I feel like Yuri on Ice's title is a joke or troll

[mochi]

Yuri reffers to Lesbian romance, buuuuut the show is a Yaoi show so

 

also it's awesome and I hope Toonami gets it

 

 

I know they won't though, Toonami never picks up any shows I want, at least not anymore anyway

[EyeOfPain]

People really should have been referring to it as "Yuuri!!! on Ice" and maybe there wouldn't have been as much confusion.

[granzchesta]

It's the main character's name. He's on ice.

[Cidz]

Yuri reffers to Lesbian romance, buuuuut the show is a Yaoi show so

 

its....not a yuri anime? i thought it was.

ah well ive never seen the anime just seen the title pop up.

maybe ill check it out. but i dont rly feel much like watching any anime atm.

i still gotta finish 91 days and im like on the last ep i think?

[Stardust Whispers]

I really love the show so far.  Can't wait for more.

[HardcoreHunter]

its....not a yuri anime? i thought it was.

ah well ive never seen the anime just seen the title pop up.

maybe ill check it out. but i dont rly feel much like watching any anime atm.

i still gotta finish 91 days and im like on the last ep i think?

 

When are the girls showing up? The guys are getting so restless they are starting to ohhhhh...I was mistaken.

[mookielady]

I might have to check it out. Everyone on my Twitter timeline loves it.

[mochi]

its....not a yuri anime? i thought it was.

ah well ive never seen the anime just seen the title pop up.

maybe ill check it out. but i dont rly feel much like watching any anime atm.

i still gotta finish 91 days and im like on the last ep i think?

 

it billed itself as a bishonen heavy sports anime (like free!) but

as of ep seven it's been confirmed to actually be a shonen-ai or Gay romance series

 

 

the overall belief is that they billed it as such to make the same sex kiss more shocking(possibly because anime of that genre are heavy on deliberately encouraging same sex ships then shooting them down to the annoyance of the fans)

 

[mochi]

I might have to check it out. Everyone on my Twitter timeline loves it.

 

it's the first decent shonen-ai series to come out in quite a while.....there've been others, like junjou Romantica (which is horrible and full of rape) Love stage (which wasn't completely awful but was predictable...also the author has a weird relationship with her brother,

namely she created a character based on(and in the anime, voiced by) him and drew a yaoi doujin of him getting effed in the a)

, and Super lovers.....which is actually borderline shota based on what I've been told

 

 

basically it's the first non-creepy shonen-ai series of this new cycle of shows

[mochi]

It's the main character's name. He's on ice.

 

I'M NUDES ON ICE!

[Naraku4656]

i got curious so i just googled this show cus of the name. what is this show even

[HardcoreHunter]

i got curious so i just googled this show cus of the name. what is this show even

 

MAL - show's story revolves around Yuuri Katsuki, who carried all of Japan's hopes on his shoulders to win at the Grand Prix Finale ice skating competition but suffered a crushing defeat. He returns home to Kyushu and half feels like he wants to retire, and half feels like he wants to continue ice skating. With those mixed feelings swirling inside him, he confines himself inside his parents' house. Suddenly the five-time consecutive world championship ice skater Viktor Nikiforov appears before him, and along with him is Yuri Plisetsky, a young Russian figure skater who is already defeating his seniors. Viktor and both Yuris take up the challenge on an unprecedented Grand Prix series

[mochi]

i got curious so i just googled this show cus of the name. what is this show even

 

a sports anime about a Gay figure Skater and his Bisexual coach who he's in love with

[Naraku4656]

so this jumped on the Free train too? all aboard fan yaoi express

[scope]

Of course Toonami isn't getting this show, it's an action block, this is pretty much the furthest thing from what it's getting.

[Naraku4656]

Of course Toonami isn't getting this show, it's an action block, this is pretty much the furthest thing from what it's getting.

 

the toonami community itself seems like a gay harem full of tsunderes to an outsider like me. IT'S NOT LIKE I THINK THE RATINGS ARE BAD B.....BAKA

[mochi]

so this jumped on the Free train too? all aboard fan yaoi express

 

Free! isn't yaoi, none of the guys have any canonical romantic feeling for each other and Kyoani denies they have any

 

 

Yuri on Ice is actually Yaoi

[Naraku4656]

Free! isn't yaoi, none of the guys have any canonical romantic feeling for each other and Kyoani denies they have any

 

 

Yuri on Ice is actually Yaoi

 

so which one of them is going to yell SENPAI, IT WON'T FIT IT HUUUUUUURTS first

[mochi]

so which one of them is going to yell SENPAI, IT WON'T FIT IT HUUUUUUURTS first

 

if network censorship allows it Yuri on ice.....Free! came and went and theres no intent to make any of the boys fuck

 

 

 

Yuri on ice is practically there already considering the main characters have kissed and the uke(weirdly enough) is being the physically dominant one (I.e. Yuri is a power bottom)

 

[Naraku4656]

if network censorship allows it Yuri on ice.....Free! came and went and theres no intent to make any of the boys fuck

 

 

 

Yuri on ice is practically there already considering the main characters have kissed and the uke(weirdly enough) is being the physically dominant one (I.e. Yuri is a power bottom)

 

 

doesn't surprise me that the one with glasses isn't the top. the one with glasses is never the top. WHY AREN'T THE ONES WITH GLASSES EVER THE TOP ANIME MAKERS. YOU GLASSISTS

[mochi]

doesn't surprise me that the one with glasses isn't the top. the one with glasses is never the top. WHY AREN'T THE ONES WITH GLASSES EVER THE TOP ANIME MAKERS. YOU GLASSISTS

 

 

he may not be the top but considering ep 8's preview shows him force Victor into a Kiss by yanking his tie he's apperently the dominant one in their dynamic, which is more than most bottoms in yaoi anime get to be

 

[Naraku4656]

"anime was a mistake" - Barack Obama. also that sounds pretty hard for what seems like a daytime show

[mochi]

"anime was a mistake" - Barack Obama. also that sounds pretty hard for what seems like a daytime show

 

apperently Funimation's dub has made some of the lines more blatant

 

 

such as removing refferences to either guy having had girlfriends(Victor has, while Yuri's never been with a woman as anything other than a friend), and changing an already questionable line from Yuri saying that "Victor's got so much sex appeal he could even get men pregnant" to "he's so sexy I feel like I'm going to get pregnant" I.e. they made it pretty damn obvious that Yuri wants the D

 

[Naraku4656]

so they gonna show them fucking or not cus i don't got all day

[ben0119]

it's the first decent shonen-ai series to come out in quite a while.....there've been others, like junjou Romantica (which is horrible and full of rape) Love stage (which wasn't completely awful but was predictable...also the author has a weird relationship with her brother,

namely she created a character based on(and in the anime, voiced by) him and drew a yaoi doujin of him getting effed in the a)

, and Super lovers.....which is actually borderline shota based on what I've been told

 

 

basically it's the first non-creepy shonen-ai series of this new cycle of shows

But Mochi, I thought you said there were no good animes featuring gay characters and romances.  So how could this be the first good one to come out in a while if every other show was crappy and/or homophobic?

[ben0119]

Yuri reffers to Lesbian romance, buuuuut the show is a Yaoi show so

 

also it's awesome and I hope Toonami gets it

 

 

I know they won't though, Toonami never picks up any shows I want, at least not anymore anyway

TOONAMI WON'T GET IT BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL A BUNCH OF HOMOPHOBES!!!!!

 

Naw, they won't get it because it's an action-less, slice of life sports anime. 

[Gina Szanboti]

Bumped for Elfie to review it. 

[mochi]

Bumped for Elfie to review it. 

[The1gairon]

Bumped for Elfie to review it. 

 

Oh thanks I was wondering if there was a more fitting place to put my review here!

[The1gairon]

I start my new posts about my reactions to Yuri On Ice!!! These aren’t reviews of each episode, one by one. These will just be overall thoughts on a batch of episodes whenever I get to see them, and whenever I get the chance to write about them. By now I have seen the first 4 episodes and yes, because I am online non-stop for my whole waking life, I AM in on the memes, and I AM in on the big twist that occurs near the end of the anime, and what the story and especially the end credit sequence keeps foreshadowing. So you won’t get a big ol “OH MY GOD THAT’S GENIUS!IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND I DIDN’T EVEN SEE IT COMING! THIS SHOW IS AMAZING ANG GROUND-BREAKING AND GREAT WRITING! GAYNESS! LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!! INTERNATIONAL APPEAL OHMYGODMUSTTALKABOUT ON ALLLL THE INTERNETS!!!!” reaction from me come Episode like 8 or 9 or whatever. I follow an anime blog that discussed, in detail, everything that happened along with stills from each episode even though I only skimmed those posts. I am spoiled on like 70% of everything in it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t bring up more surprising stuff I found here! This is coming from a male cynic who has been convinced that he is straight, but is recently having second thoughts on that, so maybe actually watching this will give me another perspective.

 

There WILL be spoilers in this write-up, and in following write-ups in this series.

 

Why did it take me this long to get around to watching only 12 episodes of something?  Well, aside from the more sensible reason of not having enough time over my then-already-packed season schedule, I saw how the hype unexpectedly blew out of proportion,… and admittedly that kinda made me…… hate Yuri On Ice on principle, and I wanted to wait until the popularity died down to see it. This isn’t just a gripe I have with anime. It’s something I hate about ANYTHING that gets popular. I don’t feel like my feelings matter toward something if everyone else feels the same way and already capitalized on it. I wait 3 weeks or so after a blockbuster is released in theaters before seeing it myself because I abhor crowds.  I roll my eyes whenever I see one thing getting mentioned on social media for the umpteenth time (I GET it!!! STOP REPEATING IT TO ME!!). I’m not a gamer so I get frustrated whenever I see a character make a debut on a new game and become popular because I know I don’t share their feelings.  I try to stay away from politics, especially in 2016-2017, yet the media that does become popular all try to start a new trend that reaches the headlines.  That last part I’m fine with, until I go back online and just wonder if all the fans posting ONLY YOI Tumblr gifs all day have turned into wackos.  Now I calmed down a bit, and am going to try and understand why all those fans felt the way they felt those months ago. 

 

Yuri On Ice in the first second in, already shows that it’s going “to make history” by being totally ambitious and VERY risky for the Japanese anime industry. It’s headed by a female director who created Michitko and Hatchin, who directed A Woman Called Fujiko Mine, and who worked with Shinichiro Watanabe as an episode director on his shows.  It showcases her obsession with figure-skating, and of course the only way to do that is to make it a sports anime, and hey, while we’re at it, let’s make all the main characters gorgeous, athletic young men!  She pushes relatively small Studio MAPPA to the brink by having them animate full ice-skating sequences all on one’s or two’s, on a TV budget!!  The team wants to make this appeal to an international audience by making most of the main cast of internatioonal origin themselves, in one of the least diverse countries in the world!  And yes, it finally features main characters that aren’t plain straight, in a country that only really writes gay/lesbian/other traits for 1.) villains, or 2.) side characters who get killed off.  The narrative does a great job at presenting Viktor as just another of those protagonists who likes to get close to others by being a natural romantic, and yes the anime frames everything with yaoi subtext like the tired trickery from other female-targeted anime like Free!! or Kuroko No Basket, until the twist reveals that it’s NOT subtext, and that Viktor, and even Yuri, are both not only gay (well, technically Viktor is bi), but form a relationship! The anime isn’t just about ice-skating! It’s about the formation of a gay relationship!

 

I’m not sure I can warm up to the opening.  The animation is some of the most fluid I seen on a TV opening sequence, but it feels like it’s a bit pompous, as if to say “yeah, WE’RE the SHIT, and we know you already agree! BASK IN THE GLORY THAT IS ONLY US!”.  The song “History Maker” sounds a bit too Disney or fantasy-dreamlike for my tastes. I am warmed up a bit more toward the very inventive ED which is composed of, and I am not just exaggerating here, Instagram posts scrolling up on the screen (commercial placement- please pay us!).  They’re still hand-drawn, but the characters here in the photos, most of whom you haven’t even met by this point, all pose in ways real people would appear in selfies, and it cements just how grounded everything in the story is. Plus, the ED beautifully hints that there is something more to Yuri than he lets on… and possibly more than even HE realizes about himself. A good part of his struggle is that he underestimates just how much potential he has, and dear Viktor is there to be patient and awaken that side of him (once more ).

 

This brings me to the characters themselves. I really love all the boys because they’re artists, and I am one too, abite in a different field. 5 minutes in, and I am ON BOARD with the star. Josh Grelle is already one of my fav anime actors for this type of character because he can play wimps that don’t at all seem pathetic and have depth to them. Yuri is, aside from his profession, ME. End of Episode 1, he’s basically me at all hours of the day: tired, in a slump, depressed after facing a blow to his work, loving his cosy family, and weighs more than he feels he should, but is still driven to do what he believes is right. Everything he does comes from what he finds emotionally beautiful.  How he wound up this far in a profession that more fits confident, alpha-male attitudes is beyond me.  He’s nervous almost all the time, which makes him easy to root for. My goodness, his old school crush (she’s VERY cute too) not only got married to a much more confident classmate but in his absence on the competitions they had triplets! He doesn’t seem to phased by this, as he’s on great terms with her whole family, and again that brings me mentioning again how real the characters in this show feel.

 

Viktor on the other hand, I have more reservations with. He’s supposed to be a flawless idol athlete, but that’s to his detriment. He’s TOO perfect, meaning I cannot identify with him. Does he himself have real problems just like Yuri’s problems the anime goes out of its way to emphasize?? Sure, he’s facing retirement at the ripe, old, experienced, withered, senior age of …… 27 (*ahem*)… and has to decide what to do with this life, but he makes that decision way early in the show and thus he becomes an ancillary character to Yuri instead of playing on a level field. Viktor is gorgeous, friendly, eternally calm, never yells, has a dreamy air about him, is all knowledgable, forgetful, doesn’t mind that he moves to another country every few months on his own decisions, and doesn’t care to dwell on problems, … traits that I assumed all athletes have. In fact, the male ice-skaters in this show besides Yuri and Yurio all seem to be those kind of jocks in high school I hated.  The ones who never complain, are way more perfect than I, have their own cars, have their life in their own hands, and who never think twice about the littler guys (I loathed PE). The difference with Viktor is that he DOES care about Yuri, and honestly, him moving to Japan out of the blue to help out a fan he never before met, all because he was inspired by a viral video of Yuri performing on the ice, is so adorably sweet, and is what really makes me want to see how his somewhat by-the-numbers character evolves. He constantly acts in a very smug, mysterious tone, as if he’s hiding a motive that makes the rest of the cast perplexed (because he DOES have a hidden motivation!). But I want him to just out and SAY it to Yuri, if they’re so goddamn close!  Quit talking in Mr. Miyagi philosophies!

 

The last thing I’ll talk about here for now is the editing. The pacing in this show is extremely fast, which is expected for a 12-episode anime not based on an existing franchise and an original story with new characters, but I often wonder if I’m getting too old to even 100% enjoy what I have a hobby with.  I am not at all familiar with how ice-skating competitions work, and the show tries to explain them to me, but they list the rules so fast that I can’t remember 90% of what they just told me.  The animation here is GREAT, and it serves the pacing well by using a mix of chibi-cartoonish drawings for the comedic moments, and hard takes for the more serious moments. Movements are all fluid and perfect to each characters’ personality. The anime shows only the more essential moments that drive the story and never pause for small talk or empty pauses.  A key scene could go one for nary a second! With all this stuff packed in 22 minutes each week, it’s no wonder fans had so much to say about it online, and why there were so many theories and hints that they discovered peppered through the show regarding the twist. It’s clearly tailored toward the sharpest of viewers who are engrained in this social media era, which brings me back to the Instagram ending as I mentioned. Characters often use smart phones through the anime, which play vital parts of the story. Do figure-skaters use them like this all the time??

 

That’s it for now. More will come when I continue with the anime.

[DragonSinger]

I'll wait for you to get further along to make any episode comments, but I can say that ice skaters do get on instagram like it's shown on the show. They post clips of them training, the food they try at the different countries they visit, and sightseeing at big landmarks. This show went all out in being informative about the skating world, and it even shows in the tiniest touches. Oh, I will also comment about the OP because I remember my reaction to first seeing it. It gave me confidence that Yuri on Ice was gonna go all out, and I really did like that sort of gumption because it fits an athlete's mentality.

[The1gairon]

My question was more on the assumption that they could have restrictions on their use of smart phones imposed onto them by their contracts or companies they work for. That;s all.

[Gina Szanboti]

I just read today that Denis Ten, who was the inspiration for Otabek Altin in Yuuri on Ice, was stabbed to death in Almaty, Khazakstan today (yesterday? I don't know from time zones). Really senseless death. He got into a confrontation with someone stealing the mirrors on his car and they stabbed him and left him for dead. By the time anyone found him, he'd lost too much blood.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/19/sport/denis-ten-olympic-figure-skater-stabbed-to-death-spt-intl/index.html

RIP Denis.

[Gina Szanboti]

I feel kinda ghoulish saying this, but this tweet and the comments are kinda eerie now.

"Otabek was robbed!" 

[Gina Szanboti]

Kubo Mitsurou (co-creator of YoI) posted this in remembrance.  What a beautiful portrait. T.T  (what, are we not allowed to cry around here?  Not one emoticon for tears. )