Yuri!!! On Ice Criticism.

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I just watched yuri on ice twice in marathon mode and I was underwhelmed by it. I am not going to lie in this post about the show and I am certainly not going praise this show. If you don’t like criticism then it is your last warning to stop reading, now let’s get our hands dirty.

Main Problem.

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What is yuri on ice? what does it want to achieve? what does it want to be? these questions are important to understanding the flaws that haunt the show.

This anime seem to be in identity conflict, show strongly wants to be a sports anime, comedy anime, slice of life anime, romance anime and light ecchi anime with a lot of light-hearted male fan service, Unfortunately, yuri on ice doesn’t understand what sports, slice of life, romance anime is. This can be proven by simply seeing heartless comedy and unwanted fan service during the god damn skating matches. By my perspective, this anime only caters to fujoshi and those people who never watched a good sports anime. Now let me say it straight I don’t want to insult anyone’s tastes here, just want to make my views clear.

Uniqueness.

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Many people think that this anime is unique and is the savior of sports anime. For those people, I will say watch Chihayafuru you will get you dose of uniqueness and savior of sports anime and if you want anime in this season for uniqueness then watch Fune Wo Amu, that anime is based on dictionary making, fu*king dictionary making the most boring thing in the universe and they truly pulled it off very masterfully. Matter of the fact is that making anime based off Ice Skating is not that unique, I have seen better.

Story.

This is where anime fails the most, let me ask you, why would a world class player come to coach a player who screwed up in his matches. Ok maybe he saw something great in him but Viktor said himself that he wants to do something unique, then why would he help a player who is the mirror copy of him which is opposite of unique, do they truly wished it to be a sports anime or ‘hot guys doing hot things’ anime.

Characters.

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Now let us once more take the example of Viktor, when we first see his we get an impression of a sweet but ruthless guy, later he just changed to a gay, support of yuri, comedy icon and love of our main hero yuri, This anime which is a sports anime does another unforgivable thing and that is Nakama bullshit, whenever yuri gets some problems he remembers Viktor or hug him and that problem is gone, wtf. Sports anime is about overcoming our flaws with our own strengths, not that Nakama bullish*it. And here comes rival second Yuuri, which is the blandest rival I have ever seen in a long time, he gets no character development and he has the most beautiful character designed in whole anime.

The Animation.

Most praised attribute of the show and the probably the only ok thing in this anime. As I have said before that only that animation is good that can deliver the point which story want to make. There is a problem and that is the camera, During skating camera moves too much and I like my camera still and steady, that is why I like Jackie Chan movies, the camera is still giving more impactful fights. watch Fune Wo Amu and you will understand what is a good camera movement and atmosphere design.

Sound Direction.

Most weak part the show, Same music while skating repeated over and over again making skating most boring part of the show giving that the skating relies on music to create atmosphere. Music is just bland and boring in this show.

The Tension.

It is a sports anime, right? then why there is no tension build up before matches, there is more tension buildup before DBZ tournaments than here. This can mostly attribute to boring characters. Simply there is nothing to loose for Yuri, If he wins then he gets his love and if he loses He still gets his love, to be honest even as a romance anime it doesn’t have that thrill required.

That’s it, tell me what do you think about this post and Yuri On Ice, If you liked anime, then tell me what do you liked about it? if you liked the post then leave a like and follow if you are new to this blog.

Thanks.

30 thoughts on “Yuri!!! On Ice Criticism.”

      1. Well, you already feel negatively against it. I doubt that I could persuade you to like it at this point. We love the supportive relationship between Yuri and Victor. It’s not only a homosexual relationship but also an interracial one. It also explores self-esteem issues which is extremely relateable to all of us, and how love/trust helps overcome that. I can list so many other things, but it’s okay if you don’t like it as much as us fans. At least you were honest. Cheers.

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        2. I understand self-esteem issues, but there times I wanted to punch Yuri in the fucking face. [I relate more to Guts who has his issues, but overcomes it with his own will and the kicker? He had no one else]

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  3. I didn’t completely love this anime but I did like it. I mostly just watched it because of viktor and yuuri xD I also enjoy seeing people skate but after a while of seeing the competitors do the same routine over and over it starts to get a little boring. ;/ I ended up fast forwarding some of the repeat choreography in some episodes.

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  4. I’m so glad someone actually noticed all this and it wasn’t just me. I agree with everything you just wrote, this is everything single thing I found wrong about the anime. The story is bland, the characters are either one dimensional or uninteresting with no character development, everyone acts the same despite looking different, the humor is cliche and pretty predictable most of the time. The animation was alright though it did get boring after seeing the same thing over & over again. The sound was also pretty bland but I wouldn’t say it was bad, just kinda meh. Your right about the show having no tension whatsoever, it made it very hard for me to take anything or anyone seriously, I couldn’t get into the show because the mood & story was inconsistent and mediocre. I honestly didn’t see the appeal or why people found this so ground breaking considering how nothing really happens in the story or with the characters don’t change or learn anything, I don’t know how this is even considered a sports anime because the sport itself is rarely discussed or seen as the most important part of the show itself, I would have seen this anime as alright if it wasn’t making itself out to be sports anime, it really would be more or less a slice of life anime. I think the reason why people see this as a “great” anime is because it has two pretty dudes in a relationship as the main protagonist. Though both of them are pretty bland in my opinion. Being gay doesn’t make a relationship interesting to me, it just makes them gay. It would have been interesting if the characters themselves were interesting. Great review! Sorry for the super long comment.

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  5. I’m trying to do a review of yuri on ice and in order to be fair I’m making myself watch the whole anime (because I hate myself) and not just the first few episodes. Honestly I forgot how annoying the show is….I don’t think I can make it. Dear gosh, it’s so cheesy and the atmosphere is waaaay to light for me to take anything seriously. Also I noticed something as I was re-watching the first few episodes.
    Why does Viktor speak random english? Isn’t he Russian? Shouldn’t he be speaking his own language? Also everyone can speak Japanese fluently despite being from completely different countries. Granted, this is an anime and I understand making the foreign characters speak their own language would mean the voice actors would have to learn the languages, but….They didn’t need to have Viktor spout english at random times so people wouldn’t forget he’s foreign. It’s so weird.

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      1. Yeah, the more I watch it, the less and less it feels like a sports anime and the more it feels like a cheesy romance drama. Truth be told, the whole thing looks and feels like a really mediocre BL/yaoi, I was half expecting really badly animated sex scene to happen at any moment but then I remembered this is supposed to be a “sports” anime.
        I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch the whole thing without pausing every 5 minutes because the characters are literally walking archetype & tropes, also the animation isn’t even that good. It’s alright, like it holds up pretty well in some scenes then it goes down hill soooo fast.
        And the one thing that really, really messes up the mood for me the most….is that recap that happens in the beginning of the episodes with Yuri as a chibi. I almost got a heart attack the second time I saw it. It completely demolishes any chances of me seeing this show as a “serious” story.
        My favorite character is Yurio though…he’s a good kid. He doesn’t deserve this nonsense.

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      2. Argh, I wanted to check it out purely because of the gay representation, but this ‘chibi’ thing scared the living daylights outta me.

        ‘Dictatorship of the Flies’.

        At least I read the wiki synopsis and I good review like this one.

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  6. Yuri On Ice tries out so many things that it stands out in none. Although I don’t agree with you on the characters (I thought the character writing was great) and the music (it helped to charactrize this huge cast): I agree with your point on the lack of tension in the anime- maybe because the anime doesn’t do a good job explaining to us the point system and I, too, think that the anime gets a bit too comfortable with its fanservice.

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    1. I watched yuri on ice as sports anime, so I also viewed characters in sports anime perspective. The problem I faced with this perspective is characters relies on acceptance from others, they rely on emotional support and without it, they are unable to do anything and with it, they can overcome unnatural odd which realistically would not be possible. When I watch yuri on ice, I only see Yuri’s love for Viktor rather than the sports itself. It is very important for any sportsman to keep his mind calm even if there is no support and to love what he plays, only loving what you do will get you far in world of sports, you can’t play for anyone, you have to play for yourself or else you are not fit to play sports. Of course, this perspective works only for sports anime, not romance anime. By my standards, characters are fine and will fit romance anime but not sports anime. Romance can be handled good in sports anime watch Chihayafuru for example and Capeta is the best example of what sports anime should try to achieve, both are masterpieces in my view and I think most people haven’t watched Capeta, Chihayafuru is fairly famous. As for music, I enjoyed the Opening and yuri on ice music but a good chunk of environment building background music is lost. I mostly enjoyed first 2-3 episodes but after that, anime just didn’t stand out that much for me.

      Thanks,

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      1. I think that the lack of passion in Yuri for the sport is a unique trait for a main character in a sports anime. Most main characters in sports anime are almost always super passionate about the sport. Then again, I don’t think Yuri On Ice is a good sports anime, either. Yeah, Chihayafuru definitely has a better blend of romance and sports- a mix which is hard to establish as you said. I also agree that the background music isn’t really noticeable in the anime, but I think the good chunk of the soundtrack is dedicated to the ice skating routines which takes up half of the show. Thanks for the recommendation on Capeta- I’ll be checking that out.

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  8. I been trying to find a post like this because honestly people seem to be in love with this show and I never found the appeal.When I first watched this show I was excited because hey it was about ice skating but after the 5 to 6 episode things got pretty repetitive. What bug me the most was that yuri kept doing the same “Eros ” number over and over again . Even after doing this for almost the entire season he managed to mess it up ?!like really if you keep doing the same routine and are being coached by the world “best skater” you would expect the guy to nail the routine by now . Not only that but he kept winning the competions and everyone talking about how amazing his skating was when it was full of mistakes.I know that as a dancer and skater you need to be on your A game especially In these kind of competitons and if you arent they find someone that can replace you.And lastly im not going to I kind of watched it for the bl in the begining but after the show kept progressing some of their “moments ” felt forced to me, like it felt like the creator had to remined the viewer how much the loved each other but having them constantly paw each other Overall it felt like their romance was the main focus of the story and skating took a backseat. I wanted the creators to show me how yuri and victor grew as character and their love with the constant unnessecary fansevice. I apologize for the small rant, like your post and review have a nice day!

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  9. Oh thank goodness I’m not the only one who noticed these flaws too.
    I’ve never ever dropped an anime before and seven or so episodes in I just couldn’t take it anymore. I like sports anime but this was NOT a sports anime. It was a badly written fan fiction.

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  10. https://aminoapps.com/c/anime/page/blog/why-we-hate-yuri-on-ice/z2tx_uKnjdZ1XkY51Gr34oPnzoX7K

    It does mention an certain rule that Yuri on Ice bends. The feathery clothes that Viktor wore in later episodes would actually be against the Skating Union’s rule. So if the creators can bend that rule, let’s say if a Season 2 or the obligatory movie comes out, what is stopping them from bending more rules?

    In short, I do agree with the blog’s opinion. Plus the secondary characters kind felt they were just there. Plus the art-style reminded me of Parasyte: The Maxim to an extent. So I kept making jokes on whether a parasitic beast would make said appearance. [Plus Yuri resembles Shinichi a little bit.]

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  11. Also Viktor reminded me a little too much of Griffith of Berserk [Pre-Eclipse], gray hair, sweet but ruthless, and also feminine appearance. Yeah…. I was kinda expecting an Eclipse reference here and there.

    Besides, for any sports anime fan, you have Megalo Box to look forward to. It is celebrating Ashita no Joe’s 50th anniversary [huge boxing anime, basically Rocky before Rocky].

    On the creators: It is disappointing because the creators before had directed good anime before. On the case of Sayo Yamamoto, this is the same woman who worked on Samurai Champloo, Machiko & Hatchin [gritty crime anime], and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Two of those anime I have seen before and were a A+ in my book. The co-creator I can’t give too much crap because this is her first anime.

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