Being about a month
into the fall season, enough episodes have aired for each show for us to have a
good idea if they are worth watching or if they should just be dropped. Now I
only watch one or two shows per season, one reason being that I don’t have
enough time to watch as many as I would like, the other being that most new
shows are garbage and are not worth what little time that I have. You already
know that I’m watching Drifters, but the other show that I decided to give a
shot has pleasantly surprised me, I’m referring to Yuri!!! On Ice. I decided to give this show a shot because everyone online was talking about how awesome the animation one, and they were right, but the show has more to offer than good animation. For those of
you who haven’t been paying attention to current season anime, this show is
about a low tier professional figure skater, Yuri Katsuki, who captures the
fascination of his idol, Victor Nikiforov after viewing a leaked video of Yuri
performing one of his routines. Victor decides to coach Yuri, but upon hearing this,
another skater named Yuri Plisetsky, whom Victor previously promised to coach, decides
to try and convince Victor to go back to Russia with him. The show follows
these three characters and the result is a wonderfully entertaining anime, so
far at least.
At first glance you
would assume that Yuri!!! On Ice is a run of the mill sports anime but Yuri!!!
manages to side step, but not completely avoid many of the pitfalls that plague
sports anime. For one it doesn’t take place in high school, but the character
tropes are still there, just with a fresh coat of paint. The senpai that’s
graduating next year that shows the ropes to the new guys, generally the
protagonists, is replaced by Victor, the accomplished senior professional
skater towards the end of his career. The new kids however are replaced with a
somewhat older skater who hasn't accomplished much and is a late bloomer. There
is still the main rivalry between the two Yuri’s, however they don’t necessarily
see themselves as enemies. The show manages to keep part of the time tested
sports anime formula, but it does it in a way that feels refreshing and it even
adds its own touch to make the viewing experience unique, which many sports
anime fail to do.
Speaking of a fresh
coat of paint, the show is gorgeously animated, and the skating choreography is
a pleasure to watch. And what an opening, the music isn’t much to brag about
however I will admit that it’s catchy, but the real star is the stylized
animation. Usually when I watch a show I’ll watch the opening for the first few
episodes and then just skip it, but I have consistently watched every opening
thus far, keep in mind that at the time of this blog, only four episodes have
aired. It’s animated by studio Mappa, a relatively new studio on the scene.
They've produced a few anime that I have enjoyed like Terror in Resonance and
Punchline, but my favorite show they produced was one of their first shows,
Kids on the Slope. The style of animation is similar to their other works, all
of which look really nice.
One of the major
detractors of the show is the out of place fan service, there is a time and a
place for fan service, and studio Mappa just has no sense for when it is, or
how often to include it. But this is a problem that just about every show today
has. Too many shows today use fan service as a selling point for the show,
putting issues of objectification aside, excessive fan service just gets in the
way of the show and detracts from the experience. Usually I expect this from
the endless sea of garbage that is modern seasonal anime, but Yuri stands out
to me, it’s too good to rely on such cheap trends. There’s probably about two
minutes of fan service per episode, and they just feel like they were put there
just so they could meet their quota for that episode. This could be said of
most seasonal shows though.
I’m
not saying this show is the best thing ever, I’m just saying that it’s fun to
watch, even after I watch an episode I think back and realize that it’s not
that good of a show, but when I watch the next episode I’m completely immersed
and I can’t help but watch, which is a sign of a good show. Overall I am thoroughly
enjoying this show, I care about the characters, the story is engaging, it has a quick pace but doesn't feel rushed and the skating is looks amazing, I can't say enough good things about the skating scenes. I know part of why i enjoy this anime so much that is because I had low expectations going in,
but I ended up with a really solid show, hopefully the rest of the series
is as enjoyable as the first four episodes.
