rockstaryuzu

And Javi almost but not quite has Brian's landing position. All the landing positions skaters have, Brian's has always been my favorite. But you know who else is starting to give me serious Brian-like vibes on the ice? Julian Yee. Since he started working with Brian's old coach Doug Leigh, Julian's picked up Brian's old jump prep pose... although I hope it's only a phase and he can move on to making his jumps integrate more seamlessly into his choreo.

Even in his street clothes though, Johnny likes exaggerated proportions. As you say, it's a choice. You know, I find it interesting how Shoma always has a multitude of costumes but Yuzu sticks to the same two for the full season. Shoma's definitely a fashion kid. His choices aren't necessarily bold, but they're varied and interesting.

The eighties were a terrible time for costumes, and fashion in general.

Oh I know the type! Have a few in my family too. Although I think @Flutterby hit the nail on the head when they said he seemed deeply insecure about certain things.

Heaven forfend!

He reminds me of an old ad for Cadbury Gold chocolate bars. The main character is millionaire who waltzes around his gold mansion saying "Gold! I love gold! I love the way gold looks! I love the way gold feels! And I especially love...the way Gold tastes!!!" I can't see Yuzu sniffing a medal without that ad in my head.

I dunno. Raf is gruff and gives a bad impression in interviews, but from what I've read that he's said, his coaching technique/ philosophy isn't all that bad. But he seems more like a swimming coach than a skating coach to me. I think you'd have to be a pretty mentally tough individual to thrive under a coach like Raf.

Dai is actually one of a very few skaters that can bring the drama to a program and make it work. And it's because he shares one important quality with Yuzu - he's a dancer and a performer, not just an athlete. It makes for some great skates.

Puts a whole new spin on the nobility, doesn't it?

I believe this is the reason why he can do all the things he does and none of it falls flat. Sakura fairy or primordial Origin, it's all authentic to him and that's the key.

Yes, but it doesn't read as 'feminine' to me, even so. At least on the ice. I agree that there are times off the ice when he affects a stereotypically effeminate demeanor, but to my eye it looks like a role he enjoys playing, as opposed to how he'd act when he's, say, relaxing at home. Maybe it's a matter of what a person sees first when looking at a skate. For me, the athleticism and artistry is what I see first, before I register who might be skating. I see the jump or the spin, the lines of the body, the quality and energy of the movement, and then I notice man or woman, style of skating, music etc. And that being said, my style prefs: Just take Yuzu as a given. Obviously I love his style or I wouldn't be here. After Yuzu, and in no particular order: 1. Aymoz for sure. 2. Keegan's snap and energy is like watching a ball of fire bounce around. 3. Roman Sadovsky really caught my eye at ACI. He's a graceful bird. 4. Scott Moir. Talk about someone who oozes masculinity in all the right ways. I know he's an ice dancer but I can't help but feel he'd have been great at singles too. Brezina has the same quality to me. 5. Jun. He's just fresh. I like so many more too. It's probably easier to talk about the ones I don't like. I'm not a big fan of Bychenko or Samohin, or any of the guys that really go for the heavy serious drama in their music and programs. Likewise I hate it when you can tell a skater is just doing a program their coach handed to them, that they don't feel attached to themselves. That's kind of my complaint about all the Eteri skaters actually. I guess you could say that I like skaters who can make their programs into personal expressions through their artistic and athletic capabilities.

I think it really depends on what your own movement vocabulary is. HYK might not seem 'masculine', but nothing about it reads as 'girly' to me. Innocence and joy are not limited to femininity. Anyone who's watched a two year old boy run around outdoors on a puddle-jumping day will know exactly what I mean. Yuzu retains that quality of accepting wonder in his performances.

Also, sanitation wasn't the same then as it is now. High heels were a practical way to keep your hems out of the questionable muck in the streets of those times.

Isn't that what Raf is going to have? He just got a new rink/facility too. Anyway, you can't replicate personalities and a big part of TCC's success is Brian's and Tracy's ways of being. So trying to copy them is a doomed effort.

Most Canadian universities, the regular course load is five courses per. At my school, engineers were just expected to do more because engineering.

Maybe. Reality is that Johnny was that good, and Scott didn't support him even though he was American. Also, Adam has never seemed particularly unmacho to me. Someone's sexuality has almost nothing to do with their competitiveness, assertiveness, protectiveness, or any other so-called 'masculine' trait, in my experience. But I come from a land where dainty-looking moms play hockey as roughly and aggressively as Hextall and Domi, so maybe my perception of gender norms is slightly skewed.

Agreed. IMO this is the thing that deserves hype about Nathan - and Raf. They've figured out something good it seems.

It's the way they're doing it. Otherwise it wouldn't be so noticeable.

Hmm....maybe my memory is faulty, but back when I was a kid and watched figure skating, Scotty Hamilton never struck me as projecting all that masculine of an aura himself. Yuzu as Sakura fairy is still 100% more masculine-looking than Scott in his zip-up blue one piece jumpsuit with rainbows across his shoulders.

If this going to be a thing, I favor the Red Cross, just because it's a known entity. They're also the ones most likely to be able to handle donations from outside Japan.

According to an article I found on Google, Nathan's course load is four per semester. Normal complement at most North American schools would be five. And if you went to my alma mater for engineering (like I did) you took six per semester and liked it that way. So yes, while it's obviously challenging to do a competitive sport and go to a famous school at the same time, Nathan's not killing himself at it. The media could drop the hype.

He's not even the first to do that. Sara Hughes, 2002 Olympic champion, did it first. And according to Google, he's only taking four courses a semester anyway. As a one-time engineering student, this amuses me greatly...my school required engineers to take six courses per semester. which I did while working 30 hours a week. Don't brag to me about time management at university.

The telling point here is that even Nathan doesn't believe this level of hype about himself ( and Raf certainly doesn't if his comments are anything to go by) so I'm thinking we can safely ignore what Scott says. Also remember that Scott is the man who originated Stars On Ice, so he's not someone skaters can really afford to call out or offend, I'd guess. That being said, some of these comments go way beyond rah-rah-rah-America's-great patriotism and sound more personal, like Scott just dislikes Yuzu, full stop. Which is kind of incredible in its own way. It's not like Scott has to compete against Yuzu or anything.