Never-been competitive skater Yuri Katsuki gets a second chance when superstar skater Victor Nikiforov spontaneously decides to coach him because reasons. Also, has rivalry with tsundere shota named Yuri as well. Fanservicy hijinks ensue!!!
This should have been one of my all-time faves. After all, sports anime are possibly my favorite genre and as a Canadian, I am genetically predisposed to blindly love all things on ice. This anime was basically for me and I did like it but… The first part is great, Yuri is a slightly older protagonist than usual which makes his narration and explanations into what it means to be a professional figure skater are interesting and fun. His little village full of personalities is welcoming and the other skaters are…beautiful…
The first half of the anime which shows us his training with Victor and Yurio is wonderful. The first time I saw those choreographies I was spellbound. The movements are wonderfully animated and little touches like the small shifts and folds in the characters clothing as they dance around the rink made for such a deeply loving representation of the sport that you couldn’t help but be charmed. The problem for me was in the later half. When other rival skaters start getting introduced every other episode. The show does attempt to give them each a backstory so that we care about the competition – and succeed up to a certain point – but with so little time to develop anyone and so many extravagant, larger than life personalities to fit in – people start to blur into one another. Also, those beautiful choreographies do get repetitive when you see the exact same one 7 times in a 12 episode show. The romance side is trivial – seems like a bit of an afterthought to me but I guess it’s cute. This said, I would be more than happy to watch another season, now that so many skaters have been introduced, we can start to have proper character development and it wouldn’t be surprising to find the second season being much more interesting than the first. And that intro tho! Had me dancing along in my living room
Favorite character Yurio – I like blondes. Honorable mention goes to Minako, Yuri’s sake loving dance instructor.
What this anime taught me about myself: I really like blondes
“A drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts.”
Suggested drink: White Russian duh
- Every time someone is eating – take a sip
- take a second if they think it’s really delicious!
- Every time Yuri blushes – take a happy sip
- Everytime we see a new performance costume – take a sip
- Every time Yurio scowls – eat some ice
- Every time someone mentions how important sex appeal is to figure skating – take a sip and make a mental note to watch more figure skating
- take a swig if the sex appeal is “mature”
- Every time there is HoYay – let your freak flag fly
- Every time we see Victor with long hair – take a sip
- Every time Yuri says “Victor” – take a small sip
- Every time Yurio is a cat – take a careful sip, don’t choke!
- Every time Yurio is nice to someone – enjoy it!
observation through seclusion
the original is dusted and forgotten, but always still there