Yuzuru Hanyu: 2016-17 Season

[narcissa]

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that it's Akiko saying this. I can listen to David Lease or Phil Hersch or whomever criticize Yuzuru all day (well, I choose not to give them clicks), I can acknowledge that JSF maybe wants to prop up Shoma, and it doesn't bother me all that much, except to say I disagree with it. But I thought Akiko has been his friend since forever and that really hurts. It makes me feel like Yuzu doesn't really have many real friends in Team Japan, between Akiko, Kozuka, Dai...it makes me extra mad that the media is trying to ruin his relationship with Shoma as well. Now I'm remembering his words saying he feels lonely and it takes on a different meaning.

Whatever the reason, I wouldn't be surprised if jealousy was a part of it. Yes, Yuzu works hard, but all skaters do, yet his results are better than anyone else on Team Japan, and his popularity even moreso. If I dedicated my life to a sport, I would probably be envious of someone with so much more natural charisma and talent like him lol.

 

[Fayruza]

And not feel silly trying to kiss him in the lips on the TV screen, I suppose?
Gosh, nearly four in the morning, what am I doing here?

 

[Interspectator]

I'd like to remind everyone of the posting guidelines, especially as they apply to fanfests, with an emphasis on positive discussion of our favorite skaters.
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?18607

Keep posts constructive
Posts are welcomed and appreciated as long as they are constructive. For example, "So-and-so is a horrible skater!" is not a constructive post. An acceptable post would be "I feel so-and-so could improve their skating if ..." The best way to get your opinion(s) recognized is not to be abusive or offensive, but to be positive and communicate in a mature fashion.

1. Abuse will not be tolerated.

No flaming, harassment, trolling, ranting, profanity, abusive language (or abbreviations), personal attacks, character assassination, or discrimination. This applies to all aspects of the Golden Skate Forums, including "public" threads and private messages, personal profiles, avatars and custom titles. Do not link out from a post or private message to these types of content.
Flaming is defined as attacking others in harsh, negative, and/or personal terms.
Harassment is persistently targeting a poster/skater for ridicule.
Trolling is defined as deliberately posting derogatory and/or inflammatory posts in order to bait other users into responding.
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Profanity is the use of abusive, vulgar, or irreverent language.
Personal attacks include, but are not limited to, "calling out" posters, insulting a poster directly or indirectly, name-calling (i.e. bots and ubers), etc.
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Discrimination is posting comments that support or espouse hatred towards another individual or group based upon any criteria (including race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, ethnicity, etc.).

17. Excessive "bashing" of skaters
Everyone has their favorite and not-so-favorite skaters. Please be constructive with criticism. Persistent, repetitive, unrelenting and pugnacious denunciation of skaters is not welcome.

It would be sad if portions of the thread needed to be taken down. So please try to stick to the rules.

(me with my moderator hat on)

Golden Skate is an international forum for skating enthusiasts from around the globe. Let's keep the atmosphere friendly and welcoming for all.

 

[shiroKJ]

I'd like to remind everyone of the posting guidelines, especially as they apply to fanfests, with an emphasis on positive discussion of our favorite skaters.
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?18607

It would be sad if portions of the thread needed to be taken down. So please try to stick to the rules.

(me with my moderator hat on)

Golden Skate is an international forum for skating enthusiasts from around the globe. Let's keep the atmosphere friendly and welcoming for all.

A week into the off-season and the mod sirens already need to be turned on....the next 12 months will be a workout for you guys :roll9:

 

[narcissa]

Well, it would only be worse if he hadn't shown the 4Lz, so kudos for that. I eagerly await Cricket's next moves. This can't be worse than Yuna vs. Mao, can it? :scard7:

No, I think no matter how much they want to drum up a rivalry, it will always be Yuzuru vs. Himself.

 

[mcq]

I believe Sportiva is not focused singularly on figure skating, so it's perhaps written for your average sports mag reader, in which case, the purpose would be a suggestion of room for improvement (emotion, technique) for your average everyday Japanese person who only hears about Yuzuru as "the absolute champion" who breaks records and seemingly has no vulnerabilities. Maybe

What I find myself wondering is that, it's published after the season's over, he's done with this program, it's not like he's not emotional in other programs (I mean, Akiko herself even choked/teared up commentating at the end of his 2014 NHK ex ) including both his EX and SP this season, so I'm not sure non-emotion is a habit for him that needs to be addressed. But that's sports journalism for you.

Thanks for the translation. Also agreed on the bolded part.

Anyway my personal opinion here, honestly what she said is not much different to what TSL (YES THAT TSL) said about Yuzuru. She (and them) is entitled to their own opinion. They said : ok fine he is great, his jump is amazing, we want to see more performance and emotion in his skating, not feeling it etc etc. Borser (his own coach, who knows more about his skating and what he is capable of than any of his Japanese teammates, skating blogger/commentators or other coaches combined and imo would genuinely care more about his skating than them all) also criticized him similarly about needing to engage in the performance aspect more at the beginning of the season. TSL got flacked here; Borser got flacked here, quite heavily. I don't see why people expect similar comments will not generate the same exact reaction just because it is Akiko who is saying it. Sorry but just because it's her that doesn't mean I would suddenly agree to things she said. Funny because some said things like "she cares about Yuzuru and is genuine etc etc" like Borser is any less genuine (look, she maybe is indeed genuine and I am not attacking her, I am just saying about how quickly some people (not all) change their opinion and agreeing just because it is her who said it and not the Canadian Borser who wants to sabotage Yuzu /sarcasm alert/; I find it quite amusing )

I personally find his "lack of emotion" comment so Pre-2014 that I would rarely agree with it.

 

[maxcellwire]

I'll now live vicariously through little kids like her who can get hugs, kisses and cuddles from Yuzu and who can do such adorable things like this without looking like a creep.

hahaha I know how you feel, sometimes it's nice being a similar age to him but as adults we're just one crazy fan among many, whereas the children get special treatment, the lucky things :')

 

[YuzusHydroblade]

I can try translating all of the crazy things that have popped up on Japanese media lately, but that would probably be "​character assassination" and "harassing" our beloved space kitten. Not suitable at all for positive discussion of our favorite skaters at all. I mean, I'm glad fans have a very optimistic outlook on this article, but is it the time to accept that many many others do not and move on? If it's pointless to convince each other, maybe we should stick to invisible convos and other cheerful things from now on

(You called? Too bad I'm on my phone haha I would link some new pics I got )

 

[begin]

And you're justifying it because you believe such things are right? Well then, I have nothing to say.

It's a ubiquitous pillar of every sports industry and we give such things more credibility by taking it too seriously. Think Skip Bayless and Lebron James.

edit: counteracting negativity with the OG rivalry<3

 

[HoneyGoldLev]

I watched those vids 100 times! He is so sweet and his reaction so genuine and innocent!!! To die for!

Yesterday at my office, I kept on taking a 5 minute break every one hour to replay that video over and over again.
Do you have any other video to recommend for off-season boredom killing?

 

[eta]

It's a ubiquitous pillar of every sports industry and we give such things more credibility by taking it too seriously. Think Skip Bayless and Lebron James.

edit: counteracting negativity with the OG rivalry<3

But I don't watch every sport. Nothing else besides figure skating, in fact. No idea who the people you mentioned are. And I won't stoop so low as to approve of telling lies for the sake of rivalry, either.

 

[Hanmgse]

Change of topic: I have a short fanfic to recommend, I've been chuckling for the last 15 minutes:

A Tale of Two Quads






Leave a nice comment to the author!

This is too good!!

"3Lz's always been the intellectual out of their group, but has been particularly bookwormish as of late. He's been reading a lot of philosophy, real heavy stuff by Kierkegaard and Sartre and Nietzsche. And that's on top of his new obsession with watching looping video clips of Boyang Jin and Nathan Chen's programs from last season with deadly attentiveness. 4S doesn't know what's on the triple's mind but he knows it can't be anything good."

 

[beki]

You know, even though I go along with the crowd and allow myself to get stressed out, I'm incredibly optimistic about Yuzuru at Pyeongchang.

Most skaters have one defining performance, if they're lucky. For example, Taka's 2011 Worlds LP, Akiko when she won Nationals, and Tatsuki at 2014 Worlds. I love these performances and rewatch them often. They skated well many other times, but you could clearly say, "that was the skate of his life, and "that was the skate of her life."

With Yuzu it's not like that. How do you pick between 2012 WC LP, 2014 Sochi SP, 2014 WC LP, 2015 NHK, 2015 GPF, and 2017 WC LP? And those are just the first that come to mind.

After the short program in Helsinki, I was on the tram with some nice Scottish ladies. One of them was worried he wouldn't even podium! That was inconceivable to me. All I said was, "if he comes back to win this, it will be something wonderful to see." I knew he had it in him because he had done it before. Multiple times! The reason I went to Worlds is because I thought to myself, "What if it's like Barcelona again, and I'm not there? What if I'm not there when he makes history?" And then he did, and I was.

After everything he's been through, there's no reason he can't do it again. There's no reason he will be defeated by Pyeongchang.

 

[Interspectator]

Yuzu has the most talented fans
https://twitter.com/mugitomo47/status/857255560416157696

This is adorable!

 

[Interspectator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezSvHElmFE Sportymags has posted this little clip of Yuzu leaving the small medals ceremony. Did he do a quick spiderman pose? Or is that something else?

 

[Winnie_20]

I have no idea what Akiko said or did, and I couldn't care less. The only opinions I really value re: Hanyu is my friend's and my own. I am not in fandom to let other people decide how I should feel. Did that with Stargate SG-1 so many years ago and I prefer being upbeat. Makes me look younger. ;-)

Also, I adore Shoma and am perfectly happy to see him as *gasp* Hanyu's successor. As a figure skating fan, I like to think I have something to look forward to. Though I'd kind of like to see him wait to get that OGM until 2022 just cuz.

Excuse me while I'm off to celebrate our king's fiftieth birthday (read: orange everything) and walk with my head in the clouds some more about the possibility of getting hot Japanese men and women to Rotterdam in 2020.

 

[Danibellerika]

I have no idea what Akiko said or did, and I couldn't care less. The only opinions I really value re: Hanyu is my friend's and my own. I am not in fandom to let other people decide how I should feel. Did that with Stargate SG-1 so many years ago and I prefer being upbeat. Makes me look younger. ;-)

Also, I adore Shoma and am perfectly happy to see him as *gasp* Hanyu's successor. As a figure skating fan, I like to think I have something to look forward to. Though I'd kind of like to see him wait to get that OGM until 2022 just cuz.

Excuse me while I'm off to celebrate our king's fiftieth birthday (read: orange everything) and walk with my head in the clouds some more about the possibility of getting hot Japanese men and women to Rotterdam in 2020.

...Go Montreal Though closer isn't always better. Even without Yuzu's win, Helsinki was a much better experience than Boston Boston sucked.

 

[Meoima]

It's a ubiquitous pillar of every sports industry and we give such things more credibility by taking it too seriously. Think Skip Bayless and Lebron James.

I have to tell you that, the amount of negativity from Japanese media downplaying Yuzuru is very unusual and constructed. My friend even found the biggest PR agency behind them. He told me before late summer started. I always tried to brush it off because I don't want to make it big. He even have collections of articles downplaying Yuzuru to push other skater. Guess what? I never share them here. I don't want to quote every article here. I am just fed up with some fans trying to deny the fact that this is happening to Yuzuru.

There is a huge PR agency with notorious fame doing dirty PR game against Yuzuru and it keeps going through years. They have brought some keywords on search engine, faked Tivi ratings, used misleading titles, cut and pasted wrong information and passed fake news as truth...

It's true and it has been happening for a while. I don't want to waste my time on them, but they're happening it's a joke to deny.

That's it. I am fed up with people trying to pain this whole thing pink and blue. It's not. It's dirty and disgusting and I have to accept it and move on, not hiding it like nothing has happened.

Re Akiko's article: I read it in both English and Japanese. Akiko Suzuki is entitled to her opinions however it's still a very weakly written article and there is not much logic and coherence in it. I don't take this kind of badly writing seriously and I don't care about her.

 

[narcissa]

Is anyone going to the Olympics?

I don't think I can do it alone...

 

[b138oo]

The thing is I think Yuzuru is aware about what is happening. That's why I think when the flight attendants told him to celebrate his win with other passengers, he declined and said (this is not direct quotation) not everyone was happy with his win. He also mentioned how he had both fans and haters. On top of it all, he knew H&L was not as appreciated as Seimei.

However, in the positive side, his awareness will help him next season. I think this is why he contemplates on adding new quads, because he knows when he goes clean, he could shut other people up and be like well this is me, i am this good. I think he knows how some people like to expose his mistakes out of proportion.

I believe in Yuzuru. If he decides 4Lz is not ready then it's not ready. He's a guy who added 4T3T mid season just bc he kept missing his triple-triple combination. So, I think he will be fine. The sports can be dirty but Yuzu could make it seem a lot cleaner especially with a performance like H&L at Worlds. ^_^