(not a professional review, kind of just me airing my thoughts in a public venue. spoilers for all episodes obviously)

very cute anime. the first three episodes are really, really strong and both set the perfect stakes for the first proper showdown and develop the dynamic between the protagonists perfectly. if nothing else, i HIGHLY recommend the first three episodes; they're very good. after that it's ... kind of a mixed bag

negatives first: this anime loses a lot of points in the recommendability category due to ADAM, a character who makes me thoroughly uncomfortable. ADAM is a godawful villain and the pervy shit with langa was literally wholly unnecessary. fuckin jumpscared me the first time i watched it and it still sticks out like a sore thumb given that the vast majority of sk8 is very wholesome. don't get me wrong, i enjoy theatric villains a lot, i just don't get why they had to make him an actual pedophile. literally adds nothing to the damn show. like you can't get ten seconds into him being like a legitimately intimidating and okay villain to watch before he opens his mouth and sours the mood completely

(p.s. i don't care to get into discourse about whether there should be pedophile characters in anime. i don't find the inherent shock value of including pedophiles in stories just for the hell of it particularly interesting or funny. it should really only be considered when the anime itself is like... /about/ that. like a psychological horror or a show about a person's trauma. and even then it should be done extremely carefully. it just plain does not fit in sk8 the infinity, a sports anime about skateboarding)

ADAM's backstory failed to make me feel sympathetic for him. if anything i just kind of felt bad for tadashi, who's had to stand by ADAM his entire fucking life. if it were me i would've strangled him by now. like hey dude i think you should just start beating the shit out of him if you want him to see the error of his ways. the resolution between their little subplot also rubs me the wrong way like hi can we get tadashi a restraining order on this guy. can we get him into therapy or something. anyway

the finale is kind of botched and stupid, but finales tend to be that way so i'm not really torn up about it. i don't know how but ADAM's theatrics managed to make the show turn into a different subgenre where instead of it being like a semi-realistic sports anime it's now a sports anime with shounen superpower bullshit a la inazuma eleven. which i'm not opposed to; inazuma eleven is one of the best shows ever made. it's just incredibly jarring when it comes out of left field. like what the fuck is "the zone"? what do you mean? that's funny as fuck. me when i take 10 bendryl and start seeing the hat man

something i'm still really salty about is how they had a woman who was shown in multiple scenes to be onto ADAM and all his bullshit but by the end of the series he doesn't even get caught. if anything he has more power than he did before. that's like not good. if that wasn't enough the woman literally got moved to a different department so she'll never be brought up again. just kind of a bizarre decision to make

now for positives!!!!

reki and langa's relationship is the cornerstone of this entire anime. legitimately. anyone who's watched it will agree with you on this. they're just so... romantic. i'm a lesbian fyi so this isn't me being like "omg my yaoiz" or me trying to "what good friends" them or whatever. they're legitimately so romantic. they're perfect. they were made for each other. truly, watching them is the best part of this show. literally cut out every time ADAM is on screen and just replace it with more scenes of these two being goofballs. they're so cute. i cannot overstate how good they are

reki is an amazing protagonist. i think cv hatetasu has a thing for voicing characters with self-esteem issues (kumon hyodo, yuuma tsukumo), he does it really well. no exception here. as you can probably predict, both of his battles against ADAM are some of my favorite moments in the series. ADAM as a villain shines best in the showdowns with reki, because it's mostly devoid of the perviness i mentioned earlier and he gets to just be a scary villain, which is awesome. his loss against ADAM and later-loss-but-moral-victory are such, SUCH good storytelling. reki physically feeling the rift that ADAM puts between him and langa's relationship after the first loss is palpable and it's amazing. the catharsis i felt when reki started to feel confident in himself against ADAM in their final race was like nothing else. i would've been happier if reki kicked him in the nuts but getting more attention despite losing hurt ADAM's ego which is likely more damaging than any physical pain. side note: i love how his first standoff with ADAM was out of care for miya. i love reki and miya's dynamic as well. really the way reki interacts with other characters is amazing. you can literally feel the effect he has on their lives and vice versa. he's such a goddamn sun

that's all i have to say; maybe i'll think of more later