I'll be the tastiest pork cutlet bowl ever.

Hello and welcome to our weekly there yet in exploration and education in anime. I am Patrick dugan, your anime idiot.

I'm dana hollander, your anime expert and birthday girl. Birthday person.

Birthday person. I'm brenda mccullough, your anime Michelle trachtenberg.

Relevant. That's a poll.

That's a place. Princess reference.

I love that movie.

2005 movie starring Joan cusack, Kim catral, and hayden Pentier.

It's a good fucking movie.

I thought of that line a week ago, and I wrote it down.

Proud of you.

Thank you for your rigorous notetaking.

Oh, I'm committed mentally to an insane asylum.

So, yeah, it is dana's birthday today as we record. And we're going to make your birthday wish come true and watch your favorite anime.

Yay.

All I know is there's a bunch of beautiful boys on ice with a tinge of homosexuality, which yeah, my favorite.

Anime to clarify is Uri on Ice.

Yes. Oh, right. Is that what we watched? I was watching dance. It was very confusing.

I thought we did watch Ice Princess.

I love June Qsack.

I just watched blades of Glory. Is that the same thing?

There's also a lot of gay overtones in that, too.

Yeah, not the same.

The bad we're already off track.

Okay. Sorry.

That's my uri on ice. dana's favorite anime. And how did you come to find this? How did you fall in love? Tell us your story.

Okay, so it came out in 2016. It started airing in, like, September. I was actually looking at the wiki, and episode three came out on October 19. So it probably started airing in October, actually. But I think I just saw pictures and gifts and videos and stuff on tumblr. And I was like, people really seem to like this. Maybe I should give it a go. And then I watched it as it was still coming out, so I was there for it, and I really, really liked it. It's my favorite. I really like it because it made me feel the same way that or on High School Host Club made me feel like when I was 13. So it was very exciting to find something I liked that much.

It has those very nice associations that always help a show. And Brendan, do you have any experience with this?

Just what I'm catching in the peripheral. When I browse the Internet, it's ice skating. Two guys named Yuri and a poodle. That's about all I know.

Great.

Yeah, that's basically where I'm at as well. I was also on tumblr when this was airing, so I would get a lot of that. But that was about it. I know. Gay ice skating, and that's all I get from this show.

Excellent. I mean, that's a good place to start.

Yeah, that's all I need to hop in. I'm told we are going to watch the first three episodes, and then we will be back to see how we feel this is a good show.

Yay.

I guess we have to ask our question at the end.

Yeah, well, I mean, we'll still ask.

But we'll do the routine.

Yeah.

I'll just establish I enjoy it at the top.

Hooray. I'm glad.

Yeah. Very beautifully animated.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah. So let's hop right into that opening song because the song and the animation to it is just delightful and inspiring and it pumped me up.

Every time I hear that song, I can't help but just punch. It makes me so excited. I was born to make history. Hell yeah.

I liked it the first time. I was like, yeah, this is a pretty nice song. And with each subsequent viewing, I was like, fuck yeah. This song, it definitely grew on me.

More and more exponential jam.

Yeah. I started getting more into it and.

I don't know if you noticed, but the opening sequence changes, like the background changes.

Oh, I did not.

Yeah, I didn't catch that a little.

Bit in the first three episodes. It's really subtle, but yeah.

Okay, so the further we get into the season, the more we would notice. Okay.

Got you.

But it's worth pointing out.

Cool. I always appreciate that because I know the opening and ending stuff is usually the easiest because it's just always the same for every episode. So they're like, good, we got that done and we can move on. But then when they change it, they're like, there's more work to do. But it's always a nice flourish, a little touch.

Yeah.

Especially with something as visually beautiful as, like, animated figure skating. It makes it very engaging, even if it's the same thing every time. You're like, yeah, do that flip.

I would be honest that there's one moment in the opening when Victor moves his hand and you see like, purple appear in it. Like the color splotches were falling down. I was like, does Victor have powers? That's all the shows I watch.

Finally, the anime aspect is kicking.

Everyone gets super powers on anime. It's required.

Oh, yeah. That's just their feet. They aren't wearing skates.

Oh, no. Hey, I don't like the show anymore. Think you're comfortable. Episode one. Start off seeing Victor. I'm not even going to try that last name. Super legendary. Niktoroff. nikki Veroff Nikivoff. There we go. It's Victor.

Don't try.

I just wanted to say ice skating legend. Top male ice skater, I think, in the world. Or renowned. He's 27, so that was a big old hit to my self esteem and self worth, like, right off the bat. Okay, I see where I am in life. I was surprised we get a little, like, quick introduction from a little cheeby, high energy Yuri. He's like, oh, hey, here's me, here's what I do. Here's what you need to know so far. And I was surprised. That definitely caught me off guard with what I was expecting from the show style. So we meet Yuri katsuki, who is the titular main character. He is the Yuri that will be on ice. And I'm going to get a lot of these details wrong, so help me out, dana, if you need to. They're at, like, a June world championship.

Incorrect.

Okay.

They're at the Senior Grand Prix.

Senior Grand Prix.

And Yuri lost.

Yeah, he done goofed up.

He came in dead last.

Yeah. And we actually come in after all of this happened. So he didn't actually see it. Right. I just watched it like an hour ago and I'm already forgetting. So we kind of get an idea of it because he goes and calls his mom when he's in the bathroom and he just breaks out crying. And when I saw this, I thought it was his mom yelling. We don't hear his mom on that end. We just hear him talking.

Yeah.

And I thought it was mom, like yelling, like, oh, you've disappointed us. Like, you should have done better. Kind of like the tiger mom, like this Little League baseball mom who's like super aggressive and demanding, but like much late. Later episodes we meet his mom. I think later in this episode we meet him and she's like super nice and care. So it's just like, oh, that was just Yuri being hard on himself.

It wasn't his family.

Just like the way he's like talking, and he's like kind of okay. And then all of a sudden he's like, I'm so sorry I let you guys down. And then he just starts bawling. It's like such an interesting way to start.

Yeah, because they established, like, he was having a rough time. His family dog just died before the competition, so he had a lot going on mentally that sort of threw him off and sort of sabotaged his running in this competition.

Yeah, very unfortunate. And we're seeing the underdog, and we see the point of where he's the underdog for the show. And when he's crying in the bathroom, his rival, other Yuri, who Russian Yuri. Russian Yuri. All of my notes is just Yuri too, but later they end up calling them Yurio because they're like, we get this is going to be confusing. Let's change one of their names. Yeah.

Before they establish Yuri. I was writing ruri for Russian Yuri.

That's one way to do it. I was like, are they going to just put like, blonde yerie?

I was just writing even more pissed off Edward elic. So he follows him into the bathroom. He's hunting them down, and he kicks in the door and just starts berating them like, hey, you might as well retire now. There's not enough room for two year. He's like, just get out of here. You're not even worth the trouble. And kind of an asshole.

Just a straight on the asshole, definitely.

And also so mean.

So rude.

Gaudiest. Fuck. Like just terrible fashion.

I love it.

I love it. They just commit to it, but yeah, not the Yuri on eerie action. I'm used to in it.

Oh, my God.

Had to make one joke. So, yeah, Yuri, they all are leaving after the competition, and they bump into each other at the airport, and Russian Yuri is walking by with Victor, and they're talking to each other. So at this point, we're like to assume they know each other, and it seems like they're familiar with each other. The coach so maybe the coach has a tie in with them. And at this point, mainboy Yuri sees them while he's waiting in line, and he locks eyes with victor's, like, oh, do you want a picture? You're a fan. And main boy Yuri just kind of breaks down and just walks away.

Yeah. Because it is established that Yuri is, like, the biggest fan of Victor, and it idolizes him, and he's the inspiration for him to get into skating. And sort of the humiliation of the loss in front of him and not wanting to go up to him in his most vulnerable moment, he's just bolts.

And this part I was kind of confused about because then we see him come back to his hometown, and it's been five years. Is that right?

He'd been training in America, so he hasn't been home in Japan or Hacitsu. At least he hasn't been there in five years because he also went to college.

Okay. Because I wasn't there.

It said it was one year after that competition, he returns to his hometown.

So it hasn't been five years since the Grand Prix final. It's been five years just since he's been home.

Since he's been home. And it's been one year since we saw him at the airport at the Grand Prix finals.

Right.

Okay. That's what was confirmed.

If only ryuk was here to teach us basic math.

We joked, but now we need because, yeah, he comes home and he sees, like, some of his family again, and he's bigger, and they all make fun of him, and they're like, oh, you put on a few pounds. And I was confused because I'm like, wait, like, did he just get off the airplane? He couldn't have been that large at the Grand Prix finals. And that's what was starting me off. I must have missed that part when they were talking about it. So he comes home to his hometown, and as soon as he gets in from the train station, there's just posters of him everywhere, like, at the station, just like, good luck here. You're going to do great. And it's like, oh, cool. This is just really solidifying. His failure just, like, awesome triggered. I love it. It's great. It's wonderful.

Thanks. I hate it.

His sensei is there, and we find out. She's not a figure skating sense. She's actually a ballerina. So she taught him a lot of dance and stuff, and it makes sense. They kind of go hand in hand and she's there to welcome him. And when she's making a big uproar of his return of like, hey, it's crazy again. So people start noticing like, oh yeah, it's here. It's like, oh yeah, he failed. They're not even saying he failed. It's kind of like, oh yeah, it's that guy. I remember he didn't do that great. And he's just going really hard on himself. Whereas the public goes like, oh hey, cool. It's cool to see someone who does an international sport and a little old man comes up, he's like, oh hey, I want to shake your hand. It's a good senior good deal representing our little small town. And he's just like, here is just like, no, I don't want to shake your hand. And not out of ego, not out of pompousness, but out of self deprecation, of like, no, I didn't do good enough. I don't deserve praise. And I like, that as sensation to somebody. No, get over yourself. Like, snap out of it. Shake this old man's hand, touch this.

Old man specifically, be nice because Victor would be nice.

Yeah, she's also a huge Victor well fangirl as well. So I thought those are very good, like humbling intro real quick to him and showing the people he associates with. And then when she lifts up his shirt, she sees the little pud or they get back to his parents place, which is they run a hot spring in and when they get back there, she sees the little pudge and lifts up his shirt. And honestly when I saw that pudge, I thought he stole the poodle from back in the airport a year ago that he saw. And I thought he smuggled him on the plane because I thought it was like the same day. So that confuses for a second. But yeah. So he gets back and this is where we meet his family and they're all very warm and endearing and just like, hey, everyone's proud of him. He's clearly the hardest on himself.

His parents are so just like sweet and his mom is just like, sorry I didn't call your graduation. And he's like, it's cool, mom.

Sorry I haven't been home in five years. Yeah, I think that's fair.

Yeah, we're both kind of messed up here, but it's extraneous circumstance. We couldn't have done it if we wanted to. But yeah, everyone's real sweet and welcoming him back and he's kind of just in a rut. He's like, I'm just going to help out here for a bit. And he actually goes back to an old ice skating rink. He used to practice that all the time with his friends where he was growing up. And we find out. hugo is an old friend he used to practice with and grew up with and she now she's not the owner of it, but she's like a staff member manager.

Yeah, her and her husband own it.

Yeah, okay. Because I thought one episode the husband says, like, oh, I have to talk to the higher ups about having this event here.

But it was a joke. I'll talk to the owner.

So I was like, yeah, his wife okay. Yeah. So she's like the owner of the ring. And he's like, oh, you guys are close. She's like you're fucking Yuri, man. Like, come on, we're buddies. Like, get in there. And she lets them skate off hours when everything shut down. And if at this time that Victor is also skating in another championship on TV, that his sense. He's back at the end, watching it live, expecting, like, Yuri to be with them, with her watching it. And then at the same time, Yuri is at the ice skating rink and they're doing the exact same routine. And I was surprised by that because I wasn't sure if the routines were known or if this is, like, victor's signature routine that he does all the.

Time and all that. The way the ice skating works, is that no.

Nothing.

Yeah. For each season, you have a short program and then a free program, and you just perform the same ones at every competition. Okay, so because the season is already finished, he knows that routine, or he memorized it just by watching Victor do it.

Yeah, that's why I was confused about I wasn't sure if it was like, oh, never before seen routine. I thought that was like, every competition. But that's good to know. That clear some stuff up.

Yeah. that'd be so much work.

He's a prodigy. He's doing the exact same routine no one's ever seen before. So, yeah, Yuri is doing the exact same routine as Victor at the exact same time. And he's just doing it to practice and trying to get out of his own head and get out of the funk. And it's at that time these three little goblin creatures, we find out, or yuka's daughters. They actually recorded him or videoed him while he was practicing victor's routine, and without telling anyone, uploaded it to YouTube and it just went viral. Everyone saw it and it got super popular.

Their names are bad.

Don't remember them.

Their names are axel, lutz and Loop, which is painful.

Parents. Yeah, that's upsetting.

I super love the part where they're doing the same routine because the animation is very good. And also, I love how much focus they give to the ice skating. It's not just like, oh, yeah, he ice skated. He did his routine. It's like you get to watch the whole thing.

Two second shot of okay, he's on the ice.

Cool.

We don't have the animation budget. They actually focus on it.

Yeah. And I think that's really neat.

Yeah. Like, with my Hero academia episode, we have, like, oh, here's this, like, five minute fight scene that's like the big money shot. Whereas with your eyes, they do it in the first episode. Here it is. Here's what the beautiful animation is going to look like for the, quote, action sequence of the series. Yeah, so I enjoyed that, and I was kind of impressed by the camera work of three weird. Little huey, dewey, louie, Don't. Pretty steady camera hit. Yeah. So, yeah, they upload this, and it goes viral to the point where even Russian Uri, the dick boy well, that's a bad name. Victor actually end up seeing it too. And Russian Yuri gets pissed. Who's he trying to show off? Who's this guy coming out of not even retirement, but out of the woolwork, out of shame. And Victor sees it's like, oh, shit, my boy. I got to find my boy, my sweet child, my legacy. And Victor ends up coming to Japan to meet Yuri. At this point, we don't know, but to eventually train him and definitely immediately.

Strip in front of him.

Oh, yeah. It's, I guess, snows in April in Japan.

Normally it was like a weird weather event. I think they mentioned on the news in the show.

Okay, so, yeah, yuri's mom wakes him up and say, hey, get up. You have shovel the front walkway so customers can come into the inn in hot springs. He's like, okay. And then when he's done, he comes back in. They're like, oh, hey, this foreigner, this, like, really gorgeous foreigner, this man is stupidly beautiful is here. And he's like, apparently an ice skater. He's like, what? And here he just flies into the hot springs trying to thinking it's Victor. And sure enough, it is. And get a look at that dick.

Yeah. Immediately meeting his new student, he stands up from the bath, where he could have just remained seated and had this conversation, but he stands out of the water fully exposed.

It's a power.

It's like, hello, young boy. Let me be your coach.

Oh, hi, Victor. Nice to meet your meat.

Oh, my God.

Right out there in the open. And it's the fantastic one thing that.

Is kind of questionable, but like, watching it again, I don't have as much problem with it. But after he's finished doing the routine, he's talking to yuko, and he's like, I got bored of being depressed. And it's just like, Yuri, that's not really how it works.

It's just that easy. I just got over it.

But kind of I mean, he doesn't exactly say, like, I took steps to getting over it, but he was trying to find his love for ice skating again, and that's how he found it, is doing victor's routine. And I think it's just not they don't make that super clear that he wasn't just like, I was bored, so I got over it. Yeah, but that's what you think in the first watch.

Yeah, I was getting that. It was like, okay, I had my depressive period of lamenting this loss. Let me actually take the steps to getting back to a normal state rather than, oh, let me just pretend my depression went away. And now it's away. Be happy. Don't be depressed.

It's so clear now.

Get over it. Take a walk.

Depression is a choice.

I do like that, though. It's Victor that inspired him to initially get into ice skating. And it's Victor that kind of reinspired him to get out of his own head and like back on the ice. But yeah, it wasn't made super clear. And yeah, that's it. Victor introduces himself and he's like, hey, I'm going to help you out because you've inspired me through redoing my routine. And that's the end of the first episode. Yeah, I like the style of the ending credits with all the Instagram posts, like pictures and stuff. I thought that was, like, very neat to walk on, especially because you see a lot of not even just anime, like shows where it's like, oh, this is a modern show. But then they don't have any allusions to social media or the Internet, or anything really modern besides just cell phones. Yeah, this is very clear. Like, yeah, it's 2016. Like, you know, this is what is.

In 20 people are on Twitter and Instagram. Yeah, we get into it more in the second episode. Yeah, the song is a banger.

When I watched I watched the first couple episodes with Paul and he had never seen them before. This was like in 2017. But when we were watching the ending credits, the shot where, like, erie and Victor are like washing each other's hair on that outside shower, he was just like, oh, guys being dudes.

Just a bro and just a bro show.

They're just such good friends.

Galves pals.

Galves pals. dudes being bros.

And Victor takes his dog fucking everywhere.

Yes. Big old poodle.

I don't even victor. Yeah, it's adorable.

Yeah. I don't know if he says it in this one.

Yeah, I don't think so. I would have definitely written down the dog's name.

Yeah, it's mockatine.

Mockatin.

All right. So, yeah, we start the second episode basically right where we left off. Victor is saying, hey, I saw your routine online. It was great. Let me be your coach because you sucked at that final.

And now you're seeing me naked.

Yeah, I saw you exposed. You're seeing me exposed.

I saw your routine. Now you see my teen.

There it is.

Sorry.

I had to love it.

So, yeah, he says, well, if I'm going to be your new coach, you're going to have to lose some weight, fatty, because there's no way I can teach you at this point with no punches. Yeah. He decides to move into this inn and become uri's trainer. And they sort of take over the local skating rink in the off hours to work on this training.

Victor is excessively savage when he's eating costumed on. And then he's like, oh, Yuri, you like this. And he's like, yeah. And then minako, his teacher, says, like, yeah, he eats it when he wins. And then Victor was like, oh, have you had one lately? And he's like, yeah, I've had one, like, every day. And he's like, Why? You haven't won anything.

Yeah, just like, damn, love him.

He's got a point, though. Yeah.

Going to establish that tough love immediately. yuri's new goal is before he can even step on the rink with Victor, he has to get back to at least his weight for his he has to get back to his weight. He was at for the last Grand Prix. So, yeah, he moves in and is immediately like, if I have to be your coach, I need to know everything about you. What's your favorite food, exes dates, all that stuff. And he immediately gets flustered.

Let me touch you real quick. Let me just get real close to your face.

Victor is all in there's, just no subtly about this. He is way up in yuri's biz.

Yeah. He has never heard of personal space and is immediately not only saying, hey, I just flew hundreds of miles to be your coach without your input. Now I'm living in your house and up in your face asking for every personal detail and let's have a slumber party.

Let's sleep together. Literally sleep together.

Those kind of, like, charming was more like little kids than let's sleep together. It's kind of like, hey, let's have a slumber party. Let's hang out. And just like, yeah, I want to spend as much time around you as possible. It's like, oh, but not yet. He wanted in.

And when that happens, Yuri rapidly takes down all of his Victor posters.

Understandably.

He got to play it cool because his idol is living in his house.

Children oh. Real quick. When Victor leaves Russia to fly to Japan, he's, like, talking to his coach and he says, das Vidania. And I immediately thought he was going to stab his coach or shoot him. I've never heard the words das Vidania in a show or movie that didn't immediately result in someone dying.

Got to get new association.

I love all those moments where they speak Russian or for some reason say English. I love it.

Yes. At this point, we can address the dobbs. Victor is not great.

Dana'S actually found it was like two videos on vimeo where someone actually edited together the dubs and subs. So in certain times when Yuri is talking to his family or someone in Japanese or in his own head, it's subtitled in Japanese. And then when he's talking to Victor, Russian Yuri or something like that, it's in English. So I thought that was a very cool way someone did it. It didn't hold up all the time, especially in the second episode. It got a little sloppier with the edits, but it was an interesting idea with something a show like this that's so international. And we have just like the main cast is Russian and Japanese, but then we also have English.

It made me wish that there was Russian audio, though. Victor and blondie talk to each other.

Yeah, I had the same thought, too.

Yeah. Doing a full committal of everyone speaks in their native language except for when they talk to each other. Being in English would be super cool and make it have that extra layer of authenticity. But this was still an interesting way to go about it, of when they're speaking a different language, it's in English because they have to communicate. It comes through.

I mean, that's most likely their common language, because English is because Americans and England people are all very what's the word? Fuck? narcissistic, presumptuous. I don't know. They assume everybody speaks English.

We're also all too lazy to learn a second language. So if you want us to be included the good people, you have to talk in our language.

And Yuri was coached in America for however long, so obviously he would speak English.

Yeah. But anyway, logical. But yeah, the dub was bad.

Yeah.

Yuri is fine. I'm not a fan of Victor because Victor I was talking to Paul about this. His voice in Japanese, for lack of a better word, is sexy. His voice is very smooth and sensual in Japanese. And then in English, it's just like, what did you do?

It is a pretty poor Russian accent.

I'm pretty sure the guy that plays him played Russia in their dub of hitalia. So I think they were just like, oh, he can do a Russian accent. Let's just have him play Victor.

He's a Russian.

That's not how it works.

Yeah. Other people can do Russian accents.

I like the victor's Japanese voice because it also came off as more playful, especially when he was kind of messing with Yuri at times at the end. So I thought that worked out better.

Yeah.

So Victor starts exploring the town with Yuri a little bit as they're doing their training montage to get Yuri back into skating weight. And he posts a picture of him in front of this tourist attraction, like Japanese ninja house. Yeah, he posts that online. So now the world knows that he is in this sleepy little Japanese town. And we also have Russian. Yuri find this as well. He is pissed. I loved when it showed him on his phone. He had such a visceral, angry reaction. But his surroundings is he's laying in bed, he has his cat lying on his stomach. He has his laptop open, and it's just like, oh, this young teen boy in, like, a teen boy sanctuary just having like, a villain monologue of, how dare he betray me by going to Japan.

He's in his happy space, but he couldn't be angrier.

Yuri is a lot like bakugo, just.

Unnecessarily angry at everything.

Yeah. And, like, Yuri is a little more competitive with him than like deku is with bakugo. But it's a very similar situation where Yuri. Is just kind of like, I don't know why you hate me so much.

And there's also a shitload of fanfiction between both pairings.

Yurio is 15, though, and Yuri is 23. He is?

I thought Yurio is 23. I thought they're the same age.

No? Yeah. I think in episode three, they reveal him to be 15. Yeah, I forgot Yuri was 23. I assumed he was also a teen, but yeah, they do say that in the first episode. He's 23. Well, yeah, he graduates college. I'm an idiot. Context is all there, but that changes.

The dynamic quite a bit for me. Okay.

Yeah. It's interesting.

Immediately, Yurio is on a plane to Japan to confront it's sort of hinted at that there was a promise that Victor made to Russian Yuri that needed to be fulfilled, that we get to later. So he goes to this town and immediately hunts him down, because once Victor posts online that he is in this town, of course, all the media follows him as well, since he's this champion skater who, out of the blue, is teaming up with this Japanese skater. Because we haven't touched upon it, sort of hinted that Victor is in this weird transitionary period where people think he may retire, people think he may take the season off. So it's sort of unclear the future of Victor's path in skating. So this is, like, a big step that he's coaching this younger skater. At the skating rink, russian Yuri confronts Victor and Japanese Yuri, but not before.

Buying that sick tiger shirt.

That's my fashion.

Yeah. He goes to a market and just shouts, victor, where are you? It's like, okay, I assume some social skills. Yeah, you can't just show up to a mall and shout for the guy you're looking for in this town.

But now, knowing that he's he must have been home schooled, knowing he's 15 now makes much more sense with all that angst and anger. Like, I get it.

Yeah. He's got a lot to walk through it.

I like that. At one point, he yells, like, Victor, like, on a bridge, and there's, like, a little fisherman there's. Like, oh, yeah, victor's over there. Because it's such a small town, everyone knows where he is.

Yeah.

It's like, yeah, that big famous guy who just showed up, he's at the ice skating rink. Weird how the ice skater is hanging out at the ice skating rink.

What?

I don't know why Yurio didn't check there. 1st 15 to dumb. Let me go to the mall first. That seems like the most logical spot.

Let me get a shopping montage in real quick.

We go to Victor and Yuri being confronted by Yuri because it is shown that in a flashback after his Junior of Grand Prix. dana, do you know what that is?

Like that?

Yeah.

I don't really say specifically what competition it was, but it was a competition where urio was competing, so it was junior.

Yeah. So he does this, like, junior competition that Victor sees. He's getting chewed out by his coach for doing, like, a quadruple spin that he technically can't do in the Junior Leagues. And Victor makes a deal that if he can win the final junior thing without doing any quadruple spins, he will choreograph his final senior debut. And he does that. So he's out for revenge. Not revenge. He's out for what he's owed to get this choreographed senior debut.

Yeah. I like, at this little confrontation, though, between the two uris, we see Yuri running back to the ice rank, saying, like, finally back in my Grand Prix. Wait, now I can start ice skating with Victor. And uria starts, like, laying into him. And at this point, you see Yuri talking in his head of like, oh, Yuri is underestimating me. And he kind of gets a little cocky. And I was like, hey, I really like seeing that.

That's what I mean when they're a little more competitive than deku and bakugo are because it's like, Yuri knows he's good.

Yeah.

And Yuri obviously doesn't think he's good because he did so poorly at the Grand Prix last year. So he's just like, fuck you, Yuri. You suck. Give me my coach back. And he's just like, what are you doing here, you child? Get out of my house. He's my man.

My man. Two bit hope.

Wow. You called a 15 year old a two bit hope.

I've done worse.

I have to, actually.

The two year east confront Victor on who's getting trained and who's getting a senior debut choreographed for them. And Victor decides the genius plan to pit them against each other and is going to have a competition where they both perform to the same song with different compositions. One more sexual and one more innocent love as the theme yes. So, yeah. Yuri, the shy, non confident, not child, since he's the oldest, he is given the sexual version and angry, human mad emoji is given the innocent, pure, gentle version. So they're playing it against type.

Yeah. And because Victor wants to surprise the audience every time he performs, so it's.

All about subverting expectations, not showing up and giving them what they want, but something new that they haven't seen before.

And during the scene when he's choosing their music, we get a solid ass shot of all of them, like swan.

They get those tight. They know what the audience wants.

Oh, yeah.

They know exactly what they're doing. So the conditions are, whoever wins this competition, victor will stay and be their coach. So if Yurio wins, he's back to Russia.

Yeah. I like how sweet it is when he's like, Yurio, what do you want from this? And Yuri launches off into, like, be my coach. Come back to Russia with me. And then he's like, Yuri, what do you want? And he's just like, I just want to eat Katudon with you. I'm like, that's so gay.

But so in.

So cute. Yeah, it's really sweet. And he wants to give it all the arrows he can.

I will say there's a point where yuko and Victor are talking while Yuri was practicing. And yuko says, oh, he's no genius. And I was like, Wait, you mean this guy who was out of practice for about a year and overweight and perfectly copied yuri's award ceremony winning performance? Victor. His performance when he was just practicing offhandedly, he did that perfectly. And he was saying, he's no genius. Like, what? That just caught me off guard. I was just like, he's very good. I would say he's a genius of skating.

There's something I caught in this after knowing the whole series. It's interesting the way Yuri talks to Yuri. At times. He kind of plants this seed in yuri's brain. Like, no matter how confident Yuri can feel, at times Yurio plants this seed where he kind of wants to make Yuri feel like he's wasting Victor's time.

Yeah.

And this isn't much of a spoiler, but that, like, stays with him for the whole series. And that's something I never really noticed before, is that that like self doubt and, like, nervousness and anxiety comes from Yurio being like, you're a fucking waste of Victor's time. And I think that's interesting.

Yeah, it's cool to see the exact pinpoint origin of it.

Yeah. Because Uri is obviously very insecure as it is.

Yeah.

He has a big ball of anxiety and depression.

That seems to be a trend with our podcast.

Wow. So episode three, it's a lot of training. Yuri and Yuri are both learning how to put as much agape and arrows in their routines as they can. So agape is meant to be, like, soft, and it's based on unconditional love. And then arrows is much more extreme and based on sexual love and desire and pleasure. Pretty much. This is just Victor wanting to bang Yuri because I'm going to give you arrows because I want you to be sexy.

Just absolutely no subtlety at all.

It's just trading him to fuck.

And while Victor is showing them the choreography, literally calls him hot, which made me excited, at least. In the subtitles, he says kakawi, which can mean, like, cool or handsome. But I like that they went with hot for the translation.

I wrote down a quote. This episode had a lot of quotes that I wrote down. I don't know if it's just the one I watched or if it was in your guys as well. But when Victor was showing him the arrows performance, yuri says, it's so hot, it's quote, enough to make even a man pregnant. I didn't want no, I wrote that down because we got one. Yeah, that's a bit much.

Feels unnecessary. Yuri, calm down.

We get it. We all agree he's hot, but like, fucking whoa.

Yeah. So Yuri is kind of like, gee, I hope I can do this. And Victor gets up real close to him. This is a good shot. He gets up real close to him, and he's like, I want you to feel confident in yourself. Show me your arrows. Show me how sexy you can be. And it's just like, damn, man.

He wants that boycottlet.

Yeah.

He wants to pork cutlet.

So Yuri kind of says, victor decides that he needs to do basic training.

Sorry, before we get too far, at the start of this episode, we get a girl nosebleed as yuko sees all these hot boys training, victor just like.

His his shoulders slightly, and she's off. That's enough to get her.

Me too.

I wrote down later because it happens again. And I was like, thank you, yuko, for single handedly fulfilling our nosebleed quota for this anime.

We love that.

We got to spread it around to everyone. Everyone can have nosebleed.

Yeah. So while he's stretching with takashi, yuko's husband and co owner of the ice skating rink, yuri is kind of saying, I can see the story that Victor is trying to tell. This is how it is in my mind. It's like a handsome playboy that comes to the village, and he wants to seduce every woman, and he seduces the most beautiful woman and then drops her. So that's the story he sees, and he's kind of trying to figure out how he can play that role. And in the meantime, Yurio definitely can't feel agape, like, he goes too hard in the paint. He puts no emotion into his skating skill. So Victor sends him to a temple, which is funny.

I also don't want to gloss over the animation style change when Yuri is going over the story of arrows. Just this very beautiful silhouette of the story, he explains of the guy coming to town and trying to seduce the woman. And it was just such a nice little break to add this little vignette of this beautiful Japanese style artistic animation that was sort of out of the blue, but very welcome.

Yeah, I think, too, we've talked about how pretty the animation is, but just, like, the style of it too. I guess we've just been watching a lot of older anime, and when I say older, I just mean, like, ten years old, but just, like, the difference between it anytime there's, like, a close up shot of any of their faces. I'm so distracted at how crisp it looks. Yeah, it all looks so beautiful.

There's a big animation shift from early 2000s anime to current or even, like, late 80s, early 90s, when there was something about the early 2000s where it just kind of got really gentrified and very same looking and cheap, kind of. And I think 20 years ago, it was like, a good ear. And then now I think it's a good ear where people are really taking risk and trying to uniquely be able to identify a show just by the style. Even if you just see a background shot of a scene, you're like, I know what show this is because of how unique the style is to that show. And I really enjoy that.

But so they're like, back at home and they're eating dinner, and Yuri is thinking, I'm 23. I should be able to show some sexiness. I am a man.

I'm a man.

Like, I'm not a child. I'm a man. And he's thinking like, what makes me lose focus? And when I think about it, I can't stop thinking about anything else. And he gets up and he's like, I know what it is. It's Katsudan. Arrows, to me, is a pork cutlet bowl.

He's bornie for that pork.

Yeah. So he decides that that's what he's going to focus on.

I fucking get it.

For his air.

Like, I super fucking get it. No, I really want pork olive.

If anything had to motivate me, it would be a big old, nice warm bowl of pork.

Yeah. Honestly, whoever invented Katsudan should pay uri on ice because it's literally just an ad for pork bowls.

You already want that pork meat.

Then there's like, a little training then there's like a training montage of uri and urio, like practicing and exercising and stuff. And we love a good training montage. Got it. Montage, yeah. So after their training, victor in a similar way to being like, we need a temple. He's like, Maybe we need a waterfall. And it cuts to Yuri and Yuri both in the waterfall. And Yuri is like, Why am I here?

I don't need.

Yurio has this flashback where he is walking home from ice skating practice with his grandpa, and he's talking about how even though his mom isn't there, as long as his grandpa's there, it's okay. And that made me really emotional. It's so sweet.

I can tell. Just the style. I'm like, here comes the flashback that just gets everyone at the heartstring.

Yeah, I'm tearing up right now.

I like that. In the third episode, they're already establishing. Yeah, he's the bitter rival, but he's still a boy who had, like, childhood issues and felt low from family.

He's still just 15.

He still loves his grandpa, Joseph Joseph.

Yeah.

No, that's what he looks like.

Crossover series.

We already know Joseph. Joseph had a kid at like, 64. So who knows? Maybe he had another one.

And after he snaps out of the flashback, yuri is kind of like, oh, he looks different. Like, what happened to him?

He's sensitive and vulnerable.

And then the next morning, they're alone at the ice skating rank. Yuri and Yurio, because Victor is hung over because he drank too much when he went out to get ramen, it.

Was at this point I was like, Victor is a good skater, but not necessarily a good coach.

No, I wrote earlier on, it's interesting how Victor is introduced because I kind of feel like he's unlikable a little bit at the beginning. He's super egotistical and just stupid, and he stays stupid, but it becomes more endearing.

I feel kind of like he was kind of, like happy go lucky, but because he's already at the top of the world, so it doesn't matter what he does because he's already succeeded.

Right.

But it's like, well, we're rooting for these underdogs, and it's like they still got stuff to overcome. So him being just so carefree about it just kind of seemed, like kind of off putting.

Yeah. And I think that's what it's meant to be like yeah, but so they're alone at the ice skating rink before Victor gets there, and Yuri asks Yurio to help him land one of the quadruple spins. I forget which kind.

It was like salko.

Salkow.

Salcao.

Yeah. Okay. Got that word. There are, like, four different types. There's, like, axel lutz loop and salcao. I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that I know Salcao.

Is the next daughter of.

I hate it.

Yeah.

I didn't know the other name.

They're going to have another baby. spoiler alert. They have another baby. Name is sal. Cow.

I would not be surprised. Season two.

Yeah. He is helping him, and then when Victor gets there, he's like, hey, what's up, guys? And then they're like, oh, we're just practicing by ourselves.

Nothing. Don't worry about it. We weren't bonding at all.

It's sweet because they're becoming buds a little bit.

It is nice, especially since they are competing against each other, that they are taking the time to teach each other stuff. And it goes beyond, hey, we're rivals. We're actually both students under this one teacher. Let's actually help each other.

Yeah. And it's not like a big competition where there's a ton of contestants. It's just a one on one skate off.

Yeah.

And I think this happens before this. But they pick their outfits for the competition, and Yuri picks Victor's skating outfit from when he was much younger. I'm shocked. It fits him. They both fit yuri and Yuri. Oh, no. It was when he was a teenager. I was it because he had long hair. When he had long hair, he was like a teenager.

He looked like separate.

Yeah, sure. He explains, like, oh, this outfit is from when I had long hair, so I wanted to play with the androgy so it has elements of male and female wear fashion. And Yuri was like, I'll choose this one. Hold on. Trying to figure out when does he go see Minaco, his team?

It was the night before the competition.

I'm trying to think of when it happened in the show. I guess it doesn't really matter.

It is weird because they show him getting there and then cut back to it later to see what he was actually doing there.

The competition begins, and they make Yuri look so nervous. Like, there's something about the way they placed his eyes, like, when they're doing the news broadcast, I was like, he looks so scared. And it made me really anxious.

And they also give, like, a POV shot of him staring down at his feet and he's almost blacking out. Yeah, because he has that tunnel vision from the nerves.

Yeah. But so urio goes first and he's found his agape. He loves his grandpa. He says unconditional love. To me, that means grandpa. And I was just like, that's so fucking sweet. Because I like when different types of love are represented and not just like romantic love. And obviously this kid is 15, so, like, of course he's going to love his grandpa. And I think that's so sweet.

Yeah. I also like that it wasn't just like the trophy anime of, like, my father abandoned me and I'm living up to his expectation. kirama, what's the duo name? And the girl. Like, how we just watched kamina. Funny, but it wasn't like that before.

Hey, you're pick.

They say it was my favorite, but yeah, I like that it was a different relationship than we normally see all the time.

Yeah.

Because even the unconditional love could have still been romantic. But they chose a familial paternal figure in his life when he was having issues with his own parents. So it was a very sweet dedication and inspiration.

It's refreshing.

Movement goes up to my poppy.

Yeah. So while that's going on well, I'll just finish talking about his routine. Toward the end of his routine, he kind of panics and he's like, oh, no, I am not thinking about my grandpa as much as I should be. I'm losing the emotion. fuck. So he kind of realizes that he didn't do as well as he could have.

Yeah, he technically nailed everything move wise, but the passion wasn't there, like, halfway through because he got distracted.

Now it's yuri's turn, and I will explain what happened the night before. He goes to see his ballet teacher, Minaco, and he asks her to teach him how to move like a woman. Because he decides that in the story that he thought of, he is the beautiful woman and not the playboy. And I love that I hadn't thought about that much the first time I watched it, but I think he was.

Struggling so much with the I don't have the confident swagger of this casanova going into town. So the adaptation of going into, oh, well, I can be the seductive woman who is inspiring all this passion rather than the one who is, like, displaying all of it.

And if you think about it, he sees Victor as the playboy who's in.

The town and seduces everyone.

Well, therefore, he wants to be the beautiful woman that seduces the playboy. He wants to seduce Victor.

This is all one elaborate mating dance.

Absolutely. As we said before.

Flashy enough.

Yeah. Before he goes on, he's, like, about to black out from the stress. And then he looks up and Victor's in front of him, and he's like, you ready, Yuri? It's your turn. And he's just like, yeah. Hey, I'm going to be the tastiest pork cutlet bowl you've ever seen, so please watch me. And I wrote down that roughly translates to, I want to make you horny. Please watch.

I want to make you eat me. I wrote down, like, these boys aren't thirsty. They're hungry. They don't want something to drink, a bunch of thirst. They want the meat.

Wow. Then he gives them a hug, which is sweet.

I just see him wearing, like, see anything? You like, bring it on his plan throughout this entire thing. No one else needed to see it. If it was just the two of them, it would have been the same.

Yeah, but I think a lot about things because this is my third watch of this show. So now I think about all of the subtle things. So when he hugs Victor, it is not a friendly hug. It is an embrace to each other, which is like, touching in Japanese culture is, like, super intimate. Like, couples don't even hold hands in public.

Scandalous.

I know. So that hug is like, that was a lot. And Victor goes, yeah, of course. I love port cutlib bowls. And it's just like, ooh. So Yuri goes out there and he starts doing his routine, and he goes, who am I dancing for? I know. Who. And he locks eyes with Victor. And Victor does a really low whistle, which is just great. So he does his routine, and he's, like, thinking through all of this stuff about how this is how I feel more comfortable, is, like, portraying the woman in this routine in this story. And he says, I'm better than any woman out there. And it's like, yes, you are, Yuri. Yes.

Queen, dear's.

Female warrior.

Yes. Well, he's better for Victor than any woman out there. That's what I like to think.

That's something I thought about. Is his ballet teacher saying, like, oh, he's one of the sexiest, like, bachelors talking about Victor, he's like, one of the sexiest bachelors. And they're like, oh, I think someone needs to come in. Like, I'm surprised he hasn't, like, gotten any woman he could choose. And I was like, have you seen him interact with any dude? Because he's fucking hungry for boys.

Take the hint.

Yeah.

This very attractive young man is not dating any girls. I wonder what could be happening.

Well, he's prowling over these young skater boys, like, completely naked in the hot spring.

Okay, let's not make himself that creepy.

He's not creepy.

Is 23. Yes, but so while he's doing his routine, yurio just watches Victor watching him, and he just leaves because he knows that Yuri did better than him in terms of portraying arrows. And also, obviously, Victor wants to work with him. So he kind of just decides that.

He'S out, even though Yuri messed up one of the jumps. So technically he was worse than Yurio, but as a performance wise, he was much better.

Yeah, he had more passion throughout. And that was the defining factor of the dance because it was all about passion, both romantic and unconditional familial.

So he's leaving and yuko is like, where are you going? And he's like, I'm out of here, girl. I know what's happening, but I'm still going to win. Don't get me wrong. I'm going to go back to my old coach, but I'm still going to beat erie. And then erie and Victor are standing on a podium together, and they're excited to start working together. And they're so in love already. It's so, like, obviously just by the way they touch each other. Because like I said, in Japanese culture, touching each other is something that doesn't happen in public. But because Victor is from somewhere else, I guess it's a little different.

I believe Russian culture is a little bit more familiar with contact.

Yeah.

Got to get that other person's body heat. It's fucking cold. But even with that, yori is much more physical with Victor than anyone else. Even in that regard, it clearly stands out. But at the end, Victor says, the battle for my very last figure skating scene has begun. Is this supposed to be implied, that this is going to be his final one? Like he's going to retire after this?

You mean Yuri?

Yeah.

That'S fine. I think it's something that he's thinking about just because, again, people put ideas in his head and it's just something he thinks about. But yeah, he does say that. But I mean, you'd have to watch the rest of the show.

Speaking of which, see what happens.

Yeah. So that was all three episodes. Those were the first three episodes. That was a good arc. I was happy that that all happened in the first three episodes.

Yeah, this in my love story, we've got like very solid arcs where if I were to stop here, I would get a satisfying story and not, oh, they left me on a cliffhanger. What will happen? This is like a clear ending point.

Yeah, but so, I mean, you said you enjoyed it. Yeah, but would you keep watching it?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

That's the thing is I enjoyed the dynamics between the characters. I am not very into. Like, the well, winter sports are my least favorite. I'll go ahead and say that at the top.

Interesting. They're my favorite.

Oh, well, that's the difference between someone who grew up in the winter and someone who didn't.

Yeah, I get that maybe sucks, especially for sports shows. I'm not super into because I'm not super into sports. But yeah, seeing the dynamics and the interpersonal connections and definitely the arcs of how each character are going to change through the show, I would say this would be something I would continue watching with others. I may not continue it on my own. This is a heavy indication. dana watched this show with me.

I'm in. What you're saying is you want to sit down and watch the rest of the 4 hours that this show takes up of your life.

Yes. What's nice about it is on my own, I may not return.

Yes.

But I will enjoy it if I get made to watch the rest.

Perfect. I'm in.

I'll probably knock it out because it's only twelve episodes. I'll probably finish it by Monday.

Perfect. On top of it.

Oh, I get it deep. It's going to make a trick then.

No.

All right.

I'm glad you liked it a little bit because if you didn't, I would have cried.

I know this and that's why I would not say that. But yeah. So that was this week. We got a solid. Make me watch it and I'll watch it.

Tie me down to 4ft to watch it.

That's a new category. It's either yes, no or make me.

Fucking make the challenge. I got to have to get new shows to add for that category alone. Yeah.

Mistake has been made. What are we looking forward to next week, Brendan?

Next week is going to be one I picked called Mob Cycle 100. It is from the same creator as one punch man, but it's kind of the inverse of that. It's about a young boy named Mob who has just ungodly powerful telekinetic powers. So he's a psychic and can just do absolutely anything he wants, but chooses to live a pretty normal life because he's a pretty normal kid. And it's a show that was unfortunately made into a live action adaptation recently because I think this show truly exemplifies the benefits of animation. Some of the when he uses his psychic abilities. It's so beautiful.

Yeah. We'll get into it next week, but we all know how Brendan feels about live action at this point.

Yeah. So, yeah, we'll be watching episodes one, two and three.

Perfect, right?

Perfect. Well, thank you all for joining us this week on Are We There Yet? Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. Thank you to louie zong for the song Stories off the album Beats. You can find Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. And we hope you will join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Bye.

Soon.

Video you.