Sombreuil

I’m pretty sure the powers that be thought they’d have at least a year before he got up and running. A lot of this must have been seething in his brain for ages. Left us all in awe the way he sprinted away with this the moment the announcement he was turning pro. Miracle boy. I’m so glad you caught it.

@Geo1 did you manage to stream it in the end? You don’t want to miss it if you can help it.

I’m rewatching now on the KKTIX stream- you have until 23.59 Japanese time 1.3.23. to catch it

Have to wonder after the intensely personal Gift, and with SOI in the offing with its well trodden formula, what direction he’s going to take with Notte Stellata, especially with the footage of him with Kohei in the planning stage. Seeing him mimic Kohei’s habit of lining up his vault with his hands for the photoshoot I was rather hoping for Semei opening pose from Kohei. I’m imagining it will be staged a bit like the dancers in Tokyo dome or perhaps the sort of islands on the ice used by the kabuki actors in Hyoen? I’m hoping some bright spark will monetise a stream for us to watch - surely for such a good cause it would be worth it.

Well - I’ve watched it now - amazing. Going to need to rewatch a few times to really absorb the new stuff, but as an initial reaction, I really hope he reworks Firebird up into a longer piece when he’s sharing a show with others and doesn’t have to pace himself so carefully- that costume is too fabulous to waste. Phantom revived - the programme that I adore despite disliking the musical itself and still a contender for my favourite costume. Amazing staging , the chandelier, the opera house style lighting - stunning……. Released from the straitjacket of competition for sure.

I tried several times only to have it blocked at the last hurdle- then I realised my bank was blocking an unusual transaction- once I sorted that out it went through smoothly- maybe check whether your own credit provider has blocked it?

I can’t watch live - I’m away for the weekend. But I’d prefer to watch it on my own later in the week tbh, so having the extra few days makes all the difference.

After a certain amount of trial and error I got my ticket. 🤞🏻it all works.

In the past there was a tendency among sections of the fandom to infantilise him - I’m thinking of all those people pre Planet who were so certain that leaving lovely Nanami Abe to go to Toronto was a dreadful mistake, that Parisan was a horrible programme, that he should stay in his comfort zone in Japan etc etc. Hopefully we’ve all moved past that sort of attitude. We ought to know by now that he knows what he’s doing. We all hate it when bad things happen to him - until the series of greatest hits practices from Beijing came through I couldn’t bear to watch footage from those games. But he’s much braver and more resilient than we are. If he’s doing SOI he’s got his reasons. Maybe he’s assessing who he might be able to use/work with in his own projects. Maybe it’s a nice useful big fat cheque that can cover certain expenses. It’s going to be interesting to compare audience numbers with the other SOI stops. As for Malinin I’m sure he will be his usual charming self. He’s always been very generous and nice to those younger than him, so unless M is objectionable, which I haven’t seen any evidence of, he’ll probably treat him for example as he’s treated the Russian girls in the past. It’s one of his most admirable traits - and a stark contrast to the way seniors treated him in the past. Just read about @Muffinator- so very sorry to hear it.

Ikr….. I’m not really freaking out yet - not til I actually get the link and see it tbh - but if it does work for even a fraction of us it will be amazing.

Anyone having trouble registering? It won’t accept any user name for me…. never mind - got there in the end.

I love the Kobe girls. But, isn’t it amazing that the same small rink in national terms turns out two Olympic champions, one of them a 2x O champion, and now a junior contender in the senior competition. Talked about it with my husband who doesn’t like the same sports as I do but thinks that individual will and talent can win out over national academy style ‘manufactured’ champions if given half a chance. (He’s currently obsessed with Englands new 18 year old spin bowler and therefore predisposed to talk about young success stories however far removed from his normal preoccupations)

This urge to vote for him is very relatable, I’m conscious of the impulse myself, but I personally am trying not to rise to the bait because to involve his name in an ISU award competition of dubious value to my mind does two things- it gives them the click bait that is his name and thus attention that they don’t deserve, and also prolongs the association of his name with an institution which has treated him badly, didn’t deserve him and from which he has walked away. These awards are tacky, they’ve been so since their inception and I feel I don’t want the names of any of my favourites cheapened by association with them.

I think we should all chill out. The ISU ‘awards’ are, and always have been, a pointless load of nonsense dreamed up by that bunch of losers to ‘revive the popularity of fs ‘ ( or some similar ridiculous phrasing) - I think it was all part of the brainchild of that ridiculous Russian whose name escapes me. Any fool could see from the uptake of tickets and particularly from uptake of tickets to watch practices what was making fs popular, but he wasn’t an establishment figure, didn’t sign up to any of the usual management culprits, and while he is impossible to replicate, it would have been possible to persuade skaters to aspire to his standards and some of them might have come close. But it would take time, commitment, hard work, the recognition of talent regardless of passport and long term vision, and they wanted instant stars from the right federations- JSF wanted a Japanese with the right connections. Now he’s left them to it. So who gives a f*** who wins any of these meaningless awards? I didn’t care before and I don’t now. They’re irrelevant.

Excellent warning - thank you

Yes - warm up, programmes and cool downs - lots of space. Wish I could be there. I hope for a revival of Phantom one day…..

So happy to see Mai getting good results- I don’t think ISU knows what to do with PCS anymore they’ve so comprehensively f****d it up propping up skaters who aren’t competing atm/or have retired/just left/barred because of doping or are still there but really lacklustre (looking at M.Uno) to the point where even ISU judges have to notice….. I was sniggering reading the comments in the chat under the ISU YouTube feed. So many fans of the Russians criticising URs etc - the hypocrisy 🤣

IDK where to put this, but I came across it and it’s so characteristic of Y to use the fiendish coda for his equally fiendish step sequence. Chopin and Hanyu - meant to be.

Catching up….. @Geo1 it’s very kind of you to share your experiences with us and is especially appreciated by those of us who have never seen him live, much less met him personally. @Fay welcome back - I missed you. Lot of nastiness on social media atm- the delusions of Zoueva, Nobu folding himself back into the JSF flock, and some unpleasant postings about recruitment of Japanese media users to be paid to puff Uno, Kagiyama, and rouse the Takahashi/Asada fandom to trash Hanyu. JSF were supposed to be investigating? But nothing has been done - shocker. I’m reading translations which as we know are often imperfect but it’s very distasteful stuff if it’s even half true. Hopefully Prologue at Hachinhoe will take the taste away…

Shoma is just

🫣

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Kazuki was good - mistakes, but it flowed and he’s got personality

That was meh - unsurprisingly given his coaching team

Jun managed to stay on his feet - yessss