zzh-fs

[zzh-fs]

GOETHE, Aprill 2025 issue

[zzh-fs]

Yuzu for Ginza magazine 11/12 🤍

[zzh-fs]

Yuzuru Hanyu: Danny Boy » 2024 Notte Stellata

[zzh-fs]

what's in yuzuru's bag? skates. skate guards. another bag. screwdrivers. a black hole teeming with an infinite number of audio listening devices. and one pooh-san to rule them all.

ft. the duality of man:

[zzh-fs]

The Darkness of Eternity (破滅への使者, lit. "The Envoy to Destruction")

From the soundtrack of Final Fantasy IX, composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu composed the music for all preceding Final Fantasy titles solo, with IX being his last exclusive score in the series. "The Darkness of Eternity" is the theme of the main antagonist, a prideful character who ultimately has a breakdown upon recognizing his own mortality and despairs over the lack of meaning in his life.

Extra fun facts! During Yuzuru's 6-minute warmup prior to this program, the two pieces of music that played were:

"ASGORE" (from Undertale) – plays during the battle with the assumed "final boss," a kind soul burdened by duty. He famously forces you to fight regardless of your willingness to do so.

"Not Alone" (from Final Fantasy IX) – plays during an event sequence in which the protagonist struggles with the darkness hidden within his identity and pushes his friends away in distress, but is instead brought out of his despair by their unwavering support.

[zzh-fs]

Yuzuru Hanyu: Through the Years

Wishing Yuzu, aka the first and only male skater to ever achieve a career super slam, a very happy 29th birthday! As always, I'll be cheering you on! May you find happiness as you continue chasing your passion and dreams 🥳💗

programs (from left to right, top to bottom): ・haru yo koi, seimei 2.0, notte stellata ・heaven & earth, parisienne walkways, origin 1.0 ・hope & legacy, hani ni nare, ballade no. 1 in g minor 3.0

[zzh-fs]

Like... furious doesn't even being to cover it.

[zzh-fs]

cannot believe yuzuru hanyu and liu xinyu saved both the olympics and sino-japanese relations in a single day (+ another video)

[zzh-fs]

Love how he's breaking character 😹

[zzh-fs]

Yuzuru Hanyu: One Summer’s Day » 2023 Stars on Ice Japan: Oshu

[zzh-fs]

what's in yuzuru's bag? skates. skate guards. another bag. screwdrivers. a black hole teeming with an infinite number of audio listening devices. and one pooh-san to rule them all.

ft. the duality of man:

[zzh-fs]

this may not be real but barbie taught us to dream big so here i am, dreaming that for some random reason, fantastically flashy yuzu would be relevant to include in a fantastically flashy movie

template

[zzh-fs]

Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara: 2023 Four Continents Champions

[zzh-fs]

yuzuru hanyu // GIFT, tokyo dome 2023.02.26

[zzh-fs]

2023 WORLD SILVER MEDALISTS: HAEIN LEE + JUNHWAN CHA First South Korean Senior World Medalists since Yuna Kim ”This season the first half of the season was very rough to me but I really tried not to give up and to bring back myself. This is my first time coming to Japan, to Saitama. So I really want to come, And I achieved that, and I achieved more than I expected. I brought everything that I wanted to bring to the audience and I’m really happy about it.” - Haein Lee

“I’m very happy about the medal today and also I’m very happy with what I skated, what I did today. I really trained hard and I really wanted to enjoy today and I think I really enjoyed it. And I give everything so I’m very happy about that.” - Junhwan Cha

[zzh-fs]

oh, brightest star in the night sky can you hear it? that person who looks up at you, their heart's loneliness and sighs

– 夜空中最亮的星 (Brightest Star in the Night Sky) by 逃跑计划 Escape Plan

[zzh-fs]

GIFT

My delayed emotions are catching up to me. At last, I feel overwhelmed. Lack of sleep might be amplifying a little bit. I tried to nap at intermission and sleep after. For adrenaline-related reasons, that did not happen. Worth it.

Yuzu is someone who prefers to express himself through art versus relying on speaking. When you see what he has to say, you don't filter through it like you would if he were to use words alone.

For precisely that reason, his skating feels distinct from that of his peers'. Even if you can't decipher the details, his skating is alive. It declares, it shouts, it smiles; sometimes it cries. At times, it overflows with satisfaction. At others, it brews with frustrated determination. In the final years of his competitive career, it shrouded itself in a solemn fighting spirit. GIFT defined itself through all these raw and honest emotions paired with simple yet poetic voiceovers and a dramatic array of visual effects, dance, and (of course) live music. Yuzu promised an ice "show." A fantastic show was exactly what he delivered.

Though Yuzu doesn't shy away from sharing his emotional state, he's also an incredibly private person. While his wisdom makes itself obvious based on what he chooses to tell the public and when (...and how), a lot more of it exists in what he keeps to himself.

Most of us know that he goes through hard times. It's impossible that he doesn't. Even if not because of the glare of the public eye, his toughness on himself must weigh down heavier at certain moments. Yet he successfully hides a large extent of it. When it was literally "amateur" hour, he would disappear for months at a time and then abruptly reappear at competitions, only to vanish again immediately after. Unless he deigned to mention it afterwards, no one knew what was happening in those weeks when he transformed into the elusive animal of nature documentaries.

As worrying as it was, I also like it to this day. I like that he circumvents the obligation to report his every move. I like that he only talks about things when he feels like it, and then with as few or many words or anime references as he desires. I like that he opened zero social media accounts until he needed them for work, because of course he would. Maybe it hits close to home. I often feel pressured to share my problems with people so they can make me "feel better," even if I'm not ready. That uninvited breach of boundaries usually prompts a horrible spiral of suffering. I like that he felt okay closing himself off.

Today, Yuzu filled GIFT with his entire heart, strife with all of the agony and internal turmoil that he's battled. And I like that he felt safe enough to be vulnerable and tell everyone that he's had a hard time. That he once felt deterred by the circumstances from continuing what he loved. That later, when his love wavered due to different circumstances, he tried to force himself to still find it enjoyable. There comes a point where, no matter how deep your love for something, one day you'll feel as if you're merely going through the motions. It's scary. You defined yourself by your passion for so long. How could it just go away? What are you if it goes away?

Part of me harbors the naive wish that he never had to endure such pain. It's paradoxical. To be tormented by such philosophical questions, you first have to be the type of person who would want to seek and create answers. And that type of person, someone who is pensive and caring, is always who deserves the inevitable pain the least. That's who Yuzu is—someone who won't take the easy way out.

Like life, skating challenges him in an unfair and persistent fashion. As this road continues to taunt him, I wish for him the tenacity to walk it and the inner peace to stray from it should he ever want to. I hope that when he's alone, he can remind himself not to feel lonely. And if he still does, I hope he can remember how many people love him and feel even a little bit better until he can get back on his feet. He is an undying phoenix, sinking into ashes with the promise of rising again. As many times as it takes.

Yuzu, you gathered so many talented people to your side tonight to put on an amazing production. I cannot fathom the amount of time, precision, and innovation it must have taken you and your entire team to complete it. I won't lie. Your seemingly insatiable hunger for bigger and better things can be frightening at times. Yet I adore the unbridled glee on your face when you succeed in grabbing what it is that you reach for.

ありがとうございました！

P.S. Take that, 4S. Little punk of a jump had it coming.