rockstaryuzu

Eh, I dunno...Dory can hardly be termed anything other than 'dubious'...

It's also a time-honored tradition in kabuki and Noh theatre, which are done by all male performers.

See, I wouldn't say that. I would say it about Weir. But for me, with Yuzu, it's more like the grace and beauty is the feminine side of his masculinity. Like, only the most secure, most confident, most alpha of men could express those feminine traits so naturally, without self-consciousness, fear, or embarrassment, because it just never occurs to them that any one could see them as anything other than masculine. I think it's beautiful, but it's also very old-school. There was a time 200-300 years ago (in the West anyways), when it was the natural place of a gentleman to be beautiful, graceful, and elegant. Yuzu reminds me of that.

That, and acting cute is a bit of a Japanese thing anyway. Are you familiar with other Japanese celebs (actors, singers, etc?) ? If you watch the Japanese entertainment world, you'll see a lot of 'cute' behaviours from both men and women, some much much older than Yuzu. I think it's important to make a distinction here: acting dominant, as Yuzu often does, is not really related to being either masculine or feminine. It's a social trait that can be expressed by both genders.

Yes. Although he does have some cutesy-girlish behaviours IRL too. As for his off-rink style, I've heard it described as 'early Japanese teenager'...which seems about right. My point was that, whatever style he wears/genderness he exudes, it all comes from the same place: within himself. And I don't attach any particular meaning to it; I'm old enough to understand that a mature personality always has traits that may not normally be associated with a person's gender. in my opinion, it's impossible to be a fully developed male or female personality without having and being comfortable with traits of your opposite gender within your own psyche. So what I'm saying is, I see in Yuzu a man who knows himself well and has come to terms with every aspect of his personality, and because of that he's able to pull off things like Haru Yo Koi and Etude and H &L and still not be too girly.

You can't be a top athlete without that characteristic; it's literally impossible. I have to agree that Yuzu is one of the most...integrated... human souls I've ever seen. That is, he is always wholly and completely himself - he's never trying to be something or someone else for the sake of pleasing others (I mean, look at the footage of him at the Emperor's Garden Party...talking up a storm with someone who's supposed to be descended from a deity, no less, and he looks as if it's just a regular day in the park!). He's self-contained in that regard. And I think that characteristic is what makes it possible for him to appear as a lovely celestial maiden, or as a total testosterone-driven rock god (as in LGC), and not seem at all out of place in either role. Because it's still the same Yuzu, who knows who he is, on the inside. Both of them are Yuzu, and more importantly, both of them are him at the same time. It's not either/or with him when it comes to masculine/feminine...it's 'and'. And it's 'and' all the time.

Is it just me, or have they made the costume more pink? Now all it needs is more sparkles.

But now I'm curious about this skater's program, because the costume being that close a copy kind of implies the kid, whoever he is, tried to copy Seimei the program too.

I think we have a small advantage there, in that 'O Canada' was originally written for a brass band so frankly it's hard to mess up and easy to shout no matter how drunk you are... serious props to the original composer for thinking so far ahead...

We make up in enthusiasm what we lack in ability to carry a tune . I'm just impressed that they can take what amounts to a fairly random group of Japanese people, ask them all to sing, and get a result this good

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to hear Yuzu sing, but on the whole, the team have very nice voices. I quite liked hearing Keiji Tanaka's singing. If you did something like this with a Canadian group of athletes, you'd be lucky to find even one who could sing as nice as this.

Just a note on Skate Canada this year: there's literally no Canadian man in competition at Yuzu's level right now. Keegan Messing is fun but he's not that caliber. If Yuzu does get assigned SCI this year, his competition is going to be other international skaters or nothing at all. Unless a dark horse comes out of nowhere.

'Fields of Gold' by Sting. Or, one of the many dwarven songs (please Google 'Discworld dwarves' to see what I'm talking about) that go 'gold, gold, gold, gold, gold' and are about how dwarves love gold. Yuzu might be a dwarf, he loves gold so much!

well, I wouldn't be adverse to seeing him in something red and edgy and just a little bit John Travolta in Grease-ish. Just for the variety.

This should be interesting. Most likely delightful. Also, talk about the smol among the tall...I think Shoma might come up to Nathan and Boyang's middles...

I skate every winter, but I don't know if I'd try an IB on the ice. It's the kind of thing that I feel could go very wrong very easily and end up with a groin tear or something. Just trying the poses out opens a whole new level of appreciating Yuzuru. Even his simple moves are much harder than they look.

Especially the hair.

I can barely reach my ankle to pull it up to my butt for a quad stretch. And splits are a rumour I hear from a long distance away for me. I'm a swimmer. All my flexibility is in my shoulders and ankles. Hence Biellmann just ain't gonna happen. Well, there's always the knee slide thingy...and pistol pose. Yeah, I can do those. Probably. Maybe.

Wow! That's impressive! I haven't even considered trying the Biellmann. I know from childhood ballet lessons that it's most likely completely impossible for me. It'd be fun to have a gallery of pics of satellites trying to Yuzu.

So, question: Has anyone here ever tried to seriously duplicate some of the moves? All this week I've been obsessed with Yuzu's Ina Bauer and I keep wondering how exactly one even gets into that position...so I tried it (on land)...and I couldn't even keep my balance! (Never mind the turnout he gets...) I can just about do a forward inside edge spread eagle while skating, and I can sort-of hold a spiral...but I can't even get into the sit-spin position, and I'm darned if I know how he can pretzel into that hydroblade Anyway, even though actually being able to do what he does is as far out of my reach as the stars, it's tons of fun to try! Does anyone else do this? Or am I the only 'Yuzu-as-fitness inspiration*' dork here? *I'm not joking about the fitspo thing. Yesterday at the gym, my trainer was pushing me with heavy squats and I wanted to quit. I actually thought, 'If Yuzu can win the Olympics on a busted-up ankle, I can do this' and went for it. It bloody well hurt, too. But picturing Yuzu's grin made it better.

Amen to that! I would love to see LGC again, or another program with a similar feel. Rock suits him so well.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Same. But I fear some of my other favorites would fare very poorly. @Forcefield if someone came up with FS judging tech that scored by comparing skaters to an objective standard, half the ISU would be instantly unemployed.

I stumbled across that video on YouTube early on in my Yuzu indoctrination, and oh my God it was gut-wrenching. I can't believe they let him back on the ice in that state. Never mind the coaches or team officials, the competition referee ( or whoever the head official is) should have stopped him from competing for safety's sake. In other news, fanyus can be scary. I waited all morning for Autumn Classic tickets to go on sale at noon, and the all-events pass was sold out by 12:09. All I could get were individual day passes. This despite the fact I'm still not sure I can go.