Anime: Yuri!!! on Ice
Creator: Mitsuro Kubo and Tadashi Hiramatsu
My Rate: 7/10
Genre: (arguably) Shounen Ai, Sports
We’ve already established that I’m huge shoujo fan, so it may seem a bit unlike me to watch a boy x boy anime. I complete support these kind of things, of course, and I have read and watched boy x boy (or rather yaoi) manga and anime before and have enjoyed it… because, well, who am I kidding? Romance is still romance! So obviously, I would eventually watch Yuri!!! on Ice. Nonetheless, there have been many debates I’ve read and seen on social media where fans have tried to categorize Yuri On Ice!!!, I honestly don’t think the genre really matters. In fact, I’m sure most of us can agree this anime has a funny, romantic, and yet still sporty story line to it. Does the categorization really matter any more than that?
Yuri!!! on Ice is about a male named Yuri Katsuki, who lost a couple ice skating competitions which had lowered his self esteem. Going back to his home town, a Russian ice skating champ, Viktor Nikiforov, offers to coach Yuri. Along the story line, Yuri also makes a semi-friend/rival, who has the same first name, Yuri (usually called Yurio) Plisetsky, that also wants Viktor to coach him. The sports element in this anime is the ice skating matches, which viewers get to witness in almost each episode and the romance element is added with Viktor and Yuri’s relationship.
Personally, I am obsessed with Viktor’s appearance he has an older yet young look that I am quite drawn to. Nevertheless, I can relate to Yurio’s feelings most of the time. He always seems a bit envious of Yuri achieving things and keeping Viktor as a coach, when Yurio works just as hard at everything. Similar to Yurio, I feel like I’m always watching someone get all the praise relating to something I also did, haha. I guess I can also relate to Yuri’s insecurities when I get a bad grade on something. However, these negative feelings I find relatable may sound bad, but throughout the series I got to (and still do) see the characters shine the most under harsh conditions. This may sound cliche or/and weird, but that kind of gives me hope.
I’m rating this a 7/10 instead of like a 9/10 because I’m not really into sports anime, which most episodes consisted of more than romance. Still, the fact that I’m rating this a 7/10 says a lot because I really am not that fond of sports but I managed to really enjoy watching this anime.
My favorite part of Yuri!!! on Ice *Spoiler Alert* is when Yuri was freaking out and asked for Viktor’s support. I like this moment because I feel like Yuri’s facade was coming off in that episode, he kept acting calm, but here he expresses himself, which must’ve taken a lot of courage because he isn’t the type to put his needs first. I didn’t really like Viktor too much in this episode, though, because he was a bit clueless and weak. He should’ve been a stronger coach and partner before it got to the point where Yuri broke down. Still this conflict was resolved resolved soon enough and quite comedically by Yuri calling Viktor a “baka” haha. *Spoiler Over*
As for who I ship… it should be obvious: Vikturi all the way! Although I’m not the biggest fan of Viktor (even though I do find him attractive haha), I like Viktor with Yuri. Viktor is confident almost always, actually, Viktor has so much confidence it’s enough to make up for the confidence Yuri lacks. Although, in the beginning of this anime, I was sure this was going to be a one sided love from Viktor to Yuri because Yuri loved pork cutlet bowls so much. Unlike many who probably expected this ship to be canon, I didn’t I thought the anime should’ve been titled Yuri On Pork!!!, to be frank. I also did not expect them to *Spoiler alert* kiss! *Spoiler Over* Then again, this anime has guided me through many surprises (episode 10), so I think I’m better off just waiting to see what happens next instead of trying to predict these things.
As of right now, only 10 episodes have been released, so I may do another review on the rest of YOI later. These are just my thoughts so far haha. I wonder if my opinion will change a lot later on in the anime. Hmmm. What do you think of YOI? Do you like it so far? Feel free to comment!
~Here’s a little meme for your own satisfaction haha (arguably has potential spoilers, so maybe don’t look:)
Bye bye :3
onigirionline 