Series in one sentence:
All men in figure skating are openly gay or openly closeted.
Series in more sentences:
A young figure skater is visited by his childhood idol not long after failing the previous championship and having retreated to his home town.
As he managed to impress the celebrity with a video recording gone viral -showing a perfect recreation of one of his old performances- he's offered his services as his coach.
Series in one selective, crusty image:
The clip of the main character jumping into the arms of his coach for an "almost kiss" was often shared at Facebook back when that episode came out, but that never peaked my interest to check it out. The animation during the skating performance just looked so off to me.
But when I finally watched it, I understood how it caught people off-guard and the series is this loved. Figure skating isn't the most exciting subject you can pick for your animated series, but they tried hard to make it appear interesting.
During every performance, and they will show you every one of them in some length, they have the characters monologuing about why they joined the competition and what it is they want.
I don't care for all contestants and their strife, but it's nice to see they're not just empty background filling. Some characters and their passions are really lame, but well, it's anime. I enjoyed the two Yuris the most.
I think the first thing people will mention about this series is the strange romance between Yuri and his coach. Or perhaps the kind of people that like this series will say it's not strange at all, I don't know.
It's easy to notice that the coach has an obvious crush on Yuri, but Yuri dismisses and rejects all obvious advances. Yet, at the same time, he does things like jumping in his arms like a schoolgirl, wanting to "sexually impress" him on the ice, and buying them both a damn set of engagement rings as "just a thank you/we are one/wHatEVeR-gift lulz".
Fans have been shouting at these fictional characters to just make out already, and I tend to agree. All this fooling around, pretending to be ambiguous, is tiresome.
Though, I will say I don't understand what their bond is supposed to be, exactly. When you think about it, they're not a good fit at all. I think it would've been better if Yuri was portrayed as unmistakably heterosexual, since these men really don't have any chemistry outside of the skating ring.
His coach, his own idol for Pete's sake, seems to bother him most of the time. Only when they go out to train or perform do they seem to enjoy each other's company. I don't find that a good basis for a relationship, but maybe they'll switch things up in the 2nd season?
Also, this show has an unholy awesome intro. The choice of music and the imagery is unusual for an anime opening. I tend to skip those, but not this one.
So a coach and a boy both love skating and that's why they love each other? What more does one need in life, a relationship than sharing the same passion? Good music that one doesn't skip is worth watching too. 🍀💕