Drama Review: Yuri on Ice!!

[cinnamonandpancakes]

I know this doesn't technically count as a drama I don't think but I can't be bothered to come up with a new tag right now so this is close enough. I got through this in a day because it's like, less than 6 hours long and I'm very good at binging stuff.

I've been spoiled for some of the plot points of this for literally years because it comes up onto my tumblr occasionally but I was very surprised at how horny this show was! For a show that doesn't even show the main couple sharing a bed, there is so much naked cartoon man. It's a lot!

Yuri on Ice!!
12 episodes of ~25 mins each
Yuri crashed and burned at the last Grand Prix figure skating competition and is on the verge of retiring when his idol and crush Victor, the 5 times World Champion, turns up at his parents' inn and hot spring to be his coach.

Don't get me wrong, this show was fantastic, like I said, I binged it for almost 6 hours straight (I had to eat dinner) but idk it annoyed me that Yuri never said anything out loud. I know that's part of his character, but I do wish he could have made literally any attempt to describe what Victor meant to him outside of skating. Like, I feel like Victor is assuming a lot of things about their relationship and they textually don't know how to have an argument in a sensible way, yanno... Pls Yuri, there's subtext and then there's being dense af and you're the latter!

I guess my main frustration with this is the frustration I have with all BL and BL adjacent media (and a lot of straight media too) which is that the women are there to be cheerleaders and teachers and fans but they're never allowed to be full characters on their own. And I do understand that in media this short most of the characters are one note and figure skating is gender segregated so we don't see a lot of women on screen but it's frustrating! Like I said on Twitter, I want a female centered sports anime! I want queer characters in queer community with their queer friends and lovers and frenemies and acquaintances! And I know this show is a few years old now, but the queerness is never articulated on screen so Yuri is never able to be in queer community with anyone! Let him call Phichit and talk about his crush!!

That being said, this is a beautiful little show. The figure skating is clearly animated with so much love and the music is fantastic. And the outfits! So sparkly! So Glam! Love this for them! I liked that it was a group of guys who all wore cool shit and none of them were self conscious about it. Georgi was even super extra because of his break up! Love that for him!

I was also kinda uncomfortable with the fatphobia. Like, obviously figure skating requires a certain physique, but them calling him names (even if he doesn't care) was pretty hurtful. It probably doesn't help that I'm incredibly jealous that I can't ever like inhabit the liminal space of combined masc and fem the way these fucking cartoon boys can. But still! He can be encouraged to lose weight again without being mean!

I have so many negative things written down... It really was very good! I feel like, good media always makes me more critical because it was this good so why wasn't it just a little more good. I truly did enjoy myself a lot! I can see why so many people are still into it! I don't think I'll fic for it, but I'll definitely read some! I just wish Yuri could have had enough character growth to be like 'stay with me, even after our knees stop working and we can't skate any more' yanno... They deserve a soft epilogue or whatever meme is big these days.