Ulrinis

Somehow my reply to@Geo1got lost. I was already extremely impressed by the 2017/18 stories but the memory of meeting Yuzu just left me speechless. Also the kindness of Ghislain ... It must have been difficult to keep this wonderful memory secret all the time.

Agree. When life gets tough for any of my family members, we always take Yuzu as an example for dealing with tough situations and this really helps.

So wise again. Sets many of us considering our own decisions again, right? My decision to follow him in 2018 and step into the unfamiliar grounds of internet, social media, ticket fight and tight travel schedules for my family has been quite costly but by no means would I ever regret this decision. Looking back, these adventures were the absolute highlights in our lives during the last quad. 😊

The 2018 costume reveal was something special for me, too: It was my first time ever trying out a livestream link (I hadn’t been active on the internet at all, never watched YouTube videos etc. before discovering Yuzu at PC Olympics). All I could say was “Wow...!“

Wow, so many impressive stories! Yes, life as a fanyu brings unexpected situations and opportunities, once-in-a-lifetime encounters, new friends and so much to tell one’s grandchildren. Thank you for sharing! 😊

Yes, I remember watching this. However, I didn’t know it represented all of his winnings.

Thanks for the background facts. I guess the number of people aware of this is still too small ...

Same here!

Although I had read that Yuzu had donated much after winning each OGM, this almost leaves me speechless. How do other athletes and Olympic champions deal with this question? Is it common to donate ALL? Does this differ from country to country?

How did you manage to get this message shown in English? On my IPhone the members-only messages appear only in Japanese. BTW joining for me was much easier than expected. My credit card payment details were already in place. Probably due to my other channel membership which has been running for some time now. Although I had not used my phone for setting it up back then. And it said 9,99 € without any extra cost.

This is what I am wondering about, too. A livestream that would remain available for members - I saw such things in my other YouTube membership. If we could have this for PROLOGUE I’d be in heaven.

Yuzu is doing a great job as an ambassador of Japanese culture and music. After rewatching the video yesterday, my daughter said she had had “Change” in her head all day. Maybe the song will make it to her personal play list. (Needless to say that Yuzu had turned us into X Japan fans after his co-operation with ToshI.) And “Dreamy Aspiration” shows he knows what he means to us ...

Same here. This video came at the right time for me. We are so blessed to have Yuzu to brighten up our lives. How can we expect to deserve this - a human being who has found out he brings so much joy and peace to thousands of people and therefore keeps providing it. We can’t expect him to dedicate his life to his fans and sometimes I feel guilty but it’s like an anchor, a therapy or medicine, so I can’t let go. Like some others already said: I’m not going anywhere!

Agree - the western music examples you picked have become masterpieces with Yuzu's skating. I'm not against Yuzu using western music. For me, what makes the difference is that we attribute these pieces to Yuzu since they have not become typical figure skating music.

Exactly! I also love how he didn't bother to please the judges with his music choice when he was still competing. And now there is no need for it at all anyway. There is so much beautiful Japanese music of different genres worth being heard overseas and Yuzu has already contributed to spreading it several times before. Like he also reminded us in his latest video.

Unpopular opinion maybe: I belong to those who would NOT recommend tango or Queen to Yuzu. Not exactly because it's not my cup of tea and I've heard some songs too many times in figure skating competitions. The reason for me is that Yuzu is unique and so is his music choice. Of course he had used famous melodies when he was younger and one may argue that even after his second OGM he had skated to Origin and Otonal which had been used by other skaters before. In this case it was on purpose as both were tribute programs. However, even Rondo, which was popular among figure skaters already, was not used by Yuzu in its original form but he asked a pianist he had co-operated with to play it especially for him, to arrange it to express his personal feelings. I'm a big fan of Yuzu skating to Japanese music. We've seen that Seimei and Ten to Chi have found their ways into the ears and hearts of overseas fans easily. I trust him to chose something very special for his new program(s).

Now that more than half a year has passed I am even more amazed at what Yuzu achieved in Beijing. The mere fact that a third consecutive OGM was within his reach is absolutely overwhelming. Even if we ignore the lowballing, injures and bad luck. His beautiful 4A which he bravely attempted knowing it would cost him the podium was watched by the world - and broken down to single shots it can still be examined. As for all the circumstances he had to fight with during his competitive career - you couldn’t make this up and it will stay in people’s minds. And the good thing is: The best is yet to come! Maybe it’s different in other sports but so far I don’t know any athletes who developed further after ending their competitive career. I couldn’t be prouder of Yuzu and I’m really looking forward to seeing him skate again. 💪👏

Once again Yuzu is a pionieer. TBH, on 19 July I took a black pen and painted the day black in my calendar. I had feared the r*t day ever since I discovered Yuzu in 2018. First I didn't know what to make of all that pro-skater / pro-athlete talk. I couldn't imagine how this would NOT mean retirement. However, meanwhile I have a completely different understanding of what's going on: To me it seems that Yuzu continues his "normal" skating in parallel with the I$U competitions. He still competes without competing because for those who still watch those competitions it's still possible to compare him to the other skaters. And, what's even more important, to compare his - now free - development to their development which is restricted even more by the new rules now. I don't spend my money on attending competitions any more. So although I miss the atmosphere of competitions with Yuzu attending, I still feel some excitement: What will be Yuzu's new program? What will his costume be like? Which music will he chose? Which elements will he concentrate on? Maybe it all started when somebody asked Max Ambesi which score he would give Yuzu for his 24h TV Rondo. I had thought I would be bitter when IM landed some kind of ugly 4A but I'm not because Yuzu plays in a different league now, a higher league.

Really strange. I usually avoid watching videos of NC or IM. So torturing myself by watching them just to dislike them is just so out of question!

Hello@Beatricefrom another fellow German (who is still struggling to recover the last 110 pages without making any progress). So you found Yuzu through 2019 World Championships on German TV? They used to broadcast also GPs on ONE in 2018 (not sure if also in 2019), but maybe it was only compilations. (IIRC I had recorded at least Yuzu's 2018 GP performances.) Anyway, it's sad that figure skating is irrelevant on TV today in the home country of back-to-back Olympic Champion Kati Witt. I have never found German championships on TV (and although there were livestreams on the internet, I had trouble finding them on YouTube). So ... when Yuzu (hopefully) starts planning his world tour soon, in addition to his favourite country Finland he should definitely include Germany, right? When he participated in Nebelhorn Trophy for the last time, there was no queuing yet and no Pooh rain, so we have to make up for that.

What a nice memory. I couldn’t suppress a “Wow!” when streaming Autumn Classics 2018 and getting the first glimpse of his Origin 1.0 costume.

@NewprogramspleaseCan you tell me your secret? How did you persuade him? 🤔😃 And yes, he has beaten I$U by number of views per video already. Never doubted this, though.

As I was busy recently and gazillions of messages appeared on the Planet on a very specific day, I’m still in the process of catching up. So it may be a little late but I want to express that this new fanyu outing warmed my heart. Another person has come to reward the hard work that other fanyus have put into establishing well organised libraries and structured sources of information and has come to feel comfortable in our community. 😊

Yuzu had a cold at GPF 2015? The expression on his face after the final pose used to look like a smirk to me but instead it might have had something to do with breathing properly ... 🤔

Although it's been only 4 years in my case, becoming Yuzu's fan has driven me into strange situations and adventures, too. Fear of missing our flight home made me and my family leave the gala of Helsinki GP before Yuzu's performance - and regretting it so bad made us miss our flight home after the gala of GPF Turin. I had to invent an excuse for school for my daughter because GPF 2019 was not during school holidays. Before knowing Yuzu such a thing would have been unacceptable for me. Like staying up all night for watching a live stream and trying to work the next day. However, I don't regret a single minute and I'm grateful for these last 4 years. And now I'm extremely curious what will come next.