Watched only the top five performances because of the time difference and uncertainty of availability of live streams (in this respect, the Russians have chosen a great path for this particular season).
Sato is still very much a junior skater, I realized he was doing Pirates only when the most iconic Jack Sparrow music came on close to mid point of the program. Nothing in the choreo suggested it before that. The swashbuckling in the steps looked clumsy and uncommitted - the moves were glued on and he kind of remembered to do them. No expression to support the executed movement. I think I've seen he has been injured so maybe partly lack of training, but I also managed to see him in the junior worlds in Tallinn and he was not much good in the performance department back then either.
The second season of HipHip ChinChin with Tanaka and he still looks like he is doing lesson 5 for beginners in Latin ballroom.
The whole top 5 had upbeat tempo pieces of music and Shoma had probably the fastest beat. Not even attempting to skate to a beat is one of my pet peeves and truly made it tough to watch Shoma trying to do this. The energy just was not there at all. Also, after all the discussions about cultural appropriation and exploitation, I wonder how this program managed to survive?
Kagiyama was better in handling the rhythm. The choreo actually changed with the changes in the rhythm, he was actullay skating to the rhythm. However, from the waist up he is still a junior skater, not a whole lot going on with his upper body movement. But he might develop into a pretty good skater. Clearly my favorite of these five.
And then Hanyu. He has never been one of my favorites - a bit like Kolyada, he certainly has the elements down, but the things between and esp. his complete lack of controlled and working upper body and arms makes the adoration his performances get somewhat hard to understand. I was curious to see how this new program would look like after the mild hype about different vibes and all, but have to say, it was a rehash of the Prince SP and not a very good one at that. In just about all of his SPs, the start is usually slow (and this worked with Let's Go Crazy) and relatively empty of choreo/performance, but this music cut did not accommodate this trait at all. The rhythm was relentless from the first moment on and yet the choreo allowed Hanyu to skate it as he usually does, slowly and mostly unexpressively. The cliched mime and posturing to accents in the music were mostly embarrassing. The end was a bit better in unison of the movement and music, but not much. Lack of competition could account for some of the mismatch, but with only one other possible competition to come, I am not holding my breath for great development. Also thought that the lack of running edge from his quads was quite noticeable. The 3A was the only really wow jump.
E
Now the Japanese piece tomorrow...
