SK8 is another example of original anime done right. With great characters, amazing designs, good animation and a plot line no other anime would be ashamed for, it makes for a great show that captured my heart.
Opening and Ending songs for SK8 are incredibly good, the main villain is AWFUL but we got some of clichés as well...

Overall, SK8 is an anime that everyone should give a try.

The only thing saving you all from a Cherry or Langa screenshot spam is that this was a simul watch with chickem and I was way too focused on her commentary to take any. ...You all got lucky this time around!

WARNING: Spoilers

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╰─ · · ──────────╯ Bromance or Romance You had to anticipate this - the boys are hot and they have hots for each other. It is a law by now, you cannot have it in any different way.

So, SK8 world introduces 8 main characters:

Reki and Langa - a fire and an ice, essentially.
Cherry and Joe - frenemies.
Adam - their ex-friend and absolute cuckoo.
Tadashi - Adam's lapdog who NEEDS TO THINK FOR HIMSELF.
Shadow and Miya - a comedic relief and a child prodigy.

These 8 are everywhere, all the time and we get a proper look into their lives and their backgrounds as well. That on itself is a really great way of building characters, because even though I don't care for some of the main cast, I think they are written in a good way.

To the important part. The first four named boys are carrying the show for me.

Reki is, sorry chickem, the least MC main character than I saw in a while, but even that works. Because that was the whole point. Give us a main character that will struggle with doing what he loves and needs to rediscover himself and how he wants to continue.
On on hand, I absolutely understand his struggle because I always felt like I was not as good as certain things at my best friends.
On the other hand... they dragged Reki's troubles a bit too much. The realization should have come way way sooner. (And it could be a bit more mature than 'No I won't quit skating because I am having fun!')

Reki was relatable, and that is all that matters in a main character.

Langa was build like a fan-favorite. Silly boy who doesn't talk much and makes the weirdest faces, while being an absolute monster at a hobby he did for a few months.
He quickly became Reki's ~~boy~~ good friend and the original author made sure we see them grow together and understand the depth of their relationship.
We are taught to adore Langa, and then suddenly BAM.

A twist comes - and suddenly we feel jealous of Langa, we think it is impossible for one person to be THIS good at... basically EVERYTHING.
Yet, we cannot stop cheering for him, because we love him.

Cherry and Joe are another great duo. I absolutely fell for Cherry - a tech guru, whose skateboard needs charging because of his AI assistant Carla. And Joe is your typical skirt-chaser. He has two girls on every hand, and always talks about what kind of moves he does on them.
The two of them are childhood friends, connected to the villain Adam. Their relationship can be described as love-hate, or frenemies. (We all know that means they are gay.)
Both have a beef with him they want to pick, and going down on the memory lane with them... I won't lie, it did not make me understand them or their obsession with finding out what happened to their "friend".

People change and when your friend becomes a monster, just drop it. Or figure a different way to resolve the issue than compete with him in skating.

I will talk about Adam on the bottom of this post.

But my main point is: the characters are great. Interesting, fun and their relationships are real treasure. I like their character design, their (kind of) unique personalities and the interactions between them are pure gold.

First half vs. second half This show can be divided into two halves. That is episode 1 - episode 5, and then episode 7 - episode 12. (If you are wondering about episode 6, it will have it's own paragraph.) Which means we get two main plotlines and two main conflict, that do carry through the whole season.

This divination might not be done on purpose, but the difference in the show's pacing and mood is big enough for me to call it out.

1-5
These episodes are practically an introduction to the characters and the world of SK8. chickem and I watched these episodes in one go, and it was good enough to make me slightly obsessed.
And I am talking about Hetalia/Haikyuu kind of obsession. The one where you feel like you will die without getting more of these characters, when you fall in love with the series and when you know your next weeks will be spent looking at fanarts and fanfictions.

We learned about the "S" and the "beefs", we found of how comedy works and what to expect in the future.
The show established not only the main points and relationship between all of the characters, but it gave us the first conflict.

That would be Adam. A main villain of the show, who appeared during "S" and skated against Langa, getting obseseed with him.
Adam... huh. Adam turns out to be 3D. A very dangerous, disgusting and degenerate man.

"S" turned out to be a pretty interesting concept. Two skaters going against each other, showing us various tricks or impossible poses and moves that left my jaw open. As someone who bought a skateboard and can barely stand on it... I cannot ever imagine doing half the stuff they did in the anime.

Important detail: this is where Langa and Reki make a promise, that Langa will never face Adam again.

7-12
The last part of the anime revolves around a Tournament that Adam calls. All of our main cast signs up, including Langa. That is the source of a main conflict.

The boys go through a massive break-up, and stop talking completely. Reki goes through a whole existential crisis, comparing himself to Langa and feeling like he was awful at everything. People around called him "the red haired dude that is around Snow" and it was really ruining his mental state.

He went on a whole journey, while poor Langa had absolutely no idea what was happening.
Main point is, that they managed to patch it up, and became friends again. <3

During this same time, Adam and Cherry had a beef, during which Adam... well, almost shattered Cherry's skull. It was ugly.
But we got a cute Cherry Joe moment, and a look into all of their pasts.

We found out that Adam is a traumatized child, that was not loved properly. We see that he used to consider Cherry and Joe as very special people, showing them their real identity. We learn who taught Adam to skate... but we do not find out what actually happened to Adam.
The guess is that he was just messed up by his family and it all went to hell from that.

Overall, this all works. SK8 had great pacing, they focused on every little conflict or character just the right amount of time and some of the episodes felt like they were 2 minutes long. (The only exception is Reki's self-pity. That one was just a tiiny bit over dragged.)

Episode 6 Episode 6 gets its own special little paragraph, because it was a freaking fever dream. (Said with love.) It is essentially a beach episode.

Cute girls have a beach episode, cute boys get onsen episode. That's equal amount of skin shown, imo.

Out of nowhere, we see the gang on a ferry, all together, in the same resort. I... I don't know what it is about this episode, but I did not understand it AT ALL. I don't know what the point was, I don't know what happened, I do not understand the point of conflict.... but I L I V E D.

Absolute perfections, from the first moment to the last. Comedic relief of episode, after we almost got a heart-attack and before it would rip our hearts out and eat it in front of our faces...
SK8 knows how to play with my feeling a bit too well.

Cindereki special chickem was so nice, she introduced me to this thing on YouTube. It is a fan-animated version of an official Drama CD "Cidereki", which is the retelling of Cinderella in the world of SK8.

I must say, I had fun. Sooo much fun - some of the lines were absolutely ridiculous and I stared at the screen in disbelief.

In the beginning, we get a Langa-Reki dance to Japanese version of Dear Maria. And then the story progresses nicely, giving us all kinds of stupid twists and turns.
As an experience, it really is just one of a kind and I am really really happy I could watch this.

The surprise at the end, when Langa texted Reki made me kinda happy...

Season 2? For now, the only kind of content we have is this series, manga - that is adapted from the anime and is on hiatus, a spin-off manga and Cindereki - that is a Drama CD.

And like I said, as a stand-alone series it works incredibly well. All the main drama is resolved, the boys have a free hand at exploring ~~their feelings~~ the future and... well, that thing with Adam happened too.

But!
As of now, we got announcements for Season 2 and OVA special. Even though there are little info about it, at least we get the promise that something will come.
And if it ends up like with Yuri on Ice Movie... well, at least we have the manga, so maybe that will continue!

The problem that is Adam Well, I finally got around to this.

As mentioned, Adam is 3D - dangerous, disgusting, degenerate. We don't really know who Adam is for a while, apart from seeing this politician in a small dark room, sitting on a throne, watching millions of cameras that are showing him the other skaters.

He explains later, that he is a "Matador of love", searching for his "Eve". Someone, who is interesting, who skates like him. With total focus, not caring for the rest of the world. Someone who doesn't skate for "fun", but because it's who he is.

Adam finds that in Langa. And so he challenges him. I talked about that already, so I won't go into more details. The main point is, that Adam gets weirdly obsessed, sexually obsessed. He makes awful comments, he acts like a huge dick and quite honestly, it is exactly like chickem said: "He is cringe." and "EW." and all of that.

Joe, Cherry and Tadashi all want to skate against Adam, to beat him and idk... rub his face in the dirt until he wakes up from being a dick, I guess.
Then when Cherry and Adam skate against each other, Adam goes and smashes his board against Cherry's head, sending him to the hospital.

Adam is... quite honestly a perfect villain. Someone who is just a bad person, and you hate him.

“Overconfidence in poison. But true confidence is power.”

But then SK8 did something I cannot forgive, and why I consider Adam a miss.
They gave Adam a sad backstory.

We find out that Adam only has aunts that beat him, saying that is their way of showing Adam love. So he is successful, good, proper... whatever.
That is why Adam is a matador of love - when he talks about love, he looks at his hands, remembering how he was assaulted by his own family.

Then Cherry and Joe go on this whole 'remembering past journey' and we see the three of them (plus some other people) having fun, being in love with skating, just... living their lives to the fullest.
We see a different side of Adam that is supposed to make us love him, make us understand him and feel for him.

We get a look at Tadashi's point of view. Tadashi used to be Adam's servant/slash/friend, and he was the one who taught Adam to skate. He is the one who "created the monster". Tadashi does the same - giving us sad backstories from when they were kid, trying to make us go "aww, he was just a sad little bean". But no. I won't give them that.
And here is why:

My little Reki: sk8ing is magic First of all, many many of the stuff we see is predictable. I knew exactly what will happen and why it will happen. Who will win in the competitions. What will the point of conflict be. How it will be resolved.

Then, another thing.
During the tournament, Langa and Reki are not friends. Or rather, not talking. Reki gives away his secret badge, saying he does not want to come to "S" anymore. Langa spends his whole free time searching for his ~~boy~~friend.

While he is skating, Langa grabs his check and we get a monologue about how he "isn't feeling the usual excitement". Which of course changed once Langa hears Reki cheering for him. Suddenly, the feeling is back and Langa wins.

they are gay, your honor

Snow is a finalist of the tournament, but is is not decided who will be his opponent. But Adam knows what to do.
Use the fragile friendship between Langa and Reki and challenge Reki to skate against him.

Reki does well, incredibly well, and he makes Adam fall in the mud. Obviously, it looks like Reki is winning until the last moment... but then his board breaks down. And Adam wins.

Conclusion is - Langa and Adam are finalists of the tournament. And this, friends, is where you should grab a bucket to throw up.

During this skating, Adam and Langa get into the zone. They do not see or understand what is happening around them, because they are somewhere beyond. Langa suddenly slips and is falling, which might result into his death.

What wakes him up from this trance? Reki calling out his name.

Now Langa and Adam are fighting, it's breath-taking, cool, nerve-wracking... until the moment when Adam and Langa fall from their boards. Langa stood up, and he can win the whole tournament... but he decided to hand Adam his board, remind him that "skating is fun" and ask him they "finish the race together".

Adam takes his board, and starts remembering his past, and how skating used to be fun. When they reach the goal, Adam tells something to Tadashi, which can be roughly translated as "i wanna skate with u again <3".

So basically, they ruined a perfectly good villain by reforming him in the stupidest way possible . THAT MADE ME SO ANGRY.
In other words, the show suffers most from it's own predicament, that is the power of sk8, means that " having fun is the most important thing in the world ".
Bleh.

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Adam was a good villain. And the tournament was cool - in animation, in suspense, with great music and emotional moments. My frustration with bad choices is nothing compared to all the fun I had.
Ignoring the last two points, SK8 is very close to being a masterpiece.

# Conclusion: recommended