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nordicsymphony · 7 years

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Extol the virtues of Yuri!!! on Ice.

Honey, you’re going to be in for a long ride…

Also there be spoilers, but I’ll try my best.

1. The plot of this sports anime isn’t like any other out there. Most sports anime always have ‘kid in his 1st year of Japanese High School discovers a sport and aims to be the very best’. Not this one. Instead we get ‘professional athlete who has had his time is considering retirement after a string of failures’. This show is basically showing us a sport from another side. And you’d think that Yuri Plisetsky, who has the personality of a typical sports anime protagonist would be one or else the main rival - nope, it’s Yuri Katsuki, whose personality would fit in another genre altogether and has anxiety, making him stand out from the other sports anime protagonists. And the show’s focus is not on the rivalry between the 2 Yuris (it’s something else, but I’ll get to it later), and they do not always face off against each other - their 1st Grand Prix Final qualifying competitions are held in different countries, while they share their 2nd, and on Plisetsky’s home turf no less. Sayo Yamamoto, who is the director for the show, had to fight her way in production to ensure that Yuri Katsuki became the protagonist she envisioned him to be. Also, the show is 100% Despair-and-Suffering-free, but bring tissues just in case.

2. Instead of an all-Japanese cast like most sports anime, we get an international cast with diverse backgrounds, and some do not even fit their national stereotypes. We have a tanned brother-sister duo from Italy taking part in separate divisions (and the brother has sister-complex), a narcissistic Canadian, an American who is half-Mexican as opposed to how they’re normally portrayed in anime, a South Korean who we hardly see smiling, etc… Some minor countries also get representation - there’s a Czech skater who’s happy-go-lucky and looks like PewDiePie, a Thai ball of sunshine who is a social-media addict, A badass manly Kazakh… While we do have anime with a diverse cast, it’s not something you see in the sports genre. Also, some of them might be inspired by real-life figure skaters - Yuri Katsuki is a mish-mash of Tatsuki Machida’s career, Daisuke Takahashi’s skating style and Yuzuru Hanyu’s appearance, Viktor Nikiforov is Evgeni Plushenko with John Cameron Mitchell’s appearance (and to an extent Stephane Lambiel’s level of extra), Yuri Plisetsky is Yulia Litpinskaya genderflipped, Leo de la Iglesia is a dead-ringer for Jason Brown, Phichit Chulanont is a Thai Michael Christian Martinez, Otabek Altin is basically Denis Ten as an anime character. And some of them have noticed.

3. The sport itself. So far I have heard of only 3 series aside from YOI that focus on figure skating. And it’s hardly touched upon in mainstream media - we only pay attention to it once every 4 years during the Olympics. And by golly did the crew do their research. Every single routine is choreographed by former ice dancer Kenji Miyamoto, who also choreographed for Evgeni Plushenko and Yuzuru Hanyu among others. The show also collaborated with Chacott (Japanese company that does makeup and costumes for dancers) to produce the costumes shown in the anime. Some of the chibi segments also teach us stuff like how a normal figure skating competition season is like, how the Grand Prix final works, how are the scores for the competing skaters calculated, etc… It helps that Sayo Yamamoto and Mitsurou Kubo (character designer) are both figure skating fans, and they’ve also managed to get everyone involved in production and the fandom interested in the actual sport, bless them.

4. The music. This show is tied with Puella Magi Madoka Magica as the best OST in anime if I’m to be believed. So far there’s 1 for the songs used by the skaters in the show and another for the BGM (if there’s a download link for the BGM soundtrack, pls link me). While both are pleasant to listen to, the Skate Song soundtrack is the one that stands out the most. Each song captures the emotions and thoughts of the skaters dancing to the piece, and some are strong enough to make you have feels (no joke - Yuri K’s free skate and exhibition piece are the worst offenders). And they’re both easily accessible too - you can find them on iTunes and Spotify, something I haven’t seen with other shows’ OSTs (at least you can find the Steven Universe OST on Soundcloud via their composers). You cannot make me choose only 1 favourite track, but I’ve listened to In Regards to Love - Eros the most. As for the OP and ED, once you start listening to them, good luck getting them out of your head. History Maker is completely in English (a rarity) and has motivational lyrics. The ED is literally called YOLO (You Only Live Once) and is about living in the moment, because time is shot, ya know?

5. The animation. Lest some people come after me because of an incident with Crunchyroll that I’m not going into full detail about, the animation is really good. Not one of the best, but stands out all the same. They have 5 more key animators than Flip Flappers, which is well known for having a similar animation style as a Studio Trigger production for a good reason. It is very difficult to animate a figure skater. It takes so many frames to animate something like a Triple Axel. Even though the broadcast version is sometimes inconsistent, the animation during Viktor’s ‘Stammi Vicino, non te ne Andare’ is damn beautiful. THIS is what drew people to the show in the first place. The art is beautiful. The characters are drawn realistically. Basically, a work of art from start to end.

6. Excellent Character Development. A good show can have a good plot but if the characters are not developed well then the show is overall average or mediocre. This show can take a previously unlikable character and somehow make people like them to the point where they’re someone’s favourite. Don’t like Jean-Jacques Leroy (JJ) in the Rostelecom Cup for his narcissism? Episode 11 has him undergo an anxiety attack and shows that even kings can fall. Never had a good impression on Michele Crispino because the only thing on his mind aside from skating is his sister? Episode 9 shows that he can do just as well, if not better without her (though the later episodes still has him being overprotective of her, though played down). You think JJ’s girlfriend Isabella Yang doesn’t deserve to be there? In the same episode as JJ’s anxiety attack, she redeems herself by leading the audience in cheering for him even though his emotions are at his lowest, showing us that she loves him no matter what. Christophe Giacometti’s too sexual for you? Episode 10 reveals that there’s a damn good reason why he greeted Yuri like that in Episode 6. And then there’s the biggest one - We all know that Yurio’s sometimes an ass to Yuri (and to a lesser extent, Viktor) and isn’t that much of a nice guy. Well, slightly towards the end of Episode 9, Yurio is shown being actually nice to Yuri, Episode 10 has him earning his 1st and best friend in Otabek, and Episode 12 reveals that all along he idolises Yuri, and wants to compete against him when both are at their best. And then, we have Yuri who goes from his lowest point to the badass Japan’s Ace skater he actually is and Viktor who we think is playing with him but is actually lovesick for him the whole damn time. They will do anything to make you love everyone at the end. Their personalities aren’t over the top either - there will be someone who will make you think you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, ranging from Yuri’s anxiety and constant downplaying of himself, Viktor’s tendency to fill his life with only one thing and nothing else, Phichit’s need to fill his Instagram account… there’s someone for everyone. And they do not slouch on the minor characters either. You WILL find fics focusing on Yuri’s family, Yurio’s grandpa, Yakov and Lilia, Celestino (Yuri and JJ’s old coach and Phichit’s current coach), the Nishigori Family (Yuko and Takeshi are Yuri’s childhood friends and if it weren’t for their mischievous triplets, majority of the show wouldn’t have happened), Yuri’s old ballet teacher Minako… almost everyone will make sure they stick forever.

7. For an anime focusing on sports, social media plays an equally important role in the development of the show. Part of the ED sequence is someone’s Instagram feed, Episode 10 looks into the photo album of 3 of the character’s phones, Viktor wouldn’t have packed his bags and left for Hasetsu if the Nishigori triplets didn’t upload that viral video of Yuri skating his award-winning Free Skate on Youtube… Aside from Instagram (thanks to people like Phichit) we also get to see someone’s Twitter homepage in Episode 10 filled with news of Otabek rescuing Yurio from rabid fangirls and Leo has something like LINE on his phone. Alcohol also plays a part in the show’s story but that’s something else altogether. There is a reason why there are that many social media fics for the YOI fandom.

8. The. Freaking. Romance. In. This. Show. For YEARS the LGBTQAAP+ anime community have waited for someone to portray them as happy and loving instead of angst and death in mainstream media. Some shows do have loving LGBT couples but they aren’t that much known (should I start watching No. 6?). And the sports genre is infamous for queerbaiting, meaning that we get 2 guys/2 girls doing suggestive actions, but they’re only just friends in the end. Enter Viktor Nikiforov and Yuri Katsuki. We get some MAJOR Ship Tease in the first few episodes, starting with how Yuri came to idolise Viktor and then using his short program to seduce him (Episode 6 SP, enough said.) to Viktor himself being a tad too close for Yuri’s comfort (stroking his arm, hugging him from behind, putting his finger at Yuri’s lips…). And then Episode 7 made them the Canon Official Couple via Big Damn Kiss. On the lips. You should have seen the Internet when it first aired, it was GLORIOUS. And then there’s Episode 10 which was even more shook than Episode 7, and now you know why Episode 12 caused the Internet to crash. It’s not everyday we get a couple in anime who are sweet, consensual, happy and head over heels in love with each other to the point of #RelationshipGoals without typical BL cliches and tropes. And to boot, both of them are from countries who in real life are not known for being LGBTQAAP+ friendly. And instead of the typical dream relationship, their love is portrayed in a realistic way. They argue, fight, be absolutely sappy, but overall they love each other oh so very much and A number of people who weren’t interested in the first place jumped on board the bandwagon because of the realistically portrayed relationship between the two. All that’s left for them to become the ultimate OTP is for their wedding to happen.

9. In Asia, mental illnesses and disorders are something that isn’t mentioned so publicly, much less portrayed realistically. Here, we have Yuri Katsuki, who has anxiety. He shows traits of people suffering from anxiety in a way that isn’t mockery. JJ also has symptoms of anxiety as seen in episode 11 (unrealistic portrayals of other people for one), and Viktor might have depression from before the show’s start - he mentions in Episode 10 that he’s been neglecting in life and love for about 20 years in order to focus on his career. Mental issues are no laughing matter, and it shows here.

10. (I’ll make this my final point or this will get too long) The effin’ impact this show has in real life. When this show says that they were born to make history, you better believe it. Their motto is to ‘Go Big and Wild or Go Home’. It’s not like you know any other anime that trends every damn week on Tumblr on the days that the show airs and whenever they make a major announcement. Most are even lucky to trend once in their airtime. And then there’s the Episode 12 crash - they crashed Tumblr, Crunchyroll and various anime streaming websites the day it aired before settling in as the no. 1 trending topic. No other anime has done the same thing. And how many sports anime can count athletes from their sport being fans of the show? Yes, professional figure skaters love Yuri!!! on Ice. To the point where Evgenia Medvedeva got art made for her, Nobunari Oda and Stephane Lambiel (this guy also has a YOI phone case) made cameos in the last 2 episodes, etc. When Johnny Weir told the internet that he’s watching the show, Kubo and Yamamoto were ecstatic. Weir even did routines to Agape and Eros, and has some YOI merch. And this year a Japanese pair skate duo have chosen Yuri’s free skate song (Yuri on ICE) as their short program for this year’s season. No really. The show also has won many awards, and in various polls have left all the other 2016 anime in the dust. The show is also the 4th best selling anime this millennium (5th all time once you bring in the older ones), and it hasn’t been a year since the anime first aired! Besides that, it’s also the 2nd best-selling franchise of the first half of this year. (right behind One Piece, and they did this with OSTs and Blu-Ray/DVDs alone).

Overall, unique storytelling, lovable and relatable characters, perfect romance, amazing art (and also decently controlled fanservice) and has made one of the largest impact in real life. 10/10 will recommend.

#Nanami Says #Yuri!!! on Ice #Ask Nanami #romanoffblitzer #I apologize if this is too long to read #but this show literally lit up my life and stood out from all the others #1st time a show beat the Suffering Trifecta in my Favourite Anime List #but you may not be able to watch another sports or romance anime ever again...#but please watch this show for all its goodness and purity #feel free to add more

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