2022-23 Japanese Men's Figure Skating

[tsuyoboogie]

Taiga Nishino and Daiya Ebihara are both scheduled to compete at Sainichi Cup in just a couple hours from this post (FS only)
Since we get free, easily accessible livestream (and archived video) hope they both perform as well as they did at Lily Cup

Already posted this in Japanese Women's thread but figured I'd to post all the info here as well
The entire Sainichi Cup competition (05.03~05.05) is being livestreamed (non geo-blocked) and archived on youtube (for now)
Sainichi Cup Day 1 (archived)
Sainichi Cup Day 2 (currently live, will edit link if changed when archived)
7:30am (JST) Novice B Boys
9:05am Novice B Girls
1:25pm Novice A Boys
2:55pm Novice A Girls
7:15pm~8:40pm Junior Men (Daiya skates 10th, Taiga 11th out of 12 competitors)
Sainichi Cup Day 3 (upcoming livestream, will edit if link changed when archived)
7:30am (JST) Junior Women (Kanto area)
1:25am Junior Women (Tokyo area)
4:37pm Senior Men
5:40pm Senior Women
Competition schedule
Live scoring for this competition can be found here (temporary until results are posted to page in Local competition>Saitama)

 

[tsuyoboogie]

Sainichi Cup, Junior Men
11. Taiga Nishino
Carmina Burana (New FS)
3A 3F 3Lz 3Lo FCSp CSSp 3Lz3T 3F2A+SEQ 3S2T CCoSp
125.39
THIS PROGRAM!!! THIS PERFORMANCE!!!

Taiga Nishino Sainichi Cup FS

Not sure how long it's going to take for the entire Day 2 stream to be uploaded to youtube
(Jr Men's warm-up Group 1 performances are already viewable)
I'm processing Taiga's FS right now and will try to upload before I leave for work <---edit: done
If his performance becomes available on the archived youtube stream first, I'll try to timestamp and link

 

[yesterday]

Sainichi Cup, Junior Men
11. Taiga Nishino
Carmina Burana (New FS)
3A 3F 3Lz 3Lo FCSp CSSp 3Lz3T 3F2A+SEQ 3S2T CCoSp
125.39
THIS PROGRAM!!! THIS PERFORMANCE!!!

Taiga Nishino Sainichi Cup FS

Not sure how long it's going to take for the entire Day 2 stream to be uploaded to youtube
(Jr Men's warm-up Group 1 performances are already viewable)
I'm processing Taiga's FS right now and will try to upload before I leave for work <---edit: done
If his performance becomes available on the archived youtube stream first, I'll try to timestamp and link

Oh, he's as cute as the mascot
The music's maybe a bit earnest in total, but he did well.

Will we have a thread for all cups/comps during what other countries call off-season again?

 

[yesterday]

Lots of US choreos next season for JPN skaters
Yuma following Shoma

 

[yesterday]

Oh, and Kao is with him

 

[yuumagical]

Lots of US choreos next season for JPN skaters
Yuma following Shoma

Ooh, he's probably brushing up on the "Believer" choreo he got last season from Shae-Lynn Bourne. Unless he suddenly feels like getting something new...

 

[yesterday]

Ooh, he's probably brushing up on the "Believer" choreo he got last season from Shae-Lynn Bourne. Unless he suddenly feels like getting something new...

Absolutely possible, there's just going to be quite a "US-influenced" season coming up when he keeps his and others get new programs. Interesting.

 

[yuumagical]

Oh, and Kao is with him

Yay! I know Yuma went to see an Angels game last year, glad to see he brought Kao with him (especially since Kao's a baseball fan)! I wonder if Kao is there to get choreo too... Irvine is about 85 miles away from me, these boys are so close yet so far away...*sigh*

 

[yesterday]

and now we know Kao was not only there for the Baseball

2023-24 Programs by Discipline

Nah, not a big fan of pop punk. Let's have real grunge instead... :rock::angry: let's have real rock! and metal!:rock: ice dance theme is 80s, i want Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Hanoi Rock, Guns & Roses and some Alice Cooper too (hhheee heeee hey! hey Stupid! 🎶) What do I have to do to get a nice...

www.goldenskate.com

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda has switched to pairs:

Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda is pairing up with Sae Shimizu for Pairs Skating under Kinoshita Academy!

 

[yesterday]

Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda has switched to pairs:

And he wants to still do singles I guess?

 

[Jumping_Bean]

And he wants to still do singles I guess?

He says he does, but I would not be surprised if he dropped singles completely if pairs is going well. It's incredibly difficult to do two disciplines at the same time, and his chances are much better in pairs than in singles if I had to make a guess based on the current situation.

 

[yesterday]

He says he does, but I would not be surprised if he dropped singles completely if pairs is going well. It's incredibly difficult to do two disciplines at the same time, and his chances are much better in pairs than in singles if I had to make a guess based on the current situation.

We've just seen this quite often the past season and in Japan as well. Who knows Maybe after a while it will be clearer.

 

[elektra blue]

i thinks pairs is a good fit for Lucas, maybe Sena should give it a shot too

 

[Jumping_Bean]

We've just seen this quite often the past season and in Japan as well. Who knows Maybe after a while it will be clearer.

We've seen five (?) skaters do both last season - Lia Pereira, Haruna Murakami, Sumitada Moriguchi, Cayla Smith and Sonia Baram.
A decent percentage of Lia's single skating last season was before she even teamed up with Trennt, and for Cayla, it was the other way around - Most of her single's skating came after her split from Andy. Haruna, Sumitada and Sonia were faced with the knowledge that they most likely wouldn't be able to continue competing with their partners in the coming season, so it is understandable to keep all options open in their cases.

The thing is, Lucas was far from a consistent skater even with full-time singles training, and cutting that time in half for pairs skating is unlikely to solve that issue, so if the payoff is big enough in pairs, it would be smarter to let singles be bygones.

 

[yesterday]

We've seen five (?) skaters do both last season - Lia Pereira, Haruna Murakami, Sumitada Moriguchi, Cayla Smith and Sonia Baram.
A decent percentage of Lia's single skating last season was before she even teamed up with Trennt, and for Cayla, it was the other way around - Most of her single's skating came after her split from Andy. Haruna, Sumitada and Sonia were faced with the knowledge that they most likely wouldn't be able to continue competing with their partners in the coming season, so it is understandable to keep all options open in their cases.

The thing is, Lucas was far from a consistent skater even with full-time singles training, and cutting that time in half for pairs skating is unlikely to solve that issue, so if the payoff is big enough in pairs, it would be smarter to let singles be bygones.

There's been more, but nvm.
I just think he might be determined to keep singles for now to have a "smoother transition" and not because he doesn't see the chances or where he's at with singles. And there's so many domestic opportunities in Japan.

 

[Jeanie19]

i thinks pairs is a good fit for Lucas, maybe Sena should give it a shot too

Sena would be great.

 

[surimi]

So, JSF has published their calendar: https://www.skatingjapan.or.jp/figure/event/?year=2023&month=09
I was SO hoping to go to Nepela to see some JPN skaters like before covid - no such luck. Nepela has ceased to exist for JSF, which is a huge shame as the hall is comfortable (looking at you, Lombardia), the location is easily accessible (looking at you, Nebelhorn), and JPN men's field is deep enough to really need as many Challengers as possible, much more so than any other country currently. 10 men, all of them very talented, and only 4 Challengers, so someone is sure to be kept at home. I guess it's way more important for JSF to make their unseeded best participate at regionals and sectionals, to boost TV viewership. WS points and SB for their top 10 are not important, not at all... Funny, JSF would go to all CS back when their field was more shallow, like in 2017. Sigh. I'll never understand JSF.

Now, what IS in their calendar, is Italy, Germany, Autumn Classic and Finlandia. Then Poland, but that's November so little chance to see skaters who have two GP there. There's also Asian Open, but it's not CS, so no SB, and less points for medals.
However, CS in JSF's calendar doesn't yet mean all who are deserving will actually be chosen to go there. So far it seems to be the same pattern with JSF as last year, which fills me with dread, knowing how scarce the actual assignments were in 2022.

 

[rabidline]

Nepela is probably not there since both Kinki and Tohoku regionals are on the exact same week (and JGP Poland). So that leaves Tokyo and Chubu skaters (whose regionals are a week before), Kanto and Chugoku-Shikoku + Kyushu skaters (regionals are a week after) and the National seeds (Shoma, Koshiro, Kazuki).

The only senior Chubu male skater I can see getting a challenger purely based on their result at Nationals last season is Sota (5th) so hopefully he does get a Challenger that is not Nepela. The Chubu women.... Mana was 9th, Rika was 11th, Rino was 13th and Mako was 16th at Nationals... I don't see JSF assigning extra Challengers for Rino or Mako tbh. Rika will probably get Autumn Classic since she's trains in Canada.

For the Tokyo skaters, I wonder what this will mean for the Kao - Shun - Yuma trio mostly (Rinka is 12th and Rion is 14th at Nats so I have similar feelings about them as with the Chubu women). Japan Open is on the same week as Finlandia Trophy (and Kanto and Chugoku-Shikoku + Kyushu regionals), so whoever represents Team Japan there won't get Finlandia. But the money is good there...

JSF having Golden Spin in their calendar is interesting They really don't send their skaters there because of its proximity to GPF and Nationals except for their pairs... last time a singles skater was assigned was in 2013 (Miki Ando). But they do have 2 new pair teams so this can be for them.

Let's just hope the money from Worlds and WTT tickets can get JSF to assign more than 1 skater per each Challenger last year I think they were tight financially since they had to cancel GPF 2021 so late, which was a big loss for them. Based on the amount of skaters in the special funding group this season... I want to hope.

 

[rabidline]

JSF released their venue selection for major national and international competitions hosted in Japan next season: