I’m not saying I’m done here officially. But it’s important to acknowledge when something may just not be working. Obviously, I have serious problems with Medalist. If anything  it kind of plays like Ao no Miburo on ice. Maybe with a side of Piano no Mori (though that was better, it had some of the same problems). People keep telling me the manga is better here, and I believe them. But fundamentally it’s the writing that I’m struggling with, so I’m not sure to what extent this adaptation (which looks quite good BTW) is the problem.

I kind of feel like this is a pretty engaging show until almost any character opens their mouth. I like the skating sequences, and the overall premise is perfectly solid. But the speeches (a la Blue Miburo) just grind everything to a halt and shatter the illusion. Some of the side characters (like Mittens) are pretty dire. And the sheer volume of moe pandering is just off the charts. I’m 90% all that is too much for me and this is probably it for Medalist, but I will watch next week (at least start to watch) just in case I’m wrong. I do have a certain investment in this one given that this is a weak season and Honey Lemon Soda has already crapped out.

Unsurprisingly the best part of this ep was Inori’s routine. I get nervous AF watching figure skaters whether real or fictional, and that was well-played. Again, I have to hand it to ENGI for delivering a really good skating sequence with minimal CGI. That transition into the broken-leg sit spin was quite beautiful and rather dramatic. But then people started talking again and it went to pot. They use a convoluted scoring system for figure skating now but it used to be a simple 6-point scale for “Technical Merit” and “Artistic Impression”. Right now I’d give Medalist about 5.3 for technical merit and 3.0 for artistic impression.

If Tsukasa got a little more development, there still might be enough in his relationship with Inori to act as the anchor of authenticity Medalist desperately needs. But since the premiere he’s just basically been the idealized hero coach. He offers perfect advice for the moment and is perpetually positive, but who he actually is has become irrelevant to his character. He’s a device. Maybe that’s one area where the manga is better (so I’ve been told), but this is the anime, not the manga. And in the end, what the anime does (and doesn’t) is the only legitimate basis by which to judge it.