SK8 the Infinity

SK8 the Infinity is a 2021 skateboarding anime from Bones, and an original rather than an adaptation: director Hiroko Utsumi (Free!, Banana Fish) devised it with the studio, and Code Geass writer Ichiro Okouchi oversaw the scripts. In Okinawa, skaters meet after midnight at "S", a downhill race through an abandoned mine where grudge matches called beefs have barely any rules. Reki Kyan, who works at a skate shop and builds his own decks, takes new classmate Langa Hasegawa along. Langa has never ridden a skateboard, but he grew up snowboarding in Canada and rides the mine like a mountain.

Much of the comedy comes from SK8 the Infinity characters with day jobs: Cherry Blossom, a celebrated AI calligrapher who races with an AI assistant, and Joe, an Italian restaurant owner, are bickering childhood friends, while Adam, the masked founder of S, is a popular young politician. Miya Chinen, a junior-high prodigy tipped for Japan's national team, handles the tricks. Thomas Romain's Studio No Border designed the boards so the trucks, wheels and decks would work if built for real, with decals matched to each rider (Romain drew Adam's). The opening, "Paradise", is by Okinawa City-born rapper Rude-α.

It is a racing cartoon, not a skate documentary: beefs allow shoving, and the finale escalates so far that Anime News Network's Christopher Farris compared it to Dragon Ball Z. The quieter drama lands best, as the middle episodes test a friendship once the beginner starts outpacing his teacher. Fans split over Adam, whose manipulative streak the show never fully reckons with.

The SK8 the Infinity anime, as of October 2026, is one 12-episode season (January to April 2021) plus Extra Part, four short episodes totalling 25 minutes that Crunchyroll added outside Japan and China in March 2025. A second season, announced in August 2022, still has no date or window; a message from Utsumi at an 8 August 2026 Instagram Live revealed only that it is set in winter. As an original, it has no source to read ahead in.

It suits viewers who want a sports show built on friendship and do not mind physics bending for a good race. It earns an honourable mention in our best sports anime ranking, and Yuri!!! on Ice, another 12-episode original about a rarely animated sport, is the natural follow-up.