- Joined
- Dec 28, 2013
- Country
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NHK VIEWING PARTY REACTIONS:
I joined my family's annual (ish) NHK viewing party and had a great time with fans of all levels of interest in figure skating.
Some at the party only watched because it was a party with sushi, cake, chips and booze and we hadn’t gotten together in a while.
Some watched NHK and Nationals and the Olympics sometimes
Some were RAVING FANS (yours truly)
We watched the Ladies’ and Mens free together in a casual way. people coming and going and snacking.
Towards the second group of Ladies people began to sit and really watch the competition.
Gasps all around when Eunsoo and Mai hit each other in the warm-up.
Those who had been following the GP Series had their favorites.
The fan break-down is roughly as follows:
Satoko: 3
Rika: 1 (my Mom, very loudly)
Mai: EVERYONE
Elizavita: ME (defending her to all comers)
Eunsoo: No one had seen her before except me
Leonova: Everyone was surprised that she was still around
Eunsoo was first, but this group was the type that tuned out after the fall so there wasn’t much remarking on her performance other than that she was quite tall, and cute.
Since Rika skated early in the group we were not ready for the fire-power of her 3As
My mom: YEEESSSS! Did you see that? Amazing!
Satoko and Mai fans: Oh NOOOOO….Amazing!
After that we were speechless.
When the scores came out Satoko and Mai fans: We’re Doomed!
Alena’s program was well received, and everyone was impressed that she could still put out such strong performances despite being an alternate for the Russian Team. I told them all they’d seen her before many times, and kept saying the same thing each time they saw her.
Mai is the universal favorite. Everyone stopped eating to watch her.
“Look at her, she skates so well, so graceful!” “Give her all the points!” “Oh No! a Pop!”
By the end of her performance we had our eyes glued to the TES willing it to stay high. –But the judges obviously don’t see Mai the same way we do -lots of Booing and drinking when the scores came out.
“I knew it! Judges always do this to Mai” etc, etc.
Liza skated and everyone turned to me.
“This is YOUR favorite. You know, if she does well, Mai’s off the podium. You tweeted your sketch at her and wished her luck, you traitor” etc. (Jokingly)
Me: I love them BOTH OK?
I could not convince my family to get on board Liza Airways, but she was great.
“Too much theatricals,” “Posing, Not Skating” “Hey, look at her JUMPS! THEY ARE HUGE!”
The scores came up and we knew it was all up to Satoko now to take the lead or Rika would win and my mom would GLOAT.
We were pretty sure Satoko would be perfect, but how would her best be scored today?
When Satoko hit her ending pose we did a standing ovation and kept our eye on the score tracker.
Satoko fans:“It’s going to be close, but Satoko can still win”
“Um…the TES is going down”
“It’s going down some more!”
“AAAAAGH OH NOOOOOO”
Mom: OH YEEEES, I told you, I told you all she’d do it! (this whole time, my mom is getting Rika’s name wrong. I think she pronounced it 3 different ways) Why don’t you like her? She’s the Champion!
Satoko and Mai fans: We like her fine…but it takes time to get used to a skater. We like Satoko and Mai!
More Drinking
Between the Ladies and Men’s event, 5 more people joined the party. These are the only watch skating for the booze and food contingent. But among them were two guys that remembered and liked Liza the most. (Where were you when I needed back up?)
It’s too bad that the casual fans had to see the mens event. It was so poorly skated, they were not impressed, but we concentrated on food, drinking, commenting on interesting costumes and seeing if anyone’s TES could match Rikas’.
Kevin Reynolds:
“great hair!” “His features are so anime!” “This isn’t going well, is it?”
Hiroaki Sato:
Guy1: What country does he come from?
Me: OMG he’s from Iwate, he’s practically a neighbor!
Guy2: He looks different from the other skaters.
Me: He looks like what a local farmer would look like if they were a figure skater in their secret life, donning the spandex and sparkles by night and tilling the fields by day…in fact he looks like you (indicating GUY 2)
Guy 2: You know…he does. (Guy 2 is a farmer)
I then showed everyone Hiroaki’s famous Bolero EX after which everyone who hadn’t seen him before became a fan.
Hiroaki wowed his brand new fans with a magnificent 4T and a 3A and then fell 3 times. We all drank some more.
Next guy to come to everyone’s attention was Alexander Johnson.
“He can’t jump, but he skates very well.” “Is this the first mesh of the night? What happened to the mesh everyone was wearing a few seasons back?”
Deniss Vasilijevs was up next
“Best costume so far!” “Is this supposed to be Japanese? Or Chinese?” “ If this was America would they call it appropriation? What does that even mean?” “It’s the Last Samurai so the theme is Japanese”
“If you do it with your whole heart, no one will care about appropriation-nonsense…he’s cute!” “Well, that says it all”
Everyone likes Deniss. The end.
Vincent’s costume was also examined and declared “Probably Chinese”
I warned everyone that Vincent’s Quads very often got under-rotations but everyone was just happy to see a slightly better program.
Everyone knew Sota and that it was his comeback, so we all watched in silence and were happy with his performance.
Mom: He’s like Hanyu…
Everyone else: NO HE’S NOT. He’s SOTA.
Demitri Aliev up next:
“Where’s the mesh?” “I need more Rhinestones.”
My dad rarely watches Figure skating and doesn’t care for sports much…but he’s noticed and commented on just two skaters that aren’t Japanese that I can remember and they are Gracie Gold and Dmitri Aliev.
He saw them both when they were totally bombing their programs and said of them both, “There’s something good about the way they skate. It’s better than others we’ve seen so far. They have got something special.”We know! If only they wouldn't bomb...
Shoma Uno
We were all expecting and really hoping for someone to do a good performance and since Shoma started off quad after quad we got very interested. Looking at his layout (like Yuzu and Nathan) looks like a joke because the difficulty is so high compared to others. Until the very end we were wondering whether he would get the combos in, but he couldn’t this time.
“He looks like he needs a nap”
“His left arm is the most tired”
“He’s going to the Final, exciting”
Voronov was the last skater and everyone was now cheering him on.
“I feel so betrayed. Where is the lace? Where is the mesh Voronov?”
“Well, at least this costume has got ventilation”
At this point we cheered everything. We cheered for all his jumps, his spins and his steps. When he finished we cheered with the crowd.
It was a very fun viewing party.
Last year, we couldn’t really enjoy it because Yuzu was injured and the Olympics dreams seemed to be so far away. This year was much more enjoyable. We also talked about GP Russia next week, the Return of DAI which everyone supports and the prospect of the GPF and who might go.
Please don’t judge these drunken reactions too harshly.
EDIT TO ADD: Matteo costume comments, "I'd totally wear that jacket."
June costume comments: "Is that a rip up the back??"
Interspectator, I so wanted to be at your party!
Was rooting for him. Possible Final? Revenge of the Uncles.
Going to Final! Even with those WDs
Nice showing. Long-term, I think they're in a great position to move up the competitive ladder in ID. Still not a competitive team, but working their way there.
It's such a fun, cool, disco routine, and without the deduction they would've won the FD. Great stuff there.
eace:
. I wouldn't be shocked if she ends up dethroning Bradie this year at nationals. Bradie's content is risky and, as we've seen, isn't 100% reliable yet. If she has issues and Mariah has an easier but clean skate, I wouldn't be shocked to see her come out on top.
