Medalist - Ch. 51 - All-Japan Junior Women's FS (Part 1)

[Quality_Reads]

After 12 volumes we are back to square one: Inori realizing her gap from Hikaru and trying her best to catch up all over again.

Although, I'm not sure why Inori had to fail so hard to the point that she disconnects with Tsukasa just to show this scene. I hope the author has something in store to fix Inori and Tsukasa's relationship in the next chapter.

She didn't disconnect from Tsukasa though?

 

[Tierdra]

Nothing stronger than the "platonic rivalry" between a wolf and shrimp tempura

 

[lasercats]

Hikaru being such an amazing character really pulls the whole thing up. I want to see Inori win but I can't for the life of me wish for Hikaru to fail. I'm so happy to see Hikaru gets just as much out of their relationship as Inori. I live for this day every month.

 

[Ajira]

Thanks for the translation. Man... How does Tsurumaikada deliver peak after peak? She is a monsters. Look at the paneling, details, face expressions, silhouettes etc... I bought all available Turkish and English volumes to support the mangaka.

 

[Aoitenshi]

She didn't disconnect from Tsukasa though?

I feel that she's been hiding more things from him ever since he got that broken rib. She even made a fake smile because she doesn't want him to worry. Meanwhile, Tsukasa is tiptoeing around her because she can see through any doubts he has.

 

[J_the_Man]

Now that I've had a night to sit on this - my more complete feelings on this chapter:

First, the amount of people invested in Medalist purely to ship Inori and Hikaru is too high and disappointing. This is not a romance story, and you are missing the entire picture of this story arc interpreting things from a romantic coded lense out of interest for a 13 year olds yuri ship.

Is Hikaru skating for Inori? Yes. Absolutely. But she's skating for more than that. This is the culmination of her current character arc, her culminating moment of growth. The entirety of this free skate program was designed to send a message - Hikaru Kamisaki is not Jun Yodaka, nor will she accept being seen as the next Jun Yodaka anymore.

"Cages" have been an underlying theme of this story, and each of the main characters have been stuck in their own cages that they've been struggling to escape from.

Hikaru's life was determined for her without her consent by her foster caretakers. They hired Jun Yodaka to turn Hikaru into Jun Yodaka. Jun Yodaka has been nothing short of a shady and questionable mentor, but these last several chapters has made it undeniable that he did instill a pure, innocent love for skating inside of Hikaru.

But all of that was suppressed because Hikaru embraced becoming Jun Yodaka and making all the sacrifices she felt necessary to meet his standard. She shut herself off from forming connections with people because of the gap in ability between her and the people she crushed and overshadowed.

The reason she became so attached to Inori is because she thought Inori was capable of matching her own pace and reaching the level of Jun Yodaka with her, which relieved her feelings of isolation from people. Perhaps she wanted someone to beat her, even, and free her from Jun Yodaka.

The irony of moving to Tokyo and joining Starfox was that this was supposed to be yet another sacrifice, but it caused some serious introspection that made her realize what she had and what she was giving up. She had family that cared for her. Her club mates never truly resented her, they always wanted to connect with her. She has a lot of things, and she doesn't need to become Jun Yodaka to justify her existence.

This is why this moment is such a big deal - it's Hikaru finally breaking from her cage. She's skating for herself, the way she wants to, and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. This isn't a display of newly mastered abilities, it's a display of personal growth. Her first order of business is to skate for Inori, but it's not like from here on out She's only skating for Inori.

And this is why it won't work: Inori doesn't need motivation to catch up. She never has needed it. She's always been aware of the gap between her and everyone else, and now it's bigger than it ever had beem (Quad Lutz lolololol).

Medalist has never portrayed Inori pushing herself to catch up a good thing. Go back and read when she learned the Quad Salchow. When she started staking her being on being able to make the jump, Tsukasa stepped in and corrected her.

Inori right now is stuck because she's mentally stuck in her cage. There are multiple issues, but the biggest is that her entire self-worth is based around needing to win in order to validate herself. That's why Hikaru likened Inori to Jun - figure skating is essentially their very existence. Until she can grow as a person, Inori is going to continue to stumble. Everything is ultimately rooted in her self-worth.

 

[SuperOniichan]

Now that I've had a night to sit on this - my more complete feelings on this chapter:

First, the amount of people invested in Medalist purely to ship Inori and Hikaru is too high and disappointing. This is not a romance story, and you are missing the entire picture of this story arc interpreting things from a romantic coded lense out of interest for a 13 year olds yuri ship.

Is Hikaru skating for Inori? Yes. Absolutely. But she's skating for more than that. This is the culmination of her current character arc, her culminating moment of growth. The entirety of this free skate program was designed to send a message - Hikaru Kamisaki is not Jun Yodaka, nor will she accept being seen as the next Jun Yodaka anymore.

"Cages" have been an underlying theme of this story, and each of the main characters have been stuck in their own cages that they've been struggling to escape from.

Hikaru's life was determined for her without her consent by her foster caretakers. They hired Jun Yodaka to turn Hikaru into Jun Yodaka. Jun Yodaka has been nothing short of a shady and questionable mentor, but these last several chapters has made it undeniable that he did instill a pure, innocent love for skating inside of Hikaru.

But all of that was suppressed because Hikaru embraced becoming Jun Yodaka and making all the sacrifices she felt necessary to meet his standard. She shut herself off from forming connections with people because of the gap in ability between her and the people she crushed and overshadowed.

The reason she became so attached to Inori is because she thought Inori was capable of matching her own pace and reaching the level of Jun Yodaka with her, which relieved her feelings of isolation from people. Perhaps she wanted someone to beat her, even, and free her from Jun Yodaka.

The irony of moving to Tokyo and joining Starfox was that this was supposed to be yet another sacrifice, but it caused some serious introspection that made her realize what she had and what she was giving up. She had family that cared for her. Her club mates never truly resented her, they always wanted to connect with her. She has a lot of things, and she doesn't need to become Jun Yodaka to justify her existence.

This is why this moment is such a big deal - it's Hikaru finally breaking from her cage. She's skating for herself, the way she wants to, and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. This isn't a display of newly mastered abilities, it's a display of personal growth. Her first order of business is to skate for Inori, but it's not like from here on out She's only skating for Inori.

And this is why it won't work: Inori doesn't need motivation to catch up. She never has needed it. She's always been aware of the gap between her and everyone else, and now it's bigger than it ever had beem (Quad Lutz lolololol).

Medalist has never portrayed Inori pushing herself to catch up a good thing. Go back and read when she learned the Quad Salchow. When she started staking her being on being able to make the jump, Tsukasa stepped in and corrected her.

Inori right now is stuck because she's mentally stuck in her cage. There are multiple issues, but the biggest is that her entire self-worth is based around needing to win in order to validate herself. That's why Hikaru likened Inori to Jun - figure skating is essentially their very existence. Until she can grow as a person, Inori is going to continue to stumble. Everything is ultimately rooted in her self-worth.

There is indeed romance here, but far out of focus and not between Inori and Hikaru, let alone any age gap ships. Personally, the problem for me is that people regularly greatly simplify any depth and message of such stories to the primitive "one character wants to fuck another", thus showing that any psychology and dynamics for them are just the background for creating pairings. If I could still formally understand it in titles like Hibike because of their all-female and yuri bait nature, then in titles like Medalist or MHA it starts to remind me of "I read it for the plot" meme.

 

[J_the_Man]

There is indeed romance here, but far out of focus and not between Inori and Hikaru, let alone any age gap ships. Personally, the problem for me is that people regularly greatly simplify any depth and message of such stories to the primitive "one character wants to fuck another", thus showing that any psychology and dynamics for them are just the background for creating pairings. If I could still formally understand it in titles like Hibike because of their all-female and yuri bait nature, then in titles like Medalist or MHA it starts to remind me of "I read it for the plot" meme.

I genuinely see no romance here in this story period (Rio/Hikaru is the closest thing, I guess).

 

[SuperOniichan]

I genuinely see no romance here in this story period (Rio/Hikaru is the closest thing, I guess).

I’m talking about the slight teasing of Rio x Hikaru and other little things. That’s why I wrote "out of focus". I would not be surprised if the author deliberately added this, so that people do not try to mistakenly claim that the relationship between Hikaru and Inori is a "yuri bait".

 

[doomrider7]

They were rivals 🙏

(But is it be or does it feel like Hikaru's going to be hurt after that program?)

Realistically, this routine is HORRIFIC because a kid her age does NOT have the developed muscle strength for multiple quads and triples like that on top of it being HORRENDOUSLY damaging. Basically if the series wants to maintain an air of realism, Hikaru is physically self-destructing in real time.

 

[SuperOniichan]

Realistically, this routine is HORRIFIC because a kid her age does NOT have the developed muscle strength for multiple quads and triples like that on top of it being HORRENDOUSLY damaging. Basically if the series wants to maintain an air of realism, Hikaru is physically self-destructing in real time.

If this series will be as realistic as possible in the image of the actual young figure skating, then Inori and Hikaru are waiting for some real horror.

 

[doomrider7]

If this series will be as realistic as possible in the image of the actual young figure skating, then Inori and Hikaru are waiting for some real horror.

I think that's why Tsukasa puts so much focus and emphasis on physical training since he knows the risks and wants to mitigate the damage as much as possible. I also feel the same way about the reduction of interpersonal feelings and emotions to just shipping fodder. I do think that there's some shipping hints, but I really don't like how that overpowers any convo to be had about the series and characters at times.

 

[SuperOniichan]

I think that's why Tsukasa puts so much focus and emphasis on physical training since he knows the risks and wants to mitigate the damage as much as possible. I also feel the same way about the reduction of interpersonal feelings and emotions to just shipping fodder. I do think that there's some shipping hints, but I really don't like how that overpowers any convo to be had about the series and characters at times.

People are just so hyper-focused on shipping that they have lost the ability to see all kinds of different feelings and emotions between people.

 

[ReaLWorld123]

Quad Lutzh huh? Then what tf Inori can do? I hope they don't make Inori do Quad Axel, or maybe Quintuple jump?! That just not realistic

 

[doomrider7]

People are just so hyper-focused on shipping that they have lost the ability to see all kinds of different feelings and emotions between people.

Not just that, but the idealization of this routine and how it's for Inori like it's an emotionally profound thing when Inori pretty much seems like she's in HORRIBLE emotional pain in the last page as well as the comments by the older skaters about how her legs are likely giving out due to the build-up of lactic acid(in MMA terms, she's gassing).

 

[SuperOniichan]

Not just that, but the idealization of this routine and how it's for Inori like it's an emotionally profound thing when Inori pretty much seems like she's in HORRIBLE emotional pain in the last page as well as the comments by the older skaters about how her legs are likely giving out due to the build-up of lactic acid(in MMA terms, she's gassing).

If at the beginning of the manga I thought that the story shows the talent of Inori in too idealistic tones, now I am forced to take my words back.

 

[doomrider7]

Quad Lutzh huh? Then what tf Inori can do? I hope they don't make her do Quad Axel, or maybe Quintuple jump?! That just not realistic

This was a big criticism on /a/ when the raw dropped that realistically, there's nowhere for Inori to go from here. The gap is just impossible to clear without injury on Hikaru which would be unsatisfying or pure author fiat which would feel like an asspull. This combined with how realistically physically impossible this would be for her age due to the lack of muscle development and it veers into a shark being poised to jump since everything was unrealistic, but still plausible until now where Hikaru is putting out a performance that an Olympian would medal with.

 

[thirty7timeslucky]

Now that I've had a night to sit on this - my more complete feelings on this chapter:

First, the amount of people invested in Medalist purely to ship Inori and Hikaru is too high and disappointing. This is not a romance story, and you are missing the entire picture of this story arc interpreting things from a romantic coded lense out of interest for a 13 year olds yuri ship.

Is Hikaru skating for Inori? Yes. Absolutely. But she's skating for more than that. This is the culmination of her current character arc, her culminating moment of growth. The entirety of this free skate program was designed to send a message - Hikaru Kamisaki is not Jun Yodaka, nor will she accept being seen as the next Jun Yodaka anymore.

"Cages" have been an underlying theme of this story, and each of the main characters have been stuck in their own cages that they've been struggling to escape from.

Hikaru's life was determined for her without her consent by her foster caretakers. They hired Jun Yodaka to turn Hikaru into Jun Yodaka. Jun Yodaka has been nothing short of a shady and questionable mentor, but these last several chapters has made it undeniable that he did instill a pure, innocent love for skating inside of Hikaru.

But all of that was suppressed because Hikaru embraced becoming Jun Yodaka and making all the sacrifices she felt necessary to meet his standard. She shut herself off from forming connections with people because of the gap in ability between her and the people she crushed and overshadowed.

The reason she became so attached to Inori is because she thought Inori was capable of matching her own pace and reaching the level of Jun Yodaka with her, which relieved her feelings of isolation from people. Perhaps she wanted someone to beat her, even, and free her from Jun Yodaka.

The irony of moving to Tokyo and joining Starfox was that this was supposed to be yet another sacrifice, but it caused some serious introspection that made her realize what she had and what she was giving up. She had family that cared for her. Her club mates never truly resented her, they always wanted to connect with her. She has a lot of things, and she doesn't need to become Jun Yodaka to justify her existence.

This is why this moment is such a big deal - it's Hikaru finally breaking from her cage. She's skating for herself, the way she wants to, and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. This isn't a display of newly mastered abilities, it's a display of personal growth. Her first order of business is to skate for Inori, but it's not like from here on out She's only skating for Inori.

And this is why it won't work: Inori doesn't need motivation to catch up. She never has needed it. She's always been aware of the gap between her and everyone else, and now it's bigger than it ever had beem (Quad Lutz lolololol).

Medalist has never portrayed Inori pushing herself to catch up a good thing. Go back and read when she learned the Quad Salchow. When she started staking her being on being able to make the jump, Tsukasa stepped in and corrected her.

Inori right now is stuck because she's mentally stuck in her cage. There are multiple issues, but the biggest is that her entire self-worth is based around needing to win in order to validate herself. That's why Hikaru likened Inori to Jun - figure skating is essentially their very existence. Until she can grow as a person, Inori is going to continue to stumble. Everything is ultimately rooted in her self-worth.

dude chill let me have my stupid yuribait in peace

i can relate to being annoyed by people not understanding the "deepness" of a work or its intended meaning--but i think some people (like me) genuinely enjoy medalist and express their appreciation for the wonderful characters and relationships through silly stuff because that's the only way to express the GDGFHDFHDIUHFHD (emotion) that this story induces.

basically it's not that deep + i can ship whoever i want and it's only weird when you make it weird

(side note i think your analysis is very good)

 

[J_the_Man]

This was a big criticism on /a/ when the raw dropped that realistically, there's nowhere for Inori to go from here. The gap is just impossible to clear without injury on Hikaru which would be unsatisfying or pure author fiat which would feel like an asspull. This combined with how realistically physically impossible this would be for her age due to the lack of muscle development and it veers into a shark being poised to jump since everything was unrealistic, but still plausible until now where Hikaru is putting out a performance that an Olympian would medal with.

Personally, Inori is fully capable talent-wise of matching Hikaru. Inori is insanely talented too. She wouldn't have come so far in so short a time if that wasn't the case.

The problem is mental. Hikaru has hit a place of self-actualization here. Inori has a laundry-list of mental hangups and unhealthy mindsets that throw her off kilter. Until she unravels and grows inwardly, she'll be stuck.

 

[Cashini]

it feels author still holding fmc(Inori) have good story just like Junpei (dance dance danseur) and dont know will author give story Inori get another master couch or not..... yup looks like it will be long story like Satoshi/Ash Ketchum always lose or
draw match until he become strongest and win pokemon world champion