Yuri!!! On Ice – Episode 4

To be honest, I’ve been quite disappointed with Yuri!!! on Ice over this past couple of episodes which is somewhat of a letdown given the positive opinion I had for its premier.

Something wrong’s here…

To start off — and I did mention this a little last week — its redundant usage of the same cuts over and over again for its ice-skating sequences is starting to become grating and diminishes the overall impact of the supposedly ‘cherry on top’. I’m well aware that this is necessary for the studio/producers to do as of course managing production quality is one thing to consider, but seeing how as early as episode 3 we’re already getting recycled cuts, I’m starting to question whether or not Y!!!OI blew all of its resources for its grand first episode. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem for me considering that I even managed to slog through Kare Kano‘s infamous meltdown, but given Y!!!OI‘s nature as a sports anime, part of its appeal (for me) would be lost should in case it never manages to bring its A-game again in the forthcoming tournament.

I still had fun this week despite the dissatisfaction I mentioned above. In fact, I find it odd that with the absences of jaw-dropping sakuga, what’s carrying this animenow is the chemistry between Yuri and Viktor. It doesn’t explicitly show itself, but Yuri’s slowly starting to open up to his coach, and even had the gall to poke Viktor right when he’s vulnerable — something which even I wasn’t expecting. Viktor, on the other hand, has yet to give a concrete sign as to why he decided to take it upon himself to coach Yuri. In a way, I guess withholding Viktor’s motives play into that part of teasing the viewers with their shipping… well, as if the friggin’ ship isn’t obvious enough.

Speaking of character development, I might as well include this here because I really don’t have anything else to say for this episode. Nothing substantial happened anyways as it’s more of a transition stage for the next arc. I love Yurio’s character as a personality/athlete and as a rival to Yuri and I really do love to see his character fleshed out in a reasonable and fair way. Unfortunately, this episode kinda left me feeling a bit frustrated with that. I mean, he was introduced to his new coach, and after a couple of scenes of him training (copy and pasted from ep. 2/3) BAM — ‘beautiful‘. I apologize but… I’m blind to the changes/development here. It’s one way to develop a character, sure, but it certainly isn’t the best way when it comes to presentation, and I feel like Yurio’s own story can be done in a more fashionable style.

Short thoughts:

• Phit-chit… Prit-chit… Idk, but that new Asian skater is creeping me out.
• Honestly, they Viktor and Yuri should just start going out already. It’s unrealistically possible for neither of them to think that what they’re doing is…
• Wow. That… title drop. Okay.
• Finally, a joke I didn’t find funny. What’s Aeroflot anyways?
• Yuri aside, I’d really love to get into Yurio and Viktor duo

And I guess that’s it for this week. Nothing much, but still had fun regardless of my issues with it. I’ll see you folks next episode!