Medalist Vol. 5

メダリスト [Medalist] #5

by Tsurumaikada

The Chubu block championship has begun! Its Novice class is filled with girls who've skated since before they were school age-an intense competition. Meanwhile, Inori only just made it into Novice class last month! With her coach Tsukasa, Inori's striving hard to make the national championship-and Tsukasa's friends in the Kago family are watching her skate for the first time!

Genres: Manga, Sports, Seinen, Contemporary, Comics, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Manga

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2022

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inori has made it to the Chubu block championship, where the competition is both fierce and more experienced. But Inori is more than ready to take on her rival, Hikari, who will no doubt make an appearance any second now…

Oh Medalist, you couldn’t stay absolutely perfect forever, could you? Up against the need to convey a massive (and massively important) competition, this is the most that’s ever been asked of this series and it is the first time its reach doesn’t quite meet its grasp.

And not for lack of effort - the mangaka is tasked with an ungodly number of new characters to be introduced, plus the skating routines of over a dozen competitors. It’s an absolute dogpile of an ask for the story. It certainly starts off strong, with Inori disrupting a press event and a quick lesson on the perils of going first.

Every compliment to the attempt that then follows. There’s a very clever try at portraying the routines of four skaters simultaneously that is nearly a brilliant bit of business, but comes off as an utter jumble at times before sticking a reasonably decent landing.

There’s some good drama on the points side, but en route we get one of the most unhelpful info dumps in recent memory about how figure skating is scored, which is something that should have been done ages ago or put in a sidebar or something. I actually skipped over parts of it and I never do that.

For all that the series has been strong at showing the skating side, it does not do a good job here. The routines don’t convey motion quite as well as they should, partially because trying to show vignettes from so many participants eats the page count alive.

In one instance, the song choice used is given after most of the routine, which is… why!? I’m sure this is partially me being utterly spoiled by the competitive dance manga Wandance, but this just doesn’t quite do what it’s going for.

Nothing is more depressing than a series you love falling down over something it normally does really well. Inori still has the ‘go get ‘em’ attitude she did previously, Tsukasa does big coaching stuff. But when the focus is on the ice this time, it’s underwhelming.

I still have lots of hope, even if I think the story is getting progressively away from what makes it truly great. Inori proving her worth was a reasonable goal, but now it feels like, between where Hikari ends up and Inori’s ambitions, we’re being asked to believe an awful lot.

Normally this story shines bright, but this time around the brilliance flickers only here and there in far fewer spots than I’d like. Too much going on and not enough space given to it. Shout-out to that ending, though, where Tsukasa makes a proclamation that at least makes me pumped for the next volume.

3.5 stars - I was going to round this up, but I feel like this story let itself down addressing its fundamentals. I might be judging it too harshly, I genuinely think that could be the case, but that’s figure skating for you.

[ninapasta · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ⭐ EVERYONE IS CRAZY GOOD AHHH!!

[Linn J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg Inori is in the block tournament but where is Hikari?!

The pressure and the tension is high! Everything needs to be perfect. But can the girls land all the jumps?! Did they practice enough!!?

Inori had little scentime here, but I adored the other girls who gave the all. Actually both Inori and Tsukasa was a bit in the background here, a supporting decoration. They left the stage for their rivals to shine and I think I liked that alot. My eyes tear up from time to time.

The Manga was spectacular. The drawing style, the momentum of the spins, jumps and the step sequences. Amazing.

[Momo · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 stars

Another great edition to this series. Love that the author is implementing even more ice skating info with the rating system breakdown.

[Adhara Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I like this manga and the main character duo, it's starting to get annoying. Suddenly, absolutely everyone is a genius or prodigy of some sort. Amazing ratings turn to sh*t in a matter of a couple of pages because suddenly a new girl is even more amazing than the one before. In a world full of geniuses and hard-working super, amazingly incredible ice skaters... everyone becomes dull.
It's like when they started putting more and more super-strong enemies in Dragon Ball. It was quickly becoming exhausting, not exciting. Turning pages is like: wow, what she did was amazing, but I shouldn't care about it as I am sure in the next chapter, someone will do something even more amazing... and they do. It's starting to get annoying as hell.
I won't give up on the story yet, but somehow, I have a feeling that before I reach volume 11, it will be just too much "greatness" to swallow.

[Snail · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know I might be in an overly critical mindset from being exhausted, but… this was not a series that I wanted to see thirty characters suddenly added to.

Especially given the art style, I find an army of young girls difficult to distinguish from one another — and I don’t want to be bothered to put the energy into trying until I know which characters are sticking around; who’s actually important plot-wise.

I don’t know who made this choice to jump into a free style shonen type battle style for a whole volume but… it was not for me. And of the characters I do like and care about, I felt like Tsukasa was freaking out the whole volume—maybe it’s part of some development arc for him, but it felt out of character.

I’d been enjoying every volume of this series until now way more than I’d ever expected to… so I really hope the next volume returns to being enjoyable and engaging!

[nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

INORIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!! 🤧🤧🤧🥹🥹🥹

i love the gambling metaphor it made the competition more exciting than it already was!!! it was interesting to see everyone’s game plan to come out on top what they were willing to bet and lose. also love how tsukasa’s experience as an ice dancer came into play 😌✨ we’ve seen in previous volumes how some people don’t take him seriously as a competitive coach bc of his background but his ice dancing skills were the driving force in giving inori the confidence to take on this challenge in her journey to becoming a medalist! 😊

[Sara SR · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 5th installment was a lot more ice-skating and less character arc than the 4th. I really enjoyed how dynamic the illustrations were, especially in the second half. I do wish there were more references to the skating music, but it was enjoyable anyway. The explanation of the scoring system via the man in the stands was alright; it was a lot to read through and it might have been better placed before the start of the competition or in the previous volume. I'm not sure how I feel about the double athlete panes. Overall, a good volume that has given me faith in the next one.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Band hat mir auch wieder gut gefallen. Leider ging es weniger um Inori, was mir ein wenig gefehlt hat, aber wir haben ganz viele neue Figuren kennengelernt, jetzt, wo Inori in einer neuen Klasse antritt. Man sieht den Willen, den Schweiß und die Leidenschaft, mit der diese jungen Mädchen an den Sport gehen; genauso wie auch ihre Trainer, die mit ihnen mitfiebern. Ich bin jetzt ganz gespannt darauf, wie Inori sich schlagen wird, und finde den Cliffhanger deswegen echt fies.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissimo volume. Ho apprezzato molto come, attraverso varie pattinatrici secondarie, i loro sogni e aspirazioni, abbiamo avuto modo di percorrere tutta la gara fino ad arrivare alla nostra dolce Inori. È arrivato finalmente il suo momento, ma non può finire così accidenti! Si ferma proprio sul più bello... e le parole di Tsukasa! Che hype, non vedo l'ora di avere tra le mani il prossimo volume.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume let's all the other girls shine. Get some really great ice skating parts. Couple funny parts (How funny was the puppet part and her reaction? Pure gold) and I really liked the Yuna girl, she has some guts.

Overall very solid but not as amazing as some of the other volumes. Still great though!

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of new characters introduced in this volume, but I still enjoyed it! I love how the mangaka takes great pains to show how every girl participating in the sport is similar to Inori -- doing their best and shooting for their dream, but they can't all win, and the competition is breakneck.

[Kyle Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good installment. The tournament is underway and the contestants are vying for their spot in the top five. Some make it while others don't. Next volume Inori will show off her skills she's honed in such a short time.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Medalist continues to impress with great skating sequences and emotional character scenes. I was glued to each performance and cannot wait for the next volume!

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed learning more about ice skating in this one.

[Brandon Phan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this series. I’m not familiar with figure skating terms but it explains the grading system well and the motion translates off the page really well. It’s hype yo

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inori 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹