I clicked 14/15 season because that's when I actually started following him, but the reason was his Sochi Olympics performance. I remember being all " la la la, oh there's figure skating on TV ... I used to love figure skating... I haven't watched for years.... lemme see if there's anyone worthy of shining Yagudin's skates... OH HOLY SHIT PARISIAN WALKWAYS SO THIS IS HOW MEN SKATE THESE DAYS???"

 

But after that, the FS slipped my mind again until I caught that the TV would broadcast 2014 GPF, and I remembered how I loved Yuzu in Sochi and I looked up Yuzu and learned about what happened at CoC and NHK... And then I watched the GPF, biting my nails. Afterwards, there was a rabbit hole of youtube videos trying to catch up!

- sappy post -

 

I first saw him at Sochi.

It's actually a complicated story...so after Sochi (and Yuna r****d) I mentally made a note that Yuzu was special, and I was so happy he won, even though I knew nothing about men's skating. He just had this...charm that was unmistakable, that you can't teach or fake, it just emanated from him like a natural aura. I watched Patrick and for all his amazing skating skills he didn't have any of that charm and bored me.

 

I remember being rather angry when people criticized the messiness men's event, saying it was controversial. I remember thinking that Yuzu was born to be the OGM, it wasn't controversial to me at all! And plus, with all of Patrick's pops/stepouts/hand downs, I felt like Yuzu's program (even with the two falls at the very beginning) was much harder and cleaner. I also looooveeeeeeeed his ending pose, it was just the epitome of cool I also remember watching Yuzu's flip and 3A and thinking "holy crap you can enter a jump like that?!?!?1" Women's skating looked so lame in comparison....

 

BUT around that time I was obsessed with rewatching Yuna videos rather than following live skating, if that makes sense. And because of my Yuna obsession, I watched a lot of women's skating, to see if I could find another Yuna (I couldn't). I didn't connect with any lady skater at the time. I watched Gracie and tried to like her. I admired her for admiring Yuna and I liked her jumps. She also had really great dresses. I watched So Youn Park and liked her a lot, but she was never consistent. But I never watched men's skating. I really wanted to find another skater I could love while they were still skating live so I could support them in real time. Someone whom I could unequivocally support rather than feeling a little bit of schadenfreude when they fell/messed up, which I couldn't help but feel with skaters like Gracie and Yulia because they were just so hyped over the moon that I was a bit annoyed. Around this time at the back of my mind I thought "Well there's Yuzuru Hanyu..." but for some reason I had a prejudice that figure skating was a ladies' thing and even though I wanted to watch him, I didn't want to sit through hours of men's skating just to watch one person...

 

I remember watching Boston gala (my first "live" figure skating event), with no idea what happened except that he placed second, and recording/taking photos of only his skate. I still have it on my instagram. I guess all this time I knew he was "special" but I didn't really...register it?

 

And then this season happened and I figured I would watch him at NHK and I did and the rest is history. I also wrote about it here. Warning: it's very...sappy.

 

BTW I was working on a sewing project when I watched him at NHK that I never finished because my life completely changed after that, lol. It's still in my drawer somewhere. i think i'll go and finish it because in a way it's special.

 

So I voted for around Sochi because that's when he became my favorite skater but for some reason I didn't follow him until this season if that makes sense? Gahh I don't know why, I feel so dumb :hammer:

I voted 15-16 season because that's when i couldn't ignore him anymore, but i felt the call of Planet Hanyu as Sochi was happening... :embSwan:

So many great stories!

 

In my case, I'd always liked skating, but casually. The "catches it on tv and leaves it on" kinda fan. Then I really got into it for the olympics at Vancouver, joined the old fandom @ LJ communities, the complete shebang. After that, most of my favs started r***ng (Lambiel, Weir), but... there was Javi. I was so happy to see someone from my country fighting his way through the sport, so he made me keep up with everything, keep on learning and getting to know the next generation of skaters. And the more I watched, the more aware I became of others, like the Japanese kid with the amazing 3A :wink:

 

Then Nice happened, I got suckerpunched by Romeo right in the feels and the rest is history :space:

 

I think that if I had caughed Vancouver Olympics accidently like I did with Sochi, I would have got intersted in FS 4 years earlief. I would have loved Weir, Takahashi, Lambiel ( actually, I still remember the 1st yime I saw Lambiel, he was a lanky 16yo and a guest star at an Euros or Worlds gala, skating to Pink Panther doing crazy spins, I think). But alas, Yuzu was the one who caught my eye!

Woah not too many in the 15-16 season. But that was the one for me! Seimei + Chopin were legendary together :love:

Though the one where I first saw him was at Sochi

Woah not too many in the 15-16 season. But that was the one for me! Seimei + Chopin were legendary together :love:

Though the one where I first saw him was at Sochi

We're from the same batch :D :pbow:

Woah not too many in the 15-16 season. But that was the one for me! Seimei + Chopin were legendary together :love:

Though the one where I first saw him was at Sochi

We're from the same batch :D :pbow:

Yay 15-16 represent!! :space:

a few months before Sotchi.

I noticed his RJ1 in Rostelecom.... loved it in Quebec City, and absolutely fell for him at Worlds 2012. When he fell and then landed his 3a3t.. when he roared... and his uber defiant baby faced assassin look at the end totally won me over. At the time, being a good Canadian, I was supporting Patrick ( not an uber, though), and when I saw yuzu's easy 3A :bow: , I was like OMG. I knew Patrick was going to be in trouble. Haven't looked back since .

I found Yuzuru through a Japanese entertainment site.

 

Yes, not joking.. The site has an admin who is interested in figure skating and would publish a post every time a major competition happened with the results of the Japanese skaters. These posts where not really popular on the site (because they were off topic :grin:) and I always ignored them although I did notice Yuzuru's name in the title most of the time. At the beginning of the season when Yuzu won AC, I saw that the admin was complaining about LGC and I got curious so I watched the video and I was really surprised. I have watched figure skating years ago but only ladies and pairs, I had absolutely no interest in the men. Seeing that performance made ignorant me wonder if all men had crazy programs like that and if this is what figure skating now is (it has been almost 15 years since I watched figure skating last). I went to Youtube and searched for Yuzuru and luckily I found his GPF 2015 Seimei, and that was it. I fell in love with his skating there and then and could not escape.

Love reading all of these!

 

Casual fan of skating before, but I have to admit I wasn't a fully fledged fan until NHK/GPF 2015...

A uni friend and I watched GPF Barcelona, and honestly the magic of that event and the sheer perfection of those two programs spoilt me for other skaters. I'd seen people talking about his command and presence on the ice, and I never understood it until that GPF because its genuinely a tangible thing.

I see quite a few people mentioned YOI before me... I'm also one who was lured in by it. Funny thing is, I did enjoy the anime, but I wasn't particularly invested in it, nor I consider myself a fan. But yeah, I stumbled upon the (infamous?) debate "Yuuri was inspired by Yuzuru/No he was inspired by Machida" posts, then I watched the Sochi version of PW and... honestly I don't remember what happened right after. It's like a blackout after drinking way too much, but somehow I came back a changed woman :grin: I don't even know how it happened, but suddenly my laptop has a BIG Yuzuru folder. This season was such a rollercoaster... I don't know how I'll survive the next one! I'm too new at this XD

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.

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.

 

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:

So I became a fan after NHK 2015 Seimei. I have always liked to watch figure skating but since the sport scoring system has always been well :rant:, I more or less stopped watching when our main tv station stopped showing it. But accidently in 2015 my mom and I happen upon NHK and saw SEIMEI. That was :bow: :love: , it was too a music that was new, the choregraph was new and wow. So I remember as we were waiting to see the score, discussing with my mom were would the judges find a flaw in that performance. And to see the scoring and realise that it is possible to bring something new to fs and win that was incredible.

I also remember how I liked/loved that he stayed in character to the end, and then his reaction was :goe:

 

After that I saw the gpf Barcelona, and while he scored better the NHK will always be my favorite. After that I started looking for more information about him, and well then I started lurking in GS. And then when this planet was created for refugees a joined here. I also got tickets to Helsinki as birthday present (from my husband who does not like fs but soccer), but I got to watch H&L in Helsinki, it was magic. My advice to anyone who is a fan of fs or yuzuru hanyu is this if you have the opption to see him skate do it, it is :yay: :love: . How one man can grap a whole arena with that soft music well, that has to be felt and seen.