Every ending is a new beginning.
What They Say:
Katasuki Yuri is at a crossroads after suffering a miserable defeat at the Grand Prix Finals. Uncertain whether to retire or to continue, Yuri holes up in his family home. However, a chance circumstance causes him to catch the eye of five-time world champion Victor Nikiforov…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first five minutes or so of Yuri!!! On ICE seem to set the tone of the show as a whole in a very sudden but effective way. The premiere begins with the titular ice skater Yuuri* Katsuki observing his Russian idol, Victor Nikiforov. It’s a short but beautiful sequence, followed up by one of the most striking openings that has come out this year. The most surprising part here, though, is what comes right the opening – while browsing news sites talking about his recent losses, Yuuri breaks into a super deformed inner monologue, and the show’s loud sense of humor takes over.
The juxtaposition of those two very different moods is what defines the experience of Yuri!!! On ICE, and so far, it works really well. A majority of the episode consists of Yuuri working through his feelings, trying to figure out what to do with his life after a series of failures. He moves back home after years abroad, parts ways with his coach, and puts on plenty of weight. His feelings of young adult melancholy could have been the entire emotional driving force of a show, but Yuri!!! On ICE’s choice to maintain a constant sense of humor actually manages to enhance those key emotional beats instead of diluting them. When Yuuri goes into those inner monologues I mentioned, it captures well the experience of trying to compartmentalize bad experiences by trying to lighten them up – even if that isn’t a successful long-term strategy, as we see when Yuuri’s comedic explanation of his failures is immediately followed by his breakdown in a bathroom stall. The show’s comedic leanings also do a great job making Yuuri’s return home feel appropriately awkward yet comfortable. The combination of heightened drama and over the top comedy ironically helps make the show as a whole feel natural, selling us on Yuuri’s internal struggle between his future as a skater and the comfy life he could live at home.
Of course, the show is about ice skating, so it would be remiss to ignore the centerpiece of the episode, a wonderful few minutes where we see Victor and Yuuri perform the same set simultaneously. I’ll admit right away that I don’t know a lot about ice skating; even so, the choreography here is gripping, and the sequence is beautifully animated. I also appreciate that the episode was willing to dedicate such a significant amount of time to this part. It is very important to getting across both Victor’s skills and Yuuri’s passion, but a lesser show might have chosen to skimp out on the runtime of a scene with essentially no dialogue or obvious plot momentum. I hope the show can keep bringing us scenes like this, executed so cleanly and smooth, even if it isn’t a weekly thing, because it is such a unique delight to watch Yuuri and Victor elegantly fly across the screen.
Plot-wise, of course, the skating scene also turns out to be the key to getting this show on the road, perhaps purposefully by comedic happenstance. Yuuri performed for his old friend, whose younger siblings happened to be there and managed to capture the entire thing on video, uploading it to the internet right away (“But all the skater otaku will love it!”). In probably the most distinctly “sports anime” moment of the episode, this video inspires Yuuri’s hero Victor to show up at his family’s inn and declare himself to be Yuuri’s new coach, promising to take him to the top. Even this scene is treated with its own appropriate tone, following a frantic Yuuri as he tumbles through the inn, eventually finding a fully nude Victor and the offer of a lifetime, and the absurdity of it all is cleanly polished by letting the episode end there, with no explanation from Victor given and Yuuri stuck in understandable shock.
*note: I’ll be using “Yuuri” for the Japanese character and “Yuri” for the Russian one so I don’t have to clarify every time they are both involved, even though Crunchyroll’s subtitles romanize both of their names as “Yuri”.
In Summary:
Yuri!!! On ICE is an ambitious project, so far juggling a variety of moods and feelings with the grace of its talented ice skating characters. This premiere comes roaring out the gate with impressive technical aspects on every level and just the right amount of levity in its writing to keep things impactful without becoming overbearing – warm and inviting, while also promising rewarding drama. Time will tell if the production can stay this engaging, but for now at least there seems to be plenty to look forward to.
Grade: A
Streamed by: Crunchyroll