General Yuzuru Chat

[TallyT]

Not sure of this has been posted, the full medal ceremony

 

 

[Geo1]

2 hours ago, rodica said:

Thank you very much for your explanations. These are very useful for us who are not well acquainted to Japanese history and symbols. Yuzu's FP was enchanting even if we did not know the finesses, but your explanations add a lot more value to it.

 

 

WELCOME TO THE PLANET! A GREAT TIME TO BECOME AN ACTIVE MEMBER! Would you tell us how you became a fan of Yuzuru Hanyu?

[ZuCritter]

6 hours ago, Umebachi said:

@axelwithwings team always does an excellent job of translating.  Finally we have the actual transcript of the Sponichi interview, not snippets in the twitter, from which they offer a full translation.   

 

In the original Japanese, Yuzu literally uses the English term "shut down" when referring to his aspirations about the Olympics.  In another interview he said he wanted to put a "delimiter" - i.e. putting a restraint on himself - when thinking about the Olympics.  His words resonate in Japan right now because the government had been pushing to open the economy and very slow in taking action to slow the spread of infection.  People are feeling extremely anxious and angry about this and a recent poll also indicated that majority of Japanese don't want the Olympics to be held in Tokyo this summer.  It is in this context that the frequent interview questions about his plans to go to the Olympics really irks him, as the media seems to be glossing over the pandemic to pry some titillating responses from him about his Olympics aspirations.  We all know how important the Olympics is for Yuzu, and for him to push back so forcefully is sending shock waves  across the Japanese media.  If I were to write a headline it would read something lie:  "Hanyu 'shuts down' own Olympic aspirations, implores leaders to think first about people". 

'

 

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

Thank you so much for the excellent context. He is absolutely right, of course. Much as I and other fanyus may like to fantasize about his competing in Beijing, there are far more important things in the world -- especially taming the pandemic. Yuzu learned long ago that he has the power to influence public perceptions, and he takes that responsibility as seriously as it deserves. I feel a bit ashamed, actually, for having posted about my aspirations to see him compete for a third OGM. The desire is understandable, but this is not the time to indulge too freely ...

[robin]

Im caught in a cycle of Yuzu withdrawal -> watch H&E for the umpteenth time (and cry) -> check PH -> try to distract myself with other stuff -> Yuzu withdrawal... I need help

[makebelieveup]

4 minutes ago, robin said:

Im caught in a cycle of Yuzu withdrawal -> watch H&E for the umpteenth time (and cry) -> check PH -> try to distract myself with other stuff -> Yuzu withdrawal... I need help

Medalist on ice soon!

 

 

---

I just showed my parents Yuzu's Heaven and Earth. My dad remembered him. Then I took the opportunity to show them more programs i.e. sc origin, pc seimei, gpf Lgc, and pc the swan. They showered him with compliments from his looks to his artistry to his technicalities. My dad kept pointing out how Yuzu skates to the music. sighs I think H&E has ignited my passion for him way too hard.

[robin]

1 minute ago, makebelieveup said:

Medalist on ice soon!

That’s my only solace rn 

[memae]

I'm already tired of people calling Heaven and Earth boring because the music doesn't follow a western structure. I just mentioned it on a post of facebook and got replies back saying the music was mediocre background music or something and that the issue was that the music is boring, not that it's Japanese because they liked Seimei, so obviously the issue isn't cultural differences. But western music often builds and has climatic moments, just like western stories. I can speak more to stories than music because my academic fields lend more to that. But in western stories there's a clear beginning, build of tension, climax, and ending (if the climax isn't the end). We feel like stories are incomplete or not true stories if they're missing those parts of the structure. Traditional stories in Australia (where I'm from) tend to be very circular (rather than linear, as I suppose we can conceptualise western stories) and often don't have any tension or climax. When they're written into children's books, they're often westernised and those features are built into them so few people end up appreciating them as they truly are. I think that's something that happens with music choices in skating. People don't get it, they refuse to acknowledge their cultural bias, and they write off a program because they didn't think there was anything more to it for them to understand. One thing that really annoyed me was the flack Rika got for the green of her costume last year. I read in multiple places that the colour had a significance and symbolism in Japan that was entirely overlooked by western skating audiences. 

 

Yuzu's interview/comments about the music choice are very informative. About the sacrifice of battle rather than the battle itself. It's quite important then with that perspective that the music is introspective and doesn't build to a big moment because that's not what it's about. I saw someone's interpretation of the ending pose of him putting his sword back up. That interpretation is possible because the music seems to invite the listener to think about finding peace with/from their past. How could you convey that with music that has the chaos of a western-styled series of crescendos and build that so many people seem to think he should be skating to?

[yuzuangel]

have we talked about this?

1. him not saying whether he's going back to tcc, almost sounds like he's considering not going back

2. confirming he hasn't successfully jumped 4A yet

 

for 2. i'm not that surprised, his attempts at the GPF last year were close but he was missing a bit of rotation, and getting that last 0.25 rotation looks like it's gonna be 99.9% of the work. 4A never sounded like something he was just *inconsistent* at, it always felt like a wall that he hasn't surpassed at. i believe if he lands it once he will learn it really quickly. but i'm not sure how much time he has had to practice it since GPF.

 

for 1. i guess i'm half surprised, half not. before the pandemic he was religiously returning to toronto even after nationals when he could have stayed home to enjoy the holidays. but it does seem like yuzu hasn't really needed coaches for a while. he self-coaches, and he turns to ghislain for advice and emotional support. it's kind of amazing if you think about it. what else can they teach him? how to jump a 4A? no one in the world knows that. but on the other hand, it worries me a bit. i wish he could still feel that it's a home for him if he chooses to return there.

[Sombreuil]

42 minutes ago, memae said:

I'm already tired of people calling Heaven and Earth boring because the music doesn't follow a western structure. I just mentioned it on a post of facebook and got replies back saying the music was mediocre background music or something and that the issue was that the music is boring, not that it's Japanese because they liked Seimei, so obviously the issue isn't cultural differences. But western music often builds and has climatic moments, just like western stories. I can speak more to stories than music because my academic fields lend more to that. But in western stories there's a clear beginning, build of tension, climax, and ending (if the climax isn't the end). We feel like stories are incomplete or not true stories if they're missing those parts of the structure. Traditional stories in Australia (where I'm from) tend to be very circular (rather than linear, as I suppose we can conceptualise western stories) and often don't have any tension or climax. When they're written into children's books, they're often westernised and those features are built into them so few people end up appreciating them as they truly are. I think that's something that happens with music choices in skating. People don't get it, they refuse to acknowledge their cultural bias, and they write off a program because they didn't think there was anything more to it for them to understand. One thing that really annoyed me was the flack Rika got for the green of her costume last year. I read in multiple places that the colour had a significance and symbolism in Japan that was entirely overlooked by western skating audiences. 

 

Yuzu's interview/comments about the music choice are very informative. About the sacrifice of battle rather than the battle itself. It's quite important then with that perspective that the music is introspective and doesn't build to a big moment because that's not what it's about. I saw someone's interpretation of the ending pose of him putting his sword back up. That interpretation is possible because the music seems to invite the listener to think about finding peace with/from their past. How could you convey that with music that has the chaos of a western-styled series of crescendos and build that so many people seem to think he should be skating to?

For me the really irritating comments are along the lines of ‘ he’s just recycling Seimei’ as if there is only one ‘Japanese’ style to use.  No one blinks if a skater uses a range of western classical music, or several different rock bands/performers - that’s fine, but all Japanese music is the same and you can only use it once as some sort of novelty?  If a second John Curry were to miraculously appear and use a Merlin theme one season and a Henry V the next would he get criticised for repeating?  

But for a lot of those people it’s ok for Shoma to use his Great Spirit SP, and for NC to mash European Spanish and South American themes together - I read somewhere he was doing it as a jokey ironic thing?  Short step from humour to offence, especially with the attitude of the outgoing administration towards ‘Hispanics’.  I give up - there are a lot of tone deaf people with loud voices out there.

[robin]

34 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

for 1. i guess i'm half surprised, half not. before the pandemic he was religiously returning to toronto even after nationals when he could have stayed home to enjoy the holidays. but it does seem like yuzu hasn't really needed coaches for a while. he self-coaches, and he turns to ghislain for advice and emotional support. it's kind of amazing if you think about it. what else can they teach him? how to jump a 4A? no one in the world knows that. but on the other hand, it worries me a bit. i wish he could still feel that it's a home for him if he chooses to return there.

 

Hmmm honestly after the FS I have wondered about why he would even need to return to TCC, too. But in other interviews he has also talked a lot about missing an objective view of his skating and second-guessing his own perception at times so while he seems pretty self-sufficient he does seem to miss his coaches? He sounded close to tears while talking about training alone during the press con (tho that might have been due to other difficulties as well- He hasn’t really opened up about the source of his difficulties and why he’s been in a rut up until late October.) 

I do lean towards thinking the question of Yuzu returning to TCC or not depends on the state of the pandemic. He probably has quite an isolated training environment in Sendai rn and I am not sure he can be provided such an environment under normal conditions? He would probably miss the privacy that TCC provides him with 

[yuzuangel]

21 minutes ago, Sombreuil said:

For me the really irritating comments are along the lines of ‘ he’s just recycling Seimei’ as if there is only one ‘Japanese’ style to use.  No one blinks if a skater uses a range of western classical music, or several different rock bands/performers - that’s fine, but all Japanese music is the same and you can only use it once as some sort of novelty?  If a second John Curry were to miraculously appear and use a Merlin theme one season and a Henry V the next would he get criticised for repeating?

I haven't seen these comments (though no doubt they exist), probably because I proactively filter a lot of who/what I see on Twitter. It's such a ridiculous, intentionally ignorant, clearly nonsensical, stirring the pot kind of comment in the same, old, tired vein that seems to constantly surround him. Some people really need to rethink what they put out into the universe. And take a long hard look at themselves and ask why they are the way they are.

[SitTwizzle]

2 hours ago, yuzuangel said:

have we talked about this?

1. him not saying whether he's going back to tcc, almost sounds like he's considering not going back

2. confirming he hasn't successfully jumped 4A yet

 

for 2. i'm not that surprised, his attempts at the GPF last year were close but he was missing a bit of rotation, and getting that last 0.25 rotation looks like it's gonna be 99.9% of the work. 4A never sounded like something he was just *inconsistent* at, it always felt like a wall that he hasn't surpassed at. i believe if he lands it once he will learn it really quickly. but i'm not sure how much time he has had to practice it since GPF.

 

for 1. i guess i'm half surprised, half not. before the pandemic he was religiously returning to toronto even after nationals when he could have stayed home to enjoy the holidays. but it does seem like yuzu hasn't really needed coaches for a while. he self-coaches, and he turns to ghislain for advice and emotional support. it's kind of amazing if you think about it. what else can they teach him? how to jump a 4A? no one in the world knows that. but on the other hand, it worries me a bit. i wish he could still feel that it's a home for him if he chooses to return there.

I hadn't seen this part 2, thank you!

1) Like @robin I tend to think the first concern is if he can return to Canada (with CoViD regulations) and, given what he said about Worlds and Olympics, I got the impression he is trying not to plan uncertain things, maybe to avoid a strong disappointment. This needs to keep open (and acceptable enough) other options.

And should CoViD disappear/get a solution soon, while I think he would return to TCC, I also think he may not stay there year round, rather a few weeks once or twice a year? Not only has he learnt to self-coach for many things, he may have also have deepened in understanding the extent of the sacrifices consented by his whole family along eight years at TCC, or their situation may have changed for different reasons (I wouldn't like any public speculation)... He feels so much other people's feelings, certainly his family's even more.

2) I am under the impression that training without physiotherapy to heal sore legs after practice, is likely to be very hard. I don't know if this is why he couldn't jump quads until October, but my feeling is that this is the reason why he limits himself to some jumps and not others, because with these jumps he can recover and skate again the next day, not with a quad Lutz for instance. This is why I read this as the main obstacle against training 4A (because he said he wasn't practising it at the moment, didn't he?)

Now he has a mental image of the jump, and I think he will jump it once he can practice normally.

Former principal dancer of the Paris Opera, Ghislaine Thesmar, said that she had asked Mikhail Baryshnikov how he could jump such incredible jumps, and he answered her he could jump them when he got a mental image of him doing them. Yuzuru Hanyu is not the only one doing so.

[Paskud]

42 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

have we talked about this?

1. him not saying whether he's going back to tcc, almost sounds like he's considering not going back

2. confirming he hasn't successfully jumped 4A yet

 

for 2. i'm not that surprised, his attempts at the GPF last year were close but he was missing a bit of rotation, and getting that last 0.25 rotation looks like it's gonna be 99.9% of the work. 4A never sounded like something he was just *inconsistent* at, it always felt like a wall that he hasn't surpassed at. i believe if he lands it once he will learn it really quickly. but i'm not sure how much time he has had to practice it since GPF.

 

for 1. i guess i'm half surprised, half not. before the pandemic he was religiously returning to toronto even after nationals when he could have stayed home to enjoy the holidays. but it does seem like yuzu hasn't really needed coaches for a while. he self-coaches, and he turns to ghislain for advice and emotional support. it's kind of amazing if you think about it. what else can they teach him? how to jump a 4A? no one in the world knows that. but on the other hand, it worries me a bit. i wish he could still feel that it's a home for him if he chooses to return there.

Remember that he is literally training after midnight and there is no way he will be able to do it earlier in day unless he will move to one of the very few Japan's private rinks. Kansai Uni and Chukyo Uni rinks are out of contention because 1. I'm not sure he will be able to enter them as not their student (at best it will be difficult); and 2. Kansai University' rink was Takahashi's rink and Chukyo Uni' rink is in Nagoya and was Shomaru's rink. Yeah...

The third one should be new Kinoshita Academy rink? Well, I'm sure Tamura would be super happy to help him and Hamada is ambitious enough to agree (and already was ready to help back in 2011), but with NobuxHamada case still open and silent since August, I'm not sure this is the greatest idea.

I think there is one rink that I always forget about, but it still should be in West Japan and, honestly, don't underestimate the resentment between regions.

[cereus]

31 minutes ago, Sombreuil said:

For me the really irritating comments are along the lines of ‘ he’s just recycling Seimei’ as if there is only one ‘Japanese’ style to use.  No one blinks if a skater uses a range of western classical music, or several different rock bands/performers - that’s fine, but all Japanese music is the same and you can only use it once as some sort of novelty?  If a second John Curry were to miraculously appear and use a Merlin theme one season and a Henry V the next would he get criticised for repeating?  

 

2 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

 Some people really need to rethink what they put out into the universe. And take a long hard look at themselves and ask why they are the way they are.

 

I appreciate folks who are willing to see and respond to such comments (I'm not thick-skinned enough to do it) because I hope some people are willing to question their assumptions when they're pointed out. A lot of the Eurocentrism in figure skating is willful but some of it is ignorance, and ignorance can be remedied.

[Figure_Frenzy]

1 hour ago, memae said:

I'm already tired of people calling Heaven and Earth boring because the music doesn't follow a western structure. I just mentioned it on a post of facebook and got replies back saying the music was mediocre background music or something and that the issue was that the music is boring, not that it's Japanese because they liked Seimei, so obviously the issue isn't cultural differences. But western music often builds and has climatic moments, just like western stories. I can speak more to stories than music because my academic fields lend more to that. But in western stories there's a clear beginning, build of tension, climax, and ending (if the climax isn't the end). We feel like stories are incomplete or not true stories if they're missing those parts of the structure. Traditional stories in Australia (where I'm from) tend to be very circular (rather than linear, as I suppose we can conceptualise western stories) and often don't have any tension or climax. When they're written into children's books, they're often westernised and those features are built into them so few people end up appreciating them as they truly are. I think that's something that happens with music choices in skating. People don't get it, they refuse to acknowledge their cultural bias, and they write off a program because they didn't think there was anything more to it for them to understand. One thing that really annoyed me was the flack Rika got for the green of her costume last year. I read in multiple places that the colour had a significance and symbolism in Japan that was entirely overlooked by western skating audiences. 

 

Yuzu's interview/comments about the music choice are very informative. About the sacrifice of battle rather than the battle itself. It's quite important then with that perspective that the music is introspective and doesn't build to a big moment because that's not what it's about. I saw someone's interpretation of the ending pose of him putting his sword back up. That interpretation is possible because the music seems to invite the listener to think about finding peace with/from their past. How could you convey that with music that has the chaos of a western-styled series of crescendos and build that so many people seem to think he should be skating to?

 

Re: Rika's green dress — that particular shade of green was reserved only for courtiers and high-ranked nobles of the imperial palace, there were sumptuary laws prohibiting commoners to wear that shade of green (...along with other shades stipulated in the law, but that's another story). You may react unfavorably initially towards her dress color but once you learn about the significance have at least the respect and appreciation for the meaning behind it...

 

Re: Yuzu's FS music pick — apologies in advance for not spending more brainpower on it but to me it really just seems like some people are grasping on straws to thrash on him 😒😒. If it were any other skater choosing to skate to traditional (East) Asian music, the reaction wouldn't be as disapproving as those reactions on his music pick (I mean, heck, when Boyang chose to skate to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, was he met with negative comments? I honestly struggle to remember any. Heck, if it were American skaters of Chinese heritage skating to wuxia movie/TV series soundtrack they'd be praised to the moon and back).

 

They think they could plausibly cover their disdain, they are actually transparent as heck.