Medalist ‒ Episode 4

Between how awkward things seemed between Inori and her sister whenever she came up, and how adamant her mom was about ensuring Inori doesn’t suffer the same kind of failure she did, my brain just defaulted to assuming there was a tragedy involved. At the very least I figured she had to have suffered a permanent injury as a result of her skating career, and that was the source of anxiety that was fueling Inori’s mom to keep her away from the sport. All that to say, I was a little surprised when we got to meet Mika for the first time in this episode. Not only does she seem to be fine, but her relationships with Inori and their mother seem pretty positive.

It’s good timing, too, because through Mika’s presence, we get a much better idea of what Inori’s family life is like. We see that Mika herself seems to get along well enough with Inori for her to come in from overseas to watch her skate. We also get a better idea of how big an inspiration she was to Inori, as it was watching Mika’s debut on the ice that first made her dream of doing the same thing someday. These casual family interactions also give us a bit more perspective on Inori’s mother as we learn from Mika that, for as much as she objected to Inori skating, all she’s been able to talk about lately is seeing Inori perform. Thanks to that, we can see that when it’s all said and done, Inori’s mom truly cherishes her daughters and that her actions have been out of genuine concern for Inori’s confidence rather than a desire to actively control her life.

Of course, just because Inori’s mom isn’t acting maliciously doesn’t mean that what she’s doing to her isn’t harmful. When Inori slips up during her warm-up session for the competition, her mother tries to get Tsukasa to lower the difficulty of her performance, thinking that Inori should enjoy skating casually rather than fail at something she’s so passionate about. While her feelings here are certainly sympathetic, doing that would almost certainly further lower Inori’s confidence rather than improve it. When Inori overhears this conversation, it’s a bigger blow to her than any of her actual falls on the ice. However when a little girl complements Inori on her skating outfit, and she takes a look at herself in the mirror, Inori realizes that for as much as she’s worried about not being able to change herself, the fact that she’s made it this far is proof that she’s started to, and this gives her enough courage to tell her mom about her dream of becoming a Medalist, and to see how serious she is about it.

While Inori slips up during the start of her performance, she manages to pull herself back up pretty quickly and compensates by nailing the rest of her performance spectacularly. She even surprises Tsukasa by performing a complex spin she once saw him doing. It’s an impressive showing, and more importantly, it shows that Inori does have the resilience she needs if she truly wants to make this her career. As for the skating itself, this is the first fully 3DCG skating sequence we’ve gotten, and for the most part, I was pretty impressed with it. While Inori’s 3DCG rig does stick out a lot more when used entirely on its own, the animation itself is solid, and the model is expressive enough that it didn’t come off as a massive downgrade. Although I’m personally hoping that the show will stick to swapping between 2D and 3DCG skating animation the way it has up to now, if we do get more fully 3DCG sequences, I’ll be pretty okay with that if the results stay as strong as what we got with this episode.

After a showing like that, Inori’s mom is left with no choice but to acknowledge how serious Inori is about skating, and promises to do whatever it takes to support her until she makes it onto the world stage. It’s a sweet moment, and while Inori’s performance shoots her up to the current first-place contestant, that’s almost secondary when compared to her finally getting her mother’s acknowledgment. This was the episode where we finally got to see Inori come out of her shell and acknowledge herself as a figure skater, and now that she’s made such a big splash with her debut, I’m rooting for her to carry that energy to the top of the world.

Rating:

Medalist is currently streaming on
Hulu.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.