I watched yesterday, too, and not just once, it is such a happy stream! Yuzuru was a highlight of the show, of course, and you can hear for yourself what some Kenshi Yonezu fan attending their first ice show out of curiosity summarized as: "the atmosphere was warm and happy from the very start but with Hanyu appearance on the ice it became truly electric, resembling a rock concert!' (quoting from memory)
Having said that, I loved the
whole show! Akiko was gentle and beautiful as always, a most elegant and serene skater she is. Rika was youthful and energetic, and I loooved Riverdance by Takeshi Honda, with Russian splits, steps and spins all truly impressive, especially at his noble age of 40+. He was great! It made me acutely aware of what men's figure skating was just a while ago, and what it seems to be missing these days, with full attention for jumps only. It is also kind of sad for, unlike the giants of the past, the current champions may have literally nothing to show for it when age finally takes their quads away.
Still, I was very very happy for the talented and passionate juniors and amateurs from Ice Rink Sendai. It was literally palpable that it was such a thrill for them to share the ice with those legends, and in front of their families and friends, to make it even more exciting! They also got an unprecedented exposure with the stream and its global popularity - with hundreds of thousands of tickets sold, they may claim now to have had a bigger audience than many of "proper" shows and competitions
BTW, the country count update has the number of countries that viewers bought stream tickets from pushed up to 40+ by now.
The stream can be bought to August 14, you just need to remember to set up an account with the provider
before your purchase (you can just sign up with your Google account, which makes it very easy), for which you need a VPN, and then you need to be logged in to this account to watch (again, Google account will do the trick for you), but no VPN needed anymore. International cards work alright.
Overall, a very happy and warm show, with friendly and almost family-like atmosphere, and everyone visibly performing happy and in great moods!
Like everyone before me, I loved both HYK as the main dish, and the rock hit LMEY performed as an encore in the ethereal pink HYK costume
