Plans for the original anime series Skate-Leading☆Stars were announced back in December 2020 which included lining it up for 2020. Which, of course, was before 2020 went down the drain. The series was originally set for the summer season with a July debut but was pushed back awhile ago and we learned this summer that it was being reslotted for the January 2021 season.
Now, the official site has dropped a new quick-hit commercial spot for the series that has confirmed a January 10th, 2021 premiere date for the show on Tokyo MX and how it’s rolling out to other broadcasters and services over the next couple of days.
With JC Staff taking the lead for this original work, it includes Goro Taniguchi as the chief director and Yana Toboso of the Black Butler manga as the original character designer.
The Japanese cast includes Yūma Uchida as Kensei Maeshima, Makoto Furukawa as Hayato Sasugai, Gen Sato as Tomoyuki Kubota, Yuichiro Umehara as Izumi Himekawa, Reo Tsuchida as Akimitsu Mochizuki, Shōya Chiba as Sōta Jōnouchi, Satoshi Hino as Jōtarō Terauchi, Tomoaki Maeno as Itsuki Kiriyama, Natsuki Hanae as Yukimitsu Mochizuki, Hiroshi Kamiya as Reo Shinozaki, Kaito Takeda as Toranosuke Kurayoshi, Yuki Ono as Taiga Himuro, Sōma Saitō as Noa Kuonji, Hirofumi Nojima as Hajime Ishikawa, and Kenji Nojima as Susumu Ishikawa.
The series features the opening theme song “Chase the core” by Takao Sakuma while the ending theme song is “Jump” by Shugo Nakamura.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: “You will never win against me.”
Figure skater Kensei Maeshima stopped his career when he heard those words from his rival Reo Shinozaki. Some years after, Maeshima, now a high schooler, uses his physical talent for to help other clubs with various activities, while never committing to any one thing. One day, he sees a press conference where Shinozaki announced that he was shifting from single skating to “skate-leading.” After that, he met a boy named Hayato Sasugai, who knew of Maeshima’s single skating career. With the words, “I need you,” Sasugai invites Maeshima to the world of skate-leading, or competitive team-based skating.
Skate-leading is a fictional figure-skating competition, in which each team of five skaters earns points for technical skills (such as unison formation) and artistry (such as composition and entertainment) from an automated camera-based system and nine judges. There are three positions on each team: the lead who is the point-getter with many combination jumps, the wings who are mainly responsible for twist lifts and similar elements, and the guards who perform with such elements as lifts and steps.
