Kinda late in the game but I finally finished watching Yuri!!! on Ice. This anime follows figure skater Yuri and his coach, Victor, during the Figure Skating Grand Prix. Yuri is your typical underdog of the story. After a crushing defeat of landing last place at the Grand Prix Final and he is mocked by Yuri P., his 15-year-old competitor. After that, Yuri practices Victor’s routine on the ice rink while secretly being recorded by his friend’s daughters and having it uploaded on the internet. This leads Victor, a figure skating genius, to fly from Russia to Japan and offer his assistance by coaching Yuri at the next Grand Prix series.
This anime is a mix of elegance and just pure cuteness. Within the first five episodes of this 12-episode anime, I said to myself that this was going to be one of my top favorite animes that I’ve seen in awhile. It has a problem that anyone could relate to, and then a miracle dream come true – an underdog that has his setbacks, and then an all-time idol crossing his path.
However, after that, I just felt that the whole premise was just about skating. There’s nothing wrong with sport animes. In fact, those are my favorite anime to watch! Although, sport anime are fun to watch, the nature of figure skating is that it is meant to look more elegant than intense compared to other sport anime. It demands some sort of appreciation of the sport to get into this anime.
Other than that, I really wanted to point out the cuteness of the subtle romance between Yuri and Victor. What I liked about this gay love story was that romance was not the main plot. I mean – it COULD happen – but that’s not the main storyline.
So to conclude, if you’re either a lover of figuring skating or a lover of cute gay love stories, then Yuri!!! on Ice is a must-see anime.
