This is an absolutely beautiful manga about a teacher and his student both trying to make it in the ice skating world. So much of the story tackles anxiety and self-doubt and it does so in a fantastic way. Highly recommend this series to anyone who's a fan of ice skating, sports manga, or are just looking for a great realistic fiction story.

A little slow at the beginning but I was really invested by the end. I love the illustrations particularly how the skating is depicted, I also appreciated having the proper skating terms but also explanations for people not familiar with the phrases. I really want to know what happens next so I’ll have to see if my library can get in the rest of the series.

The start on the round and the meet up between two weirdos just started. Okay no. I just felt hit that Tsukasa and me are the same age and we both fell in love and started figure skating at the age of fourteen.

Poor little Inori, misunderstood and totally bullied by her mother, classmates and adults, so unfair. Just wait, she will mope all of you to the floor!

This was an amazing start on the serie, Medalist!
It includes so much, like they usually do in sports manga. As a reader, you will learn so much. The social, economical and political aspects to become pro figure skater. To become pro you need the training hours, individual coaches, joining a club and so on and so on. The Manga also includes a lot of terms and scoring information that you need to know as an figure skater, it was an memory lane I don't visit alot. Like I said, I also fell in love in figure skating as an child, but it was not until later I really wanted to compete.

The first volume was a bit dramatic, but it had the impact to keep reading!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an e-Arc.

A great start of an ice skating sports manga. The main character is a girl who is a newbie but has a lot of passion towards skating. Her coach is a former ice skater and is a very happy and positive person which contrasts to the more fearful and shy main chacter. But at the end of the volume we see her grow more confident and with a hunger to learn and win more. In future volumens there will be a more focus on competitions so it will be more action orientated.

The art is very beautiful with quite funny faces and its very easy to follow the explanations and the action.

Highly recommended to fans of sports manga.

Medalist is a sports manga following our main characters Inori, a young girl who dreams of skating, and Tsukasa, a well known ice skater turned coach. This first volume had a lot of cute moments, but it was also able to touch on more serious topics, like self-doubt. Since Inori didn't start skating until she was older, she sometimes doubts her skating abilities. Tsukasa sees himself in Inori, and tries to help lift her spirits. I also really liked the art in this volume! I thought the panels showing the figure skating were the best, as they really showed the movement of the jumps/spins.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha for providing me with a copy of this volume in exchange for an honest review!

I've been excited to read this volume since I saw that it came out. I love ice skating manga, even though I haven't read very many. They all seem like the focus on different aspects of the sport and create a variety of hurdles for our main characters to overcome, so it never feels like the same story being told. You can't help route for Inori in this story, she is 100% underdog and struggles with so much in her life. I love the relationship she develops with her coach and can't wait to see more growth in both of them, since he can see so much on himself in her. The art style for the manga is really rough and gritty, and the facial expressions reminded me of SpongeBob sometimes - that over-exaggerated portrayal of feelings that has a way of making a really hard moment not as traumatic because the face is almost funny.

Thanks to #netgalley for an e-copy of to read and review.

Medalist follows a 26 year old retired ice dancer, Tsukasa, coaching a new 11 year old skater, Inori, and IT IS SO CUTE!

There are several moments of extreme relatability which are emphasised by drastic shifts in art to an almost-horror style WHICH WORKS SO EFFECTIVELY! The normal art style is so beautiful and cute, and contrasting the art styles is especially effective in conveying negative emotions like fear, but in a way that is still light-hearted and funny somehow (ie when Tsukasa runs away from Inori’s bag of worms), but also emphasising serious fear about performing and it going wrong, for example.

The story is cute and funny and I am thoroughly hooked by Inori’s progression and I cannot wait to read more!

Read through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was so unexpectedly good and cute and sweet and NO love plot line, which I appreciated. Well, the love for the sport, but as the MC h is young, it is more about standing up for herself for her passion of ice skating and the coach's passion to teach her and the children her age she meets along the way, friends, foes and frenemies. The competition is...normal for the sport, but seems unhealthy to me, someone who has never been that dedicated to a sport before. It literally takes every thought of one's mind and cell of one's body. It's very intense to read.

I love that the MC h did stand up for what she wanted to do and that her coach is so passionate about training her. They have a sweet bond as mentor/mentee. The storyline is good, the artwork is crisp and not ugly and I REALLY want to see the MC h succeed.

4, shining, spinning stars!

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for an eARC of this book to read and review.

This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The art in this book is cute and unique, but somehow also classic manga style. I really liked the color pages in the beginning and wish there were more, because the iridescent looking highlights in the colored pages is beautiful. The story is cute and uplifting, but I do feel bad for Inori in most of the book, she's always crying and sad (at least in the beginning). I look forward to reading the next volume.

Full review in Booklist Magazine

I really enjoyed the first volume of this manga, and I fully intend to read more. This was a really sweet mentor/mentee story about a young girl getting into figure skating because she has the passion to do so, even though everyone around her says that she can't accomplish anything because she's starting too late in life. Her coach also feels like life is against him and wants to help his trainee live her dreams.

A cute story about a little girl who is passionate about skating. This story follows this girl as she learns and grows as a skater. We watch as her and her coach learn about themselves as they work together. The art is very cute, and the story is also very cute.

I really enjoyed the premise of this manga and the characters were fun. The art style was a little unsettling sometimes with the extreme emotions (anger, sad) but the author really conveyed the emotions well by doing this. I acutely felt the emotions the characters were feeling throughout the story and I want more!

This is such a cute underdog sports manga! Inori is not the typical skater, she hasn't had any formal lessons and is starting at a later age than most plus she struggles with socializing and school but she loves skating and is dedicated to it. I think she's a great character and shows that it's not always about having the best clothes, skates, formal lessons but mostly about having the drive and the heart for the sport. Tsukasa is the perfect coach for her and I love that they come together in a time where they're both feeling inadequate and give each other the opportunity to be stars essentially. Inori will be the first kid that Tsukasa coaches and Tsukasa will be Inori's first coach and experience with formal skating lessons. They're learning together and are both very driven to be the best, plus as someone who got into skating later than most Tsukasa definitely feels a kinship with Inori and wants to see her succeed. This manga is sweet and funny, with lots of skating talk: technique and rules, etc. but it's also about figuring out who you want to be and what you want to do at any age in life and going for it. Both main characters are building confidence and reaching for success. The art is cute, detailed, engaging and really shows the emotions of the characters. It depicts the action shots of skating really well. Medalist is a charming story about two underdogs and I think it would be a great fit for anyone who likes mangas/comics/graphic novels especially if they're also interested in sports.

Thank you Kodansha Comics for this eARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

— 4.5 ⚝

thank you to netgalley and kodansha comics for an e-arc of this sports manga. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

"Medalist" is a captivating story that breaks away from the common sports manga tropes by focusing on characters who are not necessarily the typical protagonists. Tsukasa's journey from a failed professional skater to a coach and Inori's struggle with confidence and late start in skating adds depth to the narrative. The passion of both characters for figure skating creates a compelling dynamic that draws viewers in and makes it easy to root for them.

The art style seems to complement the story well, with expressive characters and attention to detail in conveying emotions. Tsukasa's belief in Inori and his expressive personality make him an engaging character to follow, while Inori's adorable character design as well as her drive and determination adds charm to the series.

Overall, "Medalist" appears to be off to a strong start, laying a solid foundation for the story to unfold. It will be intriguing to see how the characters' journeys progress and how they overcome the challenges they face in pursuing their dreams. It is definitely worth picking up as it seems like a very fresh voice in the sports genre of manga. Would also be super cool to see this animated.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’m so glad I got to read this one!!! It’s a really good sports manga and so much more! The character development, the feelings it gave me, the humor, the heart,..

This is mainly about 2 people. A 26 year old retired ice skater called Tsukasa (a super nice guy!!) and a passionate 11 year old girl called Inori (she’s insecure and sweet) who needs his help! He becomes her coach and they really are a dream team! So funny how both off them showed their emotions (haha the drama).. And this ended on a cliffhanger butttttt we do get some amazing little extra stories (I loved them so much!!!) after the ending.

I kept my review pretty short although I had written down a lot because you just need to read and experience this great manga with amazing characters, without me spoiling too much :).

3.5 stars
I've always loved figure skating. It is terrible how early a career peaks and how early you have to get in to really be given a chance. There's a lot of toxicity in sports like this and this manga does a good job of showing some 0f those difficulties. While first and foremost this is a story of ice skating and everything it takes to move forward and into competitions, it is also one of learning to believe in yourself. It is about taking your fears and using them to make yourself stronger. Medalist is about how to to believe in yourself against all the odds.
Inori has some type of learning disability and the adults in her life have not been helpful to her. They berate her for her poor scores in school and even her mother doesn't actually think she can do anything with her life. It was sad to see her mother saying all those awful things about her daughter and the lack of belief that letting her skate and do something Inori loves was worth the time.
Artwork is good, but some of the panels get a little convoluted so its harder to understand the movements that are happening.

Every now and then I would read a manga book to feel something, and this is what this one did. I love a cute manga book that put me into my feels. It was fast paced which I really enjoyed. One of the man characters comes back from Japan from ice skating and later finds themselves helping a young person how to ice skate. There are topics of financial issues but the subject is talked about once. I overall enjoyed the story and would continue on, I was hooked from the first page.
I would rate this a 3.5 stars which is still a pretty good high rating for a manga book that I enjoyed reading.

Though the art in this one didn't thrill me like some other series, I think the story is an interesting one. I love that we are getting more sports manga now, and I can see why so many people love this one.

Thank u netgalley for an advanced ARC of this manga

This story is adorable as well about a dream u hold onto and want to accomplish no matter what. My favourite character was the child because her love and passion for figure skating is what made me keep reading, but the dream she had also helped in the dream the main character had as well.

I do not plan to continue the series but I did enjoy reading this book

I'm not usually a big fan of sports manga but this is something I'm definitely going to buy the physical for. I didn't think I would become so emotionally invested in this manga but here I am. This was such a funny but heartbreaking volume for both Inori and MMC. I loved how they explained figure skating and also showed the unfortunate financial burdens of such a sport.