I have 2 questions really:
(1) Why this show in particular, who had invited Ukrainian skaters as ensembles for the last 3 years, invited Russian skaters. Surely they know the optics- and they can't really claim they're not aware of it, since they did deliberately invite and include Ukrainian skaters before. No other Japanese show has flip flopped like this.
(2) Why announce it after the lottery sales has started and the loyal fans have bought the tickets. But this has been an ongoing issue for all Japanese ice shows, which doesn't exclude this show, even though I understand it's on the highest tier of ice shows in Japan.
Of course we don't know for sure Makabe's motivation in inviting such or such skater, but I think that we have very good clues of tangible motivations, without recurring to political conspiracies and speculations out of very thin likelihood. Money is a very powerful argument, and here, how is money? Fantasy on Ice is a rather expensive show, and he can't count on the heavy push of JSF on sponsors which Hyoen seems to have benefited of; he was doing very well as long as Yuzuru Hanyu was skating in Fantasy on Ice, because he could sell out large venues at nominal price (without discount). Last year, a good number of Tour B tickets were already sold when it was known for sure that Yuzuru Hanyu wouldn't be there? And there was the money from Tour A, in which Yuzuru Hanyu participated, and that was sold out.
Fantasy on Ice has always valued Olympic (Gold) Medals very much. Who do we have in 2025 as Olympic Gold Medallists, still skating professionally? There are not many, he invited Guillaume Cizeron, I tend to believe that what he can charge this year with Laurence Fournier-Beaudry is less than half what he could charge with Gabriella Papadakis because they haven't competed together yet, and they may be motivated to have a show of good standing before starting to compete together, for reputation building purposes, even if the paycheck isn't high this year.
Then, as ISU declared that Russian skaters can skate in shows, the obvious come: Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova are Olympic Gold Medallists, Alina Zagitova has long been popular in Japan, and I'm sure that their paycheck Fantasy on Ice can afford. On the paper, all the ingredients are there, and if they're not really fit to skate now, it doesn't matter much, somehow (after all, there are other skaters who will skate well).
As to political matters, I would readily believe that Makabe has asked JSF if it was really all right, and that's all. Why involving TV channels, when at the moment there's none in the package? Really, why?
If you really really want to involve Yuzuru Hanyu, it's maybe because he doesn't bring his fans and Olympic medals this year, that Makabe has called other holders who don't charge a high fee? That theory works, at least.
