Reki Kyan

Appearance

Reki is a fair and slightly tan skinned teenage boy of average height with wild and spiky red hair where he often sports an Egyptian blue headband with white detailing and a red wrist sweatband, and amber colored eyes. He appears to have a lithe figure and his face is very expressional and easily read where he is usually sporting a smile or a silly face. Similar to the skater-boy look, his outfits consist of a sweatshirt or layered sweatshirt and sweater/t-shirt combos with baggy pants. He commonly wears a yellow hoodie in his layered or unlayered outfits. His main sweatshirt he wears matches his board detailing. His outfits fall under the street fashion subculture called skater style.

Personality

Reki is a carefree young man. At first glance, it's easy to assume all he cares about is skateboarding, and while that's somewhat true, he's also shown to be interested in more creative things like drawing and even making skateboards from scratch. With his outgoing personality, Reki can get easily along with everyone, although he has a special affinity for those who are also interested in the skateboarding world. He's on the lazier side of the spectrum, only doing the bare minimum in school to get good grades and never really thinking much about the future career-wise, but when given responsibilities about things he's passionate about, he tries his hardest and sets high goals for himself. He is also a selfless person who wants the people who he cares for to succeed in anyway shape or form, even if it puts himself in harm's way. He enjoys physical touch which is seen with both Miya Chinen and Langa Hasegawa interactions where Reki is often touching them. Reki cares deeply for his friends as an example of this is when he defends Miya from Adam: he challenged Adam to a beef in hopes of winning and forcing Adam to take back his insults about Miya. He also will do anything to make sure of his friends' safety like going to others to try to convince Langa not to skate against Adam.[5] He expresses his concern for Langa, often making sure that he is okay. While he has a high patience, it's not above him to crack a few jokes about his friends or boss. After all, it all comes with the laid-back personality. Reki also shows the fear of falling behind and being left behind which means he has to work harder to catch up to the raw natural talents of his friends. He gets shown to be visually upset when he gets complimented by Langa [6] showing that he doesn't believe his friends' words about his own self worth. It's been shown that Reki doesn't think of himself highly at all instead listening to the words of others saying that he's just the "redhead" that Snow hangs around.

Personality

Reki shows self-doubt throughout the episodes progressively growing in depth and leading to him snapping at Langa about how he doesn't feel excited to go against Adam—he feels fear. He falls apart when he realizes that he cannot benefit his friend anymore and tells him this is where our path together ends out of fear and self-doubt. He is deeply affected by realizing all of his closest friends are talented while even as a joke imply he is not talented. He loses the light in his eyes when he talks about skateboarding, progressively becoming a shell of the once happy skateboard-loving nerd. Later, Reki is shown as usually deep in thought and more or less drained, unlike his usual excitable demeanor.[8] He does feel guilty when ignoring Langa at school and does still want to support him. He tries simply watching Langa race and yells out when he sees him losing his focus in the middle of the race, showing that despite being in his rut, he still deeply cares about Langa. Despite his best efforts, he eventually realizes he wants to stand with his friends, but feels like he could never reach the place he needs to be to stand with them. This leads to him breaking down as Langa and Joe skate, realizing he doesn't want to be on the side supporting them. In his self-deprecation, he turns in his "S" pin, leaving the skating world behind.[6] The self-deprecation continues to worsen, even leading him to validate being beaten up on the pretence that he deserved it, showing a new lack of even self-preservation. He goes out of his way to avoid Langa specifically, yet still pushes anybody who cares for him away until he finds a reason to figure out his actions need to change and that they all matter to him, leading to the rekindling of Langa and himself.

Personality

After making up with Langa and promising to skate infinitely together, Reki's self-deprecative traits in regards to his skating skills seem to disappear as he realises that skating really is just having fun with the people you want by your side and proudly expresses this principle to anyone who doubts it. It is shown that Reki, whilst he still gets flattered and flustered at extensive compliments, he accepts them much easier. He also becomes more confident in his board-making skills, utilizing his knowledge with board mechanics, as well as foreseeing the weather to improve his own performance during his race with Adam.[8] When the race is over, despite being beat up and falling over at the finish line, Reki exclaims his love for skating, smiling whilst being surrounded by his friends. Reki also paints the word "FUN" on the bottom of Langa's new board, much to the latter's surprise, inadvertently saving him from being stuck in the "zone".[9] When Langa is close to reaching the race, Reki immediately starts sprinting to the finish line, ready to cheer him on. At the end of the show, Reki prepares to race Langa one-on-one in their promised race, telling Langa to not go easy on him.

Abilities

Reki has been skating since he was young, having become obsessed with it after his friend got him into it during their childhood.[9] Despite not being a natural and taking a while to learn tricks [10], Reki has become a skilled and passionate skateboarder who's capable of performing well even at top-end competitive races like "S", and can even serve as a good teacher for beginner skaters even if he isn't quite on the same level as some of "S"'s more famous skaters.[11][12] Reki is also a skilled skateboard engineer thanks to his experience working at DOPE SKETCH and he is able to create and design all sorts of different boards for customers. General Prowess: It's been revealed that Reki wasn't innately talented at skateboarding, perhaps because he got into it at an older age than many other skilled skaters, but is still above average in ability and can race neck and neck with other competitive skaters. He can hold his own in beefs and doesn't shrink away from challenging older and more experienced skaters.[14] Later on, Reki develops a new sense of logicality towards skating and is able to plan strategies for upcoming beefs based on what he knows about the terrain and opposing skater. He was capable of outwitting Adam through the use of rain wheels and was able to fearlessly avoid his Full Swing Kiss attack even after being injured during their beef. Tricks: Reki is capable of pulling off a lot of the more common skateboarding tricks such as the ollie and the rail slide and knows them thoroughly enough to be able to teach them to other people without a hitch.[13] He can utilize them with a high success rate during beefs.[9] Observation Skills: Reki's passion for skateboarding has led him to become notably observant of other skaters. He's capable of figuring out exactly why Langa Hasegawa's board feels incorrect and the reason why its scratches are concentrated in one place, and also the small, technical reasons behind why Langa's unable to perfect some tricks.

Abilities

Mechanical Skills: Due to his experience with working at a skateboarding shop and his observation of other skaters, Reki has become very skilled at creating boards that fit skaters' individual needs and styles. He's able to think up a foot-clip idea for Langa's board in order to help him feel more secure as he transitioned from snowboarding to skateboarding and took advantage of Langa's snowboarding roots to create a board with a swiveling front truck in order to grant Langa more freedom as he skated.

Background

Reki initially got into skateboarding because one of his childhood friends taught and roped him into it. He became passionate about the sport quickly despite not having a natural affinity for learning it and continued to skate even after his friend got into a serious accident as a consequence of it. Somewhere along the lines, he discovered "S" and becomes a member/skater there. Reki appears on the surface as a carefree skateboarding nerd, but as the series continues, we see his vulnerable side. He puts his entire trust into Langa Hasegawa and wants to see his friend succeed. He cares deeply for the ones close to him and will throw himself in harm's way to protect them. He can see the good in people, strives for everyone to be happy and dislikes anyone who bullies or picks on others. He is very handy and creative, which is seen when he customizes Langa's board. He figured out the best way for it be shaped and styled, modeling it after the natural style a snowboarder has. Reki is shown to feel inferior to the skaters in his friend group, which leads him to fight more with his mental state than race in "S". He feels as though he has no talent compared to the 'geniuses' he's around. He covers the self-doubt with a smile, but it progressively eats him alive. In which he later remembers his worth and welcomes himself back into the lives of his friends; with the remembrance skating is fun and it shouldn't be anything less than that.

Relationships

Miya Chinen: Reki has taken a big brother role for Miya, trying to teach him he has to have fun to skate because it's not worth skating without having fun. He is protective of him seen when he challenges Adam to a beef to defend Miya. Even though Reki lost, Miya still upgraded Reki from a 'Slime' to a 'Golem' showing his respect for him grew. They enjoy each others company and teasing each other. Reki promises to always be there for Miya which makes the younger happy due to the lack of consistent friends in his life. Miya notices the small changes in Reki and voices his concern when he asked Langa Hasegawa where Reki is. It is seen that Miya's love language is teasing and after the words of others Reki takes Miya's words to heart and degrade himself. Miya is shown worrying about Reki when he hadn't seen Reki come to 'S' for a while and seeing the distraught out of place entity Langa has become in the wake of Reki's absences. Hiromi Higa(shadow): Reki starts out the series racing against Shadow, but he becomes one of his close allies. He tends to jump into Hiromi's car without thinking most of the time. When training for the race against Adam, Shadow is seen with Reki, Langa Hasegawa and Miya Chinen driving them places.[3] They also manipulate him with going on a trip with them, seeing him as an adult figure they can turn to when they want something. Kaoru Sakurayashiki(Cherry Blossom): Reki turns to Kaoru when he needs advice as seen when he runs to Kaoru screaming his "S" name in public; to get him to to teach Langa Hasegawa a new move to beat Adam. They both have a mutual dislike and distaste for the way Adam skates. Prior to Reki and Adam's beef, Kaoru breaks down the love hug for everyone to hopefully prevent any major injury Reki could receive from it. Kaoru is not always outright with his feelings but shows he does care towards Reki. Kaoru displays a parental figure towards Reki by slapping his hand away from reaching for the alcohol.

Relationships

Kojiro Nanjo(Joe): A big brother type figure for Reki, they match similar energies where they can be serious when worried about someone they care about or playful when they're with people they like. Kojiro shows concern for Reki when he says he's going to race against Adam and tells him not to. Reki turns to Kojiro to teach him a new trick. The older visually saw the distress the younger was in and had a meaningful conversation in which shows that they are extremely similar in nature. Reki finds comfort in Kojiro and talk about if he wants to quit or stay. Kojiro cheers him up and the smile on his face shows his concern and relief of Reki not quitting nor wanting to be left behind. Kojiro comes to Reki to get him to go to "S", he wants the two boys to rekindle their friendship and for Reki to not isolate himself and be alone. Kojiro often appears when Reki is eating as his love language is food and confides in him knowledge and the strength to do something and that being alone is not the way to go when you have friends right beside you. When Reki does go to "S" later on, Joe is seen with a smile on his face when he finds out. He also tells Langa Hasegawa to run after Reki and fix what they have and what they have left behind. Langa Hasegawa(snow): reki’s best friend but also the source of most his insecurities. Mr. perfect but also a dork with dyslexia.