KatjaThera

I'd like pink LGC if it was a hot pink or a raspberry pink. That shade is too tame for LGC, IMO (and now I'm tempted to try making that myself when I get back home lol)

No, he didn't skip any practices at last year's ACI. I think it's actually better to take advantage of all available practice time at a competition, because it helps them get to know the ice condition really well and get used to it. It'd only be to hide his condition, I think, if he did any practicing at TCC. Which I'm not sure is necessary at ACI, since he doesn't have that great competition.

They're not thick enough, IMO. He's a figure skater, thick thighs are kind of necessary and definitely under-drawn lol And the whole bike seems to be Seimei colors. That's cool! About ACI, I think there is a point in staying at a hotel. IMO, it has to do with competition routine, which might be harder to get into if he - and everyone else at TCC - slept in their own beds. Sleeping at home is practice routine: practice hard, then go home, rest, study, relax. Competition routine I think is quite different and a non-descript hotel room is probably better for keeping the focus on the competition. But on Saturday when it's all over, they can each go and have dinner and sleep at home, which will definitely be a plus compared to long flights and so on. At the same time, maybe it won't bother them that much and they will choose to stay home... I can imagine Brian, after his traveling - Russian test skates this week - might actually prefer staying at home. Though if everyone is staying at the hotel, he'd probably stay with them anyway. If so, they could always meet at the hotel and then travel together. Or relatively together, since Yuzu often has his own, separate transportation, often for security reasons. Anyway, regardless of where they're staying, I hope nobody chases after Yuzu's car again this year and they leave him alone as much as possible off the ice...

It seems Toshi had a dinner show yesterday and performed both Crystal Memories and Masquerade, so I'm guessing he probably mentioned working with Yuzu and then did a Yuzu call, which he then also took to twitter lol Very Toshi-like (I hope we'll some day get a Sumire-gumi Yoshiki & Toshi MC where they talk about Yuzu and Yoshiki takes advantage to play some Yuzu music on the piano to the delighted screams of a huge arena - maybe Chopin or even Masquerade - and my fandom collision will be complete lol)

Yuzu is being good to us because of no media day, I guess... I still wonder if we really won't get any program announcement/confirmation before ACI... there's pretty much only next week left...

What bothers me, personally, the most about the pink costume is how half-hearted it is. If they'd tried harder, it might have been... something. They could have gone for a French aristocrat over the top look, a la some parts of Visual Kei, but like this it's like they went "Hmm that pink is a bit simple, let's slap something on..." and because of lack of time, they used a web tutorial, cropped up something with a stencil and a glue gun, colored it (I could swear I saw a video tutorial that looked pretty similar to that!) and then glued it to the costume and voila. And then to make it worse, they did that hair... Sometimes I really wonder what Japanese companies have in mind when doing their promo stuff with him... And we'd had hopes for Ghana, too, after the fluff we got last year... (although before that they were kind of hit and miss, again...) ETA: That said, the costume itself is still not as bad as the white Xylitol, IMO. The pose makes it look worse than it is, because his face doesn't really look like him and the hair is blah, but the costume by itself isn't as bad, to me...

OMG, I want those with the messages... I might just brave the pains of getting an EMS delivery for these... (and then spend all winter making Ghana hot chocolate...)

Thanks for the feedback! I tried that, but it looked a bit too crowded, especially with the text a bit bigger. So I actually condensed the quote into something shorter and increased the text size. I think the overall message is still the same... Result under spoiler again

If it's like the post-Olympic ones, I think it's a pre-order. Back then they did a pre-order precisely so they would know how many people wanted them, so they could make enough. The idea was for anyone who wants one to be able to get it, and not be a limited item. I'm too sleepy for Japanese now, but I'd suspect it's the same. And that the 2 sets is simply to get a discount for buying 2 at once... but hopefully someone will confirm soon. It's a different watch, so I think they're new.... and slightly photoshopped again, maybe? (the tiny zit on his forehead isn't really visible anymore )

I watched yesterday the two post-Oly press conferences where he talked about this. The one subbed that's been on twitter is the Japanese press one, while I had fresher in mind the foreign corespondents one. Both need a bit of context, though, it's hard to use just one sentence, so I'm not sure yet which to pick... Also, Yuzu is very adamant that this is just his view, which I think is also necessary to make clear, just not to give people an excuse to attack him again. (Even though his view should be law in this particular case... IMO ) I'll watch again and write them down and see how it would work. I'm also thinking of the images to use... initially I was thinking of some of those frame by frame jump pictures, but now I think take off, mid-jump and landing, maybe as silhouettes, if I could make them look good, could be enough... I have several ideas actually, including the part where he specifically mentioned quad axel and quints... if you like, we could PM about it, though in case other fans might want to join in coordinating, I left this reply here ^_^ ETA: The result of my playing today, under spoiler because it's sort of OT:

And is this the first day in quite a while when we had nothing new Yuzu?? Is he going to let us dry out before flooding us at ACI? (I just got a mail from Booking reminding me I check into my hotel in 14 days and my reaction was along the lines of this: Only 14 days?! )

I would love that, but it could be harder to get others on board, given how some seem to be allergic to all things Yuzu. But I'm now actually tempted to make a banner with that quote of his for ACI...

I wonder how the ISU might react if fans started bringing protest banners alongside their supporting skaters banners. Not agressive stuff as I'm not a fan of those, but something like "The rules aren't problem, it's how they're applied!" or "FS fans don't want programs to be separated in artistic and technical". Or even "FS fans aren't filthy rich. Stop taking advantage of fans wanting to support their favorite drivers!" re: increased prices. Because it seems they don't care about what fans think otherwise, maybe something like this wouldn't give them much of a choice? (Cameras would pick them up eventually...) And to think I'm not even a fan of protests, but this is just so ridiculous...

I'm not sure those are the first examples I'd think of as programs for which Yuzu is not suited. I have Man of La Mancha as the Javi version too well imprinted in my mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yuzu could make it work, because the subject of it isn't really one he's not familiar with. I can't really speak of the others as I'm not sure which Russian programs you mean and I haven't watched or listened to Nemesis enough to get an impression. What I think Yuzu is not suited to is comedy programs. He could maybe make them work, because he is a funny guy, but I don't think it would really be him. Because while he is funny, he's not really goofy and his sense of humor isn't really a typical one lol (or at least so it seems at times). I can't really imagine Yuzu doing Chaplin or a pretend-drunk program a la Pirates of the Carribean or any other funny program I can think of. Also, I think skating tends to be more an expression of the darker side of him, that he doesn't really get to express otherwise, which might be why more serious programs fit him more - and why even apparently fun programs like Zankoku tenshi turn really intense and kind of dark with him. That said, I also kind of hope he doesn't take on any of the more popular modern songs, because a lot of them are so... gray and depressing without really appearing to be deep enough for him. And since there are confessions going around, I have one of my own

My guess is after FaOI. We know he was in Japan for a while after FaOI, he probably did the 24H TV filming then, too. It's so good to see again proof of what a good shape he was in even before returning to Toronto. The 4Ts at FaOI were so effortless and most 3As were gorgeous, too. And even 4Lz and the supposed 4F looked more like 'almost there!' than 'that needs a lot of work, still...' For clean landing at least (no idea about edges in the flip).

Regarding the torch, it would make sense if he did it, IMO. He was dubbed the star of Sendai's hope (although Sendai is just one small part of Tohoku) and he's done so much for the affected areas, in many ways dedicating his life and career to it. And also suffered quite a bit for it, too. On top of that, the Olympic Medal having been inspired - at least partly - by him is another thing. I don't think many Summer athletes would have an issue with it - I believe there have been plenty of Summer athletes who have admitted to being inspired by his winning against the odds in Pyeongchang - but some of their fans might. I do think Yuzu is likely to refuse, unless they wrap it up in a way where refusing would go against everything he's done so far. I think Yuzu AND a group of young, up and coming athletes from Tohoku, or maybe even some other athletes who are from there and were also affected - surely there must be some - would probably work best and just do it all together. Just the way the disaster brought people together to help recover from it, several athletes coming together to light the Olympic flame would also be nicely symbolic. But yes, we probably won't know until then lol

If they don't know that by now, they haven't done their homework properly I'm not sure about the Chinese branch - which I think already exists according to their website - but I think Japanese companies treasure the moment of a big announcement too much to spoil it by test-leaking stuff.

Honestly, with all the China stuff lately, it wouldn't surprise me... but I still think it's more likely he'll decide depending on how this season goes... Currently, I tend to think that if he stays injury-free this season - proving to himself that it is possible to do so - he'll start preparing for Beijing. I would find it weird, though, if this turns out to be a deal with just Citizen China... given that Citizen is a Japanese brand... Something like Kose makes sense, but a deal with just the Chinese branch of a Japanese company would be weird, IMO. And if it's not just the Chinese branch, the Japanese branch will probably not be happy about the leak... (even if it is just the Chinese branch, they might not be happy altogether...)

Wasn't that Junhwan's thing first? Then Yuzu did it in Pyeongchang to copy him? Either way, that looks really fun lol I wonder if they have Fun Fridays or so. Like Brian once telling that story about how everyone started learning hydroblading and they got Yuzu into it, too lol

Personally I think if Yuzu's team were to approach Prince' management, they could probably find common ground, but it's more complicated when it comes to publishing dvds. Plus the DVD isn't really produced by Yuzu and his team, so it wasn't them who had to do the negotiating. Given that the DVD/Blu-ray are expensive enough already, it was probably just the better and easier solution to leave LGC out. (But here's to hoping we might see it again some day, even so!)

Time of Evolution DVD & Blu-ray out on September 25th But the video isn't working?

That would be awesome! The first DVD was more than just a collection of his programs, too, there were interesting interview bits and behind the scenes footage! Including those family videos of baby Yuzu's early competitions!

I'm not sure if it's the same one, but there was an ojiichan obaachan bathclin add last year or so as well. But it didn't receive many reactions then, I think... or at least I didn't see it mentioned much at that time.

I'm thinking Flamenco on Ice might have been a bit of a helping hand from Yuzu (though that's just my speculation). I don't think he'll do ROI until after he retires, because it's in the middle of the season. Although this year the ROI dates at least don't overlap with Yuzu competitions lol But also, I don't think Javi really needs Yuzu's help in Spain. Spanish people are more likely to know Javi or know Yuzu through Javi anyway. They're more likely to care more about Javi than Yuzu, too. Yuzu's presence would only raise the profile internationally and maybe get some Japanese and foreign fans flocking there, but ROI sells pretty well and it's more of a family venture in Spain. I wouldn't be surprised if Yuzu might help with Flamenco on Ice next year, but then again, if he appears in the show, he'll overshadow Javi by default. So maybe not... Maybe he'll give his support in other ways, but not participate, except maybe just once at some point, as special guest or so. I'd love him to, but if he does, I'm sure it'll be very carefully thought out. Oh and Yuzu and Yuna... Sochi Olympic Gala, I think might be the only time, though that's not really an ice show. It's not 100% sure Yuna will continue appearing in ROI, though. It would be nice... Planning to go to the Madrid shows this year, so it'd be amazing to see her.