xeyra

One could cut something in that jawline. Dayum.

This is now my default reaction to everything Zuzu does. Thanks twitter for providing the goods!

Also, goddammit Yuzu, took you how many years to figure out you shouldn't overtrain?

Thank you! Oh this kid, he is so amusingly honest and filter-less sometimes.

Oh I'm going to need the details on this.

Waking up to Zuzu living in other people's SNS again. Yay! Vincent finally meeting his idol and fanboying. And Zuzu looks healthy and rested and... mushroom-y.

I only watched juniors last season during Jr. Worlds so I didn't have the opportunity to grow attached to any. But if I end up following the Junior circuit from the beginning...... I mean, I'm already rooting for Rika because, well, 3A3T.

His extensions! His lines! His landings! Gorgeous.

This one is going to be a doozy.

I think I need a compilation of Yuzu's hairstyles because I've no idea which one I prefer. He looks nice with this one but I want to mess it up some and make it a little wilder. Oh the Yuzumojis provide good examples. I think this may be my favorite:

What I noticed most, though, was how much slower Vincent was comparatively, and this was a Yuzu who regularly ran out of steam by the end of his FS. It's still early season, though, he'll work on his stamina. Edit: And yeah, there are certain similarities, which go beyond the music cut and element timing/placement as well, but it's not a downright copy so I don't think they're in need of a lynching. Yet.

More stunning Anna pictures:

Oh, poor Koshiro. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Errr. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Romeo is a character that belongs to Yuzu. I mean, I'll fight you on that because I loved the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, okay!?

There's a translation of this at the twitter.

Deleted. Wrong place!

The lift at 3:50, OMG! And their SBS spins were amazing. I hadn't actually seen that V/M performance. To be honest, I'm too new to FS and last season I didn't really follow Ice Dance, aside from a couple of performances here and there and the winners at Worlds. I think I'll try to remedy that this coming season, even though I'll understand nothing of the way it's scored, which might help me appreciate it a lot more.

Well, it's not in this section probably because Gabby is Canadian.

Well, aside from the ITA Eurosport boys... @kaeryth, what did they say about Han Yan's R+J last season, though?

The honest truth? I personally don't think anyone who will be judging or officially commentating on it will care. Some judges who might have seen RJ1 and happen to judge Vincent's FS at some competition might be reminded and make comparisons in their mind, but it won't really make much of a difference. He'll be scored according to what he brings on the table, and whether he'll improve on what he has at this point in time (remember he is already attempting 5 quads in July! This is absolutely crazy, to be honest, even if he URs quite a bit) we will have to see, like with everyone whose early season programs are rather rough.

Truth is, there are moments in a music theme that do invite certain elements, either step sequences or jumps or spins, and since Vincent's cut is so, so similar to Yuzu's, inevitably the elements would have to be placed at exactly the same moments. And his team didn't attempt to escape this. As a counter example, this is why I was so pleasantly surprised when Shoma placed a spin where I've read people expected a step sequence in his Winter SP, because he bucked the 'trend' of what the music was calling for (and it works! so kudos to Higuchi and her choreography). On the other hand, I am still not entirely sold on the first spin timing in Yuzu's Chopin 3.0, but we'll have to wait and see if he takes as long to set up the 4Lo in a proper rink as he had to in FaOI, which might change the build in to the spin better.

I think what invites more comparisons from Yuzu's fans is that the cut of Vincent's RJ, outside of the first 30s or so, is basically the same, up to including Escape at the end, which is not a theme from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. The RJ cuts in Han Yan's or Marin Honda's programs last season didn't invite the same comparisons because they were different music cuts, even if they all included Kissing You. More than that, the structure of Vincent's FS is also very similar, with some elements like spins, choreo/step sequences and jumps placed in very similar moments in the music. This invites the comparison even further. I noticed his spread eagle sequence (which is lovely, actually) was placed exactly where Yuzu did his long Ina Bauer, but that music highlight does invite these kind of wow elements. I'm sure a lot of non-Yuzu fans will not really care, though, and some who saw the 2012 Romeo may not remember it enough to compare to this 2017 Romeo. Also others will probably go out of their way to say that it's totally different, which is not really true; come on, Vincent IS a fanboy and it shows. Also, poor kid was super nervous and running out of steam for his ambitious 5-quad program. Don't hold his poor interpretation against him too much yet; this was his first outing with the FS, after all. As for scoring, do remember this was an USA competition, with USA judges, some of which are probably not ISU sanctioned, so let's not spend that much time discussing and dissecting it now and wait for his international senior debut to think about his PCS or GOEs. US Nationals with US judges also gave Nathan 91 PCS for his FS, which just goes to show you need to wait for international judging for a more accurate assessment of a skater (or a more accurate assessment of politics, whatever one prefers). I do know as a Yuzu fan that I'll appreciate Vincent's SP more than his FS because it'll be hard, due to the very similar music cut and element placement and even some choreographic touches here and there, to not think about Yuzu's RJ1. If Vincent and his team had gone with a different cut of the music, it would have been different because I have had no issues appreciating other RJ versions (it's not like Yuzu owns RJ... it's a warhorse for a reason), but using Escape at the end is a little