(I've watched the 5 episodes that have aired already, so I'll try not to spoil!)
Quite honestly, my reason for watching this anime was to fill the gap before Yuri!!! on Ice the Movie: Ice Adolescence comes out later this year. As a huge YOI fan and someone who's always admired figure skating, of course Skate-Leading☆Stars appealed, right. Now I didn't go into this anime expecting something astounding, but I was cautiously optimistic. The character designs looked great and I was hoping their personalities would match.
WRONG! Unfortunately, this show has a mix of quite unlikeable characters and characters so bland that even their pretty boy faces don't make up for it. Yes, I'm talking about our protagonist, Maeshima, and antagonist, Shinozaki.
For starters, Maeshima is one of the most obnoxious main characters out there. He has 15 year old Eren Yaeger's angst and stubborn independence, with Bakugo's rage and pride. Yet unlike either of these characters, there's nothing to really endear him to the viewer at this point. His primary motivation is to beat his rival from elementary school, and he comes across as very petty and selfish in the way he goes about it. I don't want to spoil anything in particular, so suffice to say that even by the end of episode 5 he still has great difficulty cooperating with other people. There have been a few signs that he's developing, but it's really taking time. Will Maeshima turn things around and show that he can be a team player? Well I sure hope so, and I also hope it's done in a way that doesn't seem completely out of character.
On the other hand, there's Shinozaki, an undefeated champion top skater. From the beginning we see how cold and arrogant he is... and nothing really changes. He's overbearingly aloof and doesn't really get any development whatsoever. I'd love to see him get some more screentime, more backstory, anything, but it just hasn't happened yet. For such a talented and expressive skater, he's very emotionless off the ice. So far he's essentially a plot device to get Maeshima all fired up and 'inspired'.
Then when it comes to Maeshima's teammates on the Ionodai team, none of them are very memorable or fleshed out in my opinion. Probably my favourite out of everyone is Kubota, the quiet kid. He may not be flashy like the others (in fact he's kind of anxious and seems to doubt himself as a lead), however, he's able to overcome that and fight for his spot, giving us someone to root for.
The story so far isn't anything greater than former gifted kid returns to the sport as a high schooler in time for competition season. There's nothing particularly inspired or thrilling about Skate-Leading☆Stars. It definitely has nothing which can hold its own against the magic of YOI. To be fair, I wasn't expecting that though, and neither should anyone starting this anime.
It's only 12 episodes total so I'm going to finish it, but if it was any longer I'd probably drop it. The animation of the skating itself has been good so far, I just wish that part got more focus than Maeshima's constant bickering. The visuals are one of the redeeming qualities along with the OP, which is pretty catchy. I'm still looking forward to seeing their programs performed, even if the characters themselves end up being completely underwhelming.
Overall it's just about worth watching if you're into skating and teenage boy focused sports anime. I don't recommend prioritising it on your list though.
(hopefully I can update this review when more episodes have aired)
