Anime review: Yuri on ice
This blog seems to be turning into “books and anime reviews”, which was not my initial plan. But, then again, until “Yuri on Ice” I’d never felt the urge to read or watch a sports story 2.5 times in rapid succession! Of course, as the image above probably suggests, the ice skating part of the plot isn’t the only draw. So let’s talk about it.
*Note: There are a few minor spoilers below, but nothing that would actually ruin the viewing experience, I think. The series can be watched here*
“Yuri on Ice” follows Yuri Katsuki, a 23-year old
professional skater who’s had a rough season and what he considers to be a
lackluster career1. He’s thinking about retiring when his idol,
multiple world-champ Victor Nikiforov, unexpectedly turns up in his family’s
hot springs resort and announces that he’s going to be Yuri’s coach. This
annoys Yuri Plisetsky, a 15-year old Russian skater, because HE wants to
be Victor’s successor. So Yuri P. shows up in Japan as well to remind Victor
that he promised to choreograph a routine for him2. Victor gives the
two Yuris different arrangements of the same piece, “On Love”: Agape for
Yuri P. (AKA Yurio) and Eros for Yuri K. That choice challenges both
Yuris to stretch themselves. Yurio is an angry kid for whom “selfless
unconditional love” is a hard emotion to express, while Yuri is a rather shy,
self-effacing fellow who’s never dated anyone. But, while he's unsure why Victor thought he could do the sexy version, a competition in which Victor would come back to Russia if Yurio wins is more than enough to motivate him to figure it out.
1. Though his “disastrous” last season involved ranking sixth in the world, so take what he says about it with a grain of salt!
2. Hilariously, his entire plan for finding Victor seems to involve wandering around Hasetsu angrily yelling his name.
But there’s
another aspect to that eros assignment, of course! Victor has been quite
flirty with Yuri, though he seems slightly puzzled at why Yuri keeps getting
all flustered. We find out in episode 10 (of 12 total) that there is a very
good reason for that confusion, as well as why Victor is so confident Yuri can
pull off the eros choreography – Yuri just doesn’t remember! I won't entirely spoil it, but here's one of many images from prior year’s
competition banquet:
That’s an annoyed-looking Yurio on the left. The shirtless guy is Christoph, a Swiss skater who…well, when in the Crunchyroll comments people wondered “Why would a banquet for skaters feature a stripper pole?” the immediate response was “Because Chris brought it, of course!” That’s not in the script – it’s just clearly something that character would do.
Even before we see that, it is pretty clear that Yuri is into Victor as well, even if he hasn’t quite managed to articulate that to himself. For example, he starts off using katsudon (pork cutlet bowl), his favorite dish, as a way to channel an eros-like feeling. By the time of the first performance, he is telling Victor to watch because he’s going to be the tastiest katsudon ever - to which Victor responds: “Of course. I love pork cutlet bowls!” This then becomes simply “Don’t ever take your eyes off me!” and later “I’m going to show my love to all of Russia.”
Yuri’s journey in this story is about overcoming his lack of confidence, which affects both his professional and personal life. As Victor points out, he flubs jumps when he’s worrying too much. Yuri’s gained a bit of weight, and you can tell when he’s thinking about that because the way he’s drawn fluctuates frame to frame in the early episodes depending on how fat he’s feeling! Also, for much of the series he is preoccupied by the idea that when he either loses or finishes the Grand Prix competition Victor is going to go back to Russia. Victor is at least vaguely aware of this; at one point he tries to use it to motivate Yuri and immediately regrets it. They have another misunderstanding when Yuri thinks he ought to let Victor go so he can return to the ice himself. A true love of skating is probably the secret to Victor’s success – while he exhibits good strategic thinking, he is motivated mostly by the desire to perfect his art rather than by the competition per se. But he does not appreciate Yuri’s attempt to make this decision for him. He doesn’t say it in so many words, but his whole vibe in that scene is: “Yeah, I love skating – but I love you too, you idiot!” Fortunately, they seem to have found a way by the end to have both.
On the sports side of things, the animation of the skating routines is gorgeous, realistic, and varied enough in terms of “camera angle” and performance details that you don’t get bored watching the skaters do the same two routines in each competition. I actually gasped out loud at some of the missed jumps and that emotional tension is heighted by the fact that you can hear the internal thoughts of each skater when they are performing. If they are sad or distracted you are immediately more anxious that they are going to screw up. There were also occasional asides or pieces of dialog that give just enough information for someone who isn’t a figure-skating fan to understand why person A or B won the competition without getting too intrusive into the story. I actually felt like I understood how figure skating is scored at the end of this! The cast of characters is diverse, as befits an international competition, and each skater has a distinct motivation and history.
A few particularly stand out. Yuri’s
cheerful friend Pichit is super cute – he wants to bring attention to figure
skating in Thailand and is immediately on board with the idea of Victor and
Yuri as a couple. Canadian champ JJ is self-confident to an annoying degree,
but you do still feel for him when he chokes and can’t help but be happy that
he has such a supportive fiancé and parents. Yurio can be kind of an ass; he
insults people a lot and is actually annoyed when Victor and Yuri cheer for
him. But he has his moments – eg. sharing the pork cutlet pirozhki his
granddad made with Yuri – and it is sweet to see him strike up a friendship
with grumpily stoic Khazakh skater Otabek. I saw one commenter note that, while
we get a lot of stories of girls getting strong by becoming more masculine, this was one of the only ones they’d seen where a man embraces femininity too
win. And that’s true – both Yuris, for example, train with distinguished
ballerinas, and early in his career Victor cultivated a deliberately androgynous image. That’s one reason why I kind of hope the Yurio/Otabek shippers are
incorrect: it would be nice if “guy finds strength in the feminine” did not always
have to equal “guy is gay”. Let both teams have a Yuri! (We bi's get Victor, I think one is supposed to assume).
This is probably a good point to talk about LGBT+ representation in anime and how it is treated in Japan vs. the USA. Queer characters seem to be everywhere in anime, either openly or as subtext, and have been there since at least the 1990s (see ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ review), way before it was common in US mainstream media. The representation is sometimes problematic (see ‘Black Butler’ review), but the ecstatic responses of many US fans to these characters speaks to the hunger many of us have for that content. Ironically, Japan is a pretty socially conservative culture where gay marriage is only legal in a few cities and forms of self-expression that deviate from the standard - even if it is just dying one’s hair - can be a problem in many schools and workplaces. Anime and manga are thus important outlets for exploration. Unlike American cartoons, which were mainly aimed at kids, they encompass many genres and target demographics. Even the ones for kids often include themes that are considered more “adult” in the US. That disconnect led to a history of censorship and weird translations as anime began to enter the US market, with LGBT+ content/characters in particular frequently getting the axe (see a video summary here).
‘Yuri on Ice’ aired in 2016, and from what I’ve been able to glean the higher-ups at the network put limits on how the creators could portray Victor and Yuri’s relationship. That’s why in the image at the top of this review you can’t actually see their lips touch, and why they never actually say “I love you” or “I want to spend the rest of my life with you”3. But the creators put a lot of effort into making sure you know that’s what they mean anyway! There is a LOT of cuddling and hand-holding, as well as wording that is either intentionally romantic or a massive Freudian slip! Of course, the problem with even loud subtext is that some people got to episode 10 – which features some rings – and were suddenly like: “Wait, is this gay?” And to that I say: “Where did you think this was going, dummy? About five minutes into the second episode we get this”:
US networks in the 21st century would not normally put such limits on a story like this, assuming they agreed to make it in the first place, but there are a few things that make me wonder if the old censorship is still at play. In two early episode Victor seems to be pestering Yuri about whether he has/has had a girlfriend and also says “Let’s talk about me! My first girlfriend was…” before Yuri stops the conversation. However, sharp-eared fans noticed that the Japanese word used (koibito) is gender-neutral. Having Victor say “Do you have a sweetheart?” would have made it clearer that he’s really checking out whether he has competition!
Now, the translators were apparently working on the fly, episode by episode, so they wouldn’t necessarily have known where the story was headed. However, there is a later scene where Victor and Yuri run into each other’s arms at the airport after briefly being separated. The subtitles say:
[Yuri] "Please be my coach until I retire!"
[Victor] (Kisses Yuri’s knuckles, smiles) "It’s almost like a marriage proposal." (Resumes hug) "I wish you’d never retire."
But Yuri’s line there doesn’t actually include the word “coach” (even I can hear that!) so it arguably should be “Please be mine until I retire!”. Now, I can see how that puts the translators in an awkward bind. The romantic-sounding translation makes Victor’s line make more sense, but it might make the watcher go: “Wait – why just until you retire?” Still, the fact that they went with the more heteronormative choice in both cases is kind of telling!
3. Which is odd, because other animes made around the same time DO include such things. There are multiple girl-girl kisses and talk of love in ‘Bloom Into You’ (2018), for instance. However, that show is less realistically drawn and focuses on a younger cast, so the vibe is pretty innocent. Yuri and Victor are 20-something adults who look more like real humans (most of the time – they still get the cartoony anime reaction faces), so maybe that was seen as more “dangerous”? Just a guess, though.
Regardless, this is both an inspiring sports drama and a really sweet love story. I hope we do get to see Yuri and Victor’s story continue at some point. Not only are they totally adorable together, but the dual-career-with-travel balance is relatable to people even outside of sports and has potential to create angst and interesting situations. It’s been four years, though, with no sign of a second season. Some fans speculated about whether the fact that the protagonists are Russian and Japanese presented a difficulty, given that both countries might react badly to their national ice-skating heroes getting engaged to one another (which would be the logical next step). However, the creators have stated that, regardless of the state of the real world, no one is going to be discriminated against within the world of the story! There is reportedly going to be a movie released at the end of this year – but it looks more like a prequel, since the teaser features a 17-year-old Victor at the Paris winter Olympics. If I were making it, I’d probably include a framing device whereby Viktor is telling Yuri (and their kid/nephew/niece, perhaps?) about his earlier career…but we’ll see!
