Yuri!!! on Ice

Episode 5

In what looks to be Yuri!!! on Ice's last relatively chill episode before competition season begins in earnest, the show buckles down to resolve some of the underlying dangers in Yuuri and Victor's partnership. Specifically, Victor has a tendency to be a real jerk sometimes. Sure, he's always been effortlessly perfect, but regular mortals need to work for things sometimes. There's also no need to make fun of Yuuri's weight so much, Vicchan. I've hoped for a while that Yuri!!! on Ice would address Victor's insensitivity and callous perfectionism, but it was hard to gauge how emotionally introspective the show would venture to be over Yuuri's magical Russian boyfriend. As of this episode, however, Yuri!!! on Ice has set aside the fantasy romance, displaying a subtle understanding of human emotion. While I had high hopes for Yuri!!! on Ice coming in, I didn't anticipate that it would come anywhere close to last winter's Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū as a rumination on the expression of desire in art. This week, it became apparent that this show is going for some heavy theming in about five different directions - all in a super accessible package for audiences of all stripes!

Based on what we know about them, there are some obvious pratfalls to a relationship (romantic or otherwise) between Yuuri and Victor. Self-conscious Yuuri could've easily made his self-esteem dependent on Victor's opinion of him. The fact that Victor – a fickle, inexperienced coach – is often needlessly harsh with Yuuri could've wrecked him over the long term. There's also the issue of Yuuri's agency in this relationship. Will Yuuri just be passively molded into Victor's ideal? Or will Yuuri assert himself, making their artistic partnership a real pas de deux? Fortunately, the latter happens, largely due to Yuuri finding an alternate font of strength in his network of unconditionally supportive family, friends, and peers. This is what allows him to overcome Victor's moodiness, turning their momentary conflict into a greater understanding between student and coach, as well as a more equal collaboration between them.

Minami Kenjirou is key to this shift. He's a huge fan of Yuuri's, despite having already beaten him once before in competition. Despite Minami's strong feelings, Yuuri barely remembers him. This shows the degree to which Yuuri denies the respect and love he's earned as a skater, to the detriment of his ability to connect with others. All Minami wants is for Yuuri to succeed. He doesn't care about the failures that Yuuri perceives as "crushing," even when Minami was the winner in those competitive encounters. All he wants is to encourage others and be encouraged in turn. Like Victor, Minami introduces an alternative to the competitive model of ice skating. While Victor is supposedly all about artistic expression over competitive technical mastery, Minami represents a view of ice skating as one big, mutually supportive community. He's a lovely addition to the cast, and with the focus this episode places on individual audience member reactions, I think that the show is on his side.

For all Victor's talk about art being great and jumps being dumb, he does care about competition, and he dangles a high standard for success over Yuuri's head. This is counterproductive, since those standards happen to be exactly what's causing Yuuri so much stress and making him perform badly. Victor is often the only person dissatisfied with Yuuri, which makes Yuuri – who idolizes Victor – hurt and confused. However, Minami's support (alongside a well-observed if mean jab from Victor) reminds Yuuri that other people care about him. Our hero continues to realize that his feelings of isolation and incompetence – emotions that dominated the show's first few episodes – don't reflect reality, because he's actually an admired and accomplished skater. Realizing that Victor isn't his end-all be-all, Yuuri finds the strength to communicate his dissatisfaction and, hopefully, make their relationship stronger.

And it works! By disobeying him, Yuuri actually gave Victor what he wanted – to be surprised and see emotional expression in ice skating prized over technical mastery. Yuuri's iffy jumping actually contributed to the expressive power of his performance, which was themed around his career so far, becoming explicitly about his ability to work through failure. Like the rest of the audience, Victor loses himself in the result. The performance is shocking, and personal, and truly Yuuri's. It couldn't have been achieved just by aiming low, like Victor wanted him to do. At the same time, it's also fully in line with Victor's advice to surprise the audience by doing “the opposite of what they expect," except in this case, Yuuri's audience was explicitly Victor. Victor discovers that his seemingly meek partner (again, romantic or otherwise) harbors some hidden confidence, allowing him to sometimes turn the tables on their expected dynamic of active/passive, artist/vessel, seducer/seduced.

So Victor finally understood that he was being unfairly punitive, leading him to remedy his behavior by offering an embrace at the end of Yuuri's second performance, despite his coach instincts telling him to scold his pupil. Of course, this all contrasts with Yurio's story. The Blond Brat is currently letting a Russian movement maven mold him into her ideal artistic form in exchange for the promise of victory. This is likely wrecking Yurio both physically and emotionally. Through all of this, Yuri!!! on Ice conflates art and relationships with communication, making them all out as parts of the big performance called life.

At the end of the episode, Yuri announces the theme for all his performances this season: love. Specifically, it's the abstract, non-romantic love he feels for his family and friends, who have supported him all this time. He also claims that he “[wants] to hold onto Victor” and doesn't “have a name for the emotion” that he feels towards him, but that he's “decided to call it love.” Make of that what you will.

Oddly enough, this episode's theme happens to work as a metatextual commentary on Yuri!!! on Ice itself. As the series has progressed, the animation has begun to struggle immensely. This episode was the roughest yet, with copious reused footage, erratic character models, and still frame shenanigans. However, the show is still immensely ambitious – roughly a third of its runtime consists of characters ice skating, which demands constant animation (even if it's not strong animation) with few opportunities to use anime's usual shortcuts. It's crazy that the production is even trying to do this, and that's something thrilling in and of itself. Much like the in-show audience, I'm glad to see Yuri!!! on Ice test its limits visually, even when it doesn't quite stick the landing. Of course, other aspects of the production help. The writing is so strong that I'm enthralled regardless of some wonky cuts. The direction is unobtrusive but excellent, allowing the story to work emotionally despite such rapid pacing. I've become so invested that I have to listen to a song from this show at least once a day or I'll die. So far, every episode has taught me something new about Yuri!!! on Ice's content and artistic goals. And every time, it only makes me more excited to see what will happen next.

Next week, Yuuri must confront the human consequences of his past in the form of his old coach, Celestino. He may put on an amicable front, but it seems that he harbors some resentment for his former pupil. He also dislikes Victor because he considers the skater's foray into coaching an intrusion. I'm sure it doesn't help that Victor has succeeded where Celestino failed in motivating Yuuri. All this will put Yuuri up against his friend Phichit in competition. I'm excited to see what these characters will bring to the story of Yuri's maturation.

Grade: A-

Yuri!!! on Ice is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.