Medalist - Ch. 50 - Proof of Earnestness

[mobazz]

.

 

[mobazz]

Actually, I just checked and it might just be possible that Japan might have less than 3 slots. I thought Iruka won Juniors Worlds last year but it the JGP she actually won. If she did place high in Junior Worlds then the only way Japan wouldn't have 3 slots is if the other skaters totally bombed... which would mean they aren't consistent in the first place.

As for the other skilled Junior skaters... where were they in the JGP then? They can have a Silver and Bronze at best (as any better they would've qualified over Inori or the Italian) and their combined score must be lower than the Italian's to lose the tiebreaker. But the Italian's scores can't be that high given that she doesn't have any golds. Meanwhile, Inori's gold was over an American who took gold in another event.
Inori was picked as a designated skater B. That alone means Japan thinks she's in the top 10 Juniors at least. She's the only one among them (aside from Iruka) who managed to win an international tournament this year. Simply put it seems that this batch of Juniors seems to have shit the bed aside from Inori and Iruka. You'll even note that the Designated skater B featured in volume 5 actually aged into senior as Inori entered Juniors, so it seems that this batch of Juniors is sparse.

Your theory is...quite benefit to Inori. You assume that good skaters have gone up to senior already. But as I said before, the author didn't introduce many skaters in Junior field. The 3 girls we saw in volume 5 is 3 famous skaters coming from Chubu block, and Japan has 6 blocks like that. Although all blocks can't have designated skaters, but there's no one say there's only 2 designated skaters in Junior field in volume 5.

Did you see how tough it is in Kinki block last year? (where we have Suzu and Ema in).Ema scored 80 but she got 7th place, but if she was in Chubu block, she could get 2nd or 3rd place and enter Novice All Japan. My assumption is: the level of skaters in seven events in grand prix series are different. In easier event, you can win by scoring 100, in harder event, you have to score 130 to win the game. And finally, both of them secure the same 15 points. You can't say this skater is better than that skater because she places higher than others in different events. We have to check their actual score to judge.

This is how it works. And this is why All Japan exists. To gather up all Japanese skaters for judging. You should have high placement in All Japan to be chosen to go to international competitions. And I 100% sure that many Junior skaters place higher than Inori in this year.

Ah, I have to add that there's no problem for me if Inori is sent to Junior Worlds, only if the author can have a reasonable explanation ☺️

 

[testro]

Your theory is...quite benefit to Inori. You assume that good skaters have gone up to senior already. But as I said before, the author didn't introduce many skaters in Junior field. The 3 girls we saw in volume 5 is 3 famous skaters coming from Chubu block, and Japan has 6 blocks like that. Although all blocks can't have designated skaters, but there's no one say there's only 2 designated skaters in Junior field in volume 5.

The thing with good skaters is that they get results. No one else other than Inori and Iruka got international results this year. Japan sent 7 women into the JGP but only Iruka and Inori got gold.

Did you see how tough it is in Kinki block last year? (where we have Suzu and Ema in).Ema scored 80 but she got 7th place, but if she was in Chubu block, she could get 2nd or 3rd place and enter Novice All Japan. My assumption is: the level of skaters in seven events in grand prix series are different. In easier event, you can win by scoring 100, in harder event, you have to score 130 to win the game. And finally, both of them secure the same 15 points. You can't say this skater is better than that skater because she places higher than others in different events. We have to check their actual score to judge.

But realistically, there's not much room to be better than Inori. Look at the current crop of skaters Japan is sending to Junior Worlds. Only one has a quad and she's by far the best skater of the bunch. Look at Novice A, Inori beat all but one skater who headed into Juniors (and would've beaten them all if she didn't try a jump she's never landed in practice). If they were better than Inori, you'd expect them to secure a slot to the JGP finals.

This is how it works. And this is why All Japan exists. To gather up all Japanese skaters for judging. You should have high placement in All Japan to be chosen to go to international competitions. And I 100% sure that many Junior skaters place higher than Inori in this year.

Ah, I have to add that there's no problem for me if Inori is sent to Junior Worlds, only if the author can have a reasonable explanation ☺️

Sure, they'll probably send the podium of All Japans if they can. But if the podium slots are taken by Novices (i.e Hikaru or Suzu), they can't send those. And it's much harder to justify sending the 4th place or 5th place competitor when they can't even produce any results internationally this year. It really takes very little justification to send Inori, especially as an alternate to replace Iruka.

I also think that's entirely possible the Inori won't be sent anyway. It makes the plot a bit too crowded. If Inori wins the JGP Finals, Junior Worlds will feel like a rehash against the exact same set of girls and using her bad All Japans results to justify her not being picked is entirely reasonable. But this All Japans is literally the only time Inori has ever performed below expectations. To call her inconsistent because of that is a bit silly.

 

[mobazz]

Look at the current crop of skaters Japan is sending to Junior Worlds. Only one has a quad and she's by far the best skater of the bunch. => Execuse me, I'm a little bit misunderstanding here, who you are talking about? The girl has quad in real life figure skating? Inori?

Look at Novice A, Inori beat all but one skater who headed into Juniors (and would've beaten them all if she didn't try a jump she's never landed in practice). If they were better than Inori, you'd expect them to secure a slot to the JGP final.

=>and this too, who is "the one skater headed into Juniors"? Who "would've beaten them all if she didn't try a jump she's never landed in practice"? Who is "she"?

 

[mobazz]

Look at Novice A, Inori beat all but one skater who headed into Juniors (and would've beaten them all if she didn't try a jump she's never landed in practice). If they were better than Inori, you'd expect them to secure a slot to the JGP finals.

Ah I know, in this one you are talking about Inori and her 3A in Japan Novice. But Inori fails her 3Lz at the begining, it's the reason she decided to jump to 3A at the end... By the way, in a competition, we can't say "if". The federation doesn't let you many times for trial and error. If you fails, others will take your place (it's expected that even Inori fails the 3A, she's still on podium. But Ako took 3rd place. This is a clear example for what I say)

One more thing, even Inori has quad, she got 4th place at 1st grand prix event, so quad isn't an absolute weapon, isn't it?

 

[Yumiiiiii]

gooooood inori is so incredibly important to hikaru and she has no idea. love their dynamic and what they bring out of each other. so excited to see how hikaru will develop!! and not sure how i feel about inori's bombed sp from a narrative point of view but unfortunately it is something that happens a lot in figure skating. wasn't expecting to see it happening with inori since it feels like such a major step back in her character's progress but curious about what this will mean to her character. i have faith it will be good, let tsurumaikada cook! and also she has faced challenges before but i don't think she had outright failed this hard, i completely understand her emotional reaction (especially bc she's so freaking young)

 

[chameowmile]

self-reminder to stop looking at medalist comment threads, jesus christ

she is a child. even for adults, it's impossible to just be perfect all the time and always exclusively improve and never have any hiccups along the way. the writing in this has been solid so far and there is usually a lot of meaning in showing struggling chracters learning to deal with failure and negative emotions (instead of just hiding them).

 

[Ldark]

I really wonder if this will give Inori the boost she needs, or will show her she will never reach the goal she has in mind to be better than Hikaru, even is Hikaru is doing it with good intentions this could drown Inori more than she already is, and I hope they put the coach more after this, Inori needs better training if she wants to be a medalist and so far she's barely reaching for it.

 

[doomrider7]

I really wonder if this will give Inori the boost she needs, or will show her she will never reach the goal she has in mind to be better than Hikaru, even is Hikaru is doing it with good intentions this could drown Inori more than she already is, and I hope they put the coach more after this, Inori needs better training if she wants to be a medalist and so far she's barely reaching for it.

This is something almost EVERYONE is ignoring focusing entirely on how nice Hikaru is to dedicate her skate to Inori ignoring how much WORSE that would feel to be pitied by your rival like that good intentions or otherwise no matter how much they like you. There was a REALLY good arc about this in the manga Mikadono Sisters that delved into the mindset from both perspectives(the genius and the normie).

 

[doomrider7]

self-reminder to stop looking at medalist comment threads, jesus christ

she is a child. even for adults, it's impossible to just be perfect all the time and always exclusively improve and never have any hiccups along the way. the writing in this has been solid so far and there is usually a lot of meaning in showing struggling chracters learning to deal with failure and negative emotions (instead of just hiding them).

Except for Hikaru which is the main problem. If this was a failure and the point was to explore her mental health and how it's affected by said failures and her inability to communicate when she's feeling unwell to her family and team, then yeah sure it works. Extreme, but okay. But it's not leading with that at all.

 

[Kiariku]

Inori has been competing for years at this point. She shouldn't have such a mental fragility anymore. All the competitions she took part of, all her effort, all her interaction with other skaters trying their best... all this should have made her mentally stronger. Yet, it didn't. She hasn't progressed at all. That makes no sense to me. You can't go through all that without becoming at least somewhat stronger (mentally-speaking).



You're missing something important here. What drives Inori to advance as fast as she does is her competitive spirit, it's the fact she saw herself as HIkaru's rival despite having no basis for it. If the author moves on from rivals to friendship, Inori will lose what's driving her to push herself so hard, and she will never catch up to Hikaru without this driving her forwards.

Before you yap about this and that, please consider that she's still in her PRE-TEENS / TEENAGER. She's going to go through a lot of emotional problems, mental problems and etc, so her depiction of being traumatized especially seeing it on someone she's close can be discouraging and frighten her and that's normal. This actually feels very humane as a way to depict her character, and i believed this arc will help her further character development.
ps: if you really follow the figure skating scene, you're going to see a lot of news where prodigies retired (even when they have been competing since under 10) etc. cz mental health issues, health issues, and a lot of drama involving it, not only from their peers but also their coaches, club, etc

 

[1idd0kun]

Before you yap about this and that, please consider that she's still in her PRE-TEENS / TEENAGER. She's going to go through a lot of emotional problems, mental problems and etc, so her depiction of being traumatized especially seeing it on someone she's close can be discouraging and frighten her and that's normal. This actually feels very humane as a way to depict her character, and i believed this arc will help her further character development.
ps: if you really follow the figure skating scene, you're going to see a lot of news where prodigies retired (even when they have been competing since under 10) etc. cz mental health issues, health issues, and a lot of drama involving it, not only from their peers but also their coaches, club, etc

This is a story, not real life. In a story, you want the shit you write to have a purpose on the plot. Inori bombing her performance does have a purpose, but that purpose is to allow Hikaru to skate to cheer Inori up. In other words, the author is shitting on Inori to give Hikaru a payoff for her arc. Considering that Inori is the MC, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Also, this arc can't give Inori character growth, because it's a Hikaru-centric arc. We will have to wait until latter on to hopefully get an Inori-centric arc so that she can get some character growth which she seriously needs.

 

[conqjw7]

think pieces in my yuri sports themed manga tears

 

[correcthorsebattery]

I don't really get the 'Hikaru is the actual medalist and Inori is reduced to a POV character' argument at all.

Taking a meta view on things, this feels like part of the common point in sports story plots where the breakout
main character finally has their bad day / has a major traumatic event / confronted with their core flaws,
the 'low point.' And Inori has a lot of built-up, unaddressed flaws, as all the other comments have pointed out.

And in typical plot line fashion, she will likely go through an arc of addressing those major underlying flaws /
character questions, and emerge stronger than ever. This failure is just a great segue into developing
both Hikaru and Inori's characters.

Of course, Hikaru is painted as an unbeatable, ever-moving target that is racing far away from Inori: stories
need to hype up their rivals. Hikaru has been painted as a final-boss type rival, providing a constant frame-of-reference,
a moving goalpost for Inori. And with that final goal being the Olympics, there's still a lot of ground for to cover.

In retrospect, Inori was never going to beat Hikaru in this competition. As others had said, the only way it
would feel satisfying for Inori to finally beat Hikaru would be when Inori outshines her in a perfect performance.

 

[SuperOniichan]

think pieces in my yuri sports themed manga tears

This manga never be "yuri themed" in the first place

 

[claudio_rolna]

I have been watching some real high level competitive skating and there are multiple 22~24 year old female athletes competing. Kaori Sakamoto, three-time consecutive World champion, is currently 24. Inori's is 13 right now, she has a lot ahead of her.

Akiko Suzuki won the All-Japan at 28 years of age. Let that sink in.

 

[exxeld]

Truthfully not the direction I was expecting. I thought this would end up as an Inori sweep with Iruka getting injured and Hikaru actually falling, but instead we are moving towards a bit more character growth.

This is fantastic development for the both of them. Hikaru has realized recently just how important Inori was to her and Inori is now realizing that Hikaru actually see's her as far more than someone who's chasing her. Hikaru's getting quite a bit more of a spotlight right now in the series frankly which still leads me to believe they will do a coach swap, even if they've established this chapter Inori is uniquely herself, so we shall see if Hikaru's rivalry being further established here will help her or hurt Inori.

It looked to me that Inori grows best with a flame lit under her. She was skating to establish herself before and now that she's gotten some results, perhaps she doesn't have quite as much of an internal motivation as she did at the start. Perhaps everyone is too accommodating for her now, where at the start she was struggling her hardest to make up for lost time and catch up to her peers. This seems further evident from Tsukasa's efforts not getting through to Inori as much as at the start too, despite Tsukasa doing everything in his power to develop himself as a coach. The real question is whether or not Hikaru winning, if she does, will be a source of motivation again for Inori.

 

[miauuuunus]

everyone loves underdog stories until the underdog is actually an underdog smh smh