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Oh, he doesn't need to be terribly affected. He's only ever terribly affected by himself, anyway. And there seem to be hopeful signs of that having less chance of happening this season. Still, as far as outside forces go, especially when they're not going well, he probably still gets somewhat affected, and what I'm hoping is he's either able to shield himself from that or, more likely (since while his mental fortitude is beyond commendable, his defenses aren't exactly the strongest), he finds a way to turn it into an advantage. His less-than-perfect skates could be brought about by a culmination of factors but his perfect ones are almost always after great performances by others. My concern isn't what brought on his flawed performances, but what he seems to need to bring forth perfect ones. Which I'm hoping he's able to not be too dependent upon should things not align the way they did before his perfect skates thus far, so that he's able to call them forth despite the lack of challenge. Currently, as a fan, if he ends up leading the charge after the SP, I'd actually rather his lead be challenged, so he feels choked (or stimulated, if you prefer) enough to deliver his FS clean by hook or by crook. But it'd be nice to know that he can also subdue absolutely in both, challenge or no challenge. And I'm hoping his program choices this season will contribute largely in helping him achieve that.

It's perfectly natural to want to be be prepared, though it doesn't actually make anything better if our worst fears do come to pass, I've come to think. If, for whatever reason, he's not able to skate as clean as he likes in PC, it's not going to be because of this. I don't actually know why I'm feeling this way. I usually tend to feel more like what you're feeling so I can understand where you're coming from but this time...I'm just feeling...peaceful? At ease? And very excited and anticipatory. Mostly. You know like how after witnessing an engineer or an artist create something really wonderful and astounding and all that's left to do is to unveil it to the world? And all you can think about is how the world would react? It's kinda like that. I mean I'm still nervous of course, but it's the kind that you feel when you're about to experience the unknown. The fact that he's using Ballade and SEIMEI again probably has a lot to do with what I'm feeling. Much as I'd rejoice the chance of seeing LGC on Oly ice, I doubt I'd be feeling as calm, lol, because that is still an unperfected experiment. PW was a perfected one that could only be polished further in its 2nd season, the Oly one, and just look at all the wonders it's left behind. Sure he didn't manage to perform it well in his final competitive showing of it at World's but the circumstances surrounding it were special and he learned a lot from that experience. It wasn't a shame at all that he couldn't perform it well then, because he performed it well when it mattered the most and after that it had a different final purpose to serve and it served it. Well. His best performances so far, especially of his FSes, have all happened after others have done very well, either in their own FSes, or in their preceding SPs. If he's looking to deliver another one on the Oly stage, the extra bonus offered by the good performances of others is almost guaranteed to fuel it. So I shudder to think if the opposite were to happen. Well, good for you then. ^__^ I'm guessing Hanyu is more the sort to be driven by the desire to put his money where mouth is. He's said before that the reason he talks is precisely so he can't get complacent. While that's true enough, and he hasn't been, I think he also just has a natural tendency to talk big, which isn't rare. Not in the slightest. What's rare is his ability to actually back up his talk. And his confidence that he'd be able to in the first place. Then there's his ability to turn disadvantages into advantages (so much so that I'm beginning to think if those of us with all the advantages in life aren't truly the disadvantaged ones, since we tend to be complacent and take it all for granted--I know certainly am...I just wished I knew how to stop) as well as his ability to soldier on despite his mistakes because something inside him is telling him that these mistakes aren't proof that he can't deliver what he's promised, which would be what most people would have viewed them to be, and that the truth is they're actually invisible steps leading him steadily towards to his ultimate goal. He just needs to be brave enough to be able to put his foot on each of them. Which is exactly what he did, and is still doing. What you're doing is perfectly normal and common, though. If I were a slightly more driven person, I'd probably be doing the same as you. ^_^

Hmmm. This is actually a very good thing, I feel. I wouldn't worry about it at all. This may very well be the kind of pressure a lot of other athletes buckle under but for Hanyu, it's the exact kind of thing that drives him. If he can keep himself focused on this, and just this alone, he may even surprise himself. In the last Olympics, rather than other likely contributing factors, and there were quite a few of them, I feel his errors were more due to being distracted by the idea of perhaps winning the gold, something he wanted badly but was also realistic enough to think that it might just be wishful thinking...until it became more than that after the SP event. The uncharacteristic error he made in his 3F hinted that the mistake he made in the 4S that directly preceded it was not the same kind of error he'd been making on it in prior competitions. Had it been other factors dogging him, he'd have also given a poor showing in the second half. Instead, he gave a much cleaner showing there. Being able to still take home the gold despite his errors? Well, that's probably more like a wake-up call to someone like him. As Browning said during last year's NHK, it couldn't happen to a better skater. Had he taken home any other color other than the gold, his development trajectory would likely have been different and there'd be a bigger chance that he won't be able to help being distracted again next year because the gold would've remained elusive to him. But since it's not, and it's something he'd gotten even with a flawed performance, he's perhaps learned that it's not the penultimate prize he's really searching for. He wants it, of course, but he also knows what happens when he mistakenly focuses on it as a goal. He now knows that even if he reaches it, it's only really a small part of what he truly wants, and by focusing too much on it, consciously or subconsciously, he's basically blinding himself to the bigger picture. Still, I think all that's happened is a necessary process for him to see it in the first place. So this go around, he seems to be fully aware of what the bigger picture is. This became clear to me when he said that all he wants this time is to deliver a set of performances he can be proud of, while everything else can take its natural course. All said, I'm not worried at all about this pressure he's putting on himself. It's a necessary component to his success, after all. I may be, however, worried about something else. See, like a few people here, or perhaps even more than a few, I think that it's a real good thing he has as many rivals as he does, all more than capable of beating him--be it by skill or by other means--if he so much as falters. I do hope that most of them will be able to skate well enough because from what I can tell, it will make the incentive for him to deliver clean skates even stronger. I won't say that his focus and desire to succeed hinge upon it, but I will say that it will serve to hone them further. So what I may be most worried about, in fact, is if it all turns out to be more of a splatfest before Hanyu takes the ice, because being pressured by the adversity of good performances by others may very well be to Hanyu what the Li Xiaopeng Hop is to Uchimura. But unlike Uchimura, he has no control over it. Which is why, when he says that he only wants to focus on his own performances, I really, really hope he's taken into account even the not-at-all-unlikely situation where someone ends up having a meltdown right before his own performance. Because that may be a bigger disruption/trigger* than the distraction the tantalizing bling of the Oly gold serves. * I can't claim to be a big fan of Medvedeva's skating but her absolute focus is something I have ample admiration for, some of which I fervently hope Hanyu will finally find himself at least somewhat blessed with from next season on. And regardless of what happens after, whether he chooses to remain or to pursue something else (though my bet would be that he'd at least stick around until World's 2019 has come to pass), I really do hope he gets what he wants and brings out the best Ballade and SEIMEI he could possibly offer the world then on the Olympic ice. Because not only do these programs deserve to be performed to perfection and carve themselves into the minds of the whole world for good, I want to know what's beyond this main goal that's taken him 18 years to achieve. 18 years is a long enough time, and I'm excited to see what's next, be it within competitive figure skating or beyond it. Funnily enough, I never paid much attention to men's fs before. Something about its stiff masculinity holds less appeal than its more fluid feminine counterpart to me, not that I was an avid follower of the ladies' discipline as well. But I did find the latter more enjoyable to watch overall. And when male skaters like Weir inject a more feminine touch to their routines, the softness translates to a kind of flamboyance I don't find myself knowing how to appreciate. What Hanyu presents is just right for me. I can't quite put my finger on what it is. I mean I can attempt to but then this post will never end and nobody wants that. Not even me. No matter successful or...less successful, I think people can be divided into four general groups: People who need to set goals, those who don't need to but prefer to, those who don't need to and prefer not to, and those who simply can't (because even if they did, they can't find it within themselves to get off their lazy asses to go out there and achieve them). Also, by goals, I meant major ones. I know two or three people who fit in the first group. Hanyu...I think is in the 2nd group. You're probably in the 3rd. I'm in the last. =P

Heh, you're probably right. In any case, I'd take your theory over my own shaky one any day. It's just that his 3A is certainly a lot bigger and longer than the 3As of others, who seem like they're on the air about the same amount of time as they are when they're doing quads, so my layman logic tells me that if he stays in the air for that much longer when he does his 3A than when others do theirs, it stands to reason he has enough time for one more rotation. Cos c'mon, it's just one more rotation. That's certainly less than the two he imposed on that other poor kid. >_< (Lol. I know there's probably a lot more to it than what my layman brain is assuming. Just wanted to put it out there how I came to this overly simple conclusion.)

I'm no expert but to my admittedly untrained eyes some of his biggest 3As seem to have already sufficient height and distance for a 4A, by virtue that they look bigger than most quads out there, his own included. And because of that, each time I see these big 3As, especially those in practice, it's like I'm seeing him jump it in slo-mo possibly because his rotations weren't as fast in comparison to the time he spent up in the air. So I can only surmise that all he hasn't shown us yet, is a higher rotation speed. Because everything else, he more or less already has. I could be underestimating it, because what I do know, really. But either way, that's the feeling I'm getting.

...wow. That brought tears to my eyes. And, boy, do you have a a real classy way of gushing. I'd love to pick your brain so I do hope you'd continue to grace us, or at least me, with your thoughts, extended or otherwise. I'll take anything you wish to offer. The guy has a profound effect on all those he's managed to touch, one that's beyond simply what an athlete has on their (legions of) admirers, and hearing any account of it is always, always a pleasure. P/s: One thing though, another thing I admire about him, and speaks volumes about the kind of person he's brought up to be is, quite simply, the way his family shuns the limelight. And the guy himself generally doesn't impose himself on the public, when he's not out there skating. That's really something else, I feel. Like personal fame really isn't what he's after, and his actions, together with that of his family's, back it up. Some say they're restraining themselves in due respect to the victims of the 3/11 disaster, many of whom supported him on his way up, but I think they're all just really modest and quiet by nature. :o) Either way, even though I'm saying all this now, I generally prefer to keep from talking about them (even though I wonder sometimes...who wouldn't?) because it seems like that's what they'd prefer.

If you don't mind my input, I personally feel @gladi's one is more on point objectively (as well as closer to something Hanyu himself might say if he were speaking English) while Iron Klaus' one is more subject to their personal interpretation. They're both great work, ofc. And since personal interpretation is a personal freedom, by all means, keep it. ^.^ It's not all that completely far-fetched still, after all. @Forcefield's "inner diva" also kind of works, btw, as far as personal interpretation goes. In fact, I think I like that one the best. xxxD

Hmmm. I suppose for those who don't follow fs but remember him for PW from Sochi, seeing LGC would be like seeing him level up as a showman figure skater. Like, if PW was lv50, LGC would be like lv99. Seeing Chopin, though, would be seeing him step in a completely different direction for them, like, he completely switched character classes or something. For example, say, if he was a human Bard before, he's an elven Druid now. And then only to see him switch it again for his FS, into one that's not just once again completely different from his SP, but also completely different from his Sochi FS. So even if to us, it may seem like we don't get to see anything that's completely fresh from him program-wise this season, and even as we all know how incredibly versatile he truly is (though I'm not sure if it stretches to him successfully being able to pull off tangoes...and Africa), to these people, they'd be freshly experiencing his versatility. And that's always a good thing. I, for one, can't wait to see all these people's reactions. ୧⍢⃝୨

You're absolutely right. Wild abandon is his natural style, I think. He's harnessed and honed it since to present a more elegant and majestic finish now but what really fuels it is his desperate passion and utter joy for skating. So he hasn't really changed at all, I don't think. He's grown a lot, and added more layers and facets to his skating but underneath it all, you can still sense the same kind of emotion driving him. It actually slips out to the forefront still sometimes.^__^ Thanks for putting it so aptly.

Hmm, I suppose i did get a sense of these two in his performance of H&L at last season's World's but I'm not sure if I'd pick "sad" and "broken" as descriptors for his other performances post-Sochi. I sense more anger, fierceness, streamlined determination, maturity, control and jadedness but that's only natural, seeing as he became the top at a young age and chose to stay on to fight to remain there, while at the same time pushing the very boundaries of the sport itself. That has gotta age a person, much less an athlete. And knowing the person he is now, when seeing the freshness of before, it gets poignant, even if you didn't know of him from when he was younger. Because seeing all his past performances, it's like going through this journey where you see him grow into the the man he is today. And he's not even done growing yet. So I guess that makes seeing both WC performances of R&J1 and H&L one after the other, and seeing all the differences, actually rather jarring. Which I did do, as I wanted to see my top 3 favorites all in one go and H&L rests rather firmly on top. But my favorite performance of it is the one from nhk so I only marathoned the wc perf of it with Nice's R&J once. Either way, he's blossomed beautifully. Which is wonderful seeing as not all that many with lovely potential as young skaters were able to do the same. Certainly there are more that didn't than those that did. And...I'd wager what he's about to become would be beyond any superlatives we can think of.

Ah. I only took the phrase from what was discussed here and haven't actually read either.

I don't find Prince a symbol of raw masculinity though, so I don't really see where he was going with that train of thought. It's more...glam masculinity? Which seemed to have worked well for him. I mean I wouldn't have thought it would but he completely owned it. If he wanted more raw masculinity with a huge side of sexiness, something along the lines of George Michael would've worked better, I think. xD I mean as a solo artiste, not as part of WHAM! Though he'd prolly have fun with WHAM! stuff too...

...people thought he was this cute, harmless little thing back in 2013, early 2014, chastising Chan for viewing him as a threat and treating him as such when all the kid seemingly wielded as weapons were blinding smiles and Pooh bears. I bet Chan wants to serve up a big fat I told you so to those who criticized him then. So no, I actually meant bullets. Sparkly bullets, but bullets nonetheless. Loaded with extra gunpowder. With big guns hidden on his body somewhere.

LoL. It's my second favorite program from him. And I like how those shiny straps across his costume resemble machine gun rounds. Like his Romeo was ready to commit genocide on those who stand between him and his lady before he found out his lady "died" and decided to take his own life the way he thought he took hers.

Would he really be over-exerting himself, though? I mean skaters do a lot of run- throughs during the course of their practices. So if he does enough comps with smaller gaps in between, sooner or later they'll start to feel more like run-throughs? This way he might be able to feel less nervy no matter the comp...maybe? I mean, if he does go for more of them than his usual amount this season. LoLs @ @Murieleirum's theater. Hanyu's like Chan's personal bogeyman or something..

That's a very interesting and valid point. LGC is hands down his most outwardly charismatic program, beating out even PW, so it does require absolute confidence and not the sort that you can fake. It allows absolutely no room for insecurities. Someone else here was also perfectly on point, I feel, when they said LGC is a program one must only feel, not think, because there's simply no room for deliberation. (Or was that you as well?) And Hanyu, brilliant as he is, still has yet to learn the secret technique of effectively muting his big brain (all squished up in his very small head...real estate prices must be sky high in there for rather cramped spaces...or maybe it's not so much the size of the brain, but how much of it it's used...I dunno where I'm going with this so I'll just stop here). By WTT, I think his problems with the program escalated due to a culmination of his incapability of nailing it all through the season, even when he was feeling like he finally could (like he said he did at World's but ultimately still flubbed). So, I'm guessing that's perhaps what he meant by Ballade being more comfortable then. Being a classical piano piece, though more orthodox, it also allows more freedom, thus giving him more room to breathe despite any insecurities he might be harboring. Of course, he might not want to let his feeling(s) dictate his performance of LGC, or any performances for the matter but I suppose next season isn't the time nor place for him to tackle this particular issue. Not when there are other more pressing issues that need his attention. Ones that would likely give him the key to the entire season if he manages to overcome them. Heck, if he manages to finally overcome these long-standing issues this season, he'll probably have more leverage to tackle this other one, as well as any other ones that may arise in the future, if he's thinking of sticking around a couple of seasons more. :o)

...that was a wisecrack I was trying to make...LGC suited Hanyu to a T. Plushenko, however, was born to skate Sex Bomb. Any and all other program-skater pairing, no matter how lovely, would pale in comparison to that. Lol. Unless Hanyu nails Africa...

...he has a point. LGC certainly suited Hanyu a lot less than Sex Bomb had suited him (Plushenko). Now that's a match made in quirky heaven. Hmm...I see where you're headed with the Marmite analogy and it's almost apt but not quite. I think LGC has a wider general appeal than fermented yeast and would take a lot less time to acquire a taste for, even if it's not quite your cup of tea at first. It's maybe more like...cherry soda? Or root beer. I detest the former but enjoy the latter. I dunno about that...has he ever done Toto's Africa? xP

I see. Thanks! As for everything else, my post was made originally to express my disagreement with Ms. Shirota's insinuation of LGC being less worthy as the SP of choice for the reigning OGM going into the Olympics. It's not. It's every bit as worthy as Chopin is. If not for the issues he's had with it, he'd do it right and with max confidence, and wouldn't that be a sight to behold? In its second season, it would grab new audiences by the head with both hands and force their captivation right off the bat and, whether they like it or not, thrill them to bits and pieces. That, or it'd die trying. It's just that kind of program. The opinions for it now might be polarizing, but when done to perfection, I'm very confident the general audience (save for the few really old and stuffy ones with an aversion to extroverted programs, or those with a very particular kind of taste, but even they won't be able to deny it's a well-executed program and a worthy tribute to a legendary artiste gone too soon) won't be able to not love it. The tougher nuts to crack among them, even, would at least give it a grudging approving nod, and remember it even if they hate its flashiness. Impact-wise, it's an all or nothing kinda program, which, coupled with its extremely tight choreo, makes it a huge risk. And because he wasn't able to harness it completely last season, and with the tight competition the current field presents and the scoring pattern of the judges, it's not one that's worth taking. And I get that completely. As for his outfit, not leaving much to the imagination as it does (tho he'd likely have altered it for the new season but prolly not by much), it's exactly the kind of thing a star would rock and there isn't a bigger star in the sport currently than Hanyu. I'd even go so far as to say he's probably the biggest one the sport has ever had, male or female, and it has had some big stars in the past. So if you've got it, flaunt it, and all that. It would all just be a part of the program, because LGC is one giant distraction in itself. If you happen to be ironing your clothes while it's on, well, you'll probably find yourself shopping for a new shirt later. P/s: I don't even like song itself but as a Yuzuru Hanyu program, there's really nothing else quite like It. So yeah, as @CupidsBow has said, it'd be lovely if he could bring it back as an EX this season so the world can see it. Or, if he still wants to conquer it as a competition program, something else along a more upbeat vein would be good too.

Is the lady part of the ANA camp or the JSF one again? I'm a tad confused. While I agree Ballade is probably the most strategically sound choice for him this season, where a slightly more conservative strategy is more likely to pay off than an avant garde one--let's face it, it isn't as though he hasn't already gone down the latter path when he was younger and more reckless, and came out on top still--and I'm happy he went with it now that I've seen what he made of it since (and that was still early WIP to boot), contrary to what Shirota has been quoted to have said, I think LGC would probably have screamed "I'M THE REIGNING CHAMP HERE TO DEFEND WHAT'S MINE YO! ALL YA PEOPLE CAN TRY TO TAKE IT FROM ME BUT YA WON'T SUCCEED IF MY SPARKLY PURPLE OUTFIT HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT" louder than Chopin ever could. That one is the ultimate showman piece if I've ever seen one. And it really, really suited him (he's the only skater with enough pizzazz and innate cocksureness on the ice to pull it off, something he's fully convinced the fs world of by the end of last season's GPF). Had he the confidence to pull it off going into the season, and I'm thinking he probably would have if he had managed to skate it clean at least once late last season, it would be the kind of in-your-face program even the most casual of fans would remember for life, since it would also have been a fantastic tribute to Prince. It would make even non-fans seat up and take notice. Imagine the amount of new fans that would have brought the sport. With that as SP and SEIMEI for LP, if he skates them both clean on the Oly stage, he would quite literally singlehandedly change the world's perception of the sport. LGC would've been every bit as worthy of being part of the reigning champ's path as Ballade is. And I can't help but lament the fact that we won't be seeing it where it would've shone the brightest. The alternative is lovely in its own right, however, and gives him the kind of comfort he can't afford to not have this season, plus there's still SEIMEI to pull in new fans so it's all good.

Thanks for saying that! That makes me real happy to hear.

i seem to recall he also said he wasn't gonna wash his face ever again right after that so I don't think he was complaining...

Kenji no Heya w/YH Ep 3 (New!) Past episodes: Episode 2 Episode 1 *Episode 2 has been slightly revised. Line at 24:36 mark reworked as the original didn’t work as well as initially thought. As always, feel free to discreetly share but kindly do not upload onto streaming sites. Thanks a bunch! 11/26/17: Subs for all episodes have undegone minor revision and reuploaded 02/04/18: Reuploaded to another file hosting site because Google feels violated 03/04/18: Reuploaded to another file hosting site

Oh hey, you're right. They're still here. I use my PC to mostly do work and don't often use it to view things. Took me a couple days since I saw your reply to finally get around to it. The post count used to be visible on the mobile version as well so I thought they were taken off altogether. Good to know they're still around.

Wow this is a heck of a find! Thanks soooo much for sharing!! Dinky awkward teenage years dogged by minor speech impediment FTW! If I didn't know who he was and just stumbled across this video, I'd have thought that the boy skater was cosplaying a flamboyant Rock Lee, and I'd have given him top scores for the effort if he hadn't left out the fuzzy brows. I wonder what Suzuki is up to these days...