So, I should be doing work, but I wanted to do some quick Yuri on Ice meta because reasons.
I know there’s a lot of ideas that Victor has been spending a year wondering why Yuri’s so cold to him after being so friendly at the gala, but I honestly think it would have taken him max 1-2 days of knowing Yuri to know that drunk!Yuri isn’t nearly the same person as the staid, sober Yuri. Moreover, I think that what’s really telling is the end of ep 2 when Victor goes looking for Yuri.
He checks at Minako’s bar, and per her he doesn’t really hang out there. Moreover, she provides a new view of Yuri – not brilliant, but has enough time to become competent.
So he goes to the ice rink.
Here he meets two people who consider himself Yuri’s friends now, but they weren’t his peers, and when he was growing up they were too old to be real friends to him. They provide a new view of Yuri – competitive (he hates to lose), lonely (practices all the time at the expense of friendships) and even now struggling at connecting to people.
I think pretty early on, Victor realized that the fun loving party animal who pole danced at the gala wasn’t the real Yuri. What’s interesting to me is that I think it’s arguable Victor came to get more of the Yuri he lusted after, but fell in love with the quieter Yuri who was just as lonely as Victor was.
I think he let go of drunk!Yuri pretty early on because we all say things when we’re drunk (We should start a band! Let’s go to Europe! Let’s get a tattoo!) that either we don’t really want or that don’t fit with real life.
It’s just sweet that while he was initially looking for the party guy, the one who cracked Victor’s ice prince veneer, he found someone who fit him so much better and decided to stick around.
There was some sort of talk event today involving Chacott and YOI, and it seems they displayed actual RL versions of Yuuri’s FS costume. YUM.
From the tweet about it:
“It’s see-through, and underneath is a leotard that goes all the way down to his crotch so it’s pretty risque (thus spake Kubo-sensei: “What happens if Yuuri-san’s left in nothing but that [leotard]?!”)”
The men’s singles SP for the GPF is about to air on TV Asahi right now, and they provided a useful little table to inform viewers about the quads planned by each competitor, so Kubo-sensei prepared one fo the YOI GPS finalists as well!
Please note how Otabek’s is covered (cause it’s secret XD) and Yuuri’s quad-flip is…as-yet unachieved lol.
Top-down reads: Lutz, Flip, Loop, Salchow, Toe Loop
This is Nijimatsubara in Kyushu. This is where you can wash the salt off after playing in the ocean. There really are such showers by the beach. They’re designed to be used together [with another person], so their shape is a bit mysterious. Originally, these scenes were supposed to be in the main show, but this unfortunately didn’t happen. I thought, in that case, I would draw them in the ending sequence instead.
This is from the MIRACLE!!! on ICE booklet, which came with the January edition of Amiage. There were some interesting tidbits in the interview section with Hayashi Yuuichirou (the designer for the ED), so I translated them. Please take these translations with a grain of salt!
SOMETHING I really love about Yuri on Ice is that it’s not a story about getting “good” enough to succeed. Stories about sports or competitions are always about the protag overcoming some skill-related setback to succeed. Which is, y’know, always fun to watch!!
But here’s Yuri, a guy who’s already an accomplished and celebrated figure skater. He already has fans, is already famous, already inspires young skaters. He already has the skills necessary to be the best.
The only thing he has to overcome is his own self-doubt.
It’s a very real barrier for an artist/performer/athlete to face, and it’s written with the utmost care. He doesn’t have a singular “oh, I believe in myself now” moment. He goes back and forth.
He lets Yurio yell at him when he’s crying in the bathroom, and later he smiles and thinks to himself, “this kid is seriously underestimating me haha.”
He wins one round of a competition and then has a massive panic attack about the one immediately following. He believes in himself, and then he worries, and then he gets fired up, and then he doubts. But every time he falls back, he gets a little closer to really truly being confident. And that’s what it’s really like for artists and athletes and really anybody with a dream.
It’s not a flat, straight road to self-confidence. You fall and stop and have to force yourself to keep moving.
And I think that’s done beautifully in this show!!
there are SO MANY ppl predicting that yuuri’s not gonna win gold and honestly…. why are ppl so universally set on this? like i get that he doesn’t have to win it to have a happy redeeming ending but why CAN’T he win gold? why CAN’T he land the god of figure skating as a husband, redeem himself with a gold medal at the major international championship that’s been his goal for an entire year or more, end the year with triumphs and successes untold and just once in his life have it all? if this were any other sports anime i might get it but *mr darcy voice* it’s taught me to hope as i’ve scarcely hoped before
it’s been pretty hammered into us that despite his successes yuuri has never once had the stars align perfectly for him so honestly like why can’t we just have an anime where the gay anxiety-ridden socially awkward unreliable narrator protagonist has the perfect fairy-tale ending? y’all were so certain he was gonna get married but have no faith in the fact that he has the ability/deserves to win. this is like the one series where the dream of wish fulfillment could actually happen and not feel like everything was just handed to him without any effort and you’re out here so certain he’s gonna lose like let him live i just wanna believe in christmas miracles
I am 100% convinced Yuuri will win gold. The progression of his story doesn’t make sense without a win, especially after his disappointing performance in Moscow (which I was also 100% convinced would happen). To have him get anything less is a stagnant storyline. It doesn’t go anywhere.
That boy is bringing home gold … and with the way this anime is escalating, maybe also a husband.
Just like everyone else, I loved the revelation of Victor being 157% smitten with Drunk!Yuuri, and that being a huge reason for him to pack up and leave for Japan. But we do both Yuuri and Victor a great disservice in thinking that is the main reason why Victor decided to coach him.
If we compare the skaters we’ve seen getting gold medals so far, the one thing they have in common, besides being technically great, of course, is that they all know how to present themselves to the world. Victor is ALWAYS smiling and charming with his fans and fellow skaters; Phichit is the King of Social Media, one flawless selfie after another; JJ, no matter whether you like him or not, is a rockstar.
And this is important for ice skating because skaters are judged based on the technical elements and the program components, which include performance and interpretation. Which makes you wonder no more why Otabek or Seung Gil didn’t score gold.
Nothing but My Aching Soul 