Yesterday I happened to be in Tokyo so I stopped by a doujinshi shop for the first time in a while. After looking through the slim pickings of other series I like, I gravitated over to Yuri on Ice—and genuinely spent around 40 minutes flipping through everything. Shelves upon shelves, half of the entire floor to ceiling bookcase just full of hundreds of Yuri on Ice fan comics. It was one of the largest sections I saw, bigger than Naruto and One Piece; the only fandoms with a larger collection I noticed were Attack on Titan and Kimetsu no Yaiba.
A one season, 12 episode anime about men’s figure skating from 2016, rivaling some of the biggest and most popular decade-spanning, ongoing/recently finished series in sheer volume of fan works.
The fact that MAPPA doesn’t want to capitalize on that built-in audience is wild, but at the end of the day we are lucky to have an endless supply of incredible artists to keep the fandom going. Shoutout to all of them! The artists behind these 6 doujin I bought are YUBINBASYA, SHIRIKAWA, Yumaichinose, Fukagawa9 (深川) and Tatsumian (辰巳庵)。
Yuri on Ice was such a life changing anime, especially to have experienced in real time waiting for those episodes to drop every week. It was an open acknowledgment and love letter to queerness, to valuing and creating art, to loving yourself and loving those around you and it’s no surprise that it had such a large impact on those who watched it. Not to mention how stunning it was to be presented with an open letter to queer love during a time where same sex marriage and gender equality was still a very hot and controversial topic. It’s, in its own way, nestled itself into history.
It may not be in the way we all expected or hoped, but see you next level.
Follow Yuri Plisetsky as he teaches you the basics of Figure Skating in a not so...nice way. From Swizzles, to Spins, and even a Waltz Jump, you bet your sore ass he'll cover each move within Tik Tok's allotted time of 59 seconds. So grab some skates, bubble wrap, and Babushka's life alert. It's time to begin your journey to becoming the next Olympic Figure Skating Champion!
#YNSNT acts as a Figure Skating ‘Crash Course’. The main intention of this series is not only to expand in the magic of ’Yuri On Ice’, but to also leave you feeling inspired to take your skating to the NEXT LEVEL. If it does, then please seek out proper coaching. In other words, Yurio ain’t gonna be liable for your potential injuries. “You’re f**k up, your problem.” - Yuri Plisetsky 32:7