Yuri Katsuki is a Japanese Figure Skater who is gifted
but unable to reach to top of the leader boards. Yuri is on the verge of giving up
completely. That is until a video of him
performing a number by his idol, Russian legend Victor Nikiforov, goes
viral. Impressed by Yuri’s skill, Victor
travels to Japan and declares he will become Yuri’s coach. The world is in shock but no ones more pissed
off than Victor’s other student, Yuri Plisetsky. As the bond between Yuri and Victor deepens,
the rivalry between the two Yuri’s grows fiercer, and all the eyes of the world
are on these three skaters and the wonders theyre about to bring to the ice.
After doing a First Impression on this one right before
Christmas, I ended up going the rest of the way with this runaway smash
hit. After viewing the entire season of
the show no one can stop talking about, am I as onboard the hype train as
everyone else? Well…I like other things
better but that wont stop me from saying Yuri on Ice is a pretty good show in
most respects, especially the ones that count.
I’ll talk about the animation first because it feeds into
a pro and a con about the series. The
skating animation if absolutely breathtaking.
As a guy who has never been into competitive figure skating, I was
impressed I was so moved and in awe of some of the numbers performed by the
skaters. The animators clearly did a lot
of research looking at various skaters and how they move on the ice to all
sorts of different tunes: pop songs, orchestra, trance, etc. The skaters demand your attention and the
animation helps hold it. That’s the
pro. The con, I know it’s a show about
skating but how many times can we watch these guys do the same two numbers over
and over again? The only thing that didn’t
make this super annoying for me were the inner monologues of each skater and
how they changed, grew stronger or weaker depending on events going into their
numbers. After a while, I wasn’t really
watching the skating anymore but listening to the inner turmoil and inner
spirit of these guys who are giving their all on the ice. The fact that you had skaters from all over
the world coming into competition gave us such a diverse cast and it’s easy for
everyone to pick a favorite or two. One
way or another though, you might find yourself rooting for every skater to get
their moment of glory in. Even a kind of
douche baggy skater got an emotion out of me when he felt he couldn’t beat the
pressure of championships but overcame it anyway.
Of the three leads in the series, Victor is easily the
most entertaining…well maybe Yurio (aka Yuri Plisetsky) is a strong contender too. Sure you were supposed to feel a lot for Yuri
K and cheer when he came out of his shell.
But Victor was always doing something that made you laugh or get nervous
about (how bad was he going to chew out Yuri’s skating, was he ever miffed when
it wasn’t perfect). I liked happy go lucky Victor more because of his
unpredictability. I was always waiting
for the other shoe to drop, for some reveal about a dark moment in his past
that drove him to act like a more carefee Kenshin Himura. That could still happen in Season 2 but for
now, the wild child that is Victor Nikiforov is one of my favorite Anime
leads. Yurio’s outbursts brought some of
the best laughs, even if they weren’t his intentions. In a way, I wanted the series to focus on him
a bit more than Yuri K and Victor.
Seeing Yurio’s fired up final performances made me wonder how much he
really went through to get as good as he did.
We saw him in practices with his coaches but not nearly enough as the
main couple of the series. So when it
was Yurio’s time to shine, he lit up the galaxy with his fire.
And what of the central relationship of the series? It was good, if maybe a little dramatic when
it didn’t need to be. Let me be clear,
Yuri and Victor have a good story and it is a strong example of same sex
romance in any medium ever. It’s not a
love that is spoken out right but conveyed through action…though those couple of
“HOLY S*** THAT JUST HAPPENED” moments were kind of a dead give away (if you don’t
know what I mean, you don’t have an internet connection and lucky you for not
getting spoiled). This is where Yuri’s
skating numbers come into play. Yes he
is skating for points and a chance at the gold.
But more importantly on his mind is Victor and only Victor. Yuri is constantly afraid that if he screws
up, Victor will leave and never come back.
There were a couple of times where I felt Yuri was going to go into
Black Swan levels of obsession but thankfully the series kept away from that
and stuck to passionate skating and humor at Yuri’s expense around Victor. As far as romances go, this was fun to watch,
more so than the skating. I know the
world exploded during one or two of those pivotal moments. I just nodded and said, “Good on you guys.”
With all the goodness on and off the ice, it’s makes me a
little scared to voice a complaint or two.
I talked about the skating being a negative as well as a positive. The other big thing for me was the
finale. In the end, even if it was a
season finale rather than a series finale, it just felt a bit lacking. I don’t know it was just missing something that
made the bigger events of the series so special. Should something more have happened? Well maybe the origin of Victor’s love for
Yuri could have gotten moved to the end of the last episode, it already plays a
lot like a final montage of pictures from The Hangover and The Hangover Part
II. It just felt like it was time to
wrap things up for a break and the show just stopped at that point. The final episode had plenty of good moments…but
just wasn’t up to the standard the rest of the season set. Oh and the added pressure of a potentially
dramatic moment…not really much drama if the writers aren’t going to pull the
trigger on it, it’s a weak attempt at a twist.
So, Yuri on Ice.
It’s definitely something special to come along in Anime in a long
time. For the first time in a bit, the
animation and sports aspect took a back seat to actually exploring, in great
detail, the joys and trials of two men falling in love with each other. It’s does seem obvious when their true
feelings shine through but we can forgive that for the show actually going the
distance and never flinching on letting things happen. It pleases the fans and makes casual viewers
go “wow, that actually happened.” And
yes, the animation, skating numbers (despite the repetition) and characters all
shined so well amongst the center of the universe that is Yuri and Victor. Will it shine as bright when the series
returns for Season 2 later this year? I
hope so. Yuri on Ice started something
special and it’s only right it finishes its story with the rest of the world
keenly focused on it.
The theme song said it was “born to make history”. Believe it or not, Yuri on Ice did just that.
A very strong 8.5/10
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