Keiji Tanaka

[surimi]

Last Part:

--How has it been for you to be choreographed remotely?
Keiji: Massimo was at home and I was on the ice most of the time. First of all, it was difficult to coordinate our scheduling. There were times when I couldn't see the movement of Massimo's feet clearly on the screen, and it was difficult in many ways. I realized that remote choreography is very difficult. I think it takes a lot of work for a choreographer to follow through it. I felt that it would be much easier to do it together on the ice.
--What exactly was the procedure?
Keiji: First, Massimo sent me a video of the general dance on the ice, I learned it, skated as choreographed, sent the video to Massimo, and then he instructed me in detail remotely. I asked Utako Nagamitsu sensei to interpret for me and take videos for me, but in that sense, it was also a lot of work.
--How would you like to present this program in the future?
Keiji: Well, since this is a jazz program, I would like to show that I can fit in with the session, in other words, that I can be a part of the band, a part of the music. I would like to think of myself as a part of the larger framework of the music. Also, there is a dance instructor at the National Training Center (NTC) who has been giving me advice on how to move my body and how to showcase my moves, so I hope I can reflect that in my performance.
--Isn't it difficult to balance the sense of relaxation that jazz music has with jumping?
Keiji: Yes, it is. If I concentrate on jumping, it may be difficult to express a sense of looseness in a good way, but I think it would be interesting if I could show that kind of looseness, and express jazziness, so I think I have to skate to reach that level.
--I understand that last season's regional competition was tough for you due to injury, but do you think you will be ready for this season?
Keiji: I can't say that I'm fully healed, but I hope I can prepare as much as possible and give it my all. It may not be perfect, but my goal for the first competition is to show everything I've practiced.
--As for the Grand Prix series, you have the Russian Cup and Skate Canada. How do you feel about your first overseas competition in a while?
Keiji: This will be my first overseas competition since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, so I will have to compete under a different stress than usual. I think it is important for me to be careful about infection prevention and to keep myself in good condition. All I have to do now is to show what I have done in preparation.
--So, what are your goals for this season?
Keiji: First of all, I want to make sure that my short and free programs are exactly how I envisioned them to be in every competition. It doesn't matter if it's the Olympic season or not, I'm going to compete to see how far I can improve my own performance.
--Not just because it's the Olympic season?
Keiji: That's right. It's not special because it's the Olympic season, but every season is special for me, and that feeling won't change.

- the end -

I somehow missed the last part of your translation. Thanks! Keiji deserves big amdiration from me for still going on, and not even mentioning the word retirement. He's so longeval as a competitive skater!
He may get some inspiration on how to express looseness in Yan's videos - that's a thing he does really well.
I wonder if Keiji wants to become a coach? It looks like a good part of the Japanese skaters struggle with English, but not the coaches, so maybe taking English classes to be able to interpret is essential for coaches? Just randomly wondering.

Are any Keiji fans here going to Skate Canada this year? I would really like to have someone display or wave a banner there that I made for Keiji for the canceled 2020 World Championships. It's made out of blue fabric and has the words "探偵王子　田中刑事" (Detective Prince Keiji Tanaka) written on it in bright yellow kanji. I will edit this post with the dimensions of the banner and a picture of it once I get home. I am already going to Skate America and don't think I could handle going to another event at this time. Thanks!

Edit: Problem solved by reaching out to skating Twitter, one of those rare times I can thank it for something!

I'm glad you've found someone someone to cheer for Keiji with your banner! What a nice idea for a sign. I'll keep an eye out for that banner in the coverages I hope you get another chance to brandish your banner for him in the future.

 

[rRainbow]

田中刑事、SP6位「まだまだ完成には遠い」　スケートカナダ（毎日新聞） - Yahoo!ニュース

　フィギュアスケートのグランプリ（GP）シリーズ第2戦、スケートカナダが29日（日本時間30日）、バンクーバーで開幕し、男子ショートプログラム（SP）で田中刑事（国際学園）は78・83点の6位だった

news.yahoo.co.jp

In the men's short program, Keiji Tanaka (Kokusai Gakuen) was in 6th place with 78.83 points.

Keiji Tanaka commented,
“(It was my first time to perform my new program) and the things I usually fail at and the things I was worried about came out in the open. I wasn't worried that it was my first time, but the mistakes I've made in practice came out as they were. I wanted to jump more solidly and to make it to the end feeling good, but I made a lot of mistakes in the end. I realized I was still a long way from perfecting this.”

 

[rRainbow]

田中刑事フリー最下位で10位「食いついていく　それ以前の問題でした」 - フィギュア : 日刊スポーツ

ショートプログラム（SP）6位の田中刑事（26＝国際学園）が、厳しく自己評価した。フリー最下位の143・37点にとどまり、合計222・20点で10位。4回転サ… - 日刊スポーツ新聞社のニュースサイト、ニッカンスポーツ・コム（nikkansports.com）

www.nikkansports.com

In the free skate, he scored only 143.37 points, the lowest in the competition, and placed 10th with a total of 222.20 points. The first 4S was popped into a double, and the second one was a fall, so there was no success in the quadruple salchow. "Just like yesterday (SP), my bad things came out as they were. (In the last group) I wanted to keep up with the other competitors more with a performance of my own. But my skate was not good enough. It was a problem to work on before I could compete with them.

After making his first Olympic appearance in 2018 in PyeongChang, he is in the 2022 Beijing Olympic season. The sixth round of the GP in Russia (Nov. 26-28, Sochi), and the big event, the Japan National Championships (Dec. 22-26, Saitama Super Arena) are ahead. "I have to get rid of my anxiety during practice. The way I push myself, I have to try to eliminate the things that made me nervous," he stressed to himself.

 

[KiraraChin]

Thank you, rRainbow for you translations! I thought Keiji delivered two good performances at Skate Canada. Did the jumps work? No, but they often don't work for Keiji at the GP stage, and then he delivers at Nationals So I'm not too worried about Keiji right now.

 

[rRainbow]

Keiji's SC videos commented by Ted/Kevin/Elladj (CBC Sports):
SP: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm39553286
FS: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm39562277

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Happy birthday Keiji!

 

[gsk8]

 

[KiraraChin]

Happy birthday to Keiji! Wish him the best of luck to him at the Rostelecom Cup this week.
Here's a cute illustration:

https://twitter.com/colorful1505/status/1462654600977129474

 

[surimi]

Happy Birthday, Keiji! Fancy that, he's 27 already, and still #4 on Team Japan!
Good luck this week, and at Nationals!

 

[rRainbow]

At Rostelecom Cup Keiji is 10th after the SP.

田中刑事はSP76・69点「もっとできることもあったのかな」　ロシア杯（スポニチアネックス） - Yahoo!ニュース

　◇フィギュアスケートGPシリーズ第6戦ロシア杯第1日（2021年11月26日　ソチ） 　男子ショートプログラム（SP）が行われ、田中刑事（国際学園）は76・69点をマークした。 　アニメ「シン

news.yahoo.co.jp

Translation:

The men's short program (SP) was held, and Keiji Tanaka scored 76.69 points.

He skated to the music of the anime "Shin Evangelion: The Movie." He stepped out on the opening quadruple-salchow, but landed the triple axel. In the second half, however, he made another mistake in the flip - toe loop combination.

In an online interview after his performance, he said, "Mistakes are mistakes. There were things I could have done better." This is his second GP series this season, and he placed 10th in the second round in Skate Canada.

 

[rRainbow]

Yahoo news on Keiji's FS at Russian Cup

Keiji Tanaka "still incomplete," unable to gain higher score, Figure GP Russia Cup.

In the final day of the 6th round of the Grand Prix (GP) Figure Skating series, the Russian Cup, the men's free skate was held in Sochi on 27th, and Keiji Tanaka, the 10th in the short program (SP) and the national team member of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, scored 153.06 points, 229.75 points in total.

The opening quad salchow-triple toe loop combination jump turned into a triple salchow, and he could not achieve the score he wanted. Tanaka's comment is as follows.

"I had a bad start in SP, but it's over now and I can't undo it, so I tried to do what I couldn't do. (turning 27 in November) I think I'm a veteran skater, but I still want to skate to various songs. I want to express myself in various ways. My performances are still imperfect, but I want to accomplish the task with a solid vision of what I want to do with my skating.

(In the GP series) I performed without fully getting into top form. I'd like to work on the mistakes I made when I get back home. I still have a lot of work to do. I want to practice so much that I feel I've done it all, and then go to the National Championships."

 

[KiraraChin]

Thank you, rRainbow! I thought Keiji was sooooo underscored in PCS at Rostelecom. Sure, he wasn't perfect jump wise, but he was so polished and entertaining, much more than many others in the field.

However, I'm not worried too much because this is Keiji. He will come back strong at Nationals, as he always does

 

[surimi]

I have only seen the men's SP so far. Not a very good performance for Keiji, but not a disaster either. i like how his Evangelion is out of the box.
I am curious what the difference between Russia and Nationals will be. He is always energized at Nats, and the domestic crowd plus judges love him, so he can still place very high.

 

[rRainbow]

Yahoo article on Keiji (Dec. 22): 1 of 2

It's been 4 years since he got the Olympic ticket. Tanaka's position and way of thinking have changed, but what is his goal as a skater?

"I want to break down the wall", he said at the end of PyeongChang Olympic season.
The 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. On that stage he skated.

But he couldn't give the performance he wanted, and placed 18th. After that, he competed in the World Championships, but finished in 13th place, and the Olympic season came to an end.

"I had peaked nicely for the All-Japan (the final qualifying round for the national team), and won the ticket to the Olympics, so I had practiced to perform better than All-Japan, but it was really difficult to show it. Since the beginning of this year, I've competed in the Four Continents, the Olympics, and the World Championships, and I wanted to be in a more competitive position.”

After the competition, Tanaka talked about his mixed feelings, but his passion for skating never disappeared.

"It's been a year where I've faced so many obstacles, so if I'm going to continue skating, I'll have to break them all. I'm going to skate with a different attitude.

In the past four years (until the Beijing Olympics), I'm sure the jumps have become more difficult, and so on, but I'll try to keep my originality, to show my own skating.”

"I am what I am." "I want to see the limits of my growth."

As he searched for his way as a skater, he had a year of suffering in the 2018-19 season. It was during the summer training camp in 2019 that Tanaka's words changed. I asked him several questions to find out what path he wanted to take as a skater this season.

--You are a veteran skater, how do you see your position among Japanese men?

“Hmmm. I don't really care about my position anymore. Of course, there is pressure from below, and I want to catch up with the top... I'm in a position I don't really understand, but I don't care what people say about me. I need to show that 'I am who I am.' I'm getting to be a veteran in terms of age, but I don't think I'm there yet in terms of technique.

I'm thinking that if my skills start to deteriorate, I'll quit, so I don't want to feel that way. I want to be able to keep growing, and I want to keep growing as long as I'm doing this. That's all I want to keep in mind. Of course there are times when people around me compare me to others, but I try to ignore all of that.”

--You've always said "I am who I am", but have you become more determined?

“I've been watching the skaters who have come up from the juniors and are competing in the seniors this year, and they are all getting better and have a lot of momentum. There are times when I wonder what I should do when I see them, but I have to ignore it for a while. I think it's an individual sport where you have to stick to ‘I am who I am.’

‘So why do I keep doing it?’ When I think about it, it's to keep growing. Like, ‘I want to see the limits of my growth.’ I want to see it, and I want to give it a try. I want to see how far I can go. I feel like I'm doing this because I'm still looking forward to it.”

As an Olympian, of course he wants to get results. But Figure Skating is also a "show off" sport. Individuality is an essential part of it.

When I heard him say that he wanted to grow, and that he didn't want to pretend to be something he wasn't, it was a time when I felt that "Keiji Tanaka should be Keiji Tanaka," and I hope he will keep going forward.

 

[surimi]

Thank you for sharing! ... rats, I forgot Keiji in my dazed Christmas Eve mind. Of course, good luck to Veteran Keiji! I am sure Yuzuru is overjoyed to meet him again. Along with Yuzuru, Keiji is definitely the most show-off-y skater on Team Japan. Hopefully he can skate his programs to their potential then! Good luck!

 

[rRainbow]

Yahoo article (2 of 2):

Focusing only on his skating, he is going forward.

Now that All-Japan is around the corner, I asked him about the changes in the past four years.

"Looking at others, young skaters are getting stronger and stronger, and I have an impression that Japanese men's skating is getting stronger and stronger, even on the international level. I really felt that the level of the competition had risen two or three levels from four years ago, and I felt that I had to compete in that environment, and at the same time, I wondered what I could do.

That's when I started to work on the programs I wanted to skate, the music I wanted to skate to, and so on. It's not like I've changed my mind about what kind of skater I'm going to be, but I think it's become clearer."

In pursuit of his own skating, he chose "Paris" from "Shin Evangelion the Movie" for his short skate this season. Having been a fan of the anime for a long time, he finally got his wish, and made it into his program.

“I don't really want to tell the story of Evangelion. As a fan myself, I know that it's not a work that can be presented in two and a half minutes, and I know that it's not that simple. I've chosen this song because I want to show it as a song that I genuinely like, even though it may have an Evangelion feel to it.

I don't care what anyone says, I feel strongly that this is what I wanted to skate, so I'm simply skating as I please."

For the free skate, choreographer Massimo Scali chose jazz music from the movie "Session."

“He chose songs that I would not have chosen in the past. There's a good reason for that, because if I don't choose something new myself, it means that I don't like it from the beginning.”

In the short program, he went all out with what he liked, and in the free program, he showed his desire to meet himself as he had never seen before.

I wonder how these two programs will be engraved in Tanaka's skating history in the future.

“I don't have as many types of quadruple jumps as young skaters nowadays, and I'm not as good as them in jumps, and there are many things I find amazing in them, but if I compete with them, there are many things I'll end up destroying. I feel like I would be sacrificing my time, energy, and body if I tried to be like them.

Of course I want to pursue that, but more than that, I want to master what I can do. I think there are a lot of chances to express myself in a song, with jumps, spins, steps, and so on. I want to bring out my individuality in a more integrated way. I don't even think that what I'm doing now is the right answer, but I'd still like to increase the colors that I can bring out.”

Tanaka turned 27 years old on November 22.

His right knee, injured last season, is still not in perfect condition. Even so, he is going to master his own skating, and go to the All-Japan rink again.

--What is your goal for All-Japan?

“I think it's all about going to the venue with the feeling that I've practiced enough, and then I'm going to give a performance that I hope I've done everything I possibly could.”

--How do you think you can give a performance that you are satisfied with?

"I don't know (laughs). The biggest thing is that I have no choice but to go out there and skate, and I stand here every year thinking that I have no choice but to do it. Rather, I feel like I'm starving. I wonder what a truly satisfying performance would be like. That's why I'm practicing so hard. I'm practicing hard to make it happen, and I do the run-through even when I'm exhausted. It's like I'm skating for that one performance. I think I'm hungry for that."

He has been practicing hard and diligently, and I wonder what kind of color he will show in his 13th All-Japan, and what will he get when he finishes his performance? I hope many people will witness the challenge of this veteran skater.

 

[rRainbow]

Yahoo article on Keiji after SP: He is 10th after SP.

The men's short program (SP) was held, and Keiji Tanaka (Kokusai Gakuen), a member of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics team, scored 8.4.10 points. It was a performance right after Yuzuru Hanyu, who is the same age as him, scored 111.31 points. He said, "I've seen the tension and atmosphere of the skaters who skate after Yuzu. I had prepared for it (from the drawing of lots for the skating order at the opening ceremony on the 22nd), but I was still really nervous. It was beyond my imagination," he said, reflecting on his feelings.

He skated to the anime music "Shin-Evangelion the Movie." Dressed in black with purple lines inspired by Evangelion Unit-01 (giant artificial human), he landed a quadruple salchow at the beginning. Then he landed a triple flip-triple toe loop combination. In the second half, he did a double Axel (two and a half jumps) instead of the planned triple Axel, and after the performance, he put his hands on his knees in regret. "I was surprised that I managed to skate in such a tense feeling of heaviness, with each step being heavy. I've been competing in All Japan for 13 years, but this is nothing compared to what I've experienced in the past," he said pursing his lips

This competition also serves as a selection for the 2010 Beijing Olympics, for which there are three spots. He will be competing in the free skate on the 26th to qualify for his second consecutive Olympics. "I'm relieved from the tension of the short program, but I'm still nervous about the free program. In the free skate, I'll be skating in a completely different world from the short skate, so I hope I'll be able to skate in a different way, as myself,” he vowed to get back on track.

 

[rRainbow]

After FS Keiji finished 11th with 232.42 overall. Interview with Keiji:

The men's free skate was held, and the PyeongChang Olympic team member, Keiji Tanaka, scored 148.32 points, 232.42 total with SP.

He struggled with his jumps from the beginning. At the beginning, he was planning to do a combination from a quadruple salchow, but it turned into a solo triple salchow. The next solo quad was turned into a double.

The third jump pass, a triple axel combination, also resulted in a solo jump as he landed with his hand on the ice. In the following jumps, he changed his next solo jump to a combination to recover, and he performed well to the end. After the performance, he was on his knees with both hands on the rink, showing that he had given his all.

After the performance, "I ended up with nothing but regrets. I'm so disappointed," he said. "I'll look back on it later, but for now, all I can think about is that it's over," he added frankly.

"My All-Japan is over now. I can't decide my goal right now. I would like to look for a goal," he said. He looked back on the four years since the PyeongChang Olympics, "I was able to challenge many things, and I had a lot of time to see many different sides of myself. I was very fulfilled in that aspect," he recalled.

 

[surimi]

Thanks for translating Keiji's thoughts!
It is disappointing for him to end below the Top 10, but it doesn't seem like he is ready to retire, and he's had a very fulfilling career so far. A much better one that the career that awaits most boys at Nationals. Good job, Keiji, you tried and fought!
I hope he takes a rest now, and consults his future plans with his coach. I wonder if any spring events await him, but probably not, as several talented boys are ahead of him in the result list, and there aren't all that many competitions. I think he'll be picked for shows again, which should cheer Keiji up and motivate him.

 

[KiraraChin]

Watching Keiji was a delight as usual, who needs jumps?
Jokes aside, I'm very curious about what he'll do next. Will he try to remain in competitive singles? Maybe it's selfish from my part, but if he feels he can't continue in singles, I would love to see him taking a leaf out of Daisuke's book and trying out ice dance. He has the height, the flair and the skating skills! I know he said he wouldn't have the core strength for lifts but this can be worked on...