TribstyAnn
Me.
Towns Folk
Yuri on ice is a sports anime about figure skating. It has received a few awards in different categories, and was named Animation of the Year: Television category at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival. I was produced MAPPA, directed by Sayo Yamamoto, and written by Mitsurō Kubo. The series aired from October 6 to December 22 2016 with a total of 12 episodes. It has been both highly praised and criticized for it's realistic ice skating, but also it's varying animation quality.
Let me just start with saying I enjoyed Yuri on Ice. I wasn't expecting to. I was anticipating a yaoi fanservicey mess, with figure skating used only as a licence to be sexual. This was not the case, as I was influenced to expect.
I might as well get the obvious out of the way, and say that the figure skating is beautiful. I was not expecting to enjoy figure skating, as i have never seen it in real life, and didn't expect it to be something that interested me. I was pleased to see that it was indeed interesting and artistic. I was easily able to enjoy it and it was definitely the highlight of the show. The show has been praised by professional figure skaters for it's realistic and accurate portrayal of figure skating. While I can't say that i know this from experience, I just know that the ice skating portions of the show were well done and beautiful to watch.
The music, in my opinion, was also excellent. I really enjoyed the diverse selection of songs the performers skated to. Even if one wasn't my style I could appreciate it, and there were a few, including one of Yuri's themes, that stuck out to me as particularly enjoyable.
That however is where most of my high praise stops. Because of it's focus on figure skating, and how that takes up most of the shows time, characters and story kind of fall by the wayside. Most of the characters only show up for a small amount of time, because they are only in one competition, and we never get to know more about them. Even Yuri and Viktor fall kind of flat, as we don't get to spend enough time with them as characters. While it may be praised as something more, this is pretty must just a sports anime about trying to win the gold medal at the end, in terms of story.
It has also been praised for it portrayal of the same-sex relationship between Yuri and Viktor. I personally didn't notice this that much. This was another thing I was made to expect to be at the forefront when it really wasn't. At the end it took me a bit to realize that it was even there. It's only hinted at in a couple of different episodes.
It has also been criticized for having varying animation quality, though this is something I didn't personally notice.
One thing that did bug me a bit was the repetitive nature of the figure skating portions. The dances we see Yuri perform are often recycled for his other competitions, with a majority of the animation re-used for other scenes. While this isn't a big issue, it is a minor grievance I have.
In all though, it was a show about figure skating, and it managed to display that well. While I may have some minor gripes about it, I do think it is an okay show, and is perfectly enjoyable. Don't go watching it if you are expecting a deep story or complex relationships and motivations though.
Final Score: 7/10
Let me just start with saying I enjoyed Yuri on Ice. I wasn't expecting to. I was anticipating a yaoi fanservicey mess, with figure skating used only as a licence to be sexual. This was not the case, as I was influenced to expect.
I might as well get the obvious out of the way, and say that the figure skating is beautiful. I was not expecting to enjoy figure skating, as i have never seen it in real life, and didn't expect it to be something that interested me. I was pleased to see that it was indeed interesting and artistic. I was easily able to enjoy it and it was definitely the highlight of the show. The show has been praised by professional figure skaters for it's realistic and accurate portrayal of figure skating. While I can't say that i know this from experience, I just know that the ice skating portions of the show were well done and beautiful to watch.
The music, in my opinion, was also excellent. I really enjoyed the diverse selection of songs the performers skated to. Even if one wasn't my style I could appreciate it, and there were a few, including one of Yuri's themes, that stuck out to me as particularly enjoyable.
That however is where most of my high praise stops. Because of it's focus on figure skating, and how that takes up most of the shows time, characters and story kind of fall by the wayside. Most of the characters only show up for a small amount of time, because they are only in one competition, and we never get to know more about them. Even Yuri and Viktor fall kind of flat, as we don't get to spend enough time with them as characters. While it may be praised as something more, this is pretty must just a sports anime about trying to win the gold medal at the end, in terms of story.
It has also been praised for it portrayal of the same-sex relationship between Yuri and Viktor. I personally didn't notice this that much. This was another thing I was made to expect to be at the forefront when it really wasn't. At the end it took me a bit to realize that it was even there. It's only hinted at in a couple of different episodes.
It has also been criticized for having varying animation quality, though this is something I didn't personally notice.
One thing that did bug me a bit was the repetitive nature of the figure skating portions. The dances we see Yuri perform are often recycled for his other competitions, with a majority of the animation re-used for other scenes. While this isn't a big issue, it is a minor grievance I have.
In all though, it was a show about figure skating, and it managed to display that well. While I may have some minor gripes about it, I do think it is an okay show, and is perfectly enjoyable. Don't go watching it if you are expecting a deep story or complex relationships and motivations though.
Final Score: 7/10
I did enjoy it, just not as everyone else did, I guess. I think it was good, just not as good as it's rabid fans hyped it up to be. I wouldn't consider it a slice of life (though maybe it could be), more a sports anime, though it is very different from other sports anime's.