General Yuzuru Chat

[monchan]

This set is so cool. Classy black. From Bathclin:

 

[Henni147]

13 hours ago, memae said:

 

I had a random thought while hanging washing yesterday about how Nathan's career, when it's looked back on, will always be tied to Yuzuru. In the same way that you can't talk about Yagudin's career without mentioning Plushenko, or Yuna without Mao, Zhenya without Alina, Brian without Brian, Nathan will always be tied to Yuzuru. 

 

But so will Patrick Chan. And Javier. And Shoma. Even Daisuke. 

 

Yuzuru really is the only one to transcend 'rivalries'. As much as he loves competing and the challenge, I think he's the only one who truly is in a league of his own. No matter about the scores but what we see when he skates. His level of skill is beyond anyone else's. Sure, Patrick had those skating skills and Nathan has those jumps and the consistency needed to make them effective, but Patrick couldn't get the jumps without impacting the skating skills and Nathan can't get the skating skills while focusing on the jumps - and when points matter, why would anyone risk losing any when they can do enough by sticking to their safe strategy even if it doesn't show what they could be capable of? I think Nathan probably can do the jumps the with transitions we'd like to see - I don't think he can always do them though, especially not all in one program. Why would he risk his consistency when what he's doing now is enough to get a WR? The only way we get to see Nathan's potential is through Yuzuru pushing him. We can't say the same for Yuzuru. I think we see him reach newer and newer levels of potential because he's chasing possibility. He wanted to land a 4lo. So he did. He wanted to do crazy jumps with ridiculous transitions because it was possible for him and he did it. That 4T-3A was possible for him, so he did it. Same with 4T-eu-3F. 3A-3A. Keeping the core components of what makes Seimei  Seimei by smooshing all the jumps into about 5 seconds because of the loss of 30 seconds? He did that too. I think he probably just thought he could do it, worked on it, and then went and did it. 4A? He sees the possibility for him and so he's chasing it. Others see the possibility for him

 

I think his ability to achieve the impossible, in so many ways, will be what is mentioned - in one way or another - in years to come when people reflect on his skating career. The names of his main competitors might get mentioned in a list, if at all, or in passing about Sochi or Worlds or TCC or whatever. I don't think any of those skaters will be able to escape mention of him when their careers are reflected upon though. 

 

Yuzu's career is so special, because everything came together:

 

 

1. Talent and dedication:

Yuzu is gifted with an incredible talent as a skater and that lovestory between him and Ice-chan is unprecedented.

Skating is his life and fate and baby and everything. Like he said himself: he was born to skate.

 

2. Convenient timing of his career:

Yuzu was in the lucky situation that he could grow in parallel to the technical explosion. He wasn't forced to jump multiple quads in his junior and early senior seasons, so he could bear the physical strain of practice and competitions for more than a decade. I have my doubts that Yuzu would be still competing, if he had to jump five quads in the free from the beginning.

 

#Footnote: Actually it didn't have much to do with luck. Most of the drastic changes in men's skating happened, because the field couldn't beat Yuzu with conservative methods, aye?

 

3. Opportunity to combine highest technical difficulties with mature adult skating:

However, these circumstances put Yuzu in the exclusive situation that he could continuously develop his technical and artistic abilities side by side over 10 senior seasons and become a skater who now can perform mature adult programs with multiple quads AND highest artistic quality as a grown man. I don't think that any of the current juniors will reach his competitive peak at the age of 25. They might be still competing, but not for medals anymore. I hope that I'm wrong, but that's my fear.

 

4. Diversity among his rivals:

Different rivals with entirely different strengths (Patrick - skating skills, Javi - performance, Nathan - jumping) pushed Yuzu to his limits in all departments to become the most versatile and complete skater in history. I don't say that Yuzu couldn't have become a total package without them, but I'm sure, the diversity among his rivals played a key role in Yuzu's balanced and universal growth as a skater.

 

5. No candies: 

He managed to succeed in three Olympic cycles and two different judging systems with no backing from his federation. This is quite something. It's cruel on the one hand, but retrospectively the best thing that could happen to him. He earned all his titles rightfully with quality skating and nobody can take that away from him. He is not brandmarked as an overscored cheater, who needed the support of his fed to win. At the same time the unfairness that happened to him, forced him to evolve and go beyond his limits. That makes him even more popular and a champion to be respected.

[ralucutzagy]

 

[Paskud]

I rewatched CiONTU day 2 and his arms movements in Etiude were so beautiful.

The difference between serene and delicate part and then more dramatic.

 

x

[micaelis]

15 hours ago, memae said:

I had a random thought while hanging washing yesterday about how Nathan's career, when it's looked back on, will always be tied to Yuzuru. In the same way that you can't talk about Yagudin's career without mentioning Plushenko, or Yuna without Mao, Zhenya without Alina, Brian without Brian, Nathan will always be tied to Yuzuru. 

 

But so will Patrick Chan. And Javier. And Shoma. Even Daisuke. 

 

Yuzuru really is the only one to transcend 'rivalries'. As much as he loves competing and the challenge, I think he's the only one who truly is in a league of his own. No matter about the scores but what we see when he skates. His level of skill is beyond anyone else's. Sure, Patrick had those skating skills and Nathan has those jumps and the consistency needed to make them effective, but Patrick couldn't get the jumps without impacting the skating skills and Nathan can't get the skating skills while focusing on the jumps - and when points matter, why would anyone risk losing any when they can do enough by sticking to their safe strategy even if it doesn't show what they could be capable of? I think Nathan probably can do the jumps the with transitions we'd like to see - I don't think he can always do them though, especially not all in one program. Why would he risk his consistency when what he's doing now is enough to get a WR? The only way we get to see Nathan's potential is through Yuzuru pushing him. We can't say the same for Yuzuru. I think we see him reach newer and newer levels of potential because he's chasing possibility. He wanted to land a 4lo. So he did. He wanted to do crazy jumps with ridiculous transitions because it was possible for him and he did it. That 4T-3A was possible for him, so he did it. Same with 4T-eu-3F. 3A-3A. Keeping the core components of what makes Seimei  Seimei by smooshing all the jumps into about 5 seconds because of the loss of 30 seconds? He did that too. I think he probably just thought he could do it, worked on it, and then went and did it. 4A? He sees the possibility for him and so he's chasing it. Others see the possibility for him

 

I think his ability to achieve the impossible, in so many ways, will be what is mentioned - in one way or another - in years to come when people reflect on his skating career. The names of his main competitors might get mentioned in a list, if at all, or in passing about Sochi or Worlds or TCC or whatever. I don't think any of those skaters will be able to escape mention of him when their careers are reflected upon though.

This is possibly the best summation I've read here of where Yuzu's greatness lies.  He's the one who has produced several 'rivalries' along his multi-yeared journey to the GOAT.  One question remains, though, and that is what lies behind that gritty determination to constantly push himself.  I think it's the earthquake.  He was literally staring death in the face as he fled, sometimes on hands and knees he has related, that heaving, cracking ice surface, finally gaining the safety of the out of doors.  Then he knew that while he was successful in gaining safety, thousands others would not be successful, most particularly when the tsunamis carried their deadly tides inland.  It is a matter of record that he almost gave up skating, feeling remorse because of his misperception of what constitutes aiding in the recovery.  But once he made his decision to continue skating, I think he felt it necessary to do everything he could to justify his decision.  If anything, while he probably hasn't conceptualized it, he felt that only by becoming the greatest skater ever could he be worthy of his decision to keep skating.  In a certain sense I think deep down he feels that every time he's on the ice competing he is creating a memorial to those who didn't make it, not only in Sendai, but all up and down the Japanese coast.

[Fay]

 

[FlyingCamel]

Agree it’s absolutely amazing how Yuzu’s motivation and passion never dies even after 2 OGMs!

Even Yuna (who is one of my favourite skaters) seems to have lost a bit of that spark after she won 2010 olympics, even though she still had all her skills

Can’t think of any other skater who can still retain that passion and competitive fire to keep improving and winning even after so many achievements like Yuzu! He truly is extraordinary.

[Pika]

1 hour ago, FlyingCamel said:

Agree it’s absolutely amazing how Yuzu’s motivation and passion never dies even after 2 OGMs!

Even Yuna (who is one of my favourite skaters) seems to have lost a bit of that spark after she won 2010 olympics, even though she still had all her skills

Can’t think of any other skater who can still retain that passion and competitive fire to keep improving and winning even after so many achievements like Yuzu! He truly is extraordinary.

 

Honestly, the only one I can think about is Aliona Savchenko, who pushed her carrier harder than anyone else, when lot of skaters would have "given up" with do much medals and titles. But its not even the same as she was chasing that OGM she never had. 

[TallyT]

5 hours ago, ralucutzagy said:

 

 

Beijing really want Yuzu there in 2020, I suspect they'd happily if metaphorically sacrifice half the field for him. But it's his decision, not ISU's, not JSF's... his. I hope he doesn't feel his self-imposed obligations override what he wants to do, either way.

 

Oh, and I ran across this amazing Seimei-inspired makeup and wanted to share...

 

 

[monchan]

1 hour ago, Pika said:

Honestly, the only one I can think about is Aliona Savchenko, who pushed her carrier harder than anyone else, when lot of skaters would have "given up" with do much medals and titles. But its not even the same as she was chasing that OGM she never had. 

Irina Rodnina, 3 OGMs, unbeatable for 10 seasons, never off podium:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irina_Rodnina#Results

Shen/Zhao also got OGM at their 3rd Olympic, they got 2 bronzes for their 1st and 2nd Olympic and many other titles just like Savchenko.

What I mean is it's completely different in pair skating. Up to PC, the previous consecutive 2 OGMs for ladies was 30 years before, for pair and ice dance was 20 years, men's was 66 years. It's not the same difficulty for all discipline to stay consistently at the top.

 

[Pammi]

53 minutes ago, TallyT said:

 

Beijing really want Yuzu there in 2020, I suspect they'd happily if metaphorically sacrifice half the field for him. But it's his decision, not ISU's, not JSF's... his. I hope he doesn't feel his self-imposed obligations override what he wants to do, either way.

 

Oh, and I ran across this amazing Seimei-inspired makeup and wanted to share...

 

 

This make up is spectacular! To think I was proud of having bought a green (SEIMEI) woolly hat with 2 bobbles which look a bit like Pooh ears to wear on SEIMEI day ......

[Veveco]

 

[TallyT]

3 hours ago, Pammi said:

This make up is spectacular! To think I was proud of having bought a green (SEIMEI) woolly hat with 2 bobbles which look a bit like Pooh ears to wear on SEIMEI day ......

 

Hey, I loved the idea of your woolly hat!!! 

[rubyblue]

Misha Ge on his IG:

 

[TallyT]

I do miss him... even though I was a latecomer to the fandom, Yuzu is special, he's made a place in my life.

 

I made up a list for another forum for the best of my recorded ice shows, and put them on google drive.... and promptly spent the last two days watching the lot. Especially CiONTU and Fantasy on Ice.

 

But though I miss him, I want him to stay safe, so stay away from aby risk of infection, even from his public...