Moria Polonius

The company doesn't have to be similar for the deal to be similar. I take it that Kinoshita is a conglomerate that owns lots of subsidiaries, does business in media, real estate and more. So, very unlike ANA which has a single field of operations. The sponsorship deal, however, could be similar to the one Yuzu has with ANA, or the one Shoma has with Toyota, but it's all conjecture and guesswork. I know that Shoma is an "employee" of Toyota. Is Yuzu also an "employee" of ANA? Shirota plays a role in his career, so it looks like closer ties than "we pay for your training expenses/whatever and you wear our jacket and let us use your face on our website". Yuzu would be a perfect candidate for an advertising deal with ANA too. He flies often after all, it'd be really easy to script a tv spot.

Did I just watch 19 minutes of Yuzu jumping nothing but axels? Yes, I did.

It's during his college break. Most likely he didn't really expect to get it but he'd have been fool if he hadn't even tried.

According to Jack Gallagher, Nathan requested NHK but NHK picked Yuzu. https://twitter.com/sportsjapan/status/1143883939951439872?s=20

So, GS has this troll thread about Yuzu being the greatest or not. I want to be a bit trolly in return and post a poll there. So, please, vote in the poll, you shouldn't have much difficulty answering! https://linkto.run/p/7YQJXZNS Btw, you can vote multiple times, lol. One vote per 5 mins (I think) (or maybe not, what I took for 1 vote per 5 mins was actually 1 vote in 5 mins when I created the poll... Anyway, I feel so silly doing this thing.)

Somebody tell them to release different camera angles.

Parissiene Walkways in excellent quality and without commentary, finally! (The previous version on Oly channel was pretty shitty.)

But his chances to get to GPF are actually pretty good? He's got less stiff competition than Samarin IMO, he's got just 1 opponent at each comp that he's unlikely to beat, whereas Samarin has 2-3. Rostelecom is a tougher field with Shoma, Zhou, Samarin and Aliev and Kvitelashvili.

Weeelll, I did say "if he doesn't mess up". I mean, with Misha it's always wide-open.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that maybe Kolyada wanted a competition with less pressure. At Rostelecom he'd be against Vincent Zhou - and he'd be expected to win. His assignments are actually very good, if he doesn't mess up, she should get 2 silvers, or even gold if Yuzu messes up. The only other person who could beat him is, I think, Nam. He's not going against Samarin or Junhwan or or Aliev or Kvitelashvili or Keegan.

I just read that a Final Fantasy VII remake is planned for 2020. Which means.... yet another version of One-Winged Angel. Which also means it'll be popular.... C'mon Yuzu, you know you want to!

Count me in as one of those who are sad to see Masquerade go, I hoped he'd leave irt as an official exhibition. Maybe at NHK? Oh, is it time for our yearly "what's your favourite costume countdown" again? Here's my top 10: 1. Etude 2. Requiem 3. Notte Stellata 4. Origin 5. LGC 6. R&J 1.0 7. Seimei 2.0 8. PotO 1.0 9. R&J 2.0 10. White Legend

If he's going to Eteri, he'd better try to blend in with the girls.

Get Kolyada and Shoma somwhere together.

Hmmm. I've been reading some comments around. it's been pointed out that Eteri and Dudakov and Shoma are a great match. Shoma's technique relies heavily on pre-rotation. Dudakov teaches pre-rotation. Judges don't care about pre-rotation. Shoma wants 4Lz. Eteri's girls have 4Lz. Shoma needs consistency. Eteri seems good at instilling consistency. Shoma needs lots of direction and organization done for him. Any coach more controlling out there than Eteri? People complain that Shoma's programs are empty. Whatever we can say about Eteri and Daniil, their programs for girls are not empty (Kvitelashvili though...). I'm starting to quote fancy the idea. No, I don't think that Eteri girls skate like robots, I often find them very expressive. And Shoma's not 15 years old but 21 - he's got his own style. A different choreo can change things up but it won't completely remove Shoma's innate intensity and expressiveness. The only con I see is the language barrier and ther prospect of some major alienation involved work moving to Moscow. But Shoma world probably need an interpreter no matter what country he'd move to, so does it matter whether he'll get an English or Russian interpreter? It was also pointed out that if Shoma by some miracle moved to TCC, Yuzu and his mom would be expected to help them with everything. Which sounds like a tremendous burden actually. Yuzu is fond of Shoma but I doubt he'd be fine with being obliged to show somebody the ropes in a new country, which could interfere with his own routine.

So... Eteri!

Well, yeah, that's why I did take him into account. But maybe Brian is as likely to take on Shoma as Raf. The question is whether Shoma would rather train with Yuzu every day or with Nathan who's away in Yale. Tbf Raf's "empty choreo" approach might be more what Shoma's used to. The TCC choreo is more challenging but I think Shoma might be able to pull it off. They might want to improve his cheated jumps though and it might destabilize him. Bit I think Shoma's one of the few who could make David Wilson choreo work.

Then hope to God he goes to Eteri (or Brian or Lambiel but those are extremely unlikely) and not Raf or Mishin or Zakrajsek. Because then it'll be worse.

Can I be frank again? There goes Shoma's 2019/20 season. But I guess better sacrifice the 2019/20 season and then have 2 years to train for the Olympics.

The thing is, Yuzu was, as you said, practically a baby back then so it wasn't that shocking. Looking backwards, kinda natural progression. Shoma's leaving a coach under whom he got 2 world and 1 Olympic medal, so I see more similarities to Evgenia. He must have been really disappointed with his season, not that I'm surprised. But let me be honest: from the outside pov, I don't see any coach who could improve Shoma's results other than Raf. And Raf trains Shoma's greatest rival, so I'm not sure whether Shoma would consider going there.

Oh wow, Shoma is leaving coach Fluffy? It's like evgenia leaving Eteri...

If Nathan chose NHK, JSF would probably invoke their host pick right. Unless Yuzu would actually rather go somewhere else. In that case JSF would put Shoma there - would Nathan want to go against a dangerous rival on the rival's home ground?

I read that the skater's - winner's - preferences are honored though. Maybe not to the extend that Nathan could just shrug off SA or choose NHK because that's host pick teritory, but if he picks France, he'll get it even if France preferred Yuzu and Yuzu wanted it too.