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Gosh this is such a tight competition for all six men, with 4 of them coming from Japan. A little bummed that Jun and Kazuki couldn't make it to the top 6, but it's not like these 6 men aren't capable of showing great performances. So we're still SO in for a treat tonight.

So let's starts with...

Shun Sato (18 - JPN) Starting the competition with a Christmas vibe. But sadly, the vibe isn't vibing as he fell on 4Lz. A jump that I thought to be the most reliable on his repertoire. However, he managed to pull himself up and land the combo, 4T2T -with a little skid on the 4T, hence only a 2T instead of intended 3T. The last jump, 3A, was the only redeeming feature as it's done nicely with a good running edge on landing.

Personally, I feel Shun has progressed nicely in the artistic area than last season. Though, I think the choreography in the step sequence felt a bit flat, and his posture still looks a bit rigid. Also, he's not the best spinner among the 6 as well. So I guess his score, 76.62, is a little justified -emphasis on the little. Most of the judges seem to score him in the low 7 to 6 on PCS. Which, I think, a bit too low considering that he does have a decent skating skill, pretty nice speed overall, and a good edge control. So I can't help but squinting my eyes to the judges on that scoring. Well, I do hope he could land the 4Lz tomorrow and get the score he does deserve. On a side note, I just realized that Mura Takahito has become his coach! Would love to see him accompanying the skaters some day soon.

Daniel Grassl (20 - ITA) Sadly, another fall on the 4Lz -it seems to be the cursed jump tonight, eh. Also, I noticed that the take-off was on the flat edge, and it seems to be called out by the technical panelist. But he pulled it together afterwards to get the 3A landed quick and nicely. His combo jump, the 3Lz3T was also good enough. Truthfully, I always felt that his jumps look weird. But tonight -thanks to the haircut I think- it doesn't look like he's falling apart in the air anymore. Though, his feature quality is still his flexibility on the spins -how does it feel to be able to bend your knees and thigh like that, Dan? It's really mesmerizing!

As underrated as he is, he does gradually become better in artistic interpretation. Kudos to Jason Brown with his choreography skill for bringing out the sensitivity within the music to Daniel's skating. I feel 39.25 in PCS is pretty justified, and therefore, 80.40 on SP seems to be fair enough. Which really makes it feel that Shun was scored way too low. And also I think Daniel is a little slower on the speed compared to the other 6 men, so it could have gotten his PCS a bit lower on skating skill component. Plus he's the only one still using a triple-triple combo, so I do think Shun's score should've been around 78-80s. But then again, this GPF is held in Italy, and the cheering from his supporters are so loud and lovely during his performance. I guess it gives judges more confident to give him extra points. Anyway, I'll be looking forward to see if he could put up a better fight in the FS and make the final placement even more interesting. BTW, is it just me or his pants is a little bit disturbing? Is it the extra tightness? Is it the untight fly? Is it the gray color? idk.

Sota Yamamoto (22 - JPN) 4T3T done strong and nicely, and it's the best combo jump of the night. He then managed to land the 4S safely too, though it doesn't have a long running edge. The 3A is also done with no worries tonight. Though, I noticed, the body position on his 3A is not really as tight as his quad jumps. It really could become worrisome, as he fell on 3A in NHK Trophy's FS. Anyway, tonight is another wonderfully clean SP for Sota. He's on the streak! Hopefully he could keep this consistency to his FS as well.

I can't help but keep falling in love with Mihoko Higuchi's amazing talent in choreography. She really knows how to bring the best line and use of music to be skated by each athlete. And she doesn't impose her trademark on the choreography, unlike some other choreographers. She just let each athlete have their own moment and give them room to be themselves. And I do feel that Sota really has found his way on how to carry himself during the step sequence and other transitional lines. His skating is even more gorgeous now. However, I'm a bit bummed out that he hasn't been able to break the 100 barrier yet with scoring 94.86. But I guess it's a bit understandable seeing the 4S was not as good as in his 2 previous GP series. And so let us see where will he place in the FS. Can he stand on the podium? This will be very interesting.

Kao Miura (17 - JPN) Strong and confident start, but unfortunately had to go down on the combo jump. The 4S was done smoothly with a nice ice coverage and speed, but it was the 3T after that caused him a trouble. Though, I had to commend him for fighting so hard to save himself. So his 4S3T still become my highlight of his performance. He got back on track though, with 3A done quick and smooth. He also managed to land the 4T despite got slightly off axis in the air. Kao is so on fire tonight. The speed and attack in his skating is so crazy to look at.

Sadly his SP's 1st place streak had to end as he only got 87.07 tonight, putting him in 3rd. Though he -quite literally- didn't go down without a fight. I have so much to like about his SP program. The choreo, the speed, the step sequence, the spin, and the costume, they're aggressive and offensive. You shouldn't take your eyes away from him even for a milisecond. Truly a power to be reckoned with. Yet, I'm quite certain that he can still improve on the spins by adding some unique positions. Though maybe it's not really necessary since he already got all the spins on level 4 tonight. But since he said he looks up to Stephane, I do wish that he would put more effort in making unique spin positions like Steph did. Anyway, can't wait to see his Beauty and The Beast FS. Let's see if he'll be more of the beauty or more of the beast.

Shoma Uno (24- JPN) Finally, we get to the reigning world champion. And I'd say, even though it's still not his cleanest SP yet, it really grows on me. First of all, the 4F. Solid, no hesitation, incredible rotation speed, nice body position, and clean landing. IMO it is deserving the highest GOE of any solo jump tonight. Still, I think it would've been even better had he kept the landing position a little bit longer. And if maybe he can really do a toepick take-off, not the full blade assist? then I'm sure he can finally get bigger GOE. It's still visibly a 4F though. Next, the combo jump. Had to do 4T2T only, because the 4T landed a bit tight. Still, I think it's a better attempt than in his 2 previous GP series. And the last jumping pass, the 3A, smooth as a butter. Again, deserving the highest GOE for any Axel jumps tonight as well.

My next highlight of his performance tonight would be the twizzle. It's a chef kiss twizzle. Right on the music at that.

Though, I found it really weird that even with this display of twizzle, the body movement, and the speed control throughout the stsq, he only managed to get step sequence level 3, when I thought the StSq tonight was even better than the 2 previous GP series. It really is a wonder of why so many step sequence are not getting the level 4 tonight. Though, Shoma does get the highest GOE for the StSq with 1.37 points. Anyway, Shoma managed to secure the 1st place in SP with 99.99 points. Juuuust 0.01 point off from reaching 100. Is it underscored, or is it fair, I'm still uncertain. As I do see that some judges are quite generous in the PCS. Like J9 from UK who gave him a 10.00 in presentation. Seeing the margin from SkatingScores' judges tally spreads, Shoma got a pretty tall bar ranging from 95.61 points, given by the US judge, to 106.98, given by the UK judge, with the Japanese judge only gave him 96.21 points, second to lowest. So yes, I think it is debatable if the performance Shoma put out tonight is being scored fairly, or not. We'll see in the FS if Shoma can keep this placement and finally claim the GPF title in his 5th participation. That would be incredibly joyous if he could, as this is the same place Stephane got his second GPF title AND Olympic medal.

And last, but not least...

Ilia Malinin (18 - USA) Another SP fail for Ilia as all of his jumps didn't work out as well as he planned tonight. Stepped out on 4T3T. The 4S landed with a pretty good running edge, but was called out as q. And understandably so, seeing the wobble on the landing foot. And then another mistake on the 3A. Thus pushing judges to give plenty negative GOEs here and there.

Not sure if the pressure got to him or if he's really couldn't skate well due to an injury. But tonight he ended up with 80.10 points, putting him in 5th. I would say, it's an understandable but at the same time questionable score for this performance. Cause, well... he didn't fall. So, to have him ahead of Shun is a little understandable. However, the PCS is pretty questionable. Since I don't think Ilia has a better skating skill than Shun, but somehow they gave him the same score on that component, and even higher in composition. So yeah I'm a bit squinting my eyes on that part. Also, to have his StSq on level 4 while Shoma, Kao, and Sota were in level 3 is also questionable. Cause I don't think he has the same good controlled speed as Kao and Shoma, nor beautiful lines and quality edge control as Shoma and Sota. And although he had many elements like knee slide, kicks and fun jumps, those are not really a required elements for StSq that should grant him a level 4. So yeah, I can't help but feel that there's a bit of a scheme at play there. But anyway, pretty sure Ilia will do a lot of catching up in the FS with the 4A and 5 quads layout. Not sure if it would be good for him to push for that layout, if he really is injured. I mean, he's still so young. There would be more opportunities, as I hope this would not be his first and last GP Final attendance. So I do hope he'd think it through, and aim for longetivity, rather than burning himself out too quickly in his first GP.