The year in Yuri on Ice
Okay, so I wanted to know what the year in Yuri on Ice is. It felt like everyone is just assuming that it would be the current 16/17 season, but while we got several information on the month, we never got the year.
And as it turns out, it’s not 2016.
In the first episode we saw the results of Yuuri’s last Grand Prix Final.
Notice the logo at the top of the results?
It looks like the one from the GPF 2012 in Sochi, only mirror-inverted.
Then, in the latest episode we got another small explanation/recap how the Grand Prix Series works. And we get this logo of the current season:
And this is the logo of the GPF 2013:
Which doesn’t just look like the one in Yuri on Ice, it is the same exact one.
So, Yuri on Ice is set during the 2013/2014 season. It also matches the order of the Cups. The events are not always in the same order, but in 2013 it was this:
2013 Skate America: October 18–20
2013 Skate Canada: October 25–27
2013 Cup of China: November 1–3
2013 NHK Trophy: November 8–10
2013 Trophée de France: November 15–17
2013 Rostelecom Cup: November 22–24
I guess we could safely assume that this is the time frame for the Cups in the anime too. We didn’t get the date of the Cup of China in the anime, but this means, episode 6 is happening in the beginning of November.
Other years that are represented in Yuri!!! on ICE:
The World Championships at which Victor competed was held in Yoyogi, Tokyo, Japan - this was in 2011 (although the venue was ultimately moved to Russia due to the 2011 earthquake&tsunami. The last time Yoyogi actually was able to host it, was in 1985.)
If we went by the 2012-2013 season (presumably the season Yuuri failed at the Sochi GPF), it would have been held at London, Ontario, Canada.
The GPF they’ll compete at is in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona was the host city in 2014 (Dec 11-14) and 2015 (Dec 10-13)
(The 2013 GPF was held at Fukuoka, Japan from Dec 5-8)
The locations for the Grand Prix events are the same as the current 2016/2017 season:
Chicago, USA
Mississauga, Canada
Moscow, Russia
Paris, France
Beijing, China
Sapporo, Japan
With the exception of the GPF which will be in Marseille, France this year.
(2013′s locations were: Detroit, USA St. John, Canada Beijing, China Tokyo, Japan Paris, France Moscow, Russia)
The date on Yuuri’s phone (Sunday, May 7th) coincides with 2017:
Currently (as of Nov.14 2016) we don’t have confirmation for all the locations of the 2017-2018 Grand Prix events, nor the exact dates for them. So the creators of YOI wouldn’t have known during production. This might be why they aren’t using exact dates for the events - or it could just be that they want to leave the exact year vague. Basically, they took the 2013 Grand Prix Series order, placed the events in the 2016 locations, made the in-series dates match with the 2017 calendar, used the 2012-2013 ISU aesthetic, and added the Sochi 2012 GPF and the Yoyogi 2011 Worlds. I’d also like to add that the 2013-2014 season was the Olympic Season. There’s no way to escape the influence of the Olympics on the year it is held, and seeing as there hasn’t been a single mention of the Olympics thus far… 2017-2018 would also be an Olympic season, though, so who knows when exactly this takes place. Maybe the Winter Olympics years are flipped with the Summer Olympics years? Or maybe they’re simply on a different year in this universe. It’s kind of nice that they made this mix to commemorate many different seasons, even if it causes us headaches in figuring out dates! You can still use the 2013 list as a reliable guide for time passing between events and as a general time frame, but citing exact dates as fact would be troublesome because it doesn’t match up with other elements. If you’re writing fanfics, as long as you’re around these dates and stick to weekends (Thursday for official practice, Friday&Saturday for competition, Sunday for the Gala Exhibition), you’re good to go!
Edit: more info from episode 7 and episode 1 in regards to locations, years, and the effect of narrative.
( @yoi-topia Sorry if this comes across as intrusive. I just wanted to point out to fellow fans that there’s a reason why many of us didn’t immediately place concrete dates to the events in YOI – it’s because this universe is a splendid mix of real-life elements and events, and it makes many of us figure skating fans feel uneasy pining down exact dates. You did a wonderful job in finding those similarities with the 2013 aesthetic. I knew I recognized it from somewhere, but didn’t have the chance to dig around, so thank you for making the original post!)
Not me joining the speculation after 9 years since we didn’t get much new content to deny or confirm anything.
So, that’s my take.
In first episodes of the anime, we see Victor wearing a team Russia Olympic Jacket.
That Olympic team jacket was made for Sochi Olympics 2014. So, YOI has to be set after.
Here Adelina Sotnikova and Julia Lipnitskaia wearing the same jacket at Sochi Olympics in 2014.
