EisElle

8 hours ago, xeyra said:

GOE tab

Tbh to see in that tab what has happened in this last season is quite jarring to me. Of course I’m happy that Yuzuru still got the highest average despite the issues he had, but when I look at the single elements there are some things which are just puzzling.

I guess Yuzu's "fault" is that he makes look too easy all the insane things he does. The jumps, the transitions, the spins so accurately matched to the music (how much work behind a simple hand gesture on the music beat!)... when he does them well they look effortless. Yet, quoting Ambesi from ESP ITA (and to me he sounded a bit annoyed in saying so) “a judge should know". He was talking about the backcounter vs. spread eagle before 3A, but it can be applied to every element. The judges should know, because they have to, you know,  judge. A competition, not some tv-show. They should be able to recognize difficulty even when it looks easy. They should be able to discern that "effortless" is a plus (what the heck, it's even in the GOEs bullets!), and if one doesn't know the sport cannot (should not) be allowed to judge it. Period.

I can resign myself that mistakes in the short put Yuzuru in a position to be "held down" in the long (which is still wrong per se, and honestly quite disconcerting when it comes to a skater who should really have nothing more to prove to anyone), and yes, judges are only humans and have a limited amount of time for giving their scores (e.g. I think it's quite realistic that their GOEs may be mere degreed of "good" and "bad" without thought for actual rules), but it's really saddening that quality hasn't been rewarded as it should have been. Even more so when I see unequal treatment.

Yuzuru took years of perfect 3As to get those bloody +3s. Now it looks they are barely good enough compared to the rest of the field. Years of perfect 4Ts, too. Quoting Ambesi again, iirc from 2013-2014 about a 3A or a 4T: “If you don’t give +3 to this, when do you give it?”

Yuzuru always kept polishing all the other elements, too. He's never slacked off at anything. He's been not only delivering quality consistently on everything but also constantly increasing difficulty.

Now, suddenly it’s enough to land a jump to get high scores, who cares for set-ups and transitions and all that should warrant a +.  Who cares about complexity and difficulty. Apparently some judges can’t recognise/don’t care for all of that!

Before, maybe,  judges were too stingy. But once someone (Yuzuru) managed to get (earn) the highest scores in GOE and PCS, suddenly they became all so eager to give those candies (to everyone else).

So yes, I claim the right to feel extremely annoyed for a while(runs to watch H&L in loop to make peace with the world)

(sorry for this long gloomy thing, I'm in dire need of FaoI extra!Yuzu)

Thank you @Fay for this beautiful post!

It never ceases to amaze me and move me to see how Yuzu is able to inspire such deep, heartfelt emotions in so many people. We may be different for background, nationality, age and so on, but he touched us all the same.

Yuzuru really is something special

2 hours ago, Altie said:

There's a pretty great long interview of Shoma that has just been translated by cantilovertranslation

1 hour ago, xeyra said:

I really loved this interview with Shoma. Not just the parts he talks about Yuzu but his entire feelings and thoughts on his evolution. He actually shares a lot more with Yuzu than you think, including this need to always improve, to never being happy, to aiming for an ideal that is always changing and evolving. And also I really liked how he didn't allow the interviewer to push him too much.

Yes, the talk about the ideal and evolution reminds of Yuzuru, but I also noticed that there is a someway different attitude. My thoughts are reinforced by what Shoma says about 4Lo, 4A (and quints): if none is doing them, he is not the one who pushes to make them real. In this I think Yuzuru has a different mindset, as he wants to be the one who pushes the sport, while Shoma may be a little bit more conservative (in a harsher way it could be said he is the one that follows rather then the one who takes the lead. He still landed the first ratified 4F, though).

From my point of view these two are very different approaches, but it doesn't mean one is necessarily more correct (or will work better) than the other.

Anyway from the interview I gather that Shoma is hard-working, ambitious but down-to-heart, so he has all it takes to grow.

1 minute ago, Hydroblade said:

We're working on some tweaks on the backend D; sorry! 

Ah ok, don't worry

I noticed that today my ava is suddenly gone and if I try to reupload it from my pc or to import it from url I get this message

You are not allowed to upload animated images

I've already tried with other gifs, same message.

It's not a catastrophe, of course, I just wanted to know if some settings have changed or such

Now I'll try to upload a jpeg instead

Thank you for this translation!

BTW I enjoy your other long (and not at all tiresome) posts a lot

Ugh my fiancés are Boston Requiem and the saved LGC 4Lo, so my dress should blend purple and greenish seaweed?

Maybe I can make some pastel hues work someway, and if I go for something japanese ('cause I got a piece of Change too) I can end with something resembling the female and slightly rockish version of hana ni nare costume, which wouldn't be that bad...maybe. Or I can go for classical white dress and merely add a lot of (coloured) blings...

My makeup should be fine though

Okay I've finally caught up with this thread (and now for me it's already past time to go to sleep)

It's very interesting how there are so many opinions and everyone add fresh details and different perspectives, I feel my own personal view expanded as well.

I was rewatching some old documentaries about Yuzu from 2012-2013 season and I was struck by how much he has grown while still remaining "himself". I'm feeling so proud right now

He talked a lot about evolving, and being consistent was indeed one of the things he wanted to achieve, with the Olympics in mind. I also had to smile when they talked about working on his skating skill first, and Brian stressed the importance of good foundations. Now I see how Yuzuru has become and I can see that it worked marvellously well, and Brian was right on this and Yuzuru was right in trusting him despite his hunger for quads. In a way I am lucky that I could discover the "final product" (I don't mean the word in a bad way) without having to endure all the process. I can just watch and gush without losing my hair (poor Brian...he was still so fit and with all his hair that first year...)

I've also realized this talk about Chopin 3.0 and upgrades is the first real trial I'm facing since I became a Yuzu fan (sorry but I refused to watch or read anything related to him for a whole week during both 4CC and Worlds, and even WTT, I  just searched the final results, I'm such a weakling)

I think those of you who have been there from the start are...very brave.

I've seen Yuzuru's ups and dawns, I've read of some controversial choices, but I already knew the final outcame (usually a glorious one). Now I'm experiencing the real thing, and even if I've said to myself "I'll trust his choices because he knows better",  I can't help but feel a bit of worry. But thinking back about all that happened when I was still blissfully ignorant of the existence of Yuzuru, I've concluded that I'll just try to be patient and wait to see how things will evolve, because I'm sure there will be more surprises and more debates to come

By the way (totally random change of topic) does anyone know if there will be a day of rest for the men event between SP and LP? I know in Sochi there wasn't and the LP was a splatfest. I really don't want another one next year just because these poor guys aren't allowed to take a breath.

Ok, now I'm going to sleep

Why is it soooo hard to choose? These banners are so awsome! I've spent a good half an hour just scrolling up and down and up and down and now I've pretty much chosen 4 out of 5 but I can't make up my mind about the 5thWhat can I do?

Okay, I'll sleep on it. The final number will show up in my dreams (hopefully)

ETA: I've finally voted. Sadly the number failed to show up, I had to choose by myself. So much effort

To all people who made the banners: thank you!!!

18 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Ah, such wise words. Bach is so hard to understand, even for western musicians. I've had so many issues with Bach, every time I played it. Some pieces would intrigue me, touch me, but some other pieces would just be out of my league, from another world. And Bach is the 'difficult' Baroque, I'd say. Vivaldi is a more 'commercial' Baroque, so it gives off the impression to be easier to interpret. 

Imo, a music like Winter, exactly like all of the other Seasons, is built upon images. In fact, the sheets of the Four Seasons came with four poems, which gave very concrete images to the musical pieces. 
I've never played Winter, but I'm familiar with Summer. In the Summer, you find isolated image after image, a bird singing, two birds chasing one another, the breeze among the tree branches, the sun... then, suddently, delicate rain on the grass. Then, suddently, a lightning. The storm. And so on, and so on. (I'm talking about musical images, of course, that are explicited by the poem).

All of this to say that you need very concrete images in your head to skate to a music like Vivaldi's Winter to give it meaning, an interpretation that's not a spoof, a parody of the original.

Sorry

I have a rather hazy memory of my music teacher making us listen to Spring in class while describing the images... . Even if I haven't really studied music aside of those few hours at school, I still recall those lesson with fondness. It was a long time ago, but your words made me remember that

RE Shoma SP: There were some parts I liked, expecially the last spin, while others left me more meh

I think he put a spin where I was expecting a step sequence, probably I'm still thinking of Lambiel's Four Seasons. I'm going to rewatch that one now maybe I just have to forget that to appreciate Shoma's more. I remember Patrick's Winter did not impressed me either.

I'm sure Shoma will grow (and please show us more than your default intense!stare, we know you can!!!) and maybe even choreo will be adjusted. There's still plenty of time.

But with Yuzu going classic too, I feel that comparison will be very very tough for everyone else.

1 hour ago, asiacheetah said:

That off stage showing of Yuzuru who's smiling at the camera is puppies, kittens, and all that's fluffy in the world.

I missed it

awwww cute Yuzu I'm squealing

OMG that plush

Thank you for the streaming!

Going to give my neighbours heart attacks with my sudden screaming and crazed laughing

4 minutes ago, xeyra said:

Also, I don't think he'll risk a 3T3Lo combo because it's harder than just perfecting his 1Lo3S.

plus he actually already landed it in competition in the second half

I'd say 1Lo3S is more likely, and I would kinda expect it in a 5 quad layout. Also I thought combo with 3Lo as final jump have higher risk of underrotation?

Thank you @gladi @hamaguri for these wonderful tidbits!!

These fan reports make me giddy, in a good way

47 minutes ago, Lyyli said:

About Chopin once again: I understand Chopin3 is his strategy for the 2nd OGM and I will surely love the program, it will be so great. He is anxious to win gold and I do hope it because he is such an amazing skater. The quads, pressure and the hard season with two new programs have also effected to his SP choice.

 

But still, he won WC and GPF with two new programs. And what happens to Figure skating in general if many skaters, especially top ones, start to repeat their programs for three seasons? Could this happen in the future because of the quads. No time for new programs any more.   

Well he won GPF with not-perfect SP and not-very-good LP. Yes, he was the best of the field there, but the level was nowhere near the one we saw at Worlds. And at Worlds he made only one mistake which being in the SP costed him a lot, and honestly the kind of perfection we saw in his LP can't be expected all the time, and even then judges didn't throw his score to the roof (unlike a lot of people was expecting). It was a close call. I think the deflation in his GOE and PCS may have weighted in his awareness of "I have to go clean(ish)" more consistently (consistently as he is expected to, which means more than anyone else, unfair but that's how it is). And it is true that in SP mistakes are very costly. I agree with you that Chopin can (will) be great, both for him and for us.

The only real reason for being upset is that it's already the third time, but I don't think Yuzu will set a trend there...well, he is a trendsetter, but if you choose to repeat a program, you are also expected be able to bring to it something new, and it maybe be not that easy. For sure Yuzu can. Others...who knows. Also with the change of rules after the Olympics a lot could change, maybe even the attitude towards quads, if they will start to stress more quality over quantity, with broader range of goe and maybe a change in pcs too, so we'll see. I want to be positive about all of this

7 minutes ago, PomeloPooh said:

- The above being said, I don't think he's playing it safe & easy by choosing Chopin. The program's got world records & perfection stamped all over it. By choosing to do it he's choosing to undergo immense pressure and making "going beyond the ideal" his obligation. In this sense, he's as extra as ever, if not on a new level.

 

I won't deny at first I was quite surprised at Yuzu reusing Chopin. Actually more than disappointed I felt a bit worried, but now I see that his BV will still be higher and there is a chance for further upgrading, so this reassures me a lot. Also we know Yuzuru has proven countless times he knows what he's doing. In the previous pages we had a bit of gloom and doubts, but I think it just proves how emotionally invested we are in him, and after cooling down and reconsidering, it looks that gloom it's over  .

I'm sure Yuzu himself was aware of the backlash that could come because of his choice, even from his fans, so this further proves to me he has taken this decision with his eyes wide open. And in retrospect, we totally should have seen it coming, given his recent talks about Jason Brown's SP  and his emphasizing that he wants to raise his average and bring out his best qualities (such as jumping beautiful jumps and executing programs with high quality). Some of his programs made me at first, and now I absolutely adore them So I will just trust him, and cheer for him and support him no matter what.

(And he has already sold me with that 4T3T )

About rumors of Seimei 2.0, actually the more I think about it the more I like the idea, as I'd be very curious about what Yuzu can pull out. Chopin and Seimei are his most iconic combo. "Going beyond the ideal" indeed Forget the going safe thing, Yuzu really has some guts!

(Though I'd still be overjoyed if he has a new LP)

Now I go to catch up with the Makuhari thread

2 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

4 minutes ago, sallycinnamon said:

Medvedeva goes to both CoR and NHK 

King and queen together! LOL

I noticed that too

NHK has gathered all the golden medalists, though.

What I like the most about this thread is that there are so many suggestions! I'm getting to know a lot of new pieces (well they are knew to me), keep going on guys!

4 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Honestly, this kind of 'intelligence' (I would call it slyness though) is very popular in Italy. Minimum effort, Maximum result. I hate it. And I think it's the complete opposite of Yuzuru's way of thinking. I can understand it, of course... but I hope Yuzuru and his team won't make the same decisions. I want strong pieces, sure, but not easy, or old, or overused. There's plenty of music, out there. You just gotta search a little harder.

As a fellow italian, I feel you!

4 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

IT'S JUST THAT. Searching for a connection with the music is such a huge job. Finding your own interpretation of a piece of music is such a huge thing. Every time Yuzuru goes on the ice, he creates something new. It's not Seimei, Prince, Chopin, it's HIS Seimei, HIS Prince, HIS Chopin, and in Hope and Legacy he went as far as creating autobiographic poetry on ice. I cannot, cannot accept that this sensitivity is worth the same as 'being in tune with a powerful, familiar, popular tune', which is what both Shoma AND Javier do (Nathan doesn't even do that, since his FS music this year was basically a background soundtrack to his jump performance). Sure, it's interpretation, but the difference in depth must, must be noted.

 

If not, just eliminate "Interpretation". Call it "Personal favourite" and be done with it. 

I do think, too, that the bravest and hardest choice should be rewarded more, when successful, than the easiest (but given how all the PCS are given these days, this is hopeless dreaming).

Rationally I do understand that Shoma's is a winning (and totally legit, and common, sadly) approach, but I cannot avoid feeling a bit of disappointment for him going for the easiest of the easy ways, in both SP and LP. And I'm telling this as one that when saw FS in 2006 for the first time was caught by Lambiel's Vivaldi... so yes, this kind of choices does win casual viewers (I'm curious to see if Shoma can make me forget that). Though Arakawa's Turandot did not impressed me. Nor  did Sasha Cohen's Romeo&Juliet. Instead I was mesmerized by Totmianina&Marinin's R&J 

Yuzuru kind of followed the trend in 2014 for his LP, even if it was bound to a very personal take. But he was younger, and the last years proved he can skate to any kind of music and own it, so I hope he will give us something "different", that will be "easy" for audience and judges but undeniably "his" at the same time.

Given how he managed to make me love almost everything he's skated, I have faith

Why, oh why I've found this interview only now????

Thank you for the translation!

And young Yuzu amazes me. His commitment towards his goals (and what goals!), his impressive understanding of the tech of this sport, his charming personality...both bold and adorable. Of course it's impossible not to root for him

These last months I've been hunting down MADs on youtube but it seems I've missed a few (gorgeous) ones, so thanks for posting them

I don't think these have been shared yet, a couple of sweet fanvids:

Pure Wizardry: Yuzuru Hanyu 羽生結弦 by Henni147

Yuzuru hanyu[everything in the world] by vic ZHANG (the ending )

And a couple more energetic:

Hanyu Yuzuru【MAD】Any Other Way by Abby Zhang (Yuzu's fighting spirit)

【MAD】羽生結弦　YUZU Will Rock You by ゆづマミ

This one is sooooo short, it's such a pity it ends too soon

Yuzuru Hanyu Hello by Sunmoon

These are so funny

This maybe when there are no yuzu news?

Actually is me when I find I'm 1847644677 posts behind in the main thread (maybe because I spend my time choosing emoticons )

10 hours ago, kitsune said:

Now for the FS: I do not hate NDP. I like RJ2. I love RJ1, POTO, Seimei and hope e legacy. I love RJ1 mainly because it was his emotional intensity that won me over. I love POTO and my favorite performance of this program is the GPF2014 because he seemed happy just by skating the way he wanted or almost, he singing along with the song and a big smile after the fall. I love Seimei and my favorite presentation of this program is ... GPF2015, I know that many prefer the NHK 2015, but the GPF2015 deserves more love. In GPF2015 he was in character all the time and a little more. In NHK2015 he made a fist pump after 3lutz and I thought "boy I know you're proud to have achieved this jump, but remain in the character", I think onmyouji does not use fists but magic. At the end of the program he was smiling very early, again thought " I know you are happy, but staying in the character does not leave so soon". In GPF2015 he was Onmyouji until the final posture and after this he makes a gesture that seems to be undoing a spell and then this gesture of number 1 showing that he is in onmyouji number 1 sorry the figure skater number 1. What a pity that the câmera  did not concentrate on him any more after he had finished seeing him undo the spell (this part is shown in some fancam, but not very definite). I like nhk 2015, but I prefer GPF2015 because he was the character completely and had control of the program. I also like GPF2015 more because of having a better câmera work and lighting than NHK2015 and I like Yuzu hair more there. I just wanted to defend the GPF2015 a bit, but maybe NHK 2015 was better and maybe I'm a little blind. And although all of this, my favorite is Hope e Legacy, I love this program, but everything that has been said about this program has already been said and now I'm lazy and need to sleep..

Actually I agree with you about Yuzuru being more in character at GPF2015. I think NHK was technically better, more controlled, and of course it was the original record-shattering one, but I feel he was more focused on "performing" in Barcelona. He was in "hostile" arena, after Javi (and everyone else) had skated very well, and there was huge expectation, but Yuzuru captivated everyone and forced them to applaud and scream and go wild. I remember the British Esp guys said something like "it is all about the performance" when he was still midway in the program. He was more fierce and commanding than ever, from start to finish and even after  

(And I loved the camerawork, even the recap was amazing)