Sometimes I think “Christ, why the fuck would Shen Jiu not change his name before joining Cang Qiong, that’s such an obvious mistake” before I remember that Shen Jiu actively wants his life to go up in flames around him and it makes sense again
Also worth noting that before the age of photography and the telegram, it was not uncommon for someone to leave town, move two towns down the road, and start a new life that the people they knew before don't learn about for decades, if ever. Quite frankly, the only person likely to associate him with the Qiu estate was Huitang, he wasn't gonna run into her while a rouge cultivator, and he had no reason to think that she'd be at Cang Qiong. And Qi-ge knew his name and was probably calling him by it immediately. Like, we think it's silly now, but he had no reason to think it Would come back to bite him (though of course it still techncially could), and he failed to get Qi-ge to call him by his actual name 50% of the time anyway.
The first beef between Langa and Adam gets famously interrupted by a police raid. It's the only time the police interfere with S specifically in the whole series and the plot thread is not followed up on, leaving this raid as a bit of an oddity.
What I'm proposing here is nothing but a theory - I consider it possible that this is intentional subtext woven into the show, but I would not be able to confirm it one way or another.
My proposition is that Tadashi called the police at this juncture, and that this is completely in line with how he expresses his concern for Adam throughout the whole series. Let's dive in!
Almost immediately preceding the police raid is this reaction shot of Tadashi looking stunned by Adam standing motionlessly under the flickering streetlight. It's when Adam decides that Langa not only could be but definitely is his Eve - even from a distance, observing through the live feed from the drones, Tadashi can tell that Adam is deeply affected by this.
When the episode aired and we didn't yet know a lot about Tadashi, I thought that this shot's inclusion was doubtlessly meant to imply that he is the one who put a stop to the race. With Kiriko's further involvement and the slow reveals about Tadashi's devotion to Adam, this could seem like it was a red herring. But... was it?
Let's dissect this bit by bit!
As I said before, this is the only time in the series that the police messes with S. But not only that! It is also the only time that S has been on the police's radar in recent memory of the characters:
So: why now? Why at this exact point in time? Is that really just some insane coincidence? Is it Kiriko? (It's not, we'll get to that.)
It's noteworthy that the S system shuts down immediately. As the police usually doesn't bother with S, this is not routine. It's a very swift response to something that is completely unusual if not unprecedented. It could be that Tadashi just has very quick response skills, but... It's undeniable that shutting everything off on time would be far easier for him to accomplish if he knew this would happen.
This is further supported by the way Tadashi just casually rolls up to pick up Adam, not stressed in the slightest by the unusual threat to their little operation (and Tadashi does stress about anything that could threaten Adam's reputation, we see it often.)
Adam also immediately points out the strangeness of this event, while we as the viewer are treated to a foreground shot of Tadashi's impassive, unconcerned face.
It is then Tadashi who looks into the matter. It is his word we have to trust if we want to blame the police raid on Kiriko. But... should we?
We know Kiriko as incredibly persistent in her pursuit of Adam. Would she really discover that Ainosuke Shindo walled off a whole area from police patrol, and then quietly accept it as that same area is removed from patrol once again? That should be raising huge red flags for her!
If Kiriko had a hunch of Ainosuke Shindo doing something illegal at the abandoned mine out of town, that should be her absolute first priority to investigate! It's her best bet at getting him to court!
But Kiriko herself never once mentions the abandoned mine, altered police patrol routes, or anything of the likes. To her, this is about perjury. She's only ever seen following the perjury and collusion trail; never once does she discuss anything adjacent to S. Even presuming that she's merely suspicious about the abandoned mine in general, without any reason to connect it to Ainosuke Shindo, the person whom Adam is in contact with to assure S's continued protection is the chief of police.
Kiriko is working with Chief Matsumura throughout the rest of the season, and until he intervenes to prevent her investigating the Shindo estate and sends her back to Tokyo in the finale, there's no indication that she distrusts him, nor anyone within the Naha police, at all. If Tadashi's account of events is correct, Kiriko grew suspicious of illegal activities at the abandoned mine, thought it had been removed from the patrol route by someone higher in the chain of command, and had it raided... only for her to think nothing of it when it was removed from the patrols again, and continue to completely trust the person who would have authority over these decisions without so much as following up with him about what happened.
If Kiriko is meant to be the culprit behind the raid, this is a huge plot hole. She should, by all means, have become a threat to S itself.
However! The only person who ever implicates her in this is Tadashi. If Tadashi was the one who called the police, Kiriko would have been an incredibly convenient scapegoat for him.
So then... isn't Tadashi a loyal dog? Why would he go against his master like this, so early in the show? Let me explain!
First off, it's important to remember that at the start of the show, Adam hasn't been attending S in years. People there treat him as a legend and many have never seen him. Recently, Adam has been focused on furthering his career and only consumed S passively via videos - no skater interested him enough to go out personally.
Tadashi supports this. Over and over we see him concerned for Adam's career and reputation. He believes that a 'normal' successful life is what is genuinely best for the man.
For years now, Tadashi has blamed skateboarding (and himself) for everything wrong with Adam's life. He believes that he led Adam astray and he is desperate to fix his 'mistake'.
Tadashi is not an outsider to the value system of the Shindo clan. As the child of a generations-long servant family, he grew up on the estate as well. He too spent his whole life internalizing the 'life lessons' taught by the Shindo adults. As Aiichiro's secretary, he might have spent more time with Adam's father than Adam himself ever did. Tadashi definitely listened to his views over and over and over.
And because of that, what Tadashi regrets about Aiichiro burning Adam's board is not that he didn't stop it or that he didn't stand up for Adam... It's that he taught Adam skateboarding in the first place and thus led to him 'needing to be punished'.
As such, it's no surprise that he opposes Adam's initial return to S. He wants to 'make up' for his 'mistake' by leading Adam into a normal life. Participation in S is to the direct detriment of that.
Tadashi feels no disdain for Adam, of course. On the contrary, he feels endless love and affection. He genuinely wants what's best for him. Well, what he thinks is best for him...
Which means that Tadashi is a product of the Shindo clan through-and-through.
And all of that wraps us back around to where we started:
After years of Adam doing well in Tadashi's eyes (no hospitalizations, yay!), this happens. Adam is affected in a way he's never been before - he's had objects of affection in the past, but none of them made him stop dead in his tracks like this.
Tadashi knows Adam. And he knows Adam is about to be obsessed.
So he panics and tries to rip Adam and Langa apart as soon as humanly possible. He wants to nip this obsession in the bud so Adam won't be distracted from work. So Adam will be able to live the perfect life that everyone wants for him.
It's even possible that Tadashi didn't stop at calling the police.
At the start of the tournament, we encounter a group of masked skaters who are hellbent on getting Langa out of the race. The way they talk about Joe here is dismissive. When they say to let him have the win they use the form くれてやれ which is rather rude and dismissive - they're not doing this for Joe's sake, they just don't care if he wins. It's Langa they're after.
Now, it's possible that they just want to take an arrogant rookie down a peg. That seems like something thugs would do. But there is one person who has a vested interest in Langa falling short of Adam's expectations and not making it to the finale - that person is Tadashi.
The assault on Langa in this race is a similar oddity as the police raid - it's never addressed before or after it happens, standing isolated as a momentary obstacle that doesn't contribute to the overall plot of SK8. Being 'out of place' ties these two incidents together - and thus may tie them to Tadashi.
It might not be coincidence that Tadashi enters the tournament as Snake only after the assault team fails to take out Langa.
Entering the tournament shows that Tadashi is not afraid to go behind Adam's back if he thinks it serves Adam's best interests. But becoming 'Snake' means alerting Adam of his betrayals - to me, that seems like a drastic final measure after the sneakier ones failed.
The tragedy of it all is that even though Tadashi is deciding over Adam's head, going behind his back, and generally repeating his family's abusive mantra at him over and over.... Even though Tadashi does all these things, he genuinely loves Adam. Everything he does is for Adam's sake. Unlike the aunts or Aiichiro, he does not see Adam as a representative of his own power. He just loves him, but he expresses his love in the only way he's ever learned to do it:
Sk8 does a really good job at differentiating between love vs. obsession with the way Adam and Langa’s connection to each other is portrayed vs. how their relationships with Tadashi and Reki are portrayed. Adam and Langa’s scenes together are so loud and dramatic, filled to the brim with over the top romance. Langa literally gets chest pains from skating with Adam, and Adam’s obsession is pretty self-explanatory
But every romantic Renga scene feels so…quiet, yk? Just the two of them, talking to each other very casually or tenderly. It feels way more personal. Even the Tadaai scenes feel very private, they don’t usually say much to each other but soooooooo much tension and emotional turmoil is packed into every line
Idk I just really like that the main relationships all feel so genuine. It’s never some high stakes soulmate connection, but rather two people who happen to be good for each other in all the right ways. That’s also why I like that they made Tadashi the Snake in Adam’s whole biblical metaphor rather than pulling some “he was Adam’s real Eve the whole time” thing
I don’t talk abt Matchablossom much but I feel this way about them too, Joe and Cherry are peak “couple that has been together way too long but don’t have any plans of breaking up any time soon” energy
I'd like to start off with Tadashi, because it all comes back to him and I think it'd be a neat way to tie this analysis together.
Growing up in an abusive household, Adam began to romanticize Tadashi and their shared hobby, skating. Both were his outlet for the stresses he faced at home, and for Adam, Eden was the escapism they shared together. He perceives Tadashi's decision to emotionally shut him out, reject skating, and attempt to stop him from skating, as eating the apple and leaving the garden of Eden. Adam perceives it as the ultimate betrayal without taking into account Tadashi's desire to protect him or the power dynamic at play. Not only has his family served the Shindos for generations, but Tadashi worked directly under his father. Tadashi, at the beginning of the show, does not see skating as paradise, but as the tempting apple that has corrupted Adam.
So, in each of his partners, Adam tries to recreate 'Eve'. He wants a version of Tadashi that openly expresses the passion that exists under cold exterior. Around this time, he meets Cherry, who has a very different aesthetic and approach. Cherry is rebellious. He has long, pink hair, piercings, and is dying for something to care about, while still having some of the aloofness that is reminiscent of Tadashi. This works for a time, but in daily life, Cherry becomes more professional and conformist, and his skating style is nothing like Tadashi's. Whilst Tadashi's is an improvised dance, Cherry's is always planned. He is incapable of performing without it. Throw in Joe, and the fact they met well before Cherry and Adam, and there's a constant fear that they will abandon him for each other.
Then there's Langa. Langa has Tadashi's aloof demeanor, but his passion for skating overcomes it every single time. He takes risks, openly shows his emotions while skating, and is willing to play along with Adam's eccentricity. Adam believes he has finally found 'the one' to replace Tadashi, someone else who has also experienced loss through Oliver's death and his loss of interest in snowboarding.
But Langa is not Tadashi. Langa is not willing to abandon his own interests just to be with Adam. He has friends he loves, a mother who cares for him, and a boyfriend who builds him skateboards. Adam is the equivalent of an adrenaline shot to him, but Adam as an individual? His caring only goes as far as compassion. Langa does not need escapism, and he rejects Adam for the same reason he can show his passion for skating more openly than Tadashi.
Even if Langa had agreed to be with Adam, I think Adam would've grown bored and unsatisfied. We've seen how he cycles through various Eve's, hospitalizing half a dozen, and eventually he would find some nitpick about Langa. If I had to guess, it's the fact that outside of skating, Langa is a pretty normal guy with average tastes. He doesn't really care about putting on cool costumes, dancing, or doing anything else with the same restless energy. He just wants to eat poutine and spend time with his friends. He isn't like Tadashi, where repressed passion extends to every single part of his life.
Because Tadashi genuinely enjoys Adam's theatrics. He is the only one to cooperate with and enjoy Adam's biblical analogy, even if the role he chooses is in direct opposition. When he decides to get Adam to stop skating, he doesn't share his secrets, he makes a spectacle at S and dances for him. Tadashi is so devoted to this man that he keeps working at Shindo manor, even if he can't express himself openly. I'd say someone free Tadashi, but I think he'd go right back. Adam treats him with such contempt because while he knows Tadashi loves him, he is unwilling to admit it or show it through skating.
Obviously every character in Sk8 The Infinity is experiencing wildly different emotional stakes throughout the course of the story, but no one is doing it quite like Tadashi. Dude spends the entire show helping the main antagonist commit physical and sexual assault, is engaged in a high stakes political drama involving bribing government officials, hits one of the main characters with his car, kidnaps a child, and is the getaway driver for countless other petty crimes, but through all of this his ultimate goal is to make sure that his crush/boss still wants to do toxic petplay with him.
No he isn’t, at least not from the writers point of view
Let me lay out the important definitions
Ainosuke=adam
Tadashi=eve
Skateboard=the temptation of knowledge in the forbidden fruit
The act of skateboarding=the sin of disobeying and gaining the knowledge from the fruit
Shindo’s garden=eden
I will give a simple explanation of there past: In Adam’s and tadashi’s backstory we see it takes place in the Shindo garden Tadashi who is a child of a servant at the time is already skateboarding probably got it at a different time but he hears a child crying he investigates only to find out that it is his young master Ainosuke he is crying bc of the abuse from his aunts Tadashi decides to go up to him and he offers to teach him how to skate and from then on they skated together 
Like I said the skateboard itself is the temptation Tadashi fell for the temptation first and then he shared the *forbidden fruit* with Adam
Sounding familiar? They make time for each other always in the garden together there safe place were they can live and love together
There Eden a perfect place where they are able to thrive together
Then after Adam’s father finds out that he has been skating he sends Adam away to America away from the Shindo garden and Tadashi
Away from Eden
(I covered her boobs because I didn’t want this post to be taken down so I thought it was only fair that his get covered too)
“Ok so what there stories align, that doesn’t change the fact that tadashi’s S name is literally snake”
Tadashi calls himself the snake at S to all the spectators he is called snake bc it matches his skating style but only he and Adam know that the real reason his name is snake is because it is a biblical reference and the keywords here are “calls himself” he himself thinks he is the snake the tempting eve and Adam, the snake that ruined Adam’s and eve’s chance in Eden he clearly thinks very lowly of himself so I think him calling himself the snake makes sense bc I imagine eve’s guilt after convincing Adam to eat the fruit, she was probably thinking about how she tempted Adam just like how the snake did and guilt is a big part of tadashi’s character and Adam doesn’t even call Tadashi the snake he doesn’t consider him to be the snake
And the order of events just wouldn’t match up the snake didn’t directly tempt Adam. It went to Eve first. Tadashi, when introducing the board to Adam just saw him and walked straight up to him. There was no cherry in between them. It was just them too. OK let’s say that the events are kinda out of order. It still wouldn’t make sense in the Bible, the snakes intentions we’re not of good intent He wanted God’s creations to do the one thing that god told them not to, he wanted to subject them to a life of sin, obviously he wasn’t thinking of giving them candy and being all jolly with them  when Tadashi was giving the board to Adam, he wasn’t thinking about how this could ruin his life or how he could get hurt or what his aunts and father would think ,he was thinking about how this could help cheer up the crying child in front of him and he wants to share this wonderful sport with him
 in the Bible when Eve was convincing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. She wasn’t doing it out of malice. She was doing it so she could share this knowledge with him. She did it out of Love because she wanted to share it with him because it was just so beautiful.
I do believe cherry was the first eve that Adam tested I think Tadashi is the first eve ever and I also believe he is THE EVE
There backstories align with the story of Adam and Eve Tadashi is the one person Adam is real with and who understands him he also can keep up with Adam and has a very similar skating style to him
I freaking love this ship and if I didn’t cover everything you can ask more questions in the comments
