Forcefield

Lol not sure if that's true or not. For people who have been following FS longer, is Yuzu among the first male skaters to wear tight fitting training gear that's all black - constantly? As in, probably 90% of the time he's skating at a comp that tbh for me it's become his look. Tbh I don't see much male skaters nowadays with the fashion (or maybe confidence) to wear such form-fitting training clothes like he does. Or maybe I'm wrong.

Well, honestly I'm not a big fan of LGC but it is THE program that makes Yuzu channel his inner diva and explore it, along with PW. The biggest thing I'll miss honestly is (if he doesn't use it as an EX), despite how fabulous Seimei or Chopin are, the encores he does during the (JPN) galas and shows to LGC and PW are just on another level (because they are crowd pleasers and allow the audience to almost be part of it -extroverted, I guess.)

I think a whole bunch of people who only watch Olympics, especially the past me, checked out Yuzu's short program Parisen Walkways because it broke wr and were surprised to actually like it because of how far it strayed from their thought about fs and the prejudice on the men's singles, like, "Wow, I didn't know FS could be dynamic and exciting like this." LGC had the potential to make casual viewers take notice. And Yuzu knew it's potential. But I concur, I think Chopin was the smart choice for the masterplan. And perhaps its elegance and flow would also change people's mind and see the beauty in the men's singles too.

Takarazuka is da bomb (and I'm praying they get to do something for the 2020 Olympics). Much as how in the old Japanese stage performances where its all male cast and the more "effeminate" males play female roles (I forgot what it's called, but Yuzu did say once he fit into the latter role), there are females who play male roles in Takarazuka. They even have female admirers (including me). It's so cool to see Yuzu reference them, and other things too of course, that shows his great awareness of his surroundings yet again. I have seen people make comparisons between piano competitions and fs. The parallels he draws here and incorporating it to his bigger picture makes sense too.

So no matter what, Yuzu was going to repeat a SP and FS this season. He had his game plan set: consistency and strong programs he could build on. The only changing factor was, which SP? Since Seimei was a done deal in his head since forever (could have saved me a lot of hand-wringing tbh). I think going with Chopin was the choice that is hardest for fans and fs viewers to accept since its 3-peat, and now I think maybe it was truly a mental thing that they announced it first. There would have been an uproar anyway because there are some ridiculous fs fan standards, but perhaps if he'd gone with LGC some of those disappointed people might have been able to accept it more. Maybe.

Imo, I don't think Yuzu will go with Black Seimei. I love the idea but don't think that he should because black is such an overused color in men's figure skating and Yuzu likes to stand out from the sea. Even during POTO, one thinks of black suits and perhaps red costumes, he went with a Weir-ish mix of black and white with red accents and part of a suit, before changing it (for good reason) to the overall blue one - pretty, but didn't make me think of POTO. For costumes, Yuzu or his designers seems to always be a few steps beyond fans.

XD Well, not all styles of music, but definitely more than most. I do not ever want to see Yuzu do a tango. I feel it'd be the most awkward of awkwards ever and I'd die before I finish it.

mte Tbh, for me I was just mad at myself for not appreciating the program enough for its complexity and fun as I keep being distracted by other *ahem* things that shouldn't matter to the program.

I've been thinking this for some time and, gah, someone finally said it! I appreciate his slower, softer, elegant and emotional EXs from the past few seasons, but for Olympic season as he went with Chopin and Seimei an upbeat (maybe rock) EX will round his repertoire off so well, not to mention it'll show how he can fit different styles of music.

Yuzupon didn't want to say it, but I will I don't think the casual viewer during the Olympics will appreciate the Purple Suit. Costume-wise Chopin is a safer choice. The costume will influence their perception of the program even before he does it. I think costume matters to the performance especially if one is distracting. As a new FS fan when I watched Yuzu in his Purple pants of sin I couldn't concentrate on his program at all because his perfectly rounded b*tt during his performance was too attention grabbing. Excuse me for my moments of shallowness.

I agree with everything but for this part my thoughts Perhaps with all the outcry about overvaluing jumps, this reduction of BV value of quads if it happens is the alternative rather than limiting quads like some people wanted. The juniors turning seniors soon probably are the sacrifice as the system adjusts, but a necessary one. It might even protect them from causing harm to their bodies from the training. Though tbh ISU rules and the field are always changing so even in this era of quads the current crop of senior men pushing the sport are also the guinea pigs. Making the changes now will be good for juniors and younger aspiring skaters. Hanyu's favorite skaters had programs in the 6.0 era, he himself probably had to make adjustments as a novice, and for the better as he came to understand and own the COP era.

Some of the FS rules are vague and frustrating. Some are fine, but not applied correctly. My opinion about this speculation: The bad Reducing quad base but increasing the scale of GOE might make it the new PCS meaning judges will not apply GOE correctly anyway. They'll gift some to favorite skaters, whether its deserved for the program of the day or not. There's no consistency and a lot of favoritism - like some skaters don't put transitions before quads and get away with it while others do not. (Though since FS fans cannot agree on what's qualified as transitions or not and their level of difficulty, perhaps judges are the same.) Just saying, revising rules and not enforcing them or not penalizing judges mean very little change will happen. It's funny that instead of going through all of these revision hoops including increasing GOE and reducing other stuff, just trying to apply the rules as fair as humanly possible and getting up to date with technology and slow-mo is enough for FS fans. But whatever we ask for, ISU don't deliver and instead decide to throw us curveballs with more rules to remember and argue about. The good Eliminating one jump pass(?) and perhaps reducing quad bv although increasing the GOE scale might mean a push for better programs and quality of skating. Maybe as there will be a new era after PC Olympics instead of mediaplaying and attempting to increase interest in Figure Skating with overrated scores and new quad jumps (especially since the novelty will wear off eventually), there's an attempt top go back to drawing viewers through the quality of programs and jumps. Yuzu currently holds the world records and if another skater ever rewrites his records because of revised rules or not, I'll want that program to be just as worthy and as well-rounded - it's just sad otherwise.

Thank you for your insight and for glancing the article over. I should be relieved it's mundane, but I'm not really. I confess I'm very biased against Friday (I'm also a JPN idol fan and like @SparkleSalad said, yes I have trauma lol) and no matter if the gossip from Friday is neutral or not, I just wish his name or image ever wouldn't be printed in their papers (which I know is unlikely because of who is he, but one can wish) since he's too good to ever be touched by such a (insert bad word here) tabloid. Honestly, my opinion, I don't think being a national treasure saves Yuzu (some people still write bad stuff about him, his attitude and his choices), but right now he literally hasn't done anything worthwhile for them to write about unless someone is reaching and connecting gifs or something.

It's nice seeing Yuzu so casual and I think he looks great - except this was probably shot candidly without permission plus I hate Friday! Ugh, they better not be messing with Yuzu! MTE.

Maybe true for some sports. I used to be in soccer and those men are fashionable, or very interested and fashion-conscious despite fashion disasters and an array or dyed hair and styles. Because of that I think Yuzu's casual fashion is okay and I'm kind of relieved? But he is immensely helped by natural good looks and genetics, yea. Also, I have this thing for guys who looks good in jerseys and sweats, and unstyled fluffy hair.

Okay this reminded me: Jeff wasn't present during the media day at TCC. Whatever happened to the interviews with Shae and DWilson?

I'm at work with slow internet and unfortunately I have to be working. I cant watch! *cries a river* Even though I'm not going to ACI, maybe I should take a day off so I don't have to split my concentration like this.

That and he has a competitive mentality and such a focus when he's on ice that I wonder if he will be able to adapt to a student with a more lax attitude or perhaps doesn't have the drive or burn to be the best that he does. The mentality and goals of coach and pupil is important (and it even took Brian and Yuzu a while to reach an understanding it seems).

I took it out from the beginning, but I actually started my paragraph with "I agree, and here's my personal experience". But I deleted it, along with my comparison of the casual viewer and scoring of figure skating with diving. So yea, I overthink too much and took about half an hour to actually write that paragraph.

For the casual viewer, it's not only the jumps or how captivating the program is, aesthetic is important. For someone like me who knows very little, even I am in awe of Yuzu's heavenly look-like-effortless jumps and see the big difference between his and a few others. On screen we might not see speed or distance, and we don't understand skating skills (unless its reeeeeaaallly obvious), but we can still see height and landing of jumps. We see spins and the incorporation of everything into choreography. Casual viewers will not understand things like technique, but it's a competition (especially the Olympics when winning matters) and you bet they will still discuss it and try to understand why so and so is ahead of another that they think is better. People say all the time even when they know nothing about the sport, "I think so and so should have won" and etc. ISU is so backwards and alienates casual viewers with their vague rules and inconsistent judging. Also, Yuna's second place finish in Sochi caused an uproar that even the general public heard it. Let's see what happens this season and in PC.

You said everything I didn't have the right words to say and more. Wow. I love love @yatagarasu's post. I'm not even kidding it made me laugh. I must be masochist because I keep on lurking on GS as well. [edited by yuzuangel: please don't call out users on other platforms here ]

I fear we can expect tumblr to blow up again during the Olympics.

To be honest, to be real honest, I like to hear opinions and thoughts on other skaters who are Hanyu's competitors as well as on Hanyu, as long as it is a critique and not just plain hating. I have a very high threshold though and I don't believe being a fan means I can only flail and gush about the good things. Edit: I think talking about theories and strategies are interesting too. I used to love-love football (soccer) and the amount of flack fans throw at coaches and even some players is unbelievable so maybe I'm just more immune.

Imagine if Shoma beats Patrick there and gets gold, it'll probably fire Yuzu up even more for the season (and maybe he'll consider going for 2-3 more years after PC to get gold at Skate Canada for once, although I imagine it'll be different to win without Patrick there if Patrick does r****).

FS newbie here and I'm asking a real question hoping for answers and not a fanwar, of the squad taking Nathan out of the equation for a bit - Shoma v Boyang. Shoma has advantage of the PCS and Boyang when scoring is fair have the advantage over the TES (but let me know if I'm wrong though). If scoring was more strict would Boyang's higher TES ever put him at an advantage over Shoma who has higher PCS? Or is the gap in their jumps too small and the skating skills too big for Boyang to win?