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The Winter 2025 anime seasonhas finally begun, and many shows have premiered their first episode, including Medalist, a sports anime about ice skating that fans of 2016’s incredibly popular award-winningYuri!!! on ICEmight just be able to use to fill the void left after the MAPPA-produced ended with hopes of a movie completely dashed.
WhileMedalisthas a completely different approach to its characters and premise, it hits emotional notes well and could go on to be one ofWinter 2025’s best anime titlesshould it continue as well as it began. Let’s take a closer look atMedalistand what makes it a series that could go for gold and comes highly recommended, especially forYuri!!! on ICEfans.
What IsMedalistAbout?
A Young Girl’s Dream of Becoming A Figure Skater Inches Closer to Reality
The story ofMedalistfollows 11-year-old Inori Yuitsuka, a fifth grader whodreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Despite the fact that she has no formal training, Inori skates at her local ice rink in secret, away from the critical gaze of her peers and adults who think she is “too old” to only just be starting serious training. On top of that, Inori faces having to convince her mother to allow her to dedicate her life to figure skating after her older sister’s career ended in failure.
One day, Inori has a fated encounter with Tsukasa Akeuraji at the local ice rink, a 26-year-old former ice dancer who sees his younger self in Inori; a child with competitive ice-skating ambitions being told that they’ve started “too late”. Tsukasa decides to become Inori’s coach, helping her work towards her dream of becoming an Olympic gold medalist.
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Hulu
Disney+
Medalistis adapted from the manga of the same name created by Tsurumaikada, which has been serialized in Kodansha’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since May 2020 and collected into eleven volumes as of August 2024.Kodansha USA licences the manga for distribution in North America.Medalisthas had very positive reception since its serialization as the series won the Next Manga Award in the print category in 2022, the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category in 2023, and the 48th Kodansha Manga Award in the general category in 2024. The anime adaptation is produced by staff at studio ENGI (Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corp, with Yasutaka Yamamoto (chief director,Aharen Is Indecipherable) serving as director, series composition by Jukki Hanada (script,Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!), music by Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) and character designs by Chinatsu Kameyama (chief animation director,Management of a Novice Alchemist).
On the ice, it’s hard for even the world’s best athletes to land every move successfully. There are so many elements to consider. But if you do tricks that other skaters never could; if you’re able to dance beautifully and freely in a way that makes people forget that you’re on the ice at all… that’s real magic. That’s what it means to be a world-class figure skater.
–Medalist, episode 1
Why Yuri!!! on ICE Fans Should Watch This
It’s Not Just The Ice-Skating
The obvious point of connection betweenYuri!!! on ICEandMedalistis the fact that they’re about the same sport, ice skating, and aiming to do so at a very high, if not, the highest level of competition, but as far as the shows go, they’re completely different. At first glance, it might not make sense to recommend this to fans ofYuri!!! on ICE, who enjoyed that show because it also featured a particularly exciting romantic dynamic between the central pair that is obviously impossible to feature inMedalist, but what connects these titles is their exploration of the psychological and emotional sides ofhigh-level competition in a sportwith as high barriers to entry as are present in ice-skating.
Both Yuri Katsuki and Inori Yuitsuka are psychologically vulnerable at the beginning of the series as their temperaments and low self-esteem due to various personal circumstances come together to create a primary “antagonistic” force in their respective journeys within ice skating.
For Yuri, a fear of excellence is part of what affected his performance in competition, but also his failures and lack of self-belief, but for Inori, her low self-esteem was partly because of her lack of distinction in any other field, her struggles at school and in making friends, as well as the fact that her mother is against having another daughter suffer the kind of life that commitment to ice-skating can bring. Both characters thrive when they have someone who truly believes in their abilities, and what will be particularly interesting for fans ofYuri!!! on ICEis seeingthe student-mentor dynamic between Inori and her coach Tsukasa, who has undertaken being responsible for her development as an ice-skater out of a desire to be the kind of encouraging presence he needed when he was younger.
This aspect ofMedalistis comparable toYuri!!! on ICE’sViktor Nikiforov’s undertaking of Yuri Katsuki’s training as a means of continuing his own growth as a professional. Medalist boasts an interesting approach to the ice-skating because, unlikeYuri!!! on ICE, we are seeing the journey from square one, as Inorilearns the basics of the sport, which then gives the series the potential for even more satisfying payoff.
