Recently, on all social media platforms that I have accounts on, the new anime series “Yuri!!! On Ice” has been trending. As of October 15th when I am writing this, there are only two episodes currently out, but the series has a massive following with fans raving about their favorite characters and drawing heaps of fan art. As an anime fan myself, I decided to see what all of the appeal to this series was and was very pleasantly surprised.
The most important thing to me in any series is the protagonist. The main character is the person who’s eyes we will be seeing the story through so it is important for them to have depth, which is often present in Japanese media, and also be likable, something far less present in modern Japanese media. Now, onto the main point: the protagonist of “Yuri!!! On Ice” is simply amazing. He’s the type of character you love even more every time he does or says anything.
Yuri, our main character, is a Japanese Figure Skater who has recently suffered a lot of misfortune in competition and is returning home to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Recently having graduated from college, he seems to have put all his eggs in the basket of being a figure skater, of which he has not just his family’s support but his entire small town. All the same, Yuri at the start of the series is much like Dante in the Inferno and is lost and in need of someone to show him the way.
As for the plot set up in episode one, unlike the abysmal opening episode of the CW series "Super Girl," “Yuri!!! On Ice” does a great job. In it’s opening scene, we are introduced to the main characters habit of switching to a cartoonish persona to talk about the ice skating world or the problems he is facing, almost exactly like the live action Disney show “Lizzie McGuire.” Also in the opening scene, we are introduced to Mr. Bad Guy Rival Man, a Russian figure skater who’s name is also Yuri. The Russian Yuri tells the Japanese Yuri that there was only room for one person with the name “Yuri” in the figure skating world, and that a “failure” like our protagonist had no place competing. It is also revealed that the Russian Yuri is the Gold Medalist of the very competition the Japanese Yuri placed dead last in.
Other great set up elements include the introduction of the protagonist’s old figure skating teacher, who acts very motherly towards him by reprimanding him but also showing how proud of him she is. Yuri’s actual family is also shown to be very close with his old teacher, which gives you a taste of Yuri’s childhood and that he clearly has many people around him who care about and support him. To blow off steam, Yuri then goes to his local Skating Rink where he runs into “Cute Romantic Interest Girl” whom he apparently has quite a bit ofhistory with as well as a little romantic admiration.
The central part of the episode is a portion in which the main character shows “Cute Romantic Interest Girl” his copy of the routine performed by his idol, a famous Russian Gold Medalist skater. In this beautifully animated sequence, the camera switches back and forth from Yuri performing the routine, to the famous skater whom he is imitating. “Cute Romantic Interest Girl” has siblings who are fans of Yuri that film him performance of this routine and post it online. The video goes viral, eventually making it’s way to the very figure skater that Yuri is inspired by, Victor Nikiforov. The first episode concludes with Victor Nikiforov staying at Yuri’s family hot spring and telling Yuri that he is going to train him to become a Gold Medalist.
The episode I have seen so far was fantastic. All of the characters are likable, the story is coherent, and there’s still a lot of excitement of what is to come. Also for someone like me who’s only knowledge about figure skating comes from his sister's middle school figure skating phase and the movie “Blades of Glory,” it still manages to get you engaged in a lesser known sport that people often write off as boring. If you haven’t watched “Yuri!!! On Ice” yet then I highly recommend catching up on it while it’s still fresh, and if you’re reading this after the series has run it’s course still give it a try. It’s definitely worth it.
