Mao Asada

[gotoschool]

OMG! I started to bawl as soon as I started watching it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QWW6got6-s

I am so looking looking forward to Japan Open!

Thank you for the link hurrah. The video is so beautiful!

 

[largeman]

Thank you for the link hurrah. The video is so beautiful!

Breathtaking. Very nicely done triple salchow.

I love how we are (well, I am) gushing over every additional second of footage of her LP that's being released. Like people stranded in the desert digging for water and savoring every drop they find.

 

[MaxSwagg]

The judges better get it right! The lacking quality and refinement of the younger girls is just so much more apparent after watching Mao. She doesn't just feel the music, she IS the music and the music is her! The maturity, the finesse...the best of the field by FAR! And this is just from watching a CM! I don't want to get too excited but I feel like this could be an iconic program for her. She just looks so into her skating, so at ease and at piece. She was born to skate. Born to win!

 

[gotoschool]

Here are some wonderful video clips of Mao's practice and run through today. So marvelous! Thanks to rosewood for posting.

Clips from today's practice aired by TV Tokyo.
3A https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649859290908364800
3F-3Lo https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649855887469711360

ETA:
Glimpse from the runthrough.
https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649860872056102912

 

[Li'Kitsu]

Here are some wonderful video clips of Mao's practice and run through today. So marvelous! Thanks to rosewood for posting.

Clips from today's practice aired by TV Tokyo.
3A https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649859290908364800
3F-3Lo https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649855887469711360

ETA:
Glimpse from the runthrough.
https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649860872056102912

Her movements might be even a little gentler, more in tune with the music, more expressive than in 2013-14. How can you continue about to get better when you're already so great?
I don't care who's the 'queen', tomorrow my angel of skating will be back!

 

[ioanna]

Seems like the video of the news report hasn't been posted here.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38dngk_1002-jo-公式練習_sport

 

[hurrah]

Mao right now is the best that she's ever been in her career!! She is a wonder.

 

[invisiblespiral]

Mao looks awesome.

 

[Franklin99]

gotoschool and ioanap, thank you guys so much for spoiling us with links of Mao's practice clips and news before the big night. I'm so giddy with anticipation, I want to scream, lol.

 

[jagragold]

Mao is winning her world crown again this year!

 

[xibsuarz]

Here are some wonderful video clips of Mao's practice and run through today. So marvelous! Thanks to rosewood for posting.

Clips from today's practice aired by TV Tokyo.
3A https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649859290908364800
3F-3Lo https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649855887469711360

ETA:
Glimpse from the runthrough.
https://twitter.com/3Ababe/status/649860872056102912

Does her Y-spin look better than last season or is it just be who was missing Mao too much and is now gushing at every clip of her skating I see?

 

[Krunchii]

NOOOOO be still my heart, I am so slayed, her 3A rotation actually looks great to me, better than the earlier clips and maybe even better than the 2013-2014 season, 3-3 I don't know but I'm happy to see her 3F-3Lo still around!

Honestly though, I know what her jumps look like but I absolutely can't wait to see the step sequence, she never muscles through them and they're always so well done. Also I love how she uses her arms during her step sequences, ah I'm so restless now.

 

[Meoima]

3A if she lands something like that in competition they will ratify it. 3F3Lo not sure.

 

[MaxSwagg]

The 3A looked great! Flip-loop looked iffy. She can do it better...

 

[Meoima]

The 3A looked great! Flip-loop looked iffy. She can do it better...

From that angle it's hard to tell because they don't show her blades fully.

But I bet 98% that Mao will do well and that all skaters in team Japan will do well, land all of their jumps and win.

 

[gotoschool]

I do hope that Mao continues to work on getting her jumps even better, but they look really nice to me right now.

Whatever happens in terms of jump rotation, I hope Mao can "stand up" all her jumps and be an inspiration with her magnificent flow, erect posture, lyrical and balletic flair in movement, her delayed rotation, musicality and beautiful symmetry she has in the air. Actually, the 3F / 3L looks really good to me. I don't notice any problems with jump rotation on this combination in real time, and that is what is important to me. The triple axel looks even better: so free and easy. I know it has become a bigger and bigger focus in the scoring, but sometimes the preoccupation with jump rotation reminds me of focusing on a tiny mole on a beautiful face, and in some cases imagining it is there when many others think it is nowhere to be seen.

I hope Mao delivers total performances this season where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, like her Sochi LP, with great emotion and spiritual impact but that she uses her life experiences over the last year to show a new side of herself that reflects a new depth of expression. I hope she delves into a well of emotion that ends in a stream of tears, as her opening and closing movements and poses suggest she will. I hope she paints magnificent moving canvasses with her skates that are masterpieces. Ganbatte Mao!

 

[plushyfan]

I have seen her 3A on Twitter. Awesome! Congratulation to her!!

 

[Imagine]

Gorgeous 3A...so deceptively effortless...

 

[veneresplende]

Mao seems to have fixed her lutz edge too, it looks really really good.

 

[gotoschool]

Mao seems to have fixed her lutz edge too, it looks really really good.

Here is a Young Japan Action video in which Mao does a triple lutz in the background that to me looks like it has a better edge than the ones she has done in the past, though I admit it is not a very clear filming of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYW96mhl0o&feature=youtu.be