General Yuzuru Chat

[rockstaryuzu]

59 minutes ago, FlyingCamel said:

 

Yuzu is so popular in China, I think if he skates there it will be no different from a home crowd audience...

Probably even more enthusiastic. The Chinese fans are usually the ones handing out the free Yuzu support banners at events and doing the bus poster ads and stuff. They really really love him.

[Geo1]

7 hours ago, Fay said:

It’s the sixth anniversary of the first Sendai Parade

 

 

On the one hand, it seems like yesterday that I was watching the Sochi Victory Parade and yet, on the other hand, it seems like a zillion years ago when I consider how Yuzu has matured and what he has suffered and accomplished in the intervening six years.

[yumeaki]

Very random but I don't know why a 2014 video suddenly popped up on my YT feed though I can do with a laugh now. 

 

 

[Geo1]

4 hours ago, FlyingCamel said:

 

Yuzu is so popular in China, I think if he skates there it will be no different from a home crowd audience...

 

3 hours ago, Veveco said:

 

Is there any place that wouldn't be "home crowd" for Yuzu?

 

@Veveco is right. All of his competitions are sold out and the majority of the audience are Yuzu fans.

 

@FlyingCamel is also right in that Yuzu is extremely popular in China and he has a huge fan base there.

 

What really irritates me is that commentators are always referring to all of the fans as being Japanese. If they are Asian, they automatically assume that they are Japanese. They seem to ignore non-Asian fans holding Japanese flags.

 

I had to laugh when they showed a huge group of Yuzu fans outside the Gangneung Ice Arena wearing Winnie the Pooh gear and holding signs and banners with Asian characters and the commentator talking about all the obsessive Japanese fans that follow Yuzu. The reason I laughed is because they weren’t Japanese, they were Chinese fans holding signs with Chinese characters!

 

In a Japanese news broadcast, they showed a group of Chinese fans who initially had some trouble getting in to the arena. They finally made it in and seemed to be tired out. The Japanese TV commentator noted that they were totally oblivious to a Chinese skater who was performing, but when Yuzu came on the ice, they all went berserk!

 

The only time that I recall a commentator noting that not all of the fans cheering for Yuzu were Japanese was Simon Reed after the 2015 GPF short program when he said that there were so many Spanish faces holding Japanese flags.

[micaelis]

8 hours ago, Fay said:

It’s the sixth anniversary of the first Sendai Parade

 

Seeing this has got me thinking about the crucial importance of the 2013-14 season in charting Yuzu's rise to the position he currently occupies with the Japanese public.  Before that season Yuzu was widely viewed, both domestically and internationally, as an extremely talented rising star.  He had had some success in competitions before then, most notably a bronze taken in the world championships of 2012, but it was the 13/14 season that was his true breakthrough.  Capturing the gold in the GPF, Olympics and Worlds had him as the first to hold all three titles since Alexei Yagudin in 2002.  In Japan, though, we have to remember that the men's skating in Japan going into that crucial season was dominated by Daisuke Takahashi.  After that season Japan men's skating was Yuzu's to command and it remained so even through those recent years in which his injuries severely compromised his ability to rack up the wins.  This parade shows the reason why.  Yuzu's connection to the Japanese public, a connection that rested on two things - his success as a competitive skater and his increasing identification with the recovery efforts following the quake/tsunami of 3/11/11 - was an element that continued even through these recent lean years competitively.  One thing,. and I've pointed this out before - is that Yuzu's success in Sochi was double-barreled.  Not only was he the first Japanese male to capture the men's single in figure-skating but he was also the only Japanese in any sport to bring home gold from Sochi.  That really put the spotlight on him.  Much to his credit he dealt with it, realizing the responsibility being thrust upon him because of his enormous athletic success and how that enabled him to take up a high-profile role in voicing the concerns of those still struggling with the aftermath of 3/11.  I think this parade also must have had an effect on him.  I think it was the first time in which it became concretely apparent to him how he was viewed by so many in the Japanese community.  I do not know how things are in Japan but I do know that it would be very difficult to bring out such numbers for a single athlete.  There have been large-scale victory parades for various teams in various sports in various countries but I don't know of any such parade for a single victor.  It is also apparent here how Yuzumania was beginning to flourish.  First in Japan and then increasingly around the world, resulting in the remark Kurt Browning made one time regarding the obvious Yuzu supporters in the arena where he was competing - "a home-town crowd everywhere he goes".  I think what we see here is one reason that all of us at the Planet so admire him.  Yuzu has the touch, the ability to connect directly to the people, a touch that is very rare and has never been compromised by a show of arrogance.  If Yuzu were ever to go into politics he'd be formidable.

[Fay]

Yuzu’s best jumps of the season. 

[rockstaryuzu]

3 hours ago, micaelis said:

If Yuzu were ever to go into politics he'd be formidable.

He wouldn't even have to campaign. he'd have the fanyu vote permanently.

[Dreamer]

8 hours ago, TallyT said:

 

But no, they and Chinese skating fans in general want Yuzuru.

Just substitute global/international for Chinese

I believe many global skating fans in general 'want Yuzuru'.

He is a supernova megastar!!!!

[Dreamer]

The Chinese admire beauty and excellence, even if it is not from one of their own.  That explains their love for Yuzuru, and why they embrace him.  This is also how Dimash Kudaibergen became a world star, he sang on a professional singer competition as a relative unknown outside his own country.  The Chinese also embraced him for his excellence and helped launch his international career.  Talent and brilliance have no boundaries!!!

[SitTwizzle]

40 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

He wouldn't even have to campaign. he'd have the fanyu vote permanently.

A French politician, who by the way had lectured some time in Québec, wrote about "hand touch" ("toque manettes" in his regional language), all the information one can gather from a handshake. Given Yuzuru Hanyu's sensitivity and ability, with cats for instance (can you imagine, visiting victims of the earthquake in a temporary housing, people and cats he didn't know, he put directly his hand between one of the cat's eyes and stroked it the wrong way, and the cat, instead of scratching him as such an audacity normally "deserves", turned his belly up to get strokes there!), or in his "iceology mental library" (I'm sure we don't know a tenth of this man's talents, maybe much less), he would very quickly know everything of the people he meets, much better than any research institute could tell him. Plus, he really likes to know people. So I tend to think he would campaign (though I don't know what a Japanese politician campaign looks like; maybe not many handshakes).

 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Labarrère

(sorry it's in French, he has no English Wikipedia)

 

(and for keen French readers, a "Japanese anecdote" about him and the future boss of Toshiba, in a project rather special for me)

https://billaut.typepad.com/jm/2010/08/andré-labarrère-monsieur-nishida-caressezlui-donc-la-fesse-.html

[TallyT]

9 hours ago, FlyingCamel said:

 

Yuzu is so popular in China, I think if he skates there it will be no different from a home crowd audience...

 

When you think of it, the depth of the love he gets through Asia is a testament to him. I remember reading an old GS thread in about 2015, where it was stated - and agreed to - that there was no way the Koreans would allow a Japanese skater to win gold on their soil. Memories are looong, and so is hostility, and they would stop it somehow. But from what I could see, they honoured and cheered on this Japanese boy as hard as anyone.

 

The Chinese also have long memories and a relationship with Japan that can and does get fraught at times. But Yuzu is more loved even than their own skaters.

 

 

[rockstaryuzu]

58 minutes ago, SitTwizzle said:

A French politician, who by the way had lectured some time in Québec, wrote about "hand touch" ("toque manettes" in his regional language), all the information one can gather from a handshake. Given Yuzuru Hanyu's sensitivity and ability, with cats for instance (can you imagine, visiting victims of the earthquake in a temporary housing, people and cats he didn't know, he put directly his hand between one of the cat's eyes and stroked it the wrong way, and the cat, instead of scratching him as such an audacity normally "deserves", turned his belly up to get strokes there!), or in his "iceology mental library" (I'm sure we don't know a tenth of this man's talents, maybe much less), he would very quickly know everything of the people he meets, much better than any research institute could tell him. Plus, he really likes to know people. So I tend to think he would campaign (though I don't know what a Japanese politician campaign looks like; maybe not many handshakes).

 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Labarrère

(sorry it's in French, he has no English Wikipedia)

 

(and for keen French readers, a "Japanese anecdote" about him and the future boss of Toshiba, in a project rather special for me)

https://billaut.typepad.com/jm/2010/08/andré-labarrère-monsieur-nishida-caressezlui-donc-la-fesse-.html

See, I just think people would vote for him anyway. If his name was on the ballot, that'd be enough. 

 

I wonder how many people have already used him as a write-in vote? Assuming Japanese ballots have such. 

[SitTwizzle]

18 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

See, I just think people would vote for him anyway. If his name was on the ballot, that'd be enough. 

 

I wonder how many people have already used him as a write-in vote? Assuming Japanese ballots have such. 

That's not counting the haters. Always noisy, and most often given the greatest press coverage. We can imagine, for instance, the deprecation a certain admirer of another skater, herself with a great athletic CV, could throw on him.

And let's not forget that for anybody who don't know figure skating (that is, the large majority of voters, even in Japan), he is "too good (and beautiful) to be true". Think only of the difference with... Well, we are not supposed to speak politics here; but as a whole, it is all about image, which is not that good in spite of all the hard work of media and PR teams, and there is nothing good behind.
Yuzuru Hanyu would have a fantastic image, the difficulty would be to have people understand he is as good inside as outside, clever, competent, honest and devoted.

[fyere0]

I hope Yuzu never, ever, ever goes into politics of any kind, whether government or skating-related, like taking over being an ISU representative or taking over working for the JSF. He's got too much integrity and kindness, and it's a world too full of corruption and shadiness at every level. Maybe there are good things he could use his fame and reputation to do, but it wouldn't do anything for him except make him new enemies. Politics brings out the worst in people, and the further people with originally good intentions go in that realm, the more idealism usually gets stripped away from them and the messier the public perception of them gets. I wouldn't want that to happen to him.

[FlyingCamel]

I wouldn’t want him to go into politics either... actually I kinda hope he will become a coach in the future when he retires! Can you imagine, years into the future all of us still here on the Planet, now with separate threads for each of his students :’) and I also often wonder if he would do some choreography? Of course I do want to see him perform in ice shows too!!