Henni147

Talking about historic markers... I thought about starting a little history series on Twitter under the hashtag #FigureLegends. There are some really funny and surprising parallels between Yuzu and Dick Button, Axel Paulsen, Gillis Grafström and other skaters of the "ancient times". I would create profiles for all these skaters, including the most spectacular stats, trivia and, if meaningful, a head-to-head comparison with Yuzu. Do you think, that series has potential? If there is general interest, I will try to upload one or two profiles per week.

I posted this breakdown of the historic markers in Notte Stellata on the Planet some time ago, but since it's the anniversary of this magical performance, I share it here with the annotated video again

I actually had the same thoughts, when I watched Sasha Cohen, but I didn't know that David was her choreographer. That explains a lot. What an irony that both Sasha and Yuzu fell on their opening jump and stumbled on the Flip. This program is really cursed (for Shun as well btw) PS: I occasionally rewatch Finlandia, too (Tessa and Scott are priceless), but the program just doesn't get me. It's probably the music itself that is not my cup of tea (sorry Nino). @ZuCritter Thanks for recommending the Oly practice. That's a nice version indeed. A bit sad that he only skated half of the program with many gaps inbetween. In his black training gear the program looks much better than in his competition costume... EDIT: As for the skating itself, I like COR Otonal more than NHK, too. However, for some perverted reason YT has deleted every single official broadcast recording and none of the fancams could really capture the fantastic details of that performance imo. Yuzu is so small most of the time, especially during those marvelous spins... and you can't see his happy smile during the step sequence really well either. This one is probably the best, but the long warm-up recording is a bit annoying in a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR3R-QmDBuo That's the main reason why I picked NHK instead. Also, that version deserves more appreciation than it got imo. Yuzu might not have been in the happiest mood, but the skating and jumping quality were really strong. Better than SC comp. In case of Swanyu, I prefer both Oly and Torino GPF over COR. I particularly love the smoothness and delicacy of his movements in Pyeongchang. He took his time for every single move and the simple dimmed lights supported the impression of a beautiful fragile swan dancing on a frozen lake in the starry night. In Moscow the skating was good, but the escalation with the changing camera angles and that deep pink lighting in the arena totally killed the mood of the program for me. He's not skating to Barbie Girl. I 100% percent agree with you that the remastered programs in the galas are the best. I LOVE all of them, especially from the last two years! PW at Skate Canada, Seimei at MOI, H&L at 4CC. They are all absolute masterclass, especially in terms of musicality and performance. I admit that I like 4CC H&L even more than the Helsinki skate despite the spin wobble (probably because of the camera and better lighting). I wanted to add the CiONTU skates, too, but there is no decent recording on YT...

To close this day: I got tired of searching single YT videos on TV with the remote control. So I finally made a playlist with my personal favorite Yuzu programs. The mandatory "daily Yuzu meal", as my mom says. I tried to pick one performance of each of Yuzu's senior programs (both competitive and gala/show). To be honest. With some programs this is simply impossible, because there are too many great ones. Like... Seimei made it to the list 3 times. My personal favorite is probably MOI 2019, but I just didn't have the heart to leave out NHK '15 and Oly '18. In case of Otonal it was extra tricky, because every performance had something that the other didn't. For me, ACI '18 had the best music cut and choreo, COR '18 probably the best spins, the SC '19 run-through the best jumps and skating quality, SC '19 comp the best atmosphere, NHK '19 the cleanest full performance overall and MOI '19 encore the best step sequence... In fact, I rewatch the SC RT and MOI the most. PS: The only competitive program I left out is R&J 2.0... Gomen Yuzu, I don't know why, but none of the versions has ever really grown on me... I tried to pick the highest resolution and recording quality for each skate that I could find on YT. The list is sorted chronologically by date of the performance. I'm curious, if you share my choice or can recommend better versions. I'm always open for good suggestions! Yuzuru Hanyu 羽生結弦: Recommended Performances

Mom and I just did a little nostalgia hour and rewatched the Torino Olympics 2006. I will never complain about telegraphing again. Some performances were really painful to watch... However, it was really interesting to see Shizuka in the ladies' event and Stephane, Jeff, Plush, J*hnny and Dai competing against each other. Yuzu's skating today feels a bit like: he took the greatest strength of each, elevated them to next level, added own features and created the ultimate super fusion of it all. I think, the different strengths of these skaters are distributed as follows: Shizuka: flexibility and extension of spins and spirals Plushenko: champion aura, big jumps and consistency Stephane: spins and skating skills Jeffrey: skating skills and transitions J*hnny: flow and body positions Dai: musicality and performance (but he was far away from his best here imo) In a way I can understand why Plush, J*hnny and Stephane were Yuzu's idols. As skaters they really stood out in those days. As a person Stephane would have been the best choice, though... Some fun facts about the scoring: Plush was the only skater in the men's event who received +3 GOE (from three judges for his StSq in the SP). He also got the highest component score of the event (8.46 for skating skills in the FS). The others received components in the 7's. Those were really different times...

Honestly? I am highkey crying. But I couldn't agree more with the cancelling. Health and safety first.

To be clear: I really hope that Worlds gets cancelled and everyone stays healthy and safe. However, I just realized that - if it takes place and Yuzu decides to compete - he has the chance to rewrite figure skating history once again. If he makes the podium (which is absolutely doable for him), he will be the second skater after Jan Hoffmann in men's singles to win 7 medals at the world figure skating championships in the post-war era.

I'm not sure, but I don't think so. There are two big problems with the music licensing: When you skate a program in competition, the music is aired a) live in the arena, b) on TV by various broadcasting channels and c) archived/ uploaded on different platforms (official ISU YouTube channel, archive of national federations, broadcasters etc.) Technically, every party has to ask for permission individually. Otherwise the audio track gets muted or deleted, as it happened with some videos on the ISU channel recently. Skaters usually have to re-edit the music piece for a 2:50 minute short program or 4:00 minute free skate. Re-editing or mixing different audio tracks requires extra permission and many artists have issues with that. I can imagine that an experienced music editor or choreographer with good connections has the possibility to consult the artist or management, but especially lower ranked skaters with little budget don't have access to such sources.

I've just taken a look at my Twitter account after a week break and I'm a bit in shock tbh. People have added me to various petition lists and protest campaigns against Worlds without my knowledge or agreement. Of course, I agree with most of the complaints and I'm very worried about the health of the athletes, teams, officials and staff members, but I'd like to build my own opinion and decide myself, which protest movements I want to join or avoid. I have my doubts that we can reach anything by forcing people into protesting. This can backfire very quickly, especially if we cannot distinguish between calm reasoning and aggressive voicing.

I rewatched the NHK documentary with Dick Button, Plushenko and Javi. This is what Plushenko said himself about the Sochi Olympics, his thoughts about Yuzu and his withdrawal after the warm-up of the short program: It's hard to tell, how much honesty there was in Plushenko's words, but I somehow believe him that he really WANTED to compete against Yuzu in the individual event. I think, his will to challenge Yuzu and increase the overall level of the field with his presence was bigger than his fear to lose. Also, Plushenko knew that he pretty much 'robbed' Kovtun of his chance to compete in Sochi, so he had the responsibility to deliver and win a medal for Russia at least, which would have been absolutely realistic, especially after that mess of a freeskate. EDIT: It was a shame that the titanium bolt had come out of place and he was forced to WD, but what really upset me was the fact that so many people left the audience in the middle of the SP, when they found out that Plush wouldn't skate. That was such an insult to all the other competitors. I think, Plushenko and Yuzu are very much alike, when it comes to their dedication and commitment to figure skating. They are not only looking at their own medal collection and achievements, but the development of the sport as a whole. 'Quo vadis, figure skating?' They both ask this question, in their own way. They always have that bigger picture in mind and care about the overall quality and growth of the field. They are not pleased with just winning. They want to win against the strongest field with the strongest performance and enrich the sport with their skating as long as possible. They do not only want to take, they want to give as much as they can as well. That gives them most satisfaction and this what sets them apart from the rest. I'm not a big Plushenko fan, but if anything, I respect him for his longevity and attitude towards competing.

My prayers to all the people affected by yesterday's earthquake. I don't even dare to imagine how it must have been like, especially so late at night with no electricity in winter. Also, with the horrible memories of 3-11 in mind, so close to the sad 10 year anniversary... I hope that Yuzu and his family are alright. Please stay safe everyone

I just realised that there is an exhibition gala planned at Worlds in Stockholm... Personally, I have zero understanding for holding an opening ceremony, gala and closing banquet in the middle of a pandemic. The competition itself is risky enough. However, if Worlds really happened and Yuzu decided to compete there, I somehow have the feeling that he would skate to Requiem in the gala. It's been 10 years since 3-11 and... I don't know how to describe it... "Requiem of Heaven and Earth" feels like an echo of his new free "Heaven and Earth". Also, with no audience there would be a rare opportunity... an atmosphere of silence to remember the victims of 3-11. What do you think?

According to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, the official Hepburn romanizations and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcriptions are as follows: Voiceless Voiced (with a dakuten sign) す/ ス su with a voiceless s Hepburn: su IPA: su Phonetic similarity: superb /suˈpɝb/, soup /suːp/ ず/ ズ zu (or su with a voiced s) Hepburn: zu IPA: zu Phonetic similarity: zoom /zuːm/, presume (Am) /pɹəˈzum/ つ/ ツ tsu Hepburn: tsu IPA: t͡su Phonetic similarity: tsunami /tsuːˈnɑːmi/ づ/ ヅ dzu Hepburn: zu or dzu IPA: d͡zu (less common: d͡su) Phonetic similarity: azzurro (It) /adˈd͡zur.ro/ So, with Hepburn ゆづる should be romanized as Yuzuru or Yudzuru. The closest IPA transcription is /'jud͡zuru/. The phonetic difference between "tsu" and "tu" such as "chi" and "ti" is shown here: つ/ツ tsu Hepburn: tsu IPA: t͡su Phonetic similarity: tsunami /tsuːˈnɑːmi/ とぅ/トゥ tu Hepburn: tu or tou IPA: tu Phonetic similarity: tutu /ˈtuːˈtuː/ ち/チ chi Hepburn: chi IPA: t͡ɕi (or t͡ʃɪ) Phonetic similarity: chicken /ˈt͡ʃɪkən/ てぃ/ティ ti Hepburn: ti IPA: ti or tɪ Phonetic similarity: tip /tɪp/, party /ˈpɑɹ.ti/ In case of his former coach, the Japanese writing and transcriptions should be as follows: Kanji: 都築章一郎 Hiragana: つづき しょういちろう Hepburn: Tsuzuki Shōichirō (or Tsudzuki Shouichirou) IPA: /'t͡sud͡zuki/ /ɕo̞ː'it͡ɕiɾo̞ː/ Tuzuki Shoitirou must be some old form of romanization, otherwise it would look in Hiragana rather like this (which is quite... weird): とぅづき しょういてぃろう

EDIT: So Yuzu is an official fulltime athlete now oha Who is Shoitirou Tuzuki? Ten to chi to has no composer. In other words: accoring to the ISU the music basically fell from Heaven to Earth. They're still ignoring Plu-san as his idol lol. Also, it sounds weird to mention the 300 point bareer only, when he's been the first to surpass the 100 in the short and 200 in the free as well. But hey, it's a start.

Official press conference after the men's free in Beijing

Oha... his Flip edge was more outside here than most skaters' Lutz edge It's incredible that he actually managed to fix this over the years. Such a shame that he's still worried about edge calls and doesn't go for the 4F. His triple Flip is so nice...

EDIT: Well, actually the list is longer: Yuzuru Hanyu... ... is a cat with nine lives ... that looks like a swan ... occasionally dressed like a jellyfish ... but flies like an eagle ... jumps like a stag ... and spins like a flattie spider ... with the brain of an elephant ... and the neck of a giraffe ... aging with the speed of a tortoise ... loving a bear named Winnie the Pooh ... having a soft spot for bees ... and being considered as the GOAT of figure skating. I think, it's legit to call him YuZOOru Hanyu.

Yes, it's this version. My counter is at 1.987.792 at the moment. It's a bit odd that you can only find the video via YouTube search, if you use the Kanji writing of his name. I'm sure, the view numbers would be much higher, if the title contained the Romaji transcription as well and the video provided English subs. EDIT: The good news is that FNN is a verified channel, where videos usually do not get deleted. So we have hope that this version of H&E will stay with all clicks, likes and comments (even if I can't read 99% of them). The version with the second highest view numbers (currently +350K) is this one, but the comment section is turned off:

I just saw that H&E is less than 15K clicks away from 2 Mio! Tomorrow the video will be exactly 1 month old. It would be iconic, if it surpassed the 2M tomorrow. C'mon Fanyus

Yuzu is that type of skater, if you mute the music, you can recreate the notes from his body movements. I just have to see 3-5 seconds of a practice run-through - no music, no costume, just his black training gear - and I can tell which program it is. It doesn't even have to be the step sequence, just a random part of the choreo. His movements are so characteristic in their vibe, expression, energy and speed that they translate almost 1:1 into the music piece.

Yes, the biggest question mark is probably, whether Beijing will take place, according to plan or postponed or not at all. The thing is: Yuzu is the only Olympic champion in the current men's field. While for others it's essential that Beijing takes place, for Yuzu it's more like a special bonus round - great if it happens , fantastic if held under safe conditions, but no reason to jump from the Tokyo Tower if cancelled. Even if he can't win, from antis and media he can't get insulted and humiliated (much) more than he already is, while most of his fans will still be his fans and love him, whatever the outcome will be. However, he can win a lot, if he gets the third gold or not to mention, if he manages to land the Quaxel, too. Nathan has yet to prove, if he can withstand the Olympic pressure and deliver on the biggest stage, when the whole world is watching - not only the skating community, but also loads of unbiased people, who have never heard of him before. He made one mistake at Nationals now and his score was already 20 points lower than two or three years ago, when he scored that ridiculous 342 in the combined total. Two mistakes and he might not even go above 300. Nathan's biggest weapon is skating clean with many quads. If that doesn't work, not even the most corrupt judges can save him and he knows that. Also, in Torino he has pretty much reached his technical limit, I think. I'm not sure, if he can add a 4Lo and still go clean, especially under Olympic pressure with the 2018 SP disaster in mind. In Saitama and Torino Yuzu has knocked out himself with a serious error in the short. If he skates clean in their next encounter and scores above 110, the pressure will be on again. Whatever narratives are made up by the media, it's a forlorn hope to stand up against a clean Yuzuru Hanyu in direct comparison. If you win, you can prepare yourself to become a second Sotnikova.

I really wonder, what it would be like, if Yuzu had the opportunity to show his skating in form of a music video (or similar recording style). Where he can arrange the setting, direct the filming and skate a program the way he wants it to be. Like... imagine the following future scenario: Yuzu finally has the time to do whatever he likes. *yeey* Naturally, he takes the full bloody 9:22 minutes of Chopin's Ballade No. 1 and remasters the choreography (together with Jeff or by himself). He documents the whole process, his thoughts and decisions in a +1h video. Then he hires an experienced camera team and develops the recording together with them (best filming angles and frame, fitting moments for close-up shots and change of perspectives, zoom etc.). The performance is recorded in 4K or 8K and 30 or 60 fps. The "making of" is filmed as well (outtakes included ). The final cut of the performance and the making both get published, maybe individually on an online video channel or on a DVD/ Blueray together with other programs... And we as fans would have the chance to watch super HD Yuzu from the best angle with his best skating... I don't know how you feel about it, but the mere thought gives me chills... Especially in times, where live events are so dangerous and limited, this would be such a blessing...

Well, my mom said right after NHK that Nathan will mess up and Yuzu will pull a miracle in PyeongChang. And so it happened. Now everyone was worried about Yuzu's first pancake at JNats (myself included). My mom was confident that he will have two great performances. And so it happened. She has some sort of 6th sense, when it comes to Yuzu. And again, she feels that Nathan will collapse under the ultra hype by the media and anger of many fans, while Yuzu will be positively driven by the urge to remind everyone, who the true boss is. She just might be right one more time... From the other skaters' point of view this situation is usually like this: Yuzuru, the anticipated favorite, is tough to beat. Yuzuru, the unpredictable hunter, is the worst nightmare. EDIT:

I honestly don't know what a certain (very probably former) idol of Yuzu is up to, but his behavior has reached an all-time low this weekend. Looking at the latest results at a certain national competition, I feel more and more confident that Yuzu has a serious chance to win in Beijing. He just needs to stay calm, do his thing and wait patiently for his rivals to collapse under the pressure. Sure, it's hard to prove yourself, when everyone is talking trash about you. But I think, it's even harder to live up to the expectations, when everyone is praising you to the skies.

EDIT: Actually, Yuzu's current bios would look like this