glilikoi

Well it's true that Max's original comment was ambiguous, and so his actual intentions are debatable. He didn't say anything explicitly racist like the outlandish 'Asians just have faster twitch muscles' comments some people have come up with in the past. Max's comment could be interpreted as racist since he's bringing up the ethnic background of these American skaters for no clear reason. Like yes the next Olympics are in Beijing, but implying that a skater would be at an advantage there just because they have Chinese ethnic background is a big reach and very questionable. But the main point I wanted to make was that arguing someone's scores are inflated because of their citizenship is not racist and shouldn't be conflated with racism.

It's not the same logic though. One argument is based on ethnic nationalism, the other on civic nationalism/citizenship, and these are entirely different discourses. Saying someone gets extra points because of their citizenship is not 'racist', but implying their ability has to do with their ethnic background is. Not to get too political here, but I think this is a pretty important thing to point out..

I have the same question! I haven't been able to find any information about streaming/online broadcast for the Jnats. Would I need to buy a subscription or Isakura or something like that, or is there a free online broadcast with/without a VPN? I'm planning to watch so would like to know if it will be actually possible to do that

I feel very grateful for this autumn's long streak with lots of Yuzu content at relatively short intervals! Often this is the kind of thing where people say "you only notice how good it was when it's gone", but I think these past seasons, Yuzu fans have learned to really appreciate every moment they can support him in competition/just see him at all. In a way it's kind of wistful, like 'we need to make every competition count because there may not be that many left", which can also be a negative thought if it puts pressure on Yuzu. That's why I think it's best to just focus on the present and be happy that he's still competing, even though the awareness of why it's important can be a little painful. In any case, this season especially, I've just been feeling so full of fondness for Yuzu and really wanting to support him 100%, so I'm very glad there have been lots of opportunities this autumn. It feels like such a privilege! Does anyone know if the JNats are easy to watch online btw? I'm not in Japan now and have no idea if they are streamed anywhere (since it's Japan I guess not on Youtube or anything). Would we need some kind of a subscription or will there be an unoffical stream? This is the first comp after ACI where I'm not drowning in work/stress and would actually be able to watch it in full, so it would be nice to know if that's possible.

It's related to a current political scandal in Japan. I don't want to go into that much detail, but basically the scandal is about a cherryblossom-viewing event organised by prime ministers since the 1950s. This year, it became controversial because Abe is accused of misusing funds and inappropriately using the event to gain political support. The event is attended by a lot of people, but every year successful athletes are amongst those invited. It seems Yuzu was invited but declined to go. That's what the caricature is about - it's making fun of Abe (the text under Abe is a pun that says 'dance of lavish feast/splendid banquet' while he's depicted throwing away trillions of yen, and the text under the picture says 'Hanyu-senshu's dance of surprise/even Hanyu-senshu is amazed by this behaviour'). I think the gist of it is that Yuzu was sensible to decline the invitation. But it's not like Yuzu was the only athlete who was invited and didn't go, apparently Shoma was the same, and probably lots of others. I guess Yuzu is just used in this comic because he's so well-known/liked. Here is a brief article about it. The article says it's not possible to know whether Yuzu declined intentionally or because he was just too busy to go, but in any case, it was an excellent decision in hindsight/Hanyu proves once again that he has really good sense.

I also think this is a really impressive quality in Yuzu. He doesn't seem to be hung up on narrow ideas of what 'male skating' or 'female skating' should be like, he's just aiming for his ideal form of 'figure skating', period. This is evident in how he's recently talked about wanting to learn from the Russian ladies (and, for example, in how he was really trying to imitate the correct landing style when doing that rotating lift with Ondrej in gala practice :D). I just can't imagine almost any other (current) male figure skating saying/doing something like that. Yuzu's ideal figure skating is a seamless combination of athleticism, technique and artistic expression, and he's not afraid to imitate or be influenced by the expression of female skaters. Please note I'm not talking about his identity but just about what he does as a figure skater/how he seems to think about figure skating. I don't think there is anything essentially female about beautiful artistry, but the way men's figure skating currently is, there just isn't as much focus on gracefulness as there is in the ladies' field. There are some women whose skating style has a stronger element of athleticism than 'gracefulness' (right now Trusova comes to mind), but they are in the minority, and in the men's field it's vice versa (there are a few other men who pay more attention to beautiful extensions etc. but they are quite few). It's always good to have diversity/different styles of expression, so I'm really happy that Yuzu is out there confidently saying he can learn from the women too. And of course you can see Yuzu influencing women - for example, Rika and Trusova have both studied Yuzu's jumps afaik. It's just a positive phenomenon in this sport and I wish there was more of this kind of interaction. // Just as a side note - I think Yuzu's skating style has been a big influence on Mana Kawabe, who won the Japanese JNats this year. She did a beautiful Black Swan FS that I think somehow has lots of elements of Yuzu's skating - graceful gestures and expressions with this wild energy running underneath, giving it her all but still trying to execute each element with care. And she's stated she's a fan of Yuzu. So I think that's one interesting example of an up-and-coming female skater who has been influenced by Yuzu not just in terms of jumping technique, but his style in general.

I wouldn't be surprised either way, but as long as he stays healthy, I'd be inclined to think he wants to go. As others have mentioned in this thread, it would be a good opportunity to do another test run of the 5-quad layout before Worlds. I also think he likes the idea of having a 'full' season with Nats and some challengers because he hasn't been able to do that in so long. And he still doesn't have that 4CC gold. So if he's healthy, I can see a lot of reasons why he'd want to go/at least announce he's going after Nats. Of course it's also possible that he won't go despite being healthy, because he doesn't want to risk it/prefers to face Nathan at Worlds after longer preparation etc. So in the end it's back to square one, I won't be surprised if he goes and if he doesn't. We'll find out after Nats I guess

This is a direct loanword from English, 'stock'. The interviewer asks like 'what kind of stocks can you pull out/what kind of capacity do you have in stock' and Yuzu says 'various things' and goes on to talk about how he'd ideally like to win based on GOE but, as his experience at World Championships showed, he can't rely on GOE alone, so must bring in other things as well (other kinds of 'stock' I guess).

It seems Satomi was listening!

He's not really saying anything surprising, just that he's kuyashii, he doesn't want to let things end like this, feels he wants to continue developing and to use this experience as a basis for becoming stronger again. Exactly as we might expect at this point

I wouldn't say it was a tribute necessarily, but I'm also pretty sure Mana Kawabe admires/has been influenced by Yuzu. For starters, she had a Pooh on the rinkside, so that's a sign Her coach (and also Pooh-holder) is from Tohoku and knows Yuzu, so that's something of a link. Also, her black swan program seemed emotive and strong in a way that somehow reminded me of Yuzu (OK, this is really hard to quantify but...). I think she's been influenced by Yuzu's skating and combined it with other influences/her own expression in a really promising way. Sorry, I just felt her skate was so underappreciated last weekend, I was really so impressed by it Cannot wait to see how she develops.

this dork

At the end of the 'making of' video, they ask him some questions about the next season, and I think the answers are pretty interesting. He acknowledges that many fans have been supporting him for many years and that he's thankful; he goes on to say that he needs to evolve technically and that this will be a season of challenging/pushing his limits, and he hopes people will keep supporting him. Also mentions wanting to do 4.5 revolutions. Getting fired up for the season! Another question was how he now feels about the fact he said he "just wants to enjoy skating" before last season. His answer was basically "well it was fun when it was fun, but there were also parts that were really not fun at all" (and he needs to just confront that and keep challenging himself). I just watched the video once quickly and didn't check it while writing this comment so sorry if I got some details incorrect, I just wanted to briefly translate the overall meaning.

I also watched this video today and also the previous 2017-2018 comparison video from the same channel, and what struck me is that the one-foot skating time of everyone has decreased significantly - of course because the time constriction.. I really wish they hadn't made that change, programs used to feel less rushed.

I'd love to see the hydroblade replaced with a spiral of some kind! I like Yuzu's hydroblade but I feel like he's been doing it across so many programs now, it'd be good to switch things up, and a spiral would be a perfect addition in my opinion. It seems he's been doing some spirals this year anyway, with Crystal Memories and that mini Y-spiral at Worlds practice - hopefully a sign he might incorporate one in a program sometime?

While I think it's completely natural that people draw the conclusion Yuzu is recycling from this clip, I also think it's honestly not that unlikely the song is playing for some other reason. I don't really want to start speculating because there are lots of possibilities, but it's not like the only reason they could possibly be playing the song is that Yuzu is practicing his FP, so it's not exactly proof of anything at all. We can't know either way until he actually makes it official - I wouldn't be surprised either way.

It might not be exactly the same question, but I think he's sort of answered it in this pre-Worlds documentary - I guess this would be his ultimate dream layout for Origin, at least.

So happy at the FAOI news! I just got back from Japan yesterday, now I wish I could've stayed a bit longer But I was able to see Yuzu at FAOI Shizuoka last summer and that's a great memory, so shouldn't get too greedy! I'm sure there will be plenty of video footage to watch. And getting tickets must be extraordinarily difficult as well, last summer I barely managed one.

I wonder why would he get on the scale after having breakfast, before makes a lot more sense! This is surely one of the most trivial things I've ever commented on but... I think weighing yourself first thing in the morning makes the most sense so there's no liquid etc. possibly adding to the weight. I also get really stressed out about the thought of weighing myself every morning though.. I used to do that for years when I actually had problems with an ED (I'm pretty much recovered now and haven't used a scale in almost 2 years). But I understand that for an athlete, esp. in a sport like FS, regular weigh-ins make sense to monitor body condition, and hopefully they process those numbers in a healthy way. I still think weighing yourself every single day might not be that constructive, because body weight fluctuates naturally, and it's often better to look at the general trend (like is the weight going upwards or downwards or staying the same) than looking at the daily weight. Although for Yuzu, this might be useful if, for example, he is having a lot of trouble with jumps some day and sees a correlation with a weight spike or something. I mean it might just be a background factor he likes to be aware of. I get the feeling with some skaters (especially young girls with certain coaches) that they are made to monitor their weight way too obsessively and have an unhealthy relationship with food, but I don't really think that's the case with Yuzu at all. Sorry this got a bit heavy, I think it's definitely an aspect of FS I think about a lot sometimes..

I don't have the energy to write a full list right now but just wanted to say I'm so glad to see Étude appreciation! It's one of my favourite Yuzu SPs. The technical content might not be as impressive as some of his later programs, but it's so full of emotion and just beautiful, especially knowing its context. I remember seeing a short interview where Yuzu said Étude is meant to reflect on the force of nature (tsunami) as something that's detached from the human experience, it just happens. So it's an interesting contrast to Requiem which reflects on the human reaction/feelings that arise from the disaster. I love the music, the step sequence and the costume of Étude. Just hope there were more better-quality videos of it available.

Just to quickly sum up the contents of the interview - he talks about how he pursues beauty in various aspects of figure skating, hoping to combine the beauty of spins, jumps, steps etc. seamlessly together. He also talks about not seeing nervousness (before a performance) as a bad thing but instead something that, when he accepts it, actually becomes his power and produces a different performance each time. He doesn't actually talk about skincare at all, only beauty in the context of figure skating

I have to say having Yuzu advertise skincare products is such a good fit I've been thinking this will surely happen at some point (or should happen!) so glad to see it come true

I miss it too, I felt really bad for Yuzu when he said he'd been practicing the Bielman for CoR specifically and then wasn't able to do it let's hope it will return at some point! I think it's good that Yuzu isn't doing it so often though, because when you get older it gets naturally more tough for your back. //edit: I think he definitely did do it in PC Notte Stellata, but I'm not sure about 24hr TV.

I was also a bit surprised with his laptop handling.. but just as an aside, he might well have more than 1 laptop? (I mean we know how many earphones he has and it's not like he couldn't afford it). An 11-inch Macbook Air is really bad for editing music or video (I know because I have one), I would be 0% surprised if he had a Macbook Pro or something else for doing that stuff and the Air for schoolwork etc. Not that it justifies throwing it around like that but still I like to think he has some backup. //I know this is pretty much completely OT, the drought is getting to me.. sorry!

Wow this is such a bizarre article.. He really goes off on a tangent here. Just to quote the part that made me go flat-out "what": "So many athletes in other sports will beg off at just the slightest hint of an injury these days. It has become an absolute disgrace in recent years. Take a look at the NBA if you want some reference. But Hanyu is a different breed. He is old school and takes us back to the days when men were men and toughness was admired. Time and again he has answered the bell when he was injured." I find it kind of funny for being so exaggerated and out of place but also very concerning