Here are the skating parts in the show. In case anyone posted already, feel free to delete it Admins.

 

12:53  The Firebird
21:37  H&L
31:49  Spirited Away
40:19  Ballade
48:38  6 min
54:54  Rondo
75:58  LMEY
84:50  Ashura-Chan
93:22  POTO
103:32  A Fleeting Dream
114:20  Notte stellata
135:25  Haru yo Koi
142:33  (139:31) SEIMEI
148:49  Finale

 

On 3/3/2023 at 4:01 AM, ZuCritter said:

Thanks for explaining the difference between the phoenix and the firebird. Either metaphor is apt for Yuzu, but it's the firebird that appeared in GIFT. I also like your interpretation.

 

You're welcome, and thank you  

 

 

5 hours ago, franz said:

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.

You're welcome, and thank you  

The ending of the anime is, in fact, a bit sad and left me in quite a melancholic state  

But now I have "One Summer's Day" constantly playing in my head - day and night    - accompanied by visions of Yuzu's arabesque spiral ..... it's alright !  

16 hours ago, Beatrice said:

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.

 

I see that Spirited Away got a few new "watchers" after Yuzu's program. I've also watched it after Gift and understood Yuzu's program so much more!

16 hours ago, DancingFeather said:

Here are the skating parts in the show. If someone has already posted, feel free to delete it Admins.

 

12:53 L'oiseau de feu
21:37 H&L
31:49 Spirited Away
40:19 Ballade
48:38 6 min
54:54 Rondo
75:58 LMEY
84:50 Ashura-Chan
93:22 POTO
103:32 A Fleeting Dream
114:20 Notte stellata
135:25 Haru yo Koi
142:33 (139:31) SEIMEI
148:49 Finale

 

  for this list which will help me a lot 

 

I just came across a YT of "fleeting dream" version by a German orchestra (I think)? and sang more

 

 

 

Wow Mrs. Green Apple attended GIFT!!  Yuzu will be happy.

His story starts around 01:09:46
https://radiko.jp/share/?sid=FMT&t=20230306230946…

 

 

Here the transcript 

 

[NEWS]

 

I think it will certainly translate a Fanyu. 🙏

On 3/5/2023 at 7:04 AM, 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.

 

 

 I saw this spin as well! I always thought camel spin should straighten the legs, otherwise it's ugly, thanks to all those skaters who did like that. But Yuzu's bent leg camel is different! Totally beautiful! He twisted the upper body and it added somewhat different shape to the line. Ohhhhh I want to watch it again! Please release another angle!

10 hours ago, Anni said:

Wow Mrs. Green Apple attended GIFT!!  Yuzu will be happy.

His story starts around 01:09:46
https://radiko.jp/share/?sid=FMT&t=20230306230946…

 

 

Here the transcript 

 

[NEWS]

 

I think it will certainly translate a Fanyu. 🙏

Translation: https://ameblo.jp/jicecdnsarah/entry-12792527023.html

3 hours ago, Briq_S said:

 I saw this spin as well! I always thought camel spin should straighten the legs, otherwise it's ugly, thanks to all those skaters who did like that. But Yuzu's bent leg camel is different! Totally beautiful! He twisted the upper body and it added somewhat different shape to the line. Ohhhhh I want to watch it again! Please release another angle!

It was sinuous and in keeping with the flow of this programme story, like a wispy cloud or the white Dragon. 

 

In terms of skating skills and posture, you are correct, many skaters look awkward and stiff because in fact they are. 

 

When there is time to edit and hopefully produce an eagerly awaited permanent copy there will be other camera angles to see this better, it is just un fortunate that the live stream used one camera where the dancer obscured Yuzu. When the technical team came out before the performance began, they were checking the cameras placed around the rink. Sooo.... still hopeful for disc/ download

4 hours ago, Briq_S said:

 I saw this spin as well! I always thought camel spin should straighten the legs, otherwise it's ugly, thanks to all those skaters who did like that. But Yuzu's bent leg camel is different! Totally beautiful! He twisted the upper body and it added somewhat different shape to the line. Ohhhhh I want to watch it again! Please release another angle!

Thank you @Briq_S and @Perelandra for your description.  Now I want to see it even more. Yes, let's hope they will release another camera angle.

3 minutes ago, franz said:

Thank you @Briq_S and @Perelandra for your description.  Now I want to see it even more. Yes, let's hope they will release another camera angle.

 

The spin definitely happened. Aside from missing out on that one spin the camera placements on the whole did a great job of capturing the magnificent performance.

 

There were cameras placed at several strategic points around the rink, both close almost at rink side and further away to capture various angles, plus the overhead 'spider' cam which can look down and follow Yuzu on the rink. No noise and without the hot air issues associated with a drone, which Yuzu spoke of having experimented with for his own video shoots.

On 3/5/2023 at 11:23 AM, Beatrice said:

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

Spiral sequences used to be mandatory in competition programs, but various rules changes swept them away years ago. Now almost no one does them, for any reason. Which is why you haven't seen them

3 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Spiral sequences used to be mandatory in competition programs, but various rules changes swept them away years ago. Now almost no one does them, for any reason. Which is why you haven't seen them

I believe they were mandatory only for women?

On 3/7/2023 at 4:33 AM, YuDai said:

I believe they were mandatory only for women?

If you go back far enough, I believe there was a time when men did them too? I may be wrong.

 

In any case, I never liked them. They only make sense choreographically like the way Yuzu uses them in One Summer's Day, to create an image of something else. In a competition program, they always seemed to drag the music and the momentum of the program to a screeching halt. Ina Bauers and spread eagles are better choices for that little pause

Hi everyone 

 

On Sunday night I arrived safely back home and now I've finally written a bit about my experience at TD. I will post later about Sendai and Tokyo.

 

So please bear with me and this looong post. It's really difficult to try to grasp what happened and put it into words but here I go :

 

Tokyo Dome, what an amazing place to be on the 26th of February. From outside somehow you can’t imagine how huge it really is. I was there around 11:30 and there were already sooo many persons queuing for their goods. Many others just taking pictures and enjoying the adds, meeting other persons, exchanging gifts and flyers, Yuzucon at its best! it was so much fun watching half of the people wearing the boa blouson, me included! The gates opened at 3pm and getting inside went pretty smoothly, my seat was on the side where the show was also filmed, which would be „judges side“ (so happy they don’t exist anymore!) and I was fairly in the middle so I could see good Yuzu but also enjoy the light effects (people sitting in the below rows couldn’t see very well the light mapping (but I’m sure they are not complaining!). So SS row 42 was really in the middle and all my fears of only seeing a Yuzu-ant despite binoculars were unfounded!

 

When waiting till the show started, I must say the two big hands and the massive columns for the lights and speakers were pretty intimidating! The stage was stunning and I was so surprised to see two platforms for musicians! The atmosphere inside was much calmer than I expected, not the nervous waiting like for competitions but rather happiness mixed with excitement and love, because I’m telling you, you could feel love inside the TD. Then the musicians entered and took place…only few minutes now, my light band in place and me holding tightly PH’s banner now getting more and more excited! 

 

The opening

The venue went black and all I could think was omg, this is happening, I’m here and I will see him soon … my heart was pounding…after over 3 years and everything we went through…I felt so humble and deeply grateful one more time to him for allowing us to continue accompanying him in his journey! And then his voice…I recognized it was the same he said after Prologue…and in that moment I kinda realized we were not going to get any subtitles inside the TD…good thing we are already used to it  (my fault for not learning Japanese after all these years). 

 

Then the next memory was the sound of a heartbeat and I felt so alive…. blue lights and then suddenly the dramatic music and the change to red and gold colors, like lava sliding down, the ice morphed into a continuation of the big screen and the ramp…my brain started to ask where will Yuzu appear?! There’s no entrance …hahaha…. the fire on the screen and then this massive globe showing Japan and then listing Yuzu’s achievements…blue again…and then the big screen showing a Yuzu starting to tell his story…and then this thin vertical light, that became wider and wider and something started to elevate…and then I saw him, going up and up, with that wall of fire on his back and turning into wings…the whole TD inside lit in red and gold, the reflection on the ice, so majestic…and him spreading his wings in that stunning red firebird costume…gosh, Yuzu was commanding as ever, his presence and energy from the very beginning filling the entire space…and when real fire lit along the sides of the rink and this mythical fenix touched the ice, there were golden sparkles everywhere in the room and it was like sitting in the middle of said golden particles and fire…the flames aligned with the drums beats and Yuzuru…he skated like in another dimension, so fast across the ice, so powerful and fluid leaving gorgeous traces on the ice… with his wings unfolded…god, it was everything I could have wished for a grand opening…finally the stage he deserves, the live music, the lights, the real fire, the immensity of the TD filled to the brim with people adoring him…and his spin with arms/wings extended generating a twirling of more sparkles and fire…everything in perfect synchrony. I absolutely loved it. 

 

And then, young Yuzu projected on the ice and the story started to show on the big screen…the visuals were stunning and one could sense from the music and the pace that it was about conflicted feelings. The scenery showed on the screen, the beautiful nature was soothing but nothing could have ever prepared me for H&L. The sky, the clouds, the moon and water…when the music started I was still in denial…maybe it’s just the music, I was telling myself…maybe they are just using the music because of that beautiful scenery… but then…a huge moon going up and Yuzu appeared in his H&L costume….I had tears in my eyes…I never dared to dream to watch H&L live one day…it means so much to me…gosh…that costume is pure elegance and looks more dark blue than when looking at the tv screen. And when he stood and raised his arm and the sun with fire went up on the screen and transitioned into the green forrest…I felt like he showed the place where he was when skating to H&L at Worlds…that blend of simple perfect nature and state of calmness sliding backwards…him standing alone and being part of the nature…all in perfect harmony…the ice…the water...him twirling so beautifully…the sunset…and then this universe exploding and all the stars and lights… it was soooo magic…I close my eyes and feel like if I extend my arm I could almost touch the stars that were twirling around…this is something you can’t really see in the streaming but it felt really as you could almost touch the lights filling the space. 

 

Ahhh but my joy soon turned into many questions…as a Yuzu shedding a tear appeared. Like in the videos of Prologue, he’s so brave and not afraid to show or confront his pain and suffering. It is indeed part of the healing process, for him and for us. Before he never talked about his struggles this openly, so many times the truth only was known much later because he never wanted to sound like making excuses. To show now so much vulnerability requires to be really strong, and he is strong, the most resilient, the one who always healed us despite his own suffering.

 

And then a heavenly creature appeared on the ice. I’ll never be able to describe the ethereal beauty of it nor the mood of the moment. The music…a piece I love so much, and the dreamy white costume…and Yuzu looked just celestial, like the divine creature he undoubtedly is. Again, the screen does no show the perfection of it, the coverage and effortless glide but absolute control of his blades…every note on point. The change of scenery in the screen was also beautiful, there was a part where soil and minerals were shown and the dancers on the sides also performed without interrupting the performance…the fog and blue lights, everything again in perfect display to only highlight Yuzu’s performance…it hit me again so strong to see him like that, at the place he deserves, because Yuzu has always been the main act, the person where all eyes were on. Now he gets to skate in the middle of art, being art and surrounded by art in all possible forms, all blending seamless. It felt so good to see him standing at the place he always deserved, shining and radiating his pure golden core, impossibly beautiful.

 

And if I thought H&L was more than enough gift for my next 20 lives...Ballade started…omg is this real?!!…his skating, again, the screen doesn’t convey the speed, specially his spins…so strong and centered, the lightness and languid abandon..him closing his eyes…but again the pain…a Yuzu drowning…struggling…is this how he felt after PC? I couldn’t understand what he was saying but the tone of his voice told me about his hurt but also about his stern will. Yuzu, we have always only wanted you to be happy, never burden you with any expectation, never wanting anything more because you had given already everything from you…and then the lights went on and I saw the blue collar (fanyu's eyes are well trained!) and knew he was going to perform Rondo…Queen Rondo…what a privilege, what a major honor…forget about not being nervous , he was also nervous, and we cheered and screamed (but the huge TD kinda absorb it, I swear we were clapping and screaming). And in a blink of an eye with only a tiny glitch, it was over….how come it felt so short?! He was perfect, the most refined version of Rondo …I’ll treasure it forever in my heart and memories, so much meaning behind it, and when he finished…god that was such an important moment for him and us as well, I cannot imagine what it feels like putting such pressure on you again, performing it in front of thousands and thousands of persons, present at the venue but also the cinemas, streamings and Disney+. Madman, to perform Rondo like that at the end of the first part. 

 

Second part of the show

 

LMEY!!!! I would have loved to see the original costume but for exhibitions or shows the white version is indeed the best choice. I love both versions and he was really skating like the rockstar he is! It was so good to se him like that! I wish the Japanese audience would have screamed a little bit more and singed along hahaha but taking into account that so far they were not allowed to, I guess it was good enough…for my side, I felt like dancing and singing and clapping and going all crazy…I was definitely entertained , thank you Yuzu, you were soo cool!

 

And THEN! Ashura-chan.. I didn’t know this song but gosh how I loved it. It was mind blowing!! Because of his moves and choreography, it was the most „visible“ from the distance of all the pieces he performed, the insane pace and crazy footwork, the sharpness of it mixed with this playful new Yuzu, lying on the ice and then getting up and skating and dancing with an outburst of energy, really, it was one of my favorite moments! Now thinking about it and being honest, every single performance was itself a huge gift, an incredible honor to be there but Ashura chan will always hold a special place in my heart and memories from GIFT. The mastery of his blades, the control of his body, that sharpness will forever stay engraved in my mind. 

 

Phantom, beloved Phantom, I knew it was coming when Masquerade started to play while watching the conflicted emotions of the two Yuzus on the screen. I couldn’t believe I was going to watch this program and it felt so perfect, so passionate and elegant with the most beautiful layback Ina Bauer…just to die for. Also finally we got to see clearly what for the hands were created! Looking at the fire along the sides and the candles on display, it came to my mind the wishes from fanyus years ago, who wanted to see Phantom in a rink surrounded by candles, at night, with a chandelier. One more time I’m aware that Yuzu never forgets what we wish for, he always knew before, certainly knows now and is always ahead of us. I cannot describe how beautiful it was to see him skating in such a stage. 

 

A fleeting dream…is there anything else to say about it?! One could just cry in awe endlessness watching it, soooo mesmerizing and that costume is so pretty…he really drags you into another world…his own world…and I didn’t want it to end…just like I didn’t want his cool down to end in Torino…sooo soothing and ethereal!!! At some point the lights in our wrists started to light and I was aware of the sea of blue surrounding the final part of the performance, everything perfectly arranged, I loved it, and I hope Yuzu was able to see it as well, to see the beauty created for him at that moment as part of the expression of love to and for him, only him.

 

And as if that would have been the introduction to his next gift…Notte Stellata… this was the last program I saw him perform live at GPF19. It felt to me like closing the circle…like we’d close together this chapter and now would look what lies ahead, with white bright unfolded wings made of thousands of stars and constellations, he carrying us like always to see new heights in this journey. Yuzu, what an incredible existence you are, the most treasured and healing one. You are an undeserved GIFT to this World.

 

Then the piano piece composed for GIFT ahhh it was so beautiful, Takebe san is really the best, he sincerely respects Yuzu and it was just wonderful to literally feel his emotions, so much warmth in his words towards Yuzu afterwards. And what can I say about HYK, the first time I saw Yuzu live was at CoR18. HYK was going to be his EX, but he was injured and didn’t participate in the gala. Sitting there watching HYK, I felt so humble and so impossible lucky! It’s like i only wanted to see him, just a glimpse and that would have been more than enough Gift to me, but Yuzu kept pouring the most stunning performances one after another, showing us in his own way how much he cares for us, his love and gratitude, when it’s exactly the other way around, it’s us being grateful forever for every time he stepped onto the ice during so many years and gifted us with his skating. I wish he’ll know that for us it’s an honor and privilege to be his fans. 

 

HYK had barely finished…and the orchestra started to play Seimei….I could have died on the spot…it was back to the beginning…where the still functioning part of my brain was telling my pounding heart and shaking body „it’s just the music, it doesn’t have to mean skating, Yuzu just skated his encore and there’s no way he’ll be performing Seimei by the end…“ I should have known better…and when he appeared, did the spins and went for the Dun Dun with the biggest smile just like PC…my heart was bursting, all these years I’ve only wished for Yuzu to be happy, free and able to enjoy and bask in the love and support of the fans who adore him. To see him like that, I felt so rewarded, like life was finally putting every piece into the right place. And Yuzu…there isn’t a more beautiful Yuzu than a happy Yuzu, he morphs into this exuberant version of himself...he was radiant like the sun…Seimei surrounded by flames and red was just too powerful. Everything was a blur afterwards, I clapped like there was no tomorrow and then he threw himself into those last seconds skating like there was no tomorrow as well, expressing what he wanted to convey through skating and not words. That’s him, that’s the Yuzuru I’ve loved all these years, the one who has wings and fly high, the one who is this  kaleidoscope of emotions to our hearts and souls and the one who allows us mere mortals to see what lies between Heaven and Earth. GIFT was a once in a lifetime experience, I’ve been happy beyond words.

 

Thank you Yuzu, never forget you are THE GIFT to our lives.  

@Yuzu_legend

 

OMG, this is an absolutely beautiful and stunning review of GIFT  - a gift in and of itself  

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an extensive and evocative narrative, making me feel as if I was there with you in the Dome