Medalist Season 2

Episode 3

While last week's eagle-eye view of the current competition worked out for the most part, I still think Medalist works better when it's focused on individual characters, so I'm glad this episode operates more along those lines. Sadly that focus isn't on Inori, who doesn't take to the ice until the credits start rolling, but rather on another of her new rivals, Yuna, who seems to be as driven to surpass Hikaru as she is. Unfortunately I can't say what we get of Yuna's story here is as interesting as what we've seen with some of the other girls, but for what it is, it's just solid enough to hit where it needs to.

Right away, there are two big things we learn about Yuna. The first is that she has a big crush on Rioh's dad, Shinichiro, which Inori has the misfortune of learning when she accidentally stumbles upon her roleplaying with puppets. It's fairly cute and harmless for what it is, but considering the prior sins of series like Bunny Drop, it's hard not to instinctively tense up these kinds of jokes, so I'm glad that this one manages not to overstay its welcome. Instead, most of the gags here are more about how deeply embarrassed Yuna is at having Inori walk in on her deep dark secret, and giving us some of the funniest facial expressions the show has had on offer to date as she threatens bloody murder if Inori ever tells another soul what she witnessed. The other, and more interesting thing we learn about Yuna though is in regards to her inferiority complex towards Hikaru. Yuna started skating around the age of four after watching one of Shinichiro's performances, and her natural talent quickly had her labeled as a genius, but she eventually had her spotlight stolen by Hikaru who started catching everyone's attention including her idol Shinichiro. While Yuna is still considered to be one of the best skaters of her generation, her status as a “former genius” has left her with something to prove, and the show does a great job of conveying through her performance.

Whereas Riina and Manaka demonstrated a lot of polish or showmanship in their routines, Yuna's gets across her level of desperation as she attempts to nail a series of high level jumps. Despite a few noticeable falls, she's extremely quick to pull herself back up without slowing down as she moves on to the next jump, all of which is captured in strikingly good detail thanks to how well the animation sells the choreography. With such a drive to win, the outcome here is hardly in doubt, and Yuna's efforts allow her to shoot ahead to become the current first-place contender. As solid as the execution is though, I do also feel like a lot of Yuna's story here feels like a bit re-tread of what we got with Rioh (who appears in this episode just long enough to bully Inori and show how much he's started looking up to Tsukasa) and his own complex towards Hikaru, so while I found this episode enjoyable enough, I didn't find Yuna all that compelling compared to some of the other skaters we've come across. That said, even a slightly weaker episode of Medalist still hits pretty well, and Yuna's performance here does at least help in raising the stakes for Inori's turn on the ice. With the top skaters having all dished out higher level jumps that what she's currently capable of, it looks like Inori is going to have to think outside of the box to take home the gold, and while we don't exactly know what that entails, after all two episodes worth of buildup, I'm hoping that the payoff will be worth it.

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Medalist Season 2 is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+.