This is really a great way to evaluate the skating itself, without distractions of music, interpretation and performance part. Unfortunately it also takes away Takahashi's strong suits. After watching Patrick's Worlds skate, which is not his best BTW (that would be the Nationals'), Takahashi's skating seems so much "smaller", much less in speed and scope. It almost seems slow and labored. So do his spins, which are much slower and uncentred in constrast to Chan's.
With the music on, Daisuke draws you in with his whole body performance. Which is great but it also draws away from his weaker skills much more than I realized.
I'm going to do the same with Takahashi's Worlds 2010 performances to find out what I will see, because those were his best or at least among his very best. I was totally impressed by his indisputable win. I would do the same with Kozuka's best too, i.e. Worlds 2011. And Patrick's SP and Aranjuez, or I may wait for his TEB performance, hopefully he has used up his season's quota of stumbling during jump entries.
I experienced it differently than you with the mute feature. Just looking at the blade work on mute, very obviously Chan excels with his edging and blade work. However, I found Chan's overall skating much weaker with no music playing. I think taking away the music actually highlights Chan's weaker presentation skills. Whereas watching Dai, I found his movements much more dynamic and appealing even without the music. As far as Dai's blade work, it is good, but not as excellent as Chan's. However, Dai is not bad in that aspect either, although obviously Dai does not excel at spinning, but he has improved over the years. I don't think Chan is a great spinner either.
It's important to realize, however, that figure skating is meant to be skated with the music, and that is how it is judged, or should be. The judges do look at slo-mo clips without the music, but they are supposed to take the overall performance with the music into account in their scoring. Clearly, with or without the music, Dai is just a genius with upper body movement, and all over movement too, in addition to excelling at musicality, charisma, and artistic interpretation. Check out Chan's arm movements vs. Dai's (without the music, if you wish) -- huge difference!!! Right from his opening moves, Dai draws us in. Chan, not so much. IMHO, Chan's opening movements have more of a studied quality and less of a natural flow.
Also the choreo will always be a factor in how the skaters are moving IMO. Checking out different programs on mute may or may not reveal anything new.
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