Yuri!! on Ice Anime Review

Title: Yuri!!! on Ice
Genre: Sports
Written By: Sayo Yamamoto, Mitsurou Kubo
Synopsis:  Reeling from his crushing defeat at the Grand Prix Finale, Yuuri Katsuki, once Japan's most promising figure skater, returns to his family home to assess his options for the future. At age 23, Yuuri's window for success in skating is closing rapidly, and his love of pork cutlets and aptitude for gaining weight are not helping either.

However, Yuuri finds himself in the spotlight when a video of him performing a routine previously executed by five-time world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly goes viral. In fact, Victor himself abruptly appears at Yuuri's house and offers to be his mentor. As one of his biggest fans, Yuuri eagerly accepts, kicking off his journey to make it back onto the world stage. But the competition is fierce, as the rising star from Russia, Yuri Plisetsky, is relentlessly determined to defeat Yuuri and win back Victor's tutelage. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/32995/Yuri_on_Ice)

Thoughts: 
I first watched Yuri on Ice (YOI) I guess three years ago. Not yet officially entering the Yaoi fandom but I am so much aware of the BL ships. And one of the reason why I watched YOI is because of that reason. I was very amateur with Yaoi or BL standards so I won’t be getting any reaction or review from that day I first watched this.

Recently, since the world is experiencing a health issue, we are being quarantined inside of homes and prohibited to go outside unless for the big and understandable reason, so I re-watched Yuri on Ice. (LOLOL I know I know, that actually didn’t make sense. I short, I just watched this since I got so many time.) One thing that I would say describing this anime is, this is surely one of the BL stories. No hate okay? And I haven’t checked the manga so I am not really sure with the standing or genre of this plot in the anime fandom. However based on the years I’ve been reading BL mangas, I can consider that this anime is also one of it. Unlike with Banana Fish that I always deny that it was a BL story and regardless of it being a sport anime, their interactions, dialogues and scenes are usually being seen in a normal BL story.

 Animation: 8/10 

 A little disappointment with studio MAPPA I guess. I praised MAPPA so much when they animated Banana Fish and it was a very good animation and I know they have good frames and art in this anime (like the photo of Yurio that I posted above), but it is a pure disappointment that the animation of this anime actually not good. Since this is a sports anime and a figure skating type of anime, it is very sure that the viewers are looking forward with the choreography of each of the skaters. Though, personally, I enjoyed the skating part, well it is just because I got experience in dancing and I can imagine how they actually look like if it was executed perfectly and better in the use of animation. I just wished that they gave much effort with the performance of the skaters and not just Victor and Yuri. Even with Yurio the animation was bad. I need justice for this!

 Soundtrack: 10/10 

Though I am disappointed with the animation, the soundtrack is definitely a kudos! Mainly, the soundtracks are used for the performances so it’s a good thing if you listen to it and put it in your playlist (like I do!) Plus, the famous opening song of this anime: “History Maker” by Dean Fujioka. It is a good song! Just last year, the promotional video (PV) of this song was released and I wasn’t even surprised that the PV gained so many views. If you want to check the video just click here.

Overall: 9/10
Not very recommended with homophobics LOLOL but this anime is a very good start. Kidding aside, this is the anime for figure skating so you might want to try it.