Ainosuke Shindo

* Normal
* Skater

## Skateboard Design

**Ainosuke Shindo** (神 (しん) 道 (どう)  愛 (あい) 之 (の) 介 (すけ) , *Shindō Ainosuke*?), known in "S" as **Adam** (愛 (ア) 抱 (ダ) 夢 (ム) , *Adamu*?), is a character in the *SK8 the Infinity* anime series who serves as the main antagonist of the series. He is a popular young politician who leads a double life as a skilled and legendary "S" skateboarder that has crushed his opponents with little effort.

## Appearance

Adam has a fair pale complexion, azure blue hair (slicked back by gel in normal wear, but he styles it spiky with a long fringe cascading down the right side of his face whenever he transfers to his skating outfit), narrowed bat winged dark-blue eyebrows right above ruby red irises and he holds a tall broad build with a relatively thin waist.

He wears a royal blue suit accompanied by a pocket square stuffed in the outer left breast pocket, he dons a pink tie wrapped around the collar of a white dress shirt, brown dress shoes and what appears to be a black watch on his left wrist.

His Matador skating outfit consists of a red cropped jacket with gold accents (horn-like patterns at the chest opening) and an eccentric yellow design on his back. He also sports a red vest with three 'x' shaped golden strings in the center, an elegant crimson cape that usually hangs on the left side (which he removes whenever he is skateboarding), a red belt with a golden rectangular buckle; its length bent inwards and a small red 'v' shaped design in the middle. Wrapped around the collar of his dress shirt is a blue necktie, complementing his outlandish hair color. His leggings are also red, comprising of a wide black strip starting from his hips and halting right above his knee along with three royal blue hearts in a symmetrical design on both legs. For his footwear, he holds black shield-like knee pad boots with the out-souls of his shoe colored red and matching colored hearts on his toe box. He also dons other accessories on his body like black diamond formed elbow pads (an outline of yellow around it) with a black round shell (a spike coming out at the very top), a pair of bulky ornamental shoulder pieces that par with a black horn shaped decorative, the imprint of a heart vertically underneath it. Black gloves with red padded finger tips, knuckles and palms snugly fit on his hands, large red cuffs at the lower end of his sleeve wrap around his wrist, accented with gold at the very end. On his face, he acquires a white winged domino mask accompanied by a peculiar design at its left edge. On the left end of his mask, there's a unique swirling pattern toned gold and red while the right side of his mask is covered up by his long fringe and it is hidden slightly from the audience. However, you can catch a glimpse of the concealed side and confirm that it is indeed unembellished and blank.

During his final beef with Langa Hasegawa, Adam wears a different "funeral" outfit that resembles a grim reaper. The suit is black and reaches his up to neck, skin-tight, large-shouldered and patterned with blue and white decorative lines, looser black gloves with blue guards are worn on his hands and white gemstone-like protrusions are fixed onto his knees and elbows. The back of his suit is left open in a heart-shaped hole to expose his back and stripes of black material attach to the center of the gap where a spiked bone-like shape runs along his spine, resembling the bare bones of an actual human spine. He wears a mask that is seemingly also made of bones with the gaps in it both shadowing his face and allowing him to see past them.

During his childhood and high school years, Adam had slightly spiky hair and he wore a black hood that covered his face during his teenage years, letting it down around Joe and Cherry when he calls them special. When he started getting out of control, he wore a white full-face mask that covered his entire face.

### Gallery

Ainosuke as a childAinosuke as a teenagerAdam's full-face maskFull view of Adam's mask at nightFull view of Adam's mask in the dayClose up of Adam's skull maskThe back of Adam's "funeral" outfitThe front of Adam's "funeral" outfit
## Personality

While skating, Adam is very confident in his own skills and ruthless towards his opponents with no concern if he causes injuries indirectly or personally using physical violence. He's very flamboyant with his actions, creating an over-dramatized persona for the audience of "S". He views skating as a "ritual of love" which goes hand in hand with his theme and persona. He is prone to making grand entrances for himself such as rolling out a red carpet to skate down  or parachuting out of a helicopter. Adam's racing style involves him getting up close to and physical with his opponents, locking their boards together to incite fear and crush the other's will to continue the race, all the while demonstrating mastery of difficult techniques such as the Casper Slide to further demoralize his opponent. He has no qualms with inflicting violence on his opponents, especially ones that he has a personal vendetta against, even to the point of possibly causing death.

Adam shows disregard and disrespect for anyone that doesn't interest him personally at "S", including founders like Cherry Blossom and Joe, whom he previously was friends with. People that fall out of his favor, such as Miya Chinen, receive the same harsh treatment and even insults. He has a history of crushing and injuring all of his favorite skaters in his search for an "Eve," someone who can skate on his level, a trend which started sometime in his youth and caused friction with and a split from his former friends. At some point in the past, Adam's father burned his skateboard and ordered him to stop skating, an event which may have caused the beginning of his harsh treatment of Tadashi Kikuchi, given Adam's remark about Tadashi always having no opinion, and spurred Adam into adopting a more cruel and solitary personality. Due to abuse from his aunts in his childhood, Adam associates love with pain, further twisting his psych. His strict childhood and upbringing was implied to be heavily focused on winning and losing with losing being absolutely unacceptable for him, which carries over into his skating and view on love, believing that he must win to be loved.

Ainosuke maintains a calm and collected appearance outside of "S" with a career in politics. To the public eye, they see him as a well-liked man with strong morals. However, in the private eye, he is involved in shady and corrupt dealings under the advice of his aunts, who appear to run his life for him. Adam's persona from "S" occasionally leaks into his public political life, as he's seen tapping his feet in excitement when thinking of a good idea for his "S" life. He prioritizes what interests at "S" him over other concerns even if his career is under threat. He shows no hesitation at ordering Tadashi to take the fall for him if he gets in trouble politically, although he did not follow through with that threat. The only time he has shown anger is when Tadashi disobeys or stands up to him. After suffering humiliation at "S" at the hands of Reki Kyan, Adam changed his outfit to a costume that resembles a grim reaper in accordance with his negative mood and bad state of mind.

Adam is extremely fixated on skating against Langa Hasegawa, who he thinks is the same type of a person he is after Langa was able to keep pace with Adam during their race. He showed interest in Langa from the first race against Shadow  and used Miya to lure Langa back to "S" so he could meet Langa in person, during which time he provoked Reki by insulting Miya and took the opportunity to set up a beef with Reki with a race against Langa as the prize. He becomes even more eccentric in his actions when racing Langa, including dancing on his board and forcing Langa into some very dangerous maneuvers while their boards are locked together. After their race ends abruptly from police intervention, Adam sets up a tournament for the sole purpose of making his rematch against Langa even better and appears to become more obsessed with Langa when he spies on Langa skating with Reki. Adam views "S" as a place where he can be free and do anything and everything he wants and as an escape from his public life where he has to deal with expectations and burdens from his family and career. After his board was burned, Adam viewed himself as totally alone, the only one in his own world, and it caused him to lose his former joy in skating until Langa reminded him of the feeling that skating should be fun, especially because it's something to do with friends, and it doesn't truly matter if he wins or loses because the friendship and fun are what is important. Adam seems to have taken the lesson from Langa to heart as he's seen taking a step to mend his friendship with Tadashi afterwards.

## Abilities

Adam is one of the strongest skaters in "S". Even from his teenage years, he was a cut above most others, surprising even Kaoru Sakurayashiki during their first beef despite the latter's confidence in his own ability. His ability has been honed since Tadashi Kikuchi taught him to skate during their childhood as he used the sport as a way of escaping his aunts and later the stress of his political career, which lead to him spending much of his time practicing it and likely inadvertently becoming extremely skilled at it.

* **General Prowess:** An incredibly skilled skater and a founding member of "S", Adam is frequently praised by those around him for his unmatched skill at skateboarding. He's easily able to wipe the floor with every opponent who faces him with ease, and is renowned for doing as such.

* **Speed:** During beefs and even without much use of his other tricks, Adam has demonstrated that he is capable of skating fearlessly at incredibly high speeds. He's shown to be in an entirely different class to most other "S" members; while other skaters may slow down at corners, Adam prefers to continue speeding because of his complete confidence in his abilities.

* **Tricks:** Adam is seen to be a master at most skateboarding stunts that are useful for utilization in races. He is able to casper slide perfectly, as well as make large, dangerous jumps off unstable ridges in order to pull ahead of his opponents.

* **Observation Skills:** Due to his extensive and inside-out knowledge of skateboarding, Adam is able to easily identify flaws in skaters' moves just by sight, as demonstrated when he gave Miya Chinen exactly the right advice after watching him skate from a distance.

* **Unique Style:** Adam has been shown to have developed a very physical skating style when in beefs, often getting extremely close to his opponents and in a lot of cases even grabbing them in order to control their movements. He seems to enjoy evoking fear in those he skates with by preventing them from moving freely even on their own boards. He's been shown to be merciless, often described as a monster by other "S" members, and is on another level to even the topmost skaters purely due to the ruthlessness of the way he skates. Adam often moves in a style similar to ballroom dancing when he skates, perhaps a nod to his masquerade theme, and also likes to dance on his board when experiencing strong emotions about a beef, an action not dissimilar to longboard dancing.
Due to his physical style, or perhaps as a consequence of it, the way he skates is often violent; he usually ends up injuring those he skates with and shows no remorse at the action. Adam has been shown to trip up or even purposefully harm people he races against when he isn't interested in them as a way of getting rid of those who bore him.
* **Named Moves:** Like Shadow, Adam has a number of named moves that he likes to use in beefs:
	+ **Love Hug:** After gaining enough speed and distance from his opponent, Adam abruptly lifts his board and makes a 180-degree turn, using the momentum of him slamming it back down to propel himself uphill towards his target, arms spread open as if leaning in to embrace them. This catches most off-guard due to the sheer absurdity of skating uphill and it is likely to injure whoever it is used against as they fly off their board from the impact of him hitting them.
	However, this move can be avoided as demonstrated by Langa Hasegawa and Cherry Blossom as the opponent is able to prepare and duck under the attack if they can register that it is coming quickly enough. It's also difficult to use around corners as it's a struggle for Adam to stay directly in line with his target when they're turning, but he is still able to pull it off as long as the bend isn't too sharp.
	+ **Full Swing Kiss:** Adam gains enough distance from his opponent, then jumps off his board, picks it up and turns to run towards them. He uses his board to violently assault his target by smacking it into their face, injuring them and rendering them unable to continue if it makes contact.

## Background

Ainosuke was born into a political family where he has been groomed to grow up as his father Aiichiro Shindo's successor from a young age. He lived in a mansion where his aunts took care of him, abusing him as a way of showing their "love" and later ultimately becoming the cause of his twisted personality once he grew older.

One day during his early childhood, Tadashi Kikuchi, a child born into the family as a servant, saw Ainosuke outside crying presumably because of something that his family had caused and offered to teach Ainosuke to skate to take his mind off it. Tadashi and Ainosuke grew to become friends as the two spent time skating together, and their time practicing the sport seemed to become something of a vice for Ainosuke.

Once he became a teenager, Ainosuke took up the name of "**Adam**" and began skating outside of Tadashi's lessons where he is now extremely skilled at the sport thanks to his time practicing at this point. He met Kaoru Sakurayashiki and Kojiro Nanjo and became close friends with them, regarding them as special since they were the only skaters in the group's entourage capable of coming near Adam's level. The three formed "S" together. At some point during this time, Adam's style began to grow more violent as he grew further and further ahead of everyone around him in terms of skill and he began injuring skaters after forcing them to race dangerous paths with him in a fruitless attempt to find his "Eve", much to the concern of Kaoru and Kojiro. Aiichiro burned Ainosuke's skateboard due to him paying more attention to the sport than his political career, which seemed to be the last straw for Ainosuke and he abruptly moved to America, leaving Kaoru and Kojiro behind.

Later, once he'd become an adult, Ainosuke returned to Okinawa to pursue his political career, although he never truly stopped skateboarding and retained and polished his skill through the years. He built a room in which he could observe the ongoings of "S" without directly involving himself and had Tadashi take care of maintenance and answer to his beck and call.

    After Langa Hasegawa appeared at "S", Ainosuke becomes more involved in the race, eventually returning to its tracks. He begins to skate a lot more with others, and eventually, thanks to Langa and indirectly Reki Kyan's tutelage, relearns what he'd forgotten about skateboarding; that it's, above all else, fun.

## Trivia

* Ainosuke's name contains the kanji for "god, deity, spirit, psyche" (神, *shin*?), "path, road, street" (道, *dō*?), "love, affection" (愛, *ai*?), "of, this" (之, *no*?) and "mediate" (介, *suke*?).
	+ His skater name **Adam** contains "love, affection" (愛, *ai*?, pronounced "a"), "hug, embrace" (抱, *kaka*?, pronounced "da") and "dream, vision" (夢, *yume*?, pronounced "mu"). All three characters can be alternatively written in hiragana as the sounds they represent in the name "Adam", (あだむ, *Adamu*?), indicated by the furigana spelling he uses to write his name.
		- Likewise, the moniker "**Adam**" uses the characters for "love", "hug" and "dream", which stands for his Signature Move, "Love Hug."
* Adam is a "goofy" skater, meaning he prefers to skate with his right foot at the front of the board.
* Ainosuke would give an elaborate white day gift and would be particular about every aspect from make to cost, but Tadashi Kikuchi would handle putting it together and making date plans that would cost a lot of money, such as eating at a high class hotel overlooking the ocean. He would do a lot of romantic things if he was serious.
* Ainosuke's aunts control his life to the extent of buying the silk pajamas he wears to bed.
* Adam is popular with any gender.
* Adam is the best at charming people older than him with his popular young politician facade and takes advantage of it to steamroll his opponents.
* Adam would be a doting parent but (would be ruthless if anything happened to a child of his / would cut his child off if anything were to happen - conflicting translations).
* Regarding marriage, Adam would like a surprise proposal. He would like a grand reception. He would want "see ya" kisses everyday. He would want to go to Spain for his honeymoon. His spouse would have to be prepared for him to never let them go, and to indulge him whenever he wants to dance. He'd have to be taught what true love is, since he was raised with a very wrong ideal of love.
* Adam is the most likely to forget anniversaries, but would only remember ones that are personally dear to him and disregard all the rest. He's tenacious and the type to remember things he despises.
* Ainosuke's favorite food is Petit gâteau (similar to chocolate lava cake).
* Adam's hobby is dancing.
* Adam is 2 on Joe's rankings of the muscles of S. Joe's comment: He’s got some nasty things under his tight-fitting outfit. He’s practically hiding them. Those poor things…… Muscles, come to me.
* Adam's daily schedule when there's no S:
	+ 6:00-6:30 - Wake up, shower
	+ 6:30-7:00 - Breakfast
	+ 7:00-8:30 - Checks over the day's schedule he gets from Kikuchi (He has a surprisingly well-regulated schedule! That's all thanks to Kikuchi)
	+ 8:30-11:00 - Attends meetings for young diet members
	+ 11:00-14:30 - Travels from Tokyo to Okinawa, has a lunch meeting
	+ 14:30-15:30 - Returns home for a while, reports to his aunts
	+ 15:30-17:00 - Meets with supporters
	+ 17:00-19:00 - Attends grand opening events for local facilities
	+ 19:00-22:00 - Attends social gathering with business leaders
	+ 22:00-23:00 - Returns home, has bath
	+ 23:00-24:00 - Checks footage of S and clips of Langa (the Langa check is important)
	+ 24:00 - Goes to bed
* Adam would go to a hot place for a summer date, even though the weather is hot. He loves to entertain so he'd keep the date location a secret until reaching it, and it would be an unexpected place, like lava. If there was unexpected rain, his date would be charmed seeing him drenched and fall in love after meeting his eyes.
* Adam's preferred fashion sense are things with clean silhouettes. His skate costume borrows the fiery passion of the color red because he’s the matador of love! Adam always has his mobile phone in his bag, among other things like his cigarette case. He needs his phone for checking up on Langa. For a date, Adam's outfit and image would be very put together, like 'Today I'm actually going out with the person I like!' He'd make sure that the person he was interested in knew and makes plans to ensure they cannot run away. He's the type of person to care more about what's on the inside rather than outward fashion, given how he gets worked up over Langa. Of course, if someone he liked went to the effort to wear beautiful clothes, then it would attract him even more, but that would just be in addition to how he already feels. Adam was raised wearing fine clothes so he's picky. He's the type to wear special outfits for special days. He probably buys new things from the shop they use when they are released. For a shopping date, Adam would come up with a wonderful plan and money would be no object. In the likely case of going somewhere with a dress code, he would prepare an entire outfit for his partner. Adam leaves his laundry to the servants. If someone snapped a picture of him on the street, Adam would pretend not to notice, but would still strike charming poses.
* Adam never believed in Santa to begin with since his father was strict and they never did anything that happy. Santa never came to Adam. Before loving skating, if Adam believed in Santa, he'd probably ask for snacks that he was forbidden to eat and games that were popular at school that his family wouldn't buy for him for Christmas.
* If Adam was an animal, he'd be a leopard, since he has a splendid and ferocious appearance. He wouldn't be a cheetah since he's not just slender but also has a sturdy body.
* Adam's omotenashi will be beyond expectation, and once he sets his target, his appeal is extreme. If the target refuses, he'll abduct them.
* Even when he's always smiling around, being **Adam** or **Ainosuke**, he only shows strong emotions to his secretary, Kikuchi.
* Ainosuke dislikes wasabi and spicy food.
* Between Adam and Cherry Blossom, Cherry would probably receive more valentines day chocolate, since Adam gives off an unapproachable aura and doesn't pay attention to those who don't interest him.
* Adam's tournament card is the Ace of Hearts
* Adam's blood type is AB.
* Adam probably came up with the idea for art on his skateboard. He’s the type to give an idea to a designer and kept bugging them and have them redesign it like 100 times and then still reject it in the end.
* Adam is often seen with red roses, which symbolize "passionate love".
* Ainosuke's animal motif are the bull and the peacock:
	+ He is often associated with bulls as his board notably has bullhorns on the front, he is known as the "Matador of Love" (**Matador** is a Spanish word for a bullfighter whose task is to kill the bull) and his birthdate would make him a Taurus (the zodiac sign of the bull), which goes along with his matador theme.
	+ In some merchandise material, Adam seems to be connected with peacocks. Fitting, given the way he struts around "S" and his flamboyant attitude.
* Aside from Cherry Blossom, it is notable that Adam is the only skater who goes out of his way to hide his face at "S".
* Adam's eyes were totally obscured in Cherry's high school memories of him, but they are finally shown when he puts his hoodie down and tells them something along the lines of "it is okay for them to see his face because they are special". The reveal of his eyes most likely signals the start of the trio's friendship.
* With what little flashbacks we see of his father , Adam really looks like him as a grown up and one of his aunts has blue hair, tying in the resemblance.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *SK8 the Infinity* Official Guidebook
2. ↑ *SK8 the Infinity* Official Website
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Skater’s Backstage
4. ↑ Animedia Magazine May Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Character Height Chart
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 4.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 12.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 9.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 8.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 3.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 5.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 7.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 1.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 11.
*SK8 the Infinity* Anime: Episode 10.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Animedia Magazine March Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Animedia Magazine April Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
17. ↑ Animedia Magazine May Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Marriage Certificates
18. ↑ Animedia Magazine May Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 *SK8 the Infinity* Anime: BD&DVD Vol.4
20. ↑ Animedia Magazine August Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
21. ↑ Animedia Magazine September Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
22. ↑ Animage December 2021: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
23. ↑ Animage December 2021: *The ones who are devoted* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
24. ↑ Otomedia December 2021: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
25. ↑ Animedia Febrary Issue: *SK8 the Infinity* Q&A with Hiroko Utsumi
26. ↑ Adam's 2022 birthday merchandise
27. ↑ Q&A with Utsumi during SK8 Week 2nd season announcement