Who else misses Air Gear? This was one of the anime (that is somehow related to sports) that I actually enjoyed watching. I am personally not committed to watching sports-focused anime like Haikyu!! or Yuri on Ice or Yowamushi Pedal. Although I've watched Prince of Tennis and Kuroko no Basuke, I am not as invested in it as I am with other non-sports related anime. In this case, Air Gear is an exemption to something I just committed myself into watching to the end and even read the manga up to the end.
Introducing to you SK8 the Infinity (SK∞), and I think this is a good anime to watch especially if we miss Air Gear's vibe.
There is this retro and streetwise vibe that makes it similar to SK8 the Infinity. It's both related to skating. Wherein Air Gear focuses on an invented means of skating called "ATs" or Air Trek (which is kind of like roller skates mixed with ice skating). And SK8 obviously is all about skateboards.
Now let's talk about SK8.
Unlike most of the famous anime we watch, it's always about anime-adaptations of originally published mangas. SK8 the Infinity, however, is an original anime television series. It was produced by Bones studio. You all know some series that Bones had previously produced and animated. There is Noragami, Soul Eater, Darker than Black, My Hero Academia, Chaika the Coffee Princess (oh hey I just recommended this, check it out) and many more!
The anime was released last January 2021! So now all 12 episodes are available for us to binge-watch!
I watched the trailer and it's not the usual type of trailer where the protagonist narrates or does a voice-over in the video of their backstory and whatnot. No, here, they used visuals and music to speak. There are keywords flashing on the screen like Skateboard. Youth. Battle. Race. Sums it all up I suppose. I have finished watching Air Gear, but I never watched the trailer before. Either way, I'd say the retro and skating vibe really reminds me of it. Which is why now I added this to my watchlist.
I watched a compilation of clips to check out the characters. It is usually the characters that pushes me further to watch the anime. So there I meet Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa. If I understood it correctly, Langa Hasegawa does not know how to use the skateboard but is somehow interested in skateboarding while our main protagonist Reki is a great skater.
Reki Kyan strongly calls out as Itsuki "Ikki" Minami from Air Gear from his style but not sure on the personality as I've only seen clips. Either way, I love these two characters already.
I haven't met the other characters yet but I saw a female character with pink hair in the trailer. Here is to hoping she is someone like Simca.
Why do I keep comparing the anime?
Not that I am saying that one is better than the other. I just felt the connection between them and its this connection that makes me want to watch SK8 the Infinity. It's how I get lured back into watching anime after all these years, by feeling nostalgic.
It is not available in Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime sadly. But maybe in the future we can expect the series to be available for streaming in these sites soon. Otherwise, where can we watch this anime?
YouTube only has clips as always.
Well that's it. Go and add this anime to your watchlist as well and let's watch this together!
Definitely recommend it! I watched it on Funimation.