Yuri!!! on ICE Masterpost

A collection of links to official sites, translations, meta commentary and fun extras on Sayo Yamamoto’s dream project.

The major staff and cast interviews can be found in alphabetical order here.

For up-to-date news on the show, events, cool merchandise etc etc, subscribe to the YOI Wednesdays podcast on iTunes and soundcloud. You can also find a list of all publicity and important merchandise here, here or here. Please also read this post about what Kubo-sensei has said about sending her artwork on Twitter/social media.

Last update: May 18, 2018
(＊) marks updated or new entries, each for about a month

OFFICIAL STUFF

Official web links

Official Website
Official Twitter (and YOI merchandise on Twitter)
Official Facebook account
Official Instagram

Writer Mitsurō Kubo has also created a YOI-specific Twitter for her series-related art and comments.

Watch on Crunchyroll (sub), FUNimation (dub), nicodouga (for viewers in Japan)

Prior work: ENDLESS NIGHT

ENDLESS NIGHT, Japan Expo August 2015
Behind the Choreography of ENDLESS NIGHT

Media Coverage

Do note that, even though she wasn’t involved in much of the early publicity, Yamamoto is the person who birthed this project. In fact, she’d been wanting to do a figure skating anime since the time of the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. The only reason Kubo is the one we hear so much from is that she was put on the publicity team after her work on the scripts was done (probably by Aug 2016 at the latest). Yamamoto has now confirmed (ANN interview at AnimeFest Aug 2017) that she was far too busy to accept interview requests during the broadcast run, and she is really grateful to Kubo, who put her hand up to take on that responsibility.

Pre-broadcast publicity

2016-03-27 Anime Japan Presentation by Sayo Yamamoto & Mitsurō Kubo (JPN, translated by Laeza)
2016-March to April Kenji Miyamoto’s heroic efforts during the Choreography Shoot
2016-08-21 Yuri!!! Talk event (written up by Laeza based on several JPN event reports)
2016-09-10 Mitsurō Kubo: “A unique anime that only we can make,” from Newtype Oct (@)
2016-09-10 Mitsurō Kubo on her passion for YOI, from Pash! Oct (@)
2016-09-22 The Yuri!!! On ICE Opening Theme Goes International
2016-09-30 Mitsurō Kubo on how the project got off the ground, Spoon2Di vol.18 (@)
2016-10-01 Kubo x Mura, from 2016-17 Figure Skating Season Guidebook (partial: Japanese, translation)

Short comments on the official website

The Yuri!!! Voice Actors on their roles (from the official website, translated by Justin Luster for CR).
Former World Champion, now coach and choreographer, Stéphane Lambiel on participating in YOI

Publicity during broadcast

Post-broadcast publicity

2016-12-26 Mitsurō Kubo talks Yuri!!! on ICE’s ending on the radio show!
2016-12-28 Spoon2Di vol.21 (Toyonaga x Suwabe, Miyamoto)
                     Interview with Mitsurō Kubo (story, script)
2017-01-10 Animage February 2017 (Abiko x Tatenaka, Shishido, Otsuka)
2017-01-10 Animedia February 2017 (Hiramatsu)
2017-01-10 Otomedia February 2017 (Shimizu, Abiko x Tatenaka)
                    Interview with MAPPA producer Manabu Otsuka
                    Comments by Mamoru Miyano, Yasumasa Hosoya, Kenshō Ono and Hiroki Yasumoto
2017-01-10 Pash! February 2017 (Chacott, Tominaga + Otabek’s music)
2017-01-31 Pash! Illustration File 2017 (Hiramatsu)
2017-01-31 Spoon2Di vol.22 (Otsuka, Hiramatsu, Tominaga)
2017-02-07 CREA 2017/03
                     Interview with Mitsurō Kubo (story, script) and episode commentary (notes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
                     Kenji Miyamoto, Eiji Abiko x Junpei Tatenaka, Yuuko Sagiri and Keisuke Tominaga
(＊) 2017-02-10 Interview with Tadashi Hiramatsu, from Animage March 2017
2017-02-10 Animedia March 2017 (no interviews)
2017-02-10 Newtype March 2017 (Hiramatsu)
2017-02-10 Otomedia＋SPRING March 2017 (Shimizu x Mizutani)
2017-02-10 Pash! March 2017 (Hiramatsu, Abiko x Tatenaka, Mizutani)
                     Commentary on episodes 7-12 by Mitsurō Kubo (p.10-11)
                     Q&A section with Mitsurō Kubo (p.11) (Extra: JPN)
2017-02-10 Random piece of info. from Mitsurō Kubo autograph session
2017-02-11 All Night Event Report (toraonice, Pash! PLUS: JPN ENG)
2017-02-13 Febri vol.40 (Toyonaga x Uchiyama, Hiramatsu)
                     Interview with Mitsurō Kubo
2017-03-03 “An Intensive Course that will help you enjoy Figure Skating 100x more!”
2017-02-20 Monthly Piano (Matsushiba, Umebayashi)
2017-02-20 Piano Solo book (Umebayashi, Matsushiba)
2017-02-27 Spoon2Di vol.23 (no interviews)
2017-02-28 Newtype Romance (Kubo)
2017-03-09 Otomevisual (Hiramatsu, Abiko x Takenaka)
2017-03-10 Animedia April 2017 (Otsuka)
2017-03-10 Otomedia April 2017 (no interviews)
2017-03-10 Pash! April 2017 (Mariko Kawamoto)
2017-03-22 anan No.2046 (Honda)
2017-03-29 Figure Skate Life vol.9 (Miyamoto)
2017-04-10 Animage May 2017　(Saga on ICE comic)
2017-04-10 Animedia May 2017　(no interviews)
2017-04-10 Pash! May 2017
                    Sayo Yamamoto’s first media interview on Yuri!!! on ICE!! (Pash!+ extra: JPN, ENG)
2017-04-18 Febri vol.41 Sayo Yamamoto on her career and how it connected to Yuri!!! on ICE

NB: Thank you to @frog-kun for checking anything marked with a (@), and to toraonice for helping me check the one with (#).

Interviews from English Language Media sources

2017-06-09~11 Junpei Tatenaka, Noriko Itō, Izumi Hirose and Takahiro Ogawa, at AnimeNEXT, New Jersey.
2017-06-29 Sayo Yamamoto, interviewed by Dai Satō for Otaquest (Part 1, Part 2)
2017-07-09 Comments by Kubo and Yamamoto in Le Monde report on Japan Expo, Paris
2017-07-23~24 Interview with Tadashi Hiramatsu and Itō, by The Magic Rain at Visual Arts Expo, Malaysia
2017-08-17~20 Yamamoto, Kubo and Hiramatsu, at AnimeFest, Dallas

Note 1: Kubo has expressed some concern about being unable to check how their words are being represented in Western media interviews they’ve done. This tweet was about Japan Expo in Paris. I’ll update this note again if she comments on any other interviews — there’s apparently a comment for another convention or two that I missed. (I am only reporting what she has said. Like everyone else, I do not know what she is actually referring to when she makes such comments, and I am not going to make any definitive claims as to that.)

Note 2: With the Otaquest interview, at least one detail does not match what they’ve said in their Japanese interviews. Yamamoto and Kubo talked about meeting the cosplayers in the Czech Republic in their Fanbook roundtable, but said that it was the cosplayers who asked “Do you know of Yuri!!! on ICE,” and they just replied “We do,” without revealing their identities. Yamamoto also said the same thing in her Guidebook solo interview.

Note 3: For any of these interviews (translated) in English. Usually, if Yamamato is talking about wanting do draw something other than (animation) storyboards, she probably meant “depict” (描く). Yamamoto’s origins aren’t in animation — she started as a production assistant — so she generally talks about storytelling rather than drawing.

BD/DVD interviews and extras

vol. 1 (2016-12-30)
      Interview with Mitsurō Kubo, and other information from the booklet
      Ep. 1 audio commentary, with Mitsurō Kubo and Toshiyuki Toyonaga
      Choreography footage commentary (Stammi vicino…, In Regards to Love ~Eros~)
vol. 2 (2017-01-27)
      Interview with Kenji Miyamoto, and other information from the booklet
      Ep. 3 audio commentary, with Mitsurō Kubo and Kōki Uchiyama
      Choreography footage commentary (In Regards to Love ~Agape~, Yuri on Ice)
vol. 3 (2017-02-24)
      Interview with Eiji Abiko and Junpei Tatenaka, and other information from the booklet
      Ep. 6 audio commentary, with Mitsurō Kubo and Jun’ichi Suwabe (some extra notes)
      Choreography footage commentary (Minami’s Boogie, Shall We Skate?, Still Alive, Intoxicated)
vol. 4 (2017-03-31)
       Interview with Jun Shishido and Yūsuke Tannawa, and other information from the booklet
      Ep.7 audio commentary, with Mitsurō Kubo, Kenshō Ono, Yūtarō Honjō and Shunichi Toki
      Choreography footage commentary

BD versus TV

on tumblr: Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

on vk.com: Episodes 1-10

Chacott’s Costume Designs

The Chacott designer on Yuri!!! Original Costume Designs
Japanese originals on the Chacott website (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Translated by Good Haro on Sakuga Blog (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Misc

Mitsurō Kubo, Tatsuki Machida and the story of Yuri!!! on ICE (Japanese, English, finale update)
Mitsurō Kubo and the film within the show: The King and the Skater

For the seiyuu fans out there, this blogger is summarising the YOI radio show!

Translation of Yuri’s character profile on the Japan Skating Federation website.

BY FANS, FOR FANS

(NB: if the primary link is a reblog, it’s because the original had music that needed to be turned off)

On the show itself

On the OP and ED themes

2016-10-09 Dean Fujioka and the meaning of “History Maker”
2016-11-23 You Only Live Once (translation)

Lost in translation

Correct skating terminology
Nuances from Japanese lost in the subs
Based on Ep.10, a little translation fix

Notes: Much as we all complain about “this is how I’d have translated that” from time to time, the CR translation teams, for YOI included, generally do a really good job considering the constraints they work under, so I hope you’ll support them nonetheless. Also, whilst I personally don’t agree with some of the conclusions lookiamnotcreative makes, the analysis of the language itself seems pretty accurate most of the time. (NB: I have too much on my plate to give it a thorough check myself.)

However, please be careful not to put words into the creators’ mouths, as in the examples laid out in the following posts:

That’s what Kubo said?!
      Part 1: “She thought she was writing a sports story, but she ended up writing a romance.”
      Part 2: on the kiss in episode 7
      Part 3: a few tweets from August
      Noriko Itō and the characters’ handwriting

Yuri!!! and its real life locations

On tumblr
      Hasetsu = Karatsu City in Kyushu (1, 2)
      Barcelona!
      Victor’s apartment and his designer chair!
Chris’s apartment: the Palladium de Champéry in Valais, Switzerland
On Crunchyroll
      Karatsu, St Petersburg, Florence and Iceberg Skating Palace, Yoyogi and Imperial World venues
      Detroit, Okayama, Moscow and Barcelona!

And situating Yuri!!! time-wise.

Bonus: Magazine cover/poster locations
Spoon.2Di vol.20: Outside the GUM [ГУМ] Department Store, Moscow
Spoon.2Di vol.21: New Year Shrine Visit (Karatsu Shrine)
Pash! Illustration File 2017: Tel Aviv (Twitter, Tumblr)
Spoon.2Di vol.22: Teaspoon (Чайная Ложка) on Nevsky Avenue (credit; google maps)

I figured I should also link this explanation about how promotional artwork is commissioned. TLDR version: Magazine staff (Pash!, Animage, Animedia, Spoon etc) make an order for an image; the animation staff fulfil it, provided it falls within the rules that have been set to protect the world of the show in question. Same translator has also said that “Magazine illustrations (including posters like these) are chosen by the magazine staff. They’ll send an idea to the publicity person for each show and that gets modified and returned with a sketch from the animation studio. That process repeats until both magazine/publicist agrees and the image is made.”

Fun extras

On Russian Names and Nicknames (by ladyegcake on tumblr)
The gifts on the ice (originally posted by lamienthana here)

Yuri!!! and the real World of Figure Skating

An introduction to Figure Skating

Figure Skating 101 and a few more basics (1, 2, 3, 4)
Explaining Choreographers (by lazuliblade on tumblr)
More supplementary Figure Skating Info (see also this post on Yuzu and Zhenya)
Behind Victor’s Quad Fest
Explaining Grand Prix Series assignments
(see also episode 8 of Ice Talk, where ice dancer Alex Shibutani explains it from his pov)

Analysing the characters’ programs and performances

Micchy’s livetweets for all episodes can be found here on Storify.
She’s also keeping track of all the music they’re skating to on Spotify.
Here’s a translation of the song that Victor skated to in episode 1, along with a couple of analyses.
Lazuliblade has also dissected the “Agape” and “Eros” performances from episode 3.
I also do a little bit of program analysis in my own episode notes.

For (aspiring) hard-core FS otaku
Scoring in more detail
Want to know how to tell the jumps apart?
Hungry for more? Try these explanations of jumps, spins, turns and steps!
You can also check out the Technical Handbook for Singles Skating,
Calculate all their maximum possible scores,
And listen to Ice Talk!

Comparisons
Comparing Yuri’s “Eros” performances (from episodes 3, 5, 6 and 8)
Comparing the “Yuri on Ice” performances (from episodes 5, 7, 9 and 12)
Victor’s and Yuri’s “Aria (Stammi vicno, non te ne andare)”

Bonus:
An Introduction to Judging.
Technical Elements – Base Values and GOEs (2017-18)
What is the Presentation Score? (full, summary)
An analysis of Yuzuru Hanyu’s record-breaking 2015-16 programs.
A few commentaries that provide a glimpse of what judges reward skaters for.

If you have more figure skating questions, try micchy, Lazuliblade or this tumblr blog.

On the Banquet Ending sequence for Episode 10

Here’s what some RL pole dancers had to say… (Japanese)
The dance that Yuuri and Victor perform is apparently a Paso Doble, which, incidentally, is one of the dance patters that ice dancers can be assigned to skate to.
And…guess what figure skaters really are like behind the scenes!

I mention this on twitter from time to time, but do check out people like Misha Ge and the ShibSibs if you want to see what real life skaters do with social media. You might also be interested to know that Misha Ge, who’s still skating competitively, has also started choreographing for his fellow skaters.

On the rings

Figure Skating Charms and a Wealth of Nuance
On Japanese omamori (omamori being the term Yuuri himself uses for the rings)

And if anyone knows of a post about pre-skate rituals, please let me know.

Real world Figure Skaters and YOI

A masterpost on RL figure skaters who’ve talked about Yuri!!! on social media
And Frog-kun’s analysis of social media in-show and out
The RL inspiration for the Maccachin tissue box
The blades of Victor’s skates are based on Stéphane Lambiel’s! (more skate blade references here)
Also check out Johnny Weir’s interview re: YOI at the Geekiary
CBC gets in on the fun with Canada’s top skaters as anime characters…
Explaining JJ
The ‘pair skate’ at the end is actually based on Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s 2016-2017 free dance!
And figure skating fans on the Golden Skate forums are also finding all the other cool references!

Misc

Characters’ skates (Yurio, Yuri; ALL OF THEM)
A fun little exchange with the South Park creators (one, two)
Why Russians celebrate New Years like Christmas

And that’s everything that I’ve come across (or worked on myself) so far. As always, please message me on Twitter, curiouscat or Tumblr if there’s anything you think I should add!