General Yuzuru Chat

[Gladys]

Living in Yuzuru Age is the happiest and luckiest thing in my life. The day I travel to Sendai Japan will be just like a pilgrim's journey. I am so addicted to his performances, the GIFT is once-in-a-life-time experience for myself-not awakkened from the GIFT yet.

[Lilly88]

5 hours ago, Anni said:

Tanaka-san’s “Always with Yuzu” diary will be published on 11th March 🤗

 

[NEWS]

 

 

 

Yay! A new diary . I absolutely love my current blue diary and cannot wait for the next one 😊. 

[guitarist]

Not sure if it's been posted, but there we got an image of the collab with CLAMP!

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2023/02/26-1/clamp-unveils-stunning-illustration-for-yuzuru-hanyu-picture-book-collab

 

And the book is available to preorder on amazon.jp and cdjapan (might be in other places, but I only checked those).

GIFT

https://amzn.asia/d/aiVKa7p

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2835845

[swan_queen]

Sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but is GIFT still available to stream on Disney+, or where one might access it? I believe it isn't available anymore on the Sekkisei streams since March 1 has passed. 

[Yuzurella]

Philosopher Yuzu strikes again. I love his deep thinking mind.

 

[NEWS]

[Yuzurella]

Even though he is just one person, Yuzu reached all of us around the world and touched us deeply.

 

[NEWS]

[LaCarmi]

1 hour ago, swan_queen said:

Sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but is GIFT still available to stream on Disney+, or where one might access it? I believe it isn't available anymore on the Sekkisei streams since March 1 has passed. 

I've read somewhere that on D+ is available till March 12. I still can see the Globe Coding, it's up till March 1st at 22:59 Taiwan time (I think it's Taiwan).

[alwaysafan]

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm watching Gift on Disney plus, are there no subtitle available? LIke any transcript online where you understand what he is saying? 

[micaelis]

It's been some time since I have submitted a fairly lengthy post but now is the time, though this one is about several odds and ends. 

 

First up - Yuzu and figure skating shows.   I was able to see Prologue and take in the basic approach, which was autobiographical.  On his own he was able to in just those performances up the bar for figure-skating exhibitions.  We were promised more with Gift.  I have only been able to see short snippets from it but they were enough to realize that Yuzu has risen exponentially above the formats for everyday ice shows.  Quite simply he's revolutionized the whole concept, bringing a merging of skating, lighting and other techno elements and bringing in other elements also (including Japan's leading symphony orchestra) to create a show that more resembles a high-end rock concert than figure skating shows as we known them.  It was a game changer.  Signor Anbesi was right,  This was likely the single most important event in the history of figure skating.

 

Which brings me to a second topic - Yuzu in Stars on Ice.  There was rather a bit of controversy there but I will begin by saying Yuzu wasn't under duress.  It is impossible to force Yuzu to do anything he really doesn't want to do.  So why did he agree to go with Stars on Ice.  My guess is that he is scouting for performers since the normal SOI gang is different from the normal FOI gang.  He's putting out a net.  True, he could go to vids of their performances and such ;but he needs to get up close and personal.  We have to realize that over the years the only times Yuzu has had to mix with other skaters across all the disciplines have been in galas and ice shows.  Over the years he's encountered many but back then he wasn't seeing them with an eye looking for future skaters in ice shows he's producing.  He needs particularly to see how they work in ice shows rather than galas, although what comprises ice shows is so similar that one might just as well view them as galas without a preceding competition.

 

Another reason he might have decided to go with SOI was because it would be an opportunity for him to meet with one Ilia Malinin, who will be in Japan with SOI.  It will be the first time the world's greatest figure-skating superstar meets the superstar emerging.  Now I know that a while back I was shot down by putting a description of Ilia on this thread since this threat deals with Yuzu and I think it was probably my fault for not framing it as I will now proceed to do.  This is just as much about Yuzu as it is about Ilia, since in Ilia we are seeing emerge a Yuzu done lite.  He will never eclipse Yuzu but he is right now the Next Big Thing in men's figure-skating and the Americans are embracing him wholeheartedly.  That's easy to understand since at age 18 he's already better than Nathan Chen ever was and unlike Nathan he has a 4A in his weaponry.. And Ilia's emerging greatness is primarily owed to Yuzu.

 

Ilia's parents are both former Olympic athletes (his mother even medaled).  They emigrated from Uzbekistan and settled in the US in Virginia and Ilia grew up American.  With two talented skaters as parents his decision to enter skating would not be surprising but he has, in interviews, stated that it was Yuzu's example that inspired him to seriously pursue skating.  Later Nathan would be an influence too, but Yuzu is where the initial inspiration came from.  And he still remains influential.  Case in point - amongst Yuzu's signature moves was the doughnut spin and the Bielmann spin but he never did what I thought would be obvious to him, that is moving from a doughnut to a Bielmann by raising his leg up to the proper position.  Ilia does do that.  There are some other traces of Yuzu to be found in his programs but those are not the important part

 

The important part is that, as he stated in an interview, now that he's got the jumps under control he will focus on basic skating skills and improving his program components, in short, make him something more than quadgOd, make him more complete as a skater, with Yuzu very much the model here, and he's already well on the way.  Look at his short program, at either the GPF or the US Nationals.  The choreography is dense and his arms are almost at much in motion as his legs.  He has to achieve that sense of effortless flow that lies at the heart of Yuzu's greatness and he might never attain that but he's wanting to go in the right direction, unlike Nathan who figured his jumps would be sufficient and the cooperative judges would pad his PC scores and hand him the wins.  Ilia's free skate program, which includes as its first jump his signature 4A is not as strong choreographically as his SP, even though Shae-Lynn choreographed it.  I think that's probably due to the choice of music.

 

There is, however, another element at play here.  Ilia looks like he is going to duplicate Yuzu's achievement from his 2013/14 season, a season in which he took the GPF, the Olympic gold and the World Championship.  Basically he began the season as an 'up-and-coming' to end it being the One to Beat.  Ilia might do just that this season by doing what is very much a possibility, taking the World Championship.  If he does that than this particular up-and-coming one will at season's end be that One to Beat.  And much more impressive - This is his first season skating senior level.

 

That is not to denigrate Yuzu.  He took every important thing in his fourth season of senior competition.  He did not have a Yuzuru Hanyu as inspiration.

 

There is yet another point of comparison.  Ilia has a charisma that Nathan never had, a charisma almost as great as Yuzu's but of a different sort.  Yuzu's appearance begins with the fact that he is enormously good-looking ('boy-band good looks' as one commentator put it), a ten on a scale of ten.  Ilia I would put at an eight or nine, but like Yuzu he has presence.  His presence, though, is energetically boyish.  He has a radiant smile and gives the impression at times on the ice that he is having a great deal of fun.  That is not really like Yuzu, who gets so much into the music that the only times he's really having fun on the ice is when the music is having fun.  Another thing to keep in mind is that Ilia does not show a major depth of character.  He's very much an American teenager who just happens to be a world class skater.  Part of that is that he doesn't have an earthquake in his past.  Yuzu does, as we will be very much reminded in a couple weeks in "Notte Stellata', Yuzu's commemoration with others of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, memories of which even after twelve years have the same vividness as the day after the quake.  Facing the prospect of imminent death does tend to have a lasting effect on fifteen-year-olds.

 

So as we look ahead for Yuzu there is Notte Stellata and then Stars on Ice later this year, after the competition is over.  What follows only Yuzu knows, although knowing his habit of planning things well ahead of time (remember, he stated he was going after TWO Olympic golds even before he'd gotten the first one) he already has things mapped out in his mind.  The most important thing to keep in mind about Yuzu is that there has never been in the past a figure skater like Yuzuru Hanyu.  There have been great skaters, true, but none have had the conscious determination, as we see with Yuzu, of making figure-skating better, not merely in terms of skills but in terms of the aesthetics.  Yuzu wants to make figure-skating better not by developing more impressive jumps and such, but rather making figure-skating more beautiful.  I'm sure he will do so and that will be his true legacy.

 

PS - I have a feeling that the real reason Nathan decided to head back to Yale was that he saw Ilia coming and knew he'd never be able to beat him.

[Sombreuil]

3 hours ago, swan_queen said:

Sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but is GIFT still available to stream on Disney+, or where one might access it? I believe it isn't available anymore on the Sekkisei streams since March 1 has passed. 

I’m rewatching now on the KKTIX stream- you have until 23.59 Japanese time 1.3.23. to catch it

[maxcellwire]

I really hope there's a DVD of GIFT, I refuse to believe tomorrow afternoon will be the last time I get to watch it   Every time I rewatch a bit and think 'oh yeah that was my favourite performance of the whole show', the next bit starts and that becomes my favourite, and then the next and the next and the next... I just can't get over how much of his absolutely gorgeous skating we got to watch, how deeply he let us see into his experiences that must've been harder than we can even comprehend, and the insane feat of performing so many high-level performances one after the other

 

It's incredible how everyone always has such high expectations of Yuzu and yet he still manages to blow those expectations out of the water. What an incredible show he created for us

[Yuzurella]

1 hour ago, alwaysafan said:

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm watching Gift on Disney plus, are there no subtitle available? LIke any transcript online where you understand what he is saying? 

 

As far as I know, English subtitles are only available on the KKTIX (Globe Coding) stream. I think that's because the Disney+ version is targeted at the Japanese domestic audience.

 

5 minutes ago, maxcellwire said:

I really hope there's a DVD of GIFT, I refuse to believe tomorrow afternoon will be the last time I get to watch it   Every time I rewatch a bit and think 'oh yeah that was my favourite performance of the whole show', the next bit starts and that becomes my favourite, and then the next and the next and the next... I just can't get over how much of his absolutely gorgeous skating we got to watch, how deeply he let us see into his experiences that must've been harder than we can even comprehend, and the insane feat of performing so many high-level performances one after the other

 

It's incredible how everyone always has such high expectations of Yuzu and yet he still manages to blow those expectations out of the water. What an incredible show he created for us

 

I also hope that Yuzu and his team will release a DVD of Gift, preferably with behind the scenes footage. I'd love to see the process of creating Gift!

From a business standpoint, this would make a lot sense, since the sales of a Gift DVD would be immense.

[fenraven]

52 minutes ago, micaelis said:

So as we look ahead for Yuzu there is Notte Stellata and then Stars on Ice later this year, after the competition is over.  What follows only Yuzu knows

You make some good points, and that's why I liked your post. I can see you've given this some thought. I also think you may be right about why NC headed back to school. As far as Malinin goes, I doubt he will eclipse Yuzu at any point, despite the 4A. I don't think anyone will, because Yuzu is a singular human being and skater. He was born for the ice, and he's also an innovator. He continues to break new ground and push boundaries. He will certainly be remembered for his numerous wins during his competitive years, including the two Olympic gold medals and the Super Slam, among other things. And now he's putting together events that amaze and astound people all over the world. He'll continue to expand on that. But aside from all that (whew! he's accomplished a lot!), he's a wonderful person, with charm and charisma to spare. He's always respectful of others, and he's one of the kindest, most generous people I've had the pleasure of following. I wish I knew him in reality, but that will never happen. The "typical American teenager" is lacking in grace and humility, and I wonder if he'll ever acquire it. I'll be honest: I don't think much of him so far. Maybe in time he'll win me over, but he'll have to work hard to do it. I'm an American; I don't embrace him just because we share a country. I do embrace Yuzu, however, because of who and what he is. I don't think Malinin has a chance of winning me over to his side.  

[rockstaryuzu]

4 hours ago, swan_queen said:

Sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but is GIFT still available to stream on Disney+, or where one might access it? I believe it isn't available anymore on the Sekkisei streams since March 1 has passed. 

It's available for another 20 hours - deadline is 23h59 on March 1, Taiwan time

[micaelis]

6 minutes ago, fenraven said:

You make some good points, and that's why I liked your post. I can see you've given this some thought. I also think you may be right about why NC headed back to school. As far as Malinin goes, I doubt he will eclipse Yuzu at any point, despite the 4A. I don't think anyone will, because Yuzu is a singular human being and skater. He was born for the ice, and he's also an innovator. He continues to break new ground and push boundaries. He will certainly be remembered for his numerous wins during his competitive years, including the two Olympic gold medals and the Super Slam, among other things. And now he's putting together events that amaze and astound people all over the world. He'll continue to expand on that. But aside from all that (whew! he's accomplished a lot!), he's a wonderful person, with charm and charisma to spare. He's always respectful of others, and he's one of the kindest, most generous people I've had the pleasure of following. I wish I knew him in reality, but that will never happen. The "typical American teenager" is lacking in grace and humility, and I wonder if he'll ever acquire it. I'll be honest: I don't think much of him so far. Maybe in time he'll win me over, but he'll have to work hard to do it. I'm an American; I don't embrace him just because we share a country. I do embrace Yuzu, however, because of who and what he is. I don't think Malinin has a chance of winning me over to his side.

I do agree with you about Ilia's callowness.  As I said he does not show the depths that Yuzu has and probably never will.  As I said, Ilia does not have an earthquake in his past but I also think he does not have the solid family life Yuzu has.  Yuzu's parents are not skaters but they have provided Yuzu with a stable environment during his arduous years of competition.  The other point you make is also good.  Yuzu is a much more thoughtful and gentle person (except when he's on the ice competing) but as I've pointed out time and time ago in my posts over the years, Yuzu is a magnificent human being, giving of his time and money to help others.  The thing is that even from the small snippets I was able to see of Gift I can see that he has a vision of what skating should be and he's ready to devote his energies to realizing that vision.  In Gift  he has permanently made a mark in the history of ice shows.  The ice show today is not what it was the day before Gift.  Every ice show program on the planet must now recalibrate themselves to meet the challenge that Yuzu has set before them.  There can be no going back because business as usual will always be so inadequate when seen in the light of Yuzu's achievement.