THE SEASON FINALE ALREADY 😭😭😭 | FIGURE SKATER REACTS | Medalist Episode 22 | メダリスト

[00:53] the channel and to another video. Today is the season finale of medalist. I cannot believe how fast this has gone by. Okay, actually, scratch that. I fast. That's because there were only nine episodes this season. Of course, it

[01:09] went by fast. It's okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. If this hello, welcome. My name is Hannah and I'm a competitive adult figure skater and fun fact, medalist is one of the reasons that I decided to return to

[01:22] competitive figure skating after about 7 years away from the ice and I have been really enjoying my comeback. So, medalist has been a really important show to me recently and that's not going to stop. Because of that, my reactions

[01:35] are a little bit different than just a regular reaction. I'm not here simply to react to an anime. I'm here to pause and talk about the skating, talk about if it's realistic. I also relate to a lot of things. I like to break down things

[01:47] and explain things. So, if that's your cup of tea, I'm your girl. Last episode was pretty crazy. I did want to address a couple things that I saw in the episode just to kind of explain myself. I am well aware that I can tend to get a

[02:00] little bit long-winded when I start talking about certain things. I'm working on it, but when I get passionate about something, I have a very hard time compartmentalizing what I'm saying. But I just wanted to say it is a-okay

[02:14] that Inori is moving through the levels really fast. It is not realistic. It is 100% not normal for someone to land a quad jump a year and a half after starting. However, I am, like I've said, very aware that this is a TV show. This

[02:31] is a main character, and in order for them to keep the show interesting, they are not going to be able to depict what it's really like when you start skating because that would be very boring for non-figure skating viewers, and I don't

[02:43] think that figure skaters is necessarily the target audience of this show. While the mangaka has done an absolute incredible job with getting all of the details right, and they clearly love the sport, it makes sense that they would

[02:58] still need to progress the story forward very quickly. So, I am a-okay with it. Um a couple things, it is perfectly normal for 12-year-olds to land quads. That was not the problem that I had. It's more of a a 12-year-old who's been

[03:12] skating for a year and a half is likely Most of them are not even going to be on be maybe doubles. It depends on the skater, of course. Every skater's a little bit different. Every skater has different talents, different work

[03:25] ethics. Inori, of course, has both. She has that talent, but she also has the work ethic, and that does make the perfect combination for a skater. So, of course, she would be farther along than maybe an average person. Um but a quad

[03:39] salchow is pretty intense considering we saw one person attempt a quad at the Olympics. And she was not able to do it. Well, she fell with an under-rotation. So, anyway, that was my only real reason. I

[03:53] understand I can get long-winded. This is a reaction, so I don't have the luxury of like pausing recording, writing down my thoughts, and then coming back with like bullet points. I just keep talking. So, I'm trying to

[04:06] work on not being so long-winded, but we'll we'll see how that goes. But, that into today's episode. I'm kind of sad. I almost don't want to start it because it to end. I know this is going to be a huge cliffhanger, and I'm preparing

[04:20] myself for it. But, let's go ahead and watch it. But, before we do, don't the channel, and leave a comment your thoughts. If you are interested in more Metalist content, I will be making a lot more after this episode. So, make sure

[04:34] the episode. I'm going to kind of talk about my plan. Um it's also good to have a call to action for all of you guys, and definitely hit that subscribe button if you are interested in more. But, with that, uh let's go. Ooh, it's called It

[04:48] Begins. Great. It begins, but it also ends cuz it's a season finale. okay. Good things come to those who wait. All Good things come to those who wait. All right. Here we go.

[05:12] Which is still something she doesn't really have. Mika Mika a hero.

[05:34] I was going to say, I want to go back and what was the score that Hikaru got the last time we saw her? I feel like it was

[05:48] like 98, but maybe it was higher than that. And then remember her name, 91, and I can't read this kanji, so my apologies. 90 90 So these are all above Yuzuru

[06:02] Nioda cuz she got an 81. So she's pretty pretty down there even though she came in first place in her block. Hmm, okay. Even having a quad Salchow is like okay. Even having a quad Salchow is like uh

[06:36] like 13 or 14 points. Triple Lutz is worth like seven points. So that is a pretty big deal. So that is a pretty big deal. Don't go.

[06:58] I like how her shirt just says star. Don't go. his character comes back. Please.

[07:16] But she still doesn't have a flip or Lutz. Give that to her. I thought they were going there because I thought they were going there because that's where he lived, but I guess not.

[08:03] long time. You have to have a level of trust in your coach like that. Coaches are here for a reason. They offer expertise and parents don't have, and it comes from years and years and years of practicing,

[08:17] years and years and years of competing, and many of those coaches are former successful competitors that were achieving great things at high levels. And then if you add into it that you've been with this coach for as long as

[08:31] you've been skating, like in this case, but also like Inaudi, you have like a special level of trust in that person because you've known them for so long and you've grown up with them that it's like you're more willing to let them

[08:44] make decisions for you. Especially when they're young. Like my I'm almost 30. So, she's like, "You're an adult. You decide what works for like thinking really off because I told her

[09:00] go for like a much more difficult program for this next competition competing against like one other person." And she was like, "Okay. All right, we may get a little bit more difficult. Let's add one double sal."

[09:13] And she was like, "Let's do one." So, she still has that expertise of like trying to keep me chill on what I want to do, but the coach and skater dynamic is really important because you know

[09:27] each other better than anyone else. So, at least like in the skating realm. I know kid in general better than the coach, but the coaches are pretty knowledgeable in the way their brain works, the way their body works because

[09:43] they have to be in order to help them become successful skaters.

[10:00] only one attempting a quad unless he can do it too now. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot they were friends.

[10:23] Onigiri is so good though. Oh my gosh. It took everything within me to not eat It took everything within me to not eat it every single day.

[10:44] Oh, they're doing homework together. They're already besties.

[11:07] Yeah, it's not common to see that many boys in one spot for figure skating.

[11:27] My coach is getting eaten. It just turned into Attack on Titan.

[12:48] She is a straight fighter for It's Tsukasa.

[13:25] so everything's different for everyone.

[13:46] that when that skater just wins everything. I feel like that's what most skaters goal's going to be.

[13:58] You just want to do well enough that you put yourself in Well, in the US we call it like in the pool of skaters that get selected for international. So, if both of them are going to be 13 next year, that means they're old enough for

[14:10] juniors. So, a regular goal would be, "Okay, I want to show up at nationals "Okay, I want to show up at nationals and I want to do well enough to make my federation look at me and go, 'We should give her an international assignment.'

[14:24] That's what it normally is like. Enoki, of course, has this lofty goal of winning and being the best over Hikaru, who's been winning everything she's been doing, and I don't think she's ever lost a competition. So, her goal is like very

[14:38] out there, very lofty, but most skaters and this is usually with the help of their coach, because we all want to have those lofty goals. We all are like, "I Olympic champion." And I'm sure a lot of skaters, like little skaters, are

[14:51] starting right now being like, "I want to be like Alyssa Liu." Right? But, the coach's job is to also like to support them, but keep them in the world of realism. But, again, this is medalist, so it

[15:06] doesn't always live in the world of realism, and that's okay. close attention to what the other skaters are doing.

[15:28] Oh. Why?

[16:19] never had a rink close down because it went under, but it's kind of similar to my story of having to stop because of financial reasons. Not wanting to quit, but having to because you have no choice.

[16:33] because you have no choice. So, that got to me a little bit. God damn it, why do I not bring tissues in here? this is why I should be recording other things before I record Metal List

[16:48] cuz I'm going to cry a bunch of my makeup off and get a bunch of streaks, and I still have recording to do after this. Yay. that ha- that does happen to a lot of people where the rink that's near them

[17:01] closes down because it's not making enough money. A lot of rinks try to supplement a lack of income flow by offering more hockey cuz unfortunately, hockey makes more money, at least here in the States. I don't know.

[17:16] popular here than it is in Japan, but most of my rinks that I go to, they have way more hockey options because it's just that much more popular. So, I've

[17:28] never had an instance where a rink has closed down and then there's just nothing near me, so there's no opportunity, but I do relate to the idea of having to stop skating because of something that

[17:41] It's not because you want to, it's not because you need to for your mental health or your body or anything like that or because you want to go to school, you know, I had a lot of friends quit skating after graduating high

[17:56] go to college, they wanted to do other things. When you have to quit and you have no control over the situation is the hardest thing because you you have this unfinished business that you can't finish. So, that

[18:10] that hits a little little close to home in in certain ways.

[18:25] because now I want her to also get an opportunity to win a medal. Yeah, there's only 10 days until this competition.

[18:59] about it because usually why is my thing not working? it's making it go back 10 seconds for some reason. I don't really know why. I didn't change any settings. So, I'm confusing myself. Normally, yeah, when

[19:13] you want to put a jump in a program, we don't usually go into that much detail, it's like do three in a row without stopping in three different spots of the stopping in three different spots of the rink. If you can manage to do it both or

[19:25] all three times, then you're good to go. Most of the time it's more of a okay, attempt it three times. If you land it twice and fall once, then that's still like a higher percentage of landing, so we'll put it in. If you fall on it twice

[19:37] because you don't have a high percentage. But doing it back to back is good and in different parts because a lot of skaters will start to like it start to have a comfort spot on the rink.

[19:51] A part of the rink that we feel the most comfortable. And we'll do it that way. Also, if you do it back to back to back to back, you can get tired pretty quickly from that. So, being able to do it back to back to back is like the same

[20:06] as running like the first 30 to 45 seconds of your program. So, that's a Yeah, you always want to have a high percentage of landing before you put it Because see, that's how I got it past. Because normally, for most skaters, you

[20:22] only compete as good as your worst day of practice because you're nervous, your legs are shaky. I actually tend to be a better competitor than practiser. I'm not going to lie, going into sectionals a couple weeks ago, the week leading up

[20:34] to it was a really bad week. Like I was not doing good run-throughs and then I went and I did a good run-through when it all came down to it. But a lot of skaters, most skaters are not very good at competing. They're only as good as

[20:46] are high percentage landing in practice. Some people don't do it that way. It's a Some people don't do it that way. It's a risk.

[21:05] They do take a lot of space on the ice, too. coaches do different things. There's not one-size-fits-all.

[21:17] of doing things, and that doesn't mean that they're right, they're wrong.

[21:42] dynamics between coaches that have different ideas of doing things.

[22:10] they're working together. It sounds like they work together with the same students. It's even harder when they don't agree with each other. Usually, if you have two coaches that work together with one skater, which

[22:22] happens all the time, they kind of agree on the way they teach things so that it doesn't confuse the skater. So, it's an interesting dynamic when two people are working together but don't have the same thought process. Again, very normal for

[22:35] coaches to have different thought processes. There are definitely wrong when it comes to teaching skating, like certain techniques and that sort of like certain techniques and that sort of thing, but the way you teach each skater

[22:48] there multiple ways to make something work, but every skater is different. But, it can be a lot tougher when those coaches work together and can't agree.

[23:03] It's Kusatsu just like literally stuck in the middle of an argument.

[23:30] I had a feeling this conversation would pop back up. in her program, then what was the point of working on it like that?

[23:55] He's trying to fix what happened to him in the past. So, they competed against each other in ice dance. Interesting.

[24:52] I know this was made long before Alyssa Liu won the Olympic gold, but her hair is kind of like Alyssa Liu. It's like, "Wow, of course she's American."

[25:22] the forest. I was like, "What are these training

[25:46] something's going to happen to her grandpa. Like, that's where my brain goes. Emma!

[25:58] we haven't seen Emma in a while, and I really like her.

[26:37] like, "Where's Emma? I miss her. We haven't seen her since season 1." Is haven't seen her since season 1." Is this her block championships?

[27:19] I'm kind of forgetting what score Yuzuru Hanyu got. Wasn't it like 80? And she won her block, but Emma scored an 80 and she's in seventh in her block if I'm understanding what's going on

[27:31] correctly. That is another thing that happens a lot though. When you have a structure where it's based off of where you place in like your section of the country, you're going to see a lot of skaters who have much higher scores not

[27:47] qualify over skaters that have lower scores because it all depends on how each competition goes. Like I would say Yuzuru Hanyu's block was very messy. Like everyone was falling, everyone was stepping out, everyone was having a

[28:00] rough time. But if Emma's block is like everyone's skating really freaking well, 80 points, which is enough to win one, is only it is not even enough to qualify. And that's where it gets tough and you start kind of thinking like,

[28:13] "Man, if I just lived somewhere else." Cuz growing up, I lived in a region where I was up against everyone who's from Southern California and they are a powerhouse here in the US. All of the LA clubs, like they're just well-known for

[28:26] being the best. And so, many times it was like one of the hardest to qualify just because the level of everyone there was so much higher. You could score a any other region in the country. But because you were in this region, you

[28:41] And it really sucks. That's like another really hard thing to like it's a hard really hard thing to like it's a hard pill to swallow.

[28:54] I'm sad that she's not going to be there though. I really like her.

[29:33] it to Nationals at those lower levels and then show up at senior like bam, and then show up at senior like bam, winning everything.

[29:45] There's Suzu. Oh, she was up against her and she scored 101, so or 100.

[30:16] You want to wait to to finalize their programs until you see what the other programs until you see what the other skaters do at the competition?

[31:07] Oh, she's watching him. Okay.

[31:25] growth is like really fast and stuff. I have never met a skater who can really learn just by watching like that. But I think they do exist. I think that there are definitely skaters out there that can just watch someone do something

[31:39] and really like understand what it is just based off of seeing it happen in wished that I could have that talent, but not many people do. That is a very photographic memory, you know, like just being able to remember something after

[31:54] seeing it once. There are people out there. It's a little rare though. But she's definitely got a lot of talent there.

[32:20] Doing that on a really busy session has got to be terrifying.

[32:43] Yeah. I mean doing quads in general it's going to get you attention.

[32:57] That's a move that makes everyone look at you.

[33:14] This episode is giving me chills. Oh my goodness.

[33:26] I mean yeah, you can't keep something like that as a secret.

[33:59] that already the end? There's got to Okay, there is post Okay, thank goodness. I was like there's no way. I'll have to look this up in the manga or someone can tell me in the the comments. I'm like half wondering if

[34:13] something because of the way he was talking. I was like if she does a quad Lutz then you know what he has no chance, but I think that was just a rotation is the one thing like I can discern rotation in real life, but I

[34:25] cannot in anime because they sometimes make jumps it's all dramatic like they make it pause and that sort of thing. I'm like, pause and that sort of thing. I'm like, I don't know how many rotations that is.

[34:52] to how like we kind of met her in the manga, really. She was barefoot.

[35:12] already time for this. That's it. That's it. All right, that is the season finale. Okay, all right. So, I think I was expecting the rivalry to be yeah, just

[35:27] like the main plot. So, it's just it's moved along faster than I was expecting with that, but I'm kind of glad because I would love to see like their rivalry, fruition in this movie. Like this movie is now confirmed going to be about all

[35:42] their rivalry and that sort of thing, which I'm really excited about. I think because first of all, like a lot of animes are going the movie route. I like that. I know not everyone likes that, but I do.

[35:56] I hope that I can go and see it in theaters. I'm still a little worried that it's not going to come to theaters in America because granted, the show itself is like on a four-week delay on Hulu. So, we'll see, but I'm really,

[36:09] Hulu. So, we'll see, but I'm really, really excited for that rivalry. Not as I thought they were going to be like, "Okay, someone's on the ice, whether that be Hikaru, Inati, or one of the other big players like Suzu, and they

[36:24] and that was the end." I would been like, "Oh my gosh, so I'm glad we ended good spot for me to be like, okay. Now we're heading into all Japans and we're about to have this rivalry play

[36:38] out in front of us in the movie theaters, hopefully. Very, very excited. theaters, hopefully. Very, very excited. So, with that, um my plans for now that the season is over. So, first things first, I am going to react to the movie

[36:51] trailer. I think it's only a minute and a half and I don't know if there's any watched it so that I could react to it. That'll go out next weekend and then I am going to go back all the way to the main competition of this season, which

[37:05] main competition of this season, which was Inouye's Chubu block. Chubu? Chubu? down all of the competitive performances, but I've been waiting because I've been too busy. Now that I won't have to react to an episode, I can

[37:17] videos. I think I'm going to split it into three parts because it took it was like across three episodes. So, I will break down in one episode, I'll break and then I'll break down what happened in the third episode that covered the

[37:31] competition, which I believe was just Inouye. And I'm going to break down scoring. I'm going to rescore it using my knowledge and what I would do and just talk through everything. I find those videos really fun and I think

[37:44] you'll enjoy those as well. So, I'm going to do that. After that, I am going to do some more manga related videos. I already have volume five. I need to look it up, but I think it this just covered volumes five and six. So, I'm going to

[37:57] go ahead and order six soon as well and then I'll talk about those. From there, I do want to keep talking about medalist and making videos about medalist and skating and that sort of thing, but I do want to hear from you all. What do you

[38:10] want to hear from me about medalist or skating in general? Do you want me to do a Q&A about my own skating career? Do you want me to talk more just about the characters of medalist? Do you want me to break down other things? do you want

[38:22] me to do a video comparing Yuri on Ice to Medalist and talking about the realism of the sport? I'm open to a lot of ideas, but I do want to hear from you. So, let me know in the comments below what you want to see now that the

[38:34] season is over, and while I do have a plan for the next like 6-ish weeks, quickly as well, but I want to keep making videos about Medalist along with my Demon Slayer content and introducing some other animes as well. So, that's

[38:48] the plan. Let me know what you want, but I think that's going to be it for today's video cuz I don't really have anything else to go over, I think. Yeah, I compete again in about 4 weeks. So, I'll probably talk about that when that

[39:02] happens, but otherwise, stick around for the competition breakdowns, the trailer reaction, and more. Um but that is going to be it for season 2 of Medalist. Thank you so much for watching today's video. If you liked

[39:15] subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment your thoughts, and I will see comment your thoughts, and I will see you all in the next one. Bye-bye.