Ever since celebrities like Tony Hawk and Bam Margera came onto the scene in the 90s, skateboarding has been generally accepted as being a product of youth culture. Here in America, skateboarding has been a fixture of youth culture for decades. Released in the winter of 2021, SK8 the Infinity stood out from the crowded pack almost immediately, sporting a bright color palette and being centered on an unusual topic for an anime skateboarding. And I think we can do that with SK8 the Infinity. It’s a formula that is hard to crack, but I think we can try and figure out what kind of anime encourages you to turn off your brain and just enjoy the pretty colors and fun characters. There’s a certain type of art to making a series that is stupid, knows its stupid, but doesn’t care because it’s having a good time. They lack that certain je ne sais quoi if you will. Yet strangely enough that isn’t the case. While the majority of anime nowadays consists of fairly effective action series, and there are a rare few series that actually bother to say something meaningful or deliver an exemplary experience, you would think that there would be a ton of shows that fall into the pool of being just dumb fun. And while I haven’t seen any of the films (I know, shock), I can understand the sentiment.Īnime is no different, with the amount of dumb shlock being plentiful in the anime industry. I got into a debate over this weekend just about how yes, the series may be dumb, but it’s a ton of fun no matter how you look at it. It’s stupid beyond belief, and yet it’s one of the most profitable movie franchises of all time. When the latest installment features rocket cars that try to go into space and just the verbal diahrea that is “family,” there is a lot to make fun about the series. Is it stupid? Oh my God it’s unbelievably stupid. To use an example outside of anime, take the Fast & the Furious franchise. We love just how adamantly boneheaded a series or movie can be and nothing will ever dissuade us from it. And despite that, or sometimes because of it, we love it. Langa is a socially awkward character who at times seems reserved and under-expressive, while Reki is a puppy-dog of a human being who jumps with excitement when discussing skateboarding.We all like dumb garbage, right? No matter how fancy or highbrow our tastes may be, there will always be one show, one movie, that is just plain stupid. Reki is a skateboarding enthusiast who has loved the sport his whole life, while Langa, a transfer student from Canada, is an experienced snowboarder learning to skateboard for the first time. The show's primary focus, and the big question in regards to LGBTQ representation, is the relationship between Reki and Langa, the two central characters. At the end of the third episode, potential big bad Adam tries to caress the secondary protagonist Langa's leg. The enigmatic Cherry Blossom is a feminine man whose chemistry with fellow skater Joe borders on tsundere-like. Shadow, a skater who dresses like a reject from the band KISS, undergoes a Sailor Moon-inspired magical girl transformation in one of the bumpers. At the very least, Sk8 the Infinity's first three episodes introduce multiple characters who defy gender norms and could be considered queer-coded.
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