Ah, at last, I finally watched Mao and Akiko's LPs.
There is no question that Mao is in a league of her own when it comes to performance. Now, I'm confused. What was this fuzz all about? Akiko won LP by a large margin 9.30. It all came from TES. Mao's PCS is wayyyy above Akiko's if you ask me. Even though Mao has doubled many jumps, they didn't interrupt her flow and performance. It was such an exquisite program and execution, deserved P/E higher than Akiko's.:yes: There were several parts in her program Akiko's performance detached from music. Besides, her music is a little ...like Kozuka's music - difficult to interpret. It's hard to believe that Mao has doubled so many jumps but still got 117.32. However, the numbers don't lie. Her TES was 11.73 less than Akiko's TES. I understand that Akiko has come a long way, overcame huge personal illness and obstacles. So she has won the hearts of the skating fans. But sorry, there is no reputation marks for that. Mao got deserving PCS. Akiko got deserving win on LP. The overall, unfortunately maybe, Mao won by 0.05. So again, live with it.
If you ask overall impression mark, I assume it is about performing art impact and artistic impressions, it will actually go to Mao.
Different viewpoint BB. Glad you have it, because it makes for healthy debate.
But I just don't agree that the mistakes detracted from Mao's performance. I thinks she was FAR better at Cup of China even with the jump mistakes there. Heck, let's just go back to Japan Open. I think she did it VERY well there and would have beat a very good Ashley Wagner if not for an invalid spin. Since that initial JO program, I felt she has not performed to to her potential.
The mistakes, to me, put Mao in autopilot mode. The choreography and performance felt forced, rather than that natural lightness I'm used to seeing from her. Any other skater would and have been deducted for doing that. For perspective, her PCS score was higher than Ashley at TEB, who killed it--no mistakes, confidence, strength power. Mao didn't show any of those things.
Again, I'm fine with Akiko's PCS scores. But I have a problem with Mao scoring top PCS marks for a performance that was, quite frankly, below her usual standard, both technically and artistically.
Mao's surprise look says it all -- even she thought she would lose and didn't look all that happy when she found out she won because she knows she can do much better than that.