#i mean i've WATCHED some such as like your lie in april yuri on ice and a couple i dont rememebr but no :( was never into anime like taht 😞

[suenitos]

hai important question are u a weeb? -eras

would you still love me if i said no 😞

[miriamundertale]

Skate-Leading Stars, The Bane of my Fucking Existence

I've partially wanted to talk about this anime for a while, but after Confirmation that it's real and I haven't been fucking hallucinating it, I think now is likely a better time than ever to uh, Discuss this weird ass show. Skate-Leading Stars was first revealed to me while working on a separate whole project (My attempt to watch every anime where Hiroshi Kamiya voices a main character) and saw it as the main currently airing show that he was voicing a character in. Unfortunately for me, the thought that formed was "oh sweet, this is a currently airing one I could watch this as it airs," not realizing the two fucking year long brainworm I was about to nourish. As a precursor, I need to make clear I'm going to be jumping around in focus a lot. moreover, this is NOT a review, i just want to vent about something that's been taking over my mind. there is a LOT of weird shit going on with this anime that I'd like to at least cover so if I leave something hanging for a bit, I will get back to it at some point.

Spoilers for Skate-Leading Stars, Your Lie In April

What the fuck is Skate-Leading?

Have you ever watched like, a sport, a game, or some other activity (Including Single player ones!) and just wanted to add people to it for no fucking reason? like, "What if chess was 5 people on each side per board deliberating every action while really hoping nobody else listens in" tier shit. That's the main premise of Skate-Leading. It's a sport where 5 anime boys do figure skating all at once in a formation together. The obvious concerns about safety are not even mentioned and the idea of "how do you even judge this on a regional level well without a LOT of judges" is settled by having the numbers be put up as a box that they say is an AI judging it. a core plot point is the One Interesting Character figuring out how the AI works in his gamer cave and gaming it.

Your first bit of confusion you may encounter with that premise is of course "isn't there already pair skating as an actual real sport one could use for the drama of multi-person skating?" or maybe "doesnt this mean this just a more fucked up yuri on ice?" which to me are both great questions, with only the first easily answered with a Yes. Yuri on ice is the obvious comparison for what SLS is attempting to draw from here, given you have seen literally anything about yuri on ice and the timing of the two shows, but you need to understand that the figure skating is a bait. the yaoi is the point but is bait in regards for understanding this plot. they're not trying to do Yuri on ice. They're trying to do Your Lie In April.

Let's Talk about the OP (Updated info in final paragraph)

For some fucking reason that I originally credited to COVID delays, half the fucking OP is black screens.

I don't think anything of it is especially standout aside from that, while SLS has many weaknesses the OP isnt one of them. Unfortunately it's not anything to write home about either, so I don't want anyone else to feel like we're truly missing out when I reveal the fact that as far as I can tell the OP was censored for the western release. I'm operating on my own anecdotal evidence and what is one of my two current white whales (the other that isn't about to be mentioned is the Japanese dub of Batman Vs Superman) so if my theorizing here is completely incorrect than that's Fine. Thats Fine. About a month into watching the show while it was airing, the half black OP started to get to me. I wanted to see more, try and get to the bottom of it, and eventually managed to find the full uncensored version uploaded which remained up for about two weeks before disappearing. I know that the version we can find online is fucking censored. I have no idea why. once again, so little people I know have any knowledge about this show aside from me, let alone have talked about it. I cannot find anything online talking about the OP aside from light mentions in the comments of the Crunchyroll upload sandwiched between Jesus Bots.

While spending a pathetic amount of time delaying this, I actually in fact have been sent proof of the uncensored OP existing. from anything I could tell or from what the friend who sent this from me could tell, the entire reason is something involving covid delays (Confirming my original suspicion, at least!) making them rush out the international version before the broadcast version, thought the delay wasn't that huge? its still definitely a mystery to me that haunts me a little but at least I know it Exists.

Since I've spent enough time talking about not the plot I think its a good time to address the whole Your Lie In April thing

What the Fuck do you Mean Its Trying to do Your lie In April??

Your lie in April, if you haven't seen it, is a story about dealing with grief, parental abuse and falling in love again with your passions even after loss. it's a very rough anime to sit through emotionally, and while its very much a show i have mixed feelings about personally, it's still a very well written example of its genre. Skate-Leading Stars spends has the main character parallel Kousei Arima's (The Main character of Your Lie in April) very basic arc of a teenager getting back into the area he used to be a prodigy in as a child, any forms of subtly or trauma have been entirely replaced with as many meatheaded brash qualities as they can in order to fit the true BL purpose of the story. Instead of having the love interest heavily foreshadowed to die being someone who views said passion in an entirely different light than him as a way to work through trauma and difficulty handling the act of playing piano again, the love interest is a mysterious boy who's using him to try and get back at his brother. Skate-Leading Stars, unabashedly, apes the format and ideas of Your Lie in April, barely understanding anything else going on, and uses it for a bl anime about a sport that is at best impossible to judge and realistically physically dangerous to exist.

Ok now what?

I don't think its necessary to do a plot summary of SLS, partially because I don't want to, but mostly because who fucking cares. I love bad shows, and while the start of the show is undeniably strong in its garbage it goes nowhere with anything. It spends a large amount of its time as a story setting up beats that never pay off, having loud yaoi boys yelling constantly, or underusing Hiroshi Kamiya. There IS a manga I could read for the rest of the story that's likely been playing out, but since only the first chapter is translated I don't see any reason to examine it too closely. If you want to watch gay ice skating anime, Yuri on ice is talked about for a reason. if you want to watch bad anime with Hiroshi Kamiya Ultimate Otaku Teacher exists. If you have read the manga please tell me if Sasugai actually has some sort of fatal disease or they're just aping the framing from Your Lie in April without meaning again.

[iloverichardpapen]

Sometimes l can't believe how much I love anime and rn I'm so glad I gave it a try bc it really does make me happy

~ Now that I've watched a few, I made a list of how I'd recommend new watchers :)))

[ the ones with 💜 are personal favorites]

------------------------> here we go :p

(These are mostly 12 - 13 episodes)

>> If you want something 10/10 that's not too long and can get you into it, some options are:

The promised neverland 💜💜💜

( this one's really clever and moving and has awesome characters, I love it sm)

Erased

( will keep u on the edge)

yuri on ice💜 💜

(light hearted, really gay ice skaters, you'll laugh and cry)

blue period 💜

(art students on distress!! complex characters )

spy x family

(u wouldn't expect something so wholesome to have spys and assassins on it)

>> if you'd like to start with a short romance anime (which is one of the best genres for anime in my opinion):

[all of these deserve a 💜💜💜 tbh]

Bunny girl senpai

( cute couple but also involves many teen struggles through awesome concepts, trust me)

your lie in April

( classical musicians with a twist of depression! also they are children <\3 )

given

(teen- and - young adult-gay - angst - and- fluff!! They're also musicians but it's mostly the rock edition)

orange

(teenage friend group battling depression <\3 includes something like time traveling)

>>>if you'd like to watch a movie instead definetly watch

note: these are all romance/drama movies

A silent voice💜💜💜

( teen angst about bullying and diversity. Big focus on mental health. Heartbreaking beautiful masterpiece that will make you rethink your whole life)

your name💜💜

(cinematic jewel, includes amazing supernatural concepts, a glimpse of Japanese culture and it's also beautifully animated)

weathering with you💜

( has a really really great story + beautifully animated)

whisper of the heart💜

( this one's ghibli, which means lots of aesthetic scenes, and sweet characters with great development)

From up on Poppy hill 💜

( also ghibli but add suspense )

bubbles

( really cool movie get some tissues tho, amazing animation)

----------->

Now some that aren't that short (mostly animes with 24-25 episodes don't worry)

>> Guaranteed masterpieces, haven't met a single being that disagrees:

Attack on Titan💜💜💜💜💜💜

(drama, action, romance, suspense, sociopolitical critique in a fictional world, it's got it all... this one has waaay more episodes than 25 but it's a must watch for everyone LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT HERE

Banana fish 💜💜💜

(be ready to cry a lot, includes wide range of violence, drugs, crime, mental health issues and amazing characters. also a must watch imo)

Death Note

(personally don't see it as a HUGE masterpiece, but def a must watch I think. truly complex characters, keeps u on edge)

>> On these you'll fall in love with the characters and the unique plots :)

jujutsu kaisen 💜

(really cool characters, original power system. it's fun and exciting for now💀 let's just say when Manga is animated it won't be that fun anymore)

bungou stray dogs💜

(lots of dark humor, cool power system, characters are based on real literature authors and you'll become obsessed with them)

Tokyo revengers💜

(intense street fighters, gangs, betrayal, romance, mental health, time travel. HOT characters. the drama here is amazing)

Demon slayer

( filled with honest and heroic characters, messed up World, great animation)

>> If you'd like romance at its absolute finest

Fruits basket 💜💜💜

( takes a couple of episodes to unravel the actual story, but u just wait and you'll have one of the best drama with beautifully written and complex characters that carry a lot of trauma with them)

Kaguya-Sama 💜

(fun, clever and entertaining, these guys are the most competitive rivals)

toradora

( friends to lovers! won't say which friends tho 🤫 really emotional)

Darling in the Franxx

(science fiction romance anime, explores the innate traits of how human relationships and sexuality work + beautiful love story) -> (this one can be controversial: imo it's a very good representation sci-fi and anyone that can't help but emphasize on "its faults" should really read any sci-fi book from classic literature, just try to appreciate it as a whole concept rather than reducing it to romance) 💜