#actually be? and you’re connected to a lot of shipping drama despite honestly seeming gay as fuck?

[hawkogurl]

#oh? you’re characters in a three part iconic series that came out in the mid 2000’s #and one of you is a wealthy abused child with heavily symbolic burns scars who undergoes a redemption arc that concludes in the third part #of the franchise who’s villainy is defined by an attachment to an abusive father and a need to please him despite him not at all deserving #your loyalty and your redemption is internally motivated by your own experiences and defined by a moment where you realize who you want to #actually be? and you’re connected to a lot of shipping drama despite honestly seeming gay as fuck? #and a consistently heroic male lead with romantic drama including a brief relationship with a light haired woman that you have regrets about #and a lighter haired woman who majorly influences your character arc and you can tell is cool as fuck because men hate her? and your arc #revolves around maturing and going through various circumstances that basically function as a mini coming of age story in a piece of fiction #not of that genre? and you have baggage related to family members who you feel responsible for the fates of? and you put an intense amount #of personal pressure on yourself because you see yourself as a protector and if you can’t do that you’ve failed? #and you’re emotionally superglued to each other despite lots of disasterous first interactions? #atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #atla sokka #zuko #prince zuko #harryposting #harry osborn #raimiverse #raimi trilogy #spider man #spiderman #peter parker #parksborn #zukka

[yugihell]

Ok, buckle up, it’s time for my Yuri On Ice review. Not comprehensive, just general thoughts about the show (spoilers: I enjoyed it a lot).

Good:

The exploration of characters. In a show which could have used stereotypes to build their characters, they instead take them and analyse the ‘why’, or make them multifaceted. All of this without actual subversion - the character actually being in contrast to the stereotype, which is great for a realism point of view. Leading to;

The entire show going ‘yeah, they’re camp. Get over it’ with no excuses ever being made. Flamboyant clothes, dialogue choices, actions, but without any veil of ‘no homo’ OR ‘this is a joke’. Not once are we invited to laugh at the campness - the scenes with Victor’s old androgynous skating outfit, Yuuri’s “teach me to dance like a woman”, and even Russian Yuri’s attire during the final skate all spring to mind. While each of these scenes may create ‘shock value’ with the audience, they are not played that way - it is the audience alone who provides that emotion, without help from the show, therefore normalising it.  

The characters are all fairly unique. Only Russian Yuri becomes close to a trope, but dances just short of that line.

The animation. I don’t know how many human sacrifices were needed for Yuri On Ice, but I bet it was a lot. Not just the skaters, but the background work must have been killer.

It almost seems to be designed as a middle finger to the people who go ‘oh you just wanna see two guys screwing’, by saying quite clearly ‘actually they just want to see two guys get to be engaged and lead happy and fulfilling lives together, but thanks for playing’. It honestly feels like it was done on a dare - you can write whatever you want, but you can only have one non-G rated kiss, and no-one can mention being gay at all. It’s deconstructive in a way that is going to be held up as an example for years. This is the sort of media that will encourage representation - see you don’t have to sexualise it by snogging and groping just because it’s gay. And conversely, that there are ways to convey eroticism without falling into traditional tropes if that is what you’re going for.

You won’t convince me that ‘the siblings’, complete with ‘wish we had rings like that’ isn’t a dig at people trying to read this (and other blatantly queer media) as platonic.

Speaking of which, the brief hetero-baiting with Yuuko was a masterpiece. I also liked that they were showing a woman with children as being young, whereas media in general seems to shy away from that, despite it being very normal.

You named two main characters the same thing. I love such blatant breaking of The One Steve Limit.

The Russian characters have Russian accents. We’re not just saying they’re from Russia, they actually sound it, which anime can sometimes be pretty bad about. And people have discernibly different skin tones. I shouldn’t have to be thankful for it, but I am.

The AU potential, thank you for this stage.

The food. It makes me so hungry all the time.

Not Good aka. the FIFTEEN section:

*he hides his head in his hands, knowing this is probably going to be opening a whole can of worms*

Adults have their hands on Russian Yuri way, way too much. Strangely I feel like there were actually the bare bones of subplot to do with that, that never really goes anywhere, which is a shame because if you were going to show that, you needed to show some kind of fallout from it. 

Russian Yuri being revealed to be fifteen naturally made all shipping thoughts stop like I was about to drive straight into a brick wall (which is good, got to give those emergency breaks a test every now and again). Given that it is in people’s nature to want to give the characters they like another character they connect to strongly (therefore leading to a romantic contingent 9 times out of 10) I feel like the show could’ve benefitted from having a character his own age for people to explore that with. Which as far as I remember gives you Kenjirou and Guang Hong Ji who are 17 (as far as I remember he never meets either) and that’s it. I know there are gonna be Otabek shippers out there yelling at me, but 19 and 15 is too much for me to be comfortable with. [Disclaimer: my own husband is 8 years older than me - so yes I know people with age differences can still have healthy relationships, but no I do not think it is something I want to normalise in teenagers]

Character ageing in general. Yuuri being revealed to be 23 was a bit of a ‘huh’ moment, and Victor is clearly drawn to look much older at 27. Yuuko is 25 and has Yuuri Syndrome by looking a lot younger than she is (though as I mentioned above, it was great to see a younger person with children for a change). HOWEVER, they do go to great lengths to keep reminding you of the characters’ respective ages and I am very grateful for that.

*he takes a deep breath* Ok, if those didn’t open the can of worms, this one will. 
 I don’t like that Victor Is Yuuri’s coach.
 I really don’t feel comfortable with that kind of power dynamic ever being involved, or normalising that sort of relationship, especially when young athletes have a good chance of watching this.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  :

Not a single impromptu erection joke in all of that nudity and skin tight outfits. Especially when Victor’s essentially naked wrestling him in the bath house? Lose 1 point for lack of realism.

Glasses-no glasses = no confidence-confidence

This being an AU where there’s apparently no backlash about homosexuality. I sort of miss having any realistic moments about it, but at the same time I appreciate the safe space it creates for queer people watching by removing that drama entirely.

At twelve episodes at twenty minutes each, I can see why things are less fully fleshed out than they could be. Russian Yuri’s arc is touched on, but in less depth than might be desired (see above), and also it means that the excellent insight into the characters can come off as a little clunky, as we don’t really see them off the ice, and it means that their ‘ice monologues’ are heavy on the exposition.



By the same principle, it means even the main characters can be difficult to pin down sometimes. But, and boy is it a big one, they play with this incredibly well, it is very intentional and that makes all of the difference. Yuuri’s tears being half-therapeutic/half-manipulative is a surprise to the audience and therefore an excellent moment of character building - you misunderstood him because it fit your narrative, look again, pay attention. The same thing with The Banquet Incident, which is fantastic. The writers play into your narrative assumptions of ‘eh anime logic, sure Victor sees a video on the internet and turns up’, but then blindside you with a funny but completely logical explanation as to why it actually happened. They make the time constraints of 12x20 episodes work for them, not against them and as a result of that, the story they manage to tell is even more clever and impressive.

#non-yugioh #yuri on ice #episode review #mine #probably forgot some stuff #but that's the gist #i'm so here for puzzleshipping au of this #yuuri's confidence #when it shows itself #feels so much like yugi's #tell me that boy wouldn't do #the half-therapeutic/half-manipulative tears #that's in my head now #but then so is duke devlin doing #the butt grab #so swings and roundabouts #nothing says fandom trash #than watching an anime #from start to finish #at 3am #to understand au headcanons #in this house we go all in