the usual quiet character, but despite being a handsome dude is completely dumb, and Reki is very smart and fun, but he and Langa share one brain cell. Miya is sarcastic and a bit of a mean kid (all while giving vibes oddly similar to my chihuahua. )

Shadow is an eccentric man who looks tough on the outside but has a big heart, Cherry is the rich dude who is obsessed with technology, and Joe is the guy all the ladies want. There are also many other characters in the supporting cast who are just as fun, like Langa's mom, Reki's sisters, the shop owner, and that little fox pet that I find extremely adorable.

I love the fact that the main cast is not just teenagers. You have adults and even a middle school kid. It was a very nice experience to watch all of these characters become friends along the way despite their ages. The sport they practice, along with everything else that happens throughout the show, made all of them closer and it doesn't feel out of place. The relationships between the characters seem to flow very well and I don't see myself forgetting their names anytime soon.

This show going by the premise alone could easily have been your average sports anime but was able to introduce pretty good stuff, starting with something akin to a REAL villain, and not just you know, a rival teenager who thinks he is better than you at your sport and who wants to win the big game at the Koshien stadium or something.

ADAM as a villain is fantastic. He is like a mix of Hisoka and Tsurumi, both very crazy characters. He is a rich man, very successful, and has warped views on both life and love, which steam from how he has been brought up in his family (strict father, violent aunts, and having everyone's expectations on him since he is the heir). ADAM feels shackled by his life at home, and he is able to find his freedom in the races he performs at an event called "S". In there he is literally a god and is able to almost get away with murder.

ADAM is free, in his mind, at S because when he skates he feels like he has gotten rid of the shackles he has at home and at his workplace. This is very much not the case since the way he "skates" (Listen I know jackshit about skating, but I'm pretty sure slamming someone with a skateboard is not anything but an asshole move, even if it is allowed at their race.) will just end up leaving him even more alone (I mean he kept Tadashi in the end, I guess?)

My favourite character in all of this has to be Reki. He is your usual outgoing and fun protagonist who is all smiles. He loves skating and is very talented in many areas of his life (drawing, socializing, math, etc). Reki begins as this happy character who as the show goes on, starts feeling inferior because his friend, Langa, is rapidly becoming better at skating, and he feels left behind.

Many people thought Reki was being selfish when he fought with Langa, and yes a bit, but you also have to remember that Langa did break a promise he had made to him. Part of Reki's feelings had to do with jealousy, but it was more of the fact that he just didn't want his friend to get beaten up by ADAM.

The way the show handled Reki as a character was pretty good. It started little by little, and you could see him struggle with his issues and getting angry at himself. Reki is a good dude. He himself feels he is being childish for ignoring his friend and feeling less than, but he still wasn't able to stop himself from feeling like so, which is extremely relatable.

Reki and Langa's friendship suffering and their conflict not getting resolved in one episode was another nice touch. For moments like this to work, you need to let the audience see the distance between the characters and how they react to it, and in this case, it happened. I wish rather than just skating together, he had really told Langa how he felt but other than that it was fine.

It is kind of sad that Reki won't know how much of an impact he made in Langa's life (yes, that talk in episode 10 was cute but he didn't really tell him everything.) Langa was very much lifeless at the beginning of the series. Depressed about his father's passing, in a new school and a new country, all of this probably made him feel terrible. Reki introduced him to a new world, skating, and made him fall in love with the sport and make even more friends along the way.

Langa getting some form of closure in regards to his dad and seeing a vision of him while skating was a good touch. No, you never really heal from a parent passing on, but you can certainly feel more at ease once you understand that you did what you could, and that life moves on and so should you. Like the book, "The Lovely Bones" says, "Sometimes you cry. Even when someone you love has been gone for a long time." I am happy he is doing better and I am sure he will continue having fun infinitely.

I never expected Shadow to not get the girl he liked in the end, but he went from an antihero to a real hero, so I am sure he will find someone eventually. He was probably the second-best boy of the show.

I am not sure I like how ADAM's character arc ended, and Tadashi seems to have a kink of being someone's dog that I will never understand, but respect to him, I guess.

TLDR; The animation was fire most of the time (episode 11 was probably the weakest as far as artwork is concerned, I don't like the 3D environment used for the mine ), the characters have other obligations and they don't just skate, everyone changes outfit at least once, the opening is a banger and the ending is great, the whole cast is very nice and fun, so it is impossible to get bored, and the villain has enough charisma to be memorable and feels human (many people hate him and well, I don't love him but I do enjoy his presence.) It was a nice and fun show, even if I think an extra episode could have made the ending land better. It truly is an anime that I wish was longer.