番組の紹介と感想
If you're an otaku and you like dubs, you're not an otaku. Like, I will say that. You can't be an
otaku and be like, but I listen to dubs. Bring on the flames in the comments. I will die on this hill.
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK! I am your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese non-otaku, and
I'm Cisco, your co-host, an American otaku. In this podcast, we share our reviews of anime
and manga through our distinct perspectives with commentary on Japanese culture, history,
and language. Today, I'm super excited to talk about this manga and anime, which I think all
human beings should watch. Oh my goodness, all human beings? Yes. Wow, I knew you liked it,
but I wasn't sure you liked it that much. And I think I'm sure like we can make a better world
by watching this. Okay. Yeah. Okay. There are some anime I feel that way about,
but I'm not sure this one is up there. Okay. We can agree to disagree from the very beginning.
I mean, like, you know, like Earth Girl Arjuna, that's like a show all human beings should watch.
Okay. Remember, I'm still new to anime and manga. There are not so many, but so far in my like
journey to true otaku, this is pretty great. All right. Okay. I respect your opinion.
All right. So today we are going to talk about medalists. We will introduce what medalists is
about, what we can learn from medalists, or what? Come on. You're so into it. Okay. I'm so into it.
Like, okay, we're going to talk about this unfortunate figure skating technique names
in Japanese. Yes. Some profanity will be involved. You've been warned.
Opening and ending theme songs and the word of the day from medalists. Before we start,
if you haven't, please subscribe to our podcast, 2AM Otaku on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
and YouTube. We appreciate good reviews on those streaming platforms. Let's get started. So what
『メダリスト』の概要
is medalist? Medalist is the same title in Japanese. Medaristo is a Japanese manga series
written and illustrated by Tsuruma Ikada. It has been serialized in Kodansha's Seinen Manga Magazine
monthly afternoons since May 2020, with its chapters collected in 12 tanko-bon volumes as of
January 2025. An anime television series adaptation produced by Engi premiered in January 2025.
Cisco, could you tell us the plot of medalist? Sure. So it's about an 11-year-old girl in fifth grade
who decides she wants to become a figure skater because she loves ice skating. She is sneaking
into her ice rink and gets busted by one of the people who works there. When he finds out that
she wants to be a figure skater, he takes on the role of training her. And he had also at one time
been a figure skater, but got into it too late and was never able to attain the heights or the
fame or whatever that he wanted to. And so it feels a little bit like he's projecting some of
his own past regrets onto her. And she seems to be right at the age where if she doesn't start
right now, it's going to be too late for her, sort of like it's implied it was for him. So he takes
her under her wing and decides to train her. And she's not a very strong student. She seems like
she's kind of getting bullied by everybody. And she had an older sister who was also a figure
skater who I think had a bad fall and was hurt and could no longer compete. And her sister's a lot
older than her. It seems like her sister's in college. Yeah, studying abroad. Studying abroad
in Canada. And so her mother is not initially very supportive of her desire to be a figure
skater, but eventually she gets taken on as a student by the coach Tsukasa and begins competing.
フィギュアスケートの魅力
And that's what's happened so far in the plot. Yeah, we just finished episode five
where main character Inori's competitor slash friend Hikaru nailed her performance. And then
I just loved watching the whole performance. It's just like watching the actual figures. Okay,
I have to say I love watching figure skating. Okay, yes, I think that was relevant context
for this episode. And I think a lot of Japanese people actually love watching figure skating.
I think a lot of people in general like watching figure skating. Do you think it's actually more
popular in Japan than, say, the United States or Canada? I don't know. I'm not going to deny
its popularity in Japan. Lots of famous figure skaters are from Japan. I think it does have
a following there. Do you think it's I think it's probably about the same as it is in the United
States, Canada and Russia, which seem to be like the other main figure skating countries.
Korea. South Korea.
Korea. Yeah, especially after who was that girl who was like the ice princess,
maybe ice queen. I know. Yeah. Okay. After after she like had her Olympic victory,
I do think Korea kind of joined the ranks of ice skating nations.
Kim Yuna. Yeah, Kim Yuna. Yeah. So I think all of those nations seem to really like ice skating.
I don't get the sense that ice skating is as popular in tropical nations, for example.
Yeah, I think it's pretty popular in Japan. Anyway, like I enjoyed the whole performance.
It's like the real one was the sound of ice skating on ice.
It's true. Who's ever is doing the Foley for this show is amazing.
And then like there's like close up like shots while she was skating.
Sorry, I am enjoying how intensely you love ice skating and how deeply satisfied you were by an
animated ice skating routine. Yeah, never seen anything like that before.
Except for actual ice skating. Yeah, I do think that one of the highlights of this show is that
it takes ice skating routines. And because there's no drone camera necessary to capture this,
it's able to show all of the techniques from different angles and in really intense close
ups and in other sort of fantastical ways, slow motion, et cetera, that really make it come alive.
And I think they do a great job of mimicking the types of shots you get in actual ice skating
to make it feel very realistic. In my opinion,
感情的なストーリー
Middle East is not only about figure skating. What do you think?
I feel like you're challenging me to disagree with you.
You don't think so? I think you're going to say something like
it's also about the value of perseverance or something like that.
Especially the very first episode of like early episodes. It's like so emotional.
It is very emotional. And you can tell you can so sympathize with
each character, especially the main character, the girl who really wants to do figure skating
and the coach who wants to help her from his experience.
Yeah, I do think it's a really good story about a coach and an athlete in any type of
single athlete competition. So tennis or I guess there are tennis teams too, but or
track and field or any other sport where you're an athlete competing against the clock or for a
score. I think the emotional connection is definitely there. And I agree with you that
even for someone like me who actually doesn't like figure skating that much, I think especially the
first couple episodes do an awesome job of communicating the emotion that all the characters
are feeling in a very powerful way. And so I'm not really a huge figure skating fan, but I do
like this anime quite a lot because the story is good and effectively told.
キャラクターの感情と背景
We all have been there. Like we all have been,
like have something you're passionate about or you failed before.
Yeah.
No?
I'm not much of an athlete, so I'll open with that.
I mean, it doesn't have to be sports.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that I had a coach like the coach in this show.
It's pretty rare. Like he's amazing.
Yeah, I think that's true. But I think that's part of why I struggle to relate to your idea of
we've all been there. Like, yes, we've all felt like failures at things in the past.
But I am not sure that as a child, I had a thing I wanted to succeed in as badly as Inori wants to
succeed in skating. And I don't think I had... I had many fantastic teachers. This is not about
any of the teachers that I had. But I think maybe because I didn't challenge myself to succeed
in a competition in the way that she is doing, I also don't really think I had any coaches who
were quite on that level. And that was maybe me not pursuing the type of thing that would
have allowed me to meet somebody like that. But...
But you can definitely sympathize with her mother.
Yes.
Right?
Yes. The parent angle is much easier for me to sympathize with and with the coach.
I totally sympathize with the coach. There are ways in which I feel like he is the co-main
character of the story. And I sympathize a lot with him.
Yeah. And then mom's like, I understand because she had a bad experience for her with Inori's
sister. She was trying really hard to go farther and then something happened and it didn't go well.
So because of the experience, she really wants her second child to have better experience.
Right.
And she ended up saying, OK, for her to do skating, but until middle school.
Right. Well, and she seems very protective of Inori because Inori has had so many bad experiences.
But and I think, you know, the show explores the ways in which
that desire to protect someone can also end up hurting them.
And so I think it does that quite well.
It's also a big commitment for parents, too. If your kids say, I want to do figure skating.
OK, you have to kind of decide that's like extra work for you, too.
Oh, yeah. It's a lot of driving. Well, in Los Angeles, it's a lot of driving people to and from
the rink. That's one of the things that is not really shown in this or really any anime. But
how long is it taking Inori to get from school to the rink? How often is she going?
Maybe close. But other than that, she has to prepare dress and then go to practice,
not only practice, but also competitions. And it's a lot.
Yeah. The way that the dress that's made for her in episode four or so is presented is just
her mom magically just makes it instantly. Right.
She clearly liked it. Yeah. She enjoyed it.
And so it's a lot of work. Yeah. To the effect of, well,
I got like really good at this with your sister. So it was not that big a deal for me to make it.
Yeah. And I didn't love that moment.
I wouldn't have minded there have been like, you know, a couple shots of her mom slaving away on
this very intricate dress over the course of a couple of nights being like, yeah, it wasn't that
easy. Yeah, we needed that.
I agree. Yeah. Anyway, so like, I think in a way,
not all the characters, but you can kind of feel each character's emotions or like
people have been in their shoes. Yeah.
Did you want to talk about figure skating in general?
Oh, I just wanted to sort of say, I think figure skating is an especially
brutal sport to compete in because there are so few spots at the top.
女性フィギュアスケーターの挑戦
And it is one of these things where a lot has been made about, especially for female skaters,
how there's just this very, very short window of time for most girls when they're going to have
enough leg muscle to be able to pull off the jumps, but before like their body develops too
much and it becomes really difficult. And so I think for most female figure skaters,
the time where they're going to be competitive at something like the Olympics is really like
14 to 17 or something. It's a really small window and you can compete before or after that age,
but it just physiologically becomes really difficult once you're like 18 to 20 to continue,
like unless you happen to have like exactly the right genes for how your muscle and fat and
everything else is spread out through your body. It's just really hard. And so the idea that's
very present in the show about having this small window of time to kind of get ready, get good,
execute, have your own in the sun, that just feels so real. And I think all the drama around
female figure skating, the past Olympics with people getting disqualified for, you know,
substance use and like, you know, doping and stuff and, and everybody being like that age,
right? 15, 16, 17, maybe 18 years old. It's just, it's so hard to go through that like as an
adolescent. Yeah. It's a, it's a really difficult sport. I think emotionally, mentally, physically,
everything. It's funny. I'm from like cold place. People assume I'm good at skating in general.
I'm from a warm place and people don't assume that I'm good at skating and I'm not a good
skater, but I'm a competent skater. It's, it's not about where you're from. I mean, it is,
but like not necessarily. If you're from cold place, you're good at skating because it's all
up to where there's a link. I skate link or not. Or if you live near a body of water that freezes
over regularly, but if you're not, then there would be no reason to assume that. Yeah. So this
愛知とフィギュアスケート
anime is based in Aichi prefecture, which is pretty famous, known for figure skating because
they have good ice rinks and good coaches. So a lot of like good figure skaters come from Aichi.
Interesting. Now I had a question about Miike, who's one of the characters. Her accent is a
Kansai accent? I think Aichi. Is an Aichi accent. Yeah. Some like specific part in Aichi. Okay.
Cause it sounds a little bit Kansai then, but not totally. Yeah. The, I I've always heard that
the sort of Nagoya Aichi area accent is like very strange. And the main character doesn't seem to
have that type of accent, but Miike definitely does. And some of the coaches do. And they're,
when they're all yelling Nba for Gamba, is that a thing that people all over Japan do? Or is that
a dialect thing? I don't, I don't think either. I don't know. Maybe it's like a figure skating
cheer? That's like a new gen alpha thing. I don't know. In Japan, I'm not sure. Okay. Got it.
By the way, the manga artist Tsuruma, this anime medalist is her debut manga. Wow. Yeah.
Congratulations. I know. That's amazing. That's a big win. Yeah. She had no like knowledge or no
experience with figure skating. She just liked it? I don't know why she chose it,
but she wanted to support like Aichi, where she's from. Oh, okay. So Aichi and then figure
skating kind of linked together. So because she had no experience with figure skating, she
started going to figure skating class for a month. Wow. To know more about it. That must
have been quite a workout. Yeah. Yeah. And then she started making the manga. Her favorite voice
フィギュアスケート技術の発音
actor, voice actor Inori, who did Inori. And while she was still working on manga, she always hoped
for the voice actor to the role. That's cool. Yeah. And it came true. Oh, that's a message,
such a heartwarming story. Yeah. So let's talk about this unfortunate Japanese pronunciation.
Okay. When we watch anime movies, like we watch it with like original language,
original audio language. Yeah. Just to be clear, there is no other way to watch anime except for
with the original audio track. I mean, even with other like non-Japanese movies, we try to watch
with the original language, like Italian or like, I don't know, Arabic. Yes. I mean, I get that.
We don't like to, we don't do dubbing. I'll go out on a limb here and say that when rewatching Nadia,
I finally understood the position of people who say they watch dubs because they don't want to
see the subtitles messing up the screen. They want to see all of the animation. So I do understand
that. But you might as well watch it with the sound off. I mean, and that's like, I guess that's
like not fair to like the actors in the dub and like Princess Mononoke's dub, which was a very
important, like watershed anime for me is amazing. The actors in that are really good. In fact,
most of the Miyazaki films, like they got actual actors to do them and they're voicing different
characters and it's good. But I think if you're an otaku and you like dubs, you're not an otaku.
Like I will say that you can't be an otaku and be like, but I listened to dubs,
bring on the flames in the comments. I will die on this Hill.
I think it's okay to like dubs, but you're not, don't kid yourself that you're an otaku. If you
like dubs, that's all I'm saying. Okay. I'm Japanese. My Japanese is my mother tongue.
So naturally I watch in the English subtitles to just compare.
Anyways, so that's how we watch animes and the movies. So when we watched one of the early scenes,
when people started saying, yelling, like figure skating techniques, we were like,
what did they just say? Yeah. I mean, and it's not like I didn't see this coming,
but there is a move in figure skating called the sit-spin and there's also a flying sit-spin
where you jump into a sit-spin directly. And not that I would have expected the director,
you know, the voice director to be like, guys, you can't pronounce this in the Japanese way.
Like you don't understand, but they didn't and they really went for it. And so there's,
and like, partly I think it is also that they're not just like casually talking about this or like
saying it really fast. There's like an exclamation of like, oh my God, it's a flying sit-spin.
And it's, yeah, it's just, and they say it over and over again. So it's pretty funny.
Yeah. It's okay. Let me try to say it like in Japanese.
Sure. Sit-spin.
Yeah. It's like, it's even worse somehow when you like say it with a fake Japanese accent.
Flying sit-spin.
Yeah. It's like the most important part of it became not the spin, but the flying shit.
Oh my God. This is like, I mean, people don't care. Like we happen to know both languages.
Right.
So that's why it's like, oh my God, I can't believe they're saying this way, sort of.
But like, I guess it's been like that for many years in the figure skating world.
Yes. It's also a problem when Japanese people just try to say city at all. But like, I think
Japanese people who know any English have been told by somebody not to pronounce it as she.
And so it's worked out. Okay. And here, that's what I'm saying about this is like,
nobody said, guys, it's an English word. Like you should try to pronounce it instead of shit.
And so they're just, they're just going for it. And it sounds bad.
Every time when they say it.
Every time. Yeah. It's pretty funny.
It's so funny. Yeah. Like I used to teach English online and like one of the students always said
in my city, I try to fix him, fix his pronunciation. Like he couldn't do it.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's hard for some people and we just got to respect that languages are difficult.
Yeah. Yeah. But like people, you know, we were like, what did you just say?
Yeah. Anyway, we, we needed to mention about this. So if you're watching the anime was
dubbed, like switch to Japanese for this reason. For once.
Just for a good laugh. Yeah. Just for good laugh.
When you get to the sit spin episode. Yes.
オープニングテーマの分析
Yeah. All right. Let's talk about opening and ending theme songs.
Opening is bow and arrow by Kenshi Yonezu.
Yeah. How's that?
It's fire. It's so good.
It's so good. And you were thinking about the title, right?
Yeah. So, um, I'll be honest and say I haven't either looked up the lyrics or paid a lot of
attention to them, but the notion of bow and arrow, it really strikes me as representing
the coach who's the bow and Inori who's the arrow. And the idea that, especially because
this was a dream he had that he wasn't able to achieve. He's using his experience and
time to kind of help her fly further by firing her off like an arrow. And, uh, the opening
animation really emphasizes that idea pretty strongly by connecting their experiences.
And there's a lot of her sort of, there's a lot of, not just her, but all of the figure
skaters sort of flying or skating really quickly. And so it's one where the music is
just good because Yonezu Kenshi is a great composer and the animations really good and
the animation and the music sync up really well. And the sort of meaning and title of
the song seem to go really well with the main idea of the anime. And so it just hits on like
every level for me. Yeah.
Like soon, I think some like figure skaters do use this song for like exhibition or something.
Oh, that would be a pretty intense flex.
Yeah. Right.
To be like, I'm going to take this anime about figure skating's theme song and dance to it.
Yeah.
It would be amazing.
It'd be cool.
エンディングテーマの特徴
Yeah. And the ending theme song is Atashi no Doresu by Neguse.
This was sort of what I expected, to be honest. As a song, I find it a little bit forgettable,
but it's kind of cute. It feels very Inori. It really feels like it's at her level as sort of
a fifth grader who's just trying to learn some figure skating. It's sort of cute. It's fine.
I like the music's hop, pop, hop, jump, jump, jump, like those little cute lyrics. It's cute.
The animation features an earthworm really prominently. And part of this is just Inori's
character, when she's depressed, digs in the ground to find an earthworm.
Yeah. But to get worms so that she can skate for free.
Is the guy working at the ice rink a fisherman?
No, no, no. He has birds.
He feeds the earthworms to his birds? I mean, I guess they do eat worms, but okay. Anyway,
the earthworms thing is kind of random, but in the ending theme song, an earthworm changes into a
giant magic earthworm and flies through the sky. And just like her coach, who is grossed out by
worms, I'm okay with worms. I've put worms on hooks and gone fishing. It's not like I can't
handle worms at all, and it's still kind of weird and gross to me, and I don't like it.
アニメのテーマ曲とキャラクター名
She also has a giant stuffed worm toy that also just kind of, it just creeps me out and
rubs me the wrong way. I don't like it. I like the ending animation's cuteness.
Yeah, very cute.
I think it really is like a needed counterpoint to the emotional tension and heaviness of the
rest of the show. It doesn't come across as as memorable as the opening, but it's a good piece
of work that suits its purpose really well.
Come on, it's like Yonezu, opening is Yonezu.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's hard to compete.
Right. Maybe that's the point, right? Maybe the opening is like that one girl who's the champion,
and the closing is Inori like gamely trying along to get a little bit better.
I forgot to tell you, actually Kenshi Yonezu is a big fan of Metalist when he was reading
the manga, so he made an offer to make a theme song for the anime.
Isn't that kind of what happened with The Boy and the Heron also?
No.
Oh.
I told you this story.
I know.
Yonezu Kenshi was like, really liked the translations of Country Road.
Oh, right.
Right? And the translations was by Suzuki Toshio producer's daughter. And then there was like a
chance to meet in the talk at a radio show. And then one day,
Miyazaki Hayao was singing Paprika in the Ghibli nursery school, and Suzuki Toshio heard it.
And are you interested in his music? And sure. And then that's how it happened.
That's a series of intense coincidences.
Yeah.
Okay. Well, anyway, yeah, good for him for taking some. I think, again,
I'm always sort of surprised when famous people turn out to be like fans of manga and anime.
And so I just think it's cool that Yonezu Kenshi reads comics.
He can draw so well. He's like a multi-talented person.
I don't think there's a name for like EGOT, but maybe he can get one that maybe he'll
draw an Oscar winning animated feature. And part of his EGOT will involve anime that he drew
in addition to songs that he wrote for anime or for the movie that he also drew,
which would be a crazy achievement.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
All right. Let's do word of the day. Today's word of the day.
Words of the day.
Words of the day are?
The names of the characters. So let's start with Tsukasa because I don't know what that means.
Tsukasa means like people who are in charge and do it, who are responsible and do their job.
Does it imply that they do their job or just that they're supposed to do their job?
I don't know the differences.
Is it just like a, it means like a bureaucrat or someone who's?
Manage.
Manager. His name is manager?
Manage. Yeah.
That's like almost just boring in terms of its directness.
But it means like something he in charge and actually do it.
That's the meaning.
Is there a different word for in charge, but doesn't actually do it?
I don't know.
Okay. That's what I was trying to get at before.
Okay. All right. I'll take it.
All right. Well, so that's one. The second one, Inori, I can do this one, means prayer.
And so that feels very appropriate to her character,
trying to sort of pray her way into something new.
Her older sister, Mika, what does this character's name mean?
She, her Chinese characters is, Mi is fruit and Ka is like a dream or something come true.
Yeah. So, oh, like Kanaeru.
Kanaeru, yeah.
Yeah. So like it really came true.
Yeah.
Right. And then her mother's name, Nozomi, means wish or hope.
Yeah.
So they've got like very surface level names that very much capture who they are in the show
フィギュアスケートの魅力
in a direct way. But all of these are also names people really just happen to have sometimes.
Inori sounds pretty rare though.
I bet it's more common nowadays.
Inori, really?
Inori, Nozomi, no, not Inori.
Nozomi, Mamoru and Mika are totally very common names.
Inori, yeah, less common, but I wouldn't be surprised nowadays if people are like doing
that now. And Tsukasa is also a pretty normal name, right?
It's like Dr. Stone. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Same name.
Yeah. You're right.
Yeah. By the way, so Inori Yuizuka is by Natsumi Haruse, the voice actor.
She actually loves watching figure skating. That's her hobby.
Okay.
And then she can, you know, distinguish the techniques and then jumps and stuff.
Nice.
And then even before the anime was made and the manga was out, she started reading the manga.
Oh, cool.
Because it's about figure skating and she was hoping to get the role.
I mean, yeah, that's so everybody wanted to be involved with this.
And then the manga artist really liked the voice actor.
And then she was writing fan letters to her for a long time.
I'm going to be a manga writer, manga artist and write about this.
And I want you to be in it.
Yeah.
So what's the moral of the story?
I need to start writing some fan letters to famous manga artists being like,
I know I'm just a random dude from America with a podcast,
but can you put me in your anime somehow, please?
You need to manifest.
That's not really something I do.
I think it's important to say it.
I'm going to go ahead and let you do the manifesting here.
I've been doing.
And I, yeah, you know, you really, really have.
And I'm going to continue being like a lazy cynic who can only criticize things.
I think it's an important thing.
If you just keep it yourself, you can forget or you don't care.
But once you say it out of your mouth, you feel like a little bit of pressure.
And then you kind of go aim for it.
No.
I feel like you rip me constantly for saying things and then not following through on them.
So I think maybe this is a personality difference.
Probably.
Okay.
Yeah.
We'll just leave it there.
All right.
Check your local library.
If you're interested in reading this week's manga for free,
you can read it at LAPL, at least as far as I know.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
If you liked this week's episode, please give us maybe like 90 points.
Oh, very cool.
Yeah.
Ice skating reference.
90.00.
How about a 97.23?
Okay.
That sounds more.
Yeah.
Like it.
Yes.
Which is you can't do that on Spotify and a podcast.
But we'll accept five stars instead.
Yes.
Yeah, buddy.
Yeah.
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