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

[SparkleSalad]

On 15.05.2017 at 3:44 AM, yuzuangel said:

This is so beautiful! And I totally understand. I would say he beautiful as the sunset, as the night sky, but honestly I think he is more beautiful 

 

Good luck getting tickets. I kind of want to do the same, but having the vacation days to do it may be hard...since it's all happening with a couple months. That's why I hope he goes to Skate Canada, because then I don't have to take too many...

You lucky thing. The only skating we have here is Disney on Ice. And aparently about 3 or 4 who try to compete overseas but I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes. I'm pretty sure Brendan Kerry is just some front for some shady government operation I have no idea about but which would probably make more sense than the words "Australian figure skater."

[dreamelena]

Oh no I think I kinda voted wrongly..?? or not.. It's a bit of a blur how I came to the 'scene' guys.. I only remember it's right after the Olympic and that the following season I've started following Yuzu and skating closely. Oh man idk why I couldn't remember how it really all began so sorry.

I'd just like to say that the very first competition of him I followed was CoC 2014  :ohno:  (I know.. I know...) it was rather traumatic for me but anyway it's the beginning of a journey and I'm glad that I decided to do so.  :s_yes

[Rojoamuerte]

 I was a casual fan since childhood and my earliest memories are of Plushenko VS Yagudin. I watched the big competitions from time to time but nobody caught my attention. In 2014 the GPF was held in Barcelona with Javi in the elite of figure skating so I saw the final on TV ... Oh Phantom!!! . When looking for Yuzuru Hanyu the first result was Nice 2012 and that passion on the ice touched me deeply. With R&J1 I came upon the artist/athlete... With PW in Fukuoka I came upon the man . Then began an obsession shared with my soul mate and next year we were in Barcelona seeing those black tights  a few meters from us and witnessing an unforgettable Seimei. And the story goes on! 

[Upnights]

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.

[meixo]

I moved to Japan in the summer of 2014 and was trying to watch tv so I could learn new words. One of the skating competitions was playing and I had just gone to make dinner when I heard Phantom of the Opera and I was like, who used that? Then I saw Yuzuru and thought he did a really good job. I didn't know anything about him other than his name which I learned after the performance, but when I talked to the kids at my school I found out that he's pretty popular so I've just been following his progress ever since.

[Smultron]

1 hour ago, Upnights said:

Since then, what I say is:  I respect all skaters; I like many skaters; I love some skaters; and then there's Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

This 

[itiahs]

2 hours ago, Upnights said:

Since then, what I say is:  I respect all skaters; I like many skaters; I love some skaters; and then there's Yuzuru Hanyu.

Perfect description. I'm tearing up

[Upnights]

17 hours ago, itiahs said:

Perfect description. I'm tearing up

 

18 hours ago, Smultron said:

 

This 

Thanks! 

 

[SuzyQ]

There used to be not so much information about figure skating before in Japan, especially about novice/junior skaters.  I knew Yuzuru as a promising skater only by short news clips sometimes aired on TV or even shorter news articles.  I first noticed Ryuju Hino as a talented one by his splendid spins, but I only thought about Yuzuru that he should change his hair style 

 

I was just disappointed by his Junior Worlds 2009, and then surprised by his winning in 2010 

But, at that time, I think the majority of Japanese fans were more interested in the results of Mao and Daisuke, TBH.  (Actually, Japan dominated all single categories, both senior and junior in the Worlds 2010).

 

And NHK 2010, and 4CC 2011.  He could not hide his lack of stamina (but it stimulated my maternal instinct thing), and his angelic smile at the end of long program, that killed me instantly.

 

 

  

[Geo1]

I first heard of Yuzuru Hanyu from my Dad after the 2013 GPF in Fukuoka when he beat Patrick Chan for the first time. The name did not stick with me because I had no interest in figure skating at the time. Being a history buff, I was more interested in the fact that the third-place finisher, Nobunari Oda, was a descendent of a famous historical figure, Nobunaga Oda. He was the most powerful samurai feudal lord in his day.

 

I first saw Yuzuru Hanyu during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics when he was performing "Parisienne Walkways" in the team event. It was just by happenstance that I caught his performance. I was channel surfing, looking for some event I might be interested in when I saw that he was about to skate. I was immediately taken by his dynamic performance. I had seen figure skating in the past, but nothing like Yuzuru performing PW.

 

I also saw Yuzuru during the men's individual short program when he broke the his own world record as well as the 100 point barrier.

 

When I saw Yuzuru just before the beginning of the free skate, I was taken aback by his appearance. Having never seen Yuzuru except in his PW costume, I had assumed that he would be more or less similarly dressed. When I saw him wearing the Romeo & Juliet II costume and sporting a different hairstyle, he seemed a different person to me and it took me a moment to refocus.

 

Like everyone, I was disappointed for him with the results of the free skate since I had expected him to be perfect as he had been in the short program. I was feeling sorry for Yuzuru and expecting Patrick Chan to win when Chan stumbled and bumbled and managed to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory. I was very happy for Yuzuru.

 

Yuzuru's comments and attitude following his victory regarding feeling helpless and not feeling that he had really accomplished anything considering the plight of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami victims really touched me. He struck me as being very humble, sensitive and mature.

 

I truly became a fan of Yuzuru after his come-from-behind win at the 2014 Saitama World Championships. Third after the short program behind Tatsuki Machida and Javier Fernandez, he landed every jump in the free skate to beat Machida by 0.33 points.

 

So it was a combination of Yuzuru's athleticism and skills as a skater plus his personality and character that won me over as a fan. That is when I started to search for all his videos and stories. The further I dug, the more I came to respect him. The way he has handled himself since Saitama through all the obstacles presented to him have only deepened my respect for him.

 

Yuzuru Hanyu is not only a complete skater, he is a complete human being.

[Anony]

I remember his Novice FS to Firebird catching my attention, I've caught glimpses of him since, but I only begin being a fan after Junior Worlds 2010 after seeing his SP(which I highly recommend anyone watching), even then I was a pretty mild supporter.

 

His SP at 2010 NHK Trophy and his 2011 Four Continents FS though, not to mention that smile(!!!!) that pretty much seals it for me.

[Pammi]

On ‎11‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 02:39, Geo1 said:

I am sure that you meant no disrespect or offense, but the word or abbreviation "Jap" is considered derogatory and a racial slur amongst Japanese, particularly the Japanese minority living in North America. It was said with a lot of hatred before and during World War II and this negative connotation continued affterwards whenever it was used. Therefore, I would ask that people not use the abbreviation "Jap". It doesn't take that much more effort to spell the word "Japanese".

Geo1 you made this point very well and I hope people accept such challenges gratefully - we need to learn from each other to be more informed and embrace the differences between us and celebrate it, as well as what we have in common! (mainly Yuzuru on this forum LOL!!)

[micaelis]

I am a recent convert to figure skating, although that might not be the right expression since I didn't convert from anything to Yuzuru Hanyu.  Actually I discovered Yuzuru Hanyu by accident as I was YouTube surfing looking for coverage of men's bicycle road racing.  Somehow I stumbled on Yuzuru Hanyu and his World Championship winning free-skate this year.  That caught my attention so I began looking for more Hanyu and discovered there was more there than I could possibly watch in a short session.  Knowing how much was out there I pulled up Wikipedia and read what it said about him, getting some sense of the chronology of his life.  Because he'd won the gold at Sochi I started from there and so watched his brilliant short program.  I was really blown out by that.  Here was something I'd never thought I'd see, though I wasn't particularly looking hard for it.  He brought back to me memories of John Curry's win in the 1976 Winter Olympics.  Not that the style was the same, but that there was such close attention to the total body in the choreography and such a close matching of the motion to the music.  This was not skating.  It was dancing.  And that sealed the deal.  I was hooked on Yuzu.

 

So I started researching.  You have to remember, I'm a  trained researcher.  My studies in English took me all the way to a PhD and I'd really learned in my trek to receiving that diploma how to go about finding stuff out.  So bit by bit Yuzu was fleshed out for me.  I remember finding this one playlist with more than 300 items on YT, one that took him chronologically from the earliest days to the present and I remember watching that first video of this little fellow skating and doing these jumps and spins and seeming so very, very earnest about it.  As my own knowledge of figure skating technique broadened I returned several times to that early video observing now with a better knowledge of what he was doing and my amazement simply increased.  He was doing what seemed a perfect Bielmann, and these jumps were all doubles with a triple salchow thrown in.  The kid was nine years old!

 

I then began focusing my research, looking not only how Yuzu progressed as a skater but also how his fame progressed.  One of the wonders of the internet age is that one can see so much from the past with literally a simple search.  Going chronologically with him from that All-Japan Novice B to the 2017 World Championships, I was able to grow up with Yuzu, seeing that interview when he, still a mop-headed kid of maybe eleven or twelve, I'm not quite sure, talking about winning the Olympic Gold in 2014, when he would be about the 'nineteen or twenty' that he said in the interview.  I was also able to see how his growth as both a skater and a person was structured by two events - the earthquake in 2011 and the collision in 2014.  Those two crises I think benefited him immeasurably.  They helped put things in perspective.  Seeing how he handled those made me see him not simply as a great skater but as a great human being.  I can honestly say that there are few people living now or who have ever lived that I regard more highly than Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

As a skater I revere him because he is a skater who dances on the ice.  While I haven't followed skating since those John Curry days, I have been a strong fan of ballet during all those decades.  Hanyu IS a dancer.  He moves with the sense of total control of every part of his body that a supreme dancer has.  Had it been ballet, I think he would have been up with the likes of Rudolf Nureyev (who with Margot Fonteyn was in the performance of Giselle, the first live ballet performance I ever saw) or Mikhail Baryshnikov or Roberto Bolle of recent vintage.  He has not only the technique but the presence that those dancers had.  Like Kurt Browning said, Hanyu can engage an audience fully even when he's not doing anything.

 

And then there's Hanyu the human being, the one who shows no arrogance, throws no prima donna tantrums, and who feels guilty skating when the world he grew up with is trying to repair itself after the earthquake, and who feels the show must go on even if he has to skate wearing a panoply of bandages.  He has the true grit of the true hero and yet he's the ever humble one, bowing to his coach in the kiss and cry and jumping for joy when his scores come up making official a victory everyone else saw when he was performing. He's always grateful for his victories, never seems to feel he expected it all along, although if you look at his expression as he's coasting on the ice after his GPF 2015 FP, you can see an almost smug look as if he was saying to those who thought his NHK records would take quite some time being broken that perhaps they'd have to rethink their notion of time and call 'two weeks' as 'quite a long time'.  What in fact we see is that Yuzuru Hanyu does not conform to most people's notions of a world-class athlete.  He smiles and laughs and tears and shows surprise just as all the rest of us do.  He's the boy next door until he comes out on the ice.  Then he becomes a rockstar, as Kurt Browning calls him.

 

So that is how I came to know Yuzuru Hanyu.  From that first brief glimpse I've come to know and actually love him for his skating talents and his immeasurable humanity.  It is a love I hope to carry to my grave, which at the age of seventy I know is not that long away.  But these last years of my life have been in some measure enriched by knowing that the world l will some day leave behind has people like Yuzuru Hanyu in it.

 

 

[NakaMina]

Hello~ I'm super new here but here goes my first response to a thread xD 

 

I think I became his fan the instant I first saw him on TV LOL. It happened during the 13-14 Olympic Season. I have access to Japanese tv so I saw him everywhere on the news at the time, being labelled as the "Young hope for Japan", "Ultimate Olympic gold medal contender" and what not. There was some serious hype around him and since I’m a sucker for anyone who looks like a real-life anime character I decided to look up photos and videos of his past programs. I had never been a fan of any particular male skaters (or let alone any skaters) back then and I was no skating expert, but I was instantly convinced that Yuzu had something no other male skaters I knew had. I had never seen someone with such an angelic yet strong presence, and so aesthetically pleasing to watch. I also loved the fact that he was a totally different person off the ice lol (playful and giggly). "This guy is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! how did I not know who he was until now!? " <- was literally my reaction at the time. He pretty much ticked all the boxes for everything I always wanted in a male figure skater. And there you go, before I knew it I was cheering on for him during Sochi and have been a fan since  

 

I've come to really love Yuzu as a person too. He has gained so much wealth, popularity and honor as the No.1 skater in the world, yet he never forgets to be respectful towards everyone and show gratitude. He has continued to support Sendai through his skating and has always had that as part of his motive to keep aiming higher. 

 

I'd also like to add that I always liked watching figure skating even before Yuzu. It was always one of my favourite sports to watch during the Olympics. But I only loosely followed it. I never really paid attention to a particular athlete expect for Asada Mao to only some degree. Yuzu was the reason I started taking the initiative to learn more about the technical elements, the major competitions and history of figure skating. And I’ll be honest I would still call myself a Yuzuru fan than an ice skating fan, but because of him I  have a lot more respect and love for the sport itself now  

 

 

[Hydroblade]

1 hour ago, NakaMina said:

Hello~ I'm super new here but here goes my first response to a thread xD 

 

I think I became his fan the instant I first saw him on TV LOL. It happened during the 13-14 Olympic Season. I have access to Japanese tv so I saw him everywhere on the news at the time, being labelled as the "Young hope for Japan", "Ultimate Olympic gold medal contender" and what not. There was some serious hype around him and since I’m a sucker for anyone who looks like a real-life anime character I decided to look up photos and videos of his past programs. I had never been a fan of any particular male skaters (or let alone any skaters) back then and I was no skating expert, but I was instantly convinced that Yuzu had something no other male skaters I knew had. I had never seen someone with such an angelic yet strong presence, and so aesthetically pleasing to watch. I also loved the fact that he was a totally different person off the ice lol (playful and giggly). "This guy is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! how did I not know who he was until now!? " <- was literally my reaction at the time. He pretty much ticked all the boxes for everything I always wanted in a male figure skater. And there you go, before I knew it I was cheering on for him during Sochi and have been a fan since  

 

I've come to really love Yuzu as a person too. He has gained so much wealth, popularity and honor as the No.1 skater in the world, yet he never forgets to be respectful towards everyone and show gratitude. He has continued to support Sendai through his skating and has always had that as part of his motive to keep aiming higher. 

 

I'd also like to add that I always liked watching figure skating even before Yuzu. It was always one of my favourite sports to watch during the Olympics. But I only loosely followed it. I never really paid attention to a particular athlete expect for Asada Mao to only some degree. Yuzu was the reason I started taking the initiative to learn more about the technical elements, the major competitions and history of figure skating. And I’ll be honest I would still call myself a Yuzuru fan than an ice skating fan, but because of him I  have a lot more respect and love for the sport itself now  

 

 

welcomeeee