General Yuzuru Chat

[TallyT]

9 hours ago, KatjaThera said:

I think a lot of people aren't familiar with Yuzuru's background. They know he's Japanese, maybe they know he was considered a prodigy and I would guess most of them know he survived the earthquake in 2011. But I think that's about all they know. And that's probably because he doesn't really talk to western media and so his life story isn't really well known there.

 

 

Even that isn't a given, I ran across a post on an American religious website once, comparing Yuzu with Tonya Harding (it was probably after the movie came out) and saying how he preferred Tonya because she had had a hard life, and Yuzuru had probably had such an easy, priveleged and ordinary one.

 

Lucky for him you had to register to comment or I would have 'explained' in large unfriendly letters a few facts about facing death in the earthquake, injury, illness, bullying by Takahashi fans when just an infant, haters.... and asked exactly what he thought the word research meant. 

[sweetwater]

What is so cold and dark about Origin...?

 

 

Subtitle on pic 1: "The image of Plushenko san I saw (when he was skating Nijinsky) was black and gold"
Subtitle on pic 2: "I feel that I'm making my dream come true bit by bit sooo strongly!"
Subtitle on pic 3: "I'm happy"

[salty]

okay so im late to the party but from my understanding - if you put together the pieces of the themes of Kojiki and what Shae Lynn said in her video about putting in little pieces of 'human touch' - i believe that Origin is the story of a god (not God or Lucifer or a Demon) who learns human warmth and becomes human. Here's how all these themes of tribute, origin, and story telling come together since i believe some of us are having a tough time not seeing Origin as all over the place thematically

 

Tribute and Origin - Yuzu has said that he became truly interested in figure skating after watching Plushenko's Nijinsky so he is using his idol's signature piece of music to create a new story. Ironically enough, this piece of music was used to portray Nijinsky, a revolutionary ballet dancer who struggled with mental disorders and health issues that kept him from creating healthy relationships with the people around him. Nijinsky was a genius who kept himself isolated from the public to escape the pressure of being Russia's #1. Remind you of anyone? (minus the mental disorders of course)

 

Storytelling - Otonal is the ice wasteland that Yuzu lived in up until he won the Olympics. I've mentioned this in the costumes thread before but this place was cold and harsh and lonely and you can see the image he produces when he's on the ice. He's all alone but he dances around furiously trying to keep himself warm. This interpretation of Otonal is perfectly juxtaposed to Origin in that regard. Even his costume in Origin looks like his clothes were burned off by the intense human warmth he has received. The Ina Bauer, his reaching out with his hand before the spiral, etc. are all choreographic touches to portray this god becoming more and more human with the help of the people around him. Where in Otonal he is alone, Origin is packed full of people skating with him and supporting him, that's the visual i think Yuzu's trying to give us

 

ps: i get left cold by Origin too, and i honestly blame Shae Lynn Bourne for that 

i wish yuzu had had Kenji or Nanami choreograph this . . . . especially since it's about kojiki

 

[makebelieveup]

5 minutes ago, salty said:

okay so im late to the party but from my understanding - if you put together the pieces of the themes of Kojiki and what Shae Lynn said in her video about putting in little pieces of 'human touch' - i believe that Origin is the story of a god (not God or Lucifer or a Demon) who learns human warmth and becomes human. Here's how all these themes of tribute, origin, and story telling come together since i believe some of us are having a tough time not seeing Origin as all over the place thematically

 

Tribute and Origin - Yuzu has said that he became truly interested in figure skating after watching Plushenko's Nijinsky so he is using his idol's signature piece of music to create a new story. Ironically enough, this piece of music was used to portray Nijinsky, a revolutionary ballet dancer who struggled with mental disorders and health issues that kept him from creating healthy relationships with the people around him. Nijinsky was a genius who kept himself isolated from the public to escape the pressure of being Russia's #1. Remind you of anyone? (minus the mental disorders of course)

 

Storytelling - Otonal is the ice wasteland that Yuzu lived in up until he won the Olympics. I've mentioned this in the costumes thread before but this place was cold and harsh and lonely and you can see the image he produces when he's on the ice. He's all alone but he dances around furiously trying to keep himself warm. This interpretation of Otonal is perfectly juxtaposed to Origin in that regard. Even his costume in Origin looks like his clothes were burned off by the intense human warmth he has received. The Ina Bauer, his reaching out with his hand before the spiral, etc. are all choreographic touches to portray this god becoming more and more human with the help of the people around him. Where in Otonal he is alone, Origin is packed full of people skating with him and supporting him, that's the visual i think Yuzu's trying to give us

 

ps: i get left cold by Origin too, and i honestly blame Shae Lynn Bourne for that 

i wish yuzu had had Kenji or Nanami choreograph this . . . . especially since it's about kojiki

 

Never too late with that beautiful interpretation. You're basically connecting the Nijinsky references to the portrayal of a distant creator Shae/Yuzu wanted to convey and this is exactly what I need. Thanks!! I feel like I can actually understand more about this program now by looking at it this way. Hopefully, its also how Yuzu wanted to convey 

[salty]

Just now, makebelieveup said:

Never too late with that beautiful interpretation. You're basically connecting the Nijinsky references to the portrayal of a distant creator Shae/Yuzu wanted to convey and this is exactly what I need. Thanks!! I feel like I can actually understand more about this program now by looking at it this way. Hopefully, its also how Yuzu wanted to convey 

 

ayyyyy im not a film major for nothin' 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, MarthEmblem said:

 

 

Does it escalate quickly if I was already gay? 

Not sure how to answer that...maybe? I mean everything depends on your usual taste in objects of affection.

 

Although, when it comes to finding him attractive, since it's Yuzu, maybe that attraction should have it's very own label? Instead of 'gay'  or 'straight' or whatever, we can all  just be Yuzuphilic. 

[MarthEmblem]

15 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Not sure how to answer that...maybe? I mean everything depends on your usual taste in objects of affection.

 

Although, when it comes to finding him attractive, since it's Yuzu, maybe that attraction should have it's very own label? Instead of 'gay'  or 'straight' or whatever, we can all  just be Yuzuphilic. 

 

I don't know anyone who doesn't think he's attractive so it fits tbh

It's not fair how pretty he is sometimes 

[rockstaryuzu]

12 minutes ago, MarthEmblem said:

 

I don't know anyone who doesn't think he's attractive so it fits tbh

It's not fair how pretty he is sometimes 

I know, right? Kills me dead every time. 

[Sammie]

[liv]

Everyone is searching for such in depth meanings to these programs... for me, I just find them both entertaining. Moves match the music, he skates well, jumps well,  and is a force of nature skating to them... and is just so darn cute while doing all that, even with murder face.  I love Origin. The end.

 

And Plush: Please don't try to see your skating style in his programs because even if he imitated your moves exactly, they would look entirely different because how you both move is so very different. He's not trying to be a clone, he's showing you his admiration for you and your ability to compete so well, almost all the time.

[4Nessie]

I like how we fanyus are trying to analyse Yuzu's programs. I think that is a part that makes him special too. How many skaters can say their fans see any meaning in their skating? Yes, you can skate to POTO or Carmen or random vocal music, but fans usually don't look for any meaning. They just enjoy the skate.

The fact, that there are people, who actually see any meaning in Yuzu's skating, or they are looking for it at least is, in my opinion, quite heartwarming. I like it and I enjoyed every opinion I've read today. Thank you for such a great community!

[Murieleirum]

Dark doesn't necessarily means evil. Every time I see Yuzuru skate, I want to fight alongside him, and I don't feel like he is destructing: he is creating. We joke around on his murderface, but I actually don't believe his performances of Origin were giving off demonic vibes. He skates strongly, softly, surely. There is no skater that's more self aware than him, and his idea of skating is unique and by now everybody knows it in the skating world. Origin gives off these kind of vibes to me. Origin is a part of Yuzuru's identity, his energy, his never ending motivation. It's a positive strenght, to me. The Yang more than the ying, which is more often portrayed by him. 

[Terrapin]

52 minutes ago, 4Nessie said:

I like how we fanyus are trying to analyse Yuzu's programs. I think that is a part that makes him special too. How many skaters can say their fans see any meaning in their skating? Yes, you can skate to POTO or Carmen or random vocal music, but fans usually don't look for any meaning. They just enjoy the skate.

The fact, that there are people, who actually see any meaning in Yuzu's skating, or they are looking for it at least is, in my opinion, quite heartwarming. I like it and I enjoyed every opinion I've read today. Thank you for such a great community!

Well, I do truly believe that there are deep meanings in most of the programmes Yuzu has been skating so far, especially the ones he skated as a grown up and into which he put so much in himself, simply because this guy overthinks everything. And it is also because he puts his heart and soul in everything he does (and skate) that they feel so special to so many people. This is also what sets him apart in the figure skating world (isn't he the guy who wrote a very long letter to Wilson so that he would agree to choreograph R&J2, which would incidently be connected to R1J1?, the one who absolutely wanted to skate to POTO to show a more powerful side to his skating and who said goodbye to the phantom on his last performance? the one who went to see Mansai Nomura so that he would perfectly understand the character of Seimei but also what 'wa' is and how you should perform it? the one who skated on Requiem in such a way that one commentator truly felt the suffering he was embodying and so on...) So I don't think our analysis are as far-fetched as they may seem at first ^^

[Figure_Frenzy]

....am I the only one unbothered by the possibility of not quite getting Origin right now? 

 

I mean, the program is still on its early stage, he will develop it as the season progress, so I think it's understandable that its narrative doesn't manifest clearly yet. Yuzu said that himself in the press conference, and I trust him on that. Yeah I have too much faith on him don't @ me :p . I..... don't have much to comment on the choreographical ideas, and there are ideas that I already agree with (eg. drawing inspiration from Kojiki and the further exploration of that line of thought), so I am not gonna repeat that.

 

I guess I would only be worried when Yuzu turns out to compromise choreography in favor of something else (which is uncharacteristic for him) as the season progresses.

[Tee]