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I dunno if it's the same band that did the one for Sochi (it's probably a different one) but it was a slow-ish, non-punchy tune like this as well which didn't help me connect with the athletes at all despite the inspiring lyrics... They've got so many great tunes that they use in sports anime all the time so it would've been so much better (to me) if they'd gone along that vein this time. If not one of those, then something like the one Pandalion did just for Hanyu would've been good, too...which come to think of it, is basically like one of those in sports anime, lol.

Oh hey, it's that band Pennywise's in. Guess luring and devouring little kids got old pretty fast. Nice lyrics and melody but a bit of a snoozefest for me. The one they had for Sochi was kind of in the same vein as well, iirc... Something like what GLAY did for Daiya no Ace would've been great... Hanyu's cut didn't fit in with the song. If they put in SEIMEI it'd stick out even worse. xxD I thought they'd put a scene of him crying or beaming at the K&C, or simply smiling while training/practicing (there's a lot of those), or something along those line, but they picked something that would fit better with a more punchy tune so now he looks like the angry dude who refuses to cooperate like everyone else did. >.<

Huh. What with the guy finally skating clean (or cleaner than he has all season) and this being the US Nats, I kind of thought he'd have been scored higher. But if he skates clean again with even higher difficulty in an ISU-sanctioned event where the inflation seems to kind of reflect US, Russia and Japan Nationals scoring, something that I think is *very* telling, then there's really no telling how high it can go, since Chen doesn't have to worry about anything else but landing his jumps. As do a couple of other top men. For him, everything else that isn't there will be automatically imagined into reality by the judges, and for others, everything that's there that shouldn't be will be exactly the things the judges happen to be blind towards. Among these top contenders, there are exactly three who don't require the judges to expend their magical powers like that but they unfortunately make a lot of mistakes in the process of trying to save these judges their magical energy. Either way, I used to think it's not impossible that they'll let someone else win over a clean Hanyu despite it being the most impressive anyone would have ever seen of him to date (even considering all his other impressive achievements in the past)--and I still can't completely rule it out--but I'm more convinced now than I was before that if Hanyu skates everything clean with 6 or 7 quads total* (doesn't matter what those quads are), he'll own the men's event. The judges have already proven that even if they're willing to deem something else that may or may not be far from perfection as almost perfect, they still know true perfection when they see it and have so far been consistently willing to give him what he more or less deserves so long as he gives them no reason to hold back. So, there's no way they'll lowball him if he manages to skate both his progs clean, because they'd already have lowballed him by not giving perfect scores (and we all know perfect scores aren't going to happen no matter how perfect the skate is, not under the IJS), and despite whatever minor deductions they have to give him on principle, what's left is probably enough for him to dominate even a field with more than a few clean skates from other top contenders the way he dreams to do. Also, despite national biases, clean performances from him at the Games are practically what the whole world wants to see because they'd be legend and everyone wants to see that happen at least once in their lifetime. Because if he manages it, it wouldn't just be a Japanese triumph, it'd be a human triumph. So even if everyone roots for their own skaters, anyone who knows and acknowledges all that he has done so far will also be rooting for him just because we all want to experience that triumph. The judges, human as they are, and seeing all that they have in the sport, shouldn't be any different. Those are the heights Hanyu has already reached, even as he is now. If he doesn't skate clean, however, even if it's only one program, and others with higher BV make less mistakes overall, or those with lower BV make none, then and only then will iffy scoring get to determine the outcome, even if objectively, he deserves high enough scores with the mistakes to still win over the rest. If that happens, I don't think it's such a bad thing given he's already known as the guy who won a Games with a messy skate. If he repeats this way, I'm pretty sure this gold won't look as pretty to him as it still would to us fans. >_< So! Here's hoping he skates all his programs clean in at least the individual events because medal color aside, won't a clean Ballade III and a pristine SEIMEI 2.0 be fantastic to see on Olympic ice with the whole world watching? It'd mean so much more than a gold medal, or any medal at all. It'd mean the world viewing the sport itself in a new light and possibly ushering in a golden era in its popularity, with Hanyu as the catalyst. Wouldn't that be grand? It seems kind of far-fetched, I know, but no harm dreaming**. Oh well, here's hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst because Hanyu. Lol. *Nope, despite what Plushenko and others are saying, I really don't think it's smart to do less than 4 quads in his FS because if he did that back at WC last year, with the way things turned out in the SP event, he wouldn't have won. More quads may be more risk but unfortunately, with the way things are these days, they're also insurance should he make mistakes. But hey, he actually got the guy who's always been pushing for more quads to practically beg him to rein them in. That's an accomplishment if I've ever seen one. **Honestly, I think him making mistakes and then YOLOing the way he did at 4CC and WTT in an effort to salvage points to be a likelier scenario. Which would mean whether or not he wins is dependent on how the others do. Both times Chen beat him was because the guy either didn't make any obvious mistakes, or made less of them. Que sera sera, but I'm still going to dream because it's something I at least get to have for sure and it's something well within my control. xD

Far as I can tell, and am concerned, his chances for victories in competitions have always been, and will always be, 50/50. It's the same for this one, with or without the injury. Say he maintains great physical health all throughout the season, there'll just be other issues, mental ones specifically, he'll have to both work through and with, and however he performs in comps up to the Olys, there's always a 50/50 chance he'll excel...or not. Because with him, you can never really tell. After the injury and with this prolonged absence/involuntary rest, his chances remain the same, although with a different dynamic. It's now 50/50 in that even though he's never gone through this particular test before, he has mostly emerged victorious in other tests he'd never gone through before either. I'm guessing this is because when it comes to do or die, there's very little room for anything else his overactive brain might cook up so his focus becomes that much sharper. So there we go, 50/50. We all don't know that, though. Like, what you said would be true if we're talking about a lifetime achievement award but the Oly gold does not symbolize that. So I think that's a tad too early to say, as the Games hasn't happened yet. When it does, the gold will go to the one whom judges think put out the best overall performance in the competiton. That would without a doubt be Hanyu if he manages clean performances. So what I think he deserves, is the chance to have clean performances on that particular stage (hopefully this time around) because those performances are really what he's been working all his life towards. (:

Is this recent? Might you be so kind as to point me towards it? Well, not all of them them are exaggerated AF. Quite a bit of them are grounded in reality (with a bit of dramatization, Hanyu-style) especially the ones labelled seinen or josei. Daiya no Ace is pretty believable to me (although it's labelled as shonen, its storytelling sensibilities strike me as more seinen) but it makes the ace out to be a singular position that the protagonist has to fight for with this other dude, even though they are both equally gifted but in very different ways. I don't follow real life baseball enough to be sure if this ace position being just the one actually reflects real life.

Really? Daaang, if this actually is the case, I wish I'd known. Would've saved myself the effort of all that hard thinking. xD This thing sounds familiar. Is it the one where partners of JOC are allowed to use images of certain athletes on their products for commercial purposes? Well, whatever it is, it sounds entirely plausible. Probable, even. Hard to imagine they wouldn't have taken into account the reaction, though, since that kind of information is pretty obscure, which means the general public wouldn't have known or thought of it, so they must've been bracing themselves either way. I hope they have anyway. Cos they would've be been silly not to. Still, even if people did know about this "Symbol Athlete" thing, they might be curious as to why Hanyu isn't one this time around next, lol. I know I kind of am. Both him and Takanashi, in fact. "Ace" actually describes an athlete who has the potential to challenge for victory, not a champion. It's basically like an ace, or a trump card, in a hand of cards. It doesn't guarantee a victory, no, but it significantly increases a player's chances of it. A baseball team usually has an ace, like Shohei Ohtani was for the Fighters before he moved to MLB. This probably applies to other team sports as well. Logically there can be more than one ace in a team but for some reason, if sports manga were to be believed, they usually only have one. Like, there can be a bunch of gifted players but only one of them gets to be the ace. It's likely different for individual sports though so I think Japan legitimately has two aces in their male figure skating team this time. Then again, with Hanyu's prolonged absence from competition, he may as well be a wild card so you're right in that sense. (I'm not too sure who was considered the ace among male figure skaters in TJ back in 2014 though logically, it would've been Hanyu since the versus narrative after GPF was pretty much him against Chan. Takahashi's knee by then would've only allowed him to try to skate as well as he could to perhaps land on the podium if he were really lucky.)

It is pretty amazing what a goofy-looking, gangly and overly-chatty lisper with too much energy and who always wants to prove himself can mature into. He's a great role model for awkward teens everywhere. xD

I was a little hm? at first myself but thinking harder on it, there's only space enough for 8 there (more would be crowded), with no more than two from a single sport represented on the artwork (with the rest completely unrepresented), so if Hanyu were in, either Uno or Miyahara would have had to go and they're both the reigning national champions so... At this point, Hanyu's a given, so I don't think letting others shine for a bit is a bad thing, considering Hanyu is still in absentia rehabilitating. Methinks JOC considered the possibility of this outcome, probably even expecting the onslaught of snark from Hanyu's legion of fans, and calculated their actions accordingly, because I'm pretty sure they considered each person they put in there carefully. Those aren't a random bunch of winter athletes they picked. Sides, Hanyu's absence would definitely fuel tons of mentions of him in replies so it would be like he wasn't excluded at all, lol. Seriously, though, it's not like Hanyu's hurting for encouragement, anyway. Dude's got plenty of it, "plenty" being a severe understatement. Like he could give truckloads of what he gets to others and still find himself buried in them. He's got his face all over Haneda and supermarkets now, thanks to the collective efforts of ANA and P&G. JWB, despite making blades for at least half the entire population of skaters in the world, are always very vocal and unabashed in their support of him. And these are just a few renowned establishments who very obviously threw their lot in with him. I'm not even going to talk about the kind the support he receives from fans. All in all, he can afford to miss being on a little tweet from JOC. >_< We know JOC fully supports the guy anyway. Plus, this will give his haters less ammunition against him. So I wouldn't say JOC deserve the roasting they seem to be getting. Hard to deny that it's nice to see ardent fans having his back at all times, though. (: I like what @Nerdincool did, lol! It's very...fitting. That's the exact kind of image I have of him in my head heading into the PC Olympics. Oh, and happy 2018! Not sure what it has in store for us but well, we'll find out soon enough.

Lol. So glad I'm not the only one not entirely sure of what he meant back there. I somehow never thought of this and now that you all have mentioned it, it does sound very plausible. I think I'm just gonna go with this. Case closed. For me, that is. While we're at it, mind if I picked your brains about what he said first thing after he sat down in the same k&c session? He said, "Finally I worked hard" (really slowly too, like he was struggling with every word) and I kinda just thought he meant to say his hard work has finally paid off but seeing all the different interpretations of the 10 points he implied he didn't manage to get made me think he could possibly mean something else altogether.

See, it could also be interpreted this way. Though I doubt this was what he meant cos this was after the FS, when his total score was already announced. Maybe he meant he needed 10 more points to the total itself to be really sure of victory because it was still possible he could be overtaken. Whatever he meant, we'll never really know for sure. >_<

I'm feeling generous so I'll believe his vocab is probably quite decent by now. But being able to use them at the drop of a hat requires a person to be speaking the newer language beyond their training environment and watching things that are beyond what's shown on Japanese TV. Speaking of k&c, there are some things he's said during that I have to decipher still to really get. And there are some which I still don't quite get. Like, do you remember that time at the K&C at Helsinki after his FS? The last thing we heard him say to Brian and Tracy before the focus switched was, "But I have to get more ten points, right?" To this day, I'm still not sure if he meant he could still get another 10 points beyond the scores he got that day (like does he seriously think he could do that much better than he did to think that he fell short of perfection by 10 whole points?), or if he meant that he thought he would've gotten 10 points higher than what he did. Lol. I'm leaning more towards the former but the latter doesn't seem impossible either, given the circumstances behind that score.

He does the J->E thing more during press conferences. On-the-spot interviews is when he doesn't have time for that and has to go with whatever pops into his head, "regret" being one of them. "Happy" is another. So any improvements he may have in his English, this is likely where we'll be able to see and hear it most easily.

Based on the way he speaks, I gather he does Japanese to English translation in his head so when he uses "disappointment", in his head it would probably be "gakkari". But "disappointment" has a wider nuance than just that which enables it to also be translated from "kuyashii". I'm guessing that even if he knows it intellectually, he probably isn't confident or comfortable enough with the English language to use it in a way that associates it beyond "gakkari" during interviews, where he'd likely fall back into old habits of using what he feels safest with (regardless of whether or not it's the most accurate). I just saw the video in that tweet. Making a kid a fraction of your age and size cry...is actually pretty therapeutic. You all should try it some time. Oh, and preferably when neither of the parents are around. xD

Hmm, somehow, I feel if his grasp in the English language were better, "regret" wouldn't be his first choice in terms of word use. It's not a word English speakers use lightly and you don't hear a lot of English-speaking athletes dropping it frequently. You hear a lot of them saying they're disappointed or they could've done better, and I think those are more along the lines of what he's trying to express. Those would be the words I'd use if I were translating his words anyway. Sorry if I seem a bit hung up on semantics. It's within my area of interest and profession and I usually try to be as precise as I can be when it comes to this. ^^;

I dunno if I'd use the word "happy" to describe it but I don't imagine he's too torn up about it at the moment either. There's a system in place and rules that need to be followed (the Japanese are quite the sticklers for them) and I'm thinking Hanyu probably doesnt want to rock that boat simply based on his whims. "Please don't ruin him." <-- I don't get this. Like, why would she say that? Is she asking for him to not break the kid with overly Spartan methods? "Fxxxxxxxxxck!!!!!" sounds accurate. xD That actually sounds to me like he did a google translate. >_< I'm willing to bet that for the Inner Yuzu, it's nearer to something that almost sounds like he's yelling for a fork.

It makes sense that this would be the case though, if the choreography for his programs is bankrolled by sponsors. It's probably the same with many other skaters, especially Japanese and Russian ones. I imagine they wouldn't say no if he insisted but there seems to be too much work and red tape to go through when he's already got choreographers he's comfortable with building his competition programs and he has other things to focus on than jumping through multiple hoops just to secure a choreographer that isn't yet on JSF's speed dial--yet--for an EX. There are ice shows but the guy usually just skates his programs there. Plus, Ge is still an active competitor himself and one that isn't based in Canada or Japan so he wouldn't be able to accommodate as well as the ones Hanyu usually goes to, schedule-wise. It would be really swell to see it happening one day, though. Hopefully before Hanyu leaves the competitive stage. I'm pretty certain Ge could help bring out something else in him that we don't yet know he has. (: Ge seems to be rather well-received in Japan and he's got some familiar names on his client list already so if he manages to build up the necessary connections, we may not have to wait that long.

Well, if it's a replica, it's an exceptionally well-made one. But I guess it wouldn't be hard to do in a country that regularly churns out beautiful medals for athletic events they host. (Tho for a moment there I did think maybe the guy lost his marbles and donated it...)

Is that medal the real thing or a replica?

Haha, I meant if he manages to win with clean skates (one could dream), whoever gets silver ought to feel like they won gold instead because they'd have measured up the closest against perfection. Only if the guy not just manages to win, but manages to win the way he said he wants to, of course.

Thanks for sharing this. It's a mighty interesting read. There's a lot of truth in what was said. Tho I think it won't apply in PC if Hanyu were to be able to skate a clean set of programs and came in first that way.

Oh hey, I wasn't disputing everything you said. Or anything at all for the matter. I was only giving clarification because the Twitter translation left out context which understandably led to your misunderstanding in the very first bit of your comment. I should've highlighted the part to be clear. My bad. But I do think Sano-sensei has a point about Hanyu being of a different breed even when it comes to the Games. Even in his very first Olys, he didn't feel the same sort of fear most would and did, which led to the wonderful and absolutely carefree performances of his SP both times he skated it. He only started feeling the Oly nerves when the gold medal became a real possibility going into his FS. Of course, his first experience of it can only help inform his second one, something which most first-timers won't have but I do think this second Olys presents an entirely unique and new pressure even for him, owing to these facts: 1) He's going in as a defending champion and he's promised himself and everyone that he isn't just going to defend it, he's going to win in the greatest way imaginable, 2) This second gold is the end goal of the life plan he built for himself when he was all of 7 and despite some derailment here and there which led to the changing of of some details, he's still been able to reach all his major goals so far, and 3) He is who he is, for better or worse. I'm hoping his enforced absence from competition will help buffer him from the pressure so that instead of trying to manage it, he'd be too raring to go and simply skate in front of people again to hopefully think about anything else. There's no danger of overthinking if you're not thinking about much at all.

Yeah judging by those and the indoor one this year, Mizuno designers definitely have the better sense...maybe the officials who approved the idea wanted a juxtaposition of mellow and loud designs this time around... It's quite relieving to know that skaters and curlers at least won't be stuffed in orange-red all the time, giving the audiences' eyes a break. I think the gray one may also be the one they'll be wearing for their Oly ID mugshots, if the pattern in Sochi were to be followed.

Those look like the sort with down so, applying the most obvious logic I can draw, I'm thinking those are for outdoor use and this one is for indoor use. Like this will be the jacket TJ skaters and curlers will be wearing in the rink, I think? This is the one the TJ skaters were wearing during the announcement, right? Back in 2014, the white and red one was what they wore for the announcement and within the rink in Sochi. My guess: Long orange-red Asics down jacket: opening and closing ceremonies Short orange-red Asics down jacket: medal ceremonies and general outdoor use Short orange-red Asics windbreaker: official media use and general outdoor use Gray Mizuno thin jacket: indoor use

Here's a fuller context as to what Sano-sensei said. The program--Asahi TV's Hodo Stn, I think--was saying that Hanyu'd be headed straight into the Olys with zero buffers and was asking him (Sano-sensei) if he'd be ready for it. He says that it's the same for everyone going to the Olys regardless of whether or not they've got other comps under their belt because the Olys is a different beast altogether. No amount of competition will ever prepare them enough for the Olys so in actuality, there is no buffer for it. If you're not mentally prepared enough for it, you'll go in scared no matter how many comps you went through before it. Hanyu is a different breed however and he's not worried about the guy not being mentally prepared enough for it. Here's the vid (WARNING: CONTAINS uhhh, GRAPHIC? FOOTAGE)

He is but he's been forced to backtrack to old layouts before, albeit the one time he did it was only due to injuries sustained from an accident. With Uno doing it, maybe he'll feel less averse to doing the same again this time, given the circumstances. It's pretty hard to tell with him. Uno seems to have learned from this season and grown in terms of mindset. It's good to see. (: