Like you all, I rewatched his Free. It was a miracle that Shoma did hit the last 3 jump passes, filling in all combos as planned. After his third fall, I was prepared to see a meltdown a la 2004 Eric-bompard-daisuke-free tbh... But Shoma proved me wrong once again. Even with those awful falls, he didn't throw away the performance as a whole. He didn't give up till the end, because he knows that every other elements, its VB and +GOE would count at the end of the day of competiton, he did his best in order to get the enough standing to help team Japan for next year's worlds in Saimata.
I think I wrote this before, but what amazes me the most about him is if he falls on a jump he always gets up right away, dashing back to his performance, if he falls again he's up again and back to it even with more speed. If we follow the sport closely, we often see skaters fall a couple of times then they eventually lose their focus and just give up. But Shoma never let the nerves/pressure eat up him. He is one tough competitor. Also, a back-loading free, solid 3As in the second half, most of all, his stamina both mental and physical to pull it off helps him dearly. Hats off to this young man.
I kept flashing back a little to Yuzu's CoC. The unyielding stoicism with which Shoma carried on after each fall was just extraordinary to me, so grounded and just plain STRONG.
