rockstaryuzu

The funny thing is, you know he'd make it work. About any Gogolev hype: I think it would be hard not to get hyped about a kid Brian's training who's only 13 and can already do all 5 quads and 3A (it seems a given that once he gets old and strong enough, he'll be trying for Nessie, too - who wouldn't?) and especially in Canada, where we seem to be able to train 'em, but we can't win 'em when it counts. That being said, he's not a hockey player, so the hype from our press will be minimal by comparison to what might happen in other countries (like Japan). If he were a hockey player, though, well...Sydney Crosby comes to mind...the coverage that guy got before he was even old enough to drive was nearly nauseating...talk about pressure.

They're just drawing a word picture of how Gogolev looked next to Hanyu. It's not meant to be a comparison in the way you're thinking, it's meant to be a substitute for a photograph so that everyone reading the article gets the image in their mind. What they're saying is that Gogolev is still small. I really like that this article is showing how Brian is building strength upon strength here. Everytime I think about what he's done at TCC, I sit back and marvel. I've been an athlete, and I've been a coach, and I have a reasonably good idea of just how freaking hard it is to build a program like Brian's done, and I honestly can't stop admiring the whole thing. Of course it couldn't have happened without the athletes as well, but Brian had to start it all and drive it forward, and just, can I say, wow. Just wow.

"The willowy Hanyu looked like an oak tree beside the slender, blond, five-foot teen." That's unusually poetic language coming from the staid old CBC. See what you inspire, Yuzu? And yeah, Yuzu the Oak? He's definitely more of a willow. Plus, a willow seems more, well, Japanese. Google 'bonsai willow', you'll see it.

See, I'm starting from scratch, and I figure the radical names don't matter asuch as knowing the shapes of them and how they get used, so it's not bothering me that way. However I am finding it slow going just because I don't have the time to put into it.

I'm with you on that, but if I were forced to choose, I'd rather see him do Roxanne. IMO it suits his fire and energy better than Carmen does. But I really feel like warhorses are beneath him at this point in the game...

That wouldn't necessarily be bad... I just made it to the PH status of my favorite program! Can I stay at 'Let's Go Crazy' forever please? With PPOS Yuzu to accompany me? Pretty please?

Well, there's no obligation upon him to have media day unless there's a lot of Japanese press asking for it, TBH. And I think he's definitely experimenting. After all, it's a new scoring system, new length, he's fresh off the greatest triumph the sport has ever seen so he can pretty well do as he likes...it's the perfect opportunity to make bold new choices and try new things.

try www.wanikani.com. I'm using it to learn kanji and it's pretty fun. As for Yuzu's 2018 programs...honestly I'm feeling a surprise vibe. I think we're going to see something 100% new and fresh from him this time.

There was an interview he gave (in 2015 or 2016, maybe?) to a Japanese interviewer (my memory is suggesting it was for Kenji's Room, but I"m not sure) where the interviewer asks him, in English, "How's your English?" and Yuzu replies in Japanese that it's 'questionable'. He's also on the record (in one of the P&G commercials I think) as saying that he finds it a relief to speak Japanese with his mom when they're at home in Toronto because being surrounded by English all the time is a strain. I'm pretty sure that no matter how much he's improved, he finds English a constant challenge. I can relate. Even though Canadians are officially supposed to be bilingual and I understand French well enough to watch TV in the language, if I spend too much time ( more than a couple days) in a purely French environment, my brain gets tired and it makes me really cranky.

I'm plumping for carnivorous heart-breaker Yuzu, myself. As opposed to NHK 2017 heartbreaking Yuzu...really please let's not do that again.

I forget who did it ( maybe TSL?) But somewhere in the depths of YouTube there's an interview with Brian after 2017 World's in which he talks about the lessons learned after Boston and basically implies that the whole team has changed the way they communicate so that problems don't get hidden anymore. He gives an example using Javi and Gabby, but it's not hard to read between the lines and see that he means Yuzu too.

@Hydroblade when you said this: "Regarding the "his english isn't good enough" thing, i am just speculating but his devices are probably set to japanese, and the forum detects which language you are using. So the interface should appear in japanese for him"...that explained something else for me. I sometimes find that some of my posts get reactions I wasn't expecting, and it's made me wonder what I was doing wrong with my English (I'm a native English speaker). But now I get it - basically, sometimes we're lost in translation. Anyway, it tickles me to think of Yuzu reading us, but realistically he probably has thousands of more important things to do in every.minute of his day.

You're deliberately tempting fate, aren't you? Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that Yuzu has actually created an anonymous account here on the Planet...which one of us do you think it might be?

I'm pretty sure that if he did read us, some of the things we've said would leave him blushing the way he did when Plushenko praised him at CiONTU....

It's hard to say. From things he's said in interviews, it's pretty obvious that he lurks on the Japanese fan forums and sees what they say but who knows if he does it for English ones as well

Maybe this is it? He wants to reach us and move us, and so we can't help but respond? In other words, it's a two-way conversation with the audience when he skates, and that's what makes him so magnetic?

That surely does contribute to his continued popularity but it doesn't explain why some fans fall for him at first sight nor why he is so very precious to all of us...

This is my point exactly. Yuzu's the only one with this power of drawing people to him. I can't help but wonder why it's so.

I think this is important. There are so many who are remarkably talented but don't get to achieve their full potential because of various factors. And so, so, so many odds were against Yuzu.

What a lovely way to put it.

This. I feel like this is true. If it wasn't skating, then it would have been something else, maybe. Some people just have the light.

I look at him, and I feel all those things too...and I don't feel them when I look at other skaters. It's him, himself. Something about him. But what that is exactly, I still can't figure out. He's like a lighthouse but I don't quite know where he's showing the way to.

This might be a bit of a silly question to ask the Planet, but I've been mulling this over for a while now and I can't come up with a satisfactory answer. So, here it is: Why do you think Yuzu is so important? I don't mean, why is he popular, or why are you a fan...but rather, what's his significance in the grander scheme of things? I ask this because in some ways, his phenomenon doesn't make sense. For example, when he got injured last season, I really felt deeply that it was a tragedy and genuinely prayed he would recover for the Olympics. That's not a normal response for me, and I wasn't a full-fledged fanyu yet at the time. I found myself wondering why I got so caught up in it. And if you look at Yuzu's work outside the rink...he's done great things for the 3/11 recovery effort. However, if there was no Hanyu, would there have been someone else to step in to that role? Why him? If you think about it, why does this skinny kid from Sendai with all the big ambitions matter so much?

Doesn't it just make you want to be one of those stuffed toys? My vote for most emotional program is definitely 2018 Olympic Seimei. I loved 2017 Worlds H&L, but I didn't spend 3 months praying for Yuzu's health before that one.

Oh the irony...