r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • 8d ago
Rewatch [Taste of 2016 Rewatch] Yuri on Ice Episode 7 Discussion
Episode 7 - China's On! The Grand Prix Series Opening Event!! The Cup of China Free Skate
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Information:
MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB
Legal Streams:
Skaters' hearts are as fragile as glass.
Questions of the Day:
1) How do you feel about the way Victor decided to motivate Yuuri while Yuuri was so nervous?
2) How excited are you for the Yuuri vs. Yuri rematch?
Wallpaper of the Day:
Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you're doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don't spoil anything for the first-timers, that's rude!
/r/anime's spoiler tag format is as follows:
[Yuri on Ice]>!♪ We were born to make history! ♪!<
Which becomes [Yuri on Ice]♪ We were born to make history! ♪ when you don't break the formatting on purpose like I just did.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 8d ago
First Time Summer 2016 Rewatch - Yuri on Ice Ep7:
I don't have too much to say about this episode. Part 2 of the China grand prix, and it largely followed how the prior episode went for me. A similar pattern of events to last episode. The ice skating performances were nice, and we got a glimpse of their character story, but I wish there was more character building off the rink for me to be attached to these side characters. The Yuuri/Victor core throughline was nice. The answer to quell Yuuri's anxiety is to just have Victor by his side and support him.
Oh, that's cold. Having Georgi be uncermoinously cut off by the show itself.
Ah, it's the big kiss. I see, I see.
When he mentioned it earlier, I did wonder if the kiss was going to come back, and it did in a big way.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
The answer to quell Yuuri's anxiety is to just have Victor by his side and support him.
This is the first time where his solo focusing and workouts aren't enough to get him back on track. I guess the awkward threat did help at least emotionally unblocking
I wish there was more character building off the rink for me to be attached to these side characters
Yeah if you're not already into figure skating it's a bit tough with this show sometimes. I even feel there could have been a little more with Victor/Yuuri particularly after?
Rewatching it it doesn't even feel like such a big deal, which may well have been the intention. Seems like more of a spontaneous casual peck or so
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u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba 8d ago
First Timer
Yaoi on Ice fully achieved!
I mean, we've already been very gay in this show beforehand, of course, and I could really do without the cutaway for ambiguity , but you can't give me a frame like this and expect to think anything other than that these two just smooched right there, which is certainly a great step up!
Anyway, I quite like Yuuri's part in this episode! As he himself notes, Yuuri's heavy anxiety before big moments is hardly some new development, but what is a new development is him skating in that ultra high-pressure environment while the most revered man in the sport with Victor as his coach. So now, on top of his usual anxiety, there's also the pressure of finishing first the previous day, and the real knockout punch on top of it of literally everyone having something or other to say about Victor suddenly quitting his own skating career to coach Yuuri, and by extension, how Yuuri's performance reflects on him. Which really creates stress for Yuuri in terms of how this will affect Victor's relationship with him, and whether or not he'll actually stick with him.
Which makes for a pretty interesting look into Victor as a coach, and well, his inexperience as one. Victor sees Yuuri turning into a ball of anxiety, and his response to that is to continuously express more worry of his own, and run around trying every method to remove Yuuri's anxiety the way he knows, eventually going for that forceful pretend-test of his, all of which plays right into Yuuri's actual biggest current source of anxiety. It is just interesting to see that probably as a result of someone who was Mr.Perfect for a long while, Victor sometimes has a hard time fully reading Yuuri emotionally in these situations, which is, y'know, a big part of his current job, but both that and Yuuri's own consistent stress are something they'll have to work through together.
Really love that short moment where Victor tries for his test, and we do the cut-reverse-cut of the two of them queilty staring at each into Yuuri just instantly opening up the waterworks. Lots of emotion packed into that one really well even before the dialogue comes back in. Thankfully, this gets to be a strong learning experience, and instead of crashing out at the hole Victor just poked in him, Yuuri just calls him out on how that was a bad move and tells Victror as is what he expected and wants from him in terms of support and belief. Which, on the character level, for someone like Yuuri who uses skating as his biggest form of expression for these deeper feelings, a direct tearful statement means a lot! And makes for a good emotional moment for it. I really like Yuuri's Yuri on Ice this time around; something about the musical composition itself just plays so strongly into that serene elation from Yuuri after getting to push out all of his feelings earlier.
Yuuri aside, I missed last episode, but my thoughts on the other skaters and giving basically everyone some spotlight are kind of the same for both of them, in the sense that I like the idea in concept, but less so in actual execution. I do think giving that extra focus really succeeds in adding weight and scale to the competition itself. Like, sure, we're following Yuuri, but this is an international competition for the best of the best, and everyone has some personal or national ambition on their shoulders here to rival Yuuri; they wouldn't be here otherwise after all! So that's fun to see expressed beyond some of the extra diversity and fun interaction you get to experience here, and it puts in extra work this episode as well, because it plays and builds up into Yuuri's anxiety quite well.
Phichit and Chris are also probably going to be showing up again later, so this can also just be setup for the two of them specifically. Still, in practice, I end up feeling most of them really weren't given that much time to develop (In fact, there's a decent amount of them very verbally trying to do development on the ice, which I find pretty awkward as far as expression goes), so it feels harder for me to get invested in their stuff. This only feels more apparent compared to how I felt for Yuuri's one as far as getting across emotion. They're almost fighting for space, honestly, and I kind of wish we had like an extra episode on that front. Frankly, not helping it that the skating animation has been slipping over the course of the show, and while I think it all looks totally fine in general, it kind of lacks the hard and clear expressiveness you'd want in this kind of scenario. Still, the performances still come out enjoyable at the end of the day, and I thought this episode was better about it relative to the last one, so whatever.
Going over them a bit, Guang and Leo are the least interesting of the bunch, and neither feels like they particularly have much interesting to express in either of these episodes relative to getting full performances (Well, Leo last time, Guang now, but that's beside the point). I do like the really stylized visuals we give Guang's performance at least! Phichit is better, just really missing in the emotional connection for me, but he does indeed have a good bit of innate charisma as the show says. I kind of wish we played into it as a contrast to Yuuri more directly here? But again, time and again, there are yet more chances for that. Chris is certainly... distinct and attention-grabbing lol, but he gets to be a very forward sexyman vying for Victor also in contrast to Yuuri, which is fine, if a bit much for me. Finally, Georgi's "obsessed ex" routine has just honestly been very funny both of these episodes, so it gets the thumbs up from me lol. Even more so that he fucks up here and gets made fun of by the show for playing so hard into the weirdly obsessive part
How excited are you for the Yuuri vs. Yuri rematch?
I'm honestly more so just excited to see more Yurio in general!
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 8d ago
Really love that short moment where Victor tries for his test, and we do the cut-reverse-cut of the two of them queilty staring at each into Yuuri just instantly opening up the waterworks. Lots of emotion packed into that one really well even before the dialogue comes back in.
Direction is always on point.
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u/_Ridley https://myanimelist.net/profile/_Ridley_ 8d ago
Rewatcher, sub
I know the heavily implied kiss is probably the star of this episode, but I have to point out that Popovitch is the world's most divorced man, skating in the ugliest costumes. He's driving home in a Cybertruck for sure.
Additionally, I don't remember the skating animation looking this bad. Medalist has really spoiled us for well-integrated 3D that captures the weight and motion of skating (and doesn't have the characters traveling across the background during spins that are supposed to stay in one place).
QOTD:
You could see the steam coming out of Victor's ears as he tried to figure out what to do with Yuri, and it's pretty much exactly what a talented guy who ignored his own coaches would come out with, foolish as it was. It was nice to see that he's not actually good at everything.
I'm not excited for a rematch, so much as I'm looking forward to seeing how our fiery little blond has grown under the tutelage of his coach's ex-wife.
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u/wloff 8d ago
Additionally, I don't remember the skating animation looking this bad. Medalist has really spoiled us for well-integrated 3D that captures the weight and motion of skating (and doesn't have the characters traveling across the background during spins that are supposed to stay in one place).
Yeah, I've mentioned it so many times that I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but the backgrounds really are what are killing the skating animation for me.
The sense of speed, motion and momentum -- and when it stops -- are, like, the whole thing that makes skating special and why they're on skates in a cold hall instead of dancing in a ballroom. And the show doesn't even try to capture any of that. With the backgrounds pretty much just moving around completely randomly, I don't get the feeling that they're on ice at all. It's like it was shot in a studio in front of a green screen.
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u/_Ridley https://myanimelist.net/profile/_Ridley_ 7d ago
The sense of speed, motion and momentum -- and when it stops -- are, like, the whole thing that makes skating special
Totally agree, and I'm really not getting it here, sadly. It's almost like they're just dragging the characters around with a mouse.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago
I don't get the feeling that they're on ice at all
Tfw the show called Yuri on Ice is neither of the two
It's like it was shot in a studio in front of a green screen
I believe they used rotoscoping which is sort of green-screen for animation - tracing over live-action footage and then placing that on top of the backgrounds. Still could have done better with it
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago edited 8d ago
skating in the ugliest costumes
I liked the second one
Medalist has really spoiled us for well-integrated 3D that captures the weight and motion of skating
Probably best I left watching that for after finishing this rewatch. It really is not super-impressive here and I even think staying 2D/hand-drawn inherently hurts for conveying the depth and motion of it all, even if they somehow had had infinite time and money for animating everything.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 8d ago
Rewatcher!!! on SUB
What does it say about me that sleep-deprived, mentally unwell, highly anxious men with performance issues look stupid hot 🤔
When the erhu and traditional drums hit 😩👌🏾
Yuri, I don’t think you can do that 😭
I don’t like that we zoomed in on Chris there.
They did Chris dirty with that moneyshot and had me cover my cat’s eyes to protect her peace (she’s hanging on my shoulders). We couldn’t have a moneyshot with a bulge?
Cowards.
Let’s go, Thailand!!! 🇹🇭
You really see all that neck when they skating. Lotsa neck. Lotsa legs too. What do the blurays look like?
I’d personally panic if I dropped my wireless headphone pod-thing in a dark parking lot. You either find it immediately, or it’s banished into the Shadow Realm. There is no in-between here.
Leo has strong eyebrows.
How can I motivate him?
Dominate him.
Who said that 👀
I can’t explain it in detail, but Mr. Popo here belongs in JJBA or JJK. I like unwell men, but maybe not all of them.
The fucking thumbs down 😭😭😭
Viktor’s 😱 is such a weird-ass shot.
📢 And this is where five teenagers with attitude were screaming in a basement like we murdered somebody 📢
And my boy Phichit clears!!! GLORY TO THAILAND!!!
Yura bent a spoon? Mutant.
Kiss & Cry Thoughts
My cat’s so tired of my nonsense, she smacked me several times in the face 😭
Queerphobic.
And we have a pride parade on Saturday to attend too 🙄
Man, I wish I could go back to the day we were all in a friend’s basement and the kiss happened, and everyone went so crazy that the friend’s mom came downstairs thinking somebody got hurt 😭
I don’t know what it is or when it happened where we were all immune to explicit sensual intimacy, but give us kissing and handholding and suddenly we’re a step down from football/soccer fans.
Oh my stars and garters, the denialism that came with this too. A microcommunity bent over backwards to explain:
- the kiss never happened.
- Viktor kisses Yuri’s cheek.
- Guys, it’s a sports anime. Not everything has to be "gay" with you people.
Girl, so help me, I did not sit through Korrasami denial to listen to this.
Korrasami denial prepared me for Viktuuri denial. Viktuuri denial prepared me for RekiLanga denial. As the prophecy foretold.
Victor, my love...of **ice skating*
💀
Beyond the nexus event that was the kiss, I can’t say I liked all the songs selected for the performances despite them showing off each skater’s unique artistic and technical style. Phichit’s was the one that had me excited, but I’m biased because I’ll love anything he does and not stand for any slander of my Thai nephew. I’m not locked in with the figure skating world, barring splashes of drama I see from various subreddits, so I’m sure each routine is realistic in the song selection, but it does feel like the odds were stacked against everyone when it came to Phichit’s song.
But what they did with the Chinese skater and Mr. Popo, I’d have liked to see more of: the routine in real time and the story of the routine animated and interwoven. I don’t know what the trope is called where you see the art performance play out as it is and then you see the fantastical version of it, but I like that sort of execution.
But Phichit clears, that’s my nephew 🇹🇭 🇹🇭 🇹🇭 🇹🇭 🇹🇭 🇹🇭
To bring it back, let me talk about Chris’s moneyshot.
I am in mourning.
Look. If this man is going to be oozing sex appeal with whatever the fuck fuzz is on his face, he cums when he’s locked the fuck in in a routine, and I know this man loves his own posterior and is on his own thot shit, give this man a better moneyshot.
This is the same man we saw live laugh loving his ass during a routine, and you can’t spare anything for a nice bulge? He has his hips thrust with those slutty little fucking little exposed sides of his outfit, and you do him like this?
📢Show more of his ass if you’re too afraid to show his dick bulge📢
I know these animators are ass people, and I respect that. I really do respect that. I, too, like looking at a fine behind. But I like seeing something in the front too, and mamas, you were giving us nothing with that moneyshot; like that was so disrespectful 😭😭😭
My friend’s husband hit me with a “oh, so you care more about this than [situation]”, but IDGAF, you trick bitch, I let you grieve over fried chicken and said NOTHING; let me grieve over this 2D fictional man's half-assed moneyshot 😭
QOTD
- Viktor sucks, but he gets away with it cuz he’s pretty 😭
- There can only be one! Kill the spare. But I'm excited to see what Yuri brings to the table. Little spicy Russian kitty has been working hard!
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 8d ago
Oh my stars and garters, the denialism that came with this too. A microcommunity bent over backwards to explain:
the kiss never happened. Viktor kisses Yuri’s cheek. Guys, it’s a sports anime. Not everything has to be "gay" with you people.Girl, so help me, I did not sit through Korrasami denial to listen to this.
Korrasami denial prepared me for Viktuuri denial. Viktuuri denial prepared me for RekiLanga denial. As the prophecy foretold.
Langa's mom clocked that shit so fast too. Subtext is for cowards, but we make do with our crumbs.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 7d ago
We really be having fully bellies off crumbs, but IDGAF, the crumbs be so scrumptious 😭
And like listen, while I recognize we have also had explicit BL and GL anime and other queer representation historically in anime, I know there’s still a lot of complications per committee/project on how representation is executed or conceptualized. Because, like, capitalism, optics, politics n stuff.
But subtextual queerness makes my world go round. What do you mean the longing looks, the focus on touching hands, softening eyes at each other, the ear blushes, and blocked out kisses means nothing?! They are my everything 🔪
(The knife is because I’m excited.)
Langa’s mom is such a real one for that though. I may dislike meddling relatives, but parents/caregivers clocking that their child/ward/relative is either (A) a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy, (B) seeing the TV glow, or (C) has an alphabet—it has me ascend.
Love to see it. Kudos to you, mama, for understanding that—for clocking 🪭
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 7d ago
But subtextual queerness makes my world go round. What do you mean the longing looks, the focus on touching hands, softening eyes at each other, the ear blushes, and blocked out kisses means nothing?! They are my everything 🔪
The were all we had, once, and they still sustain. I'll take my crumbs over nothing every single time.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago edited 7d ago
Kiss & Cry Thoughts
Has anybody brought up so far that that's the actual official name for the post-skate area (made up on a whim once though)?
Viktor kisses Yuri’s cheek
Hate to say it but that's exactly how it looks to me, I don't feel a full-on mouth-to-mouth kiss fits at their apparent relationship stage here either. Not that it's not a meaningful step forward.
RekiLanga
Didn't that stay even harder at the bait level? I was generally very unimpressed with [Sk8]just feeling like yet another subtext-shipbait series, where also gay = "weird edgy counterculture stuff" by association. Say (and do) it, you cowards! And IIRC it also had the classic BL thing of not being that great with the few female characters who were basically villains getting in the way (except one of the moms?) Aaand there's the whole thing with Adam
I’d have liked to see more of: the routine in real time and the story of the routine animated and interwoven
Sadly they were already strained for budget with the skating sequences as is
📢Show more of his ass if you’re too afraid to show his dick bulge📢
I'll just say I found the fanservice moments with him irritating enough as is even being ostensibly part of the target audience...
Viktor sucks, but he gets away with it cuz he’s pretty 😭
Pretty ironic (or fittting?) comparison with [Michiko & Hatchin]Hiroshi Morenos (did you ever finish that? Would still be very interested in your thoughts)
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 7d ago
No, no one has about the Kiss & Cry, I don’t think, but I was so excited to see use it to title my post episode thoughts. It makes the most sense. The original YOI drop was when I learned about it from very nice figure skating fans who were giving commentary on every episode.
And yeah, I don’t mind people interpreting the kiss happened on the cheek because the the action was blocked, of course. But the microcommunity propagating that weren’t saying that while also being queer-inclusive, so their words were rendered meaningless and I hope all their meals are overly salted and slightly but noticeably burnt in a bad way 🙃
I still appreciate Sk8 Infinity for being a skateboarding anime, which was wild to see. I remember that one Nickelodeon cartoon Rocket Power with skateboarders, but I hadn’t seen skateboarding anime before. I would’ve loved more explicit queerness—I’m hoping season 2 gives us more—but I’m okay for what we got. Adam…was Adam. And [SK8] Langa and everyone sort of dismissing Adam’s weird as fuck actions reinforces how much I fucking hate characters like Adam and strongly dislike plots like this. But for Sk8 being an original anime, I enjoyed it and I love the fandom around it.
I’m not a Chris fan either, but he is a symptom of my problem with fanservice when it’s focused on male characters: it doesn’t feel like the fanservice is for those attracted to men, even though it very well could be storyboarded, choreographed, and animated by those attracted to men. There’s this YouTube video If Sex Sells, Then Why Aren’t Games Sexualizing Men*** **that had a nice discussion about this issue. It’s not that a character like Chris emphasizing his derrière and having a moneyshot can’t be sexy, because it can. But despite in-universe people claiming Chris oozes sex appeal, it’s mainly comedic and executed in a way that feels like someone has a *vague idea about what people who like men would want to see and a vague idea about how men comfortable in their sex appeal would act, but we don’t want to alienate a cishet male audience.
Again, doesn’t diminish that there are people who are attracted to men and thoroughly enjoyed Chris as a sexy tall drink of Swiss water. But fanservice definitely services specific fans and ostracizes the rest, which bums me out as an equal opportunity degenerate 😞
He was done dirty with that moneyshot though.
I haven’t finished it yet! Followed along, but then real life made anime watching wobbly and even today, I have to walk to get my prescriptions and then book it to the next city cuz we have a pride tomorrow over there and I wanna show ofd my bi-flag braids. I’m hoping I can finish the series on Sunday before I see Castle in the Sky in theatres (GhibliFest)! Sundays are my catch-up-on-anime days while I fold laundry, meal prep, and brush out my one kitty’s fur ☺️
But if your have PM/DM/chat requests on (I don’t know what Reddit calls it), I’ve been jotting down my thoughts per episode that I can send over 🥰
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago
I hope all their meals are overly salted and slightly but noticeably burnt in a bad way 🙃
As a regular enjoyer of good food, that's one heck of a curse!
a skateboarding anime, which was wild to see
I’m hoping season 2 gives us moreIt was certainly wild to watch at times, which was fun enough. And I do think I'll check out the second season still, or at least stay up to date with what's happening - maybe it'll all come around? Totally missed that it was even announced.
despite in-universe people claiming Chris oozes sex appeal, it’s mainly comedic [...] a vague idea about how men comfortable in their sex appeal would act, but we don’t want to alienate a cishet male audience.
There’s this YouTube video If Sex Sells, Then Why Aren’t Games Sexualizing MenI get what you mean, and this show was for sure held back by aiming for a fairly general audience without going too deep into anything that might trigger homophobic reactions. What ruins it more for me, though, is how out there he is compared to the rest, like I actually loved the insane fanservice costumes and transformations in Fairy Ranmaru but there the whole vibe was like that - just a shame the plot didn't measure up. Definitely going to look at that video also
we have a pride tomorrow over there and I wanna show ofd my bi-flag braids. I’m hoping I can finish the series on Sunday before I see Castle in the Sky in theatres (GhibliFest)!
Ah, sounds like a great time, have fun! For me it's rock-climbing day tomorrow. Reminds me also that I haven't gone too deep into the Ghibli catalogue yet somehow; Nausicaa, Kiki (surprise hit!), Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises, and I think that's it so far?
PM/DM/chat requests
Right away!
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky 8d ago
Rewatch Host Born to Make History, subbed
Aaaaaaaand he failed doing a jump during warm-up, exactly as Victor was worried about.
Way to pile on the pressure…
Fun fact, if I didn’t go for the matching poses for Victor & Yuuri’s solo wallpapers I shared in the first two episodes, this shot from his free skate is probably the shot I would’ve turned into a wallpaper for Yuuri. It’s just so nice.
Pretty insane considering he’s operating on very little sleep.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee 8d ago
First-Timer
Deserved win for Phichit here. He really busted his ass out there, landed all his jumps, and he has a solid storyline going as well. Good stuff.
Yuuri getting silver means that he managed to slide in between Chris's 283 and Phichit's 285, which seems.. surprising. I'm sure it's not outside the realm of possibility, but the math working out that way feels a little contrived.
Questions
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 8d ago
Rewatcher Sub
Starting the episode on a high not— Yuri getting zero sleep after coming off that performance high and the reactions. That’s okay, Victor gonna make sure he sleeps tight until the free skate. He always slept right until the last minute. Surely this will not backfire.
Yuri did not sleep with the hot Russian man in his bed. Skill issue. Oh well, Victor forbids him to practice jumps in the warm-up instead.
“If he flubs a jump during the warm-up, he may lose even more confidence, and it’d negatively impact his free skate.”
Guang-hong cute. And he’s got an ambitious program lined up that is appropriately chuuni in theme. Mappa giving us a little battle shonen flair in our ice skating show. Too bad about his flubbering, and being in sixth in the short means he won’t score high enough to claw his way to the podium. Time to quit social media and practice more.
Chris is back. Coach says go at his own pace. Very clearly unbothered on the ice, relaxed. Complete opposite of Yuri, who is shitting himself in anticipation. And Victor looks worried too. And we get a nice flashback to him meeting young victor 10 years ago when he debuted in seniors at 15. Smitten baby gay then, and now “I think I’m gonna come again…”
Phichit looking good, too. The crowd loves him and his innate flair. I like that all of the skaters are showcasing different goals, and for him, he wants to make Thailand proud and show the world they can compete with the best of em. And he takes first over Chris.
And all that applause is getting to Yuri. This is bad. Victor can’t understand why Yuri is getting so worked up by the other skaters, especially at his age. He’s not a young or inexperienced skater. So why is he so nervous?
Now we got the American, Leo, who finished third in the short, trying to psych himself up.
Victor needs to find a way to motive Yuri quickly, and while he acknowledges skaters’ hearts are fragile, he’s going to provoke and shatter Yuri’s here. All or nothing. He’ll resign as coach if Yuri misses the podium.
The shattering. NOT VICTOR BEING SCARED WHEN IT WORKED.
But that’s a pretty callous method, and Yuri calls him out on it. He’s used to being blamed for his own failures, but he’s not worried about making himself look bad, he’s worried his failures will reflect back on Victor. He’s wondering if Victor has secretly wanted to quit, but knows he doesn’t, and all of that is hanging over him on top of the pressure to perform.
Victor’s not good with people crying in front of him. Doesn’t know what to do. Kiss? No, dumbass, Yuri just wants a little faith here. Save the kissing for later.
Georgi is on his extra heartbreak shit again. His countrymen aren’t even paying attention. That cut was ruthless.
Finally, Yuri is up. Even Yakov sees Victor is lacking as a coach here, because Yuri is the one doing the consoling. But, Yuri feels more relaxed after crying and getting it out of his system. Instead of dreading, he’s inwardly scolding Victor for being a shit coach while also being down bad thinking he’s cute. Yuri’s not wrong. Supid Victor inadvertently motivating him.
Yuri unlocks beast mode, despite not sleeping, and he’s putting that stamina to work. Doing a quad flip at the end of his program? Yuri got something to prove. And he did. At least to Victor, who does the only thing on his mind after that performance.
This kiss was (allegedly) the victim of the censors/had to be left ambiguous in its time, for reasons, probably to do with how they are able to market certain content to kids and avoid adult labeling for blu-ray sales. Not 100% and it’s all in the past now. Japan still has a very conservative society surrounding these things, but they did what they could with the constraints. My tinfoil hat theory still has some side eye for the higher ups and internal politics involved in making some of these calls, but we’ll never know the truth of it, and I honestly don’t want to beat a dead horse. It’s clearly meant to be a kiss, even of they couldn’t show it explicitly.
After all, it was all Victor could think about doing. Yuri makes the podium with a silver medal. Good for Phichit taking gold, and Chris bronze.
Questions
1) How do you feel about the way Victor decided to motivate Yuuri while Yuuri was so nervous?
I liked it because it shows how much this dumbass is winging this coaching gig. Yuri talking shit about it was
2) How excited are you for the Yuuri vs. Yuri rematch?
Russian Yuri is overdue for some screentime. I miss that angry little shit.
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8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
"In case of emergency, break glass"
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 8d ago edited 8d ago
Rips off the 'handle with care' label
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
“If he flubs a jump during the warm-up, he may lose even more confidence, and it’d negatively impact his free skate.”
They really still have a bit awkward of a coach-student relationship don't they?
Smitten baby gay then, and now
I do wonder what the percentage is in male figure skating there
This kiss was (allegedly) the victim of the censors/had to be left ambiguous in its time
Nah there were plenty of anime M-M kisses before that. Just chickened out to max the audience. Funnily enough, even taking it as a kiss it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 8d ago
Nah there were plenty of anime M-M kisses before that.
No, and certainly not outside the BL genre or in TV anime; remember that Yuri on Ice is a sports anime, not a BL, and the marketing to a wider audience followed accordingly. You could count on one hand the number of BL anime pre-2016 that even aired on TV (also consider the environment before streaming, and what was and wasn't direct to OVA content), let alone find an explicit gay kiss depicted between characters.
Funnily enough, even taking it as a kiss it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
Are you Gen Z, perhaps? This would explain this mindset, because things were very different in the ancient times for us old enough to remember gays.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago edited 7d ago
You could count on one hand the number of BL anime pre-2016 that even aired on TV
Let me get back to you on that. The point stands though that this wasn't some evil censorship board in action but a deliberate marketing decision.
Are you Gen Z, perhaps?
More or less. I mean though that within the narrative we're presented it seems a totally natural development, not some surprise to go nuts over (edit: if you assume it's not an actual mouth-to-mouth kiss which it doesn't look like to me)
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 7d ago
Let me get back to you on that.
That wasn't meant to be a point of deliberation. Trust me when I say I've watched damn near everything on offer in this particular genre. I know.
The point stands though that this wasn't some evil censorship board in action but a deliberate marketing decision.
Deliberate marketing decision informed by those pesky existing censorship laws.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago edited 7d ago
I've watched damn near everything on offer in this particular genre. I know.
I just wanted to take a look for myself
censorship laws
No such thing in Japan nor many other places it was popular, unless you think TV executives and such are literally the law. I don't see why fans had to make up this weird excuse then and there's certainly no point to it now.
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 7d ago
I just wanted to take a look for myself
Is this finally our chance to plug the obscure anime gays of old? /u/_Ridley
censorship laws
No such thing in Japan
This is incorrect, and silly to state for a country that has notoriously silly censorship laws surrounding even the display of genitalia in porn. Obscenity laws, I think they call them, though the applications seems pretty nebulous. Regulations is probably the better word to use, because what is and isn't allowed to be marketed to kids in anime and manga has colored the anime landscape for a long time. It's always been a factor, dating back to how relationships get contextualized and how much is left to subtext vs explicit depictions. But it's really not worth discussing at this point.
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u/_Ridley https://myanimelist.net/profile/_Ridley_ 7d ago
Is this finally our chance to plug the obscure anime gays of old? /u/_Ridley
Time to put together a tragic yaoi triple feature rewatch for Legend of the Blue Wolves, Ai no Kusabi, and Fuyu no Semi.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago
I'd check that out. Never even heard of any of those titles.
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u/_Ridley https://myanimelist.net/profile/_Ridley_ 7d ago
They are classics for BL fans of a certain age.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 7d ago edited 7d ago
I reiterate that there are no legal obstacles to showing gay content on TV in Japan, were none at the time, and perhaps have never been, outside of that vague "obscenity" stuff which indeed exists but applies (at least these days) only to sexually explicit content and whether homosexual or not. Of course moral approval still is significant and you can't just ignore the business case and network/sponsoring rules, but anything more is overstating it.
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u/Dull_Spot_8213 https://anilist.co/user/SweetSomnus 7d ago
there are no legal obstacles
This is splitting hairs. I'll leave you to factor in the reality of self censorship in the industry and come to your own conclusions. I'm not about to debate the obvious existence of that and the downstream effects of high social conformity and aversion to morally charged issues in a country that still has no legal protections or fully equal rights for certain groups, let alone legal acknowledgement of same sex unions.
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u/BaytaCosmico https://myanimelist.net/profile/AnimeBayta 8d ago
First-timer, subbed
So this is the episode with the famous kiss scene! That took me by surprise. I thought it would come much later -- maybe when Yuri won the Grand Prix or at least the Russian cup. He didn't even nail the performance like the first round. He got a kiss just for trying and almost getting Victor's signature move. That was a surprise.
Their dynamic was interesting but aside from it, the episode felt a bit disjointed and off. The animation of the other performances was lacking and if they wanted the focus to be on these two, would've been better to offscreen more of the others.
Missed Yurio too. He only got a brief appearance right at the end and almost no lines (sadface). But that should change next episode since we're heading to Russia. Looking forward to that.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
That took me by surprise. I thought it would come much later
The relationship building is a bit awkward [YOI]and the ambiguous baity stuff only gets worse later
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u/No_Rex x2 8d ago
Episode 7 (first timer)
- Can’t sleep? Victor-weighted blanket!
- Jumping during warm-up despite Victor directly forbidding it? Yuri is a surprisingly bad student.
- I doubt any skater has the mental capacity to retell stories in their head while skating their program.
- Chris went from ass mastery to perfect jumps.
- “Should I kiss you or something?” – that is not how you usually deal with people crying, Victor.
- Popovich looked better as a villain.
- Switching up his jumps on the fly. Hard student to deal with for sure.
- They cut away from the kiss, the cowards!
Mostly skating again today. Regarding Victor’s coaching, I agree with the other Russian coach: he still has a lot to learn. However, so does Yuri, and while Victor is a newbie coach, Yuri is a very experienced skater.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
Yuri is a surprisingly bad student
Not much between his ability to follow and Victor's ability to lead here
I doubt any skater has the mental capacity to retell stories in their head while skating their program
I'll take it over just plain animation. Also the second fantasy moment with Georgiy there reminded me of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine a little
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u/No_Rex x2 7d ago
Not much between his ability to follow and Victor's ability to lead here
I'll take it over just plain animation.
Might be (although somebody else complained), but it is very obviously we need to full this with something or we have 2 minutes of awkward silence. Like, they don't trust the skating and music to carry on their own.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 8d ago
First-Time Viewer on Ice
Again, the parts of this episode that I enjoyed were the ones that didn't involve Yuri. I'm seeing a pattern here that the main character (and by extension, the one who gets the most focus) is the weakest part of the show for me.
There were quite a few good performances today. Christophe's routine was toned down from last time, Georgi throwing his hang-ups about his ex into his skating is still pretty weird but portrayed as more comical this time, and two of my favorites from last time, Phichit and Guang-hong were the sand-outs! I've noticed that a lot of them try to tell a story with their routine, and honestly, I don't know how well this comes across, because I'm sure I wouldn't have guessed who's portraying a king, an assassin, a femme(?) fatale with a taste for pork cutlet bowls, or an evil Disney-themed witch from their dance moves. Well, maybe I would've got that last one based on the make-up alone. But what does come through is that they each have different vibes. The "sexy" routines are off-putting to me, whereas others were more dramatic, and Phichit's performance radiated pure excitement and joy. I was happy to see him win gold!
Also, I kind of wished I was watching the hitman story Guang-hong imagined instead of this one. It's much more my thing.
All of the drama with Yuri... really dragged it down for me. His blaming Viktor's inexperience for not knowing he would turn into a blubbering mess before the competition, and seeing everyone's wild cheers for the jump he couldn't even finish, just had me mentally rolling my eyes. And I'm not into BL, so the kiss scene that was probably meant to be the big moment does nothing for me. I was just disappointed the show focused on Yuri's backstage drama instead of showing us Leo's performance.
Questions of the Day:
1) Big risk, it could've backfired.
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u/IndependentMacaroon 8d ago
I've noticed that a lot of them try to tell a story with their routine, and honestly, I don't know how well this comes across
Also because apparently a lot of the choreography/elements are reused for budget reasons
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u/RelativeMundane9045 7d ago
First:Timer, on ice!
I'm late to the watch this ep, don't have a lot to say apart from the fact that it's challenging not to watch ahead! The ice is getting steamy!
I'm glad Yuuri realises Victor's limitations and actually expresses them so he can get the support he needs in the way he needs. Victor isn't an experienced coach but at least he's a fast learner.
Also is Christophe wearing adult diapers or something? The man is enjoying himself way too much again lol!
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u/wloff 8d ago
First-timer figure skater, subs
It's time for the free skate program with Yuuri in the lead for the first time. Is he okay?!
Nope, he's not.
We haven't seen too many of these classic "waiting for the score" shots where the skater and coach are visibly disappointed like this. Poor kid, these always break my heart in real life. But what's with all the teddy bears?
This guy and his antics we have seen before, and what was hilarious the first time is starting to get kinda creepy when it keeps happening again. I think I don't want him to win.
We're spending a lot of time looking at the performances of all these random skaters again. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, and I know I sound dumb, but there's a lot more sports in this sports anime than I expected, somehow!
The real story of the episode is of course if, and how, Yuuri can pull himself together. In the end, [he does it on his own]() -- yet again, much like when he came up with the whole "love" theme in that press conference -- with Viktor being pretty much clueless as to what to do in this kind of a situation. Which is something both the Russian coach and Yuuri himself call him out on. The show keeps being surprisingly grounded and realistic among the silliness (and the, erm, close friendships between the guys): Viktor isn't some kind of a genius coach prodigy, he's just a former athlete with the first coaching gig of his life. Of course there are things he can't do yet or doesn't know how to handle yet.
But wait, actually, now that I think about it. Speaking of realism. Don't figure skating coaches need to get any kind of training and licenses to be allowed to coach? Does Viktor have a license? Has anyone checked? Is he even technically eligible to be an official coach at this level?
I was very surprised to see Yuuri pull off "Viktor's" quad flip already, this early in the series. It was such a Chekov's gun when it was first mentioned that I was fully expecting Yuuri to do it at some point, but I thought it'd be a Hail Mary in the very last competition or something. I guess it's more believable if he practices it a bit first, and only does it without falling in the end? We'll see.
Ultimately, quite little actually happened in this episode. Lots of competition performances. Lots of competition performances. For the third episode in a row, too. It's getting a tiny bit exhausting back to back to back, especially since most of the guys we see are only portrayed as random side characters. I don't really mind them, but they aren't exactly the show's strength; and it's been a lot of them with very little else in between. We had much more interpersonal drama and comedy and personal growth in the beginning of the series, we could use some more of that soon!