Tatsuki Machida

[ioanna]

Here's part 2 of the interview I posted yesterday.

Part 2: Why do I love the book Byakuyako?

The other program Machida created based on literature is "Byakuyako”. It is based on a masterpiece by award winning mystery writer Keigo Higashino. Machida has read almost every novel written by Higashino but "Byakuyako” is special to him.

"I empathize with Ryoji Kirihara, the main character of the novel. He acts like an evil person but the motivation behind his actions is pure. There is a big conflict within him and I think as long as we’re living on earth we all have a conflict within ourselves. I have conflicts too. I’m always thinking 'for how long should I continue my competitive career’ or 'what should I choose as my second career’. Maybe that is why I’m attracted to stories like this. It’s the first program I choreographed myself and the theme for it was 'self sacrifice; evil but pure’ and I tried to express the character Ryoji Kirihara as much as I could.”

This story about conflicts is at the same time the tragedy of a person who’s lost one’s heart. East Of Eden is also the story of someone who grasps the beam of light after going through tragedy. Why is Machida always attracted to tragedies?

"I don’t think I’m tragic or that my life is tragic, but I see myself as someone suited to perform tragedies. There’s a novel called 'No Longer Human’ by Osamu Dazai and in this novel the leading character does word play with his friend. They divide words into two groups, tragic nouns and comedic nouns. For example a steam boat and a train are tragic nouns but tram and bus are comedic nouns. Tobacco is also a tragic noun. Following this I think Tatsuki Machida is a tragic noun, not a comedic noun. Besides, tragedy leaves marks for longer than comedy does, both in a positive and negative way.”

Machida performed the short program which he calls "the masterpiece of his career” at the last World Championship. In an interview after that, he said that the artist and the athlete in him were fighting each other. How did this conflict work out?

"There are skaters who think jumps are most important for them but I’m mostly aiming for the artistic side. But last season I knew I had to start winning if I wanted to make it to the Olympics and for that I needed quads. I was afraid of putting quads in the program because I thought they might have spoiled the artistry, but I realized that if I improved my jumps to the extreme, they would become part of the artistry. Maybe my perfect 4T-3T was one of the reasons why the audience at the World Championship was so impressed with my program. I think improving as an athlete is a big part of the process of becoming an artist – because I can’t call myself an artist at the moment.

"I don’t separate technique from artistry anymore. From now on I will be skating with the desire to show my art to the audience, not to win medals. But I will still be counting on quads because if I want artistry in my programs, I also need technical strength. Just like everyone else I have my conflicts about doing figure skating but I only came so far because of the support of a lot of wonderful people and a lot of wonderful books.”

 

[Sandpiper]

@ioanap
Imo, perfect Tatsuki could've won 4CC--Denis struggled on the 3As. That would've been enough.

Clean vs. clean... Debatable. While Denis does have a more COP-friendly layout, I don't think the judges are blind to Tatsuki's deep connection with his music, his projection, and how his elements work together with his interpretation instead of apart. Case in point: TEB. A near-perfect Denis in the SP received the same PCS as Tatsuki with a disruptive error on the lutz. But when they both had a mini-meltdown in the LP, it was Tatsuki who received higher PCS, by nearly 3 points. I think the judges recognize Tatsuki's commitment to his program, even when the jumps aren't working.

After watching their two best LPs performances back-to-back--Tatsuki at SA, Denis at 4CC--I will say that Denis had the overall better performance, considering Tatsuki's mistakes. Only the flip was disruptive, but the lowered tech content does affect the impact of the program (e.g. can you imagine if he'd hit that second 3A? )

However, clean to clean? For me, it's an easy decision. Comparable marks in SS and TR, but CH, INT, P/E easily go to Tatsuki. Enough to outweigh any BV loss. (Also, it's kinda stupid that Tatsuki's layout is worth less points, since it's one of the hardest layouts to perform, but that's a rant for another day.) And that's not even considering Tatsuki's SP, which he has performed to perfection. Still easily the best SP of the season.

Like you said, I think Denis only comes alive in the steps at the end. While Tatsuki was in character the whole way through. Some of his later performances (e.g. Nationals) might've shown even more of this, though unfortunately the jumps went to hell there. And it's not about who has more transitions. It's just... two people could glide into a jump the same way, but due to a combination of expression and musical timing, one of them makes it look like a jump while the other makes it look like part of the program.

All in all, it's a toss-up who the judges will prefer on a given night. The atmosphere of 4CC favours Denis. But on neutral ground, if Tatsuki skates after Denis in the LP and nails his program after Denis already threw it down... I think we will see something similar to Liza's win over Elena at Europeans.

---
Also, thanks for sharing part two of the interview. Like Tatsuki, I'm really drawn to tragedy. Perhaps this is why I finally connected with him at the end of his career, because of the pain (mixed with hope) he is so capable of portraying. And it's great that he had his epiphany that the technical and artistic are not at odds--instead, they can work together. Another reason why I ultimately fell in love with his skating.

 

[Maria Victoria]

Thanks ionap for letting Tatsuki "speak" to us. I would say that Tatsuki blends artistry and athleticism as well as anyone I have seen. That being said, he may be the only skater who said he doesn't want to include quads in his programs because it may spoil the artistry! For others, the issue is having the quad in the first place. But good for him and us fans that he realized that a well done quad can also be a work of art and worked hard to stabilize his quad.

 

[ioanna]

@Sandpiper

I guess it's just very hard for me to believe he would have come anywhere near 100 in TES with a clean FS. I'm going to take his Firebird FS as example, who also had the 3S in the second half of the program compared to the 9th where he put it in the first half. He skated a perfect Firebird at the Japanese Nationals; no stumbling on the 3Lo, no rough landing on the second 3A like he did at Worlds. His TES for that perfect program was 96. Denis got 100,45 for a not-so-perfect program.

Denis also got 91 in PCS. The only time Tatsuki ever got a score like that was at the World Championship and even then people said he didn't deserve it, he only got it because he skated on home ice and so on. My opinion is that even then he was held up in PCS and had he received the same PCS Javier got for his not-so-amazing program for instance, he would have been the World Champion. But this is a different topic altogether that will probably split opinions for a while.

All in all looking back at the way he was scored in the past is what brought me to the conclusion that a TES of 100,45 and a PCS of 91 would have never happened for Tatsuki, whatever he did. Maybe he would have gotten a PCS of 90 again but the jump layout he had, mixed with other small things like losing levels on spins or StSq would have probably held him back in TES.

 

[Sandpiper]

^I don't think Denis would've gotten that TES or that PCS if Tatsuki had yet to skate, or if Tatsuki had already skated a perfect program. Denis' scores are outright reasonable compared to some of the scores that went down this season (Europeans, I'm looking at you...), but there were still a few generous calls: +GOE for the 3A-2T with a foot down, mainly -1s for a major turn-out in the second 3A, a few +3s for his ChSq, +3s across the board for his StSq, ect. The judges went overboard since they knew no one else in the building had the technical content or PCS to compete with him. It didn't matter how they scored him, because with that skate, he was going to win no matter what anyone did.

It's unlikely they'd prematurely crown Denis like that if the reigning World silver medallist had yet to skate. Or, conversely, if the judges were in a happy mood, they'd give huge marks to Tatsuki and have him also completely shatter his personal best; not unlikely, considering the crazy inflation that's happened and keeps happening. (And let's face it, Beethoven is a much stronger program than Firebird... )

Also keep in mind that despite some disasters, Tatsuki has had a better season than Denis overall, and already beat him once (TEB). I think judges will be inclined to go with Tatsuki on the second mark. Especially when Hanyu isn't there and he ends up as default Japanese #1 (yes, Shoma beat him at Nationals and Mura at GPF, but considering last year, no way will they get #1 treatment over Tatsuki).

 

[WYW]

^I don't think Denis would've gotten that TES or that PCS if Tatsuki had yet to skate, or if Tatsuki had already skated a perfect program. Denis' scores are outright reasonable compared to some of the scores that went down this season (Europeans, I'm looking at you...), but there were still a few generous calls: +GOE for the 3A-2T with a foot down, mainly -1s for a major turn-out in the second 3A, a few +3s for his ChSq, +3s across the board for his StSq, ect. The judges went overboard since they knew no one else in the building had the technical content or PCS to compete with him. It didn't matter how they scored him, because with that skate, he was going to win no matter what anyone did.

It's unlikely they'd prematurely crown Denis like that if the reigning World silver medallist had yet to skate. Or, conversely, if the judges were in a happy mood, they'd give huge marks to Tatsuki and have him also completely shatter his personal best; not unlikely, considering the crazy inflation that's happened and keeps happening. (And let's face it, Beethoven is a much stronger program than Firebird... )

Also keep in mind that despite some disasters, Tatsuki has had a better season than Denis overall, and already beat him once (TEB). I think judges will be inclined to go with Tatsuki on the second mark. Especially when Hanyu isn't there and he ends up as default Japanese #1 (yes, Shoma beat him at Nationals and Mura at GPF, but considering last year, no way will they get #1 treatment over Tatsuki).

The first 3A-2T had a slight TD. Overall it was a good jump and should have been around a 0 (which the GOE was). -2 for the 2nd 3A is too harsh. You honestly couldn't tell me there was anything + about it? Fantastic height and difficult entry counts as +1 so the overall should have been around -1. Yeah the sequence GOEs were very generous.

Tatsuki and Ten are actually very neck and neck when you compare them side to side. Good quads, good 3A, good spins and they have different styles but the PCS should be similar. If I had to put my money on one it would be Tatsuki due to his consistency, although Denis does tend to shine at the bigger events. Judges are inclined to crown the the reining world silver medallist over a previous world silver medallist and reigning Olympic bronze medallist?

With that said, I do miss Tatsuki. If he hadn't of retired, the competition at this world championship would have been so fierce.

 

[Crossover]

Wait ioanap, Tatsuki beat not only TEB, but also SA this season with a big margin, so we never know about the possibility on Tatsuki breaking TES 100 in his FS what if Tatsuki had been at 4CC. Frankly speaking about the participants' potential at 4CC, there were no real threat to D10. I really hoped that Yan Han redeems himself with his beautiful big jumps but his choreography by Lori Nicole is kind of meh...,so never imagined him as a front runner at 4CC. Although Shoma beat Tatsuki at Nationals, Shoma's scores at both Nationals and 4CC were too generous. I thought he and Kozuka received their scores well compared to the others at Nationals. The two have strong backgrounds and sponsorship (Nagoya locals, IMG, Toyota) that Tatsuki never had. The JFU obviously wants Shoma to be as a second Hanyu marching toward the next Olympics in S.Korea, while Tatsuki is never treated as the real 2nd competitor of Japan unlike Kozuka/Oda have received.

Besides, Tatsuki's performances at SA were not perfect including his SP, so there are still a room for Tatsuki to get higher GOEs and PCS if he remained to compete at World. I really wished Tatsuki was also assigned to compete at 4CC because given the last year's track record of Tatsuki, he got the lowest point at GPF and bounced back at Sochi, and peaked at World. Even if Tatsuki could not win the 4CC title, his presence would be a pressure to D10.

 

[ioanna]

It's unlikely they'd prematurely crown Denis like that if the reigning World silver medallist had yet to skate. Or, conversely, if the judges were in a happy mood, they'd give huge marks to Tatsuki and have him also completely shatter his personal best; not unlikely, considering the crazy inflation that's happened and keeps happening. (And let's face it, Beethoven is a much stronger program than Firebird... )

Denis is the reigning Olympic Bronze Medalist though, who knows which one of them would have gotten better marks this time. As poor as Tatsuki's TEB FS was, Denis' was terrible in comparison and that's the only way he lost. It could be that I'm still used to Tatsuki getting lower PCS than he deserves (around 82 in Sochi and then got people scandalized for getting 90 at Worlds).

It's amazing how this is the third season in a row where Denis bombed the GP to prepare himself for the bigger competitions in the second half of the season. In comparison, Tatsuki always worked hard to medal in the GP to gain reputation and build momentum for Nationals. Last season he skated 2 perfect programs at Nationals just to break through the wall of his team mates and then made mistakes at the Olympics. It's times like this when I wonder if his career would have been different had he not belonged to a country where the field was always so deep. Maybe he would have gotten the coaching team he needed sooner, maybe he wouldn't have struggled with money, maybe Nationals wouldn't have been this unbreakable wall. A lot of maybes.

 

[ioanna]

Wait ioanap, Tatsuki beat not only TEB, but also SA this season with a big margin, so we never know about hypothesis on Tatsuki breaking TES 100 in his FS what if Tatsuki had been at 4CC. Frankly speaking about the participants' potential at 4CC, there were no real threat to D10. Although Shoma beat Tatsuki, Shoma's scores at both Nationals and 4CC were too generous. I thought he and Kozuka received their scores well compared to the others at Nationals. The two have strong backgrounds and sponsorship (Nagoya locals, IMG, Toyota) that Tatsuki never had. The JFU obviously wants Shoma to be as a second Hanyu, while Tatsuki is never treated as the real 2nd competitor of Japan unlike Kozuka/Oda.

I'm just doing mathematics and the way I see it his program would have hardly reached 100 in TES. 95-96 yes, maybe, but had Tatsuki skated clean at 4CC his TES would have still been lower than Denis', even with +GOE. I could be wrong but this is how I see it.

Shoma's scores were not that generous at the Nationals, I thought his PCS was significantly lower than the others'. There was some questionable judging with the levels (somehow he got straight level 4s while Yuzuru and Tatsuki got 3s and even 2) but overall it didn't affect the scores. I agree that judges were a bit generous at 4CC but he was not the only one who got generous scores there. As for Kozuka I thought he finally got the PCS he deserved for the FS he skated but it's safe to say nobody will give him the same score internationally.

 

[Crossover]

I'm just doing mathematics and the way I see it his program would have hardly reached 100 in TES. 95-96 yes, maybe, but had Tatsuki skated clean at 4CC his TES would have still been lower than Denis', even with +GOE. I could be wrong but this is how I see it.

Shoma's scores were not that generous at the Nationals, I thought his PCS was significantly lower than the others'. There was some questionable judging with the levels (somehow he got straight level 4s while Yuzuru and Tatsuki got 3s and even 2) but overall it didn't affect the scores. I agree that judges were a bit generous at 4CC but he was not the only one who got generous scores there. As for Kozuka I thought he finally got the PCS he deserved for the FS he skated but it's safe to say nobody will give him the same score internationally.

Hmm.. no in my opinion. I believe Murakami should've been ahead of Shoma not only at SP of the Nationals but also at 4CC. After Shoma's winning JGPF, his position was quite changed. Shoma's PCS at 4CC were an unusual treatment for a first comer as a senior. One judge gave away 9s to Shoma's PCS. The overall placement at Nationals would not be changed; yes, because Tatsuki was meltdown in FS and the JFU seemed not to want Tatsuki to beat Hanyu (Worlds 2014, SP at GPF are good examples) but I still don't understand Tatsuki's SP received so much lower scores than at SA. I think that was one of the reasons that Tatsuki decided to retire prematurely and lost his motivation to proceed even though he said many times that he dreamed of completing his Beethoven No. 9. Even though Tatsuki is retired, I'm not inclined to root any skater who always gets special treatments over other hardworking skaters. I'm no fan of Murakami and Mura, but I hope they break through the thick glass ceiling.

 

[Sandpiper]

The first 3A-2T had a slight TD. Overall it was a good jump and should have been around a 0 (which the GOE was). -2 for the 2nd 3A is too harsh. You honestly couldn't tell me there was anything + about it? Fantastic height and difficult entry counts as +1 so the overall should have been around -1. Yeah the sequence GOEs were very generous.

Tatsuki and Ten are actually very neck and neck when you compare them side to side. Good quads, good 3A, good spins and they have different styles but the PCS should be similar. If I had to put my money on one it would be Tatsuki due to his consistency, although Denis does tend to shine at the bigger events. Judges are inclined to crown the the reining world silver medallist over a previous world silver medallist and reigning Olympic bronze medallist?

With that said, I do miss Tatsuki. If he hadn't of retired, the competition at this world championship would have been so fierce.

I tend to be harsh on messy jumps because I'm pretty sick of messy programs. I don't really care how the jump was in the air--that's something to be evaluated when it's landed. But if you mess up the landing, you, well... messed up the landing and should receive -GOE. I can get behind 0 GOE for the 3A-2T (though the ISU should really have better guidelines for these things; some judges gave +1 and some -1 ). But I'd go with -2 on the solo 3A, since the turn-out was fairly disruptive and nearly a step-out.

My point wasn't that the judges would feel inclined to crown Tatsuki over Denis (though Tatsuki's run in the GP compared to Denis' couldn't hurt). My point is, as you said--they are comparable. If both go clean, either one of them could win, depending on the panel. (I predict a slightly higher TES to Denis, due to the layout and his spins, but slightly more PCS to Tatsuki, based on how they were scored at TEB relative to each other). One slight mistake--even something minor like Denis' slight struggle on the axels--and the other would go ahead.

Again, I see it like the Liza and Elena situation at Europeans. After the SP, I went a little nuts and became convinced that Liza couldn't win unless Elena made a major error, since simple math didn't favour her. However, two very small bobbles from Elena was enough.

 

[ioanna]

I still don't understand Tatsuki's SP received so much lower scores than at SA. I think that was one of the reasons that Tatsuki decided to retire prematurely and lost his motivation to proceed even though he said many times that he dreamed of completing his Beethoven No. 9.

“I’m here to perform for the spectators. I felt they connected with my emotions. My rank is not important, but how I perform is.”

That's what Tatsuki said during Nationals and as a long time fan I believe him. I can guarantee the last thing he thought about when he retired was him getting low scores. On the contrary, low scores fueled him to skate the way he did at Worlds and he used them as motivation to work harder and prove the fact that he wasn't getting what he deserved.

I've seen people say Dice Murakami didn't get the PCS he deserved at 4CC. How so? He got 82 for his FS. That's the kind of score Tatsuki was getting last season regardless of winning his GP events, placing 4th at the GPF and getting silver at Nationals. Even so people thought Tatsuki deserved that kind of score last season, as highlighted by their disagreement with his PCS at Worlds. In my opinion Dice's skating is nowhere near Tatsuki's level so I'd say 82 is more than deserved. Shoma, although technically still a junior, also skates better than Dice. His SP is stronger both technical wise and presentation wise. He does a 3F-3T combination in the second half as opposed to Dice's simple 3F. I do think Shoma was a bit overscored at 4CC but then I thought everyone was a bit overscored. He wasn't given any special treatment (and got lower PCS than Denis, Josh, Han and Jason in the end) and didn't rob anyone's medal so people can't point fingers only at him. Judges like to give big PCS based on either reputation or consistency and having watched all of Shoma's competitions ever since the season started I can definitely say he's been crazy consistent and has landed around 10 quads. Disagreeing with his scores won't make me choose to not support him anymore.

Anyway I've gone really off topic but had Tatsuki stayed he would have still been Japan's #2. At Nationals he and Shoma were both clean in the SP and he was still ahead of Shoma by 5 points so I'd say judges saw their skating in that order. And it's true, as good as Shoma is he's not Tatsuki level yet. Is Shoma better than Dice and Mura? That's debatable, and I'm inclined to say yes. Dice and Mura may have the bigger jumps but a) they're not consistent, and b) their skating skills and overall presentation are not as good. It's like comparing Satoko Miyahara and Rika Hongo in ladies. Rika may have the bigger (and more stable) jumps but Satoko is still better overall. This makes Tatsuki belong to a whole league above both Mura and Dice so they have a lot of catching up to do, Dice more so than Mura.

 

[Crossover]

“I’m here to perform for the spectators. I felt they connected with my emotions. My rank is not important, but how I perform is.”

That's what Tatsuki said during Nationals and as a long time fan I believe him. I can guarantee the last thing he thought about when he retired was him getting low scores. On the contrary, low scores fueled him to skate the way he did at Worlds and he used them as motivation to work harder and prove the fact that he wasn't getting what he deserved.

I've seen people say Dice Murakami didn't get the PCS he deserved at 4CC. How so? He got 82 for his FS. That's the kind of score Tatsuki was getting last season regardless of winning his GP events, placing 4th at the GPF and getting silver at Nationals. Even so people thought Tatsuki deserved that kind of score last season, as highlighted by their disagreement with his PCS at Worlds. In my opinion Dice's skating is nowhere near Tatsuki's level so I'd say 82 is more than deserved. Shoma, although technically still a junior, also skates better than Dice. His SP is stronger both technical wise and presentation wise. He does a 3F-3T combination in the second half as opposed to Dice's simple 3F. I do think Shoma was a bit overscored at 4CC but then I thought everyone was a bit overscored. He wasn't given any special treatment (and got lower PCS than Denis, Josh, Han and Jason in the end) and didn't rob anyone's medal so people can't point fingers only at him. Judges like to give big PCS based on either reputation or consistency and having watched all of Shoma's competitions ever since the season started I can definitely say he's been crazy consistent and has landed around 10 quads. Disagreeing with his scores won't make me choose to not support him anymore.

Anyway I've gone really off topic but had Tatsuki stayed he would have still been Japan's #2. At Nationals he and Shoma were both clean in the SP and he was still ahead of Shoma by 5 points so I'd say judges saw their skating in that order. And it's true, as good as Shoma is he's not Tatsuki level yet. Is Shoma better than Dice and Mura? That's debatable, and I'm inclined to say yes. Dice and Mura may have the bigger jumps but a) they're not consistent, and b) their skating skills and overall presentation are not as good. It's like comparing Satoko Miyahara and Rika Hongo in ladies. Rika may have the bigger (and more stable) jumps but Satoko is still better overall. This makes Tatsuki belong to a whole league above both Mura and Dice so they have a lot of catching up to do, Dice more so than Mura.

Hmm..still I'm not persuaded by the argument on Uno's hugely inflated scores at 4CC that he was not the only one with a generous score. Even though he changed his layout from JGPF to adapt for senior stages, getting more than 13 points from his previous PB at JGPF is beyond anybody's expectation. I didn't feel Uno's 4CC performances were that stronger than the one at JGPF and Nationals. I didn't demand you not to root for Uno, but just explained how I felt about him and his scores at 4CC. Many people pointed out that Uno has received special treatments by the JFU, not mostly because of his good results, but because of his strong background and potential up for the next Olympics; ironically mostly by Hanyu's fans. Yeah, I've gotten to learn a lot about which coach and background have more influences and powers than the others these days, on not just the men's field, but also Russian ladies :disapp:

Uno is no Tatsuki that I adore, so I've tried to be as objective as possible toward him. Though I was impressed by Shoma's presentation at JGPF, but that was a junior stage not competing with seniors. I do think his skating is still nowhere near getting almost 89 score in SP yet given that how long it took for Tatsuki and Hanyu to get the score internationally. Uno's strength is lied upon his presentation and skating skills; true. However, his jumps received almost same GOEs as Yan Han's huge and incredible jumps; that is ridiculous. I also agree that Mura and Murakimi still have more to work on, but they presented their performances in a much improved status to the public at 4CC than their previous performances, especially Mura's Carmen. For a while, I underestimated Mura's skating skills and presentation ability, but not anymore. As for Murakimi, I really enjoyed both his SP and FS, so that I don't think his skating skills are much subpar to Uno's and Dice has his own style in presentation. I don't think I'm lenient about skating skills because I can name some top skaters with poor skating skills, but fanwars are not desirable. Uno's performances still looked juniorish a bit compared to the two, not even comparing to Tatsuki's level. He may excel at junior level, but didn't stand out that much at senior yet in my opinion since this year's 4CC had a lot of stars in the men's field. Though I was not completely sold to anyone, that's why I kept thinking about Tatuski during the competitions. Miyahara's cheated jumps were not called by the TECH, so she could set her PB even though she performed very poorly at FS in 4CC, so I don't think the comparison is suitable in this case. This topic is really getting out of line; mea culpea. I should've not mentioned about Tatsuki's possibility to win the 4CC title in the first place.

 

[ioanna]

^ Me saying scoring doesn't influence my support was a response to your choice to not support skaters who appear to be getting special treatment because neither Shoma, nor Yuzuru, Javier, etc score themselves. Regardless of scores, I will still enjoy and support Shoma's skating just like Yuzuru fans still support Yuzuru when he's getting crazy scores.

Shoma shattered his previous personal best from the JGPF, yes, but that's partly because his junior layouts have a lower technical base value than the senior ones, and PCS are always lower in junior competitions than in senior competitions. The last time Shoma competed at a senior competition (not Nationals) he got 87 in the SP. Getting 88.90 at the 4CC did not seem that outrageous to me, given the overall inflation. Yes he got some generous GOEs too but who says small jumps can only get 0 or -GOE? There are other factors that contribute to +GOEs, such as difficult entries, good flowing edge on the landing, etc. Nathan Chen is another junior skater whose small jumps get +GOEs.

It may have taken a long time for Tatsuki and Yuzuru to get these kind of scores but scores tend to get inflated from season to season so we can't compare. They're all getting huge scores nowadays compared to what skaters like Lambiel or Takahashi used to get back in the day (for better performances). Tatsuki didn't even have a quad, while for some inexplicable reason Yuzuru's Romeo & Juliet FS at Worlds 2012 scored higher than Dai's Blues For Klook, who placed third after both Patrick and Yuzuru. That's what I'd call outrageous scoring.

Why do you think you shouldn't have mentioned Tatsuki's possibility to win 4CC? I think it's good that you did because that's what the forum is for, to discuss even when we don't see eye to eye on things. This is the only way we can keep this thread alive.

And lastly, people who gossip about Shoma getting special treatments from JSF are the same people who are always ready to say the 3,6 points gap in PCS between Yuzuru and Tatsuki in the SP at Nationals was perfectly normal so I'm not going to comment on that.

 

[unico]

Interesting conversations going on here you guys, but I'll just caution you to say that Fan Fests are meant for gushing about your favorite skaters and I don't believe conversations dissecting and complaining about the overscoring of other skaters (regardless if true or not ) is allowed here, although they're free game in The Edge. Over here, let's keep it festive and Machida-focused! Big thanks especially to you ioanap for your tireless efforts in always giving the latest updates

 

[ioanna]

I found this video a while ago and meant to post it but forgot. I'm posting it now to change the topic of the thread back to Tatsuki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13SOWPQI-io

It's a collection of Tatsuki's happy kiss and cry moments. The video at 0:25 is especially emotional because it shows Tatsuki hugging Anthony Liu after winning his first ever GP medal at Skate America 2012 and he was very happy.

 

[ioanna]

Interesting conversations going on here you guys, but I'll just caution you to say that Fan Fests are meant for gushing about your favorite skaters and I don't believe conversations dissecting and complaining about the overscoring of other skaters (regardless if true or not ) is allowed here, although they're free game in The Edge. Over here, let's keep it festive and Machida-focused! Big thanks especially to you ioanap for your tireless efforts in always giving the latest updates

Very true, and hopefully the rest of the fan threads here will follow.

 

[Interspectator]

I've been looking at old TJ footage...and noticed that Machida had pierced his ears and wore little hoops. :shocked:
He and Mura seemed to be going for the 'young punk' look back in 2010. How things have changed. http://40.media.tumblr.com/e61d0887210dbd1ddb32bdc9487bd906/tumblr_njh1hhiPjF1tzdqszo1_500.jpg
Perhaps this has been posted already as it is on the Machida tumblr.

 

[ioanna]

I've been looking at old TJ footage...and noticed that Machida had pierced his ears and wore little hoops. :shocked:
He and Mura seemed to be going for the 'young punk' look back in 2010. How things have changed. http://40.media.tumblr.com/e61d0887210dbd1ddb32bdc9487bd906/tumblr_njh1hhiPjF1tzdqszo1_500.jpg
Perhaps this has been posted already as it is on the Machida tumblr.

That's actually way older than 2010, it's from Junior Nationals 2006 when Tatsuki won the gold.

Yes, Tatsuki had ear piercings around that time.
http://40.media.tumblr.com/68c406b693dbb85c194c507dfedadcb3/tumblr_nhrjoqznPb1u7abjno2_1280.jpg

 

[Interspectator]

That's actually way older than 2010, it's from Junior Nationals 2006 when Tatsuki won the gold.

Yes, Tatsuki had ear piercings around that time.
http://40.media.tumblr.com/68c406b693dbb85c194c507dfedadcb3/tumblr_nhrjoqznPb1u7abjno2_1280.jpg

Wow! so he was what...16? 17?