Yuzuru Hanyu: 2016-17 Season

[Floria]

It was mentioned in this thread before (by Meioma, I think... sorry if I'm wrong, I have terrible memory) that this season Yuzu has maintained an overall good condition.... I mean, it's difficult to pinpoint if he has had his peak? Or if he is yet to peak at Worlds? He didn't have a SP and LP back to back in which he cleanly skated the planned layout, yet, but overall his results were not terrible. In any case, this season is not very comparable to his previous ones due to his injury, which both gave him a late start into the season and also seemed to have affected him mentally, matured him even, regarding how he takes care of his body. (I think we are all glad to observe the latter effect.)

Yes, this is what he is aiming for, to have better average result even on bad days. And I think it works, it really worked to win GPF (with Javi and Patrick's help ). Except for AC FS and SC SP other perfomances were relatively good.

 

[crazykuroneko]

Last Saturday I went to Liceu (opera theater in Barcelona) to listen to Thais by Jules Massenet (opera is another great passion of mine). This opera has a beautiful fragment known as 'The Meditation'. I immediately thought of Yuzu skating to it. This music suits perfectly his skating style. I can easily imagine Swan-like EX or maybe even SP.
Then I searched through YT for anybody skating to it and found this.

Well...just dreaming... I am really curious about the music choices for the next season.

I thought I'm the only one like that. I can't help but to imagine Yuzuru skate to songs I listen too. That's why I'm trying to make a playlist of those song plus his original programs songs

Saw this on Yuzu's FB group: The lovely swan surrounded by baby flamingos!

Another 4cc banquet photo with Zijun

That swan with flamingos photo is so cute

About Yuzu has peaked or not, maybe his team has solved the problem thus now he performs constantly good? Though I really hope he can skate clean at Worlds, even more than him winning Worlds, so he can feel satisfied for the current programs and ready to move on to the next season

 

[Altie]

What we know is that they're experimenting this year and try to make him peak at worlds. But Orser said that Yuzu was very different from other athletes concerning peaking time, so it wasn't exact science. He also said that Yuzuru tends to overtrain.
Yuzu has showed several times in the past that he can peak VERY quickly by training like a madman something like 2 weeks before the competition (see for instance GPF 2014 and 2015). I think that this year they took it (relatively) slow, as he said he's learned to rest and to relax, and he needs to be perfectly healthy for the Olympics and treat his foot with great care. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's seriously intensifying his training right now to be in top form for worlds.

 

[Floria]

I thought I'm the only one like that. I can't help but to imagine Yuzuru skate to songs I listen too. That's why I'm trying to make a playlist of those song plus his original programs songs



That swan with flamingos photo is so cute

About Yuzu has peaked or not, maybe his team has solved the problem thus now he performs constantly good? Though I really hope he can skate clean at Worlds, even more than him winning Worlds, so he can feel satisfied for the current programs and ready to move on to the next season

His physical condition at 4CC was quite good, better than at GPF. He was not at all tired after the FS and I see it as a good sign. I just hope this tendency will continue until Worlds.

Another good thing about 4CC is that his errors in SP and FS didn't seem to affect so much his perfomance. At GPF it was more noticeable.

 

[SuzyQ]

Last Saturday I went to Liceu (opera theater in Barcelona) to listen to Thais by Jules Massenet (opera is another great passion of mine). This opera has a beautiful fragment known as 'The Meditation'. I immediately thought of Yuzu skating to it. This music suits perfectly his skating style. I can easily imagine Swan-like EX or maybe even SP.
Then I searched through YT for anybody skating to it and found this.

Well...just dreaming... I am really curious about the music choices for the next season.

"The meditation" is a really good theme for skaters who have good skating skills. Actually, Mai Mihara, 4CC 2017 ladies champion chose it as her EX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etRjO7c_c34&t=16s

I like Yuna Aoki's short program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZz6GLNztN0

Just IMO, but it may be good for EX in the case of male skaters, especially in the Olympic season.

 

[Floria]

"The meditation" is a really good theme for skaters who have good skating skills. Actually, Mai Mihara, 4CC 2017 ladies champion chose it as her EX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etRjO7c_c34&t=16s

I like Yuna Aoki's short program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZz6GLNztN0

Just IMO, but it may be good for EX in the case of male skaters, especially in the Olympic season.

How could I forget Mai Mihara?! She is one of my favourite skaters. Thank you for the links, I will rewatch it.

 

[Altie]

Since it's pretty calm... perhaps can I ask a question ?
I've read several time on forum or tumblr posts that Yuzu suffered severe backlash back in the days when he won over Dai for the first time at Japan nationals in 2012. But I have never found reliable sources about this, just rumors. Do you have links that could enlighten me about this ?

 

[Fayruza]

Since it's pretty calm... perhaps can I ask a question ?
I've read several time on forum or tumblr posts that Yuzu suffered severe backlash back in the days when he won over Dai for the first time at Japan nationals in 2012. But I have never found reliable sources about this, just rumors. Do you have links that could enlighten me about this ?

Er... if you read some competition thread back in 2012-2013, you'll get a vague idea what it might have looked like.
There are still some posters in Russian forums who vehemently dislike Yuzuru for just beating Dai. Incredible how long these people have been able to keep their grudges. But most Dai fans have moved on, I hope.

 

[Yuaz]

Er... if you read some competition thread back in 2012-2013, you'll get a vague idea what it might have looked like.
There are still some posters in Russian forums who vehemently dislike Yuzuru for just beating Dai. Incredible how long these people have been able to keep their grudges. But most Dai fans have moved on, I hope.

Wow.. my first time heard this. Didn't know he had a hard time to face such a hate from other fans. Is he really not deserve to get that title over dai back then ? Why must hating on yuzu.. He is polite and humble..

 

[Altie]

Er... if you read some competition thread back in 2012-2013, you'll get a vague idea what it might have looked like.
There are still some posters in Russian forums who vehemently dislike Yuzuru for just beating Dai. Incredible how long these people have been able to keep their grudges. But most Dai fans have moved on, I hope.

I've been reading some of the forum's archives (competition threads mainly) and actually I was expecting much worse - it is amazing to see how much love Yuzuru already got back then (and amazing to see so many of you posters in this fanfest were already fans of him ). But it's funny to see that the debate about PCs (are they overscored ? underscored ?) seems to be the neverending one...

 

[fishheadanon]

well, there is this if you read Japanese. (2nd paragraph)
https://web.archive.org/web/2014123....com/sports/news/140328/spo1403280013-n1.html

Of course most fans are not thoughtless like this. But from what I can tell, some people can move on from fixating on their favourite skater but not from their intense dislike of Yuzuru. If you're really bored you can go through the post histories of some posters on GS and it's really telling.

But I feel as fans we should just focus on generating positive energy for Yuzu and not to put too much effort into discovering sources of negative energy against him.

 

[YuzusHydroblade]

Lol , i tried to quote the wrong person haha but the thing is...
MAY THE SKATING GODS HEAR YOU!
I wish he is assigned to SC again and i am not going to stop writing this until june </3
My heart aches to see him and support him in the venue </3 I don't know how am i going to deal with the heartbreak if he doesn't go...

 

[Altie]

Wow.. my first time heard this. Didn't know he had a hard time to face such a hate from other fans. Is he really not deserve to get that title over dai back then ? Why must hating on yuzu.. He is polite and humble..

Well, it's understandable in a sense... Daisuke is a wonderful, charismatic skater and his fans are passionate about him. He was the pride of Japan's single men figure skating back then - having a very new, young skater beating him must have been hard to swallow, even if it was completely justified.
Even Yuzuru himself said in an interview that he didn't really expect to win that day, and felt very uneasy about it. And that one of the best advices Brian Orser has ever given him was that day - when he told him about his own experience of becoming number one over veterans very young, and that it was painful but necessary if he wanted to win the Olympics, or something like that.

 

[Altie]

well, there is this if you read Japanese. (2nd paragraph)
https://web.archive.org/web/2014123....com/sports/news/140328/spo1403280013-n1.html

Of course most fans are not thoughtless like this. But from what I can tell, some people can move on from fixating on their favourite skater but not from their intense dislike of Yuzuru. If you're really bored you can go through the post histories of some posters on GS and it's really telling.

But I feel as fans we should just focus on generating positive energy for Yuzu and not to put too much effort into discovering sources of negative energy against him.

Yes of course sorry, I didn't want to generate negative energy, I just wanted to make my own opinion about this

(and thanks a lot about the link btw)

 

[fishheadanon]

ah don't apologize! I'm not trying to say you did anything wrong or inappropriate, it's more a reaction in self reproach. I'd admit to being really curious about it when I first became a fan too, wanting to know more about his circumstances.

personally though, I feel that I know a bit too much now. yuzuru's hardships may make me admire him more, but it also gives me anxiety, because as a fan I just want him to be happy and not have to deal with complicated people issues. took me a while to understand that while there are no helping haters our love and support will still mean something no matter what.

 

[YuzusHydroblade]

ah don't apologize! I'm not trying to say you did anything wrong or inappropriate, it's more a reaction in self reproach. I'd admit to being really curious about it when I first became a fan too, wanting to know more about his circumstances.

personally though, I feel that I know a bit too much now. yuzuru's hardships may make me admire him more, but it also gives me anxiety, because as a fan I just want him to be happy and not have to deal with complicated people issues. took me a while to understand that while there are no helping haters our love and support will still mean something no matter what.

That is the life of a Hanyu fan. We just want to see our baby happy </3 and that makes us go through an emotional rollercoaster every now and then...
I wouldn't change it for anything <3 i love him too much

 

[SuzyQ]

I was looking for this material explaining about Shinto, because Yuzuru's FS "Hope & Legacy" reminded me of the colors used in it. Shinto is said to be a religion, but Japanese may feel rather uncomfortable to call it a religion, as it is so deeply rooted in our life without knowing it. To me, it is the Nature itself that we cannot escape from being the part of it, with both awe and gratitude. Sorry, I'm in the mood to be a poet today

http://shinto.tokyo-jinjacho.or.jp/index_e.html

http://www.jinjahoncho.or.jp/en/image/soul-of-japan.pdf#search='SOUL+of+JAPAN'

 

[Danibellerika]

I don't expecting anything tho, yeahh I want Yuzu to win the Worlds, but if not he dosen't owe anything to us

I'm travelling too far and spending too much money to put all my hopes on something like that. The ice is slippery. Yeah, I'll cheer on our boy and if he wins with clean skates I'll be ecstatic but I don't think it's in my best interest to get my hopes up. I feel bad enough that I want so badly to see Let's Go Crazy clean. I'm just going to hope to see some good practices and take in the whole championships to pad any potential disappointment in that area. Most of all I just want him to do well so HE'LL be happy. But I'm kind of conflicted because incumbent men's world champs don't win the Olympics (save for Evan but he was a weird situation anyway). So I don't want him jinxed .

Since it's pretty calm... perhaps can I ask a question ?
I've read several time on forum or tumblr posts that Yuzu suffered severe backlash back in the days when he won over Dai for the first time at Japan nationals in 2012. But I have never found reliable sources about this, just rumors. Do you have links that could enlighten me about this ?

I wasn't following skating too closely after the 2010 Olympics, but I remember liking Dai a whole lot then. I was happy for him that he won worlds. Then fast forward to late 2013 and I was hearing about this kid that was beating him and I was like "no way!" I was very skeptical of Yuzu, but then I saw him skate PW and I was an instafan. Total Yuzuber. And I do still love Dai and his charisma and artistry, but at this rate I'm a lot more invested in Yuzu. Like, he isn't the only reason I'm going to worlds, but I wouldn't go if he wasn't planning to be there.

 

[YuzusHydroblade]

I was looking for this material explaining about Shinto, because Yuzuru's FS "Hope & Legacy" reminded me of the colors used in it. Shinto is said to be a religion, but Japanese may feel rather uncomfortable to call it a religion, as it is so deeply rooted in our life without knowing it. To me, it is the Nature itself that we cannot escape from being the part of it, with both awe and gratitude. Sorry, I'm in the mood to be a poet today

http://shinto.tokyo-jinjacho.or.jp/index_e.html

Colors used in shinto? Could you explain this a bit? (Shinto is really fascinating to me, tbh!)

 

[Li'Kitsu]

I've been reading some of the forum's archives (competition threads mainly) and actually I was expecting much worse - it is amazing to see how much love Yuzuru already got back then (and amazing to see so many of you posters in this fanfest were already fans of him ). But it's funny to see that the debate about PCs (are they overscored ? underscored ?) seems to be the neverending one...

If one of the threads you read where you expected much worse is the 2012-13 Japanese nationals competition thread - I just read through that last weekend a bit, and a lot of the old comments are gone. As in, back then the moderators had to interfere several times because the discussion got so nasty, and erased a lot of them. I'd think it was easily one of the most ridiculous threads GS had in the over 5 years I'm here (probably on the same level as the worst Yuna - Mao discussions), but now it does look pretty chill.

As for non-GS related stuff, I remember for example seeing several Daisuke fans in the arena who wouldn't clap for Yuzu at all (and they were pretty obviously Daisuke fans, waving his banners). I don't remember when that was though - but I had a discussion about that with a GS poster here back then. And then there is the blood donation BS from this years nationals... I'm not saying it's all Dai fans though, a lot of them also like and respect Yuzu (I'm also a big fan of both) And the good news is that Yuzu has so many more fans than people who don't like him, we can call them an unimportant minority