My, it is so hard to catch up and keep up with all the info and people's perspectives on the magnificent GIFT! I am not doing very well lol!

One thing that struck me again today (on my 3rd rewatching of GIFT since my return from Japan) was Yuzuru's voice - Yuzu has talked before about his ability to connect and communicate with all peoples through the language of skating, but as fans who speak many languages between us, we also love Yuzuru's words, Yuzuru's gift for story telling - I thought back to being at Tokyo Dome and how Yuzuru casts a spell with his voice even if you don't understand all the words he is saying!  I felt bathed in warmth as he told his story with his beautiful voice, even when sadness was evident as he spoke of his struggles, the overall sensation for me was one of comfort and calm although I did well up at his Why, why, why. He has developed the most beautiful voice over recent years hasn't he - just listening to him speak is such a pleasure.... *sighs*

 

I am also very impressed with Yuzuru's (non-skating) acting too - compared to his cameo role in The Magnificent Nine when he was so young, the more mature Yuzuru shows his much improved acting abilities in the role play of the Two Yuzuru's (his two selves) - so multi talented, I hope his self doubt is never his most prominent feeling ever again (excepting if he becomes a parent - self doubt tends to come with the job!! )

1 hour ago, Pammi said:

My, it is so hard to catch up and keep up with all the info and people's perspectives on the magnificent GIFT! I am not doing very well lol!

One thing that struck me again today (on my 3rd rewatching of GIFT since my return from Japan) was Yuzuru's voice - Yuzu has talked before about his ability to connect and communicate with all peoples through the language of skating, but as fans who speak many languages between us, we also love Yuzuru's words, Yuzuru's gift for story telling - I thought back to being at Tokyo Dome and how Yuzuru casts a spell with his voice even if you don't understand all the words he is saying!  I felt bathed in warmth as he told his story with his beautiful voice, even when sadness was evident as he spoke of his struggles, the overall sensation for me was one of comfort and calm although I did well up at his Why, why, why. He has developed the most beautiful voice over recent years hasn't he - just listening to him speak is such a pleasure.... *sighs*

 

I am also very impressed with Yuzuru's (non-skating) acting too - compared to his cameo role in The Magnificent Nine when he was so young, the more mature Yuzuru shows his much improved acting abilities in the role play of the Two Yuzuru's (his two selves) - so multi talented, I hope his self doubt is never his most prominent feeling ever again (excepting if he becomes a parent - self doubt tends to come with the job!! )

Ah, you described it so well, thank you! These were my feelings too. For me, the Two Yuzurus internal dialogue was the most captivating and moving of all the narrative parts, visually, dramatically and performance-wise. But I also like his humorous tone in the first part. He has such a cute pronunciation there! His 'doushite' when he wonders why the sun doesn't shine all the time and if the moon is the one to blame made me think immediately: Ah, Yuzu, a children's audiobook please!

translation: 

I went to the hair salon today and the daughter of my hair stylist told me that she worked as a staff member at GIFT 👀❣️
She said she was surprised to see her name in the end-rolling list of people who worked on the show...
She said everyone was so touched that even the end employee in charge of electronic ticketing were treated like they were a part of the show 🥹✨.

That's the kind of person he is.

Edit: here's another translation 

———

and that’s why everyone loves working/collaborating with yuzu❤️

7 minutes ago, isabelfm said:

tercüme: 

Bugün kuaföre gittim ve kuaförümün kızı bana GIFT'te kadrolu olarak çalıştığını söyledi 👀 ❣️
Gösteride çalışan kişilerin son kayıt listesinde adını görünce şaşırdığını söyledi. ..
Herkesin o kadar etkilendiğini, elektronik biletlemeden sorumlu son çalışana bile gösterinin bir parçası gibi davranıldığını söyledi 🥹 ✨ .

O böyle bir insan.

 

———

ve bu yüzden herkes yuzu ile çalışmayı/ortak çalışmayı seviyor ❤️

 

 

And that's why we love Yuzuru....

 

duplicate post

40 minutes ago, isabelfm said:

translation: 

I went to the hair salon today and the daughter of my hair stylist told me that she worked as a staff member at GIFT 👀❣️
She said she was surprised to see her name in the end-rolling list of people who worked on the show...
She said everyone was so touched that even the end employee in charge of electronic ticketing were treated like they were a part of the show 🥹✨.

That's the kind of person he is.

 

———

and that’s why everyone loves working/collaborating with yuzu❤️

My response to this story (to quote Yuzu):

🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

 

idk about you guys but I've never felt so attacked reading this lol 

27 minutes ago, gapil27 said:

 

idk about you guys but I've never felt so attacked reading this lol 

Meaning DIY dream😜

4 hours ago, gapil27 said:

 

idk about you guys but I've never felt so attacked reading this lol 

Out of everything he said in his monologue, I feel like this is the most important.  It at once explains both his achievements and his struggle.

 

Nobody else will achieve your dream for you, but there's sure a whole crowd of 'Nobody Elses' who will try to prevent you from achieving it. 

Recreated piano score for the song "GIFT"

 

 

 

What's with this spin?   Does someone of our satellites, who have been at Tokyo Dome, remember seeing this spin?

According to this post we cannot see it in the live stream footage. That is a loss. I hope we will see that program again and this spin for the first time.

 

 

21 minutes ago, franz said:

What's with this spin?   Does someone of our satellites, who have been at Tokyo Dome, remember seeing this spin?

According to this post we cannot see it in the live stream footage. That is a loss. I hope we will see that program again and this spin for the first time.

 

 

YES he did this spin!!! We can't see on Disney plus due to the dancer obscuring the view but I saw it with my own 2 eyes lucky me!!!

I had already eulogised about my top-fav, best-of-the-best, most breath-taking, mind-blowing and spectacular moment:
   *F*I*R*E*B*I*R*D* !!!!!

But of course there were further highlight moments which I continue to re-watch several times a day - one of those is:

 

Spirited Away / One Summer's Day 

The beautiful extended arabesque spiral !!!    I don't remember ever seeing it in any other program in the past years.

(If any of the satellites know better, then please tell.)

 

My daughter (a big manga and anime fan) supplied me with basic infos on Spirited Away and she enlightened me that Yuzu represented Chihiro's friend Haku, the boy who turned out to be the flying White Dragon and actually the Spirit of the Kohaku River, who had saved Chihiro from drowning in the river several years before. 

Today, I watched the anime on Netflix and found further confirmation for this:
 - At their first encounter, the boy Haku says to Chihiro: "Daijōbu" (大丈夫)  i.e. "It's alright" (Don't worry/You're safe) - the same word that Yuzu says in his first monologue right before the first notes of FIREBIRD.
- Yuzu's white costume, with the long strips of cloth and the ruffles along the spine, is reminiscent of the slender White Dragon and his long white ribbon-like whiskers and the fur-line on his back. 
- And the arabesque spiral looks like 'flying' on the ice (flooded in blue light) and thus might also be an allusion to the white dragon flying over the blue water.

In my mind, I think of this new program as "Haku the White Spirit" or "White Dragon Spirit".

 

As an aside:

In the anime, the boy Haku's tunic is very much reminiscent of Yuzu's SEIMEI tunic, the only difference being its simplicity, i.e. plain cloth without any embellishments.  I wonder: If Yuzu liked this anime so much in years past (which  I think we may safely assume), maybe he also took inspiration from this for his Seimei costume, and not only from Onmyōji.

 

Thanks, @Beatrice for your detailed explanation. I remember watching the anime a long time ago, but couldn't remember the music, so I didn't make the connection. Now I can picture Yuzu as a white dragon flying along the river. How beautiful.

@PammiGood, so you've seen it too.