the gayest skating anime (Yuri!!! On ICE)

-whines expressively-

I've said this at least twice already but I'm so excited and hopeful for any and all 'exploring Victor as a person' character development.

His reactions to things are... strange? He's so lighthearted until there are any stakes at all, and then he will suddenly swing all or nothing or have a huge (if contained) overreaction or nitpick something to death and it's hella weird. Why is he so intense. What's going on in his head. His harshness can't just be disregard for someone else's feelings so what the hell is it

 

so I was just chatting with an animator on twitter and apparently the animation we're seeing is the rushed, placeholder animation, and when it's finalized for the DVD it will look even better, and I can't fully comprehend that

 

Spoiler: episode mothafuckin 7 holy fuck

God I'm feeling so many emotions, aaaahhhhh
This episode represents a huge change in the balance of Yuuri and Viktor's relationship. Up until now we've been watching Viktor helping make Yuuri a better skater, but now Yuuri's challenged Viktor to be a better coach and shown that he can take the upper hand.
btw I was yelling at my computer when Viktor dropped that bombshell to try and shock Yuuri out of his anxiety or whatever, like "WOW. YEP YOU WENT AND DID IT DIDN'T YOU. YOU SURE DID THAT. GR8 JOB." Yuuri keeps being so much stronger than he ever gave himself credit for.
Phichit did fantastic, the Chinese kid and Leo are still precious babs, and Georgi's suffering continues to be hilarious. I'd love it if his ex-girlfriend became a recurring character.
Allow me to join the chorus of "HOW IS BABY VIKTOR SO BEAUTIFUL"
I gotta wonder how the Russian press will respond Viktor having done a definitely gay thing in front of a number of cameras. That's his mother country, yo... though tbh anime basically never addresses societal/institutional homophobia so I'm expecting the issue to get handwaved.

 

Spoiler: episode 7

i'm not sure about that. yuri on ice is already pretty clearly a very special and progressive anime that is breaking the mold in numerous ways. a normal anime wouldn't address it, but yuri on ice is not a normal anime.

 

Spoiler

In a previous episode, Russian!Yuri was talking to the lady skater, who had broken up with a hockey player. He said something about how he wouldn't risk his life for a girlfriend, strongly implying that the lady skater was dating a female hockey player. I think it will be addressed

 

I want patronymics for the Russian characters. You can do so much fun expressive stuff with Russian naming conventions, like the way Yakov calls Viktor Vitya (but can you imagine someone calling him Vicki? SO CUTE.)

 

i always thought it was a little odd/selfish how Victor brushed off Yurio in favor of Yuri in the first few episodes? and now seeing him mess up in ep 7 it makes a lot more sense. he was set up to be this beacon of perfection and admiration (he WAS yuris idol for like his whole life), but. he's not perfect, he's still human. something i thought mightve been unintentional is probably 100% intentional and i love it ;333

i want Yurio to address it when they're in Russia or just SOMETHING to happen along those lines. while i'd say most anime would just brush over it, YoI ain't no regular anime


also ffff i need to draw some fanart of this already i can't pass up The Canon Gay

 

around when in the episode does he say this? i can't find it but really want to screencap this part

 

episode 4, at this timestamp!

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

 

Were I editing the subs, I would have gone with something more like "I wouldn't risk my life just to go on a lesbian date." It's more explicit and colorful (and a bit rude) in a way that I think suits Russian Yuri.

 

I'm rewatching from the start. I forgot what a darling cinnamon roll Yuuri's mom is. So supportive and cute.
Also I totally missed that Yuko is the mother of those three little girls! She looks so young.

 

So I started watching this last night since everyone's flipping their lids about episode 7. I thought "gayest skating anime" was hyperbole, like how everyone called Free! the gayest swimming anime.

Nope, this shit is gay as hell. Tender mlm cuteness, the EROS

GOD, THE EROS

 

That is something I'm constantly trying to express to people. I'm not saying 'the gayest' because it's 'the most full of shiptease,' I'm saying 'the gayest' because 'it's the most full of canon queer characters having delicate, kind, overt feelings about each other, talking about that out loud, in words, and then physically being homoromantic with each other.' I understand we've turned 'the gayest' into slang meaning 'the no homoest' but you guys, the full gay

I mean it this time. Listen to me

I've been slain since the little wolf-whistle and I continue to be slain

Spoiler: stuff up to current episode

(I'm so fucking hype for where this will go now that their relationship is aboveground. What are we going to learn about Victor's past? Is this unusual for him? He looked so sad from what we saw of him right before meeting Yuuri--had something just happened? Was there a recent bad relationship? Is he struggling with something (almost undoubtedly)? When are we going to get Yuuri actively taking care of him as much as he tries to take care of Yuuri, albeit sometimes poorly? What is the source of the absurdly high stakes and harsh criticism he comes out with (kind of a dumb question, since he's a gold-winning professional athlete himself)? When he's so harsh with the guy he clearly considers to be one of the best in the world... what does he think about himself? And what were his original intentions for this relationship anyway, coming across the ocean in a single night and without clothing and those weird looks on his face? I want answers. What the hell. When is Victor going to cry. Yuuri has cried and had a delicious emotional catharsis. Make Victor cry)

(I just can't divorce myself from the conviction that he was in a really, really bad place in the months before the first episode. Maybe the years. He just never looks like he's alright.)

 

OK, it's been three days and I'm still not over episode 7. I may never be over episode 7.

Spoiler: Coach Victor

Here's part of what I think is going on with Victor. Victor's coach even said in episode 2 that he was too selfish to be a coach, and I think we've been seeing some of what he meant by that. He's used to ignoring his coach's instructions, doing exactly as he pleases, and having it all work out in the end because he's Victor and he excels at everything he puts his mind to.

I think Victor came into this with the idea that coaching would be easy. He's the best. He's charming and everyone loves him. How hard could it be, right? I think he had a narrative in mind where he swooped in and singlehandedly rescued Yuri's career and fixed everything for him (and then maybe Yuri swooned into his arms if he turned out to be into that). He didn't know Yuri, had barely ever spoken to him before, so it wasn't about Yuri. It was an opportunity for Victor to surprise people again by being as brilliant at coaching as he is at skating.

He starts getting over that when he actually gets to know Yuri as a person. IMO Ep4 is the turning point where he seems to realize that he's not casting a magic spell, he's dealing with a real person with unique problems who's going to rise or fall by how well Victor learns to support him. His role changes - between episode 2 and episode 7, it seems to me that he becomes a lot less concerned with looking like a good coach and a lot more concerned with actually being a good coach.

Even up through episode 5, though, he's still in the mindset where he has to solve everything. And sometimes he stumbles into something helpful by accident, and sometimes he is shit at solving things. Faced with Yuri having an emotional crisis he doesn't know how to fix, he grasps at straws, because he still hasn't really internalized that it's not about him.

But Yuri tells him that. Yuri's anxiety is Yuri's problem, and he doesn't need Victor to step in and solve it for him. He needs Victor's unconditional support. And Victor's stunned reaction is the start of a very contained mini-crisis of his own. He's just now realizing how unprepared he was for handling the emotional aspects of coaching, and how much of Yuri's success is not because of his talents as a coach but in spite of his failings as a coach. Victor is quietly freaking out so much that Yuri has to reassure him before he goes on for his free skate.

Just. I love this so much. This is the logical growth of that conversation on the beach: "What do you want me to be to you?" Yuri's told Victor what kind of coach he needs him to be, and Victor's trying to become that kind of coach.

I can't wait to see what happens on Victor's home ice in Russia. Even if they don't address Russian societal homophobia, which I hope they will, I'm interested to see the tension between Victor as the star returning home and Victor the coach who's trying to put the spotlight on Yuri where it belongs.

 

g-georgi...honey....no..........

 

I feel like this thread needs this commentary re: young Victor's outfit.

 

I never realized the depth of bullshit Weir was faced with. I saw him on TV during the Vancouver Olympics and loved him. It really is a powerful statement to give that nod to him in the show.