Pop Umai hosted part 2 of their Kiss Kiss Boba event. Day 1 took place in February as a romance-themed event in time for Valentine’s Day. However, the second day of the event was postponed due to the rain. On June 8th, Kiss Kiss Boba took over the Almond Haus Cafe in Claremont. Just in time for Pride Month, the main theme for the event was Sk8 the Infinity. While the series is not explicitly a Boys’ Love romance, fans (as well as the voice actors and English dub director) can attest that the relationships between the pairs Reki/Langa and Joe/Cherry are stronger than simply friendship.
Four of the main English Dub voice actors were guests at this event. Matt Shipman (Reki Kyan), Howard Wang (Langa Hasegawa), Daman Mills (Cherry Blossom), and Jonah Scott (Joe) were in attendance, along with voice actor Brittany Lauda (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, Dr. STONE). We briefly spoke with the Sk8 the Infinity English voice cast about the upcoming season and OVA.
Synopsis of the Series
The original anime series follows a second-year high school student named Reki Kyan and his love for skateboarding. Reki meets Langa Hasegawa, a transfer student, and teaches him how much fun skateboarding is. They spend some of their evenings at a secret skateboard event called “S,” in an abandoned mine, where there are no rules.
Interview with Sk8 the Infinity English Dub Cast
We spoke with Matt Shipman, Howard Wang, Jonah Scott, and Daman Mills about their thoughts on season 2 and the OVA (original video animation) that have yet to receive release dates. However, a poster revealing a high school-aged Joe (voiced by Jonah Scott) and Cherry (voiced by Daman Mills) gave fans an idea of what the OVA could be about. We asked what answers the cast is hoping for when it finally comes around.
Daman says, “I really want to know just more about how Cherry and Joe connected and how their friendship and everything built up. What happened with Adam? What’s the true fallout with Adam?”
Jonah jokes that the animation studio has had plenty of time to come up with a story. He goes on to say, “We get little vignettes of them [Joe and Cherry] together, but we haven’t seen any more than a five-minute chunk. And it would be nice to have, like, maybe two scenes connected where it’s like, ‘Oh my god…this isn’t a flashback?'”
Howard wants a cameo of young Reki showing up in the background. “Langa wouldn’t even be there! He’s in Canada!” Howard laughs. Matt chimes in and says, “He’s visiting, don’t worry about it!” Then, Howard mentions that it would be funny to see a “little baby Reki and Langa pass each other on the street.”
It is unanimous that the cast would love to see their characters participate in another board sport. In season two, they want the boys to go surfing or snowboarding. Daman wants a more romance-style episode. He thinks it would be interesting to see the “ships” in this show become more canon to the story.
Watch Sk8 the Infinity season one now on Crunchyroll.
