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 astartlingly 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.