Back to AZakuII's Profile AZakuII's Profile

Cucuruz Doan's Island is the retelling of an episode of 0079 that I barely remember. In the process of fleshing out the story, it expands the original episode to nearly two hours.

To be quite honest, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm not one to enjoy CGI, but it was used pretty effectively here. It doesn't look great in every scene, but when it works it looks absolutely amazing - especially in scenes that are darker. Darker scenes tend to hide a lot of the flaws in CGI, and during these darker scenes it goes from being just okay ... to being really amazing looking. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than a lot of other CGI I see used in anime.

There a lots of little touches that evoke the feelings of the original series - from the soundtrack, to the visuals. They even had some Dezaki styled still frames in there. It's a nice fusion of the classic 70s look and sound, with a more modern presentation.

I was surprised how nostalgic it made me feel. I really missed this cast. Everyone felt in character, especially Amuro. At some point the chronology got switched up, so now Sleggar is part of the White Base crew at this point, even though he didn't show until way later in the original series. He actually fit in really well though, didn't feel out of place at all. I'd say, aside from Amuro that he, Kai and Bright were the best handled out of the main cast.

Overall it wasn't perfect, but it is absolutely enjoyable. If you are a fan of the original series, it is a must watch.

I'm going to be up front about this - "Yuri!!! on Ice" is an enjoyable anime. It is a fun anime. I can even say, to some extent, that "Yuri!!! on Ice" is a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, the air is only fresh for about an episode or two, before quickly giving way to one of the stalest productions of the season.

Before I jump into this, I just want to say... I started out liking this show. For the first two episodes or so, I thought this would be my favorite show this season. I know a lot of people like this show - ... for varying reasons - so I want to be fair in my reasoning... but this show was very disappointing.

Anime is one of the few creative avenues, I feel, where literally any topic can be explored. Whether it be cooking, motorcycles, boxing, volleyball... Anime is basically the perfect medium through which to put ones hobbies onto the screen.

Unfortunately, "Yuri!!! on Ice" doesn't really understand this. This is billed as an anime about skating. It is not. This is a mediocre romance anime that happens to have skating in it. And that's where it goes wrong.

Bear with me on this one.

Let's start with the animation. While solid during most scenes, it dove tails into absolute shit during the scenes where people are actually skating...

Which is the part where there should obviously be the best animation. Since this show is about skating. Obviously.

The skating itself is often repetitive, and boring - and lacks any of the creativity and beauty of actual figure skating. This is coming from someone who only watches it during the Olympics.

This is what I was talking about earlier.

There is no passion for skating in this anime about skating. It's just used as a vehicle for driving Yuri and Victor together. There's no knowledge about skating in here that would require more than a few hours reading up on skating to know about. No little tidbits that let me know that the writers really fucking love skating.

It's a show written by people who don't give a crap about main element of the story - or who aren't able to translate that passion into the story, anyway.

The skating takes place - and the characters explain what the dances mean. Yuri's first major skating event tells the story of his career. His later ones are about his love for Victor.

That's how the characters explain it, anyway. To me it just looked like a bunch of random movements.

And this is why the passion for skating was sorely missed from this production. Because I have no idea what I'm watching.

In what way does Yuri's dance show his love for Victor? Which parts of his dance express those specific emotions? Can you explain it to me? While watching this anime, did you gain any understanding of how the characters were actually expressing their emotion? Because all I saw was a dance occurring, and people explaining what emotion it expressed. It was never presented in a way that allowed me to glean that emotion myself.

This mentality of telling instead of showing extends itself to the rest of the anime. Victor falls in love with Yuri. Why? Because he saw his dancing. Yuri loves Victor. Why? Because he looks up to him, and believes in him. Or something.

Do you see what I'm getting at? The romance is so... one dimensional. The characters just lay out there reasoning, and then continue from there. There's no true, meaningful interaction between their personalities that explains to me why these characters love each other.

What about Victor's personality does Yuri find attractive? What about Yuri's personality does Victor find attractive?

In a good romance, it should be easy to explain this. At least to some extent. Yuri!!! on Ice, however, just wanted the romance to occur, without coming up with any reasons for it. The drama is dumb, the relationship dull. The only thing interesting about the romance is that they're both guys, but that isn't enough to carry the story to a 10/10, y'know?

Very disappointing anime. 4/10, though if I were rating this in comparison to what the first two episodes made me hope for, I would give it a lot less.

I will admit I like the opening theme, however.