Anime Addiction : Yuri!!! on Ice

Yuri in Ice, apart from being an amazing love letter to the world of Figure skating, is one of the best Anime series to come out in the past year. There is so much I want to say about the series but I am afraid of ruining it for anyone who decides to watch it after reading this review. So before I go into a small discussion about the series I do recommend you go and watch it for it is a brilliant piece of art.

Yuri on Ice follows Yuri the Japanese National Figure skater after his loss in the World Grand Prix Skating event and how the winner Viktor, a Russian Skater, after seeing one of his routines decides to retire for the next season and coach him. What I told you here is the bare minimum in terms of the plot. Using this simple premise Studio Mappa has managed to construct a beautiful show about Ice Skating, Personal Growth, Drama and Romance.

Each and every character in the series has a brilliantly written arc and when you compare the characters they were when they are first introduced and when the series ends, you can find an almost complete shift which was never in a single episode jarring. The main character Yuri is not someone who is special or someone who used to be the greatest skater in the world, and in a way it is his normalcy that makes him unique. And while he can be categorized as the “protagonist”, in reality the show focuses just as much on his competitors as it does on him.

The sense of connection that the show is able to build between you and every other competitor and also between the competitors themselves is what sets this apart from the countless other sports Anime that have come before it. These guys don’t hate each other, they cheer each other on, despite being professional rivals and there are scenes where they feel for their rivals when they don’t land a jump or hurt themselves. The emotions conveyed by the routines of other skaters affect them just as much as they have a connection for their own routine.

Another huge compliment that I have for the show is that there is not one character who I hated, in the sense that I never wanted for a character to lose, and that in itself is an achievement in character Development. The Drama is palpable and the dialogue is relatable if not realistic and in the end, all that mattered was that when they cheered and cried on screen for each other I cheered and cried on screen with them.

Apart from the Characters and the story this Anime has two other strong points and that is the Romance and Animation.

Before I move on to the animation, I loved the way this Anime handled the romance. If you have any experience of watching a sports centered anime then you know that it is littered with homosexual humor, and while this also has its fair share of shirtless men staring into each other’s eyes, it takes a far more mature approach to the actual romance. The relationship that is shown to develop between the protagonist Yuri and Victor is something that I never would have expected out of an anime.

Of the few times these kinds of relationships have been portrayed in Anime they have usually been linked with lust and physical attraction, and I do believe that this is the first Anime to portray one that is much more subtle and complex. Both the characters are on a level ground and both learn and grow from their experiences.

As the show progresses and you realize that there is some chemistry building between them, there is almost a reduction in the funny scenes which implies that they are in love and they are replaced by much more mature scenes where it shows them both willing to sacrifice things to help them grow as individuals and for each other’s happiness. This aspect of the show was something that I never expected and it completely floored me, coming from a country where the Law is very much against such relationships.

All that being said, their romance is never the focal point of the show, and that is another win for the series because it realized that it never needed to be the focus, for it had a far better story. If you are apprehensive of watching the show because of this, then you can go ahead and watch it because there isn’t even a kissing scene in it, well at least not one that you can see clearly. All that being said I did love the characters and I loved how their relationship progressed; definitely one of my favorite couples in Anime.

Finally, the Animation and the Songs. I realize that the studio didn’t have a humongous for the series, but despite that they utilized I perfectly to create this blend of intimate, realistic, beautiful, touching and tear-jerking Ice Skating scenes I have ever seen. I expected that as their budget ran out the scenes would drop in quality, but as the series went on they just got better and better.

I honestly cannot begin to put into words how much I loved the Animation. The show creates a beautiful dichotomy and uses the lack of budget to its advantage to create comedy using lesser frames and animation and saving the money for the scenes that pack an emotional punch or more importantly the incredible skating scenes.

Oh and did I mention the Amazing and spectacular Skating scenes? No? Well they are awesome and truly a sight to behold. If my repeating it three times isn’t enough to prove this to you, take a look at the Anime opening and judge the Anime quality for yourself, despite the art style being different.

Finally if you did watch the opening you must have noticed the music too. This is also a really strong part of the series. The music that the Ice Skaters Skate to is beautifully composed and in a way suit the Skaters’ personality. There are also a few classical Tracks mixed in for good measure and I love classical music so when I heard the soundtrack I fell in love immediately.

The series is beautifully crafted, masterfully written, spectacularly animated and a masterpiece to behold. Being just twelve episodes long, and each episode just being 23 minutes on average I binged it over two days. While it does have some minor flaws, I can never deny that like the opening says, this anime will definitely make history, and stand as a testament to the creative geniuses that are working at Mappa and also to the way in which certain topics are portrayed.

I give Yuri!!! On Ice 8.5 out of 10

Definitely go check it out, you won’t be disappointed. Until Next Time,

Sayonara!!!