Manga 163052 Two On Ice

If my review is marked as preliminary, I wrote it after reading the final chapter but MAL hadn't recognized the series as complete yet.

Two on Ice is one of those titles that comes along that really should never have been in Shounen Jump in the first place and that's part of why it did not survive. There was a lot to like about the manga. The characters were likable, easy to root for, and kind of weird. Choosing pairs figure skating as the sport also kept the story fresh since it's not a sport overdone by the previous Jump titles. It was also fun ... to see the trope of working alongside my idol play out differently than we might see in a battle shounen title. That said, the story did have pacing problems where it moved too slowly at times and became muddled towards the end as cancellation loomed. It was still an enjoyable read and I have no regrets.

If you like figure skating and/or want to read something short and unusual for Jump, then you should give this manga a try. I know I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for what Itsumo might do next.

Another one bites the dust - one of the most devastating SJ axes this reviewer has ever personally experienced.

Two on Ice is an ice skating manga, and the artist's style perfectly captures the dazzling motion of pair skating which isn't easy to do with static images. The art style takes pretty major influence from shoujo, specifically during the skating sequences and it's exactly the right choice.

The big problem I have with this one, as mentioned above, is that the axe swung too early for some of the most exciting things this manga had to offer. The primary antagonist has a rich, complex backstory and a ... startlingly honest and human response to his past trauma. The relationship between the main characters has romantic undertones initially, but they read more like very close friends near the end, which is refreshing, but it felt like there was going to be more buildup to the trust they have in each other as partners by the end, and it's a shame we don't get to see how the story line wraps up. In the few chapters before the conclusion, it definitely felt like we were building toward a major arc.

I still really love what this story represented in terms of both theming and art, it just felt like it was very ambitious and was cancelled too soon to fully deliver on all that it promised along the way.