SK∞

High school student Reki Kyan is passionate about one thing: skateboarding. When night falls, he heads to "S," an illegal underground race inside a mine where skaters compete in highly dangerous situations. After a loss that results in his skateboard being destroyed and his arm being broken, Reki is now incapable of practicing at all.

While working, Reki runs into his new classmate, Langa Hasegawa, a half-Canadian and half-Japanese boy with no skateboarding experience whatsoever. Langa is in desperate need of money. After they both visit "S" when tasked by Reki's boss, they get into trouble and are forced into a bet that requires Langa to skate in a race. However, the mysterious transfer student holds a trump card that Reki is unaware of, one which might help him win the race in the most unexpected way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kyan, Reki Main

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Hasegawa, Langa Main

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Chinen, Miya Supporting

Nagatsuka, Takuma Japanese

Sakurayashiki, Kaoru Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Nanjou, Kojirou Supporting

Matsumoto, Yasunori Japanese

Shindou, Ainosuke Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Kikuchi, Tadashi Supporting

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Shadow Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Carla Supporting

Motoyoshi, Yukiko Japanese

Hasegawa, Nanako Supporting

Sonozaki, Mie Japanese

Suzuki, Mari Producer

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Uryuu, Kyouko Producer

Oonuki, Kenichi Assistant Producer, 2nd Key Animation, Assistant Animation Director

Reviews

Apr 3, 2021

Kraagesh

Recommended

-Note: English is not my native language, I apologize for possible mistakes.

The script for SK∞ has a casual tone that is easy to catch, with the inclusion of comedy overtones that, without being recursive, is effective. But undoubtedly one of the production's greatest strengths is the artistic rendering and technical effort on Bones' part. Because building a current fiction from the foundations of an urban culture alien to current times would not be easy if it weren't for the excellent work of photography, color, music and artistic direction in general, which give the set a great appeal and special magnetism. Special mention, of course, to ... the special level of detail and display in terms of animation, with interesting camera exercises and kinesthesia in the races, offering excellent quality levels that have very little to envy to similar cut products.

SK∞ is a sincere proposal that does not seek to be elusive, since it is very clear about what to offer and where to aim. His treatment of skate culture is as engaging as it is eccentric, and the dynamics between his characters make it incredibly easy and organic to want to follow their learning and see how far they are capable of going not necessarily to win, but to feel good about themselves. Hiroko Utsumi's work transmits passion and fun with a treatment that I wish was seen more often: that of humility, that of enjoying without the need to achieve great feats.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 17, 2023

Naramea

Mixed Feelings

So, this is my first mal review ever and I'm not a native English speaker but I hope that doesn't affect the review.
This review includes spoilers!

First of all I have to say: I'm absolutely disappointed. This anime wasted it's whole potential.

It starts of really nice, I liked Reki and Langa, even though they are a bit cliche but that wasn’t a big problem. Later some other characters were introduced, for example Cherry and Joe (who had a great dynamic together, gotta say).
The anime first focuses a lot on Reki and Langa and skating in general.
I myself have no clue about skateboarding so I don't know ... whether "S" is realistic or not but I was fine with it because it was kinda fun to watch the beefs. But then a certain someone showed up to ruin the mood.
I don't know what the creators were thinking when they planned Adam but this guy ruined the whole anime in my opinion. He is a really, really bad copy of Hisoka from HxH and he is one of the cringiest characters I've ever seen. His blabbering about marrying Langa and finding his Eve was so hard to watch, I cringed every time he opened his mouth. Also his whole behaviour was just ridiculous (I mean, hitting someone with your damn skateboard has nothing to do with skating anymore).
He is one of the most unnecessary and worst written antagonists I've ever came across (he is nearly as unnecessary as the red haired police officer, like, why was she even there?) And he RUINED the whole anime.
Also something that was quite weird (and unrealistic) were the people watching the beefs. They give a shit about Cherry getting hit by Adam with his skateboard because he is to "boring" in Adams opinion (which is just a big WTF).
Another character worth mentioning is Adam's... secretary (I guess? I already forgot his name lmao) because also WTf!? He’s getting treated like shit by Adam (he calls him dog and it didn't bother the secretary at all) and his only purpose is to bring a bit of "tension" into the tournament and a "sad backstory" for Adam (at which they fail miserably btw).

What I kinda liked was the "arc" focusing on Reki after he realised he is nothing special in comparison to Langa. I know this feeling very well and therefore could empathize with him easily. It was also nice that he didn't overcome this feeling within one episode and actually needed some time.

The last episode was just a cringefest and they didn't spare with cliches. Suddenly Langa makes Adam realise that skating is about fun and not only competing (who would have seen that coming?! Lmao) and they are all best buddies now. Aha.

Overall the anime is full of unrealistic scenarios, bad written characters and a lacking plot (well, if you could call it plot...).
I would have been totally fine watching Reki and Langa improve, competing with "normal" characters and Rekis down phase. That would have been enough...
I wouldn't recommend this anime bcs you don’t really learn anything about skating and the character cast is… something. It had some nice moments but that’s it. Overall it made me incredibly angry lmao (thank you Adam).
Yeah, that's it. Thanks for reading^^

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 5, 2021

Fruitpie

Not Recommended

So, what’s the story?
On 7 September 2013 Tokyo was selected as the host city of The XXXII Olympic Games. Japanese government wanted to promote upcoming event among youth through entertainment industry: music and TV, including anime. Popular anime characters were selected as ambassadors (Sailor Moon, Naruto, Luffy and others) and also new anime projects about different Olympic events were commissioned. Such as rugby (Number 24), artistic gymnastics (Taisou zamurai), volleyball (2:43), baseball (Tamayomi), soccer (Sayonara Watashi no Cramer), surfing (Wave!!), water polo (Re-Main), bouldering (Iwa Kakeru!) and others. Even parasport (Breakers) and male rhythmic gymnastics that will take part at the gymnastic exhibition during ... the final olympic day (Bakuten!!).
“SK8: the infinity” from studio BONES is the part of that big program. This original anime is dedicated to the skateboarding that debuts as a new Olympic sport in Tokyo. Utsumi Hiroko was put at the helm since she was responsible for a successful series about other summer sport (Free!!).
Seems like her original idea included a snowboarder who decided to take part in the illegal skateboard races that were organized by one crazy guy in search of his ideal Eve. There was a police investigation involved, sudden return of a girlfriend, serious money troubles and other typical tropes from you-know-where. But then Utsumi (or someone else from the stuff) thought that MC needs to go through some adjustment to his technique before he will crush everyone in the races. And that’s how Reki was born. As a supporting guy who can’t skate but whose role was to screw the wheels to the board and nothing more.
In the end at the last minute stuff decided to redo everything from the scratch and make the “guy with the wheels” the MC instead. As a result dozens of plot points were cut or thrown out. The scenario was altered so many times so late in the game that they didn’t even had time to cut a girlfriend appearance from one of the first episodes. She never ever appeared again.
As a result of this hot mess we have a story were the villain (former antihero) has more flashbacks and background than any of the leads. Our new MC has a zero background apart from “one time one totally irrelevant to the plot guy got hurt by irrelevant to the plot reason”. Reki’s journey went from the point A to … the point A (from the “even though I can’t skate but still…” to the “yeah, I can’t skate but still…”) with some stupid pity drama in between. Langa’s plot points were thrown out entirely. He has even less substance than Reki. Unnamed girl and mysterious money problems that’s all that left from the original draft and now it leads nowhere.
Adam is obviously Utsumi’s favorite. Not only because he suffered the least damages from redoing the script, but because he’s the one whose character she actually bothered to explore. She even gave him a new “lover” since the old one was “taken away”. But Adam still looked stupid. That’s how this anime looks over all. Its script is ultimately foolish. Maybe if they had kept the original idea everything would have looked much more decent. Or maybe the original idea was a lot more disastrous, that’s why they went to such extremes to redo everything. Anyhow, decision was made and result was awful.
First episodes were awesome production wise. Animation, music, everything was superb. But something (COVID, mess with the script or who knows what else) happened halfway through that resulted in the noticeable drop in quality. They even had to use a recap episode.
Series that started with such a promise ended with a huge “What the Hell was that?!” “Taisou zamurai” is so much better than this. But since “samurai” has never tried to play a fujobaiting game it had zero chances to became popular.

First 5 episodes ranking: 9/10.
Episodes 6-10.5: -1/10.
Episodes 11-12: 5/10.
Overall ranking: 4/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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