#yoimeta

Hello!

Thankfully, I managed to find what I believe is the original post. Here it is! The post is archived in plain text under the cut.

Hope this helps!

- Ji

Victuuri Week - Day 7: Journeys

I posted this a while back on twitter, but I realized I never posted to tumblr, so here, have some thoughts about Yuuri’s anxiety!

The Many Faces of Victor Nikiforov - Episode 11

We’re into the final stretch now and, while this episode is mostly one that builds into the finale, there’s still a lot to be garnered here. We finally get a view into how Victor sees his own skating and his thoughts going forward. But I won’t frontload all the commentary into the intro so let’s delve into the set itself!

Ahh the ring kiss. Along with Yuuri’s, this shot was completely updated in the release version (so it actually looks like a kiss and not just pressing their lips against it). Something I love about this is how unplanned it feels. We could tell a minute prior that Victor kissing Yuuri’s ring was a spur of the moment thing due to Yuuri’s hand being fully lifted by Victor’s before Yuuri clued in and clasped it back and this pair ring kiss feels like a follow-up to that. I always got the feeling of connection through this gesture, like there was some kind of invisible string linking them together.

I love this second gif for a few reasons. We can spy Yuuri reflected in Victor’s eyes and that directly mirrors how Yuuri is also in Victor’s heart. Yuuri’s skating and determination to push himself further has become an inspiration for Victor. This is the kind of thing that Victor has long forgotten, since his days as a Junior skater, and it makes him beyond happy to see Yuuri grasping it here. To me, this moment doesn’t feel like Victor grasping at inspiration to use for himself, but instead that he’s overjoyed to see that Yuuri is the one grasping it.

And with this third gif, we see Victor cheering for Yuuri while he’s skating. What I love about it is how into it he is. His entire body moves with his cheers! He’s not just passively clapping or smiling like he does in earlier episodes. He even jumps when Yuuri does! Yuuri has become his skating, even if he doesn’t quite realize it himself yet. Yuuri has become his expression of self on the ice. His entire view on his own skating has shifted; he doesn’t need to be on the ice anymore if Yuuri can be for both of them.

And his emotions show us that too, as we can see with this fourth (unmoving) gif. His face looks displeased but he’s not actually upset at Yuuri, he’s upset for him. He knows that Yuuri isn’t going to be happy with the turnout of that performance, and thus Victor feels it too. If you check out their expressions at the kiss & cry, you’ll see that they actually match. They really are on the same wavelength now.

This fifth gif is easily one of my favourites of the entire series. It’s the first time we really get a look into how Victor views his own skating. It isn’t some inspiring thing like it seems to others; it’s literally become like “fetters around his neck”, strangling him. Saying that he doesn’t enjoy his skating anymore is a massive understatement. It’s been said by official sources that Victor was lonely and in just this scene you can feel that crushingly so. He looks so isolated here. And to think of how all the people in his life only encourage him to stay in/go back to such a place…

However, a lot has changed for Victor since then. He’s found something, someone, that’s helped him rediscover joy in his life. While he may still be around skating, he doesn’t need to be strangled by it anymore as he can sit back and pour his inspiration and feelings into Yuuri. You can see through this episode that Victor is just as invested in Yuuri’s skating as Victor was in his own. What he’s saying here is that Yuuri has helped inspire him and what he wants to do about that isn’t go back to skating with it, it’s pump it back into Yuuri. He doesn’t want to just take it and run, he wants to become a positive feedback loop to help Yuuri reach his own, and by extension Victor’s, dreams. Through this, Victor realizes that Yuuri really has become his skating.

In contrast, we see young Victor who has a very different expression on the ice than his older self did. This is a Victor that could still enjoy skating, could still enjoy the challenge that it presented. In contrast to the earlier gif of isolated Victor, this one has a much brighter background to show the difference in mindset. Also interestingly, this scene is cut in through Yurio’s SP. I’ve always believed that Yakov is unintentionally making Yurio into a Victor 2.0 and this kind of seals that impression in stone. What that means for right now is that both are talented skaters that have the self-drive to improve if for no other reason than to one-up themselves.

One key element that can get overlooked about this eighth gif, before I delve into my interpretation, is the perspective. The moment before, when we saw the close-up of Victor’s expression from the back (where he looked ‘unhappy’) is actually the same face that we see here. The moment before was Yuuri’s POV and, in contrast, this gif is from Victor’s (or at least an outsider’s). You can see that all the negative impressions that Yuuri’s POV implies simply aren’t there at all. Victor looks observant, not upset. He’s just watching and taking in what’s happening. Yet Yuuri, through a combination of his anxiety and stress (about having decided to retire after the GPF among other things), has skewed Victor’s expression to mean something that it’s not.

This ninth gif is also one of my favourite shots because, combined with the speech overlaid on top of it, it tells us explicitly what Victor thinks of the current skating scene from the perspective of an observer. The text says “How does long-time rival Victor Nikiforov feel as he watches [Chris] perform from the audience?” As we can clearly see, he’s happy. There’s nothing about this expression that’s complicated. He’s content being part of the audience because he’s relearned how to enjoy skating from a different perspective – from the sidelines.

This last gif, besides exemplifying how beautiful Victor is as a person, feels “innocent” to me. What I mean by that, besides the fact that there’s a lot of white and light colours in the image, is Victor has no idea what’s coming. He’s trusting, his guard is down, and he probably thinks that Yuuri just wants to talk about something regarding his next program. And he does, in a sense, but definitely not what Victor assumes. Victor’s finally reached a happy place in his life, but unfortunately for him everyone else doesn’t seem to be done with his skating yet…

I actually love Victor in this episode; we may not see him a whole lot but we learn so much about both his current self and his past self. It really fills in all the gaps. The episode is also a very interesting study on how character perspective can influence audience impression (thanks Yuuri). That said, I enjoyed writing this so I hope it’s enlightening! I’ll see you guys in the finale!

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [Duetto]

Bonus because Victor’s dot-eyed expression and ‘Davai!’ here are just so silly:

So I just finished my first pole dancing class and oh. my. god.  

What I took away from that class was that Katsuki Yuuri is stronger than I could have ever imagined.

I know that the first time doing anything is going to be a challenge, so I went into that pole dancing class knowing that I was probably going to struggle, but this was next level s**t.  The insides of my thighs are rubbed red and raw and the tops of my feet are an almost alarming shade of indigo, but my dignity took the brunt of the damage.  No one laughed at me or anything, but my hands were sweaty and I was struggling with just staying on the pole for more than a few seconds at a time.  I was so embarrassed by how much I failed during the class that I was on the verge of crying in the car after leaving the class.

But then I thought of Yuuri and the super advanced moves he was pulling off at the banquet.  I’m now convinced that he must have been taking pole dancing classes for YEARS in order to get that good.  Like the entire time that he was in university in Detroit.  He braved all of the injuries and soreness of pole dancing ON TOP OF all the stuff he went through to stay in shape for figure skating.

But the most impressive thing?  The fact that he took the pole dancing classes for so long.  It has already been well-established that Yuuri is an anxious little bean, so going to those first few classes must have been ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.  I am convinced that the only reason he got so advanced in pole dancing was through his SHEER FORCE OF WILL.  There is no way that he went to years worth of classes without some sort of drive to be good at it, a trait that’s an integral but often forgotten part of Yuuri’s character.  He’s not Katsuki “Viktor!-Please-Stay-With-Me-In-Competitive-Figure-Skating-For-One-More-Year!-This-Time-I’ll-Win-Gold-For-Sure!” Yuuri without his trademark quiet stubbornness.  (Though between you and me, I think Phichit probably also played a role in Yuuri taking the classes.  There must have been some sort of bet or dare gone bad to get Yuuri into the class.  I think Yuuri’s journey through adventures in pole dancing in university deserve their own OVA or side series because damn son.  Please reblog if you agree and would pay good money to watch this series).

A little after the bombshell of episode 10, the observation was made that Victor's all night drinking spree happened after Yuuri declared the pork cutlet bowl to be his Eros.

Thus it was proposed that Victor, who had been spending the last week trying to reignite the spark from the banquet, drinks all night to drown his sorrows.

This idea caught like wildfire to the point it almost seems accepted canon. I, personally have always been a leery of this interpretation. Don’t get me wrong,I find it very funny, but first of all the timeline is a little off.

Victor heads out to drink at least a day, if not a couple of days after Yuuri declared his Eros of the pork cutlet bowl, (there is a montage of Yuri and Yuuri both skating and off ice conditioning, which implies to me that it was more than one day)

The one glimpse we get of Victor out at the ramen shop he seems genuinely happy.

(Also I have become leery of an American point of view that interprets any occasional overindulgence of alcohol as necessarily having some underlying negative cause.)

Beyond the possible timeline issue, it could also be argued that there was some level of Victor being slightly devious in purposely leaving the Yuris together, since with their opposing strengths they could learn from each other. I mean look at the little smile he gives after discovering them working together

Then he later admits after the Hot Springs on Ice while critiquing Yuuri’s performance that he knew he and Yuri had been working on his Salchow.

That said, I recently have been examining the idea more seriously than just an elevated piece of fanon, and there is something there.

First, the scene directly before Yuuri's revelation, we’re shown Yuuri in the onsen contemplating about how to express Eros when a completely naked Victor asks Yuuri to take a picture of him. At the time I assumed this was just Victor being a funny foreigner, but in retrospect I think it's possible to interpret it as Victor deliberately trying make Yuuri discover that Victor is the target of his Eros. This post argues this interpretation really well.

Which follows to the next scene where Victor's jinbei is completely open at the front, strengthening the idea he’s trying to get Yuuri view him in a romantic way.

We see at other times his jinbei is loose, but not as completely open as it is here, so this is deliberate.

Then after Yuuri’s declaration the smile Victor gives is ambiguous.

It's certainly not his heart smile or the proud older brother smile he gives when Yuri finds his Agape, but it's not quite his frozen upset smile either, making it a bit hard to really interpret how Victor feels about Yuuri’s declaration, though he does seem a little taken aback by it, judging by the sweat drop.

So, Victor doesn't go out that night, but after the montage we see that Yuuri was forced to join Yuri in the waterfall.

Yuuri even reasonably asks why he had to come, which is a valid question since he had already come up with his Eros. Unless we accept the possibility that Victor might have hoped that Yuuri would come to a different conclusion after further contemplation. However, we could also chalk this up to devious!Victor theory where he was hoping by throwing them together they would learn from each other.

What made me think about this seriously was the realization that we only see Victor overindulge in alcohol twice:

The first is drinking all night some indeterminate time after Yuuri declared pork cutlet bowl is his eros.

The second was at the hot pot restaurant in China after Yakov told Victor that he wouldn’t interact with him unless he went back to skating.

Therefore both times we see drunk Victor are following perceived rejection, first by Yuuri and secondly by Yakov, the two people we see Victor really having an intimate relationship with.

This could also parallel Yuuri's known issue of overeating in response to anxiety and stress.

So, I personally am still not sure how seriously I take the idea that Victor “drowns his sorrows” when rejected, the evidence as noted above is a bit circumstantial, but it is interesting and potentially offers insight into Victor’s character.

One of the things I truly love about Yuri!!! On ICE is that Yuuri can handle his mental illnesses all on his own.

It’s not perfect, of course. No mental health management is. But his family? Not much help there. He’s an adult and they leave him to his own devices. Minako? Well, she lets him dance out his anxieties, but she also pressures him a lot. Viktor actively makes things worse.

There’s a weird trend in fanfiction where Viktor is amazing at managing Yuuri’s anxiety, and sometimes all I can think is, “What show you been watching?” because honestly. Viktor has the EQ of a rock and didn’t realize intentionally “Breaking Yuuri’s glass heart” would make Yuuri cry. Viktor, I love you, but no.

Just no.

Maybe he gets better post-canon, but we have no evidence of this in the show itself. He didn’t seem to notice any of Yuuri’s anxieties leading up to the GPF, given how blindsided by Yuuri’s decision he was, and then he was too hurt to really deal with Yuuri’s problems (which is valid, but it does leave Yuuri on his own here).

And the AUs where Viktor is amazing with anxiety before he even meets Yuuri? I guess some people have difficulties seeing why Yuuri would fall for someone who messed up so bad, but that’s the thing.

That’s the thing.

One of the many things I love about YoI.

Yuuri’s mental illness does not define him.

Viktor has the EQ of a rock and Yuuri loves him anyway, because mentally ill people have personalities outside of their mental illnesses, and they care about people for reasons unrelated to people being fantastic at handling their mental illnesses.

And this is also part of the reason that everyone who says that YoI is a story about falling in love “fixing” mental illness bothers me: it’s not. Viktor doesn’t fix Yuuri. Yuuri takes care of himself.

In fact, Viktor makes the problems worse in real, tangible ways. On accident, sure, but he still does it.

But Yuuri? Don’t worry about Yuuri. Yuuri’s got it handled, and wouldn’t appreciate your concern anyway. He’s 23 (24, now), and he’s been living like this for a long time. He knows what helps. He goes skating alone, he dances with Minako, he goes for a run with a cute dog. He turns his phone off and takes a nap.

He…gets bored of being depressed, so he…stops being depressed? Yuuri, teach me your secrets.

And sometimes, he slips up and stalks new articles about his failures and spirals, because no mental health management is perfect.

But he pulls himself back out again, always. Always. He’s so strong. So accomplished. He functions. He more than functions.

To me, that’s hope. That’s the light at the end of the tunnel.

Never take Yuuri’s strength and independence and autonomy from him.

  In fact, here’s something to consider: Celestino is seen telling Yuuri to put his phone away and ignore the news about himself. That’s great advice for anxiety, actually (it didn’t work, but that’s not the point). And part of Yuuri’s complaints about Viktor’s coaching is that he’s too inexperienced to deal with something like anxiety in a skater.

Ergo, Celestino is probably great at handling mental illnesses like anxiety disorders.

But Yuuri didn’t start reaching for his potential until he left Celestino and partnered with Viktor, who, again, stresses Yuuri’s mental health in new and unique ways.

There’s a theory to be drawn here that Yuuri couldn’t have achieved what he did without having to handle his mental health on his own.

This is notes from the third and final panel offered with the YOI crew at AnimeFest Dallas.

Panel 1 recap is here. Panel 2 recap is here.

For the final panel, they also included members of the English Dub cast and the panel was set up to where they were asking questions of the Japanese creators. It was nice, and as they all noted, it’s super rare for this many members of a dub cast to appear with this many members of the Japanese creative team. 

The panel started off by them playing the Opening Theme. Kubo stated after that she loves hearing fans singing along so passionately with it. 

Then the questions began, these were all directed from the Dub Cast to the Creative Team.

First question: Who do you think is cuter- Yuuri or Victor?

Kubo: says that she feels like their mother because of her role in helping create them and so she could never pick. To her, they are equally cute.

Hiramastu: picked Yuuri without a moment’s hesitation but didn’t elaborate. 

When did you realize that Yuri on Ice was a hit?

Kubo: Episode 7. After the episode aired, her twitter blew up with thank yous and appreciation. Something “great and amazing had happened, even overseas.” She was grateful to have played a part in making that happen.

Of all the figure skating programs in the series, what’s your favorite?

Sayo: Very hard to pick. Just like in the real world, they all have blood, sweat and tears put into them. But if she really had to, it would be Yuuri’s FS- Yuri on Ice

Kubo: It is always very hard to pick out a favorite, for even the secondary characters stole the spotlight when they skated. All of them are very special.

Hiramatsu: As an animator, he had to pick the two he worked on. Which was Victor’s winning Worlds FS,  Stammi Vicino that was split between showing him skating it and showing Yuuri skating it. Also, Welcome to the Madness.

What song or piece of music from the show best represents you?

Kubo: Theme of King JJ. She then pointed out that all the music for the show was made for the show, which made it very special.

Hiramatsu: The piano piece in episode 9 when Yuuri and Victor reunited at the airport. Sayo noted that even the composer felt most confident about this piece of music. 

Sayo: Started by noting that she has definitely listened to all the songs more than we have (lol) Even before YOI, she hoped skaters might pick YOI music, which has happened this season. There’s now a Japanese pairs team skating to Yuri on Ice this season and she’s looking forward to watching their program mature. (as expected, Sayo got derailed talking about figure skating again LOL)

What of you went into JJ? / Is he meant as a antagonist?

Kubo: She talked about how he’s overconfident to a level most can’t manage and it gives him a bit of an ego. Quite often, he tried to steal the spotlight and they had to hold him back.

Hiramatsu: He stated he felt that JJ and Chris have the “most” he doesn’t have. JJ has the confidence he wishes he had.

Sayo: There is no good vs bad in the series. In JJ’s world, the only one who can surpass him is himself.

Hiramatsu: Even though he could be annoying, everyone in the show was fighting, and working hard for their goals, and we have to appreciate that.

Sayo: then said that they’d talked enough about JJ.

Was there anything you wanted to include but weren’t able to?

Kubo and Sayo: We can’t say anything about that right now (!)

What about the narrative of the show (the striving for perfection) can you relate to? / Do you relate to one of the characters?

Hiramatsu: As an artist, I’m always seeking to improve. He related to Yuuri in this, because he was the “veteran” on staff still looking to improve. He said he admired the youth and their passion to succeed. The characters have many struggles and stumble but still get up, and that’s something that he felt also gave him strength to do the same.

Kubo: Yuuri’s story- the constant struggle and fight to find himself and reach his goals, is something she felt she really related to. Yuuri was able to get strength and support from Victor and his peers, and Kubo noted that she felt the same about Sayo coming into her life. She felt she could have done it alone, but with Sayo’s support and the support from her peers, she was able to grow more and truly achieve her goals. She then went silent a moment before passionately thanking Sayo for this. 

Sayo: For me- I don’t feel I often overlap with characters as a director. This series was different, because in hindsight she realized that she had a connection with Yuuri’s story. She too was at a make it or break it moment of her career. During this project she faced many challenges to get it greenlighted. 

Hiramatsu: In short, this show hopefully helped you find strength to overcome your challenges the way it helped many of us on staff.

Sayo: My trouble was I’d drifted from anime to figure skating as a passion. She had doubts, wondering if she’d ever direct an anime again. While on that cusp, she decided to take one more chance at directing. Instead of seeking a scriptwriter first, she went to Kubo for her art. Then she knew she needed Hiramatsu to animate Kubo’s art the best. She firmly believed in those choices even to this day. And she was thankful that with the support of fans like us, now her series that she had to fight for is going to be a movie. She asked us to please continue to support them.