Yuri On Ice!!! + Welcome to the Madness

This was one of my first stops on Patreon after joining - rewatching this series with you, I’m reminded why I spent so much of my first watch in 2016 in tears! This series melted a hardened part of my gay heart that didn’t believe in love after growing up fearing my own. I’m so grateful I can share the joy of this show with you and everyone else rewatching, now solid in the belief that queer love and friendship/family amongst queer people is so beautiful and good!

movrena

just make sure it's the full version

Ruuna

I loved revisiting this series with you, almost a decade later! PLEASE react to Welcome to the Madness, Yurio's performance. This series isn't complete without that.

Ruuna

All of this. Also, it is then explicitly confirmed by various characters. Tbh I feel like this series fell victim of the gaslighting climate going around at the time around the topic of queerness in media. There was so much queerbaiting going around that even blatant textual confirmations was denied, therefore after so long of being told you're imagining things, people started to watch this series through that lens as well because unless you had blatant making out/sex, you were told you couldn't consider it canon. Rewatching this now with almost a decade of separation from that clmate, I was stunned as well to notice how gaslighted we were, and mind, even at the time I was fighting for the right of this show to be considered queer rep, and yet I remained with the impression that it hadn't been able to be as explicitly textual as it wanted to. I was wrong.

Ruuna

It was super fun to rewatch this with you, your joy is so infectious!

Valdinia

EP10: "It does not matter that the rings went on their right hand" So fun fact that's totally not causing me to (internally) scream over the rings more than I was already doing, not all countries/cultures wear their wedding rings on their left hand. In Russia, it's actually common to wear your wedding ring on your right hand(!!!). In Japan, it seems to depend, from what I can find online. Whether Yuri (and/or the animation/production team) are aware of that fact is up for debate, but that doesn't change the facts. Oh and also, in some countries/cultures it's common to wear an engagement ring on one hand and then switch to the other hand for the wedding ring. So, you know.. the particular hand they chose doesn't even really matter, it's not even a case of 'oh but we understand what's really going on here', it's not subtext, it's 100% text.

Autumn Moon

I have to see you react to Yurio's exhibition Welcome to the Madness!! Please! Please! Please!

mldirish14

Love finding out that Yuuri’s performance in the finale can still make me cry nine years later 😭 It was such a joy rewatching this with you - thank you for choosing it, and I’m glad you enjoyed your own rewatch too!

Hali

Thanks for reacting to YOI - it's been so fun rewatching it with you. This is such a special show, and for me, a near perfect anime. Now I've gotta go find some of my favorite fics to stave off the depression of never getting a season 2!

Missa

From Ep7... This is just based on titles that I watched or known. Regarding the anime JP bLs releases, they are pretty consistent to it, (a lot more now than before) since early 2000s' they got like 1 or 2 TV show but the rest are OVAs (much shorter, and a lot more in erotica side) there are much more OVAs 'till to this day. Then 2008 is the Junjou Romantica era, after that year, it's all OVAs until 2011 Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, then it's all OVAs again. 2013/2014 is where the TV show got back to 1 or 2 titles per year plus we also got movies now, last year we got 3 tv show, movies and still a lot more OVAs. Also the year, Ten Count (+YOI) got cancelled, and because of that, this year is where I don't know where we are... OVAs/ONAs are still there. Some of the titles that they announce still no date, so don't want to get my hopes up...again. lol. Sorry if this is messy. There is one that I'm waiting for tho, The Summer Hikaru died, didn't read the manga yet, some says there is a romance to it but like YOI it's background (don't mind it) don't know how real is that, I don't want to get spoiled. It's horror, supernatural, mystery. I guess, it's more like the, The night beyond the tricornered window.

Aixen

Yay can’t wait to finish watching the series with you when i get home from uni 🤩

Maha

Just like the skate Viktor came up with for Eros(with the prince ect) 👀 yeah, yuuri was the prince all along...

Phoenix Mackenzie

“See you next level” FUCK OFFFFF MAPPA

kai

I'm very glad everyone else is also saying this, but just to add to it, please react to Welcome To The Madness! it was a bonus video released on the Blu-ray, from what I understand, and it's the exhibition skate of Yurio and Otabek, similar to Yuuri and Victor's, and it's so beautiful!

DysfunctionalCreature

Here's a link to the episodes at the Internet Archive. The MKV Matroska versions are best and have the cleanest subtitles. I definitely agree that everyone needs to see Welcome to the Madness, best animation of the series. https://archive.org/details/smugcatyurionice

Mike Petrillo

BRITTANY! You have to watch the "Welcome to the Madness" short. Please please. You will LOVE it. It was released sorta as promo for the next season which never happened. As for why I'm sure someone with more knowledge of the anime world would be able to speak better, but it's also because 1)YOI is very expensive to make and they were trending even more expensive with WTTM and Ice:ADO from what they released. 2)Mappa hit it much bigger than YOI with it's animes while they were working on future YOI. They basically said, oh, we can make more money with JJK and shit and we need all our animators on that STAT, because they massively overwork and understaff. That's my understanding of really why we got screwed. I'm sure homophobia was in there somewhere but it's also pure bottom line capitalism with no consideration of art. Other things: At the end, when Yuuri is running and waving, he's arriving in St. Petersburg to train in Russia with Viktor. So presumably they are living together and training together for the future. Also (I know others have commented on this) in Russia wedding and engagement rings are worn on the right hand. And you didn't react to Stephane Lambiel but he's a real skater who was partly inspiration for Viktor and he was in the last episode! He's now a coach. He's fantastic and everyone loves him for being such a sweetheart (and uh very queer coded. I believe not officially out though press has "outed" him and he's said it's no one's business.)

threerings

Oh yes, we didn't get the movie or Season 2 but at least we got this!

Ninchen

Thank you for this rewatch, I really needed it and it was great to see you get to know the show again in a new light!

Ninchen

I absolutely loved rewatching this beautiful anime with you. https://youtu.be/25K3-DoEBIk?si=g4TVu2as1ERRinjE also please watch this it’s only couple of minutes.

Once_upona_fae

I still, all these years later, think that episode 10 is such an amazing twist and it elevates the show SO MUCH. It re-contextualizes Victor's behavior since the beginning in such an amazing way and it's actually a little sad? Like, this man fell hard for Yuuri at the banquet and then felt totally discarded when Yuuri didn't follow-up with him. THEN, he sees Yuuri doing his routine and must have thought "This is his sign!" and dropped everything to go to Japan. He turns on the charm, hoping to advance their relationship, and Yuuri just acts like nothing has happened between them at all! Must have been very confusing xD

tickledpink

I was so sad it wasn't part of ep 12, i thought it'd be at the very end! It's a MUST watch for sure

Josie

Thank you so much for these reactions! I’m not sure if you’re planning on watching it, but I would LOVE if you could also react to Welcome to the Madness. It’s a bonus clip of Yuri on Ice.

r_m_nt_c_

In Russia engagement/wedding rings are actually worn on the right hand btw (smth the show writers probably know since they are also correct about the birthday and Christmas celebration traditions) ☺️

kuskus

If you take a moment to pause and look at other comments you'll see why they did what they had to, they did as much as they could with what they had🤦

Phoenix Mackenzie

Oh yoi ep 10, the absolute icon that you are ❤️

Josie

that episode 10 is just something else .. Subtext? what subtext ?

Be Happy

about to (quite excitedly) hunker down and watch the last three episodes, but i noticed that the link for wetransfer on ep11 links instead to its counterpart on vidyard

Wayra Elladae

Fixed! Thank you <3

Brittany Diamond

Mike Petrillo

Eagerly awaiting the rest of the episodes... I've always found this show both beautiful and heartfelt, but a little disappointing because they never state outright what they splashed all over the story. There is no way to watch this show and think Viktor and Yuri are only coach/student or besties or anything other than lovers (even without having sex). And yet. And yet. Yuuri keeps denying it's anything more. Yuuri is not just in denial, he's the whole fucking Nile and it's so frustrating because that only comes from the script, not the imagery, the direction, the art, the voice actors - everyone is embuing every frame with gay love but Yuuri keeps saying, "nope." You can tell that everyone working on this show was totally fine with the gayness of it. I think they were really pushing for it. Whoever they were afraid of offending...was an idiot, because this show is super-duper gay all over and it was still hugely popular. You can't tell me that the show would have lost all its viewers if they had clearly animated Viktor and Yuuri's kiss in episode 7. If they didn't want it to be gay, then they could have toned down/taken out all the gay shit all over the place. But this show has more gay coding and teasing and hinting and innuendo-ing than any other show ever (though Sk8 The Infinity has tried hard to match it). It instantly got labeled as a BL, whatever it was originally marketed as, so all that denial was a huge waste of time. It's like...shit or get off the pot, please. And I felt that frustration all the way to the end.

Serralinda

I’m in Japan right now and I’m just waiting for the last reactions to drop so I have something perfect to watch in the hotel at night 😅

Wika Ela

Anyone else unsure of upload timing so just keeping checking the post for more?🤣🤣

Phoenix Mackenzie

YOI aired during my senior year of high school and I remember a friend spoiling the big kiss scene at lunchtime — it was torture having to wait for the school day to be over so I could go watch the episode 😂 My friend group and I also did the JJ Style hand pose for a photo at senior prom lmao. This show truly was A Moment in history.

Hali

You shipping the wrong couple is so funny, not to mention with JJ the most irritating character in the whole show😂

Once_upona_fae

💖💖💖✨✨✨🤣🤣🤣

xiaokuer_s

so many manips of the kiss circulated on tumblr back then! we were collectively losing our minds lol. i really respect the creators and the way they navigated the censorship, toeing the line while not explicitly confirming anything but undoubtedly telling a queer love story. there's a reason yoi holds up and is still so good to this day.

Car

The way you just bluescreened in episode 9 when Viktor said it was like a marriage proposal. Relatable

XanEcho

your reaction to that tie tug is a 1 to 1 recreation of what i imagine went on in viktors brain afterwards 😂 can't wait for the last three eps!

Josie

I watched this when it came out because my daughter asked me to. She loved it and thought I would like it because I was just starting to watch anime, I'm into my queer media, and I love figure skating. I wasn't very into it at the time but, to be fair, I had a lot on my plate at the time so I probably didn't give it the attention I should have. But rewatching it now with Brittany's commentary I'm kind of loving it. Edit to add: I had watched amine in the 80's which is a whole different animal and stopped watching when life started punching me in the face. So basically I hadn't watched any anime since stuff like G-force and Robotech, it's much better now than it was then.

Katherine Griffith

I think that's what other people do not understand, when they complain about YOI being not BL enough. The creators already did something so ballsy (I don't know how to explained it much better. lol) for an anime that supposed to be mainly sports/shounen anime. Yes, BL is a "big" thing in Japan but also not, they'll get less advertisement, sponsorship, means less money (budget) just like what you said.

Aixen

So to reply to your comments about the Kiss and censorship, to my knowledge, and I was VERY DEEP in the fandom and actually saw Kubo and Sayo at a Con in 2017 and heard them talk and take questions, and they have never outright said that they were censored by the studio, however they have never talked about Viktor and Yuuri's relationship as anything but a romance. They do however always stress that this is a sports anime, and an anime sharing their love of figure skating and that's the focus. So I think that's the attitude in which they approached getting by the (definitely MAPPA influenced) censorship, by putting the queer stuff in the background and not as the focus. There's also the bigger issue in Japan of GENRE and intended audience. So you can do BL, but then it can only air at certain times, etc, and makes less money, and YOI was very very expensive, so they obviously needed it to be NOT a BL and instead a SPORTS ANIME or even shonen for $$ reasons.

threerings

Brittany gaslighting herself into jumping the wrong ship was HILARIOUS 🤣 Can't wait for the last three episodes to see how THAT turned out, because tbf JJ and Otabek do have similar designs what with the tan skin and the undercut lmao

blueturnips

Glad I'm not the only one waiting on that🤣😁

Phoenix Mackenzie

No pressure but are the 7-12 episodes of Yuri On Ice coming out soon?

DysfunctionalCreature

...and for episode 10's end credits ;)

iamafanfictionfreak

Ngl I was gonna say when you said you didnt remember it being this gay: "Oh wait until she meets Chris again..."

Olivia Owens

THANK YOU. ❤️ Needed info.

iamafanfictionfreak

Yuri is based on Yuzuru Hanyu, a japanese skater who has been to the Olympics 3 times (he is 2 times gold medalist), you should check him out, he is truly adorable. Yurio is based on Yulia Lipnitskaya, a Russian female skater who is known for her performance in 2014 and Victor is based on Evgeni Plushenko but his visuals are based on the actor John Cameron Mitchell. So yes you are right, the skating movements are very realistic as they copied the styles of the skaters in question 😊 After the first diffusion of Yuri on Ice, Yuzuru became one of my favorite skaters. https://youtu.be/YkXXEwkmfv8?si=KPr1DkgC3u7o4x-g

Sakura

I'm waiting to binging these reactions on a day when I need a little pick me up 🤗😁

Nez

Yeah, I think people just wanted graphic yaoi and kind of forgot it's still a show about figure skating with gay love thrown into the mix lol

Dorte

It might’ve just been other people’s general opinions affecting your perspective over the years, because there was a subset of watchers who vehemently denied that the show “counted” as queer. It baffled me then and it baffles me now that anyone thought literally anything about YOI was too subtle to be considered gay - it’s practically a walking pride flag, in my eyes 😂

Hali

So it's actually really interesting what you said about why did you remember this as being more implied than explicitly gay, and that is a BIG divide in people who watched this show. Like, I made my husband watch it and that was his takeaway and I was like...but no, it's blatant. It's CLEAR. They made something that is just barely deniable if you have a certain mindset. But is also just a gay romance if that's what you are looking for. Like by the language of BL, it's a BL. But if you don't know that language, you can miss it somehow? Or you still see it but think they didn't quite Go There, when they absolutely do. IDK it's a fascinating work of like code-switching and toeing a line that would let them be Not A BL and still Mainstream Anime but be authentically queer at the same time?

threerings

Excuse me, how dare you drop more episodes just before I go to bed on a Sunday night?

Michael Horniak

You got it spot on. Apo in his early 20's would have looked perfect as the live-action version of the Thai skater. His cutie look back then.

DanishWolf

My ringtone has been the opening song since 2016. I also have no desire to change it ❤️

JaketheDog0117

legendary anime, so dear to me. went absolutely feral for it back in the day and like you said it still holds up today. and i swear, my phone ringtone has remained the intro to "you only live once" (the ending song) since 2016. makes me bloody emotional and nostalgic every time my phone rings but i see no reason to part ways with it. certified banger.

Car

Oh this brings me back to watching the series for the first time again. I revisit it pretty often so I've become less shocked at how explicit some of these early scenes are, but this brings me back to watching it air episode by episode after only being used to average sports anime level queerbaiting. Just back to back to back "wait, they're being THIS gay with it? For real?"

XanEcho

the way i came back to patreon for this(payment failed on feb and i never noticed)

Alliyah Jane Caelestis

I was completely obsessed with this anime for years when it came out and now rewatching it with you makes me so emotional!! Hearing that piano music always does so many things to my heart i miss Victuuri sm 🥹🥹

wangxian's bunny

Checking in. Yes there were lots of Victor Teachers Yuuri about Eros fics, especially while it was airing. I can't wait for you to get through this. Especially ep 10. And I have lots and lots of YOI fic recs on my blog for when you're done. It was the fandom that brought me to tumblr full time and got me writing after like 9 years off. My main fandom from pre-MDZS days. In fact YOI people lead me to MDZS when it was just a Donghua and a novel.

threerings

So good to rewatch this with you! Please remember when you get to episode 10 that you need to watch the ending for that one. :)

Ninni

I have listened to that song, SO MUCH. Even though she skipped the intro, I can just sing it myself anyway. XD

JMercedesD

Like you, I haven't watched this since it came out and --- aaaaahhhhh! -- I'm so happy to be rewatching it with you! I also forgot how damn cute parts of this was, especially during Yuuri's narrative and everything about Victor's dog. XD

JMercedesD

I think this was the second anime I watched that had a character voice by Suwabe Junichi, but his voice acting as Victor definitely helped cement him as my favourite seiyuu 😍 Great reaction and I can't wait for more! Are you going to be checking out the Ending though? Couple of moments in it that I think you'd go crazy over, but I understand copyright can sometimes be an issue with Openings and Endings.

Anime Annie

Episode 7 the Ending changes, and Episode 10 has other changes and a certain extra scene.

Anime Annie

Ohh, it was so fun watching it as ongoing. We were going crazy, ppl from all over the world were writing fanfics and asking us to check Russian life details or lines/words that characters would say... Everyone was so invested in the story, but also in Japanese, Russian, Kazakh and other cultures, it was amazing

Mikomi

I'm testing out my new keyboard to SCREAM AT YOU!!! AHHHH SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIESSSSS (this came out while I was just starting highschool and it became my entire personality while it was streaming!)

alex photography

I'm so happy you're watching this, just as I was thinking that I wanted to watch it again, bc I have watched fan art for years, but haven't actually watched the series since 2016/17, so I have forgotten things too. Awesome to rewatch it with other people ❤️ Since it's been nearly s decade.. I have this -maybe wrong- memory of the intro song being the same, but the outtro changes along to the way, showing cute things, maybe even tiny 'extra' clips. Either in all the episodes, or later on. So maybe not be so fast to skip the outtro for each episode. Someone correct me, if my memory failed me completely.

DanishWolf

Aaah, you got the Blu-rays 🥹😭 I wanted them so badly, but they were hard to get outside of Japan, and even if so, the shipments and fees to my country were a small fortune.

DanishWolf

I'd forgotten how much I love this anime! Thank you so much for reacting to it - I've only watched ep 1 of the two so far but omg your reactions are life! Also just... he packed up and MOVED to JAPAN based off of one video (and, you know, the rest, but still). Man's got zero chill, I swear.

Kat Q

WE WERE BORN TO MAKE HISTORY

Vol

I have to admit, my first time watching this, I was going in very blind, I didn't think they were going for gay romance until the ring scene... 😅 I (a European) was just thinking, well Victor is just being very European and Yuri a fanboy. I was also very used to anime playing the gay tension card and nothing ever coming off it, soo... yeah. I was here for the ice-skating and the slowly bringing each other out of their mental problems and then came to the very slow realization of: Omg, this is actually gay. 🤣🤷‍♀️

Lisa Kleine

Brittany: ''Why are these episodes 3 minutes long?!'' Also Brittany: Watching MDZS Q soon I know that it has nothing to do with this series, but I had to share it because it popped into my head immediately and it wouldn't go away. The irony is hilarious lmao Now that that's out of the way, this was everything that I thought it would be and more. It's been a while since I rewatched YoI, so rewatching it with you was very fun. I'm so glad this won the poll!

blueturnips

I’m so glad I had the money to rejoin the Patreon just in time for YOI!! I was obsessed with it when it aired, but I’m also a big fan of real life figure skating, so it’s a joy to see you react to the series. You can really tell it was a labor of love as so many details are accurate, from the setup of the skating season to the animation of each unique jump takeoff. They also had choreographer/figure skater Kenji Miyamoto choreograph the programs - some of the YOI Blu-Rays I own have videos of him performing them, so I’m sure having those as reference helped keep the movement and flow natural when animating!

Hali

Ahh, yuri on ice was my unofficial gateway into the world of anime, and I absolutely love it ❤️. I'm so happy to see your reaction to it! Also, make sure to watch the post credits scene in episode 10 they're important!

Once_upona_fae

::FLAILS:: I just love this show & have watched it sooo many times. Can't wait to watch with you.

Maria Lima (aka chickwriter)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SHOW<333

Theo

Can you believe that there are still people in the year of our lord 2025 who are convinced there’s nothing gay about yuri on ice? I saw someone claim in all seriousness that the only gay thing is the kiss and there’s no proof that it's even a kiss. I just hae to wonder if we even watched the same show

Emma

Oh this is bad, I feel the obsession waking up, rearing its head. It's been fucking years since I watched this. And I knew every word. I'm watching this remembering all the previous subtitles and the analysis of literally every word of the dialog. GOD. Can't wait to see your reaction to the rest of the season!

threerings

I was about to go to bed and saw you dropped this and thought...well I can stay up a little longer...

threerings

Eeek i'm watching this right now ! XD

꧁ Gasai Yuno シ ꧂