Hello~ I'm super new here but here goes my first response to a thread xD
I think I became his fan the instant I first saw him on TV LOL. It happened during the 13-14 Olympic Season. I have access to Japanese tv so I saw him everywhere on the news at the time, being labelled as the "Young hope for Japan", "Ultimate Olympic gold medal contender" and what not. There was some serious hype around him and since I’m a sucker for anyone who looks like a real-life anime character I decided to look up photos and videos of his past programs. I had never been a fan of any particular male skaters (or let alone any skaters) back then and I was no skating expert, but I was instantly convinced that Yuzu had something no other male skaters I knew had. I had never seen someone with such an angelic yet strong presence, and so aesthetically pleasing to watch. I also loved the fact that he was a totally different person off the ice lol (playful and giggly). "This guy is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! how did I not know who he was until now!? " <- was literally my reaction at the time. He pretty much ticked all the boxes for everything I always wanted in a male figure skater. And there you go, before I knew it I was cheering on for him during Sochi and have been a fan since
I've come to really love Yuzu as a person too. He has gained so much wealth, popularity and honor as the No.1 skater in the world, yet he never forgets to be respectful towards everyone and show gratitude. He has continued to support Sendai through his skating and has always had that as part of his motive to keep aiming higher.
I'd also like to add that I always liked watching figure skating even before Yuzu. It was always one of my favourite sports to watch during the Olympics. But I only loosely followed it. I never really paid attention to a particular athlete expect for Asada Mao to only some degree. Yuzu was the reason I started taking the initiative to learn more about the technical elements, the major competitions and history of figure skating. And I’ll be honest I would still call myself a Yuzuru fan than an ice skating fan, but because of him I have a lot more respect and love for the sport itself now