Just spent 2 hours after coming home from work really late with trying to catch up with the last 20 pages or something, and I gotta say, it really is a ride
you guys basically went through every emotion possible, I hope you have some left for tomorrow
He almost lost Worlds again this year. He seems more emotionally fragile than ever. And he appears to be ruminating nonstop about his skating (not good). So yeah, I'm concerned for him. It's not because of this one event; it's because of the patterns I'm seeing.
That sounds like a pretty negative interpretation of this years WC to me :think: What I saw was Yuzu having his best WC ever, only making one mistake over the whole competition, giving it his all performance-wise while skating his most difficult programs ever, and most of all winning that title in a super competitive men's field not just with a world record performance, but IMO with the greatest skate in the history of the sport.
I came out after seeing that LP thinking he was mentally stronger than ever. Being mentally strong doesn't make him a machine and means he will never make mistakes. As Yata pointed out, this season was long and difficult, and he has the right to be exhausted and mess up. He peaked at WC, he did everything right. My only regret is that he looked sad about it, but we still have the LP, and he can come back (like he always does after a sub-par SP).
And yes, the media can't be helping him, especially since Yuzu appeared not pleased with any over dramatized rivalries before either. He had it with Takahashi, and we all know that brought some painful memories (remember 2012 nationals and the crowd reacting to him winning?). He refused the talk about "the ace of Japan" before (during the days when the media pushed the rivalry with Tatsuki, I think?). And now I'm sure he's not happy about the media jumping so much on the Shoma rivalry thing. Is it painting Shoma as a bad guy when I say Shoma seems to push for that rivalry angle a lot more instead of feeling the same pressure out of it Yuzu does? (Didn't he say going into this that WTT might be a team competition, but what he wanted most was still to beat Yuzu?). I don't think it is. They're treating this whole thing very differently. And first and foremost I feel so sorry for Yuzu that he has to go through all this again - there is a difference between being fired up by your competition (which I think Yuzu is by Shomas skating) and having tons of unreasonable pressure heaped on you (what the media does). But it won't change, he will have to deal with it somehow, so at least his first time competing in Japan again was at a cheesefest (that I personally like a lot, but it's still a cheesefest).
(And can I say I'm really pissed at the Japanese media for heaping on the pressure even for a supposedly fun event? Or in general with all that dumb rivalry pushing? It's most countries media though... I just wished they'd treat all athletes with more respect, which they deserve, and less obviously as clickbait.)
To leave this post on a positive note though - I did after his SP what I always do when I'm sad.
I watched Believe. If that doesn't make you think the world is a great place and miracles are possible and you can basically buy happiness in a sparkly orange jar, I don't know what will :luv17:
:shocked:
I think I did 
Please Yuzu, skate Believe again. Sometimes, somewhere. Please please please!
its so soft and beautiful and elegant and every postive adjective imaginable, his skating 'aesthetic' (that is not the right word in the slightest) matches this song so perfectly
)
