Poll - When/How did you become a fan of Yuzu?

[Bilge]

In the end of November 2016, i saw a pic of an anime guy (which turned out to be yuri) and a person on a tweet and asked who he is. Than i get curious and watched sochi sp and i was amazed by how great Yuzuru is!!  I started watching all of his skating videos. I watched him skate for hours but felt like a few minutes. I always liked figure skating, i enjoy watching it when i see it on tv, generally ladies and pairs but i've never enjoyed someone skate this much before! He truly is special. He is the one who made me love the sport and learn more about it. Now even i started skating, it is so much fun. I'm greatful to Yuzu not only for his great performances but also for introducing and made me love the sport.

[cinemacoconut]

Are they any PC olympics newbies ?? 

[cinemacoconut]

On 2017. 5. 15. at 9:38 PM, Upnights said:

I 1st learned of Yuzuru from the livejournal ONTD skating site in 2010.  Someone had posted a thread about men who did Biellmanns.  I asked if there were any men who did layback Ina Bauers, which is my favorite skating move.  Someone answered that there was a young Japanese man who did them & posted some videos.  I liked everything about his skating & started taking an interest in Yuzuru from that point on.  When I watched him on TV & saw Pooh, that really charmed me.  I had tickets to the 2011 GPF in Quebec, & I was happy I'd get to see him in person.  I was further charmed by the delightfully floppy way he fell during practices.  I sat at the short end of the rink & got to see him do his Ina Bauer straight down the length of the ice toward me (he was really doing it toward Shizuka Arakawa, who was in the Japanese TV booth).  Leaving the arena on the last night, I noticed the person walking by himself in front of me was pulling a wheeled suitcase with Pooh strapped to it!  Yuzuru even gave autographs after practices at that pre-stardom time.  But I was a fan & not a fanatic in those days, so I didn't freak out or bother him.

I was thrilled I got to see him break the SP record at 2012 Skate America (& do his "Hello, I Love You" Ex) & I was happy he won the Olympic gold, but I also liked other skaters.  I went to Skate America 2014 & I was very impressed with Machida.  Then, I went to the 2014 GPF in Barcelona.  I was looking down at Yuzuru doing his spread eagle in the Chopin SP.  I thought at that moment:  Machida is a great artist, but Yuzuru is magic.  Since then, what I say is:  I respect all skaters; I like many skaters; I love some skaters; and then there's Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

I respect all skaters; I like many skaters; I love some skaters; and then there's Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

 

Can I copy that? Lol u paraphrased it perfectly. He jst cnt be compared

 

[yuzuonice]

I became a fan in the summer before 16/17 season! (I voted this as my option, though it was technically the off-season). I saw a post about Javi and a gifset of Yuzu+Javi and went researching, first I watched Javi videos (which I liked a lot), but then I watched the destined video of Parisienne Walkways from Sochi and I was completely overwhelmed by his skating! 

 

Coincidentially, I was deeply into anime (and especially sports anime) fandom at that point, and I already heard the announcement about ~the figure skating anime~ being in the works, I thought it was alright to watch a few videos beforehand just to get a taste of the sport.

Of course it ended going completely out of control, and all I did that summer was watch various Yuzu playlists every single day until I was (mainly) caught up. 

I signed up for goldenskate at the time, but I was scared of people there, plus the Yuzu thread was having some sorts of drama going on, so I mostly stayed away and joined Planet when that was established 

 

Then the 2016/17 season came, and YOI started airing, so I had an interesting experience of witnessing many of my mutuals getting into figure skating as well, while I was already deep into and watching every competition. (For me personally, the impact of YOI was mainly to make me appreciate and see the appeal other skaters as well, like Johnny, Stephane, Daisuke, some of the japanese ladies skaters, etc).

 

So in general, I had a great experience and I hope it continues being as good as it has been so far! I like to believe I've learnt how to avoid the drama and stay away from people who spread negativity, it's the only way to make your way through any fandom, and it's been working for now in the Yuzu/FS fandom as well 

 

EDIT I'm reading through these replies and

Spoiler

On 5. 5. 2017 at 1:19 AM, chelly said:

I got to know him at the time of the Sochi Olympics.

I became obsessed with his skatingand I saw a lot of videos and images.

He is so Amazing!! Yuzuru is cute, cool, beautiful, charming, fighter and challenger.

On 5. 5. 2017 at 1:26 AM, yuzuangel said:

 

he looks so happy!! :pbow: which makes me happy

i wish i can see him again with his flag and beautiful smile in pyeongchang :thumbup:

 

it seems we were blessed by a similar picture in Pyeongchang after all! On the cover of AERA as well, is this destiny or what 

 

 

 

[wingman]

Hooray! I'm the first person to vote in the future category!

I became a fan of him like... 2 weeks before Pyeongchang. As a former athlete I follow the summer games quite a bit, but never the winter one. I missed the Rio adrenaline rush, so I thought I'll checkout the winter one for consolation

 

Anyway, so, I read an article on "who to watch out for during the olympics". Yuzu's bit sounded interesting, so I went on to see Sochi (R+J). My first impression was: is this the men or women's event??? But this blend of gender performance intrigued me, so I went on to watch a few others. Watched some of his interviews and my respect for him shot up

I've read many top-athelete interviews, trained with some of them even, have a few heroes, but NO ONE is like Yuzu. He is not from this world. His kiddo days did resonate with other top athelete stories, but his unique challenges really made him the sole inhabitant of Planet Hanyu.

 

Then came NHK SEIMEI.  Down the rabbit hole I went to discover the Yuzu Wonderland.

 

[ClarissaH]

Whoops I accidentally misread the question and answered the wrong option. I just saw the "how did you become a fan of Yuzu" and just saw the season years and none of those worked for how I became a fan of him. 

 

Like many others here on the forum probably, I got introduced, or rather reintroduced, to figure skating through the anime "Yuri on Ice". A few episodes in, I decided to look up the schedule and see when events were and who were men's figure skaters who were currently competing that were really good, and of course I saw Yuzu come up a lot. Funny enough, the 2016 Grand Prix Final in Marseilles was the very next night so I decided to give it a watch so the first program of his I saw was Let's Go Crazy. While that program wasn't clean, I was absolutely mesmerized by his performance. A couple days later I saw his Hope and Legacy program and was completely won over. 

[theblingmonster]

I heard about yuzu during Sochi since everyone on twitter was going crazy for him but I didn't pay much attention to him back then. Then in 2017 when Pyeongchang was coming up I decided to look into him again, this was probably around mid November 2017? After his injury had already happened, and I absolutely fell in love with him. Now I'm in this crazy race to find all the content from the past few years to catch up on things. I'm also trying to figure out the ins and outs of figure skating in general since I know nothing about it lol, at least I know all the jumps now! Still can't differentiate them in motion though...

[monchan]

Saw yuna kim's olympic perf and youtube recommended yuzu as also an oly champ. It didnt help his 1st prog i watched was the error-full fs at sochi . I was like 'lol he got gold w this perf? Seems like men's single skating nowadays isnt very good'. (Srsly, thats my 1st impression).im not fs fan at all and have no intention to know more about the sport. But seeing he and yuna dominated oly i wonder how it changed cuz my memory still stuck in the era of sasha cohen and western ladies on top. I checked his wiki profile and very impressed, and saw tons of fanpages and all and realized he was so ridiculously popular, like a celeb, rather than an athlete. I gave him another chance by checking the infamous SEIMEI as all his fans talk about it and guess what? Im sold haha. Then i found all his programs to watch, i dont even care about fs, but even so yuzu makes me in love w his beautiful and high class perf. And now im here, a full-time fanyu 

[EisElle]

1 hour ago, monchan said:

Saw yuna kim's olympic perf and youtube recommended yuzu as also an oly champ. It didnt help his 1st prog i watched was the error-full fs at sochi . I was like 'lol he got gold w this perf? Seems like men's single skating nowadays isnt very good'. (Srsly, thats my 1st impression).im not fs fan at all and have no intention to know more about the sport. But seeing he and yuna dominated oly i wonder how it changed cuz my memory still stuck in the era of sasha cohen and western ladies on top. I checked his wiki profile and very impressed, and saw tons of fanpages and all and realized he was so ridiculously popular, like a celeb, rather than an athlete. I gave him another chance by checking the infamous SEIMEI as all his fans talk about it and guess what? Im sold haha. Then i found all his programs to watch, i dont even care about fs, but even so yuzu makes me in love w his beautiful and high class perf. And now im here, a full-time fanyu 

LOL I did much worse than you, I was watching live Sochi men fs (I'd missed the sp tho) and I literally switched my TV off after his second fall...feeling a bit sorry and a bit snarky about the guy...and the costume...well, I wasn't impressed (or rather I was impressed in the wrong way)  sorry, such a bad fanyu 

Years later karma came back to bite me in the form of Sochi PW 

Never underestimate Mr. Hanyu  

 

[Bilge]

2 hours ago, LadyLou said:

LOL I did much worse than you, I was watching live Sochi men fs (I'd missed the sp tho) and I literally switched my TV off after his second fall...feeling a bit sorry and a bit snarky about the guy...and the costume...well, I wasn't impressed (or rather I was impressed in the wrong way)  sorry, such a bad fanyu 

Years later karma came back to bite me in the form of Sochi PW 

Never underestimate Mr. Hanyu  

 

OMG THE TIMING life it so strange

[MagicFS]

I first heard of Yuzu at US Nationals 2010. I was there as an ardent Johnny Weir fan, one of "Johnny's Angels" (now made kind of infamous by Yuri!!! on Ice--although, at least to my knowledge, we were much more like the satellites on Planet Hanyu than the depicted Yuri's Angels, lol!).

I've been watching skating all my life, introduced to it by my mom. But Johnny was my first ginormous favorite. So US Nats 2010 was the first and only time I saw Johnny compete. It also marked the first time I heard Yuzuru's name. Johnny's fans were convinced even then that he was the one to watch, the one that can potentially take Johnny's place in our hearts. I had no idea what they were talking about at the time. But of course, I was interested. From then on I would always notice Yuzu in competitions I was watching, waiting for him to live up to the hype--I have no idea why I didn't fall in love immediately. I read about Yuzu's predicament in the earthquake.  Then, Season 2011-2012 came, and at GPF I finally figured out why everyone was so impressed by Yuzu. This is the competition that made me his fan. I showed him to mom at worlds, and apparently she immediately knew he was her new favorite (she had only been really invested in Yagudin before).

This, however, is only part of my story--because it's clearly one thing to be a fan of a skater and another thing entirely to have them as your absolute favorite. Sochi was the last time Yuzu wasn't my absolute favorite. At the time, I liked him and Patrick equally. I thought Yuzuru was so precious and adorable, and dramatic, and expressive, and moving; and I did love him a lot. I was just not as invested in figure skating as I had been during my college years and the Johnny's Angels period.

All that changed in Season 2015-2016. First, I watched NHK. I remember thinking at the time, no one is ever going to replicate that: a perfect skate with 3 quads! Then, he did it again, 2 weeks later. I couldn't believe it. I corrected my thought to "no one's ever going to replicate that but Yuzuru himself." He was clearly the best men's figure skater ever! By that time, Yuzuru was my number 1 uncontested favorite in competitive figure skating and I thought he was obviously the GOAT. Yet (I'm very ashamed to admit it ) I didn't get Seimei. I've always been a lyrical-dramatic programs fan, and it just looked a little too much like fighting to me . Don't get me wrong, I did love Seimei 1.0; I just couldn't imagine it ever moving me to tears. And for some weird reason (Eurosport's programing?), I hadn't seen Requiem yet...

 

The real turning point for me was Worlds 2016. Yuzuru was meant to win. I was sure he would win. There was no other way things could go--he was the BEST, right. I was devastated by that final result. It wasn't fair! I knew nothing of the injury. I just couldn't fathom the unfairness of life. And when Requiem of course moved me to tears, and when I found myself unable to stop thinking about how sad I was Yuzuru had lost that title days after the competition... Well, I came to realize how invested in Yuzuru I was after all those years of liking, loving, adoring, admiring , and marveling at all that he is on and around the ice.

 

Then, Hope and Legacy and Notte Stellata happened (my two favorite programs of all time), and I knew beyond any doubt Yuzuru is my favorite skater of all times. So I dusted my Skating Video forum bookmarks, started following more Yuzu fans on tumblr, bookmarked the Planet as soon as a link to it appeared on my dash (although I didn't visit much--I just knew it would come in handy at some point in the future), got even more excited about skating through Yuri!!! on Ice, started live streaming competitions again, waking up in the middle of the night for 4CC 2017 (which I deemed sufficiently unjinxed by my watching live--so I decided to repeat). Finally, my best friend and I wondered (well I did, she is a more realistic, pragmatic person than me) what the point of being alive in the time of Yuzuru Hanyu was if we did not go to see him live. And we live in Europe, so we decided to go to Milan... Ha! Once, I went to Worlds 2009 to see Johnny Weir, Stephane Lambiel, Daisuke Takahashi... and none of them made it to worlds that year, although it was the pre-Olympic year. I guess it's like Yuzuru's silver curse: I never get to see the skater(s) I love most at my first try. Which only means that I need to get rich fast and try again. Because, thankfully, our god of figure skating is staying for a little longer!  I wish he could compete forever!

 

So that's my fanyu story. I've been lurking on the Planet for a few months now and I just wanted to say hi and thank you for this positive Yuzu and figure skating space you've built! 

 

(And yes, the Olympics Seimei did make me cry. So I was clearly wrong about that. )

[Upnights]

On 3/13/2018 at 8:58 AM, cinemacoconut said:

 

I respect all skaters; I like many skaters; I love some skaters; and then there's Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

 

Can I copy that? Lol u paraphrased it perfectly. He jst cnt be compared

 

 

Sorry, I didn’t see this until now (I’d been traveling since Worlds).  Yes, feel free to copy it.

[LucyH]

Hmmm. I started paying attention to him during the Sochi Olympic season mostly because he was the guy that beat Patrick at GPF after Patrick was essentially undefeated so started to pay more attention as we had thought the gold medal at Sochi was fairly locked up! Then I saw the PW short program and he blew me away and I've been following his skating since then. I must say that I took quite a breather from FS after Sochi but kept some tabs on how he was doing. It was this Olympics (particularly Yuzu's comeback from injury and Med/Sag duel for gold) that reignited my love of FS and I've gone back and watched a bunch of competitions and EX programs since then. I am a bigger fan of his than I was ever of any of the Canadian skaters - and that's ALOT because I love my Canadian skaters!!

[VyVy99]

Here I am strolling along every other threads because I don't even dare to go near the General thread while I'm having exams 

I've heard and seen him a couple of times on the internet, some public pages posts little cuts of him fooling around and it was very cute. But public pages usual posts for fun and they didn't even credit him properly, didn't mention any of his inhumane achievements. So back then I thought that, "Oh, just another good looking guy, probably popular cuz he looks cute."

Pls understand I don't believe anyone is that perfect to be smart and beautiful and ahtletic like he really is

It was end of 16-17 season, one otaku friend posted his picture wearing the H&L costume and said how she came to like him after discovering YOI, and I saw the line "11 World Records".

I was struck by how good he looks in that costume but mostly, I get it that "This is no ordinary pretty face." I went to watch every video and digg up everything I could find about him. 

Honestly it only took one video of Hope and Legacy for me to fall completely for him That program really speaks who he is, because I could already feel his complex and charismatic being just by watching it, I feel his unbelievable confidence and manliness under all the tenderness and sensitivity expressed in the performance.

In short. I've been dead from then till now  And I so badly wish I was dead much earlier...

[94yuha]

I'd never known Yuzu-kun before tbh I'd never watch figure skating performance even once

totally knew nothing about him or fs. One day I just scrolling my twitter update about Winter Olympic

since the k-pop group I stan will be perform at the ending ceremony and then my tl is full of the pictures,

pictures of a young slim man standing gracefully on the rink with stunning pooh rain, the name is Yuzuru Hanyu.

(I quite confused about reading his last name at first I thought it was Han-yu lol)

I'm really curious about the pooh rain so I try to find out who is he, why is the pooh, why so many

people fond of him that much they follow him oversea and rain the pooh for him plus he is totally god

he's the first back to back figure skating ogm in 66 years. His story is really powerful and stunning then

while searching all about these I'm uncontrollably falling for him, deeply 

and get to know more about figure skating which I'd never known before. For someone who doesn't follow

any sport except soccer, in terms of club or national team, like me, it's like entering the whole new world.

Figure Skating World Ci