Medalist Season 2

Episode 5

With Inori's first high-level competition behind her, I figured that the show would jump straight into her prepping for the next one, but it seems we aren't done with Tsukasa's side of the story quite yet. This time we get to see him have a bit of a reunion with Jun, and after spending so much time looking, Tsukasa finally has a chance to see Jun's skating up close and better gauge the distance between them. Considering how his story has been handled up to now, I was expecting this display to mostly dig into Tsukasa's inadequacies about how his ice skating career went, and while there's certainly quite a bit of that here, it also raises the question of how Tsukasa is currently choosing to use his talents.

The episode picks up where the last one left off. Despite how tense their last meeting was, Jun doesn't actually remember who Tsukasa is, which is kind of funny given how clearly terrified the latter is, and makes it awkward when Shinichiro invites the two of them to skate with him in private. It's there that we learn that part of Jun's motivation for taking Hikaru on as his student was being given the opportunity to continue practicing on the ice himself, and the fact that he seems to have actually improved from where he was when he retired only makes Tsukasa feel insecure about giving up on his career. However, while Tsukasa struggles on the ice a bit thanks to being unused to using regular ice skates, it doesn't take very long for him to adjust, and he catches Jun off guard with his resilience

Given that this show isn't above indulging in some classic shonen sports tropes, I was expecting this feat to poke at Jun's sense of pride, but if anything he ends up being genuinely impressed by Tsukasa's unusual level of talent and questions why he refuses to return to his career as an ice dancer. Tsukasa, of course, claims that he's decided to dedicate himself to being Inori's coach and that's the only thing he cares about, but admirable as that is, Jun isn't entirely wrong when he says that Tsukasa is wasting his own potential away by focusing so much of his attention on her instead of himself. While we know how serious he is about making Inori into a world-class skater, and that his reasons for doing so are extremely sincere, we also know that Tsukasa has never really recovered emotionally from all the setbacks he faced before meeting her. So even if he's not necessarily using Inori as a way to redo his past failures, training her has made it easier for him to continue running away from himself and maintain the idea that he was never meant to have a lasting pro career. Considering that Medalist has almost been as much Tsukasa's story as Inori's, I wouldn't be shocked if this encounter was setting up the possibility of him making some kind of return to ice dancing, but I could just as easily see the story doubling down on Tsukasa's commitment to only being a coach while letting him continue to make peace with his past through helping Inori to achieve her own dreams. At the moment, it's hard to tell exactly which way this will end up going, but the fact that both feel like they would make sense for Tsukasa's character speaks to how well it's been handled, and regardless of which way it falls, it's nice to see him still being challenged to face his regrets.

On the downside, all this time spent on Tsukasa means we don't get much of Inori this week (which honestly seems to be the case for the entire season so far) as her screen time here is limited to starting her next round of training. Thankfully it looks like that time will be well utilized as Hikaru is attending the same training session, and we'll finally get to see the two of them on the ice together. While I'm not expecting that to turn into all that serious of a face-off, now that Tsukasa's gotten the chance to see how he stacks against his idol, it's time for Inori to do the same.

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