Yuzuru Hanyu

[Magill]

The Sendai confectioner who makes the monakas offered by Yuzuru Hanyu to the cast, also makes macarons.
These can read: Yuzu fans are the best!


Said Yuzu fans were grateful: they resumed queuing on Monday morning to get more monakas to take back home...

No wonder! I would gladly queue myself

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Here's a very poetic fanart:


Here's the mascot of a local TV channel with an If costume:

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

I don't know if this is a new photoshoot? It's for Maison KOSE:


And there's a new draft for one of these FLY YUZU towels, many fans also use them as banners, and even Yuzuru Hanyu uses his, not only in the famous and delightful ANA commercial of last year:

 

[Magill]

And a new set of photos from FaOI (in Miyagi) has been released today by Noto Sunao, a photographer born in Sendai like Yuzu. The tweet shows only a few and the link in the tweet leads to a website where the whole set can be viewed. The pics are a real work of art., enjoy

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

The Park Nanakita in Sendai had opened a register to harvest a few nemophiles under the cherry tree dedicated to Yuzuru Hanyu, as their bloom was nearing its end. There were so many volunteers that the harvest planned to be last Sunday, was extended to this Tuesday:


Marika harvested four nemophiles, here's how they are now:

 

[Magill]

The Park Nanakita in Sendai had opened a register to harvest a few nemophiles under the cherry tree dedicated to Yuzuru Hanyu, as their bloom was nearing its end. There were so many volunteers that the harvest planned to be last Sunday, was extended to this Tuesday:


Marika harvested four nemophiles, here's how they are now:

There is something magical about this tree this season. Kudos to all the volunteers, however abundant they turned out to be ...

 

[Magill]

Yuru Taguchi, the official photographer of this year's FaOI Tour A, reveals his thoughts in an article published by GQ Japan (linked below in Japanese but any online translator will do it for you). Praising Yuzu a lot as an exquisite skater he reveals that Yuzu choreographed "IF" exclusively by himself !!!
https://www.gqjapan.jp/article/2023...sy-on-ice-2023?utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=g

 

[TallyT]

This is lovely.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Yuru Taguchi, the official photographer of this year's FaOI Tour A, reveals his thoughts in an article published by GQ Japan (linked below in Japanese but any online translator will do it for you). Praising Yuzu a lot as an exquisite skater he reveals that Yuzu choreographed "IF" exclusively by himself !!!

I think that it was fixed though, that he thought that If was self-choreographed, so that there's no official confirmation, just guesses?

Speaking of fixing, fans from many countries, among which, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany & Finland have asked, sometimes repeatedly, their Disney+ desks if GIFT was indeed to be released worldwide. Disney+ Japan seemed to say that it would be, but June 30th was just for Japan while other countries may get it at other dates:


German and Hong Kong Disney+ seem even more clueless:


To go on with not-so-good-news, there is a figure skating fan club in Japan named Crystal, with very limited membership, who can get the best seats in most shows to sell among their members. They had a rather "love all skaters" policy and priority for tickets was for those who also attended shows without Yuzuru Hanyu. When Yuzuru Hanyu turned professional, many members guessed that his shows wouldn't have this ticketing policy and left the club, so that for the first time in many years (in fact, since Yuzuru Hanyu became the crowds favourite), they opened 500 memberships. Apparently, they got the best seats in the best categories from Fantasy on Ice, but for Niigata, they didn't manage to sell them to their remaining members, so that they have just been put back for sale. Fans of Yuzuru Hanyu who had to content themselves with not-so-good seats for the Niigata stop of Fantasy on Ice, are now considering trying to get one of these top seats from Crystal club, and resell their former seats if they win. (At the moment, the 3d draft for Niigata shows has ended, and registrations for the 4th draft are going on if I remember well.)

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Here's an advertising for the Friday broadcast on a Miyagi TV channel, of parts of a Fantasy on Ice Miyagi show, with interviews of Shizuka Arakawa (Ladies World Champion 2004 and Olympic Champion 2006, native of Sendai) and Yuzuru Hanyu:


And here's the new broadcast calendar:

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

The Mayor of Rifu, where is the venue for Fantasy on Ice Miyagi, and where Notte Stellata happened too, thanked the fans of Yuzuru Hanyu:

This year's Fantasy on Ice maybe didn't bring as much as other years, as most food stalls were serving the Sendai Semi-Marathon on Sunday for instance; and accommodation is in Sendai, not in Rifu. But it still brings in a good deal.

 

[Magill]

TV Asahi TikTok on FaOI

 

[Magill]

And here's some more (new ones keep being posted all the time)!

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

We are still on this Disney+ saga... In Brazil and probably some other countries, GIFT will be accessible from June 30th. Without subtitles, regarding Brazil, which I find quite surprising because Portuguese is a widely spoken language and is probably one of the 16 official Disney+ languages?


Here's a fanart to wish Japan a happy rain season:

 

[TallyT]

Every Disney+ office in the world seems to be getting calls

Oh, and this came from Henni's twitter feed, we are in a wikipedia list.....

 

[TallyT]

ISU's financial report mentioned Yuzu


(from https://isu.org/inside-isu/financia...tory-auditor/31359-2022-financial-report/file)

Okay, I shouldn't be smug and it's really not good for current and future skaters... but it's still nice to see an (I'm sure begrudging) acknowledgement of how much he did for the financial health of the sport, as well as the artistic and athletic progress (and it's the most popular skater in the world, ISU)

When you think of the estimates of the takings for GIFT alone... I'm so glad the Japanese fans and public are supporting him.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

ISU's financial report mentioned Yuzu
View attachment 6644

(from https://isu.org/inside-isu/financia...tory-auditor/31359-2022-financial-report/file)

Okay, I shouldn't be smug and it's really not good for current and future skaters... but it's still nice to see an (I'm sure begrudging) acknowledgement of how much he did for the financial health of the sport, as well as the artistic and athletic progress (and it's the most popular skater in the world, ISU)

When you think of the estimates of the takings for GIFT alone... I'm so glad the Japanese fans and public are supporting him.

I've also read that they had sold their former offices in Davos, which they had previously rented off since their move:


(Addendum: Isn't this the first acknowledgement by ISU that Japan is their first source of financing? Until now, it was acknowledged that a vague "Asia" was making up more than 2/3 of the revenue, and USA a smaller and smaller part, but wasn't the narrative that they were still the most important market, and that, provided they were awarded a rain of medals, US public interest in figure skating would be revived? The rumours say that for all their compliance to their cheating, the Japanese federation was promised a vice-presidency (they are always promised Silvers and second places); that the new President was elected on the belief, apparently erroneous, that his family ties with Samsung were likely to bring in new sponsorships; then came the election of the Vice-President, and as we know that ISU officials are "not racist", it was felt that one Asian high representative was enough, and a Canadian Vice-President was elected instead of a Japanese. I find this inflexion in narrative quite promising, but not enough to salvage anything from ISU head. Of course, it didn't come to their minds yet, that if USA were provided high quality skating instead of geoblocking for them Yuzuru Hanyu's skates in Beijing for instance, and trying to shove down their throats very poor skating pretending it's the best, some American passers-by may get interested and it could make a snowball effect to revive that so long hoped for US market. Not all Americans are as racist/supremacist nor as gender stereotype enforcers as themselves, not to say that they may have taste.)

I don't agree that these are bad news for figure skaters. Of course it will cut some finances, but ISU's management are doing so much harm when they have money, not only to Yuzuru Hanyu in the past (his robbed Olympic Gold and other Gold medals are only the emerged part of the scandal), but to absolutely all skaters, including the so-called pets (those who get medals which their skates don't deserve), that they cannot drown too soon. In fact, the sooner they drown, the better. Or alternatively, all officials and judges in all major federations and their vassals to be replaced by honest, competent people, but who can believe those in place would yield? Look at French Didier Gailhaguet: nothing seems to be able to take him away. He was forced to resign by the Sports minister, but his web is still in place and he's still the master puppeteer. And now we learn that he tried to deprive Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of their deserved Olympic Gold because that year he wasn't the puppeteer at French federation, and there oughtn't be an Olympic Gold without him!

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Today is 9/6, in Japanese it's roku/ku, and some call it rock day. Let's go!

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

The program "If" was rock too, with a bit of rap:


Let's remember the second costume for Let Me Entertain You (the Japanese nickname for this program is Lemmy):

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Here's another "rock day" fanart: