Icy Trails: December 2016

Hi everyone! It seems I have disappeared off the face of the earth for a while. There has been a lot going on with work and the holidays. I went to see my family and see my little brother graduate college! It was great.

When I got back, I noticed several skaters posting to Twitter about the anime series “Yuri!! On Ice”. I read a few articles on it and decided I had to check it out. This was a first for me. I have never really been into anime, despite several of my friends telling me to give this show, or that show, a chance. I was just not feeling it. Well, I have to say that all changed with “Yuri!! On Ice”. I absolutely loved it and was hooked. Which for me, means I binge watch the entire season and then feel sad that it’s over, and wonder how I’m going to occupy that time. This is a regular occurrence in our house! By doing this review, I still get to hang on a little longer. I know, I have issues.

Here is the intro video, sure to stay stuck in your head for quite some time…

Sing along everyone! “We were born to make history!”

Synopsis of the story

The story of “Yuri!! On Ice” revolves around Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki. The first episode shows him in a very bad place. He finished last at the Grand Prix final and was humiliated in front of his idol Victor Nikiforov. The embarrassment was further compounded by insults from another Yuri, newcomer Russian skater Yuri Plisetsky. Yuri’s dog had died too, so he just finished up college and returned home to Japan, not knowing if he would ever return to skating again. He went to the rink in Japan where he started skating looking for inspiration. He had secretly been practicing his idol Victor’s program “Stay by Me”. Some kids at the rink made a video of him skating to the program, which went viral. Victor Nikiforov saw the video and was greatly inspired. He then came to Japan to be Yuri’s coach. The story focuses on improving Yuri’s skating and confidence, as well as the relationship that develops between Yuri and Victor.

Character rundown

Here’s a rundown of most of the characters:

Yuri Katsuki

Yuri Katsuki is the protagonist of the story. He’s a Japanese skater who loves the sport and is very determined, but lacks confidence in himself. He starts out being quite socially awkward but develops more over time by gaining more confidence.

Victor Nikiforov

Victor is the very handsome lead character, who seems to be perfect in pretty much every way. Not only does he have good looks, but his skating routines are flawless, and he is always nice to his fans. But underneath this exterior, he has feelings of emptiness and loneliness. He finds new meaning and inspiration through coaching Yuri.

Yuri “Yurio” Plisetsky

Yurio is quite the complex character. In his first scene, I thought he was a total jerk. Then you learn more about him and come to some understanding. He is very young and arrogant, with a bad attitude. Underneath the bravado lies a softer side though. This makes his angry outbursts more amusing.

Christophe Giacometti

Cristophe Giacometti is a fellow competitive skater from Switzerland. He was unmotivated to compete with Victor not competing this season, but still performed consistently. His main selling point in his programs was sex appeal.

Here’s where I have to bring up all the comparisons I have seen to actual figure skaters. There are many speculations out there, but I have purposely stayed away from comparisons, as I feel it takes away from the actual story. However, there is another fictional figure skater that comes to mind to compare to Christophe:

Chazz Michael Michaels is sex on ice!

Otabek Altin

Otabek is the “lone wolf” skater from Kazahstan who didn’t have a lot of friends, until he befriended Yurio. He was not seen much until the Grand Prix final episodes.

Phichit Chulanont

Phichit is a Thai skater who was Yuri’s friend and training partner back in Detroit. He is the first southeast Asian skater to make it to the international level and wants to spread his love of skating throughout Thailand. He is a really likeable character who is focused on enjoying himself and the performance, and his enthusiasm is apparent.

Jean-Jacques “JJ” Leroy

JJ is a Canadian skater with a huge fan base and even larger ego. He is intent on becoming the top skater in the world now that Victor is not competing. His short program is entitled “The Theme of King JJ” if that is any indication. He has the catch phrase “JJ Style!”

All of these skaters, and Victor as a coach, were competitors in the Grand Prix Final. There are a few more skaters who didn’t quite make it, with some interesting stories, and relationship issues:

Georgi Popovich

Georgi is a Russian skater who planned to rise to the top in Victor’s absence (definitely a theme with that). However, he started to fall apart at the Cup of China, still not over his breakup with a female skater, who happened to be in the audience. In fact, heartbreak was the theme of his season. He’s like the TSwift of figure skating, no?

Michele “Mickey” Crispino

Mickey is the Italian figure skater primarily known for his weird obsession and over-protective nature regarding his sister, who is also a skater. He is a talented skater but doesn’t think he can compete without her support.

Some other important characters:

Yakov Feltsman

Yakov is the coach of Victor, Yuri Plisetsky, and Georgi.

Maccachin

Maccachin is Victor’s dog.

Pork cutlet bowl

Not actually a character, but is mentioned frequently. It is Yuri’s favorite food, and is enjoyed by everyone who tries it. Yuri tried to become a pork cutlet bowl to get more comfortable being seductive for his “Eros” program. Yurio’s grandpa also makes pork cutlet bowl pirozhkis for him, which he shares with Yuri after the Rostelecom cup.

Technical skating stuff

I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the Grand Prix events and the IJS scoring system. They included all the nuances, such as placing jumps near the end of the program for more points, or raising arms over the head for increased difficulty. The programs in the series were programmed by Kenji Miyamoto, who was a competitive ice dancer until 2006. His knowledge was undoubtedly useful in explaining scoring and the various qualifying events.

Another thing the series did particularly well is providing accurate landmarks for each of the Grand Prix locations. This was particularly evident with the cathedral in Barcelona.

How the story plays out

Episode 1: The beginning scene shows Yuri Katsuki’s long time admiration of Victor Nikiforov. Then the scene goes to Yuri at the Grand Prix Final. He had done a lot to prepare for it but still ended up in last place. He was really depressed about it, and then finds out that the family dog had died. After the Grand Prix Final, Yuri had to make a decision about what he planned to do after he graduated college. After graduation and a lot of stress eating, Yuri parted ways with his coach and returned home to Hasetsu. It had been 5 years since his last visit. Due to all the stress eating, he had gained weight and his confidence was quite low. At the hot spring inn his family owns, Yuri saw the World Championships were on tv. He then decided to go to the rink to practice. While there, he ran into his old rink mate and performed a program for her. He performed Victor Nikiforov’s free program and she thought it was amazing! Yuri was looking for motivation to continue skating and this did it! Little did he know that his rink mate’s kids had taken a video of him skating, and the video went viral. Everyone was talking about it so he shut off his phone. Victor Nikiforov saw Yuri’s performance of his program and became inspired. He then came to Hasetsu and told Yuri that he was going to be his coach. Yuri was so shocked from this surprise!

Episode 2: The beginning scene shows Victor’s coach Yakov threatening that he can’t return to the rink if he leaves, and Victor leaves anyway. Later on, Yurio finds out that Victor left and he is mad. Back at the inn, Victor is sleeping and the ballet instructor finds him and asks Yuri about what’s going on. Victor wakes up and is hungry, so Yuri’s mom gets him a pork cutlet bowl, Yuri’s favorite food. Of course, he loves it. After eating, everyone helps Victor move his stuff into his room. He tries to talk to Yuri and get closer to him and Yuri freaks out. He can’t believe that Victor is here for him! All of Hasetsu gets word that Victor is here and they are trying to figure out why. Everyone at the rink is in shock that he came out to coach Yuri. There is one condition though: Victor won’t let Yuri skate until he loses the weight he gained after the last competition. After seeing Victor’s posts on social media, Yuri Plisetsky is able to track him down. He flies out to Japan; Yakov finds out and is very angry. Russian Yuri is in Japan to hold Victor to his promise to choreograph a program. Later on, both Yuris are watching Victor at the rink. Russian Yuri tells Japanese Yuri that Victor was working on a new short program, but was feeling uninspired because he could no longer surprise the audience. That made Yuri Katsuki really wonder what inspired Victor about the video of his performance. They return back to the inn, where Yuri Plisetsky gets the nickname Yurio, which he hates. Victor looks for Yuri and his friends tell him he’s either at the ballet studio or the rink. They give Victor a lot more information about Yuri, about his anxiety, his hard time putting himself out there, and his work ethic. The next day at the rink, Victor begins arranging short programs for both Yuris. It is the same music with different arrangements: On Love-Agape and On Love-Eros. They listen to both arrangements, and Yuri is more comfortable with Agape, Yurio is more comfortable with Eros. Victor shakes things up and gives them the opposite songs. He said they have to do the opposite of what the audience expects. Yurio wanted Victor to come back to Russia to coach him if he won, and he would stay in Japan if Yuri wins. As Yuri stated, he wanted to keep winning and eating more pork cutlet bowls with Victor.

Episode 3: Victor demonstrates both the Agape and Eros programs, and everyone is blown away. Yurio is over-confident that he can skate Agape, but Yuri has no idea how he is going to skate Eros. Victor challenges them both the find what Eros and Agape mean to them. Yuri attempts to come up with a construct for the Eros program, featuring a playboy pursuing all the women, but knows he can’t pull that off. They both return to the inn, where Yuri blurts out that pork cutlet bowls are his Eros, and then is super embarrassed. The next day at practice, Yurio is having a hard time finding agape. Both Yuris then go to the waterfall, where Yurio has a breakthrough, and identifies Agape as his grandpa. Yuri notices this new side of Yurio and that he looks vulnerable. Maybe he’s not just the Russian Punk after all. Before Victor arrives at practice the next morning, Yuri asks Yurio to teach him how to do a quad salchow. They practice, and Yuri is still struggling to find the core of the program. He puts in some last minute dance practice before the Hot Spring Challenge. On the day of the Hot Spring Challenge, the stakes are high for both Yuris. Yurio is up first. He performs well, but loses sight of Agape and focuses solely on the program and winning. In contrast, Yuri finds his Eros and who he is dancing for. Everyone is astounded by what they have seen. This is a completely different Yuri Katsuki than anyone has ever seen! Yurio packs his bags and heads back to Russia before the results are even announced, as he knows Yuri has won. This win, and the help of Victor, has greatly bolstered Yuri’s confidence.

Episode 4: Victor has a heart to heart with Yuri in the hot spring about why he chose to coach him. It was because of how he moved to the music. Victor wants Yuri to pick his own music, which sends Yuri into a tailspin. He has always let his coach pick his music for him. They both call Yuri’s former coach Celestino, and Victor asks him why he wouldn’t let Yuri pick his music. Celestino stated that Yuri didn’t have a lot of confidence in his own choices. Meanwhile, Yurio is back in Russia and a bit shaken by the loss at the Hot Spring Challenge. This has motivated him to work harder. Yakov brings in his ex-wife, a prima ballerina to work with Yurio, and she is tough. Yuri continues to struggle with the music, and calls his old training mate Phichit. He asks about a piece that a student had composed for him previously. Phichit said he would try to get the music for him. Yuri has been stressed out and avoiding Victor. Victor sensed this and called off practice for the day. They went to the ocean and had some special moments where they bonded further. There was even a DTR (define the relationship) talk. Victor was wondering what kind of relationship Yuri wanted from him. Yuri is still unsure of how to respond to Victor’s advances. After this day, Yuri decided to open up more to Victor. Later that night, Yuri receives the program music. Victor listens to it and likes it. They go back to practice and do several run throughs. This is where we first see Victor’s injury. Later that day, the Grand Prix assignments are released. Both Yuri and Yurio are curious about what assignments they are skating. Yuri got assigned to the Cup of China, where he will see Phichit, and the Rostelecom Cup, where he will face off with Yurio again. At the next practice, Yuri decides the theme for his free skate is “On My Love” and the title to the track is “Yuri on Ice”. He no longer feels he is fighting alone with Victor by his side. He is not sure how long this will last, so he wants to make the most of it.

Episode 5: Yuri has a competition in Japan before the Grand Prix series starts. There are a lot of people he knows at this competition. One skater, Minami Kenjirou, who won the Japanese Nationals last season, idolizes Yuri and was trying to get his attention. Yuri goes first in the short program, and is nervous about competing again. Victor gives him a hug before he goes out. He was imagining being a “pork cutlet bowl fatale”, which is just hilarious. After the short program, Yuri and Victor were interviewed. Minami came out again to get Yuri’s attention, and this time he confronts him. Yuri wanted to completely forget last season, but Minami remembered him. He has looked up to Yuri for a long time. Yuri didn’t handle this well, which disappointed Victor. He asked “If you can’t motivate a skater who looks up to you, how can you motivate yourself?” Another thing Victor requested was for Yuri to perform just one quad in the free skate instead of the 3 planned. Yuri went for the quads anyway, but throughout the program, realized he was having fun on the ice. Victor was irritated that he went for the quads, but realized that Yuri was just taking after him. In the press conference after the competition, Yuri declared that love was the theme of his season, and that he would prove it with a win at the Grand Prix Final. He is starting to better define his feelings for Victor.

Episode 6: Victor and Yuri leave for Beijing. Once they get there, Victor attempts to talk to Yakov, but Yakov is still mad. Most of the competitors go out for hot pot, and a lot of them end up getting drunk. Phichit takes a picture and loads it onto social media. Yuri is worried about how this will affect his image. There are a few skaters before Yuri competes, so he tries to mentally prepare. Christophe mentioned it was hard to stay motivated without Victor competing, and Yuri begins to feel like he stole Victor away from the skating world. He is out to prove this was not in vain. Victor noticed this change in Yuri. Yuri went out for the short program and was no longer imagining a pork cutlet bowl. This program was all for Victor. He ended the short program with his highest score yet. Up next was Georgi. He planned to be the predominant Russian skater with Victor out of the picture. In his program, he was still working through some baggage with an old girlfriend. The program ended up being so ridiculous it was amusing! American skater Leo De La Iglesia gave a solid performance in the short, and Christophe sought to outperform Yuri in the sex appeal department. It was interesting to say the least. Definitely not for children to see.

Episode 7: Yuri is so nervous about the competition that he is not sleeping. He fell on a jump during the warm up too. He is feeling the pressure and not handling it well. Victor senses all this and tries to take him away from the competition and the crowds. He then told Yuri that if he didn’t make the podium, he would accept responsibility and resign as his coach. Yuri then burst into tears and said that now his failures reflect on Victor too. He just wanted Victor to believe in him. Victor didn’t know how to handle that. Yuri gets out and delivers a fairly solid performance, with a few flubs in his jumps. Then he decides to change the last jump to a quad flip, Victor’s signature jump. The last portion of the program was about love, and the last jump was Victor’s jump. He was so surprised that he ran over and kissed Yuri at the end. He wanted to surprise Yuri even more than he had been surprised. As far as the competition, Phichit won the competition with a stellar performance in the free skate, and Yuri took the silver.

Episode 8: In this episode, we see a lot of skaters acting a fool. Yuri and Victor remain above the fray from all that nonsense. At the beginning of the episode, they show all the skaters coming in for the Rostelecom Cup. Yuri Plisetsky is surrounded by fangirls and tries to run away, but his family is coming to get him. He narrates the beginning of the episode. His grandpa comes to see him and he’s happy, but that doesn’t last long. The press had all eyes on Victor returning to Russia as a coach, and he was soaking up the attention. This infuriated Yurio, who started acting a fool by knocking Victor’s coffee out of his hands and throwing a tantrum because he wasn’t getting all the attention. The Yuri goes to the elevator, where he sees Mickey and his sister Sala, where Mickey is warning Czech skater Emil Nekola to stay away from his sister. Acting a fool, part 2. Yuri then is in the elevator with Yurio, who has his usual bad attitude. Yuri knows he has to place at least 4^th to qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Before the competition starts, we are introduced to an obnoxious skater, JJ Leroy. He tries to talk to Victor about how awesome his jumps are, but Victor blows him off. Yurio is sad when he finds out his grandpa is not feeling well and won’t be at the competition today. How will he be able to perform Agape now? Yuri’s Eros performance is flawless and he reaches a new personal best. Victor kisses Yuri’s skate. Seems they are closer than ever. They loudly cheer on Yurio, which makes him angry. He performed his short program well technically, but with no Agape at all. A fan throws some cat ears to him at the end, which JJ further insults by saying “Ladies First”. He dislikes JJ the most. JJ is the last skater, skating to a ballad about himself. The fans all love him, but other skaters do not. Before the results are announced, Yuri gets a call from his family saying that Maccachin is sick. Yuri urges Victor to go back to Japan, but Victor is reluctant to do so, until he runs into Yakov. He asks Yakov to be Yuri’s coach for the free skate.

Episode 9: Yakov agrees to coach Yuri and Victor heads back to Japan. Yurio’s grandpa returns, this time with pork cutlet bowl pirozhkis. He is staying to watch Yuri compete in the free skate today. Sala Crispino finally has a talk with her brother Mickey, saying he needs to be able to skate without her, and that she was going to start dating. This crushed him, but he took out his sadness in the program and performed well. He decided he would try to let her go. Yurio’s free skate was next. He rearranged the jumps so there were 6 jumps in the second half. He used his anger to motivate him in this performance, particularly directed at JJ. Yuri was next. He was a bit off on the free skate today, but thought of what Victor would have wanted and how he has helped him. After the free skate, Yakov was griping and Yuri was worried he had blown it. Yuri ends up qualifying for the Grand Prix Final and ends up hugging everyone as he is in a daze. He later runs into Yurio. Yurio was angry that he lost to JJ again. He gives Yuri one of the pork cutlet bowl pirozhkis. Yuri is contemplating if this will be his final season and how to tell Victor. When Yuri returns to Japan, he is greeted with a familiar bark. Maccachin is ok! Yuri and Victor run to each other. Yuri asks Victor to be his coach until he retires. Victor says that it sounds like a marriage proposal and hopes he never retires. It was great for them to be reunited again.

Episode 10: I think this one may be my favorite episode in the series. In this episode, Victor is narrating. It was good to hear his perspective. He finally feels free to be himself. He had sacrificed so much for skating. He said he neglected life and love for more than 20 years. During Victor’s time of reflection, Christophe comes to the hot tub. They hang out for a while and then go to see Yuri, who was still sleeping. Meanwhile, Yurio is surrounded by his fangirls, Yuri’s Angels. They follow him to every competition. At first, he was trying to run away, but then JJ’s fiancé insulted them. He then went on to defend his fans. Victor goes back to narrating and talks about his journey with Yuri has changed him, from arriving in Japan and sightseeing there, to all their competitions. He says Yuri’s life and love have greatly changed him. This part always gets me teared up. Before the competition starts, Yuri asks Victor to take him sightseeing in Barcelona, which was a surprise. Meanwhile, Yurio’s fangirls are on the chase again, and he is trying to find a way to escape. Out of nowhere, a mysterious person pulls up on a motorcycle and asks Yurio to come with him. It was Otabek from Kazakhstan. They go off and have a talk where Otabek remembers training with Yurio. He then asked Yurio to be his friend, which had never happened to Yurio. Victor returns to narrating the story, shopping with Yuri. They were looking for a bag of nuts they had bought and couldn’t find them. Yuri remembered Victor’s birthday was on Christmas. Yuri then goes on to look for a gift, and Victor watches as he looks. Yuri runs into a jewelry store and purchases matching rings for him and Victor. He said it was to thank Victor for everything he had done for him. They exchanged rings at a cathedral in Barcelona. It is unclear whether they actually got married or were engaged there. After that they continued to walk and they crashed the dinner Yurio and Otabek were having, along with all the other skaters (except JJ). Yuri had mentioned how he couldn’t even talk to Victor last season, at which point everyone started talking about last year’s banquet. They still had the pictures too. Apparently a lot of them had too much to drink and ended up doing a dance off. There was even some pole dancing. At the dinner, some of the skaters noticed Yuri and Victor were wearing rings. Phichit thought they had gotten married and announced it to the restaurant. He’s always so nice and encouraging. Victor said that it was an engagement ring, and that they would get married once he won. At that point, they got interrupted by JJ, but everyone pretty much ignored him. The next morning, Yuri was feeling anxious, and Victor was out by the ocean looking at his ring. He was confronted by Yurio, who tried to say he was a has-been. Victor brushed it off and said that Yurio wouldn’t be this motivated to fight if he had stayed in Russia, and neither would he. The last scene shows all six skaters and their coaches walking in for the competition. Then all the pictures from last year’s banquet popped up! Pretty much everything they talked about at dinner was true. At the end, a drunken Yuri is telling Victor about his family’s hot spring, and asked if Victor would be his coach if he won the dance off.

Episode 11: The Grand Prix Final kicks off. Yuri is up first, and he and Victor use their matching rings in a prayer for victory. During Yuri’s short program, Victor continues to narrate and talk about how his life has changed because of Yuri. Yuri has a solid performance but does not break the 100 mark. Phichit was up next. He knew he didn’t have the quads of many of the other skaters but was just happy to be there. Next was Yurio’s Agape program, which, as you will remember, Victor choreographed for him. Yuri was being interviewed and noticed Victor was not with him. He was watching Yurio’s program. Yurio finally got in touch with what Agape means to him, and set a new world record with his performance, exceeding Victor’s record scores. Victor seemed to be really enjoying watching the competition, and Yuri could sense something was different. Yurio then comes back to cheer on his buddy Otabek. He delivers a solid performance and then stares down JJ at the end. Today’s short program was not so friendly to JJ. The pressure of the Grand Prix final had gotten to him and he was popping many of his jumps. In spite of the fact that most of the skaters find him irritating, they still had compassion for him, expecially Yuri. It reminded him of his previous Grand Prix Final. JJ’s fans were supportive of him as always, and Yurio was annoyed by all the cheering. At the end of the short program, Yuri was in 4^th place. The episode ends with Yuri telling Victor he wants to end their coaching relationship after the Grand Prix Final is over. Why did he want to do this? Does he plan to retire, or does he notice that Victor might want to return to competitive skating? Hopefully the finale will answer these questions. Yuri wants to give the best performance possible in the free skate to show his love for Victor and hopefully take home the gold medal.

Episode 12 (Season Finale): This episode begins where the last episode left off, with Yuri planning to end his coaching relationship with Victor. Victor is in shock. Yuri tells him he plans to retire, and Victor cries. He is mad. He thought Yuri would stay and he could help him more. Yuri had thought Victor wanted to come back to competitive skating, but Victor doesn’t want to come back without Yuri there. They decide to make their own decisions about what they will do after the free skate. The Grand Prix Final begins, where Stephane Lambiel does a cameo as an announcer for the event. Victor pleas for the people of Japan to cheer for Yuri today. JJ starts off the free skate, but starts late. He has a flashback to the beginning of his skating where he is dressed like Cartman from South Park, which is hilarious.

JJ has been falling apart at the Grand Prix Final, but finally pulls it together and lands the remaining jumps. Phichit skates next, where he shows his dream of starting a skating show in Thailand. Yuri’s free skate is up next, and Yuri and Victor enter the rink dramatically. There is definitely some tension between them. Victor finally breaks the ice to wish Yuri good luck, sort of. They have an exchange where Victor asks why Yuri hasn’t won the gold medal since he has coached him. This was likely an attempt to motivate him to keep skating. Yuri goes out on the ice to lay everything out there. His internal dialogue is amazing on this part. He thanks Victor for getting him this far, and thanks Yurio for teaching him the quad salchow. All his jumps are going flawlessly and he surprises Victor by switching up the jumps. Yuri wants his final free skate to have the same difficulty as Victor’s. Yuri does not want skating with Victor to end. He wants to skate with him forever. He hopes the program is getting that across. He thinks that Victor continuing to coach him will kill his chances of returning to competitive skating. Yuri is out to prove Victor did not waste time coaching him. Yuri lands the quad flip, Victor’s signature jump, perfectly, and Victor tears up. Yuri’s flawless performance earns him a new world record, exceeding Victor’s. Victor sees both Yuris beating his scores as bliss for a coach and choreographer and a diss as a competitor. That’s when he decides to make a comeback. Victor approaches Yakov about his return and gives Yurio a pep talk before he goes out. It is still unclear whether or not Yuri is retiring. Yuri cheers on Yurio for his program. Yurio wanted everyone he admired to watch him, which included Yuri! Yurio wants to win to keep Yuri from retiring. Yurio falls on a quad, but gets back up right away. He wants to beat Yuri’s record someday, and says that Yuri will regret it if he retires. Yurio wins the Grand Prix Final by a very slim margin, but Yuri won the free skate by a long shot. Yuri wins the silver. Victor teases Yuri by saying he failed as a coach since he didn’t get gold. He doesn’t really mean it; he just wants Yuri to keep skating. Yuri decides to stay one more year and compete with Victor. Victor says he is worried about making a comeback and coaching Yuri, so he will have to become the 5 time World Champion, meaning he should skate even longer. Is Victuri over? No way. The last scene shows Yuri’s exhibition, which is Victor’s free program from last season, Stay by Me. Victor comes out to skate too and they perform a duet. The season comes to an end with reflection from Yuri. Neither he nor Victor are fighting alone now. “We call everything on ice Love”. Then the ending screen says See You Next Level. What does this mean? Hopefully another season. For the love of all that is good, let it be another season! Here is a clip of their exhibition piece. It has a comparison between Episode 1 and Episode 12.

Themes

There were several themes that ran through Yuri!! On Ice.

1. Obviously, the primary arc was on Yuri and Victor’s developing relationship, and how it has changed each of them. This was a wonderful thing to see and the show displayed it out beautifully, using skating to communicate feelings that they otherwise couldn’t. That explains the last line, “We call everything on the ice Love”.

2. The second theme was displaying all the skaters’ inner thoughts while performing. I really enjoyed this part as it showed each skaters motivations. Some were out to bring victory to their country for the first time (Phichit and Otabek), others were out to enjoy themselves and create art (Phichit), some were out to prove their greatness and potential (Yurio), and some were out to display how awesome they were (JJ). Yuri’s innermost thoughts were a combination of anxiety and proving his love and respect for Victor. The latter dominated most of the later competitions.

3. Each skater was determining the types of love in their life and what it means to them, whether it be for another person, their own ego, or creating something beautiful.

4. This may sound like it’s stating the obvious, but this the first show or movie of any kind to focus on men’s figure skating. Most of the skating movies you see feature an ice princess or pairs where a hockey player falls in love with a skater and they skate together. The only movie showing men’s skating was Blades of Glory, which was a parody. Don’t get me wrong, I love all these movies. I appreciate Yuri on Ice providing a different perspective.

Takeaways

Throughout the series, there was a lot of talk on finding inspiration and how it feels when it is lacking. I, along with many skaters have felt this way before. It sucks when you’re just going through the motions and paying to be somewhere you don’t really want to be. I took a break before for this very reason, but I came back when I realized I was still in love with skating and didn’t want to quit. That was my first comeback. I am super pumped to get back out there again, doing what I love. I hope this will be a dramatic comeback, in a good way.

I need to try a pork cutlet bowl. I might see if I <3 Sushi or Edo has it here in town.

The See You Next Level thing is blowing my mind right now. What does this mean? Do they go on to skate after this? Presumably yes. Is there a second season? Well, there are more rumors going around. I will let these play out until we get more of a firm idea of what’s going to happen, as there is a lot of clickbait out there. It would be interesting to hear more of Victor’s story. No one really knows much about his past other than his skating accomplishments. I think for next season I will review each episode as a separate post. This big ass post was a lot of work!

I’m glad I re-watched the episodes for the recaps. It added more meaning to the show. I’m sad it’s over for now, but if I survived Mad Men ending, I can get through this, especially with all the fan made videos and art out there. The fandom is awesome here!

Well, that’s it for this post. I highly recommend this series. Stay tuned for my 2016 Reflections, and more cool stuff to come in the New Year!

See you next time at Icy Trails!

Icy Trails

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Reflections on 2016 and Plans for 2017

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

I saw Yuri on Ice, and I loved it! Here's my review.

Blog Archive