I Got Medalist Pilled
18/11/2025
I love borders. There are great dynamic to be have when you fully understand the potential of the box. The normal is inside the box and the more, the beyond, the unthinkable when breaking it or even outside of it, not constrained by the logic of the world free in the moment of the page. This is how panels works to me and Medalist takes this part of me into places I’ve been too and more.
Medalist conveys the motion of ice skating so well making the characters skate and glide across the page unbothered by the panels around them, they own the world for that moment, star of the show, god of the page. But the don’t just skate when it’s visible. In comics the white space is there to be the assumed actions that happen from panel to panel and the visual here takes full advantage of that. Every jumps, spins, and steps that happens of the panels are crafted in a way that you can recreate the entire move and it helps you easily find where to put your eyes next the audience? the coaches? the skater themselves? The panel work is just fantastic in expressing the thrill of watching a craft beyond your understanding.
But this is only one aspect of the whole work, any story with a such a commanding visual especially in the way it plays with the panels will always tugs my heart. The story is what works together with the visual to create such an impacting work that I finished 13 volumes in 3 days. Sadly I’m not one who have trained their story senses to explain what impacts me but I can try and I think to start is goals.
What goals do you have? Goals scares me I suppose I have them now, tiny ones but thats the opposite for such people with drives. Their drives is what fascinates and awes me in the same way whatever the skills they hone. Inori’s drive to be a gold medalist, to beat Hikaru not to just be equals with her moves me. Hikaru finding hers after steering clear of being Jun Yodaka and being the girl that Inori can truly rival with. Such drives fills my entire body in awe in the varied ways they come to this goal, this drive.
This is where you get to the nitty gritty day to day of honing your skills. The love, the support, the money, the time, the space, the environment, each and more builds towards that you that you want to be and the differences in such is what makes a rivalry between two people who are in the same playing field electrifying. This is the entire story of medalist. The girl who spent her time to become a medalist as fast as possible with full support and love around her even if she’s late to start is different from one who spent it to be someone else who doesn’t even realize the love around her until its away from her who is different from the one who received different love from her people who all too is different from those whose home rink is closed, those who cant afford to, those whom the people around them dont even know what they want. All of them are what makes a competition in this world and it’s what I love about it.
P.S Ahh!!! I didn’t get into my boy Rioh!! No worries my little friend I will reread and watch medalist with more of you in mind! And I hate Jun Yodaka and thinks he’s a popoo head who should take a nickelodeon sliming at least 2 times.
