Characters / Sk8 the Infinity

S Skaters

Reki Kyan (REKI)

Reki Kyan (REKI)

One of the main protagonists of the anime who loves skating at S and works at Dope Sketch.

See his entry here.

Langa Hasegawa (SNOW)

Langa Hasegawa (SNOW)

The other main protagonist of the series. He quickly befriends Reki and gets dragged into the world of skating.

See his entry here.

Miya Chinen (MIYA)

Miya Chinen (MIYA)

Voiced by: Takuma Nagatsuka (Japanese), Ry McKeand (English)

A first-year middle schooler with quite a cheeky streak, Miya is a contender for Japan's national team. Despite his confidence, he hides some deep insecurities from his childhood.

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• Animal-Eared Headband: He wears a cat-eared hoodie with his S costume.
• Animal Motifs: His sly personality and the cat-themed outfit he wears for S make him resemble a cat. All his casual outfits, as well as his phone case and skateboard, feature cat heads somewhere on them. He also has a tendency to scratch people when he's angry.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Subverted. Miya is the smallest and youngest among his peers, but he is equal to or even better than some at skating.
• Blackmail: Point-blank tells Shadow to drive them to S or he'll tell on his manager about his secret skating persona.
• Cat Boy: The overall theme of his S costume, which includes a hoodie with cat ears and a cat tail, as well as gloves with pink paw prints. He is also drawn with a cat-like appearance whenever he is being mischievous.
• Child Prodigy: Miya is already a contender for Japan's national skating team, despite only being in middle school.
• Combat Pragmatist: Played with. He doesn't actually do any physical fighting, but he's very creative with his skating moves. He demonstrates for some interviewers some spins and even does a handstand on his board, able to quickly anticipate some bullies trying to sabotage him and land gracefully. When going against Langa, he performs his own version of a Railside, where he's riding the side of the board while his wheels propel him further.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially towards Reki. He also has no problems with poking fun at Shadow and his main insults are towards his age where he calls him an "old man".
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Langa beats him, Miya quickly becomes part of the team, popping up to help Reki train for his beef against Adam.
• Deliberately Cute Child: He generally hates being babied and treated like a kid but he has no problem using his young and cute appearance to his advantage, like that time he cockblocked Joe by making himself look shorter and pretending to be Cherry and Joe's son (complete with a Blush Sticker and Puppy-Dog Eyes!) thus driving the girls clinging to Joe away.
• Does Not Like Spam: He doesn't like tomatoes.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Tries to talk Reki out of challenging Adam into a beef to make him apologize for looking down on Miya who tells him not to sympathize with him and that he's okay with Adam's words.
• Everyone Has Standards: For as haughty and rude as he comes off, he never wants to see his opponents endanger their lives, such as his race with Langa where he worries that other is likely going to fall off the broken rails.
• Friend to All Living Things: He's the only other person besides Manager Oka that Sketchy overtly likes. In an episode preview when Reki is asking him questions with one being who's his type, Miya responds with his fondness for animals.
• The Gadfly: Doesn't mind messing with the others around him when given the opportunity. Whether it's blackmailing Shadow, pretending to be Joe's son so he can cockblock him from picking up girls or calling Cherry his "mom" and asking for the man to buy him a game, or repeatedly using "slime" to insult Reki.
• Hair Antennae: He has two strands of hair at the top of his head that stick out.
• Hidden Depths: While his academics aren't brought up in the story, it can be implied by Reki's opening narration that Miya's "happiness" is to eventually get into a good school.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Due to his incredible skill at skateboarding, this has led the friends he had around his age to abandon him out of jealousy. He tries to wear a prideful persona and claims he doesn't need friends, but deep down he's incredibly lonely and just wants people who understand him. Luckily for him, Reki and Langa gladly become his friend.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Happens the most in the English dub where his voice cracks the most when he's stressed or angry.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He's on somewhat friendly terms with Shadow, who's 24 years old, but is more friendly with Langa and Reki who are in high school while Miya is still in middle school.
• Insult of Endearment: He calls Reki a "slime", which was an insult at the start. When they do become friends, this nickname becomes slightly more affectionate in Miya's own way.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's plenty cheeky and condescending towards those he considers below him in skill, but he lightens up significantly after Langa beats up and Reki defends him from Adam. He also gets worried for Reki during his second race with Adam who doesn't hold back on beating the ever-living shit out of Reki every chance he gets.
• Kick the Dog: His habit of calling Reki a "slime" and belittling his skills after beating him in an impromptu trick-off was the start of Reki's self-esteem taking a pounding. Even after the two had become friends, it becomes apparent that Miya's past insults still played a role in Reki's self-esteem taking a blow.
• Logical Weakness: A Child Prodigy he may be, Miya is still a young teen, meaning he has little chance of victory when going up against more experienced and physically large adults like Adam or Snake who easily speed past him.
• Lonely at the Top: Miya explains that the more skilled he got, the more his friends resented him. It got to a point where his friends completely abandoned him, leaving him to believe that he's much better on his own.
• Mouthy Kid: Miya starts out as a Bratty Half-Pint when he antagonizes Reki and Langa, but after Reki befriends him, he becomes more of a mouthy kid.
  Reki: Langa, go talk to her!
  Langa: Why me?
  Reki: You know, if it's me, they [girls] get cautious!
  Miya (laughs mockingly): You know your place.
• The Perils of Being the Best: Being a very talented skater and winning prizes made his peers become quite jealous of him and avoid him, giving him the Tall Poppy Syndrome treatment.
• Picky Eater: When Reki shoves a hamburger in his mouth, he angrily fights back saying to not shove fatty food in his face. Justified as he tries to have a pretty strict diet as an athlete and even attempts to make a menu for Reki to prepare for his upcoming match with Adam.
• The Prankster: Downplayed, however, he loves to play pranks on his friends from time to time like cockblocking Joe and replacing Reki's Cola with a healthy but nasty-tasting protein drink.
• Sailor Fuku: His middle school uniform is this.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Compared to Reki, he wears greens and purples to contrast. Subverted when after Langa defeats him in a race, he's soon brought into the skate squad with Reki promising he won't leave him like his old friends did.
• Signature Move: His Railslide which he changes so he's actually sliding down on the side of his board, causing himself to propel forward at a faster rate. He even teaches it to Reki for his race against Adam.
• Significant Birthdate: February 22nd, which is Cat Day in Japan.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: During the episode 3 dub preview, Miya claims he can talk to cats.
• Sprouting Ears: He occasionally sprouts cat ears and a cat tail for stylistic effect when he's being mischievous.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Miya became a victim of this. As his exceptional skating skills earned him recognition and awards at his school, he drifted apart from his "friends" who felt like they were left behind by him and told him to "go get famous or something. The hero can't party up with slimes." He even Lampshades this at the end of episode 3.
  Miya: "The better you become... They [true friends] all disappear in the end anyway."
• Tsundere: Most obviously towards Reki. Miya will occasionally tease him about his relative lack of skating skills or call him a "slime", but he also tries to help Reki whenever he can, such as preparing a practice menu for him before his beef with Adam (who Reki had challenged in order to defend Miya) or proposing to visit a hot spring to help heal Reki's injuries.
• When She Smiles: At the end of Episode 3, when he realizes that Reki and Langa are serious about wanting to be his friends.
• Tears of Joy: Miya keeps tearing up every time he realizes Reki is okay and doing well during his rematch against Adam.
• Took a Level in Idealism: He was very cynical about friendships and Prideful at the beginning, belittling Langa and Reki's whole Power of Friendship thing they got going on, to the point where Reki and Langa's bonding moments piss him off enough to make his winning bet against Langa involves Reki getting humiliated just because they are friends. But he becomes noticeably less cynical after his defeat at Langa's hands, and befriends them as a part of his Character Development.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Downplayed. Adam had an interest in Miya due to the boy's skills at skating and hoped to cultivate those skills. However, once Langa appeared at S, Adam uses Miya to lure him back when he doesn't make a reappearance for two weeks. Once Miya ends up losing his beef against Langa, Adam is quick to dish out sniping remarks on why Miya is always left alone and pretty much points out how disposable he was. Miya is visibly trembling at these words, and Adam then shifts his full attention to Langa. Although Adam does admit that once Miya gets older he'd "love him" the same as all of his other skating partners he takes an interest in.

Hiromi Higa (SHADOW)

Hiromi Higa (SHADOW)

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Chris Guerrero (English)

A brash skateboarder who loves winning, Shadow's known as the "anti-hero of S" for his dirty tricks and overall unpleasant personality. In his civilian guise, he's a florist who's known for his gentle personality.

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• Alliterative Name: Hiromi Higa.
• All Love Is Unrequited: In the credits of the final episode, just as he's about to finally ask his manager out on a date, her boyfriend rolls up in his car to greet her. He drops the bouquet he was carrying in shock, and the scene cuts to him skating at S while barely holding back tears.
• Ambiguously Bi: At the very end of the series, once Shadow goes through a montage of heartbreak after learning that the manager he'd been crushing on throughout the series already had a boyfriend, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it frame of him happily proferring an entire pot of peony flowers to Manager Oka, who awkardly has his hands up to make space between them while smiling. As these parts of the ending are voiceless, it's ambiguous whether he's gotten over her and being a professional, or Has a Type.
• Big Brother Instinct: He doesn't like to admit it, but he does look after the younger ones in their group. When he hears Langa, Reki and Miya's stomach grumbling after skating for a long time, he immediately tries to order four bowls of ramen at Joe's restaurant.
• Butt-Monkey: Expect him to be the butt of every joke in the series, even in the ending song. In the final episode he isn't spared this fate as it's revealed his manager who he's been pining after and finally worked up the courage to ask out on a date already has a boyfriend.
• Calling Your Attacks: He has a tendency to call out his skateboarding tricks, all of which are flower-themed.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: If the beach episode is any confirmation, all it takes for him to get drunk is one cup of sake.
• Card-Carrying Jerkass: In the first episode he pulls moves like calling a girl something incredibly insulting and burning Reki's skateboard alongside his usual tricks, and flaunts all of it, calling himself the 'anti-hero' of S. He even has to explain to Miya after he's pulled into their friend group what the difference between what he and Adam does is. As the series goes on he drops most of his worst moves, but occasionally still plays rough. It still comes back to bite him, though.
• Combat Pragmatist: This guy will use any trick in the book to get the upper hand, even going so far as to throw miniature bombs as his opponent. Cherry Blossom remarks upon it at one point, calling SHADOW's methods vulgar.
• Defeat Means Friendship: It takes a few episode, but after his defeat against Langa, SHADOW quickly gets roped into becoming the kids' chauffeur from/to Crazy Rock and then dragged into babysitting them on their beach trip to Miyakojima.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Shadow has a huge crush on his manager and goes the extra mile to help her at his job.
• Easily Forgiven: He breaks Reki's arm and burnt his skateboard after their beef, even wondering sadistically if they'll get a rematch so he can break his other arm. When Langa races against Miya, Reki seems to have dropped all animosity towards Shadow, leading him to become the groups chauffeur and Butt-Monkey.
• Even the Guys Want Him: One of his male fans even declares, after SHADOW defeats Harry in the quarter-finals,
  Groupie: I'm fallin' for ya, Daddy!
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite playing up being a heel and using cheap tricks, Shadow is clearly disgusted when ADAM resorts to straight-up assaulting Cherry in Epiosde 9 during their beef.
• Fiery Redhead: He's red-headed with a hot-blooded personality to match.
• Floral Theme Naming: The various tricks he uses against his opponents (Haemanthus Bomb, Gladiolous Laser, Violet Spider) are all named after flowers. It's later revealed that this is because he works as a florist during the day.
• Gender-Blender Name: His given name is more often used for women.
• Heel: He comes off as this as the "anti-hero" of S, and is even dragged into the Sk 8 group after Langa beats him.
• Innocently Insensitive: In Episode 7, he tells Reki that the S community sees him as "that guy who's not SNOW", unknowingly touching on a very real insecurity that Reki has been wrestling with for the past few episodes––namely, that Reki isn't a good enough skater to stand at Langa's side.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being quite brash and unpleasant, he's more than willing to help out Langa and Reki (albeit reluctantly) whenever they need a ride to S. He also lightens up on his unpleasant nature quite a bit after seeing Langa's potential.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Goads and insults a skater in episode 1 who he was supposed to challenge but ended up going against Langa who offered to go on the wrong board that Reki brought. Episode 10 is where that same skater returns to hurt Shadow's manager with a metal bat, blaming Shadow for humiliating him and his girlfriend dumping him after that race and sending Shadow to the hospital.
• Ma'am Shock: Shadow often retorts that he is 24 years old whenever Reki calls him "old man."
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: The Shadow persona he performs in "S" plays up being a Heel. In his actual everyday life, Hiromi Higa is rather laid back and works an assuming job as a florist. Even with his getting annoyed by Reki and Langa, he's considerably nicer outside of "S."
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Gets badly beaten up after work before his beef with Adam, causing him to drop out due to injuries. Notably unlike Cherry, who was able to attend the bonus beef in a wheelchair, Shadow remained hospitalized overnight.
• Only Has Same-Sex Admirers: In the "S" community. While Joe and Cherry Blossom seem to have a lot of female fans, Shadow's groupies are shown to be all men.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted in two ways:
  • Reki, Langa, and Miya are easily able to figure out Shadow's true identity despite his attempts at hiding with thick make-up and glam-rock gear, down to even his workplace. Miya's only explanation is that it was "obvious."
  • However, although Shadow himself is well-disguised, his pink car is not. The car is property of the flower shop he works at, and has its name, "Tulip", printed all over the sides. Shadow does put the effort into taping over the logo whenever he takes the car to Crazy Rock, but the name is still pretty visible, and the tulip decals aren't covered at all. A smart kid like Miya would easily be able to guess the name of the flower shop.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Despite being very brash as a skateboarder, he's a florist in his civilian life and is quite proud of it.
• Running Gag: The others, especially Miya referring to him as an old man will lead him to respond with an indignant "I'm only twenty-four!!"
• Secondary Color Nemesis: His S costume makes use of this, combining his orange hair with green eye makeup and magenta lipstick and accessories. Fitting for the "vulgar", "anti-heroic" persona he puts on when he skates.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: When he's at his job he speaks in a higher pitched voice, whereas when he races he likely drops it to what's his actual tone of voice.
• Signature Move: His "Hyacinths Bombs" which he throws at his opponents and "Gladiolus Laser" which he uses to blind them.
• Significant Birthdate: September 14th, meaning that Shadow is a Virgo—a nod to his delicate feminine side.
• Team Mom: He comes off the most like this when he's stuck looking after the teens. He tries to make sure they're eating food and while it was against his will, chaperoned the kids at the beach, even taking care of the food and where they would be staying at for the trip.
• The Worf Effect: Episode 8 sees him getting outwitted by the significantly more skilled "Snake", who proves that he can play even dirtier than him.
• Younger Than They Look: Reki frequently calls Shadow "old man", which is followed up by Shadow reminding him that he is only 24 years old.

Kaoru Sakurayashiki (CHERRY BLOSSOM)

Kaoru Sakurayashiki (CHERRY BLOSSOM)

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Japanese), Daman Mills (English)

One of the legends of S, Cherry Blossom uses his AI board named "Carla" to calculate perilous turns and dangerous freeways. He is known for his AI calligraphy in his civilian guise.

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• Ambiguously Gay: While Langa's sexuality is broached more directly, by episode 9, due to parallels in Cherry and Adam's high school relationship with Reki and Langa's, and Cherry's reaction to Adam saving him from falling, there's an implied question about whether Cherry once admired Adam a great deal, or had something of a crush on him. It doesn't help that in present time he sincerely hoped that Adam would go back to how he once was in their high school years until Adam decks him in the face with his board during their race. His English-VA does headcanon him as gay.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He has a keen eye when breaking down other skaters abilities and tricks, and was the one who told the others how Adam's Love Hug worked likely from intense study on his own part. He also quickly figured out that Langa was likely a snowboarder, based off of how he tried to get on Reki's board when they were outside his building.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: While they do bicker in most of their scenes together, Cherry does care for Joe as he gets nervous when the other is racing against Langa. He also went straight to Joe's restaurant when he snuck out of the hospital, likely because he felt safe enough to sleep there.
• Berserk Button:
  • Calling him "Kaoru" in S. Conversely, anybody calling him "Cherry Blossom" or any variant outside of S.
  • People referring to Carla as "just an AI". Or just anything happening to Carla, such as losing battery life causing him to wail to Joe asking for a blanket and "warm power outlet" (Joe thought Cherry was referring to a real person being in trouble). He almost seemed ready to hit Sketchy who was sleeping on Carla had Miya not been there to hold him back.
• Big Brother Instinct: Most of the time. He's fairly indifferent about what the others do, and only really shows some form of annoyance if they're actively putting themselves in danger. During his business trip at the hot spring, he slaps Reki's hand that was reaching towards his alcohol with his fan.
• Big Brother Mentor: While he's typically standoffish, he does give some advice to the younger cast and even offers some encouraging words when they are doubting themselves.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: He always uses "feebleminded gorilla" and other similar childish insults exclusively with Joe.
• Boring, but Practical: Cherry doesn't have any signature moves unlike most of the other skaters, he instead calculates the exact angle or board he needs to go faster and stay ahead of his opponents. While it's nowhere near as flashy as the others, it has made him one of the top skaters of S and also one of the founders for a reason.
• Brutal Honesty: When amongst his friends, he usually says what's on his mind and doesn't hold back on his criticisms.
• Character Tic: He tends to hold his fan up close to his face when he's observing people or thinking.
• Cherry Blossom Girl: Gender-Inverted Trope: One of the kanji characters in his family name is "sakura" (cherry blossom) and his S alias is "Cherry Blossom" in English. Furthermore, he has pink hair, his birthday (March 27) is Cherry Blossom Day, and his overall motif consists of traditional Japanese imagery; outside of S, he's known as a master of calligraphy, which is a traditional Japanese art.
• Chick Magnet: Downplayed. It's not to the extent that Joe is, but he seems to have a lot of female fans under his skater persona that rival's even Joe's own fans. His civilian persona is also quite popular with the ladies as his boss noted they made the right choice in hiring him since their female clients were ecstatic to see him.
• Childhood Friends: Joe and Cherry are this, according to their bios on the official site. The anime shows that they've known each other since at least high school, and have also known Adam from back then. Word of God confirms in an interview they've known each other since kindergarten.
• Cool Mask: He wears a mask that covers the lower half of his face when he skates, giving him the look of a ninja.
• Crazy-Prepared: He has different forms for Carla from her AI stand he uses when interviewing Langa, a wrist communicator, a skateboard and wheelchair. The last one he uses when sneaking out of the hospital after Adam decks him in the face during their beef to go to Joe's restaurant.
• Cultured Badass: In his civilian identity he's a well-respected calligraphy expert, and he's also a highly-skilled skater with the knowledge to back it up.
• Companion Cube: Cherry Blossom's skateboard contains an artificial intelligence named Carla, whom he is fond of and treats as a human to the point where he gets offended when Joe calls her a machine and corrects him that she is called Carla. In the manga spin off, he basically uses Carla for everything from finances to checking the bathwater temperature which Joe even lampshades.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His civilian clothes are usually dark, but he's overall a nice person.
• Deadpan Snarker: Comes across like this a lot, especially towards Joe.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Cherry Blossom does his best to keep his personal life and S identity strictly separate, to the point he gets pretty violent when someone slips up. In episode 2, he kicks Joe when the latter uses his real name while they are at S, while in episode 5, he slaps Reki for calling out to him using his S alias during one of his public calligraphy showcases.
• Double Entendre: In the English dub, Joe annoyedly tells Cherry he only calls his A.I. by a girls name because he, "can't get a real one". Given how everyone just calls him Cherry, it could be implied Cherry hasn't had any romantic partners, unlike Joe.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: At a glance one can mistake Cherry for a woman if they don't hear him speak. Played for laughs during the beach episode when Miya tells his "dad" to stop flirting and points to his "mom". Joe stares at a pair of slim pale legs and admires them before he looking up and realizes it was actually Cherry.
• Experienced Protagonist: He's stated to be one of S's legends and has the skills to prove it. He also occasionally gives the younger skaters some advice, such as when he demonstrated Adam's Love Hug.
• Former Teen Rebel: In high school, Cherry wore a lot of piercings and even had Delinquent Hair.
• Fragile Speedster: Everything about Cherry's S persona seems to be a play toward this, including his ninja get-up. He nearly reaches Adam's level of speed, and shifts his style to be more rough against his opponent...but, when he least expects it, his holding onto emotional connections with the antagonist of the series shatters him.
• Gender-Blender Name: His name "Kaoru" is a unisex name, fitting with his feminine appearance despite being male.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He seems to lose his temper fairly quickly, but to be fair, this mainly happens around Joe.
• Hidden Depths: In an interview, it was said that he has anxiety and often has Carla play him a lullaby, especially one from his childhood.
• Insult of Endearment: Joe often refers to him as "Four-eyes" or "cheapskate".
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Compared to the others, he does lean a bit more on the feminine side. Such as the time where he carried around an umbrella so he wouldn't get a tan, carries around a fan and he's been described with traits that are more classically feminine.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: He gets really angry when anyone refers to Carla as just an A.I or machine as he'll always respond with "Her name is Carla!"
• It's Personal: He apparently holds a seven year grudge against Adam and is main reason he wants to skate against him.
• Kimono Is Traditional: Played With. Kaoru always wears traditional Japanese garments as a skateboarder and in his daily life, and his public image is that of an elegant and refined master calligrapher. However, he's also very interested in new technologies and he is a Former Teen Rebel.
• Like an Old Married Couple: His arguments with Joe come off like this, and they've known each other since they were kids.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Cherry skates down to the precise angle in his races no matter what, rarely taking chances or getting creative which Joe even points out. If Cherry can't clearly predict his opponents' moves or how they'll react, this puts him in an incredibly vulnerable position. This kind of scenario is used against him during his race with Adam where Adam takes his board and smashes it across Cherry's face mid-race, leaving him with heavy enough injuries to send him to the hospital.
  • Although never really brought up, he also still needs to charge Carla or else she's pretty much useless for skating and Cherry's everyday life.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has a fine appearance and a mostly calm personality, and has very long hair to boot.
• Major Injury Underreaction: His reaction to Adam smashing a skateboard to his face mid-race? Sneak out of the hospital to go to Joe's restaurant and saying it was "just a scratch".
• Meaningful Name: Cherry Blossom's family name has the kanji for cherry blossom in it (桜 "sakura")
• Missed the Call: While like Langa, Cherry's eyes become iridescent as a sign that he's about to reach Adam's space in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, he's...rejected. As it turns out, for the better.
• Motherly Side Plait: Gender-inverted. He does wear his hair like this when he's not skating at S.
• Motor Mouth: If he's found something to nitpick on, expect him to do non-stop critiquing.
• Mr. Vice Guy: His first scene shows that what gives him happiness is the amount of money he can make from his job, and he's among the skate group as one of the heroes. Joe also frequently comments on how Cherry is a "cheapskate", and it can be implied that one of the reasons Cherry goes to Joe's restaurant so often is to get a free or discounted meal and bottle of wine. In episode six, he was particularly annoyed when the group managed to mooch a free meal off of him (likely Joe getting payback) and attempts to have Miya pay for his part of the hot-spring bill, calculating to eighty-thousand and thirty one yen.
• Noodle Incident: Him losing his wallet during a school trip, which lead to Joe getting them even more lost. Cherry then has to point out that he was the one who had to make an itinerary for their other trip in Paris.
• Not So Above It All: He may act calm and cool, but he does have his moments of childishness, mainly when he's with Joe. Other times he does join in on the other's antics, such as racing to the beach, the hot spring and getting in on scaring Reki with ghost stories.
• Old Maid: In the Cindereki drama cd, Miya claims that Cherry is getting on in years and would have a hard time landing a husband. Cherry responds by attacking Miya with calligraphy.
• Only in It for the Money: Implied in the first episode what gives him the most joy is the amount of money he gets for his work or services. This likely helps him fuel his interest in making his own tech like Carla.
• The Perfectionist: Especially in skating. He has Carla calculate the exact angle needed to make a turn and the exact board needed to make his run faster. Joe even calls him out by saying there's no fun in his skating if it's all based on calculations. When Joe's racing against Langa, Cherry starts rambling on how Joe should have done something slightly different which would have made him go faster, causing Miya and Shadow to become a bit annoyed.
• Pink Means Feminine: Cherry Blossom's main color is pink and he is depicted as graceful and elegant (traits that are more associated with femininity) compared to the rest of the characters.
• Playing Both Sides: He gives advice to Langa in order to beat Adam when it's time for them to race, but he also watches the match closely in order to get data for himself to help beat Adam if he ever gets the chance. When Joe does make note of this, Cherry brushes off his underhandedness by claiming both sides benefitted from this, so there was no problem.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Subverted Trope: He has pink hair and looks nice enough, but he's quite acerbic when someone rubs him the wrong way (that person being Joe most of the time).
• Significant Birthdate: 3/27, which is Cherry Blossom Day, or Sakura no Hi, in Japan. It's a Japanese pun for 3 x 9, which equals 27. 3 in Japanese is 'san,' which can be abbreviated as 'sa,' and 9 in Japanese is 'ku' or 'kyu', which forms a pun for saku, which means to bloom.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Out of all the main characters, Cherry Blossom is the most strategic and knowledgeable about the most advanced tricks used in skateboarding. He was also able to figure out Langa had snowboarding experience based on the way he stood on the board, and furthermore, during his races, he calculates his turns to the most perfect degree to ensure he has the advantage. Oh, and he's also the only main character who wears glasses regularly.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: With Joe whenever the two are at least within shouting distance of one another.
• Stepford Smiler: He's pretty good at keeping up a cheerful or polite persona in public, such as when he's getting "acquainted" with Joe, or when Reki calls him Cherry during one of his public exhibition, but manages to keep up a friendly smile. However, once he's out of view and earshot, all hell can break loose.
• Stronger Than They Look: He's not particularly muscular like Joe and seems more on the slim side. However, he can easily lift up a teen like Reki and make sharp turns when skating. In extra materials, Joe even notes that despite his slim frame, Kaoru's punches and kicks are incredibly painful.
• Super Wrist-Gadget: Subverted. In his civilian clothes, he wears what appears to be a simple purple band on his left wrist which he uses to communicate with Carla.
• Team Mom: Played for laughs. When pretending to be Joe's kid, Miya refers to Cherry as mom, even in the episode preview when begging his "mama" to buy him a game. In Sk8 Chill Out the others join in on the teasing and refer to Cherry as "mom".
• Technician Versus Performer: The Technician to Joe's Performer. He has Carla calculate the exact angle he needs to make a turn and the type of board he'll need during races which gives him an advantage against others. However, this makes him fairly predictable in a race leading Adam to smash his board against Cherry's face and sending him to the hospital.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: After Adam trips when his attack misses Reki, it cuts over to Cherry who's at first trembling with his head down but then bursts out laughing at Adam's karma finally coming to bite him.
• Those Two Guys: Rarely seen without being near Joe, on and off S.
• Trademark Favorite Food: In the preview of episode 11 where he and Joe are bickering once more, Joe reveals that Cherry actually prefers Italian food over Japanese food.
• Tsurime Eyes: In contrast with Joe's Tareme Eyes.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Joe. They bicker at each other constantly, but they are still somehow best friends.
• Volleying Insults: Whenever he and Kojiro are near each other, expect them to start insulting one another in less than a second.
• We Used to Be Friends: He used to consider Adam a friend when they were in high school and constantly got into trouble together. In the present, he's bitter over how much Adam has changed but has a small bit of hope he does still care for their previous friendship or at the very least with enough prompting, will end up changing his ways. In episode 9, Adam smashes his board against Cherry's face during their race, leading Cherry to being quickly sent to the hospital, and losing whatever remaining hope he had of Adam ever being who he once was.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Joe will sometimes slip and call him "Kaoru" when they're at S to Cherry's anger and he hits Joe in response. However, when he's about to skate against Adam, Joe is genuinely concerned for the other especially after Adam decks Cherry in the face, causing Joe to rush over while calling him Karou.

Kojiro Nanjo (JOE)

Kojiro Nanjo (JOE)

Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Jonah Scott (English)

Known in S as the "strongest six-pack skater", Joe is one of the proclaimed legends of S. He runs an Italian restaurant in his daily life.

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• Adaptational Sexuality: While Reki, Langa and Cherry all have subtextual to near-textual queer-coding in the original Japanese, Joe is much more lowkey, as can be seen in Homoerotic Subtext in the main page, as his and Cherry's quips to each other veer more toward Snark-to-Snark Combat and less toward flirtatious snark. The English-language dub, however, changes that, with his stating lines like "You're cute, but..." at Cherry during their scenes together. Of note, Joe's English-language VA has mentioned that he sees him as bisexual.
• Ambiguously Bi: In the Japanese, it depends on how one interprets his Stupid Sexy Flanders moment with Kaoru, and The Stinger at the end of episode 9 that's open to a lot of interpretations. The English-language dub makes his bisexuality more obvious, in earnest, via the word of his voice actor, Jonah Scott.
• Ambiguously Brown: He's the most dark skinned out of the rest of the cast.
• Animal Motifs: Joe is often called a 'gorilla' by Cherry, and is one of the strongest and more muscular skaters.
• At Least I Admit It: He calls all of the other skaters at S idiots who can only connect through skateboarding, but does admit he's not an exception.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As much as he picks fights with Cherry he really does care for the other, as shown when he tries to stop Cherry from going through with his beef against Adam. He's also the first to get to Cherry after Adam slams his face with a skateboard. When he checks on Cherry he seems ready to fight Adam before Shadow comes up in his car and hurriedly calls for Joe to focus on getting Cherry to the hospital ASAP which he quickly obliges to by carrying Cherry bridal style.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Adam is about to race against Reki, he and Cherry both arrive to challenge Adam to a race in hopes he'd leave the teen alone. During the hot-springs trip as Reki seeks out Joe for some advice, he gladly sits down to talk to the teen. At another point, when Langa is going at a breakneck speed, Joe catches up to him to break him out of a daze, worrying about where his mind is. When Reki hasn't shown up to S in a while, Joe seeks him out at the ramen shop and tells him not to be alone.
• Big Brother Mentor: To both Reki and Langa, encouraging Reki to not isolate himself and Langa to go find Reki.
• Bridal Carry: Gives one to Cherry after Adam decks him in the face with his skateboard, and has to carry him to Shadow's car so they can rush Cherry to the hospital.
• The Charmer: Joe is able to charm women easily and at least two women are often seen with him, much to Higa (Shadow) and Reki's annoyance.
• Chick Magnet: Girls are immediately attracted to him, and his supporters are mostly women.
• Childhood Friends: Joe and Cherry are this, according to their bios on the official site. The anime shows that they've known each other since at least high school. Word of God confirms that the two have known each other since kindergarten.
• Dynamic Entry: Joe smashes through a bunch of industry-grade steel to make a path for himself into the abandoned factory.
• Experienced Protagonist: He's been skating since at least high school and is quite skilled enough to be considered one of S's top skaters.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Flashbacks showed that he had short hair back in high school. Nowadays his hair is long enough to pull into a short ponytail.
• The Gloves Come Off: While he's been nothing but supportive and kinda to Langa, he does let the teen know before their beef starts that he's not gonna hold back during their race. Their entire beef nearly gave Langa a run for his money when Joe shows off his Power-Break and even smashing into a steel beam in the abandoned factory for a short cut.
• Graceful Loser: When he's chosen to race against Langa and ultimately loses, he takes it all very well and even congratulates Langa on a good race.
• Groin Attack: His bail reel for the ending song shows him suffering through a failed rail grind, appropriately named, "Nutcracker".
• Gut Feeling: He claims this is how he likes to skate, claiming there's no fun if he has to overthink everything like Cherry. During their late night discussions at his restaurant, he even notes that despite Adam being the top skater of S, he must be lonely based on a gut feeling.
• Hunk: His design is more handsome than pretty, and even In-Universe he's known for his strength and his well-built body.
• Insult of Endearment: Cherry constantly refers to him as "gorilla", but given how long the two have been friends, Joe likely knows it comes from a friendly place.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When he's racing alongside Cherry, Joe performs a trick over a rock and claims that there's no fun in skating if one doesn't take risks like Cherry does. Cue his board hitting something and nearly causing him to fall off as he flails around to keep balance.
  Cherry: Idiot.
• It's Personal: His reason for wanting a beef with Adam, he abandoned him and Cherry when they were teens and then started to hurt other skaters, changing from the happy guy the once knew.
• A Lady on Each Arm: Whenever he isn't at work, expect Joe to show up accompanied by at least two beautiful ladies. His first scene at the beginning of the series shows him kissing two girls on his arms.
• Like an Old Married Couple: His arguments with Cherry come across like this, and they've known each other for a long time.
• Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe, Joe is named "the strongest six-pack skater", known for two things: his strength and his abs. His S outfit features him in an open jacket that shows off his marvelously toned upper body. Outside of that, he dresses in a more conservative fashion in his daily life.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: He cultivates his muscles specifically for pulling off neat skating tricks. We see one such trick (using his back and arm muscles to pull off a Super Man) in Episode 9.
• Nice Guy: He's a friendly, upfront guy that gives advice whenever he can.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: He says as much to Langa just before their beef starts. Once they both start heading down the mountainside, Joe proves he was not joking.
• Noodle Incident: Claims that during one of their school trips his "instinct" helped them find Cherry's wallet, which the other corrects by saying he actually ended up leading them to a random restaurant in LA. He then brings up how the restaurant in Paris was nice, but Cherry again corrects him by saying he was the one who had looked it up.
• Offhand Backhand: Gives one to some mooks who are trying to sabotage Langa.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He's rarely referred to as Kojiro and even when not skating at "S" he's still called Joe.
• Real Men Cook: He's the owner of an Italian restaurant in his civilian life, and he also works as a chef there.
• Shipper on Deck: Not that explicit, but when he notices Langa feeling down because Reki wasn't around, he encourages him to go and seek out Reki. He does the same to Reki when he runs into the teen and gives him advice to talk it out with Langa. For the English-language dub, Jonah Scott has said he intentionally voiced Joe in a supportive role of someone who wanted to make two closeted characters feel safe, and sees their interactions in that kind of Big Brother Mentor way.
  Joe: It'll be alright if it's you two.
• Signature Move: "Power Break", a move that requires him to go at an insane speed to make a turn considered to be "impossible", eventually going so fast that it seems like he's going to hit a wall. He then uses his strength to lift him off to get ahead of his opponent. Cherry Blossom states that it's so impossible, only Joe could pull it off because of his sheer power.
• Significant Birthdate: July 7th, Tanabata.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Whenever he and Cherry are within each other's vicinity, even during their jobs or "S" races.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: At the beach, Kojiro briefly mistakes Kaoru for a beautiful woman. He's clearly admiring the view before he recognizes him.
• Tareme Eyes: In contrast with Cherry's Tsurime Eyes. They go well with his status as the series' resident Nice Guy.
• Tattoo as Character Type: He has a big tattoo on his left shoulder fitting with his muscled, fanservice-y body and his popularity with girls.
• Team Chef: As an Italian restaurant owner, it is inevitable that he cooks for the other S members sometimes.
• Technician Versus Performer: The Performer to Cherry's Technician. While Cherry is calculative and precise, Joe's style is wild, flashy and relies more on his pure strength alone. He nearly gives Langa a run for his money when they race against each other.
• Those Two Guys: Rarely seen without Cherry being nearby on and off S.
• Tranquil Fury: When he sees Adam smashes his board against Cherry's face, Joe has a calm but anxious expression. He's downplayed when he runs up to Cherry and then Adam calls him boring, gets mad and he seems ready to fight Adam.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He's best friends with Cherry Blossom, but that doesn't mean that they won't bicker with each other or throw a few insults here and there, along the way.
• Volleying Insults: Whenever he and Cherry are near each other, expect them to start insulting one another in less than a second.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: True to his title as the "strongest six-pack skater", Joe also loves to show off his aforementioned six-pack that he is almost always shirtless when skating. See Mr. Fanservice above.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Adam, before their relationship got strained to where it is today. During Cherry and Adam's race for the English dub, he even explicitly says, "But now, I want nothing to do with that creep."
• You Are Not Alone: Joe essentially says this to Cherry after he, heavily-injured, falls asleep in his restaurant in the after-credit scene of episode 9.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: While he never hears it, the rare times Cherry does refer to him as "Kojiro" he's very worried or stressed over his friend.

Ainosuke Shindo (ADAM)

Ainosuke Shindo (ADAM)

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), David Wald (English)

The founder of S, he's a legendary skater that has crushed his opponents with little effort. It isn't until Langa joined the competition that he makes his formal appearance to S sometime, dead-set on making Langa his "Eve". His civilian guise is that of a powerful politician.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: His weird one-sided obsession with Langa can be described as this. He shows interest in Langa when he witnessed his exceptional skating skills, and how instead of being scared of him due to his aggressive playing style, Langa actually gets thrilled. After this, he looks forward to skating with Langa and even draws a heart next to his name in episode 9 and gets really disappointed when he doesn't pull out his name in the tournament draw.
• Abusive Parents: Well, more like abusive aunts. Episode 8 shows that he was constantly hit on the wrists by his aunts for not meeting their expectations, brainwashed into believing that what they were doing is "love". Because of this, Adam cannot tell the difference between love and violence, given when he claims that he's been "in love" with all the skaters he has beefed with.
• Adam and/or Eve: Ainosuke calls himself ADAM and is obsessed with Langa, wishing him to be his EVE.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Adam is also known as the "Matador of Love", so of course he is often associated with bulls. Notably, his board has bullhorns on the front.
  • In some merchandise material, Adam seems to be connected with peacocks. Fitting, given the way he struts around S and his flamboyant attitude.
• Anime Hair: He has vivid blue hair, and in his Adam persona it's even spiker than Reki's. He has a much more realistic and subdued hairstyle as a civilian.
• Badass Boast: When he's about to have his beef against Reki, Tadashi asks him whether or not he should reschedule his flight. Adam scoffs, and tells Tadashi there would be no need since he wouldn't take longer than 15 minutes.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He always wears a suit, is a corrupt politician and is the main antagonist for the story.
• Bad Boss: Adam starts off only verbally mistreating Tadashi, calling him "dog" under his breath more than once and ignoring Tadashi's requests and suggestions to focus on his own goals. However, it's revealed later that he plans for Tadashi to be his sacrificial lamb in the political field to save his family's skin, and when Tadashi finally goes up against him, he reacts aggressively, saying "A dog can't disobey his master," and threatening harm if they face each other.
• Berserk Button: He quickly starts losing his temper at S once Snake shows up. The reason being he knows it's Tadashi and is furious his assistant is going against his orders and wants to take S away from him.
• Big Fancy House: It is only natural for a guy who comes from a wealthy family. His house is similar to those old western houses with a fireplace and everything.
• Big Bad: He serves as the main source of conflict and danger in the series, pushing Langa into increasingly insane and dangerous games, and their rivalry in turn jeopardizes Langa's other relationships and troubles his private life, to top it off he outright physically attacks other characters like Reki and Cherry
• Big Entrance: When racing against Langa for the first time he rolls out a red carpet and presents the teen with a huge bouquet of roses. Then when he announces the S tournament he jumps out of a helicopter parachutes down and lands on his skateboard. For the actual tournament itself, he sets off firecrackers around a stage and leaps up into the spotlight, to the cheers of the S community. Say what you want about Adam, but the guy knows how to make an entrance.
• Big "YES!": Gives one in the English dub when Langa decides to "dance" with him instead of pulling away.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's pleasant enough when he associates with people, but it's clear as day that underneath that front lies a rotten Jerkass that will pull some very dirty tricks to get his way.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Of the metaphorical kind. His mask has black lenses over the eyes, which makes his sclerae black when his literal Technicolor Eyes shine through.
• Building Swing: At one point, Adam swings across the abandoned factory on a makeshift zipper like Tarzan to try and overtake Reki.
• Calling Your Attacks: He'll sometimes call out his Love Hug move and when racing against Reki when he's about to bash him in the face with his skateboard he yells, "Full Swing Kiss".
• Camp: He talks very dramatically most of the time and throws in random English words like "lovely" in his speech, he is also obsessed with "love" in general, as well as Langa, which all highlight his disturbing personality. His campiness is exaggerated in the English dub.
• Campy Combat: Oh, and how. First, he always makes over-the-top entrances to S (like showing up in a helicopter) and has a very flamboyant demeanor when skating. Second, his skateboard, costume, and mask all have hearts somewhere on them, and even his moves' names are all associated with the word love, such as his infamous "Love Hug" move.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: When he first races against Reki, he calmly pulls the teen in as the two go up a corner pipe and then pins Reki to the ground while clearly enjoying his opponent screaming in pain.
• Character Tics: He has a tendency to noisily tap his feet on the ground whenever he is excited.
• Char Clone: While he has dark hair, Ainosuke goes by the Red Baron nickname of Adam, wears a red suit in that persona, and notably wears a mask, all while pulling imposing moves on his skateboard. He also Used to Be a Sweet Kid and is, in current time, wrapped up in a lot of fantastical ideas. By the end of the series, he's "switched sides," so to speak, although he's The Friend Nobody Likes and still seems very willing to engage in schemes in his every day life. He's also very...murdery, in the last episodes. Not to mention a known Jerkass throughout.
• Chessmaster: Not so good at this in skating, as he's totally shut out and has difficulty comprehending The Power of Love and how it affects the person he's obsessed with, but at the very end of the series, it's shown that he actually struck a deal to avoid the consequences of his crimes. Crosses into Manipulative Bastard, as he had Tadashi believe the entire time that he'd be selling him out.
• Childhood Friends: Episode 8 reveals that his secretary Tadashi was the one that taught him how to skate. After Adam's dad burnt his skateboard and Tadashi didn't defend him, that friendship morphed into a Mean Boss and Beleaguered Assistant relationship.
• Combat Pragmatist: Is willing to do just about anything during a race if it gives him more of a thrill or gets him ahead of his opponents. Such as dragging bystanders down as a way to increase his speed at corners or smashing Cherry in the face with his board mid race. He even breaks off some stalactites just to try and injure Langa during their final beef.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Has shades of this, or as close as one can get as a skateboarder.
• Competition Freak: Adam uses his illegal skate park to find someone he thinks can actually stand a chance against him. Turns out that if it's someone he thinks shouldn't be able to, he freaks out.
• Cool Mask: He wears one as part of his skating costume and persona at S, and this is lampshaded by both Reki and Langa who think his mask looks awesome.
• Dance Battler: Adam's strategy involves forcing his opponent to dance in a tango with him as a form of intimidation. When he skates against Langa in episode 5, he can be seen pulling off a few dance moves as he glides down the S track. When skating against other opponents, he appears to dance around the S track, which allows him to avoid certain obstacles.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As detailed above, Adam was constantly physically and verbally abused by his aunts during his childhood. This led to his obsession with skateboarding and finding his "Eve", morphing him into the Combat Sadomasochist we know him today.
• The Dreaded: Adam is very much this In-Universe, being a highly intimidating skater that not only has some serious skill, but also some very dirty tactics that revolve around intimidation. Shadow notes that he's taken out all of his favorite skaters as soon as he came onto the field and has caused major injuries to his opponents.
• Depraved Homosexual: Or Depraved Bisexual, as his sexuality isn't specified. Not only is he dangerous, but his skateboarding mannerisms have clear sexual tones, as his theme is love, after all. Plus, his fixation on Langa borders on more than just admiration, and he also has a very suggestive conversation with him in the preview for episode 5. Then there's the fact that he repeatedly calls him his "EVE", and how he even has Ominous Multiple Screens that specifically monitor Langa's every move at S. Talk about creepy.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • During his race with Cherry, Adam for the most part seems uncharacteristically calm and quiet. This is due to the fact he doesn't want to race against Cherry, because he finds him boring, and whacks him across the face with his skateboard.
  • In the final episode where he races against Langa for the last time he seems oddly calm throughout the race. Likely due to the fact he had just been beaten by Reki in his last beef, was technically abandoned by Tadashi and now seeks to bring Langa down with him in their beef.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When skating against Miya, who is still a middle schooler, Adam spares him the innuendo-laden treatment and dangerous stunts he usually inflicts on his opponents. Though he notes that he will "love him" once Miya matures a bit.
• Evil Costume Switch: In episode 12, he changes his matador outfit to a backless dark blue outfit to symbolize the Grim Reaper.
• Evil Is Hammy: There's barely a moment when he's not spouting some lines about love or giving his love to his opponents. It's even worse around Langa.
• Flower Motifs: Adam is often seen with red roses, which symbolize "passionate love."
• Freudian Excuse: Adam's nasty personality and reckless skating are because of the constant pressure he had been facing in his daily life starting from his childhood, where he is surrounded by relatives who encourage him to be manipulative and force him to keep up appearances. In addition, he was forced to give up skateboarding and his friendships with Joe and Cherry in high school. See Abusive Parents above.
• Giggling Villain: In the English dub he tends to giggle a lot more, especially when he's skating against Langa for the first time and takes delight in the other's frightened expression.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: To taunt his opponents, he will sometimes let them get a head start while he smokes.
• The Grim Reaper: His outfit in episode 12 resembles a grim reaper.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sort of. By the end of the series, Langa shows Adam that he isn't alone via the Power of Friendship, which elevates Adam's status in the group as The Friend Nobody Likes.
• Hidden Eyes: Of the meaningful kind. His eyes are totally obscured in Cherry's high school memories of him but are finally shown when he puts his hoodie down and tells them something along the lines of "it is okay for them to see his face because they are special". The reveal of his eyes most likely signals the start of the trio's friendship.
• Hypocritical Humor: When he challenges Reki to a rematch but refers to him as the "Third Wheel" in his card, he doesn't seem to connect or care that he's the third wheel coming between Langa and Reki.
• Informed Ability: Adam spent a couple of years in the United States after high school and he thus knows how to speak English. However, other than writing the skaters' names on the cards for the tournament, he doesn't demonstrate the extent of his knowledge in English nor does he ever speak English aside from "Love! Love! Lovely!" during his beef with Langa.
• Insult of Endearment: Throughout the show Adam refers to Tadashi as "Dog" ("Puppy" in the English dub) as they have a strained relationship. However, at the end of episode 12, Adam seductively claims that Tadashi be his dog forever, which Tadashi responds by blushing and smiling. This indicates the nickname has transformed from an insult to an actual pet name.
• In the Hood: He wore a hood covering his face during his teen years, letting it down around Joe and Cherry when he calls them special.
• Just Toying with Them: He does this for most of his opponents. When he first races Reki, he lets the boy get a head start as he casually takes out a cigarette, gets going after he takes a few drags and easily catches up in no time at all. He attempts to do the same with Langa, but instead of going through with the cigarette he ends up "dancing" with Langa to see how much he could take. In episode 10 he even feints a Love Hug on Reki and pulls away at the last moment, with Reki acting like the bull while Adam is the matador.
• Karma Houdini: Despite Adam's cruel and borderline murderous behavior, he never loses any fans in S, and becomes nothing more than The Friend Nobody Likes to the main cast at the end of the series. No one also takes his physical assaults very seriously. He is also pardoned at the end of the series from any political crimes for giving information about his accomplice to the police.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In episode 9, after plenty of flashbacks of Adam in the past showing how much he enjoyed being around his friends, Adam unexpectedly knocks Cherry out by slugging him in the face with his skateboard. He then follows it up by mocking Cherry, saying that he didn't want to beef with him because he was too boring. His words clearly hurt Cherry as Cherry's eyes visibly flinch when he hears Adam say this.
  • He terrifies and injures Reki in a way that leaves him with PTSD (to the point Reki has a tell-tale flashback), while Langa is brought uncomfortably near an I Have You Now, My Pretty situation during a match. He later tries to kill Reki. After Miya loses to Langa, Adam wastes no time in telling Miya how weak and insignificant he was, leading to the young teen to visibly tremble.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He beat up Reki in both of their beefs to the point of drawing blood. During their second beef Reki manages to outsmart him, causing Adam to trip and fall face first in the mud, to the amusement of all of the on-lookers at S.
• First-Name Basis: Tadashi strictly refers to him as "Mister Ainosuke", or "Ainosuke-sama" in Japanese. Since he grew up as the son of a servant working for the Shindo household, its expected he would address him formally, despite being close with Adam when they were kids.
• Leitmotif: Adam hums to Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor" in his first appearance. When the song plays while he is skating, that's when he starts getting serious. He also usually appears followed by a track called, "Step Like a Marionette" when he makes his appearances at S, an appropriate flamenco tune.
• Lonely at the Top: In episode 12, Langa discusses with Reki at what reason Adam has for skating and Langa wonders if it's because he's alone. It's implied when Langa leaves the "zone" causing Adam to be all alone he starts to freak out because he believes everyone always leaves him.
• Love Freak: He's a darker example than most, as he seems very into the concept of "love", but the way he acts on it is violent. It turns out when his aunts abused him, they said they were showing him love. So Adam sees the violence he inflicts onto his skating beef partners as love. In episode 11, it's revealed that he's aware of English love-related terms like "third wheel" while Reki isn't.
• Loving a Shadow: He seeks to find his "Eve" through potential skating partners, and when he's convinced that Langa would be his Eve, Adam adamantly chases after this idea of Langa. In a complicated sort of way, what Adam really wants is to have someone who can allow him to let his walls down and remind him of the fun he had when he first learned to skate. Something he recalls during his and Langa's final beef was skating with Tadashi when they were children, before he felt betrayed when Tadashi didn't stand up for him when his father burned his skateboard.
• Living Legend: Among the "S" community. Reki even likens him to a god.
• Madness Mantra: In episode 11 he starts madly yelling "Unforgivable!" after Reki manages to trip and humiliate him during their beef.
• Malevolent Masked Men: He wears a mask over face eyes, and he's an incredibly violent skater who will even pull down bystanders just to give himself an edge over his opponent or even physically assault his rivals himself.
• Meaningful Name: The "ai" in "Ainosuke" is written in the kanji character for "love." Likewise, the moniker "Adam" uses the characters for "love", "hug", and "dream", which stand for his Signature Move, "Love Hug."
• Mr. Fanservice: His first scene of the series shows his shirtless muscular torso. A lot of other shots either show off or linger on his backside, especially in his Sexy Backless Outfit for his final race against Langa.
• No Sense of Personal Space: As demonstrated in his heats with Reki and Langa, Adam pulls his opponents close to him to dance or be situated in romantically intimate poses as a way of intimidating them.
• Ominous Multiple Screens: Adam is usually surrounded by multiple screens on his walls which he uses to watch the races at S. He soon uses them to spy on Langa outside of S.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All throughout his race with Cherry, Adam is oddly quiet. Cherry believes it's Adam going easy on him, but it was just because Adam didn't want to skate against Cherry, knowing how boring it would be. He concludes the match by grabbing his skateboard and slamming it across Cherry's face which is the first time the audience see him physically assault someone. Adam is also eerily calm during his final race with Langa, leaving everyone on edge on what he could be thinking.
• Primary-Color Champion: Subverted. He wears a red matador outfit, has blue hair and has yellow outline across his outfit, but serves as the main antagonist in Sk8.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sure, he beat Reki in their rematch in episode 11, only very narrowly and by a sheer stroke of bad luck on Reki's part at that. That's not to mention the fact that his attempts at hurting Reki either failed or backfired, resulting in him stumbling over and getting humiliated at one point when he tries to hit Reki with his skateboard.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: He has bright red eyes that match his sadistic personality. In episode 5, they glow during his race with Langa, which unsettles him.
• Redemption Rejection: In episode 9, Adam smashes Cherry's face with his skateboard out of nowhere. What makes this scene particularly shocking is that it notably followed several flashbacks showing that Adam Used to Be a Sweet Kid.
• Roll Out the Red Carpet: In episode 5 before his beef with Langa, Adam rolls out a carpet so he can skate towards Langa and even presents him with a bouquet of roses.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: His outfit in episode 12 has a window that reveals the length of his back.
• Shirtless Scene: Adam spends the first episode shirtless. Word of God states that it was because his skating outfit was meant to be revealed later.
• Shrouded in Myth: Until his reemergence, there's nothing but vague rumors about him floating around. Once Reki does skate against him, he finds out too late that all of those rumors were true.
• Signature Move: Adam is known for his "Love Hug", a move where he generates enough speed while ahead and turns around 180 degrees to face his opponent with outstretched arms. While he has enough speed to move uphill, it's not as fast as the speed it takes for someone to go downhill. Nevertheless, it gives him the illusion of approaching his opponent menacingly and will trigger their basic survival instincts to avoid him, which often causes them to lose balance. Beginning in episode 9, Adam also has a secondary attack he names "Full Swing Kiss", where he tries to smash his opponent with his skateboard.
• Significant Birthdate:
  • May 1st, or 5/1, can also be read as go-i, which sounds close to the Japanese word for love (恋, koi).
  • May 1st would also make Adam a Taurus, the zodiac of the bull, which goes along with his matador theme.
• Smoking Is Cool: He often smokes before he starts skating. He also does this in between work when he gets his breaks.
• Something about a Rose: Adam is associated with roses in the first episode and even in his eye-catcher.
• Spectacular Spinning: During his beef with Langa, he links their hands together and spins them around fast enough that Langa ends up airborne. When Langa closes the distance between them to spin them even faster, Adam is absolutely delighted. In his second beef against Reki, Adam grabs the other by the arm and spins him across the ground. Played for laughs in Cindereki where, Adam drops his role as the narrator, kidnaps Prince Langa and spins him into the air.
• Stalker with a Crush: Adam's interest in Langa borders on obsession, and when Langa isn't seen at other S matches, he loses patience and decides to bait him back with a challenge from Miya. It doesn't help that later on he has drones following Langa around outside of S.
• Stepford Smiler: Adam is polite and cheerful in his daily life, but he shoulders the expectations of his family. Episode 7 reveals that he was forced to abandon skateboarding, as well as his friendships with Cherry and Joe, because of his family.
• Strong Family Resemblance: What little flashbacks we see of his father, Adam really looks like him as a grown up. One of his aunts has blue hair, tying in the resemblance.
• Taking You with Me: In the final episode his beef against Langa comes off as this as the two hurtle down an incredibly unstable and dangerous course.
• Thrill Seeker: He loves to play recklessly in every sense of the word, and was desperately looking for someone who was willing to take risks and match his adventurous nature when skating which is why he was instantly drawn to Langa, someone who's as much of a thrill-seeker as he is.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Played for Laughs: In the preview for episode 8, Miya threatens to strangle Adam for treating him like a baby. This backfires because this only makes Adam excited.
• Trash Talk: Delivers an ugly one to Kaoru and then Joe after decking Kaoru in the face with his skateboard, telling them that Kaoru was "as boring as ever." He has some pretty stinging lines aimed at Miya when the teen loses his beef against Langa, which was the main reason why Reki wanted to race against Adam. In his rematch with Reki he also dishes out a few harsh lines along with the relentless beatdowns.
• Unusual Euphemism: During his beef against Reki, Adam describes his beefs as meals one has to prepare carefully in order to bring out its greatest flavors. He later on describes his beefs with Langa as a date or a wedding.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Prior to Adam's drastic change in high school, he was very friendly with Tadashi (his now-secretary) and they often played together. In high school, he also hung out with Cherry and Joe plenty despite being from different schools. But now he became ruthless and has no qualms about physically hurting his former friends.
• Villainous Breakdown: In Episode 11 after Reki manages to trip and humiliate him in their race. While he still manages to defeat Reki, the crowd still cheers for Reki.
• Villain Respect: Adam arrives with nothing but cold derision for Miya, but expresses clear admiration for Langa's skills and unpredictability.
• Wall Pin of Love: While racing Reki in episode 4, the first thing Adam does when he pulls Reki close to him is to pin him to the ground as they make a sharp turn, which goes fittingly with his "love" theme.
• We Used to Be Friends: Adam used to be friends with Cherry and Joe when they were in high school.
• Wild Card: He's fairly unpredictable in his races, most of the time grievously injuring those he skates against. While he has a few moves that one can outmaneuver and anticipate, he's still willing to play dirty as he even uses his board to smash Cherry in the face during their race and sending the other to the hospital. He even tries to use his environment in his final beef with Langa to hurt the teen and attempts to hit him with his skateboard a few times.
• Worthy Opponent: Looks for one in all the skaters he sees potential in. One of the reasons he gets obsessive with Langa is because he sees him as this, his "Eve".
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no qualms hurting anyone during his races at S, even beating up Reki and sending him to the hospital.

Tadashi Kikuchi (SNAKE)

Tadashi Kikichi (Snake)

Voiced by: Kensho Ono (Japanese), Brandon Johnson (English)

The secretary of Ainosuke Shindo (Adam), who assists Shindo with his day-to-day activities as well as his S activities.

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• The Ace: As Adam's secretary, he's able to not only manage the other in terms of schedule, he also does literally any other thing Adam requires such as driving his car, a helicopter and even directing the cameras during S races. In Sk8 Chill Out! he was the one who coded and created Adam's invitations for the tournament. Multitalented would be an understatement for this guy.
• Ambiguously Gay: When Adam's aunts discuss setting up an arranged marriage for their nephew, Tadashi is quietly standing in the back but looks a bit concerned when he hears this. In the final episode, after Adam has swept some of his political dirt under the rug, Tadashi assumes he'll be fired or will be the one to take the rest of the blame. However, Adam tells him he's still his "dog" for all of time to which Tadashi smiles for the first time in the series, blushes and happily replies with an enthusiastic "Yes!" and the two hearts in the pool Tadashi touches◊.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Snakes, which he uses as his skater name and he even has one underneath his board.
  • Adam often refers to him as a "dog", and even the "Chill Out!" manga depicts Tadashi's personality towards Adam like this a lot.
• The Atoner: He believes that Adam's Start of Darkness is his own fault, and halfway through the series, he decides to enter the tournament in order to have Adam quit skateboarding forever.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Subverted. Thanks to his boss's double life, Tadashi, unfortunately, ends up being this, having to remind him of his politician duties. However, Adam is a Mean Boss, and hopelessly ignores him; thus leading him to follow Adam's path instead.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: He's a stoic by default who rarely speaks outside of what's important, but it's revealed later on that he's also a highly skilled skater that can beat Adam's record by a small margin.
• Catchphrase: "I have no opinions". It was because of these words that Tadashi utters that drove a wedge between him and Adam when they were younger, causing Adam to lash out at him more as adults.
• Childhood Friends: He was the one that introduced and taught Adam how to skateboard when they were kids, but somewhere along the way, their friendship broke down into the Mean Boss and Beleaguered Assistant relationship that they have now. It's revealed that when Adam was in high school, his father burnt his skateboard and when Tadashi seems like he's about to stand up for Adam, he falls back and says he "has no opinions" causing Adam to believe Tadashi was betraying him.
• Combat Pragmatist: His race against Shadow shows that he's more than willing to use underhanded tactics, such as using Shadow's bombs against him, to gain the upper hand.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When he appears at S for the first time, he easily outwits Shadow with his dirty tricks and beats Adam's record by two seconds. During the tournament, he easily outpaces Miya whilst agilely dancing between fallen debris, making the teen realize he's incredibly outclassed.
• The Cynic: His entire demeanor comes off as this, especially when he speaks with Reki and tries to persuade the teen to give up on skating. It's safe to say that his adulthood has not been all sunshine and rainbows.
• Dance Battler: Subverted. Given he was the one who taught Adam to skate, his moves are fairly similar to Adam's and he appears to be dancing as he skates. However, his style of "dance" is more low-key compared to Adam's extravagant flamenco and he doesn't attack anyone. Instead he uses it as a way to help him maneuver through the terrain.
• Experienced Protagonist: It's revealed that he's been skating as a kid and he's still relatively skilled despite having apparently not skated for a while. He was even the one that taught Adam and beat his record!
• Extreme Doormat: He rarely stands up for himself and keeps a neutral standpoint, something that ticks off Adam. It's to the point where he accepts taking the fall for Adam's crimes, despite having no hand in them whatsoever. Even in the past as he watches Adam's father Aichirou burn his skateboard, Tadashi meekly tries to voice his opinions before falling back into his assistant position and claiming he has no opinions. Episode 8 has him finally taking up a stand against Adam by deciding to skate in his tournament to make Adam give up skating for good.
• First-Name Basis: Unlike how Tadashi refers to Adam, Adam refers to him as Tadashi.
• Flat Joy: In an episode preview when Adam asks for Tadashi to praise him, Tadashi starts dropping compliments with no inflection in his voice at all.
• Foreshadowing: Tadadshi's deeper involvement in S can be hinted at in the opening where he looks to the screen and it cuts to one of the guards at S. This hints at how he becomes SNAKE in order to stop Adam from skating ever again.
• Hidden Badass: Episode 8 reveals that he used to skate and still very much can skate to the best of his ability, even beating out Adam's record by two seconds. Not only that, he plays even dirtier than Shadow, the resident "anti-hero" of S.
• Insult of Endearment: Adam refers to him as "dog" or at times in the English dub, "puppy". In the final episode, Adam still calls him his "dog", but it does come off as a bit more affectionate and Tadashi doesn't seem to have a problem with it.
• Ironic Echo: Tadashi telling Adam after he says he'll take the blame for Takano's scandal, "I have no opinions". It's the exact words he said when Adam's father burnt his skateboard when he was a teen, and Tadashi attempts to stand up for Adam before he falls back and says, "I have no opinions".
• It's All My Fault: Tadashi blames himself for Adam's cruel behavior, particularly for letting Adam's father burn his skateboard.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He's willing to indulge in Adam's obsession with skating and taking the fall for his political dealings that go south if he must. However, once the two things start to interfere with one another he joins S as "Snake" so if he beats Adam, he can make the other give up on skating and focus on his career. In the end, Tadashi realizes that Langa is the only person who can help Adam, and he decides to forfeit his match against him so Langa could race Adam in the finals.
• Meaningful Name: His given name uses the kanji 忠, which means "loyalty". Snake, his S name, follows the biblical references of Adam (who's represented by Ainosuke) and Eve (the person who Adam believes is Snow), being the snake that tries to manipulate Adam into giving up skating if he loses to him.
• My Greatest Failure: Considers teaching Adam how to skate is what lead him on his current path and deeply regrets it, seeing how it's warped his master and put his career in jeopardy. There are also some implication that he also regrets not speaking up to Adam's father after he burned Adam's skateboard when he was a teen. Played for laughs in Sk 8 Chill Out! where he's quietly apologizing to Miya before their match because he reminds him of Adam when they were younger, but this only confuses and creeps out Miya.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Tadashi opposes Adam's actions both in S and his personal life, but he defers to him nonetheless, even stating that he has no opinion on the matter (or, more realistically, that his opinion doesn't matter). In fact, he is so obedient to Adam that he's willing to take the fall for him if it means risking his own career. However, he does attempt to rebel against Adam when it comes to skateboarding, believing it to be his own fault for getting Adam into skating in the first place.
• The Nameless: He wasn't really referred to by his name until the after credits scene of episode 6.
• Not So Stoic: The only times his calm mask slips is when he's worried over Adam.
• Older Than They Look: As an adult he looks about Adam's age, but his voice actor Kensho Ono says he's actually older and his appearance when he was younger seems to indicate him being older of the two.
• Out of Focus: He's one of the main characters, but he's been given minimal focus due to him being merely Adam's secretary in a cast full of skaters. That is, until Episode 8, where it's revealed that he used to skate as a kid. He is able to impressively skate to the best of his ability despite having not skated for a while, beating Adam's record of four minutes by two seconds.
• Propertyof Love: In the ending credits of episode 12, Adam tells Tadashi he will be his dog for the rest of their lives. Tadashi smiles, blushes, and enthusiastically says "yes!", consenting to this future. The director said this was utmost happiness for him.
• Purple Is the New Black: If you look up close, his hair is a dull shade of dark purple.
• The Scapegoat: Adam tells Tadashi straight to his face that if anything were to come out of the investigation against him, Tadashi would be the one to take all of the blame. Tadashi has mixed feelings on this but doesn't dare disobey his master. In the finale episode, Adam tells Tadashi it was all a test and instead took partial blame for the scandal so it would make him look better to the public eye.
• Significant Birthdate: November 22nd, which is Good Husband and Wife Day in Japan, a reference to the Adam and Eve recurring element of the show.
• Shadow Archetype: He eventually is revealed to be one to Reki. Both taught their most important people (Adam and Langa respectively) how to skate, both are squarely put into support roles for them, and both carry a lot of regret for their actions in getting a friend hurt and betrayed. However, Tadashi lets the guilt consume him and becomes Adam's submissive punching bag and scapegoat in an attempt to atone, but Reki very much wants to be a part of Langa's world and is still in the process of realizing how he can achieve that without being an inferior.
• The Stoic: He's an emotionless, straight-laced adult who consistently has a tired look on his face. Even when Adam asks him for praise, his voice doesn't change from his monotone pitch. Compared to the lively personalities making up most of the cast, he appears downright somber in comparison.
• Throwing the Fight: Subverted Trope. He tells Adam straight to his face he won't be racing against Langa, so he can give his "love" to the other.
• Undying Loyalty: Even with a boss like Adam, he's pretty damn loyal. Yet over the course of the story while he tries to support Adam's skating lifestyle on the side, he slowly starts meddling with it once it starts to affect his political career. When he joins the "S" tournament as snake in hopes of winning so he can convince Adam to give up on skating, he even says if he loses, he'll take the fall of everything going on in Adam's career so the other could continue this life.
• When He Smiles: The first time he smiles after Adam sweeps his political investigation under the rug and tells Tadashi he's his dog for the rest of their lives. Compared to his downcast expression, he looks a lot younger and happier when he smiles.

Side Characters

Carla

Voiced by: Yukiko Motoyoshi (Japanese), Kimmie Britt (English)

Cherry's AI that he uses in his daily life as well as S life.

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• Artificial Intelligence: An AI Cherry created with his own hands. Besides a skateboard, she can also stretch and turn into other board shapes at Cherry's command. She also communicates to Cherry through his bracelet and even a wheelchair mode which Cherry uses in episode 10 when sneaking out of the hospital to Joe's restaurant.
• Catchphrase: "Okay, master."
• Color Motif: Black and purple.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Cherry hates it whenever Joe doesn't refer to Carla by her name and instead calling her a machine.
• Machine Monotone: She doesn't emote at all, but she can sometimes come off as snarky depending on Cherry's commands.

Shoukichi Oka

Reki, and soon, Langa's manager at Dope Sketch, a shop that sells skateboarding paraphernalia.

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• Big Brother Instinct: He warily goes along with Reki's request to have Langa wear some protective gear to his race against Adam, which fails. He also worries for Reki constantly, watching his match against Shadow, pointing out how he's clearly not okay despite saying so and worrying over his injuries.
• Big Brother Mentor: In episode 8, when Reki is at his lowest point, Oka thankfully finds him and has a conversation that eventually helps him get out of his rut.
• Foreshadowing: Seems to know Reki enough where he calls him out on saying he's fine by pointing out, "Whenever you say you're fine, you're really not." This comes to a head when Reki keeps pretending he's not feeling broken about being left behind by Langa and smiling until it becomes too much and breaks off his friendship with Langa.
• No One Sees the Boss: He tells Langa he would ask the boss about hiring him, but the viewers never get to see the boss as Oka's the one who runs the store.
• Only One Name: His full name is never revealed and he's only referred to as "Oka".
• Romantic Wingman: A platonic version, probably. Pops up out of nowhere during Reki and Langa's Meet Cute, telling Langa enthusiastically that they have a temporary position open due to Reki's injury, to Reki's protest (as he thinks he should be able to handle it on his own). Langa equally enthusiastically accepts, which connects Reki and Langa for the rest of the story.
• Team Pet: Has an odd fox-like animal named "Sketchy" as his companion, who seems to detest everyone who isn't him (with the exception of Miya). It's likely the store is named after Sketchy as well since the shape around the sign is Sketchy's head.
• Troll: Has no qualms in toying with Reki's emotions by claiming that he's struggling to keep the store going and that they're going in debt. When Reki worries over Oka's state before Oka playfully sticks his tongue out and whistles as Reki yells at him for lying to him.

Sketchy

Voiced by: Arisa Sekine (Japanese), Ciarán Strange (English)

Oka's pet fennec fox whom the store Dope Sketch is named and modeled after, and doesn't seem to like anyone outside of Oka and Miya.

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• All Animals Are Domesticated: Sketchy is a fennec fox that is relatively domesticated. He's just picky about who he likes, giving no one else any attention outside of Oka and Miya.
• Mascot: Serves as one for the series. Dope Sketch's sign and name seem to be referring to Sketchy.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Up until Miya shows up, Sketchy doesn't cuddle up to anyone else but Oka. So when Miya arrives at Dope Sketch to ask for a beef with Langa, Sketchy allows Miya to hold him, likely signifying how special Miya is.
• Running Gag: No matter how Reki or Langa try to get Sketchy to go along with their shenanigans or play with him, Sketchy usually ends up biting them or humiliating them. It's also a running joke to have Sketchy bite people he doesn't like.

Kiriko Kamata

Voiced by: Takako Honda (Japanese)

An agent who's attempting to investigate Adam for his political corruption.

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• Alliterative Name: Kiriko Kamata
• Fiery Redhead: Played with. She's very cool-headed and doesn't buy into Adam's "flirtations" or innocence. However, when she feels she's getting very close to digging up actual evidence against Adam, her temper gets shorter the more hurdle's she's given.
• Kicked Upstairs: While she's not able to charge Adam with any illegal doings, she's still promoted and sent to Tokyo.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Adam tries to flirt with her to get her off his tail, but she instead is creeped out by his advances and continues on with her investigation.
• Punny Name: She's "the mantis woman" because kamakiri in Japanese refers to a type of praying mantis.
• Put on a Bus: In the final episode, she's sent back to Tokyo on another assignment, after Adam tips off informants about a rival politician.

Nanako Hasegawa

Voiced by: Mie Sonozaki (Japanese), Colleen Clinkenbeard (English)

Langa's single mother, who frequently worries about her son and how he's adjusting to Okinawa.

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• Entertainingly Wrong: She worries that Langa is being bullied and his blank response doesn't initially assuage her worries. Once she starts worrying over the possibility of Langa's injuries he quietly informs her it was from skating. Later on when he asks her for advice on how to talk to someone he broke a promise to, she assumes it was someone he liked and encourages him to open himself up emotionally to this girl and let her know how he feels. Solid advice, but Langa wasn't talking about a girl.
• "Good Luck" Gesture: Gives Langa a strong thumbs up after imparting love advice. It's implied she's echoing Oliver, who sports one in their family photo.
• Good Parents: Frequently concerned about whether her son is picking fights or making friends. However, she doesn't seem to want to force him to converse with her about it, and as such has a lot of internally-stressed dialogue.
• Happily Married: She clearly and deeply loved her deceased husband Oliver and occasionally talks to his portrait when she's unsure of how to talk to Langa.
• Mama Bear: In the dub when she sees Langa coming home with more cuts and bruises, she wonders if maybe her son is being bullied before angrily thinking she'd kill anyone who hurt her boy. But then she quickly switches back over to internally panicking.
• Motherly Side Plait: Wears her hair like this, and thankfully nothing bad happens to her.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like a more cheery version of Langa, and he clearly got his looks from her.
• Struggling Single Mother: Subverted. While Langa is initially motivated to get a part-time job so he can help her out financially, she doesn't seem to have too many problems with money and seems to be coping well with her husband's passing. The only thing she really struggles with is communicating properly with her quiet teen son.
• Talking to the Dead: Has some rather amusing internal dialogue reaching out to her dead husband, Oliver, to implore on how to communicate with their son.

Oliver

Langa's father who had passed away and is the reason his wife and son decided to move to Japan.

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• "Good Luck" Gesture: The only photo of him is a family photo with him giving a thumbs up to the camera.
• Good Parents: While there aren't many memories showing him outside of snowboarding, it's clear that Langa loved him dearly and was devastated by his death.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His death is what lead Langa and his mother to move to Okinawa.
• Posthumous Character: He died before the story and his death greatly affected Langa's love of snowboarding. How he actually died is never brought up.
• Spirit Advisor: In episode 12 as Langa remembers why he loves skating, he remembers a scene with his father where he asks him if he's having fun, to which Langa replies with a smile.

Reki's Family

Reki's big family, with a boisterous mom, an at-work dad, three younger sisters, and a grandma in one house.

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• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: How Reki sort of sees his family as a whole. When he brings Langa over he apologizes for it being noisy and rowdy, especially when his mom cheerfully offers Langa cake until he accepts.
• Family Theme Naming: Koyomi (月日), Chihiro (千日), and Nanaka (七日) all have the kanji for "sun" (日) in their names, while the kanji for Reki's name (暦) also uses it as a radical. It doubles as Theme Twin Naming in Chihiro and Nanaka's case.
• Good Parents: Reki's mother is a big busybody, trying to make certain Langa is fed. When Reki gets depressed, she worries over him like the rest of the family, though she seems unsure of what to do.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: The way to tell Chihiro and Nanaka apart is by the colors they wear and the way their hair is tied up.
• Invisible Parents: Played with for Reki's dad. He does appear in the final episode as he's impressed by Koyomi learning to skateboard.
• It Runs in the Family: Most of Reki's family comes off as cheerful and energetic.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Instead of a parent, it's like brother like sisters - at the very end of the series, during a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue montage, Reki's shown to be holding the hands of Chihiro and Nanaka as they skateboard on their own boards, while Koyomi tries pulling a trick on hers.

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