Renga

Renga is the slash ship between Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa from the SK8 the Infinity fandom.

Canon
Langa is introduced as a Canadian transfer student, attending the same class as Reki. While on the street looking for a part-time job, Langa encounters Reki once more, by stopping his skateboard from rolling down the road. Reki offers Langa a chance to ride his board. Langa agrees, only to stumble and fall off immediately. Reki demonstrates how to ride it, leaving Langa intrigued. Langa is later employed as an assistant, working at DOPE SKETCH, the same shop as Reki.

He and Reki are to deliver a skateboard to a buyer, located at “S”, an illegal skateboard racing arena located in an abandoned mine shaft. Reki discovers that he brought the wrong skateboard. The buyer, unsatisfied, claims he will not participate in the race without a proper board. He tells Reki to replace him, but before Reki can agree, Langa decides to skate for him instead. This worries Reki, as Langa can barley stand on a skateboard, let alone ride it. Langa tapes the board to his feet, and the race begins. Langa is revealed to be a snowboarder. He catches up to his rival, Shadow. This surprises Reki, leaving him in awe.

Now that Langa beat Shadow in the race, he is named “The Rookie” by most members of S. Reki is impressed and proud of Langa, calling him amazing and cool. Langa decides that he wants to continue skateboarding. Reki is happy about this, and proudly becomes his coach / teacher. Langa tries to impress Reki by skating down the street, but Reki soon realizes to his horror, that there is a busy road waiting for him at the bottom. Reki, concerned for his friend, screams his name but it’s too late. Langa falls into the street, almost getting run over by a truck. Luckily he survives and Reki tends to his wounds.

In episode 3, Langa is challenged by Miya to another race at "S". After quite a bit of protest from Reki, Langa accepts. Reki doesn't believe Langa is ready to race Miya, but supports him nevertheless. Reki then realizes a handicap Langa had been having to deal with. The fact that his board didn't turn as Langa was used to, and Reki immediately stumbles upon a solution. He worked tirelessly on the board until Langa was able to try it out, and then, then it was time for the race. After a very close and intense race, and an emotional moment between Miya and Reki afterwards, Adam comes in to inspect the newcomer. After being thoroughly insulted, Reki challenges Adam to a race to protect the honor of his friends.

Episode 4 gets a bit wild. People had constantly attempted to talk Reki out of it, but he wouldn't back down. Now, not only was he defending Miya's honor, he was defending Langa as well, and this came largely into play. During the race, Reki could've almost been killed, and Langa was shown to have expressed extreme concern on the subject, even going as far as to steal someone's motorcycle and race after them. Reki was knocked off and sent flying. Langa immediately rushed over to him but Reki was still smiling somehow, even after such a great accident.

After Reki suffered serious injuries due to his beef, in episode 5, he tries to convince Langa that skating against Adam, a strong opponent would be worthless and much too dangerous. To his chagrin, Langa is stubborn and won't refuse the beef. Reki tells him about an old friend he had that quit skating because he was too heavily injured, and that he didn't want to lose another friend because of it. The redhead made him promise that he wouldn't skate against someone as brutal as Adam, and Langa finally agrees unrelentingly.

In episode 6, as Reki, Langa, and their friends were skating towards the beach, Langa held onto Reki's arm to prevent him from trying out a dangerous trick because the latter was still injured. Reki was a bit annoyed but obeyed him nevertheless. When Langa got a sunburn, both Miya and Reki were shown fanning him and taking care of him. Shadow decided he was going to stop Joe from flirting with girls, but Reki stopped him by acting like a scared girl and grabbing onto "Joe" (Langa). Shaking a sleep-deprived Langa twice to get him to play along worked, and the Canadian put an arm around Reki saying he would "protect him".

As they skated towards the hot springs at night, Reki was accidentally left behind, and his fear of the dark and being alone was set in play in the unfamiliar place. Langa appears behind him, scaring him, but he apologizes for leaving Reki behind as the two set off together. When Reki hears a sound in the bushes, he jumps behind Langa, terrified, until they realize it was just a cat. Langa is about to mention his fear but Reki tells him to shut up. Not long after, they found their friends lying on the road covered in mud, and as they're fearfully wondering what happened to their friends, mud creatures begin to chase them. The two jump on their skateboards to escape, being closely chased by the creatures. One of them manages to make Reki slip and almost fall from his skateboard. Thankfully, Langa reaches over just in time to support Reki from his waist and stopped his fall. Reki thanks him with a smile, but the mud creatures quickly overtake them and they're surrounded.

Returning from the beach trip, Reki's injuries are finally healed in episode 7. But as he watches his friend skate spectacularly in the 'S' rink, he realizes that Langa had surpassed him and felt inferior due to the comments other skaters were making about him. Langa shows off a impressive trick, jumping extremely high, and Reki thinks that the only way to catch up would be to replicate the stunt. After trying multiple times and never succeeding, he becomes even more insecure about his ability. When Adam launches an 'S' competition, Langa excitedly asks if Reki was going to join, but quickly gets shot down at the suggestion. It begins to rain. Reki asks him why he would break their promise, and Langa confusedly asks him why he wouldn't want to skate against a great opponent like Adam. The redhead finally bursts, saying that he felt scared racing against the older and that people as good as Langa should just do whatever they wanted because of how prodigious they were.

After their fight, in episode 8 Langa asks his mom what he should do regarding his situation with a "friend"(Reki). Misreading the situation, his mother, Nanako, asks if he liked the person. At this, Langa looks visibly surprised, averts his eyes and blushes. He replies with "Well... yeah," and Nanako encourages him to confess his emotions, thinking that his "friend" was a girl. To this Langa blushed again and said that it would be too embarrassing to do it. Later as Langa arrived at 'S', he searched around desperately for Reki, even thinking that Adam was Reki when he appeared behind the boy. He wondered if Tadashi could have been Reki because of the way he skated and hid his identity.

In episode 9, despite saying that he wouldn't show up, Reki attended the race between Langa and Joe while wearing an oversized hoodie as a disguise. When some skaters said Joe would win, Reki defended Langa, saying he had beautiful and high air. Meanwhile, as Langa skated, he felt empty as though he wasn't feeling the emotion he used to have while skating. Reki sees Langa slowing down and still worries for his friend. The moment Langa passes by Reki, he makes a split-second decision and shouts out "LANGA!!" passionately. Hearing this, the blue-haired began to feel more excitement that Reki was there with him and began to skate with more vigor and motivation. Langa wins the race against Joe to the cost of his broken skateboard. When Joe says he should just get a new board, Langa stubbornly says "It has to be this one". Joe understands, and advises him that he should look for Reki to repair his skateboard. While Langa had won his race, Reki felt neither pride nor disappointment in his friend, and mentioned that he didn't want to just cheer on for Langa, but skate alongside him.

At the start of episode 10, Reki continues to ignore Langa. He walks past a gang and is later found beat up by Manager Oka. Reki confesses that even though he was hurt, he didn't feel anything at all, and Oka mentions that Shadow was injured as well. Hearing this, Reki quickly arrives at the hospital, but after just a glimpse of Langa, he stops the elevator and rides back to avoid him. On the first floor, he encounters Miya, and the younger boy shouts that Reki had promised he wouldn't leave him. Reki half-heartedly apologizes, and when he leaves hastily, a car suddenly comes running at him.

When Reki awakens, he finds himself in a hotel with Tadashi. Tadashi attempts to convince Reki to stop skateboarding regardless of knowing nothing about the boy, but Reki defends himself and says that "Skateboarding is fun!" Saying this helped him realize he was wrong about Langa, and decides to go and apologize. On the other hand, Langa arrives at Reki's house asking if his friend was there, but to no avail. He leaves, and Reki arrives home right after. His mother says Langa had stopped by, and he anticipates that Langa was probably by the skate park. He catches up, but as they meet, he is unsure of what to say and Langa suggests that they just skate together. Skating is fun again for the two of them, and they only stop when Langa accidentally bumps into Reki. Langa blushes and begins to laugh, with Reki humorously concerned if he had hit his head. Langa smiles and begins a speech about how happy he is to be skating again with emotion, and that he felt this happiness only if Reki was with him. He says that he considers Reki his teacher, but Reki stops the blue-haired before he can go on. Langa looks up and realizes that he's blushing hard and looking away embarrassed while covering his face with his arms. Reki says he feels the same way as Langa, and they both agree to skate together forever. Langa even mentions "For infinity!" while Reki laughs and says that might be too much. Finally they decide to modify their DAP, touching their knuckles so as to create the sign of infinity. The two boys laugh and blush with that commitment into the night.

After making up, Reki and Langa revert back to their normal life before the fight in episode 11. Reki also tries to fix Langa's smashed skateboard, but he tells Langa that he would have to build a new one because it was broken beyond repair to the Canadian's disappointment. He mentions that he only realizes how much he cares about things only after losing them, just like he did with Reki. The redhead takes this in stride and says that he only needs to fix it, just like how he did with their relationship. Before Reki and Adam's race, Langa tells him to win because he wanted to go head-to-head with his best friend and ends with their new salute. At the end of a close and exhilarating race, Reki loses by barely a second and crumples on the ground. Some people cheer Adam's shameful win, but Langa immediately runs to see if Reki is okay. The redhead suddenly turns backwards with a big smile on his face, surprising Langa and saying that "The race was so fun!" even after losing. Langa assists him as he stands up, and moves forward to protect him when Adam approaches them.

Losing Reki's race with Adam condemned Langa to a race against the 'Matador of Love' for a second time during episode 12. Langa promised to Reki that he would win the beef, and the race began. Adam managed to draw Langa into his 'world', and Langa became detached from the race. Reki watched worriedly, and when Langa fell off the edge, everyone watched on with panic. As Langa fell, he saw his skateboard turning in the air. Something that Reki had drawn on the side of the board caught his eye, that reminded him of what Reki told him. His eyes lit up and the icy-haired boy snapped out of the zone and skidded down the mountain quickly to win. At the finish line, a beaming Reki is waiting for him and shouting his name. It gives his a little more courage to win. Langa smiles tiredly, and instead of stopping, he jumps off his skateboard right into Reki's arms, protecting his head when they both fall to the ground. The boy is shocked for a moment, but embraces him nonetheless. Exhausted, Langa asks him "Reki... Did... I win?", and Reki replies with a smile and a playful punch, "You won. You did!" He goes on to congratulate his best friend while their Miya, Joe, and their other friends gather around them to hug the victor.

Moments

 * At the beginning of the opening, Reki is seen teaching Langa dancing on his skateboard, while he follows his dancing steps.
 * They are seen skating together leading the team being followed by Cherry, Shadow, Joe, and Miya.
 * Later, Reki and Langa can be seen this time separated in different pictures. However, Langa disappears from his frame and Reki notices it but after he checks (turning his head to where Langa used to be), he appears running while at the background is seen several Langa's recordings which these change a moment later with Adam smiling at the screen and when he appeared, Reki falls while lifting his hand in sign of trying to reach someone, possibly Langa himself. The scene could be either interpreted as Reki losing Langa if he left him with Adam after losing the bet he had proposed to Adam before.
 * In the ending, it's shown two tree palms with Reki and Langa's hair colors.
 * At the same ending, after both had failed at practicing skating, Reki lends a hand to Langa in exhaustion of tripping every time on skateboarding and Langa reaches it while he's seen injured and tired too because on his attempts on skating too.
 * In the episode 9.5, a recap episode, SHADOW and MIYA mention that Reki and Langa were always hand in glove. It's also said that "Langa's weakness was the sun." while Reki aims to spike a ball was in frame, implying that Reki was the equivalent of the sun.

SK8 Chill Out!

 * In chapter 1, Reki is described to be a passionate skateboarder looking for someone to skate with him and that's why he approached Langa. Who he tried to persuade into skateboarding with him with trick videos and deck designs.
 * In chapter 3, MIYA challenges Langa to a beef. If MIYA wins Reki will be his dog. Langa then imagines Reki as a dog with the caption of "Already dog-like" and accepts because he believes nothing would really change if he wins or looses.
 * In chapter 4, Langa and Reki dress up in costumes together. Reki is in some sort of superhero outfit and Langa in a yeti outfit from his deck's design.
 * In chapter 5, Reki is trying to change Langa's mind of skating against ADAM and says that Langa will just get injured and he will have nightmares of ADAM'S face gradually getting closer, to which Langa thinks "Reki...has those sort of dreams huh..?". When Langa still decides he's going to beef ADAM Reki expresses great pain saying that if anything were to happen to Langa, he'd wake up screaming Langa's name and end every one of his sentences with his name from shock while mumbling Langa's name over and over again.
 * In chapter 7, Reki is beginning to spiral but snaps out of it when Langa called out his name. Reki apologizes and asked why he called him. Langa points out that Reki hasn't been moving his chopsticks in a while which leaves Reki stammering for an answer. In the end Langa ends up eating Reki's bento when he said it's because he ate too much for breakfast.

Fanon
When SK8 the Infinity was considered a new anime, Renga quickly rose in popularity despite being so new. Renga has a large fanbase on Twitter, Tumblr and TikTok, and a decent amount of works on AO3. It can often be portrayed as soulmates because of their matching hair colors, blue and red, and generally the way they act. It can be shipped along with MatchaBlossom.

Reki is seen as the “caretaker” and “protector” in the relationship, as he frequently shows concern for Langa’s well being, as well as dressing Langa’s wounds, and making sure Langa doesn’t get into trouble, the same could go with Langa as he uses to worries a lot about Reki's well-being taking as proof Episode 8. Reki is believed to have “saved” Langa from a lonely depressed life, as Langa’s father died and he had to give up snowboarding, one of the things that made him happiest in life. Now that Reki has introduced Langa to skateboarding, he is much happier, and feels like he has purpose in life. Langa, in addition, also shows concern for the other, and is very protective and affectionate towards Reki.

Renga is the most popular and most written ship for both characters for a variety of reasons, and its popularity will likely grow as the show progresses. Reki and Langa can be portrayed in artworks as the adopted children from Cherry and Joe, which Miya could be included in too.

With the anime being directed by the same director from Banana fish, there are some fans that fear that Reki and Langa would end like Ash and Eiji, or with Adam taking Langa away from Reki if he didn't win the bet that he had proposed to Adam himself or rather by force. Renga's endgame is often discussed by fans with possibly having a tragic final or a happy one for both Reki and Langa. They tend to compare this ship with Victor and Yuri or Ash and Eiji with the way that Reki and Langa had met. In other hand, people wish that Langa and Reki could end up like Victor and Yuri, but for some people there was a possibility that Renga or the show itself was likely queerbaiting rather than a real thing, and that was other problem that the fans were fearing about while more episodes were aired. Another reason why this ship is compared to Victuuri is because of the pose they were in when Langa hugged Reki in the season one finale. Some think that it's similar to the pose Victor and Yuuri were in during ''Yuri!!! on Ice'' ' s seventh episode.

After the 8th episode was aired out to the public, much people were relieved that it wasn't a tragic one (because of how episode 7 ended) and instead, they were very excited about a certain scene in which Langa's mom asked him if he liked Reki (it was only set as person, but never asked directly by Kyan's name) and at the sudden question Langa only looked away while blushing in embarrassment as he affirmed that he indeed liked them. It's ambiguous about Langa's feelings towards Reki, this caused a controversial discussion between fans that were implying that his feelings were either platonic or romantic, though the most accepted fact was that Langa's feelings were romantic.

There is an official Drama CD called "Cindereki". In this CD, Reki is Cinderella, Miya and Cherry Blossom are the evil stepsisters, Joe is the fairy godmother, Shadow is the wicked stepmother, Tadashi or 'snake' as Langas's assistant, Adam is the narrator, and Langa is the Prince. (They use she/her pronouns for Cindereki, Miya, Shadow, and Cherry) In the CD, Prince Langa is looking for someone to marry through the "S" match.

Many people imply that the ending song,「『 INFINITY 』by Yuuri, is actually how Reki feels by being with Langa. Some parts of the song are "I want to laugh next to you", "Let's go together, i'll go with you", "If you have a feelings, let's keep the feelings", etc. The same thing would go with the opening "Paradise", which is about Langa's feelings towards Reki, making it a possible mutual crush.

Fandom
FANFICTION

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Songs

 * 「『 INFINITY 』 | Yuuri
 * Sk8's ending song

"Cindereki"

 * English Translation (YT) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73H3_Hv6lgg
 * English Translation (Tumblr) - https://kudouusagi.tumblr.com/post/647051211484348416

Trivia

 * There's an official Drama CD called “CindeReki” (basically "Cinderella"), in which between the characters Langa is chosen as the prince and Reki as Cinderella.
 * (Spoilers for the CindeReki CD Drama) At the end of the CD, it's revealed that all of the CindeReki story was a dream after falling asleep from reading his sisters Cinderella. While sleeping he mumbles "Wait.. Langa.. Don't go.. I'm Cindereki!".
 * Both Langa and Reki's birthdays both land on the 8th (a symbol for infinity) and is separated by a 6 month period.
 * In Spoon.2Di Utsumi Interview it's revealed that Langa and Reki were written and designed together.
 * Along with the marriage certificates, Animedia asked Utsumi what points of the adult members of the show she fell in love with. Reki and Langa aren’t part of the adult group but Utsumi made comments on them too. She said for Langa : During his beef against SHADOW in episode 1. His skating when he’s just coolly, narrowly avoiding rocks in that long 18 second cut, and his final jump. I fell in love with him just as Reki did when he saw snow !
 * Common symbols used by fans to represent this ship include: ❤︎💙

Variations

 * Langa x Reki x Skating refers to the ship between the two and skating
 * Rengiya refers to the ship between the two and Miya Chinen