TallyT

Think of Britain's Eddie the Eagle....

Anyone else find their inner six-year-old wants to play with paper dolls... and their outer adult agrees???

... but in a really really good way

Me too, it's been too long.....

I know what you mean, I knew before I saw it that he'd struggled through and still medalled but I watched it with heart in my throat and a chorus of "oh Yuzu why???" in my head... But it probably should have warned everyone writing him off preOlympics not to underestimate how he could and would push through injury no matter what. It was not wise, but it was - as people have learned over and over again - so incredibly Yuzu....

You can, it was up to the last quad, anything earlier is fair game

So a little quiz born while I was watching a favourite Japanese movie, the premise of which is that in the afterlife people are allowed to choose one - just one memory to take with them (it's called After Life, and it is an exquisite movie, by the way). If you had to pick just one program by Yuzuru as a memory to take, which would it be? - and if you want to make it even harder. which one performance? Make it up the the end of the last quad (Olympics 2018, as we haven't seen Otonal & Origin at their best, but when we do.....)

sorry posted in wrong thread

To me, it's a little more complicated than that (and I speak as someone who liked it, and adored the Bollywood version of Shakespeare I once saw). Yes, political politics comes into play (and that's all I'll say about it, with respect to the forum rules) but Bollywood does by its very nature ride the fine edge of OTT, that's part of its appeal. Therefore it's way too easy for even the most respectful and researched take on it to topple ever-so-slightly into looking like unintentional caricature. I sometimes think how great a prgram set to some of Ketelby's period Orientalism music might be... but then again, In a Persian Market (look it up on youtube, do) is fabulous but would run the same risk. Whereas Madame Butterfly.... anyone can do. While Riverdance does present a fascinating cultural tangle with an American and a Japanese doing a celebration of Irish culture... as does the thirty billion good bad and omigod tangos this session from all nations (poor Piazolla!!) for me one of the most fascinating tangle would be American or French (I think) skaters using an Italian opera about a Japanese geisha... were it not for the even more fascinating one of a Japanese skater using the same very Italian opera about a Japanese geisha. I would also love to see someone try a piece based on Sondheim's Pacific Overtures for similar reasons (okay and yes, because it would make me squeal with joy)

This turned up on my pinterest, no credit (if anyone knows, tell me) but I thought it still needed sharing...

Ummm, oh there are a lot. Of the top of my head though, here's five that simply make me happy to rewatch a hundred times.. 1. Worlds 2012, the triple axel-triple toe straight after that fall, when people realised this kid did comebacks like whoah... and of course his bouncing in the medal ceremony 2. the end pose and breathtakingly regal throwdown expression at the end of the Olympics Chopin, and oh yes yes yes, the choreo sequence in Seimei. If anyone wants to know why he's the King and why he's the best loved King.... 3. The LGC encore at Japan Nationals (2016?) in Swanyu feathers 4. The last pose of his 2014 R&J at Worlds, where he'd given it everything he had.... 5. The glorious hydro and IB from Haru no yoi And that's just off the top of my head

Have to say that one of my favourite bits of CWW is when he's doing the Parisian Walkways bit in the Etude costume. But then I have a total thing for galas where he encores of the sexier, rakish pieces like PW or LGC wearing Swanyu or Requiem...

I have the permanently-disorganised's love of lists, so need to have a go at this, allowing for the fact that the three 2019 ones are works in progress... and adding in a few ring-ins just because I can... 1. Seimei 2 (the Olympic one - first last and probably forever) 2. Origin, yes already, and Etude, the most beautiful he ever wore and one of the most beautiful any skater has ever worn 3. a whole bunch of equal thirds very close behind... Hope & Legacy, POTO2, R&J 1, Notte Stellata, Seimei 1, Otonal, LGC purple and white, Requiem (it took time....), oh and yes, the red chocolate ad ones (I love how he looks in red, I so do) 4. all of the Chopins, both Parisian Walkways and the current Haru yo koi, 5. R&J2 because I have a soft spot for it 6. Then pretty much everything else.... (ps list is subject to change, depending on the video I'm rewatching at any given time)

I adore the darker, danger-laced look too. After all, we don't call him Lord Murderface for nothing... he can do strong, hard and even somewhat menacing... (speaks the person who kept suggesting Japanese horror soundtracks for him... I knew it was in him, I so did)

They would, they so would, but don't you want to see the murderface surface on a happy silly game show?????

Oh I agree that Patrick and Nathan would have immense followings (Plushy does!), but still not the same (for a start Patrick's personality - apparently a nice guy but not adorable - might get in the way though he's the 2nd most successful IJS skater ever). Strictly speaking, Shoma is Japanese and more successful all in all than either Nathan or Boyang, and is definitely lovable, but he's still a ways behind Yuzuru and it isn't just the 2 OGMs, Yuzuru was pretty set on that other plane in 2015-16 when Javi was taking the Worlds from him. It's like wildfire, incalculable and inexplicable.

I tend to think their money is their own business, but... yes, from everything I've read, Yuna is in the crazy rich sportspeople category - she's Korea's darling (they don't have the number of sporting superstars that Japan does, so little competition for the role) made the most of it as a smart businesswoman, and nothing at all wrong with that. The thing is if he isn't already (and we don't actually know, I suspect the public doesn't know the half of it) Yuzuru could be in the same financial league - even though there are other Japanese skaters competing for the public's eye, he has the lot of them beaten hollow, and yes, if he with or without an agency decided to cash in, he'd cash up big. No doubt of that. And as for public worldwide fame outside skating and the massive Asian fan followings... he could have that too. No one could possibly think he doesn't know far better than we do what he could parlay his success into ... if he wanted to. But he doesn't. He is clearly and undeniably not interested in money; not only does he not pick the advertising big bucks, but both lots of Olympic prizewinnings he promptly gave away, and the gift that went with the People's Award, he politely declined. He has never shown the slightest interest in the lifestyle and trappings that wealth could bring him - apart from his earphones, he doesn't seem to have any great indulgences and with all due respect, how much can you spend on even the best of those? He's a private, somewhat reclusive sort so the idea of doing anything to increase the level of fame and adulation he already gets would probably horrify him (though I think he'd do it for his beloved sport or his beloved Sendai, and those are the things I can see him using it for when he does retire. That is, if he doesn't decide to ninja permanently on us). And he doesn't want other people apart from his family trying to 'help' him run his life (okay, to an extent he has to let them - the JSF for instance, and maybe Brian when necessary. But even the JSF and Brian, I suspect, find it a job and a half).

Exactly. Perfect 'truth is stranger than fiction' material... and he can be obsessive and difficult and probably has some bad habits we'll never know about (everyone does). And (speaking as someone whose third-most-loved-as-a-writer... writer I try not to think about as the utterly cruddy if brilliant person she is) at least we get to invest in someone who really deserves the love.....

(Err, sorry, this got long) Though one has to say, that even if he hadn't managed that 2nd OGM he'd still be the biggest most glittery star of the sport... and conversely, had someone like Patrick (and this is no slur against him) done it, he wouldn't have IMO reached the insane heights of, as you say, rock star adulation Yuzuru gets (I personally doubt that even Shoma would have quite reached it, let alone Nathan or Boyang, but I've no proof there, YMMV. Nor could they handle it as well.) Yuzuru has that unique charisma, the changeable, elusive personality, the intellect and emotional intelligence, the looks and camera-appeal, the dramatic aura/cute dorky side, the backstory with its rise from tragedy and the trouble and grief (and stumbles, which kept it all from getting even slightly predictable) along with way, the fairytale culmination last year from injury right through to crown. And he's a genuine, amazingly good person as well as a fiercely driven fighter. Yes, he has his faults like anyone else, but honestly, if you invented Yuzuru for a fictional hero, you'd be slapped down for him being too fantastic... it's no wonder that he's the ultimate star of skating, IMO he'd be a star in whatever field he was in, but then you marry it with a body and mind almost designed to be the perfect skater and a deep love and gift for everything that makes the sport unique, the athletic side and the artistic. And even the timing, with the rise of social media and the internet meaning that fans around the world can 'get together' and follow him, virtually or quite literally. I'm not about to say there won't be another skating rock star of his standing in the future - Takahashi fans did, and look what promptly happened - but they are going to find it hard to match the lightning in a crystal cage.