axelsandwich

Are......are you actually a cactus? am I missing something LOL Thank you for all your hard work this year, especially the map and the swan project, it was an absolute delight to read your reports and live vicariously through your wonderful ACI experience ( : And thanks to the entire PH team of admins and mods that keep this place running, organising viewing parties and reaction threads, it's an amazing and generous act of love for Yuzu and skating in general to do so and I am very, very grateful and hope to give back also, in any way I can Happy New Year from the future where it's already 3PM on 1 Jan 2018 lol ;;; may this year be healthy, happy and triumphant for all (for this guy in particular ---> )

Interesting, I don't feel like Yuzu vs Shoma will be the dominant narrative at all, going into PC. This entire season's media narrative has been ruled by a general feeling of uncertainty because of so many 'unknown quantities', missing top skaters and a sense that even the current 'leaders' are yet to deliver completely triumphant programs. There really hasn't been enough material to base a huge 'rivalry' narrative between Yuzu and any skater and last season is 'old' news in the media cycle by now. JP media is the only one that may do so, but their approach is to be quite generalist or focused on each individual skater at a time. I actually think the media will kind of balance out going into PC, much like WC17 because we have the US Nats and the US Olympic media machine in general for major Nathan hype (especially if Nathan can deliver his planned content at US Nats), the winner of Euros will get attention (Javi, or Mikhail who will get a small avalanche if he manages to upset), the winner of 4CC will also have buzz (Shoma, I expect, unless Patrick/Boyang go and win, which again will be quite a newsworthy media story). There's not enough about Yuzu this season for the 'official' Olympic channels/intl channels to justify putting the spotlight solely on him + another - the intl media will likely concentrate on this season's results so there's no way Nathan will be cast off as a 'potential spoiler' to focus on Shoma vs Yuzu lol - more likely the focus will be on Nathan vs Shoma if anything, with a blazing asterisk on Yuzu's name. Yuzu's in an unique position because he's in complete stealth mode but at the same time, it's impossible for the media to simply ignore his presence since he sells headlines and still holds the major 'key cards' (WRs, WC) unless a WR gets broken before PC. After what happened at WC, I think the usual commentators may be less ready to write him off completely, but they simply don't have enough content to justify anything more unless his team releases new info. So I think he'll go into PC under the media radar in that I doubt many media will have him as the 'favourite' to win even if many will likely acknowledge he's got the capability and is pretty much the darkest horse, which is a position that will - hopefully - fire him up. Essentially, very similar to Yuna's situation. We will, however, see a huge media tide shift depending on what happens at the SP. It'll definitely become a '#1 vs #2' thing at least via official channels and they'll drag in past comps, but you can bet that as long as their own skaters have a fighting chance, US/Canadian/JP media won't abandon their own either. (WC is kind of a way for whoever wins the OGM to 'solidify' their win so it'll be interesting what happens there too).

Heh. I didn’t notice the first time but he yolo’d the 3T in the EX - he actually practiced the 3F and was like ‘I should’ve done the one I practiced’ lol wyd yuzu (keeping to the theme of 4CC)

Lol don’t apologise, that means you actually have a life : P

Did they? The only time I remember that happened was after his EX at 4CC I think, when he was bemoaning the fact that it had been awful, and the cameraman suggested not enough practice of his EX and he was like ‘I PRACTICED PROPERLY’ in this high, indignant voice

/gasp Please JP media give us ALL the unreleased footage angles from media day ;;

Ohh what a great explanation on the reddit post. Now if only we can just condense that into a workable definition...but it’s an emotion so examples of where you feel it are much more effective explanations (the most vivid one that always comes to mind: Mao describing her feelings immediately after silver at Vancouver ;;;;; ) re: Yamada’s message to Tsuzuki - I took it to mean he shouldn’t reject her request to come to Sendai since there’s no reference to him teaching Yuzu yet (granted could be subtext/implied) so the alt translation surprised me a bit. I guess it could also mean ‘don’t ruin his unique expressiveness/special qualities’ if you take the other reading.

Ah...not unexpected but sad all the same ;;

lol same -- sometimes discovering a hidden 'outtake' gem is the best surprise (I'm sure Yuzu's absence means they've had to do a bit of a scour for new material since JP magazines seem to be determined to continue their Yuzu features). Gahhh, what I wouldn't give for their harddrives T__T

ahhhhh... now please go sloooowly Yuzu, don’t do the whole ‘recovered quads in 2 days’ thing out of kuyashii also his history of right ankle issues makes more sense now, if he had some sort of fracture(?) as a child

finally we are being watered slightly lmao (also, yuzuru 'never goes out except to the ice rink' hanyu talking about a bond with canada in general, I'm giggling)

Thanks for sharing! Several really interesting things articulated in here. I remember BOrser saying in a CBC pre-Sochi(?) docu that it took him more than a decade before he could watch his silver medal performances - I think it’s definitely true that the kuyashii is greater the closer you are to the gold medal. Yuzu is one of the rare guys whose first response to gold was kuyashii lol and clearly continued to be a caveat for him after. Which is quite powerful because it suggests there wasn’t any doubt he COULD win the gold and that he was focused at least equally as much on the way he won. That level of perfectionism saddens me a bit only because I feel like it means he is rarely satisfied with himself but it’s probably also what spurs him to keep improving so

@gladi, thank you so much for this gorgeous piece of work (and to all your quality inspectors and emotional supporters). I hope he unfurled all 7m of it with the biggest smile on his face (I see my art lol! laksjdsa what a lovely surprise to be able to spot it)

I hope it'll ignite Yuzu's kuyashii instead of give him pressure to claim the titles back. I know the World Standings basically mean nothing but losing these titles due to being unable to defend must annoy him (to...say the least....)

Nobu saying Yuzu can recover 2 types of quads well within a week even if he rests so the key thing is whether he can recover his fitness... hm. A bit more specific than just saying he can recover quads in two days like he did before, but I guess we'll just have to take whatever reassurances we can

Just said this on Twitter but this was a good move and honestly is the state in which he's the most dangerous. Unlike Yuzu, I totally expect Shoma to be clean if he goes back to his old layout, he seems the type to be very reliable and secure when he's in comfortable territory. Also, given the way they're awarding PCS now and given the impression Shoma gives off when he skates cleanly, I think a clean Shoma even with his old layout will pose a huge danger to Yuzu if he's anything less than perfect. Basically it's just imperative that Yuzu skate a clean program =__=;;;;;;; Now if only Yuzu will reveal his Olys layout but I don't....expect him to. sigh.

I think Mitsuki - being Junior JNats Champ - was obliged to skate to Shoma's bc he's Senior JNats Champ like Rika for Satton. Blocked from his fanboy goals by his own success lmao poor boy Also lmao at the Figure Skate Final Magazine cover.......I see JP media really trying to make CoR content stretch for another 2 months...

I heard that layout wasn't formally his but just speculation by a fan? (which makes sense because he withdrew before they began the registration process so why would they send his layout over). I feel like if he's going to take the 4Lz out, he wouldn't open with a 3Lz, he may go back to the media day Seimei reveal layout (with only 4Lo and 1 x 3A...) bc that would be a very...uh Wakaba thing to open w a low value jump in 1st half lol

JSF REALLY JUST DID THAT akdjdlskfndk

It’s Yuzu. Unless he - god forbid - injures himself further, he won’t go back to his old layouts. ‘Playing safe’ for him rn is likely going back to his 4 quad Helsinki layout. ‘Medium safe’ is if he’ll do his adapted 5 quad layout w/o 4Lz and ‘high risk’ is if he’ll keep pushing for the 4Lz. As much as I believe he wants the gold, Sochi has proved his ideal skate wins out. I don’t believe he’d play conservative or sacrifice his ideal purely in order to win - he’s got his ‘imperfect’ gold already. And we’ve seen an easier layout won’t necessarily be clean

Merry Christmas to our lovely satellites from Australia aka the future I’m heading to the Great Ocean Road with my family in Melbourne so I’ll be translating parts of the Asahi feature on Yuzu in this Twitter thread during our drive (click through to expand for more) My gift to you all (I love reading the feature too) ( :

There’s so much interesting content here, I assume some of it must be from Aoi Honoo (I bought the 2nd one but haven’t started reading) but it’s nice to have it all visually represented. Perhaps @gladi or Iron Klaus might be translating the whole thing (?) but I’ll try and summarise the most interesting passages over the next few days ( : I mean this in the best way (bc I know worrying is sometimes how I care about things as well) but I do hope you will be able to find some calm and that it’s hopefully not a crippling type of worry or anxiety. We can’t do anything except believe in him, especially now that the dice has all truly fallen, and send him positive vibes, whatever happens will happen ( :

Ahaha thank you, I forgot about this when black!Seimei became impossible. I would die a thousand deaths if he ever did anything remotely close to eyeliner, let alone red

Well if the burial is ending, maybe it also means time for new life?? (albeit as zombies)