new YOI official art….and as always, the attention to detail for little figure skating references from MAPPA blows me away, and i need everyone to appreciate it too. welcome to yuuri katsuki’s 2022 beijing olympics!
to start, this is very clearly the official beijing rink; even without the logo or rings (which would have been too much of a hassle to use copyright-wise, i’m sure, but would also take away from the subtlety), it’s very clear from the colors and the mountain pattern, as seen here behind nathan chen:
next, victor is wearing the official team japan jacket, as seen here on team japan’s singles skaters yuma kagiyama (left, silver medalist in the men’s individual event) and shoma uno (right, bronze medalist):
…as far as i know, however, only skaters got team japan jackets, not their coaches. which means victor is wearing yuuri’s jacket. cuuuute.
next up, yurio’s practice outfit has to be based off of skater andrei mozalev of the russian olympic committee:
…so since yurio here is being based on mozalev, naturally, mappa chose to put yakov in the same coat that kirill davydenko, mozalev’s coach, wore at the boards!
i’m sure that otabek’s practice clothes and the mysterious ass-haver’s are a reference to something as well. since the tragic death of skater denis ten of kazakhstan, whom otabek is based on, there hasn’t been a strong enough kazakhstani men’s skater to make it to the olympics, but these are probably practice clothes denis ten wore once upon a time, or something!
finally, this last one isn’t a reference to the olympics in YOI–rather, the opposite! the makkachin tissue box seen next to victor was seen at the olympics, used by skater alexandra trusova of ROC!
so what is yuuri pointing at and looking so mad about? personally, i think he’s probably upset about the hole in the ice that made him pop a quad salchow…
but we may never know.
