Score: A

Medalist is back! The first episode was necessarily spent on building up to the tournament. But this is the episode where Medalist stepped up and into the category of contender for the season. And this isn’t even an episode where the main character got to skate! Inori was barely in this episode. But the episode did such a masterful job of giving these rivals their time in the spotlight, that it didn’t matter! The struggles on and off the ice just took over. And there’s no doubt that when Inori’s turn does come up…that it will be one heck of a performance. The drama might even better right now because there’s no guarantees. Inori has to move forward for the story, but the rest of the girls? The war is on!

Such a good episode

I will admit that figure skating isn’t something that I’ve gotten into. Generally will check out the Olympics, but that’s about it. But I do find the general concept of this sort of competition interesting. Since it does work out differently compared to other sports. It’s a battle, but one where everyone takes their turn. Which makes for interesting ways to look at it. Going early vs going late, the mental strain on the competitors, the way the judges can be influenced, etc. Rinna got a good showing of her performance and reflects the pros/cons nicely. The stress of going first was legitimate. But at the same time there are benefits to going first. Getting to set the first impression is huge. But sometimes that can be bad since the first performance might be scored lower due to mentally wanting to save a higher score for potentially better performances.

The mindset of the girls with Hikaru not being there was interesting too. Part of me thinks it does reflect poorly that they have a “without her here, now I’ve got a chance.” Mentally accepting that they can’t compete against Hikaru instead of striving to beat her. But Hikaru is really good, so their mind sets aren’t unrealistic. And there’s no doubt that if Hikaru was there and went in the middle/early…it’d probably kill the scores of many that came after her since that standard would cap what others could hit. Everyone is there to give their all. But there’s all sorts of different ways the situation can impact their mental states and how they perform.

Guts!

One thing that stands out is the gutsy effort. Some girls took a serious fall/hit early on. And that sucks. The first jump is their big point getter and sometimes…it doesn’t happen. It’s just reality. They give everything to practice and prep. They can nail those jumps 10/10 times in practice. But all that matters is that one moment in time. That’s rough. Those that can pull out their best performance get the glory and those that can’t are left with regret. But no one stopped skating because they fell. Even the girl that was bleeding just picked herself up and kept battling. Because that’s the moment. They have days/months/years to regret what happens. But they only have those precious few minutes to leave it all on the ice.

I do feel a bit for the group of four in the middle of the episode. When you are getting grouped together like that…your odds of making it through aren’t great! Rinna I’d say has the best chance of holding out since…she was first even after that group went through. That does of course reflect the different stresses. Those coming later have a score to gun for while someone like Rinna that went first is left sitting for the rest of the competition hoping to hold a spot.

Medalist shines in these scenes

Manaka’s was a really good performance. You’d normally expect her to just blow away the competition. The music was in full force, her expressions were charming, and there was a playfulness to it. I was ready to start talking about how she was a cut above the rest and was going to just obliterate that top score. And then…the struggles came. It was a gutsy strategy to put the safer jumps early and go big in the second half. They made a good point that it’s tough to put high difficulty jumps later due to stamina and focus. Once she missed that first jump however then things unraveled. Focus is hard to recover and she was looking ahead to the final jump and then messed up her combo.

But that’s what made her performance an adventure. She had the highs of the start, the struggles in the middle, and she found her grit in the final part. It would’ve been easy to fall apart and just give up. But instead she still had her hardest part left and threw everything into it. Truly this performance highlights what makes Medalist so darn good. It’s a few minutes and you have such a wave of emotion that hits throughout. And luckily for Manaka…that kind of flow is good to have. Start solid, struggle in the middle, but absolutely blow away everyone at the end. The best points of a performance to leave an impression are the ones that she nailed.

Going to be a lot of crying coming up!

Now Medalist is truly back! This is what I’ve been waiting for! The emotional ride, the great performances, and the utter drama. In a sense Medalist is actually hitting another level. Everything to this point was Inori’s growth and getting to this point. The competition wasn’t quite the same since Inori was building up. But now she’s caught up with her peers. Now she’s fighting them on that stage. The next episodes will be intense because the battle for those few spots is going to intensify. Can Rinna hold a top 5 spot? Can Manaka? The order was completely random so it’s not like all the best skaters are coming up at the end. But it’s going to be interesting to see how things go. The pressure for Inori is going to get real.

The show also made a good point early. Going early gives you the best ice. Rinna may have lamented going first but it gave her advantages. Inori is going pretty late so the ice is going to be in the poor shape. She’s got plenty of time to get mentally prepared, but there are challenges. Here’s hoping she clears them!