Review on Ice: Yuri!!! on Ice


Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!  I’m back this week with the first ever review of 2017!  While I enjoyed doing last week’s discussion post, it’s nice to get back to the routine of doing a review.  This week’s review is on one of the most talked about shows of 2016.  And let me just say, the praise is more than confirmed with this one.  I don’t think I really need to say more.  So let’s get on with this week’s review of Yuri!!! on Ice!

This series focuses on Yuri Katsuki, a young talented figure skater.  After losing badly at a competition, Yuri contemplates whether to continue skating or not, returning home a year after his crushing defeat.  Then on a whim, he performs a routine performed by his figure skating idol Victor Nikiforov.   He gains some attention when a video of his rendition is uploaded online, particularly from Victor himself.  After watching the routine online, Victor decides to coach Yuri and help him win the Grand Prix of Figure Skating.  But Yuri will not only have to face numerous other skaters, he will also have to face himself in getting to the Grand Prix.

For a sports anime, I really was not expecting much.  Granted, I heard that this series was good, but not this good.  And so I give Yuri!!! on Ice a whopping 8.5 out of ten.  Where do I begin?  Well, for starters, there was so much depth to this show, especially for a sports anime.  Although much of this followed Yuri’s own insecurities with himself, it was done in such a fantastic way.  Sure, figure skating was an important part of the series-which, by the way, the basics of the sport were explained very well-, but the sport itself covered a wider range than just the sport itself thanks to the plot.  Another great highlight of the show was the relationship between Yuri and Victor.  The way the show expressed a homosexual relationship (Sorry! Spoiler alert!) was very classy and almost authentic.  By the end of episode twelve, I could honestly believe that Victor and Yuri were a couple.  Homosexual relationships in anime without a “happy ending” are few and far, so it was refreshing to see this blossom from series beginning to series end.  So overall, story comes through with flying colors.  As for the animation, it was outstanding.  It was actually very entertaining to watch the routines in each episode-although many of them are repeated over and over and over again.  Enough said there.

There really wasn’t anything about this show that I didn’t like or thought could have been improved-although there were times that I wished that Yuri and Victor would just ravaged each other in true yaoi style.  But, as a matter of opinion, I thought there was a little more nudity than there should have been.  I know that this show is meant to cater to a female audience, but the first three episodes have us viewing Victor’s naked body at least once.  But again, that’s a matter of opinion.

Ok, so what can I say about this show?  Well, just three words: I LOVED IT!!!  If you want to start watching, Crunchyroll has the series available online for free.  Funimation also included this show in it’s fall simul-dub lineup, so the dub is available as well.  However, only the first two episodes are available for free.  And so, that concludes 2017’s first review.  Next week, I will be doing Character of the Month a little early because the following Sunday, I will be doing my announcement for Flashback February.  So stay tuned till then!  And as always, if you have a request for a show, film, or anime-related topic that you’d like for me to cover, shoot me a message in the comments below!

-Hanime on Anime


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