#shoma of the desert | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

600shekels · 10 months

Text

2 Chronicles 11: 1-17. "Towns of Defense."

11 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered Judah "Glory" and Benjamin "Son of the South." —a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam.

180,000 able young men who are marching South to Glory indicate Rehoboam started with the natural humanity all persons possess. The number 18 has been the timeless number a young man truly comes of age, when his potential starts to become apparent.

At this stage it is critical the teachings of the culture and the religion be firmly rooted in place. Anytime hundreds of thousands are added, the concept refers to the tens of millennia a good or a bad decision regarding a nation's youth can last. A good one yields prosperity that lasts. A bad one- the Desert or the Flood.

Rehoboam is doing as he said in the previous section and taking his army of young men South as the Torah says he must hoping this will create a counter-propaganda campaign against the other boys who I'm sure stopped shaving their bush. Shaving the bush is a sign one is not a caveperson.

2 But this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God: 3 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 4 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your fellow Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the words of the Lord and turned back from marching against Jeroboam.

Shemaiah is an Ishmaelite:

שמע

The verb שמע (shama') means to hear and may also mean to understand or obey. Noun שמע (shema') means sound. Nouns שמע (shoma') and שמועה (shemu'a) mean tidings, report or mentions. Noun השמעות (hashma'ut) describes that which is caused to be heard. Noun משמע (mishma') means rumor or a thing heard. Noun משמעת (mishma'at) refers to a group or listeners.

The Ishmaelites are:

1. Nebaioth =the high places that were prophesied 2. Kedar= dark, turbid 3. Adbeel=servant of God 4. Mibsam= sweet smell, the perfumery 5. Mishma= hear, understand, obey 6. Dumah=deadly silence 7. Massa= to test or trial 8. Hadar= to ornament or honor 9. Tema= the Southern Country 10. Jetur= defense, he will border 11. Naphish= the soul, not a thing, an act 12. Kedemah= formerly eastward

="The high places where the former darkness cannot touch the servants of God who hear, comprehend and obey God are laced with the perfume of silence. Under the protection of the Southern Sun, the soul is tested, achieves victory and ornaments itself with honor."

So instead of starting a war with his army of 18 year olds, Rehoboam heeds the advice of a sage and exposes them to the Southern Sun right where they are:

Rehoboam Fortifies Judah

5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built up towns for defense in Judah: 6 Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

Rehoboam in Jerusalem= People with broad minds, who are in the know, living in the City that Teaches. These are Pedigreed Jews.

A Uniformed Jew understands how to use Chabad to perform Midrash and Kabbalah and create a loop between the self, the Self and the Tanakh. Torahs performed by such a Jew are gracious and perfect at all times, which =

Judah=Glory of God found among the realization of the Sefirot.

Without Chabad, there cannot be Judah. Chabad, Chochmah, Binah and Daat are the three stages one uses to quantify what is hidden by God and turn it an object lesson that illuminates one's Jewishness within the self and externally in the world.

The objects one creates will resonate along the Sefirot, the Soulfires that ignite in response to Chabad. If the Sefirot do not ignite, then one has done little but memorize a rote concept leaving unrealized what was Hidden by God.

Bethlehem=House of Bread, House of War

One needs the Torah to provision the limbs, to tell them what to do. Only then will the house know on which side it is to fight a war-Egypt or Israel, strife or citizenship.

Etam=foreign ideas that are Kosher for consumption, such as foreign rocks and edible locusts.

Tekoa=sudden sounding of the trumpet that Realization has taken place.

7 Beth Zur, Soko, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

Beth Zur=the House of the Rock, the upper hallowed space where Tekoa takes place, opposed to the lower one, in the chest or the one lower than that where the...sits under the navel.

Soko=from Seker, if one drinks the beer, one is paid wages in drunkeness, the same with knowledge, if one works to hone the mind one becomes drunk on what is known.

Adullam=to be heroic

עדל

There's no Hebrew verb עדל ('dl) preserved in the Bible but its Arabic cognate means to act equitably or be just, whereas its Assyrian cognate means to be a hero.

Gath= the winepress (presumably of the beer or wine in which one is paid in wages for pressing the juice)

Mareshah= to obtain one's civil rights

רוש

The shape-shifting verb רוש (rush), ריש (rish), ראש (re'sh) or simply רש (rash) means to be disenfranchised; to have lost liberty and civil rights, usually due to poverty or conquest. Nouns ריש (rish) and ראש (ri'sh) reflect the state of being disenfranchised.

ירש

The verb ירש (yarash) means to enfranchise, to take possession of (at the implied cost of disenfranchisement of others, obviously). Nouns ירשה (yerasha), ירשה (yerushsha), מורש (morash) and מורשה (morasha) all mean possession. Noun רשת (reshet) denotes a net or a similar device to catch game with.

Ziph= pitch

זפת

The noun זפת (zepet) means pitch; the proverbial black fuel.

9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

Adoraim= "Freedom is a vow."

דור

The verb דרר (darar) means to flow freely. Noun דרור (deror) means freedom.

The verb נדר (nadar) means to vow, and noun נדר (neder) means a vow.

Lachish= Lions

Azekah= brother of the well of contention

Sitnah is the second in a series of three wells dug by the men of Isaac (Genesis 26:21). The first two wells, Esek and Sitnah in the valley of Gerar, were quarreled over and abandoned. The third well is named Rehoboth.

The well of contention takes place between enemies both who benefit from the water. The decision to dig the well for the benefit of both is to be the brother of the well.

10 Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

Zorah=dawn, rising, break out

Aijalon= the one who portrudes but in a negative way

The root אלל ('alal) predominantly describes a protruding or sticking out. This may be positive (when one leads a collective), neutral (when one is a tree), or negative (when one fails convention). The latter sense in particular describes foolishness, or at least a failure to live up to cognitive standards or common codes of conduct.

Hebron=

חבר

The verb חבר (habar) means to bind, join or team up. Nouns חבר (heber) and חברה (hebra) mean company or association. Adjective or noun חבר (haber) means united or associate. Noun חבר (habbar), meaning business associate.

11 He strengthened their defenses and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, olive oil and wine.

12 He put shields and spears in all the cities, and made them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

13 The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him.

14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord

15 when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made.

16 Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

17 They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, following the ways of David and Solomon during this time.

Jeroboam, "to strive" who liked goat and calf idols, things that prortude in a negative way, had his heart set on being young, carefree, immature, refused to do what the Torah says- grow up, work, learn, get it out of your system by following directions rather than from karma and runs away to Egypt where these things are popular.

This causes King Rehoboam some angst, but rather than lose more of the current generation to the gods of egypt, unshaven boy goats, and golden calf girls, who will make life messy when they return, the King tames the lions by setting boundaries.

Citizenship is a right and a privilege provided one is trained in its rites and proves oneself capable of fitting in.

This requires what is called the Black Fuel, knowledge that is hidden by God behind the vault, under the waves of the Black Sea. The White Fuel, that's not going to help.

So the Tanakh says one must be forced to dig in the rocks for pitch, not dig and get one's rocks off meaning citizenship, as it was in Eden, comes first. Once a generation is trained and pedigreed in all the ways a civil society functions, takes vows, then the rewards can flow freely and the prices one must pay for the right to enjoy them can be made clear.

First, one must be driven South, or as the Tanakh says, learned persons those upcoming must be driven together and the combination must be made to work within what are called Towns of Defense.

0 notes

toraonice · 7 years

Text

Yuri on Ice 2017/03/03 event report “Figure Skate wo 100-bai Tanoshimu Shuuchuu Kougi”

Since I went to the other day’s event and took notes, here’s a detailed report. I went to both the afternoon event (at the actual hall) and the evening one (live viewing from a cinema) and took notes at both, but since this time it was over 2 hours and not 30 minutes like the last event I couldn’t possibly write down everything. I left out most basic information about figure skating that you can easily look up online and kept anecdotes and more detailed information. Still, it’s very long. You don’t want to know how many hours it took me to type this out...

The purpose of the event was to explain figure skating to people who don’t know much about it, so people who already know a lot might find some of the information in the report “obvious”. Please kindly remember the target audience before thinking “who doesn’t know this??”…

The flow of the event was the same in both the afternoon and evening shows, except some parts and some things they said that were different. The participants were also different. You probably know who Kenji Miyamoto is already, but if you don’t know Akiko Suzuki click on the name.

The evening show is actually going to be broadcast on TV Asahi’s satellite channel in April. It’s probably also a way to advertise the ISU World Team Trophy in Figure Skating, which is held later on in April and will also be coincidentally broadcast by TV Asahi. (You can see that TV Asahi is putting a lot of effort into dragging more people into figure skating with YOI, but I guess it’s a good thing)

Translation under the cut because it’s very long...

“Figure Skate wo 100-bai Tanoshimu Shuuchuu Kougi” (“Intensive lecture to enjoy figure skating 100 times more”) Participants: Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Mitsurou Kubo, Kenji Miyamoto, Akiko Suzuki, Yuutarou Honjou (afternoon only), Shunichi Toki (afternoon only), Kouki Uchiyama (evening only). MC: Hiroki Mikami (TV Asahi sports announcer)

***AFTERNOON SHOW***

The show started with the OP footage (History Maker) shown on a screen at the back of the stage. The background colors were a bit different than the original version. It was followed by a picture drama that featured pictures of the characters from the key visual image over a simple school background. In the drama, which was voiced in real time by the voice actors from behind the scenes, Yuuri wakes up in the morning and finds himself in a classroom instead than in his bedroom in Hasetsu. While he is puzzled, Guang-Hong and Leo suddenly appear and behave as if they are his classmates, saying that the school is specialized in figure skating and their assignment is about the short program. The drama ends with Yuuri still in disbelief. By the way, in the drama Yuuri says that Victor let him eat a bit of katsudon the evening before because the accuracy of his jumps improved (say hello to new hidden setting).

After this the MC came on stage and was followed by the participants. The event setting is also a “school”, therefore Toyonaga (voice of Yuuri), Honjou (voice of Guang-Hong) and Toki (voice of Leo) were wearing “gakuran”, the Japanese black school uniform that can be seen worn by Yuuri, Victor and Yurio in the new illustration Kubo drew for the event. Kubo was dressed normally but had an “ita-bag” with lots of charms and goods from the show (to imitate a high school girl). Miyamoto and Suzuki had fashionable outfits. In this “setting”, the voice actors are student, Kubo is the head of the student council and Miyamoto & Suzuki are teachers (they joke about this a few times).

Before starting the main part of the event, they showed a nice digest footage of YOI.

The event was divided into “lessons”, and every time a lesson ended you could hear a chime. The 1st lesson was an introduction of legendary and contemporary figure skaters. It showed footage of various male skaters, foreigners first and then Japanese ones. I didn’t write it down so I might be forgetting someone, but they showed: Stéphane Lambiel, Evgeni Plushenko, Jeffrey Buttle, Johnny Weir, Patrick Chan, Javier Fernandez, Nathan Chen, Dennis Ten, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Takahito Mura, Daisuke Takahashi.

I didn’t really take notes in this part because it was just information on the players, but you can easily look that up anywhere on the net.

The 2nd lesson was about “expressions/representations”.

They asked Miyamoto about how he choreographed Eros and Agape, and he was nice enough to answer in a slightly different way than in the bonus footage of the BDs. Regarding Eros, he said that the movements create a “shape”, the hands move close to the body because it’s more sensual, and the choreography shows off the curves of the body, which is also sensual. Regarding Agape, he said that the movements are more “abstract” and do not create an actual shape, and the hands move far from the body, in a way that all movements connect smoothly. There are also many movements of the arms that start low and go upwards.

He also said that, in general, the fingers are kept in a way that the hands always look tridimensional no matter where you look at them from, and never look flat.

They asked him about the difference between women’s and men’s postures, and he said that women usually stand in a slightly diagonal line because it shows their curves, while men stand upright with their foreheads pushed a little forward and shoulder blades pulled backwards. (The seiyuu tried to imitate this with more or less success, lol)

After this they brought on stage Yuuri’s FS costume, borrowed from Chacott. Kubo commented that the size is actually quite small (people who went to the Chacott Cafe reported that Yuuri’s costume was made based on his real body sizes, which are undisclosed, and that a guy from the staff who is more or less Yuuri’s height said he couldn’t fit in it, so despite what is said about him putting on weight easily Yuuri is actually quite thin when he competes).

They commented that many skaters have a thin waist, and Suzuki said that it’s because they have to do many movements that require twisting your body, so your waist will naturally get slimmer. For this reason, she also suggested that women who want to shape up try figure skating (lol). About muscles, they also said that it really depends on the skater, and while some are very muscular some will be thinner. In all cases, they have a very strong body trunk and core because it’s required for the movements they have to perform.

Regarding the costumes, Kubo commented that especially European skaters tend to wear more flamboyant or weird costumes.

Regarding other coreographies, Miyamoto said that for Chris’ SP he was asked to mimic a shower scene, like coming out of the shower and drying your body with a towel. The ass part was Kubo’s request just because she wanted to see it (lol). They also mentioned Michele’s SP, that uses a showy costume reminiscent of a knight but it’s actually deep because it expresses his frank love for his sister. Kubo said that she found amusing how Miyamoto mimicked a guitar in Minami’s FS and also Seung-gil’s mambo (but the latter was more because she imagined Seung-gil dancing that and found it hilarious).

Miyamoto said that he always takes inspiration for his choreographies from everything around him, not only people but animals, plants and inanimate objects too. He likes to go to zoos and aquariums to observe the animals’ movements and then he thinks about how to incorporate them into his choreographies. He said that animals do not make “unnecessary” movements, they are all natural and so they look fluid and beautiful. He also takes inspiration from statues in museums (you might remember how he was inspired by stone statues for Victor’s throat in his FS) and from many other things like falling leaves, melting ice cream etc.

Suzuki said that when she looks at landscapes music starts playing inside her head, and when she skates on the ice rink she sees landscapes appearing on the ice. The landscape depends on what she is skating, so she might see grass or a desert or something else.

The seiyuu asked if they get nervous when they make a mistake, and Suzuki said she does. Miyamoto said that he used to tell himself “it’s ok, you can do it”. When asked whether it’s normal for a skater to change elements in a program, for example to gain back points they lost due to a mistake, Suzuki said that it’s possible but that on the ice you need both “passion” and “calmness”. If you’re not calm enough you might make mistakes when you change something, for example ending up doing something against the rules, and that would detract even more points. However, if you’re too calm and not passionate enough it might affect your performance and make it less convincing.

They also talked about entering a “zone”, like reaching a mental dimension where you’re absolutely concentrated on your act and aren’t affected by what happens around you, but they also commented that it’s not something you can do on purpose (you cannot be like “ok, I’m gonna enter the zone now”).

At this point they asked the voice actors how they improve their ability to express something. Toyonaga (who was originally a theater actor and not a voice actor) said that he believes “acting is life”, therefore he always pays attention to anything he does in his everyday life to use it as a reference for when he acts, even simple things like unlocking a door or drinking water. When he is asked to act realistically he remembers what he does in his everyday life, and when he is asked to be “hyperrealistic” he exaggerates the everyday movements, so he basically uses them as a “standard”. He said people often ask him if he gets tired doing that (like, constantly paying attention to everything he does), but he says it’s not as terrible as it sounds because he does it very naturally. Toki said he tries to imitate the things his character does to get closer to them. For example, one time he had to play a character who didn’t eat anything and only drank water for a week, so he tried to do the same, but gave up after 3 days. They asked him whether it affected his work and he said that he did his best and somehow managed to perform anyway, but that he did feel exhausted. Honjou said that being in a choir was helpful because you have to express the contents of a song without moving. According to him, learning how to express something when singing also becomes a reference when you are doing voice acting.

Kubo said that when she creates a character’s personality she often does it piece by piece like a puzzle. She also said that she likes to know new things about people, and mentioned an anecdote from a meeting in a restaurant with Miyamoto. He stood up to go blow his nose, and even though they told him “it’s ok, there’s only us” he replied “no way!” and strode out. She said she was happy to see a new “side” of him. Miyamoto explained that figure skaters often blow their nose when they’re on the rink, but he always teaches his students that it’s better not to do it outside in front of people (in Japan it’s not considered good manners to blow your nose in public), so he tries to do the same to set an example.

In this part they also showed a program by Satoko Miyahara and explained what she was trying to express (it was her feelings toward skating, though I haven’t taken notes for this part as I was watching the program so I don’t remember in detail..).

After this the 3rd lesson started. The title is basically “does that scene happen in real life too!?”. They showed footage from the Chuu-shikoku regional tournament in episode 5, first showing Victor getting sulky over Yuuri ignoring him when he was trying to think what to do when seeing him off on the rink, and then the part where he tells him to turn around and hugs him from behind. The topic of discussion is what coaches and athletes do right before the athlete skates his program.

Suzuki said that she put her hands on the border of the rink and did a stretching movement, then her coach would put his hands on top of hers and tell her “itterasshai” (it literally means “go!” but it’s a word that you use when seeing a person off and can imply a variety of meanings like “have a nice trip” or “take care”, so it’s more gentle and meaningful than a normal “go”. I’m sure you hear it a lot in anime). The seiyuu asked whether it happens that the voices of people cheering and the scores of the previous skater being announced are too loud and you can’t hear what your coach says, but she said that you can hear it fine. She also said that sometimes, depending on your condition, you might interpret the words of your coach in different ways, and that coaches also worry a lot about what they tell skaters, especially the last words before seeing a skater off. She said that even her coach (I think it was Hiroshi Nagakubo, the one that has been with her for the longest time) still worried about that even though he had been doing that job for 20 years.

Miyamoto said that his coach just told him “I’m waiting for you, you know”. (Kind of like, “I’m waiting for you to come back, so do your best”)

They also asked them whether skaters happen to have fights with their coaches, and Suzuki said that it happens pretty normally. She said that when you have been with the same coach for a long time (she had the same coach for many years by the way) both coach and athlete believe that they know what each other thinks, but in fact their interpretation of each other might not always be correct, so there are misunderstandings. And in some cases you might interpret what your coach tells you (for example when you make a mistake) as something too harsh and might think “well you don’t have to say it that way…”. At this point Toyonaga was like “that’s just Yuuri and Victor!!!!” (he voiced what everyone in the hall was thinking, lol). Suzuki continued saying that it’s a good thing because it means that both are very serious and have a good relationship. If a coach and athlete didn’t have a deep relationship they wouldn’t fight in the first place because they would not say what they actually think out loud, and if an athlete didn’t care about what their coach says they wouldn’t be affected by their words enough to fight. She said that clashing requires a lot of energy, but that it will help you move forward.

Here the seiyuu were asked whether they also have something they always do before recording. Toyonaga said that recording studios are usually very casual, they’re not as tense as a sports arena could be before a match, but when they start recording everyone is like they “enter a zone”, they all suddenly become focused. Toki said that he usually stretches at home before recording because his body tends to become stiff. Honjou said that he moves around in the recording studio, like doing some light exercising. Also, when he’s recording something alone (for example narration), he walks in a circle repeating the lines.

They also showed footage of Satoko Miyahara with her coach. They usually have a forehead touch before she goes skating. They said to pay attention to what coaches and athletes do right before a performance because it can tell you many things about them. (I haven’t watched enough figure skating to be able to give a list of examples, but I’ve seen some athletes do things that aren’t so different than Yuuri and Victor, like, holding hands seems to be somewhat common?)

After this they moved to the 4th lesson, which is about jumps.

Kubo said that when they started to create the story for YOI no one had ever landed a quadruple flip yet, but then Shoma landed it in April 2016 and after him came Nathan etc. They made the quad flip Victor’s signature move because they wanted to use something that had not happened in real life yet, however reality “caught up” sooner than they expected.

They showed footage of Yuuri’s triple axel preceded by an eagle (you can see what a spread eagle is here) in his SP, and then of Yuzuru’s eagle+triple axel+eagle, and explained how it worked. They said that from Yuzuru’s footage it looks like an easy feat but it’s actually very difficult, and Suzuki said that actually she can’t even do the eagle in the first place (you need to have flexible hips and knee joints, so some people can do it more easily and some can’t do it at all), let alone connect it to a jump. They went on to explain how in the past athletes usually skated straight before a jump to prepare for it, while now it’s common to do lots of steps right before a jump, because it’s more difficult therefore you will get more points, and it’s easier to fit the jump into the choreography without making it look out of place or disconnected.

The seiyuu asked whether it hurts when you fall during a jump, and what happens when you fall. Miyamoto explained that skaters know their songs very well and can calculate how many seconds they lost when they fall, so instead of trying to do all the steps that they missed they just “cut” that part and start from the steps connected to the passage that is currently playing. This is both because if you try to catch up you might just mess it up more, and because it’s not visually nice to do steps that are unrelated to the music, so you would not get a good score. Suzuki said that when you are in a match you don’t really feel the pain because you’re focused on the program and your mind is too busy with getting up as soon as possible to continue the choreography. However, it hurts later when you have finished skating. And during training it normally hurts a lot. She also said that, if you fall, hearing people cheer on you really helps give you courage to get up and continue.

In this lesson Suzuki explained the differences between all 6 figure skating jumps, but I will skip that because it’s something you can find anywhere online (you might want to check the abbreviations because I’m using them in the report).They didn’t really show footage though, she just explained it and showed how the feet are positioned.

After this, the seiyuu and Kubo took part in a quiz where they had to look at footage and guess how many rotations a jump had. They did it one by one. Honjou got Shoma’s 4T but he couldn’t guess it (he said triple). Toki got Patrick Chan’s 4T+3T and complained that “no one told me it was gonna be a combination!!” (lol). He also got it wrong. Toyonaga got Rippon’s 3F+3T and he guessed the rotations (he didn’t guess the type of jump but it wasn’t requested). This was funny because he was trying to understand whether it was a quad or triple, and actually the commentator in the footage was saying “there are no quads in this program”, so they told him “there’s actually a hint in the commentary..”. He asked to play the footage a third time and they did, but when the commentator was speaking Toki suddenly said “by the way Toyonaga-san, what did you eat today again?” overlapping with the voice (on purpose of course) so Toyonaga couldn’t hear, which was amusing. Kubo got Lambiel’s 3F and she did guess the triple but got the jump type wrong. In the beginning she was all hyper because she heard the “correct” sound and thought she got it all right, but then she was told that the sound was because of the rotations and the type was wrong, so she was like “ok that was embarrassing”.

They talked about Yurio’s quad salchow, because normally (in what is considered the “standard salchow”) before jumping a salchow the athlete puts his feet in a spread position that reminds of the Japanese ハ character, which is also used as a hint to recognize the jump. However, Yurio doesn’t do that, his foot brushes the ice in a different way, therefore it’s considered a “particular” jump and it would be rated higher than a regular version. They said that jumps preceded by an “unexpected” sequence (a step sequence that is not normally used before that jump, usually because it’s difficult) and jumps that are correct but in a style different than regular ones are rated higher. The eagle before the triple axel is also among those.

After this they showed the footage of Yuuri’s last FS in episode 12. By the way, during each video they usually had a square in the upper right corner where they showed the face of one of the participants. Toyonaga did something silly 80% of the time, like imitating someone’s gestures in the footage. At the very beginning of the event, when they showed Victor’s FS in the YOI digest footage, he imitated a movement Victor does with his right hand next to his jaw (difficult to explain without pictures..) and it became a recurring joke in both events. He called it “saiin” (it’s onomatopoeic).

When talking about jumps and points, Kubo consulted some data (maybe the protocols?) she had with her and said that Victor’s score was still above Nathan’s, but real life skaters are currently evolving at an amazing speed, therefore in her opinion last autumn was the last chance to air YOI the way it is, because now there are so many skaters jumping multiple quads in one program that it doesn’t look like a stunning feat anymore. Suzuki said this is a historic moment for figure skating, because of all the new types of quads that more than one athlete is able to land in matches.

The seiyuu asked to tell them some “skating slang” that will make you sound like you know a lot about figure skating even if you don’t (lol), and Miyamoto said that skaters (in Japan) call “gurinko” an under-rotated jump, and “pattanko” or “pattan” a downgraded jump. Suzuki agreed on the first one but she said she never heard the second one, and Miyamoto said it probably changes depending on the local dialect (he said Daisuke Takahashi used this word). Still regarding what skaters do when watching other people skate, Suzuki said that when you see a fascinating choreography you want to imitate it right away, so if someone skates a nice choreography other skaters might imitate it while watching it.

They also showed the footage of Yuzuru’s program with which he broke the world record for the highest total score. Kubo said that she was actually there at the arena and that she even spotted herself in the footage (lol).

Near the end they showed a commercial for the “ISU World Team Trophy 2017” (which is going to be broadcast by TV Asahi of course). This is a tournament where skaters compete as teams and the country that gets the highest total score wins. They said the difference with other tournaments is that they participate as teams so they put a lot of effort into cheering for each other, and many will also take things like party goods to cheer. Kubo said that the US team usually brings the funniest party goods and that the kiss & cry is especially interesting to watch because normally it’s just the athlete and their coach, while in this tournament there’s the whole team.

After the final greetings the participants left and there was a final part of the picture drama, with the characters saying a few comments about real figure skaters (Yuuri said things like “Akiko Suzuki is so beautiful” and “Daisuki Takahashi”, which is a famous play on words with Daisuke’s name). Then an alarm started ringing, and Yuuri woke up in his bed in Hasetsu, his last words being “Waaah need to go training!!! Victoooor I’m sorryyyyyy”.

***EVENING SHOW***

The first part is the same, except for the fact that the picture drama had Yuuri and Yurio, and the character pictures were not from the key visual but from Kubo’s new illustration with the school uniforms. What they said was not very different from the other drama.

Another difference is that Uchiyama (voice of Yurio), unlike the others, didn’t wear a school uniform, but no one was surprised about that. He was actually amused that Toyonaga was wearing one. This time Kubo, beside the ita-bag, also brought 3 notebooks (the notebooks that were released recently), and Toyonaga asked to have one. She gave Minami to Uchiyama, Phichit to Toyonaga, and she kept the one with Yuuri and Victor. When they showed the notebooks, Uchiyama said “respect!”, like what is written on the cover, Toyonaga said “I can’t read it!” (because it’s written in thai) and Kubo said “new life! I wonder what kind of new life this is…” (”shinseikatsu” = “new life” is the title of the notebook).

After the introduction of real life skaters, Kubo said that when they got the former competitive skater Takeshi Honda to star in YOI she thought they already used up all the funds, but then Nobunari Oda asked himself to have a part in YOI, and then somehow they got Lambiel too. She didn’t get into details about how they got Lambiel, but it seems that it was something decided at the very last minute and everyone in TV Asahi was panicking because they also had to redraw some scenes and re-dub them 2-3 days before the episode was going to air on TV.

Uchiyama said that even if he doesn’t understand figure skating a lot, when he watches skaters perform he can still perceive the beauty in it.

After showing the Japanese skaters, Miyamoto extensively commented about Daisuke’s sexiness, saying that he really oozes sex appeal and when you watch him skate you just want to give him more points. He said that of course when he created choreographies for him he used movements that would bring out his sexiness. (By the way, the footage they showed for him was from his SP “Eye”, which was choreographed by Miyamoto) About Daisuke they also said that he was always very tense before skating but as soon as he started he looked totally confident, and Suzuki was always amazed by how he he changed completely. Miyamoto also said jokingly that he’s the kind of person who looks absolutely cool on the ice and then in his everyday life has holes in his socks (lol).

Still commenting about Japanese skaters, they also said that most men only perform the Biellmann spin when they’re still juniors and do not usually perform it when they become senior (mostly because you need to be very flexible). It’s one of Yuzuru’s trademark moves.

Miyamoto said that he created all YOI choreographies so that every skater, if they skated perfectly, could become champion (of course it also depends on the jumps etc, because if they all perform their program correctly the ones with a higher basic score due to the technical elements will still win).

Regarding Eros and Agape, he said something different than the afternoon show. He said that in Eros the hands move as if they have some thick liquid sticking to them, as if the skater has honey on their hands, while in Agape they move more smoothly, more lightly. Kubo said that when ordering the choreography she still hadn’t thought about comparing it to katsudon, and she got that idea after hearing Miyamoto compare movements to food. That’s also why Victor when teaching Yuuri tells him to move like he’s “mixing with the egg”.

Talking about women’s postures, Miyamoto said that he likes the Japanese “mikaeri bijin” (beauty looking back) that was popular especially in the Edo period. Suzuki also said that Miyamoto pays a lot of attention to the throat line, that must be in a position so that the neck looks longer. Kubo remembered that, when they told Miyamoto that they were going to use a woman to skate Yurio’s program (because it was difficult to trace Miyamoto’s body when animating the sequence since it was so different than Yurio’s), his first reaction was “I can do that too!”, because he took it as they didn’t think that he could skate in a feminine way.

When they took out Yuuri’s FS costume, Kubo said that “transparent oufits are a man’s dream” (and some of the others were like “??”). Though actually the waist part of that costume is made to look transparent but is not really transparent. Kubo knows too of course. Like in the afternoon show, they said that European skaters tend to have more flashy and “creative” costumes, though according to Kubo when they get older they suddenly start to use super sober costumes that look like normal everyday clothes (she said “they could just walk home dressed that way and no one would notice” and “they look like a combination of items bought at Uniqlo”, lol). She said that she wants to see “more weird costumes”. Suzuki said that if you like your costume it’s easier to get into the part. Miyamoto said that when he creates a choreography for a skater he also tells them what kind of costume and what color would look good with it, and sometimes (according to Suzuki) he even suggests the nail color and earrings a skater should use. Suzuki said that he is actually also good at drawing and sketches the costumes himself.

They showed Evgenia Medvedeva’s program and explained that she was representing a person who lost her dear one during 9/11. The seiyuu asked whether it was distracting to have sounds that are not music in the program (in her performance she had sounds like sirens), but they said that it doesn’t because it’s just part of the program and skaters always practice on that.

Like in the afternoon, the seiyuu were asked what they do to improve their ability to express something. Toyonaga said more or less the same things as in the afternoon show. Uchiyama said that he pays attention to how people speak in movies, and to how actors in old and recent movies use their voices in different ways.

Kubo said that she tries to watch the world through other people (to imagine the world through someone else’s eyes, how it looks to them). She says that usually when she knows new people she looks at them without thinking about how they really are inside, but just how they are. For example, if a person is nice to her, she doesn’t think whether they are actually a good or a bad person, because she doesn’t want to be influenced by that. She also says that wherever she is she always imagines characters in that situation. For example, when she was on vacation in Switzerland she went to a very good cheese restaurant, and she imagined Chris going there to eat cheese fondue with the guy from the Swiss Skating Federation. She also imagined things like Chris and Victor participating in ice shows together (she also went to watch an ice show when she was in Europe by the way). She said that the stories just play out inside her head.

During lesson 3, after they showed the scene where Victor hugs Yuuri from behind, Uchiyama commented (about the photographers taking pictures of Yuuri and Victor’s hug) “I wonder how the press is going to comment those pictures”, and Toyonaga kept on repeating “the music and the direction, the music and the direction”. (Judging from his face, I think he meant to say that the scene looks “awkward” because of the BGM and the way it’s shown, lol)

Regarding the relationship between coaches and athletes, they said more or less the same as in the afternoon. Miyamoto said that when his coach was French he was just told “have a nice skating” before matches, and when they asked him “just that??” he said “well I don’t know French, so even if they told me more things I wouldn’t understand the meaning”.

They showed the footage of Miyahara’s forehead touch with her coach again, and Suzuki said that you can probably feel your coach’s energy flowing into you from their forehead and hands, so it’s a very important moment, and she said that just watching that made her teary eyed. (They didn’t mention it here, but I automatically thought about all of Yuuri and Victor’s “bonding moments” before matches) Kubo said that she always tries to look at how coaches and athletes behave, and at the kiss & cry, but in most arenas you can just watch and cannot hear what they say. However, in smaller venues like the regional Japanese tournaments it’s possible to get seats very close to the rink and so she tries to eavesdrop (lol). She also mentioned how Yuka Nagai pulls up the zipper of her jersey super fast (she also said this in a magazine interview but that time she didn’t mention the name of the skater).

Kubo asked what a skater would want to be told by the coach after finishing their program. Suzuki said that when she didn’t skate well her coach would be like “uff~” when she came back, and then he would scold her in the backstage. When she skated well he smiled or hugged her, or things like that. She also said that sometimes, after they had a fight, they wouldn’t talk to each other for a while, but then other people would tell her that what the coach said wasn’t meant in a bad way, and in the end she realized that maybe she just overreacted and apologized to her coach. Toyonaga commented that Yuuri must pretty stubborn because he never really apologized for something, and Kubo agreed. (Somewhere in this part they also said “just like Yuuri and Victor!!!” once again, lol, and I don’t remember whether it was in the afternoon or evening show, but one of the seiyuu told Kubo “see, you got the relationship between coach and athlete right!”)

Kubo also said that after watching lots of scenes (real life scenes) she thought that it could be ok to write about a skater that doesn’t listen to his coach, and Miyamoto was like “it’s not ok!!” (as in “it’s not ok that a skater doesn’t listen to their coach”, lol).

Ultimately they said that what a skater wants to be told by their coach depends a lot on the skater’s age and other things, so it’s something personal and there isn’t one correct answer that is valid for everyone, which is probably also why coaches have a hard time deciding what to say (as they mentioned in the afternoon show).

Regarding things the seiyuu do before recording, Uchiyama said that Toyonaga always has the pockets of his pants full of stuff like his wallet, keys and other items, and he always wonders “isn’t it distracting to have so much stuff in your pocket during recording?”. Toyonaga says that it’s not something he does on purpose, and actually it’s because he doesn’t plan it properly that he ends up with his pockets full of stuff. He said sometimes he has candies too.

I don’t remember how it was connected to the talk, but Toyonaga also said that Yuuri has a very “narrow field of vision”, basically he only sees Victor and every once in a while he sees Yurio too, while Yurio has a wider field of vision and sees more people and things around himself.

They moved to lesson 4, the one about jumps, and it was mostly like in the afternoon, with explanations about the jumps and so on. The only difference is that this time they talked about jumps with one or two hands over one’s head (which is something Yurio does in the series). They showed footage of Evgenia’s jumps and of Rippon’s lutz. They said that it’s very difficult to do it because the hands above your head make your body longer, so the center of gravity shifts and it’s harder to keep your position stable while you’re in the air. It works better if you’re short. Normally the best way to jump is to keep your hands close to your chest because it’s easier to control the position.

The seiyuu asked a few things about spins. For example, the position of the hands. Miyamoto said that your hands will look different depending on the position of the hand compared to the spin axis, like the same hand could look like an open flower or a closed bud depending on where it is positioned during the spin. Skaters know this and may decide to keep their hands in a certain position for the performance. Regarding what they see when they spin (which is something they were wondering in the previous all night event), Miyamoto said that they just see lines, and the colors of the background all mixed together. Regarding whether it hurts when they spin, Suzuki said that especially the elbows hurt, and that when you perform high speed spins sometimes you can feel the capillaries on the back of your hand popping. One time she had a sty on an eye during practice and she said it hurt a lot when she did spins and she could really feel the centrifugal force. Kubo said that she noticed Western skaters tend to get redder in the faces after spins than Asian skaters.

They also asked them whether it happens that your nose runs during a performance, and what they do if it does. Suzuki said that it happens, and that since of course they cannot wipe it normally but it still isn’t nice to see, one time after finishing a spin she made an elegant movement with her arm while at the same time bringing the hand to her face so she could very casually wipe her nose unnoticed.

In the evening I didn’t write down the jumps used in the quiz, but if I remember correctly one was Shoma’s and the last one I’m sure it was Fernandez. Uchiyama lacked confidence so much that he didn’t even try to guess, he just said “ok I couldn’t get it at all”. I think Toyonaga got the number of rotations right. And Kubo identified Fernandez’s quad salchow right away, not because she made it out from the video but because she recognized the performance and so she remembered the jump. Toyonaga commented that it’s cheating because the answer is just based on your knowledge of the athlete (lol). Kubo said that Fernandez’s quad salchow, Patrick Chan’s triple lutz and someone else’s (sorry I couldn’t hear the name) triple axel are very beautiful and therefore were a good reference for the animators.

Regarding figure skating slang used by athletes, beside the “gurinko” and “pattan” also mentioned in the afternoon, they added a new word, “burin”, which is referred to the shape of the change of edge when skating backwards and they said it’s often seen among US female skaters. By the way, all these names are onomatopoeic.

At the end they showed once again Yuuri’s last performance of his FS in episode 12, and Yuzuru’s program (not the same as in the afternoon, another one, and by the way Kubo was at the arena this time too, lol).

During the last greetings, Toyonaga revealed that when Yuuri says his monologue in the last FS (the one where he says “I don’t want it to end, Victor”) the first time he recorded it he actually put more feelings into it, but he was requested to make it sound like “Yuuri has become a little more mature than Victor” and so they re-recorded it that way.

At the end Kubo handed out her notebook to a girl in the first row. Apparently she had drawn something on it but unfortunately the picture didn’t show up on the SNS… A person who saw it wrote on Twitter that it had a picture of Otabek from the front and a picture of JJ from behind, and that she took a photo but wasn’t allowed to put it online (I don’t know if Kubo said this or if it’s something decided by the person who got the notebook.. to be honest I find it a bit weird that Kubo would prohibit to put it online since she allowed to upload all the pictures she drew at the autograph session. Sad we couldn’t get to see the drawing...).

The event ended with the second part of the picture drama, that was more or less the same as in the afternoon (some of Yuuri’s comments about other figure skaters were different, but the last lines after he wakes up were the same).

#YOI #Yuri on ice #translation #event report #kubo mitsurou #toyonaga toshiyuki #uchiyama kouki #Kenji Miyamoto #Akiko Suzuki #figure skating #long report is long

314 notes · View notes