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

[PomeloPooh]

Among us I have seen long-time fans that follow Yuzu since junior days, as well as new ones who joined the ride after the historical free skate at Helsinki. So it makes me curious: When did everyone discover our favorite guy? (To avoid confusion for the polling, I'd like to define "discovered" as "became a fan," instead of "heard of/saw him for the first time.")

 

And for the "how" part, please comment to share your experience of falling for →! How did you come across him and his performances? What was the first program that you watched/that made you hooked? How did you find your way to the fan community?

[ralucutzagy]

I became a fan when I saw his amazing performance at Nice 2011 WC. His passion and his incredible skating skills at such a young age conquered me and I follow him since then! :bow: :love:

[xeyra]

I am one of those new fans who came across Yuzu by way of the YOI anime. Yes, I'm one of those. I started watching YOI due to my tumblr dashboard exploding about this anime, and I loved it.

 

As a result of that I kept seeing mentions of the real life figure skater inspirations for the anime (everyone saying Yuuri is Yuzuru Hanyu, that kind of thing, even if he is totally Machida) so I checked his WR Sochi PW performance someone linked to on the reddit group. Then I checked some more performances, which included Chopin :love:, Seimei, RJ1, POTO and, well, pretty much all his competitive programs and a side of EX too. I fell a little bit in love with how amazing he was and how he fit my aesthetics so well. Then I gradually branched out into watching other skaters that kept popping up on Youtube and eventually became a fan of figure skating itself.

 

As for YOI, I kind of never actually joined its fandom, though I still check for updates on a second season when I can. However, truth be told, the anime was a lot less painful than the real thing; how one suffers when your faves underperform!

[Klera]

Before knowing Yuzuru I wasn't a figure skating fan. I watched some performances during Olympics, but I didn't follow the sport. I remember that the first time I saw Yuzu was Sochi and even though I thought he was a nice skater, it didn't leave enough of an impact to continue watching FS. Sometime in January 2016 I clicked on the video that Youtube suggested and it was Yuzu's long at GPF 2015. I have no idea how it happened, but it was love from a first sight :pbow: I can't even explain it to myself, but ever since I became completely crazy about figure skating. Of course Yuzu is my number one, but thanks to him, I found out a lot more about FS and now am a fan of many skaters. This year I managed to go to my first two competitions (GP in Paris and GPF in Marseille) and I was totally blown away in Marseille. Now I want to go to every competition :smile: but as a poor student I don't have money nor time. The thing that makes me the happiest person in the world is the fact that I bought a ticket for Olympics for men's long (and it will be my birthday this day! I decided it was a destiny :smile: )

[PomeloPooh]

I started to pay attention to FS through Yuri on Ice. I especially enjoyed the competition part of the anime, but how they wrapped it up in the end felt rather rushed to me, so I wanted to see how things worked in the real world. Naturally, these days when you search men's figure skating, the name Yuzuru Hanyu come up first & most frequently. (Also in the comment section of YOI I saw many people saying "please don't mistake Yuri for Yuzuru, they're completely different!" It got me curious - later I discovered, for sure, they share nothing in common, except for being "Nippon's Ace"!)

 

I began by searching for videos of Yuzu on a website called bilibili. Luckily that's the main site where Chinese fans & fan info stations store videos, so resources are plenty and orderly! I think the first ones I watched were 15NHK Seimei, 12W Romeo & Juliet 1.0, and 14OG Parisienne Walkways (the title of the PW videos were "The Evolutionary History of a Magical World-Record-Breaking Machine, LOL). I got really hooked, despite knowing next to nothing back then of how technically brilliant those performances were (YOI's not really educational in that aspect), for the charisma of a genius performer was clearly permeating the air.

 

However, what really made a fan out of me was the incident-that-must-not-be-named of 14COC. Before, I was just looking for nice performances to please myself. After seeing that, I was in shock & in awe, basically couldn't stop wondering "what kind of person is he, to go into battlefield wounded, and fight like that? What is he made of?" And upon clicking open one of his documentaries - there he was, the king and the child, the charismatic leader and the lonely challenger, the insightful sage and the playful "ドS", the alien from Planet Hanyu and the little mushroom from Sendai - the sun had risen, my heart was stolen, there simply was no turning back.

[Elaine]

Wow I thought Sochi season was going to take the lead :omg: tho I do feel Yuzu's fandom gets bigger through the past season :space:

[AmudoBun]

I have written my journey to Yuzu on GS but I will share it here as well^^

 

Actually when I was younger I quite liked figure skating and watched worlds (or something) and went to an Czech Ice show with my mother, but then my interest stopped completely around the time I was 12 - since then I only watched Olympics xD. Then in spring 2014 I found a video of Misha Ge skating to EXO - Miracles in December. Since then I did watch some skating but I only watched the skating with songs I really like and I didn't like quite a lot of songs. And then last year I really started to like Shigeru Umebayashi's songs and found (I don't know exactly when) that someone skated to his song. I watched it and I liked it but at that time it didn't make me love him immediately. But then this year I suddenly got many FS videos in my recommended videos on youtube and one day I was bored so I started watching more and more (mostly Yuzu) and it video by video got more and more under my skin :embSwan:

[Hydroblade]

Incoming text wall.

 

I've said it a lot of times in the other place, but one of my first memories EVER is Oksana Baiul skating to The Swan. I was two at the time, yet i remember it vividly: since then i LOVED figure skating and watched it every time i could catch it on tv (back when we still had the competitions broadcasted here...), i played figure skating games on the internet (one of those is what helped me to learn to recognize the jumps and spins...), as soon as the figure skater Barbie (yes, the one with Tara Lipinski on the ad) came out i begged my mom to buy it for me...

Another really early memory is from a time where i visited an aunt in USA, we went to a place that had an ice rink and i remember looking from above, with my hands pressed against a window, watching the skaters gliding and almost an urge in my heart to go and skate with them, but as a kid i was asthmatic and very sickly, so my mom refused to let me skate.

These things made it very painful for me to watch skating on tv, so i eventually stopped. But since 2012 i started to think about following the season, and many MANY times i searched for competition times and changed the channel to watch them.

On one of those, i remember looking at the list of competitors and, because i've loved Japan since i was nine, my eyes immediately drifted to the japanese skaters. I don't remember if at that time he was there, because i chickened out, turned off the tv and went back to my room: i didn't feel ready to watch it.

 

It was February 2014. I was going to a very rough time in my life.

So, i was looking through tumblr and one of the people i followed started to post figure skating gifs. I said "oh, right, olympics..." And saw that she posted a link to the live stream.

And i saw him there, skating to Parisienne Walkways. The stream wasn't good quality, so i didn't see his face, but i could see his lines, the beautiful way he moved across the ice... I felt like that love for the sport that was locked up for so long started burning again (even weirder because until then i only followed ladies). I refused to look him up, because i didn't feel emotionally ready (something told me that googling that kid would end up baaaaaadly). I didn't watch the FS, february 14 i found out he had won. I reblogged the pic of him holding the japanese flag, and one of the things i remember is that i thought that his name was also very beautiful and "fitting". I questioned myself why i felt so drawn to him, was it because he was japanese? because i liked skating? because i liked him? (i had seen his baby face at this point and i thought he was really cute). Something inside me made me feel that he would take over my life haha, so i went into a self imposed Hanyu ban.

 

December 2015 came, and i was getting ready for my yearly ritual of watching the Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Many bands i LOVE were going to participate in that edition, so i was REALLY looking forward to it.

Watched it start, laughed at the dancing squids. And then they presented the judges.

My heart exploded when i saw him wearing that blue hakama, with that beautiful beautiful smile, and i heard his name: I sit up in my bed and i just whispered "what is he doing there? That... that is the figure skater, right, Yuzuru Hanyu??!"

Pictured here: the very moment when he finished stealing my heart

So much for my self imposed Hanyu ban.

I looked at the list of performances and saw that he was going to feature in "Hana ha Saku" I was "why is a figure skater singing lol, stick to your own thing".

Yet, i watched. And i watched those bits of Seimei, heard the thing about the earthquake and i was so so impressed... I felt this odd warm feeling inside me and i almost broke the Hanyu ban further.

I knew i shouldn't, so i stayed strong and kept ignoring him.

 

August 2016 came, and i was tweeting about japanese guys (lmao don't judge me) And from the veeeeery back of my brain i posted "i like these kind of guys but i make an special exception for Yuzuru Hanyu in hakama" I tweeted that and then i laughed at myself, because i never looked up pics of him yet the image of him dressed like that made such an impact in me that i still remembered it. Then i made the huge mistake of googling "Yuzuru Hanyu hakama"

It was like an exploding dam. I watched all his videos (i had to stop midway the Boston FP), started amassing the collection i've shared with you guys and i checked with fear when the skating season would start.

I lasted a month before joining the other place, i watched the kumamoto charity thing because i was thirsty to see him skate again and counted every single day down to the Autumn Classic.

And now i laugh, because i kept trying to run away from him.

When i saw him skating to the Swan it felt like full circle, i can't help thinking for a bit that i have been led to finding him from some time ago.

And look where i am now... 

 

Sorry for the huge post

[Hanmgse]

I became a fan during Olympics. I saw him first in the team competitiom (from the men I only knew Plushenko) he skated like a rockstar and I thought WOW. I don't know how to explain it but when I saw him I got this urgent feel of wanting to know everything about him, so I expent the night looking for videos. I thought he was 16 when I saw him btw hahaha. After watching videos I found myself reeeally rooting for him to win and I couldn't think about anything else that this captivating person. After the historic SP happened I was already a fan. I watched him winning the Olympics and I just knew I would follow him for a long time. After Sochi I searched for a place to follow him and in general figure skating and I found GS and also the FF :cry: since then I've been following him non stop and I can truly say that turning on the TV to watch the Olympics was one of the best decissions I've ever made in my life LOL :embSwan:

[unicorn]

Wow, great to read so many stories of how people came to be fans of Yuzuru! Klera, I wish you safe travels to Pyeongchang for the men's LP!! I know a bunch of other fans are going too, maybe there could be a meet up.

 

A note about the title though,I know most people use "Fanyu" derogatorily, like Yunab*t or Maob*t. I think "fan of Yuzuru" is also the easiest to understand for those unfamiliar with English. Just a suggestion though!

[Fay]

Gosh, this was by far the most touching story of you trying to escape YH gravitational pull. :)

[PomeloPooh]

I am one of those new fans who came across Yuzu by way of the YOI anime. Yes, I'm one of those. I started watching YOI due to my tumblr dashboard exploding about this anime, and I loved it.

 

As a result of that I kept seeing mentions of the real life figure skater inspirations for the anime (everyone saying Yuuri is Yuzuru Hanyu, that kind of thing, even if he is totally Machida) so I checked his WR Sochi PW performance someone linked to on the reddit group. Then I checked some more performances, which included Chopin :love:, Seimei, RJ1, POTO and, well, pretty much all his competitive programs and a side of EX too. I fell a little bit in love with how amazing he was and how he fit my aesthetics so well. Then I gradually branched out into watching other skaters that kept popping up on Youtube and eventually became a fan of figure skating itself.

 

As for YOI, I kind of never actually joined its fandom, though I still check for updates on a second season when I can. However, truth be told, the anime was a lot less painful than the real thing; how one suffers when your faves underperform!

 

Same here! From YOI to Yuzu, then to the whole figure skating world. (If it were for Yuzu though, I don't think YOI would keep me interested for long enough to learn the basics & find joy in FS itself.)

 

Looking back to the anime, I feel that as a FS fan I can't be a very devoted YOI fan, because there just are some glaring little mistakes that keep you awake! No matter how you calculate the scores can't be right :smile: And the fandom's reaction to Yuuri getting silver - you'd think he's got Yuzu-status and anything except gold is a disappointment, when in (anime) reality he got into GPF for the first time at the age of 23.

[Hydroblade]

Gosh, this was by far the most touching story of you trying to escape YH gravitational pull. :)

I tried to escape but looks like it isn't possible :acceptable:

[PomeloPooh]

Wow, great to read so many stories of how people came to be fans of Yuzuru! Klera, I wish you safe travels to Pyeongchang for the men's LP!! I know a bunch of other fans are going too, maybe there could be a meet up.

 

A note about the title though,I know most people use "Fanyu" derogatorily, like Yunab*t or Maob*t. I think "fan of Yuzuru" is also the easiest to understand for those unfamiliar with English. Just a suggestion though!

 

I picked the word up from the old FF, and thought it's something fans use to refer to themselves :P And indeed the word merging can be confusing. Title changed! Thanks for the suggestion :pbow: :pbow: :pbow:

[xeyra]

Same here! From YOI to Yuzu, then to the whole figure skating world. (If it were for Yuzu though, I don't think YOI would keep me interested for long enough to learn the basics & find joy in FS itself.)

 

Looking back to the anime, I feel that as a FS fan I can't be a very devoted YOI fan, because there just are some glaring little mistakes that keep you awake! No matter how you calculate the scores can't be right :smile: And the fandom's reaction to Yuuri getting silver - you'd think he's got Yuzu-status and anything except gold is a disappointment, when in (anime) reality he got into GPF for the first time at the age of 23.

By the time we had the Barcelona GPF in the anime I'd been lurking in the other forum for a while and researched as much as I could about FS so that when the SP and FS episodes came about, I was about ready to throw a tantrum about stupid, impossible scoring, but others did it for me first. :rofl2:

But yeah, because I kind of fell in love with the sport itself, and especially with certain skaters by the real GPF, the initial shine of the anime faded a bit in terms of wanting to actually follow it as a fandom (I read fanfic for a couple of weeks after it ended but the interest kind of fizzled out). I'll watch the new movie coming up and any seasons that may come, but I'm far more likely to read tl;dr posts about Figure Skating than I am to read YOI meta, so that kind of seals where my interests primarily lay.