#Phichit supremacy 🤝 me and anon

[himikou]

ok so it's me again and honestly im glad tumblr ate my earlier ask cause it was VERY long but essentially i dropped yoi because i was pissed jj the canadian jetplane won gold while pichit, absolute king of everything, didn't even place i think not sure i haven't watched the show since the finale

i was also mad that the writers has the perfect opportunity, SEVERAL TIMES, to address or make a commentary on the racism and colorism in the professional ice skating scene, but NoOoO we just gotta let the white man with the mediocre performance win bc of "personal growth????"

the more i talk about this the more you'd think the writers DID sneak something in and i missed it, but i'd say i had pretty good critical thinking skills 2 (3? 4?) years ago so i should have picked up on it

another point, it's anime and that garbage industry is infamous for it's racism and colorism (among other things) so. fuck it all (obv im not saying every anime is racist/colorist but like. pichits a side character, clearly shown to be important to yuuri, shown to be on par and even above in skill to yuuri, kind, compassionate, full of art and life and love and he made SIXTH despite "a near flawless performance" so.)

Hi, I’m so glad you’re back!! 💗 Also, I found the previous ask once you sent this one; I just never got any notif for some reason? I’m putting this under a cut because it’s kind of long and not bnha related lol

Yeahhh that totally makes sense. Do/did you follow figure skating? From like 2011-2017 I was really into figure skating and gymnastics, and I definitely agree with you. They’re beautiful sports, but the judging is so corrupt. (Case in point: The Sotnikova/Kim controversy in Sochi 2014) Among skaters/coaches/etc, colorism, racism, and classism are all huge problems, too. I wasn’t really thinking about that when I was watched it originally, so I’m really glad you pointed it out.

I haven’t watched YOI in a while, but I genuinely can’t remember there being any commentary on these issues in it. Which, on one hand, does make sense. It’s meant to be a pretty upbeat show that centers Yuuri’s relationships and growth; obviously they’re going to steer away from portraying major controversies. On the other hand, Phichit was robbed for no reason.

It makes no sense to focus on JJ’s development over Phichit’s, especially when his success came at Phichit’s expense. JJ’s backstory is interesting, and I did enjoy it at the end, but there’s no reason for him to have medaled. (I checked and at the GPF, JJ got bronze, while Phichit was second to last :/) Arguably, it would have pushed more character development for him to have given his best after moving on from his mistakes and it still not being enough. It would have forced a lot more self-reflection, you know?

Or, they could have kept that storyline, but had some commentary about the judges favoring certain skaters/countries and intentionally boosting their scores (ie., Lipnitskaya’s solo performance in Sochi resulting in fifth place despite a disastrous short program). Especially considering that JJ is from Canada, a country that’s fairly influentially/favored by the ISU, while Phichit is from Thailand, a country that hasn’t made any major contributions to figure skating. (Note: I’m pointing this out because judges are known to favor skaters from countries that can contribute more financially/etc to figure skating at large. Basically, there’s no benefit to boosting a Thai skater, but they would have an incentive to boost a Canadian.)

Towards the end of the series, Phichit also takes a back seat to JJ’s development. Like you mentioned, he’s actually important to Yuuri, and he’s been in the show from the beginning. It is weird that he kind of fades into the background as the series reaches its climax. It’s especially frustrating because one of Phichit’s main goals is to make figure skating popular in his country, and he knows that in order to do that, he needs to become a very successful skater. JJ’s goals are just focused on himself. It’s fine to be selfish; I’m not judging that. But Phichit’s goals are more compelling, and I wish we had seen him succeed more.

Anime definitely has issues with racism and colorism, and it’s important to point that out here. When you’re surrounded by these prejudices, it’s going to affect your work. It’s important to critique it or you’re also going to absorb those biases. It’s definitely likely that colorism had a role in Phichit’s and JJ’s placings. It reminds me a lot of how female characters are randomly deprioritized to make way for a man. The exact same thing happens with key brown/black characters being downplayed to allow a white/light-skinned character to succeed. It’s so shitty, and we do need to discuss it. You can’t do better until you’re willing to acknowledge your current and past mistakes.

I’m so glad you sent this ask anon!! Thank you for sharing your perspectives on the series. When I first watched YOI, I was definitely not in a headspace to critically evaluate it. I’ve actually been planning on rewatching YOI for a while now, though, and I’m really excited to watch it with these thoughts in mind. I do love the series, and I think it’s vital to critique the things you love. Definitely feel free to send me more asks about it, or dm if you want!! Thank you again; this was so much fun, and it reminded me of how much I adore Phichit.