One can only hope that the creation of a second season will become a reality in the near future because “Yuri!!! on ICE!!!” is a milestone anime series in many different ways. It’s more than just a sports anime series, it’s essentially a love story that has no doubt captivated the attention of fans worldwide. “Yuri!!! on ICE: The Complete Series” is recommended!
© 2018 Funimation. All rights reserved.
TITLE: Yuri!!! on ICE – The Complete Series
ANIME TV AIR DATE: 2016
DURATION: Episodes 1-12 (300 Minutes)
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16:9 HD Widescreen), Dolby TrueHD English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD Japanese 2.0, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Crunchyroll/Funimation
Release Date: February 13, 2018
Original Concept by Mitsurou Kubo, Sayo Yamamoto
Directed by Sayo Yamamoto
Music by Taku Matsushiba, Taro Umebayashi
Original Character Design by Mitsurou Kubo
Character Design by Tadashi Hiramatsu
Art Director: Toshiharu Mizutani
Anime Production: MAPPA
Featuring the following voice talent:
Junichi Suwabe/Jerry Jewell as Victor Nikiforov
Kouki Uchiyama/Micah Solusod as Yuri Plisetsky
Toshiyuki Toyonaga/Josh Grelle as YÅ«ri Katsuki
Akiko Yajima as Axel Nishigori/Loop Nishigori/Lutz Nishigori
Ayumu Murase/Trina Nishimura as KenjirÅ Minami
Hideaki Tezuka/Damian Mills as Yakov Feltsman
Hiroki Yasumoto/Christopher R. Sabatt as Christophe Giacometti
Jun Fukuyama as Takeshi NishigÅri
Kei Hayami as Hiroko Katsuki (YÅ«ri’s mother)
Kenji Nojima/Oscar Seung as Seung Gil Lee
Kensho Ono/Joel McDonald as Phichit Chulanont
Kouji Ochiai/Ian Sinclair as Celestino Chaldini
KyÅko Sakai as Mari Katsuki (YÅ«ri’s sister)
Mamoru Miyano/Jerry Inman as Jean-Jacques Leroy
Mari Doi/Monica Rial as Mila Babicheva
Marika Minase/Tia Ballard as Sara Crispino
Mariya Ise/Alexis Tipton as YÅ«ko Nishigori
Misao Kobayashi as Nikolai Plisetsky (Yuri’s grandfather)
Satoshi Hino as Emil Nekola
Seiko Tamura as Lilia Baranovskaya
Shun’ichi Toki/Ricco Fajardo as Leo de la Iglesia
Souryuu Konno as Toshiya Katsuki (YÅ«ri’s father)
Taihei KatÅ as Hisashi Morooka
Tomoaki Maeno/J. Michael Tatum as Michele Crispino
Wataru Hatano/David Trosko as Georgi Popovich
Yoshimasa Hosoya/Mike McFarland as Otabek Altin
Yuka Komatsu/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Minako Okukawa
YÅ«tarÅ HonjÅ/Howard Wang as Guang-Hong Ji
After suffering a humiliating loss at the Grand Prix Final, Japan’s number one skater, Yuri Katsuki, is ready to hang up his skates for good. But when his idol and five-time champion Victor Nikiforov offers to be his coach, Yuri’s put on a trek for gold and to discover the true meaning of victory! Together, they’ll face skaters from around the world while discovering where their true feelings lie.
In October-December 2016, “Yuri!!! on ICE”, a 12-episode sports anime series would become internationally loved.
An anime series that would attract fans all over the world and love for the series extended to professional figure skaters as Johnny Weir and Evgenia Medvedeva are big fans of “Yuri!!! on ICE”.
The anime series would win three awards at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival and the anime series debuted at #1 on the Oricon charts.
And now the popular series would be released in North America courtesy of a translation by Crunchyroll and an English dub by Funimation (Japanese soundtrack is also available).
“Yuri!!! on ICE” revolves around a 23-year-old figure skater named Yuri Katsuki. While a talented figure skater (, unfortunately the pressure got to him during his first appearance at the Grand Prix Final that his confidence was affected. This would lead to Yuri to do poorly in competitions after the Grand Prix Final and leading him to retire and return home to his family’s hot springs resort in Kyushu, after being away from his family for five years.
While kindhearted, he is not so good at dealing with his emotions, nor is he good at opening up to other people. His lack of self-esteem and extreme anxiety has led him to lose faith in himself and he unfortunately becomes out-of-shape.
One day, while on the ice, Yuri performs skating legend, Victor Nikiforov’s skating routine, not knowing that his friend Yuko Nishigori’s triplet daughters are recording him.
The video would be uploaded on the Internet and it would go viral. Catching the attention of Victor, who travels to Japan and announces to Yuri that he wants to become his coach and help him win the next Grand Prix series.
Victor’s decision to take a year off from his skating career and not pursuing a 6th consecutive World Championship angers his coach Yakov, especially 15-year-old skater Yuri Plisetsky, who wants Victor to remember his promise made to him that he would choreograph a program for his senior debut.
But how will Yuri K. do under the tutelage of Victor? And will he become a better skater and win the World Championship?
VIDEO:
“Yuri!!! on ICE†is presented in 1080p High Definition. Featuring magnificent character design and artwork, including well-detailed backgrounds, MAPPA did a great job with the overall animation. The skating scenes look fluid, the attention to detail is magnificent and a lot of great care went into creating this anime series.
Colors are vibrant and I did not notice any problems with banding or artifacts.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Yuri!!! on ICE†is presented in Dolby TrueHD Japanese 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD Japanese 2.0.   Both soundtracks are well-acted and I felt that Funimation did a great job was casting as Josh Grelle was wonderful as Yuri Katsuki and Jerry Jewell as Victor. But really, for the most part, I felt the casting and English dub was good throughout. Dialogue and music is crystal clear and for the most part, fans of the anime series should be pleased with the HD soundtrack.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Yuri!!! on ICE†comes with the following special features:
- Eleventh Skate Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by ADR director Sonny Strait, Christopher R. Sabat (voice of Christophe Giacometti), Jeremy Inman (voice of Jean-Jacques Leroy) and Micah Solusod (voice of Yuri Plisetsky)
- Yuri!!! on ICE: A Cast Discussion – Featuring a video featurette with ADR director Sonny Strait, Josh Grelle (voice of Yuri Katsuki) and Jerry Jewell (voice of Victor Nikiforov)
- Textless Opening and Closing Songs
- Yuri Pletsky GPF in Barcelona EX “Welcome to the Madness” – (2:32)
I first heard about “Yuri!!! on ICE” through many friends on social media and would eventually see promotions for the anime series in Japan.
Never before have I heard of an anime series, let alone a sports anime series (I dislike calling this a sports anime series because it goes beyond the actual sport) garner so much critical praise on social media but I have to say the anime series was unique, not only in setting but most importantly, how it handled its characters, dealing with homosexuality.
In some ways, I would call this series a love story. There are different types of love but the genuine love between Yuri and his coach, ice skating legend Victor Nikiforov was handled well. Victor gave Yuri a new lease on life, giving him the will to believe in himself but to put his trust in his coach. To follow a strict regiment to get back into shape but get where he needed to be in order to compete in a very high level.
I praise the anime series on how it deals with mental health. The protagonist, Yuri Katsuki is a talented ice skater but he succumbs to extreme anxiety which affects him to the point that he goes through depression and the anime series does well in trying to showcase Yuri’s transformation from being a fit ice skater to an overweight skater. But how he is able to gain back that confidence he had lost year earlier.
The series also does a great job of showcasing Yuri’s friends and ice skating rivals and to make everything come together so wonderfully, you have to give credit to Mappa for adding a lot of details when it comes to the figure skating. The movements, the incredible skating showcased throughout the anime series and its vibrant animation to its wonderful lossless soundtrack, which are both well-acted in Japanese and for the English dub.
The anime series looks and sounds magnificent in HD and you also get a few special features included as well, including the “Yuri Plisetsky GPF in Barcelona EX ‘Welcome to the Madness'” OVA. I do feel that Funimation could have added more special features, may it be an audio commentary and even special features featuring the Japanese cast which would have been great.
While I know many fans are excited about the Blu-ray and DVD release of “Yuri!!! on ICE”, I have to add that there are people I know who were inspired by this anime series. A few people I know who suffer from extreme anxiety, who often struggle with self-doubt and whether or not they can succeed. And with “Yuri!!! on ICE”, they were captivated by the storyline and even gave them the will to overcome certain challenges in their life. So much that they traveled to Japan to visit the “Yuri!!! on ICE” cafe when it opened in Omotesando.
I also praise the anime for its handling of boys love. As a mainstream anime series, you don’t really find anime being created to show emotions among men. Quite often, it’s always a horndog male character giving so much attention to an underdressed, often a well-endowed female character.
While I know that style of anime series has a large following, hopefully with the worldwide reaction to “Yuri!!! on ICE” and the critical acclaim it has received, the anime industry would be mindful that the world is a much different place than it was decades ago and if there is a market for quality mainstream Shoujo-Ai anime, there are fans and a market who want to see more Shonen-Ai storylines.
So, you have to give Mitsurou Kubo and Sayo Yamamoto for creating the concept, Yamamoto being a driving force in getting this anime series made and Mappa for giving “Yuri!!! on ICE” the quality it deserved.
And one can only hope that the creation of a second season will become a reality in the near future because “Yuri!!! on ICE!!!” is a milestone anime series in many different ways. It’s more than just a sports anime series, it’s essentially a love story that has no doubt captivated the attention of fans worldwide.
“Yuri!!! on ICE: The Complete Series” is recommended!
