Sports manga continue to thrive and I'm really glad it has because otherwise we might not have gotten a title like this one, even if it's digital-only.
MEDALIST (Medarisuto), by Tsurumaikada. First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2021.
PLOT:
At 26, Tsukasa's career is at an impasse. He wanted to be a figure skater as a teenager, but ended up getting pushed into ice dancing and never quite did well enough to go pro. He's unsure of what to do with his life until he meets Inori. She's a fifth grader who has mastered many of the basics on her own, but her lack of confidence and fear of failure hold her back from voicing her desire to become a skater. Tsukasa decides to become Inori's coach, helping her to refine her talents and achieve her dream of being an Olympic skater.
PLOT:
We've seen a few figure skating manga released in the US in the wake of the blockbuster success of Yuri On Ice, but Medalist is the first of its kind that felt anywhere close to that level of quality. There are some surface similarities, as the plot revolves around a disillusioned skater in their mid-twenties finding a new lease on life and an older skater becoming a coach to a promising talent, but there's so much more that's different in really interesting ways.
Medalist might be the first story I've seen where the protagonists not only have to overcome the physical and psychological challenges of training, but the economics of the sport. There's an idea that's pervasive in this series, a sort of common knowledge. To be successful in skating you have to start in kindergarten. You have to spend loads of money and time on training, equipment, and travel, disrupting their entire life for years at a time. Even if the kid manages to persevere and find some success, the amount of competition is fierce and only a few can win medals and find national or international success. If you don't fit that mold for any reason, then you're perceived as hopelessly disadvantaged to the point that you might as well not even bother being a skater because you're wasting everyone's time. There's no such things as a hobby; it's professional or nothing.
This is what both Tsukasa and Inori are fighting against. Tsukasa started skating in his teens, but all the people around him viewed this as a handicap. He let himself be pressured into settling for ice dancing instead of a solo career because people presumed he could never compete at that level. While he's not untalented and still has people around him who support him, he clearly regrets letting others dictate the course of his career and letting his own wishes fall to the wayside. That's why he responds so strongly to Inori. Her situation is different - she's a self-taught prodigy, a quick study, and powerful in spite of her small size, but she's still a 10 year old who is easily swayed by others' opinions and years for some real encouragement. Tsukasa wants to foster her talent and help her avoid getting railroaded out of the sport before she's even begun, and in the process find a purpose for himself.
It also helps that his interactions with Inori are so sweet. While the other coaches we see are more anxious about favoritism and giving out praise, Tsukasa is generous to help boost Inori's self-esteem. He explains new concepts in simple language she can understand. Most importantly, he actively encourages her to speak her and to actively make choices about her training instead of him dictating how it should go. It's the wholesome and healthy heart of what is shaping up to be not just the best skating manga out there, but possibly one of the best sports series I've reviewed on this site.
ART:
The art for Medalist manages to capture not only the skating well, but also the human drama of the story. Tsurumaikada employs different forms of linework cleverly to visually create different moods. In the comedy moments it may be thicker as Inori or Tsukasa do some sort of wild take. At other times it grows finer and sketchier to emphasize the delicate feeling of a scene. They also make good use of dramatic shading as well as dramatic speedlines, giving the manga as a whole a lively, almost manic feel.
Speaking of lively, Tsurumaikada also manages to capture both the beauty and the athleticism of the skating through strong, graceful poses, skillful use to blurring, and smart panel lay-outs. Honestly, panel lay-out seems to be a particular skill of theirs; their pages are packed with images, but they always present them in a way that feels natural and dramatic instead of cluttered. It really shines the most during the jumps, as it's broken down still-frame style to show off how the skater subtly shifts to stick the landing while communicating just how fast it all happens. It's good stuff, so much that I wish I could see it in print.
RATING:
This series is published by Kodansha Comics. This series is ongoing in Japan with 4 volumes available. 3 volumes have been published digitally and are currently available through most major digital manga retailers.
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