Jan 3, 2017
Yuri On Ice!! is a collection of perfect things that all suffer from major flaws. These perfect things include (1) Beautiful Skating (2) Representation of a M/M queer relationship (3) Representation of the Anxiety/Insecurity that often comes with ambition. Without further ado, I'm going to go into these 3 things and why they're good andwhy they fell short of what a viewer might want.
1) Skating Animation - At first, this is breathtaking. It's clearly one of the main draws of the show, and also the location where the majority of the animation budget went. The movements of the skaters are fluid, dynamic, and emotional. The
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huge flaw? Repetitiveness. We see the same skating routine over and over and fucking over, with very little change. After a while you notice that there isn't even much difference BETWEEN the skating routines of each skater. It's lovely, but it gets boring to the point where I don't even want to see the skating anymore, just give me the scores.
2) Relationship - Many people have been complaining about this, and the bottom line is that Yuuri and Victors relationship balances itself on eroticisation. This is the story of a young man coming to TERMS with his confidence, with his feelings of sexuality and interest, not the story of a gay couple falling in love. Some queer men I've talked to about it find it endearing. Others find it obnoxious. Its great to see some M/M sexual tension on screen, and to feel the insecurity of a young man face his feelings, and face the fact that he's competing with men who are way more sexually mature and confident than him. This is shown through the skating. The relationship remains ambiguous/undefined, but thats also because the characters focus is on their skating, and their interest in each other is expressed through skating, not through establishing an actual relationship. Its not out of line for each character, or for this genre of anime to keep this relationship weird and ambiguous. Whether it remains a major flaw , one that renders queer relationships petty, or whether it turns into a minor one depends largely on Season 2 and whether or not we get to see more of Victors real personality, not just this picture-perfect guy we've seen sofar.
3) Anxiety - This is the shows most compelling strength, and the only thing it executes completely flawlessly. Yuuri's anxiety about being in a high pressure environment is real. It can be frustrating and melodramatic, but such is the nature of anxiety. People can have difficulty dealing with pressure, and constantly belittle themselves and blind themselves to how well they're actually doing. Sitting and crying about it isn't a one-time deal, instead its a constant struggle that many people deal with.
All in all, Yurri On Ice!! is a great show, with compelling characters, solid character development, and solid animation ( as long as there isn't a dog in the shot, jeesus that animal was lazy) . The side characters are also pretty well defined and designed, and the soundtrack is great, albeit cheesy and not particularly artsy. To be honest, for me, a cis-straight-woman, its biggest downside was how repetitive the skating sequences get, which is 80% of the show, lets be real. Whether or not you have an issue with the superficiality of the M/M relationship is up to taste, and hopefully it'll become more well defined in subsequent seasons. It also has great racial/gender representation, which is a good bonus.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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