There are some shows that truly can make a person want to encourage others to check them out. With some series it just feels like a shame to not have others enjoying the fun. There’s no doubt that Medalist falls into that category. A show that I was hopeful would be good, but I didn’t expect it to simply be great. Easily a contender for being the best show of the winter season and likely will be in the top 10 conversation by the end of the year.

There’s a lot to enjoy

Medalist has the right bones for a good sports anime. You have an underdog main character that has the fire to compete and chase her dreams. There’s a wonderful bond between skater and coach that makes you treasure their interactions. It has both good rivals and performances. Doesn’t hurt either that figure skating is somewhat solitary. This isn’t like making a hockey or football series where you should have an absurd number of characters on a team. With figure skating you have the skater, the coach, and the rivals. It’s easy enough to keep things focused.

The performances are great

None of that would matter as much if the execution didn’t work. ENGI has had their hits and misses over the years. I wouldn’t have blamed anyone for being doubtful about whether they’d get the job done here. My faith wasn’t through the roof either. But they absolutely have nailed this one. The characters look good and I don’t really have complaints on the animation side. There’s no shortage of good expressions and the characters do feel alive.

But the highlight for ENGI’s success here is with the performances. CG animation can be absolutely horrific and completely kill a show. I’ll be honest in that as much as possible I prefer good 2D animation. But when done right CG can work and make life easier for the people making the show. That’s clear as day with the big performances. I can’t imagine the difficulty in really expressing that figure skating in terms of a performance you can honestly follow. And the key thing is not only that it was suited for the performances but that they were done well. Episodes 4 and 5 were full of good performances and I think they made the right calls for them. Whether we’re talking about Mike’s cat-like performance or Hikaru’s overwhelming show, you could feel the personality of the characters.

Coach and skater powers the whole thing

I won’t say there’s only one element that makes this show excellent. But I do think the main duo are driving this series forward. Inori is a girl that’s easy to root for. She’s had troubles in school, was isolated, and at the start very much felt a lack of parental support. It was so bad that she was digging up worms to try and bribe the old man running the rink so she could just get on the ice without needing to get money from her family. And the show does tackle the concept of how tough it can be the later you try to start a sport. There’s so much against her when this series starts. And yet she truly loves figure skating, wants to be able to love herself, and has a passion that sparks her coach to utterly leap into her corner.

Tsukasa is a top tier coach. I love this guy. He’s someone that chased his dreams, but didn’t get where he truly wanted to go. You can certainly see elements in common between him and Inori. Tsukasa started much later than Inori did and had almost no one in his corner supporting his dreams. And even still he clawed and fought to get as far as he could go. Give a guy like that someone like Inori and he’s like the best kind of coach a person could ask for! He works so darn hard to find the right ways to guide Inori forward and battle against the barriers that could get in her way. If he wasn’t there then Inori’s dreams would simply never be fulfilled. She has to put in the work and her passion drives everything. But she was so fortunate to find this coach.

Main and supporting cast have been good

This show just handles drama extremely well and treats its young cast in a way that works. Mike is the first real struggle for Inori in terms of a friend/rival in a competition. Her flaws are built upon her past and her weaknesses come from the same place as her strengths. You can’t help but appreciate her ability when you get to see the tangible results of it. Inori of course is full of drama in terms of getting to skate at all and to figure out her path forward. She has plenty of doubts, but it’s worth it to see her keep going.

Pulls you right in!

And the show truly makes great use of figure skating to even further highlight the personality of the characters. You can see it in their expressions, how they move around the ice, and what elements are highlighted in their performances. The show just captures what makes figure skating fun. Though I only say that in the most casual sense since the most figure skating, I ever see is while watching the Olympics. It’s a beautiful and kind of scary sport with them getting incredible jumps off and having to land on those blades! This somewhat ties to the discussion of visuals, but the show really pulls you in with the skating.

It’s worth a try

This is just a show that gets you every week. It knows what really matters and doesn’t skimp on those key moments. In some ways it’s tough to really express what makes this show work so well. But I think it’s both the sports element of seeing someone compete and the relationship between our leads. Inori will say something that pulls at Tsukasa’s heart and his earnest support of her means the world to this girl. Their connection and the path Inori will carve forward is reason enough to give this show a shot. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of figure skating, but I’ve still enjoyed the heck out of this. If someone passed on it because they didn’t think ENGI could do a good job or because it slipped under the radar, I would recommend they take a look.