Next big Japanese lady? Sochi?

☆Genie · Mar 6, 2010

We all know Japanese's deep field of ladies, but who do you think will be the next 'big' one?
I'm voting for Kanako Murakami. She has a presence and a charismatic charm to her that we usually don't see from somebody so young. I love her skating and the only flaw she has is the flutz.
She has 4 years to fix it, should do it quickly until it gets too late. (Mao).
I would also say Yukiko Fujisawa is a promising skater, she doesn't have the best jumps, but she's like a Caroline. Hit or miss.

Sochi
If Mao continues then I think she might have a chance at a gold medal if she fixes her lutz and works on those 3-3.
Kanako
Yukiko Fujisawa

Who do you think will be the next big lady from Japan

!?

silverlake22 · Mar 6, 2010

Kanako for sure! She has speed and elegance and is too cute! :agree:

Moxie · Mar 6, 2010

Well, it's too early to count Mao out. Although she needs to work on keeping her stamina up because it usually goes down once you reach the advance age of 23. :rolleye:

And Kanako is one to watch, for sure. But I don't really have any confidence in Yamada, her current coach.
Is it wrong for me to bring up Mirai in this thread? :eek:

zizi31 · Mar 6, 2010

I think Kanako is too unpolished - she didn't hit a single position that I found beautiful in her grand prix performances. She's energetic, but she's just all over the place in terms of her spins, and even her jumps look uncontrolled. As for her expression, I'm not a huge fan of "cute" or "spunky". At 15, mao had significantly better jumps, and I think that mao was more graceful too. As for presentation, Sasha at 15 had perfect lines and a very polished style. Kanako still has a long way to go toward fixing those things; I think it's too early to say much about her. However, I can tell that Mirai is almost there in terms of technique and expression - I think she may be at her peak in Sochi. But really, 4 years is too far in the future. There may be some 13 year old who nobody's heard of yet who will win it all in 2014.

silverlake22 · Mar 6, 2010

Mao was not all that polished when she was 15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS-JGt7X60E. She did so well at most competitions because she did 3f-3lo and 3a. I actually think Kanako is more polished and has better spins than Mao did at her age.

miki88 · Mar 6, 2010

I think Kanako should get a new coach if she wants to go further, because Machiko just doesn't teach her students the cleanest of techniques and unless you're a phenomenal jumper like Ito was, which Kanako is not, then you're going to have problems down the line. She does have a presence on ice but not as determined as Mao was when she was 15. I feel she has a more carefree attitude similar to Akiko (which can be good or bad thing), because I am not sure how Kanako will handle the pressure if it falls upon her.

Tinymavy15 · Mar 6, 2010

I think Mao is still the "big one" and will be for the next four years. At least I hope she can hold out and improve during that time.

zizi31 · Mar 6, 2010

I suppose it's a matter of opinion. Watching that clip, Mao strikes me as much more graceful than Kananko. Mao may not have been fully polished, but she had that fluttery, dancy quality to her. Kanako seems more clunky and awkward in comparison. Also, I prefer Mao's spins in that clip to Kanako's in the GPF. Kananko's spins were quite off centered. It's probably not a fair comparison - IMO, Mao is one of the most talented skaters of the decade. Not every young Japanese lady star can be as good as she was.

Overall, I do agree that Mao wasn't extremely polished at 15. That's why I used Sasha Cohen as an example of a skater who had unusually good polish and presentation at a young age. Sasha's lines and Mao's jumps and lightness would have been an ideal combination.

ETA: I meant to quote silverlake22, but for some reason the quote didn't work.

silverlake22 · Mar 6, 2010

miki88 said:
I think Kanako should get a new coach if she wants to go further, because Machiko just doesn't teach her students the cleanest of techniques and unless you're a phenomenal jumper like Ito was, which Kanako is not, then you're going to have problems down the line. She does have a presence on ice but not as determined as Mao was when she was 15. I feel she has a more carefree attitude similar to Akiko (which can be good or bad thing), because I am not sure how Kanako will handle the pressure if it falls upon her.

I think Kanako's freedom is an appealing aspect of her skating. Some of Mao's grace I think come from her long body lines, which Kanako does not have as she is short (though that could change, but Mao was a lot taller at her age). She seems very musical though and really gets into her programs which is good, plus her PCS are much higher than all of the other junior ladies which is promising for the future. She actually reminds me a bit of Yukari sans leg wrap.

volk · Mar 6, 2010

What about men?

bekalc · Mar 6, 2010

silverlake22 said:
I think Kanako's freedom is an appealing aspect of her skating. Some of Mao's grace I think come from her long body lines, which Kanako does not have as she is short (though that could change, but Mao was a lot taller at her age). She seems very musical though and really gets into her programs which is good, plus her PCS are much higher than all of the other junior ladies which is promising for the future. She actually reminds me a bit of Yukari sans leg wrap.

I really like Murakami. My only question is some of the jump technique in general isn't great. Then there's the lack of a loop, and that horrible flutz. Her only 3/3 is a 3toe/3toe so far. I feel all of this may hurt her.

Bennett · Mar 7, 2010

silverlake22 said:
I think Kanako's freedom is an appealing aspect of her skating. Some of Mao's grace I think come from her long body lines, which Kanako does not have as she is short (though that could change, but Mao was a lot taller at her age). She seems very musical though and really gets into her programs which is good, plus her PCS are much higher than all of the other junior ladies which is promising for the future. She actually reminds me a bit of Yukari sans leg wrap.

She has some mule kick. But does Kanako have leg wrap? I feel that Kanako still does not have the champion mentality. She was avoiding all the other ladies in 6 min practice at Nationals so as not to disturb others who were fighting for the Olympics. At her age, Mao was also in the same situation and she wanted to accomplish 2 3As and she did. If she gets that champion mentality, I think that she has greater presence on ice.

RumbleFish · Mar 7, 2010

How about Haruka Imai?
I saw her during the 4CC and thought she has nice qualities.

She seems confident going into her jumps, and possesses a bread and butter jump, which is 3Lo.
Her speed across the ice is decent and she shows nice musicality through her whole program.
My favorite part was her positive attitude, displayed before her routine and during the kiss & cry, a la Akiko Suzuki.
Kudos to her for a fine senior international debut. (5th overall)

BTW, did she have a rough season on junior circuit?
Don't remember seeing her in the JGP.

silverlake22 · Mar 7, 2010

bekalc said:
I really like Murakami. My only question is some of the jump technique in general isn't great. Then there's the lack of a loop, and that horrible flutz. Her only 3/3 is a 3toe/3toe so far. I feel all of this may hurt her.

She could get better as she gets older though. I mean in some ways I think it hurt Mao being so good at 14. Yuna only did 3t-3t when she was 14 and then added more difficult combinations later as she grew up. Murakami I think has the potential to be really good, and her speed on the ice will help her out when she starts trying harder combinations.

bekalc · Mar 7, 2010

silverlake22 said:
She could get better as she gets older though. I mean in some ways I think it hurt Mao being so good at 14. Yuna only did 3t-3t when she was 14 and then added more difficult combinations later as she grew up. Murakami I think has the potential to be really good, and her speed on the ice will help her out when she starts trying harder combinations.

Yu-na was doing 3flip/3toe by her second Junior season at Kanako's age. But the difference betwee Yu-na and Kanako/Mao is that Yu-na had text book jumping technique, something Mao and Kanako do not have. That's whatI think has really hurt Mao is the jumping technique.

silverlake22 · Mar 7, 2010

bekalc said:
Yu-na was doing 3flip/3toe by her second Junior season at Kanako's age. But the difference betwee Yu-na and Kanako/Mao is that Yu-na had text book jumping technique, something Mao and Kanako do not have. That's whatI think has really hurt Mao is the jumping technique.

She might be able to fix it though. I mean Mirai last grand prix season when she was Kanako's age was scoring 74 and 86 points for her FS on the SENIOR grand prix circuit, and now her jumps are really nice, and she cleaned them up over the course of a few months thanks to Frank Carroll. Kanako has the advantage of competing against a lot of girls who are going through big growth spurts on the JGP and so in comparison to the technique some of the other top girls have (mostly the little Russians) her technique seems good. If she has a growth spurt she'll have to re-work her jumps anyway so it might be smart for her to get a new coach and work on that as soon as possible.

miki88 · Mar 7, 2010

bekalc said:
Yu-na was doing 3flip/3toe by her second Junior season at Kanako's age. But the difference betwee Yu-na and Kanako/Mao is that Yu-na had text book jumping technique, something Mao and Kanako do not have. That's whatI think has really hurt Mao is the jumping technique.

I agree. Both Mao and Kanako are taught by Machiko, who does not teach her students the best techniques. Mao's problem is that she did not fix her problems earlier, resulting in the situation where she tries to fix too much at the same time. Kanako should get a new coach as soon as possible, especially considering the fact that she is not a great jumper. Both Yuna and Mao were better jumpers than Kanako was at 15.

ks777 · Mar 7, 2010

As much as I like Murakami, I don't see her as the next big japanese skater. Like Bekalc says, her jumping technique is very weird and it will hurt her. I don't think Japan wil have a big star like Mao and Miki for the next 4yrs.

I think Yuzuru Hanyu is going to be a big star and I will keep my eyes on Shoma Uno.

bekalc · Mar 7, 2010

silverlake22 said:
She might be able to fix it though. I mean Mirai last grand prix season when she was Kanako's age was scoring 74 and 86 points for her FS on the SENIOR grand prix circuit, and now her jumps are really nice, and she cleaned them up over the course of a few months thanks to Frank Carroll. Kanako has the advantage of competing against a lot of girls who are going through big growth spurts on the JGP and so in comparison to the technique some of the other top girls have (mostly the little Russians) her technique seems good. If she has a growth spurt she'll have to re-work her jumps anyway so it might be smart for her to get a new coach and work on that as soon as possible.

I don't think her technique is better than Polina's for example. Both have some funky technique, but I wouldn't say Kanako's is better. And Polina at least has all the jumps. And as for Mirai, Mirai's biggest problem was underrotations... (And that's still a question mark) it wasn't the things that hurt Murakami. I like Kanako but she really needs a new jumping coach if shes' going to be successful in Sochi. Mishin's student Elizaveta though has amazing technique.

MikiAndoFan#1 · Mar 7, 2010

Kanako should try going to Yuko Monna. She's a jumping coach and she helped Miki with her Lip. And answering to the question, I say Miki will be the Japanese lady to watch in Sochi!

:love:

Kanako, Yukiko and Haruka, too!

Next big Japanese lady? Sochi?

☆Genie

silverlake22

Moxie

zizi31

silverlake22

miki88

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win

zizi31

silverlake22

volk

bekalc

Bennett

RumbleFish

silverlake22

bekalc

silverlake22

miki88

ks777

bekalc

MikiAndoFan#1

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