Saw vids of the top 4. *** at the sound setup? The music isn't directly piped to the broadcast feed, so the home audience has to rely on the ambient mic to pick it up, which makes the whole thing sound like soup. Shanghai Sports Center, y u no hook up sound feed? Y?!
In increasing order of enjoyment:
There was a time I liked Nobunari Oda, back when he was putting comedy in his programs and skating as Super Mario. Now all the whimsy and fun are gone, to be replaced by this awkward attempt at festiveness. The more I see him, the more I realize he's purely an athlete and not a dancer at all. There's no sense of style or grace, or any particular musicality. With how sensational his countrymen are, I hope he's the one who stays home.
Artur Gachinski was... adequate. Nothing stands out particularly, but nothing objectionable either. His footwork section was rather slow. But good on him for making an actual effort to perform.
Yuzuru Hanyu's performance was rather stunning. I kept having to rewind just to look at his fantastic entrances to various elements, like the entrance to his next to last spin, or actual footwork into a quad. I saw no signs of any sudden bouts of sloppiness, which sometimes beplagued him in the past. He is egregiously lowballed in PCS. On the negative side, he's still gasping for air even at the end of an SP, which shows his stamina doesn't seem to have improved much. That's a giant weakness of his that he needs to fix if he wants to advance.
Jeremy Abbott is the man. Such a wonderful, nimble and entertaining performance. I'm reading some comparisons between this SP and Ryan Bradley. LOL no. It's the difference between your charming uncle doing a dance at a bar mitzvah vs. Michael Jackson. Abbott can actually move. Those jazz moves of his may not be new, but he incorporates them so seamlessly into his skating and with such speed that it is a new experience. The best Sing, Sing, Sing program I have seen, and there have been a lot.
