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

[Serafine]

During 2013-2014 Olympics Season

 

In February 2014, my friend shared Yuzu's Sochi LP on his FB and said "inspirational. fall twice but didn't give up until the end". I was curious because this friend is the type who is hard to please and very, very picky, So I thought if he posted that, this meant something. I clicked, and he was right. That wasn't Yuzu's best performance, but something about Yuzu moved me. I replayed that performance over and over again. I couldn't get enough. I checked the news and very glad to know he won the gold medal.

 

So I went to Youtube to learn more about him and the first two videos I saw were Yuzu's Nice 2012 LP R&J 1 and GPF 2013 SP Parisienne Walkways. I was blown away. I also replayed these videos over and over again. Then, for the next few months, my daily activities consisted of searching for Yuzu's videos on youtube, dailymotion and niconico. The more I knew, the more I fell in love and inspired especially when I found out he was a victim of March 2011 Disasters. This man is the real deal and I'm glad he came to my life.

 

One of my regrets is I wasn't a fan far earlier. I studied in Japan from 2010-2012 and visited Sendai few times. I went to Nanakita Park and Izumi Library, and Sendai Ice Rink is just around that area :cry: I wish I can turn back the time and told my old self to follow Yuzu at that time. Imagine the amount of stalking I would do :drool: lol

 

Fast forward now, I managed to convert my dear boyfriend, 2 best friends and a cousin into Yuzu fans. It's not that hard. Yuzu's skating speaks for itself. It's great that I can enjoy watching Yuzu with them :s_drinks

[klee]

I'm a newer fan (this season). I saw some videos on tumblr and then I went down a youtube rabbit hole for hours.

[OmNom]

so yuna was actually the first competing skater I became aware of (back when I was still heavily invested in K-pop and she made a splash in all Korean-related comms with her olympic gold). then fast forward to Yuri on Ice (yep I'm a weeb also :tongue: ) that prompted me to finally checking her programmes out. and surprise, surprise Yuzu's historic PW was suggested on the sidebar. it's been a downward spiral ever since lol

 

Fun fact: I was browsing through Yuzu's comps and checking GP events when I saw another Japanese also winning GP medals. Yes I actually first heard of Shoma's name through Yuzu-related wiki pages! :rofl2: how lame is that! :rofl2:

[kaeryth]

Nice 2012. I'm not someone overtly emotional or someone who can be emotionally invested in something/someone. I could appreciate some programs but never really get attached to it. Enter Yuzuru Hanyu and his legendary R+J1 skate. Without even knowing his background (Tohoku earthquake and how this program was a result of doing 60 ice shows), that skate was just... :cry: . There's something about his skating that can really touch an emotional core in people and I am glad to be one of them. :pbow:

[boredjodyc]

New fan since this season but I feel so blessed to be still in time witnessing Yuzu on ice in competitions. I used to watch skating vids of ladies (mostly Yuna) ages ago but Yuzu is the first skater that stunned me so much. RJ1 (Worlds) and Requiem (Worlds, moved me to tears) made me pass the point of no return. As I knew and read (obsessively oops, also huge thanks to all translators!) about him, I've got more and more respect and admiration for him. Not just majestic on ice, but such inspirational off ice :')

He made me want to do some serious self-study to appreciate figure skating better. He would be the main reason why I start learning Japanese later (when I get a better job!)

[九道湾帮忙师傅]

Thanks for Sochi,I joined this lovely FAMILY. :space:

[Miwho]

I really got interested in figure skating due to the yoi anime. Hope and legacy was the first program of Yuzuru that I watched. I really liked his skating and the music helped, caused it was by Joe Hisaishi, one of my favourite composers. Soon before I knew it, I was finding his past programs and kept watching them :yes:. I was also amazed by his character and attitude. That down to earth, hardworking, persevering attitude. Slowly too, I began to branch out to the other aspects of figure skating and come to really appreciate it. I regret a bit not knowing about him earlier but at the same time very happy to know about him now.

[HoneyGoldLev]

This is a fun thread, thanks PomeloPooh for coming up with it!

 

First heard about Yuzuru:

I was a long time casual fan of figure skating. Back then, I only follow ladies sector, and rooted for Kim Yuna to win Sochi 2014. But then the score-rigging scandal happened. I was so mad and and promised myself to leave figure skating because of that. But the last thing I heard before leaving was that there's a new rising star in men division. "The sensational Japanese teenager that took Sochi by storm", "First Japanese man to win Gold at Olympic", were a few headlines that I read, but I didn't bother since I was still angry with FS in general.

 

First watch Yuzuru's program:

It was mid 2016, when I stumbled upon Yuzu's Seimei performance at GPF 2015 in Youtube recommendation list. When I first saw it I was like "What the hell did I just watch??? Who is this guy??? I'm emotional". Be damned with my promise, but I need to know more about him lol. So I searched about him and alas, he's the same guy that won Sochi 2014. I literally laughed when I realized that. But at that time, I still considered myself as a casual fan who just appreciates great skating, I only watched his past programs in Youtube and didn't really follow the competition.

 

First became a real fan:

But what made me started to really stanning Yuzu was because of Nathan Chen (thank you, Nathan!). Someone shared video of Nathan Chen's LP at US Nationals in my FB news feed. The person was impressed with the 5 quads that he did. But when I watched it, I didn't feel the connection like I felt when I watch Yuzu's programs. So out of curiosity, I searched for other people's opinion in forums. That's when I found out other things as well, that Yuzu as a person is just all kinds of goodness, and then about his struggles and constant strive for perfection. I started to feel this connection on a more personal level with him. Then it just goes "downhill" from there. :grin:

 

And here I am now, actively posting in Planet Hanyu.

Oh and I'm one of the few that watch Yuri on Ice after I know about Yuzu and because people keep relating the anime to him lol

[Vivienne]

I was in the Kpop fandom back then. Around 2009-2010, I was curious about who Kim Yuna is, lord, they cut off television time for dramas and music shows to broadcast her competitions. Then I watched some of her programs but I found out I was more attracted by her rival: Mao Asada. However, I didn't become a fan of Mao nor followed the sport. I first heard about Yuzu around this time, I think. April 2012, I came across Yuzu's R&J 1.0 at Worlds 2012 on Youtube unexpectly and he surely didn't need 4.30 minutes to steal my auntie heart.

 

I thought Sochi would easily dominate the poll :wtf:. And sorry for my bad English

[Hanmgse]

Thank you for all the wonderful stories guys, it's great to see how different we are but we all came to love this person.

[susu0422]

In Sochi, the first time I know his name, but did not become his fans.

 

2015 WC, I occasionally saw him on TV when he was performing The Phantom of the Opera. He made some mistakes, only got silver medallist,crying in the backstage, at

 

that moment I became a fan.

 

Before I known him, I was not a figure skating fan, I even think that figure skating only includes ladies's singles and pairs.If he r****s, I'll pay less attention to

 

figure skating.

[Seimei06]

Confession: I'm still unable to distinguish diff jumps because my eyes can't follow the rotation and the foot hahaha I'm almost blind tbh :smile:

it's okay man, my vision's perfectly fine and i still have a really hard time with that ;;

it's just hard for me to focus, i never remember to look at the feet orz

 

It's really really hard for me :cry: but I'll try to learn again! Maybe i'll have a better shot this time since I'm years older now lol

[PomeloPooh]

So as the sample size grows, Sochi takes the lead after all! :devil:

 

As for the size of the 16-17 population, aside from the impact of YOI, I suppose some statistic deviation could happen due to new fans being more active? I mean if you're new you'd be searching Yuzu stuff all over the Internet & more likely to run into this polling, while older fans who expect less news for the off season would be less frequent, probably have yet to find this planet.

[cherry]

My first encounter with Figure Skating is because of Yuna's show -- "Yuna Kim's Kiss and Cry". I was interested in one of the guests on the show so I have watched it all. Since then, I became a casual figure skating audience (wouldn't even call myself a fan!)

 

During Sochi, everyone around me suddenly fangirl so hard at that cute Japanese 19 yo boy. I was so edgy and hipster and so I have decided to watch him and NOT become a fan because it's "too mainstream". BOOOM I fell in love with PW. I was trying very hard to resist the urge to become a hardcore fangirl (despite following tons of Yuzu fan accounts). On one night around the summer of 15-16 season, I was too bored so I did a marathon of all Yuzuru's performances and a new fan is born.

[CupidsBow]

Like many, I watched the sochi olympics singles event and loved him haha I wasn't interested in figure skating but out of the winter olympic events it's the only one I wanted to watch, my family watched all of the figure skating events out of casual interest. I didn;t like some of the performances because they were a little dull and like they were just going through the motions but then Yuzu came out and performed PW and he was so refreshing with so much personality and charm I couldn't help but to root for him!

I didn't keep up with him afterwards other than the occasional youtube video or something, but I knew vaguely what he was up to (getting WC, the COC accident etc) and i was mostly wrapped up with work and other fandoms but this year I got bored with my main fandom and because of YOI suddenly a lot of FS stuff was coming on my SNS feeds so I started getting more involved in following skating. since 4CC was in Korea and I could go, I got a ticket and started trying to learn more about fs so i'd know what i was watching and finally got sucked in haha If I had discovered FS fandom earlier I would've been sucked in much earlier :space: