2018-2019 State of Japanese Men's Skating

[Interspectator]

New category: Best Uncle performance

It's a close one between Nobunari Oda and Daisuke Takahashi.

SP for Daisuke, LP for Nobu. :agree:

 

[Arriba627]

I agree on Kazuki as the most promising senior. He is so enjoyable and has such personality on the ice. His emotional SP at Worlds last season was very moving. I saw him at Sk Can live where he had problems with his jumps in the FS, but by Nats I could really see the improvement in Riverdance. Hope he does well at 4CC.

 

[Metis]

I'd like to bring the subject back towards some of the other skaters that make up the Men's division.
So, some questions, after watching the first half of the 2018
19 season, how does it look for the guys?

Who is the most impressive Novice for you?

For me, it's Shun Sato No contest

Who is the most promising Junior?

Yuma Kagiyama. When I saw his skate at Nationals, I saw potential to be a great all-round skater.

Who is the most promising Senior (newcomer)?

Kazuki Tomono (first in a field of one )

Please share your own top skaters in each category, or make a new category of your own!

I agree with most of these picks — I just have a soft spot for Shimada. His LP has been a delight this season.

Kazuki is definitely the most promising talent in the men’s field, but those quad Sals have never gone especially well for him. During nationals, I was hoping he’d just take the first 4S combo and replace the second 4S with literally any other jump, which might have kept him ahead of Keiji. Can we send him to a master technician for a few weeks to help stabilize that 4S?

 

[Dreamer57]

I second Kazuki to do really well at 4CC.

For most promising junior I would have said Yuma Kagiyama, he is junior right? Is it just age used to distinguish between categories?
He gave such spirited performances and ended up skating in the last group Without quads and still only 15!

Best uncle performance: I say Nobu just for giving us YMCA! :luv17:
I think of Daisuke as a wise elder brother

 

[zanadude]

I'd like to bring the subject back towards some of the other skaters that make up the Men's division.
So, some questions, after watching the first half of the 2018
19 season, how does it look for the guys?

Who is the most impressive Novice for you?

For me, it's Shun Sato

He's not a novice.

 

[Interspectator]

He's not a novice.

Oh, I didn't know he was a Junior this year.

In which case, most promising Junior for me would be
Shun Sato...with Yuma Kagiyama close behind. This is a debatable choice as they both have some strong points and weak points. It's hard to tell how Juniors will develop.

I took a look at the Novice Category, and I don't know any of these guys. : Does anyone follow the Novices enough to give their opinion?

 

[xeyra]

Yuma, Shun and Kao Miura are my bets for shaking up junior ranks next season. That is, if the later get JGP assignments, at least.

 

[yume]

I'd like to bring the subject back towards some of the other skaters that make up the Men's division.
So, some questions, after watching the first half of the 2018
19 season, how does it look for the guys?

Who is the most impressive Novice for you?

For me, it's Shun Sato No contest

Who is the most promising Junior?

Yuma Kagiyama. When I saw his skate at Nationals, I saw potential to be a great all-round skater.

Who is the most promising Senior (newcomer)?

Kazuki Tomono (first in a field of one )

Please share your own top skaters in each category, or make a new category of your own!

1) The one who won the novice nats
2) Shun Sato (Kao Miura too)
3) Sota Yamamoto

Who is the best fashionista?
Daisuke Takahashi

 

[Interspectator]

1) The one who won the novice nats
2) Shun Sato (Kao Miura too)
3) Sota Yamamoto

Who is the best fashionista?
Daisuke Takahashi

Best Book Cover-guy: Mura https://www.amazon.co.jp/無良崇人フォトブック-MURA-無良-崇人/dp/4403311296
I saw a lot of buzz around this, his fans LOVED it.

 

[yume]

Best Book Cover-guy: Mura https://www.amazon.co.jp/無良崇人フォトブック-MURA-無良-崇人/dp/4403311296
I saw a lot of buzz around this, his fans LOVED it.

I agree:thumbsup:

 

[rabidline]

I agree with most of these picks — I just have a soft spot for Shimada. His LP has been a delight this season.

Oh, seconding the Shimada soft spot. He has one of my favorite set of programs this year both SP and FS, and I feel the Champery Team has been amazing for him to develop his skating skills and musicality. Jump consistency can be better but he's been such a delight this season, I wonder if there's any news whether he'll turn senior next year.

 

[champs]

Just came across this piece of news regarding the selection of Team members for WC (the men's side): https://twitter.com/midorisan_love/status/1078240468763238401

- As Shoma won the Nationals, he was picked as the 1st candidate of Team Japan.
- Keiji was picked as the 2nd candidate.
- Daisuke was picked as the 3rd candidate, but Daisuke declined the post.
- Hanyu was then picked to make up for the last post via special remedy rule/condition/measure.

Deliberately or not, nowhere in the newspaper article does the author say Daisuke was selected for the 3rd spot. It may be the case that he was selected for the 2nd spot and was consulted, to which he turned down, and then Keiji was selected. In the scenario where Daisuke was selected for the 2nd spot and he accepted it, Shoma, Daisuke, and Yuzuru could (and most likely would) have been the team.

And forget about the tweet itself, written by someone who is a biased Hanyu detractor with pride.

I don’t think so. Hanyu was selected based of previous results and World Ranking (their own textbook rules), and was already guaranteed a spot, JSF already announced that weeks ago; they wanted him ready for Worlds.

Source? According to the selection criteria Yuzuru was not guaranteed a spot, and it's hard to imagine JSF would publicly make an announcement prior to the nationals that some skater is already guaranteed a spot.

They proposed the 3rd spot to Daisuke, who then declined so it went to Keiji instead.

The newspaper article says Keiji was selected for the 2nd spot and Yuzuru for the 3rd, and let me reiterate, we have NO INFO regarding which spot Daisuke was selected for just based on that article. Do you have a source that proves your statement above and proves the article wrong?

 

[champs]

So probably one of the editors in the sports section of Yomiuri wrote this with false wording

So which part of the particle is wrong?

 

[yude]

So which part of the particle is wrong?

Sorry, maybe I should have said "poor wording". To me, the fact that the article made confusion to some people and gave the food to detractor is already not good, but that is just my opinion.

 

[khtmyzr]

I took a look at the Novice Category, and I don't know any of these guys. : Does anyone follow the Novices enough to give their opinion?

I remember one name from the Asian Challenger this season: Shunsuke Nakamura.
I know nothing else about him though since I couldn’t find any information in English.

 

[riminin]

There seems to be a confusion about the selection of Men And that's because of an intentionally twisted tweet? (btw I sincerely recommend everybody to block this account not to be misguided in the future again). The quoted article is not detailed but in no way allows such interpretation in my opinion.

Here's more detailed article. https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181224-00000584-sanspo-spo

"男子は３連覇を飾った宇野昌磨（２１）＝トヨタ自動車、五輪２連覇の羽生結弦（２４）＝ＡＮＡ＝に加え、今季現役に復帰した高橋大輔（３２）＝関大ＫＦＳＣ＝が選出されたが辞退し、田中刑事（２４）＝倉敷芸術科学大大学院＝が選ばれた。In addition to 3-time national champion Shoma Uno and 2-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, Daisuke Takahashi who made a comeback this season was also selected yet declined, so Keiji Tanaka was selected.

I don’t think so. Hanyu was selected based of previous results and World Ranking (their own textbook rules), and was already guaranteed a spot, JSF already announced that weeks ago; they wanted him ready for Worlds.
They proposed the 3rd spot to Daisuke, who then declined so it went to Keiji instead.

The below article (and several other similar articles) contains the only publicly known pre-selection comments made by any JSF official. That was on the occasion of JSF regular meeting held on Nov. 19.

https://www.daily.co.jp/general/2018/11/20/0011835129.shtml

"橋本会長は「本人が一番いいようにできる環境を整えるだけ」と、できる限りのバックアップを誓った。出場が必須の全日本選手権（１２月２１～２４日、大阪）を欠場した場合の世界選手権代表選考における負傷者救済条項の適用について、伊東フィギュア委員長は「その段階になって、選考基準に沿って判断する」と話すにとどめた。JSF President Seiko Hashimoto assured her support to give Hanyu "an environment where he could do his best". Asked about the possibility of applying the rescue clause re. injury Figure Skating Director Ito only said "It will be decided according to the criteria when the selection actually takes place."

So, no, Hanyu was not guaranteed a spot beforehand. There was no such announcement by JSF.

 

[Atlantis]

There is this one article that kind of hints that they want to see Yuzu at Worlds (if translation is correct). But he wasn't officially guaranteed a spot beforehand.
https://twitter.com/echotpe/status/1064414537363816448

 

[xeyra]

I don't think it really matters if he was guaranteed a spot or not; he got one now. I do appreciate clarification on translations but we're beating a dead horse by this point.

 

[riminin]

It's just for the record

 

[ankifeather]

So which part of the particle is wrong?

I read through it and it is a very simple and clear article. If anything, in the subtitle, Hanyu's name appears first in the line of the three Worlds candidates, and in the content , him making the team was described first before anyone else. In Japan, when your name appears first in line, it means you are more important. The content then went on to explain that Shoma is the first candidate, Keiji is the second candidate, Hanyu is the third candidate. Takahashi declined to participate.
No where did it ever said that Hanyu got in due to Daisuke declining. In other words it is nothing more than an anti-Hanyu tweeter deliberately twisting what the article said in pursuit of trouble.

JSF did not openly guarantee Hanyu a spot before nationals, but they released a statement saying that there is criteria that will allow him to participate in Worlds and for him to focus on that even if he missed nationals due to injury. And they have every right to do so based on his brilliant performance in the first half of the season, just like Russian Fed asked Mishin to prepare Liza for Worlds despite she missed nationals too. Also if it ever came down to both Shoma and Hanyu being injured and can't attend nationals, JSF will change or read the rules in some way to make both go to Worlds because JSF is not stupid. There are pretty much only three gold men contenders left in the world right now, and Japan holds two, something other countries can only envy.

In fact the selection used to be the nationals top 3 go to Worlds , but the criteria of taking into account past records was added in before Sochi, and later used in favour of Takahashi who did not get on the podium at nationals in 2013. So Hanyu is not the first person to rely on the exception and he won't be the last.