[DeepL Translation - needs review] Kazuma Fushimi has returned from injury after a one-year absence. He has decided to make the All-Japan Championships in his senior year of college his last stage, and spends his days in friendly competition with his fellow members of the figure skating club. Masato Ide, a reporter for a college sports newspaper, becomes fascinated by the athletes and skating through his coverage. Relationships with family and coaches, job hunting, friendship, and romance - ...
This is a slightly unusual sports story. It's not about someone aiming for the Olympics or another big competition; it's not about a sympathetic or quirky underdog. It's about a skater who is very, very good but competes with relatively little notice or fanfare because he's a national-level athlete instead of an international-level one. There's a bit more to it, of course, but main character Kazuma's goal is to make it to Nationals again in his last year of competing and maybe land a quad jump. He doesn't even think about competing internationally.
スケートボーイズ wants you to remember these athletes and how they train hard and have to rehab injuries and hold sports dreams of their own, and that they can even be enjoyable to watch despite their lower skill level. There's an early scene where a sports journalist from Kazuma's university watches the lower levels of an intercollegiate competition and (besides informing the reader of the basics of how skating works) finds his attention caught by a young woman who only started skating when she joined the university club. Her spins are simple. She can only do single jumps. Even if he takes photos of her, pictures of such a low-level skater may not make it into publication. But she still draws his eye for her performance. And she is still happy when she wins the bronze medal in her category.
Although it took me a little while to be interested in Kazuma himself, I appreciated that aspect of スケートボーイズ, and overall, I did enjoy this novel. The main thing I didn't care about was the romance aspect; I didn't really get much sense of feelings on Kazuma's behalf, and so it ended up feeling more symbolic. The ending also felt like a touch of a letdown to me as the last scene focuses on wrapping up another character's story. If you're also into figure skating, it's clear that the author knows her stuff.
This book was pretty difficult for me, especially when I started, but I don't think there was much in it that would make it especially difficult compared to other novels. Notes on language difficulty: