Skaters on Team Japan | Page 17 | Golden Skate

Skaters on Team Japan

cruzceleste

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Does anyone know if Daisuke, Mao or Machida have region free DVDs and where to get them? Turns out watching figure skating on my TV instead of youtube is awesome XD

I think Mao and Daisuke have. I don´t think Machida has a DVD, nor Kanako, Takahiko, Nobu and Akiko. But I could be wrong.

E
 

gotoschool

Medalist
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
There was a discussion here a while back about the popularity of Yuzuru Hanyu, Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi. I thought it was unusual that Hanyu had sold so many more DVD's because the poll at the following website: (ETA:
Details(Sorry in Japanese) http://www.ssf.or.jp/press/pdf/140901_press_release.pdf) indicated that Mao was far ahead of Hanyu in popularity and that she was the most popular sports star in Japan.
The information was posted at: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...hread-starting-on-her-23rd-bd-3.89260/page-15
According to the post, Mao won the poll receiving 17.6% of the vote, Ichiro 8.8 % compared to Yuzuru receiving 3.1% and Daisuke 1.9%.
I feel kind of bad talking about a "popularity contest,"" but I was just curious to know if anyone knew what could explain such a big difference between this poll and DVD sales, especially since in all other polls I have seen Mao was also more popular than Hanyu and even the most famous person in Japan. Maybe there's just a lot of polls I haven't seen. where the results are different.
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
There was a discussion here a while back about the popularity of Yuzuru Hanyu, Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi. I thought it was unusual that Hanyu had sold so many more DVD's because the poll at the following website: (ETA:
Details(Sorry in Japanese) http://www.ssf.or.jp/press/pdf/140901_press_release.pdf) indicated that Mao was far ahead of Hanyu in popularity and that she was the most popular sports star in Japan.
The information was posted at: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...hread-starting-on-her-23rd-bd-3.89260/page-15
According to the post, Mao won the poll receiving 17.6% of the vote, Ichiro 8.8 % compared to Yuzuru receiving 3.1% and Daisuke 1.9%.
I feel kind of bad talking about a "popularity contest,"" but I was just curious to know if anyone knew what could explain such a big difference between this poll and DVD sells, especially since I have seen other polls where Mao was also more popular than Hanyu and even the most famous person in Japan.

Mao is, undeniably, the most popular of the skaters. She appeals to both men and women, young and old and therefore can get a higher percentage in polls of this kind. She has been in the public eye for the longest. Winning multiple gold medals, and being charming and sweet as well as strong and competitive is a Japanese ideal.

Hanyu's star has risen quite fast but is relatively new. He is the only athlete to win a Gold medal in the last olympics. He has also won multiple golds, but only in the last year. His appeal is mostly to women. But in Japan, women hold the purse strings. This has been changing slowly in recent years, but it is traditional that the man go out and work, or both will work, but the woman manages the finances of the household as well as pocket money for the man.
So, if Hanyu is popular with the women, especially teen aged and middle aged women, the financial pull he can have is significant.

Just my 2 cents.
 

Meoima

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
There was a discussion here a while back about the popularity of Yuzuru Hanyu, Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi. I thought it was unusual that Hanyu had sold so many more DVD's because the poll at the following website: (ETA:
Details(Sorry in Japanese) http://www.ssf.or.jp/press/pdf/140901_press_release.pdf) indicated that Mao was far ahead of Hanyu in popularity and that she was the most popular sports star in Japan.
The information was posted at: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...hread-starting-on-her-23rd-bd-3.89260/page-15
According to the post, Mao won the poll receiving 17.6% of the vote, Ichiro 8.8 % compared to Yuzuru receiving 3.1% and Daisuke 1.9%.
I feel kind of bad talking about a "popularity contest,"" but I was just curious to know if anyone knew what could explain such a big difference between this poll and DVD sales, especially since in all other polls I have seen Mao was also more popular than Hanyu and even the most famous person in Japan. Maybe there's just a lot of polls I haven't seen. where the results are different.
Do you know how many people live in Sendai? Yuzuru is like their beloved son, it's nothing sort of surprised that many people in Sendai bought Yuzuru's DVD, like they want to support him, and many of them don't have to be FS's fans.
And maybe many people bought his dvd as a sign of supporting Sendai.
Anyways about the popularity contest, it's obvious that Mao is the most recognizable face in Japan among the athletes, since she has been famous from her 13-14 years old. It's 10 years she has been in the spot light so I am not surprised that she is the most popular one.
 

gotoschool

Medalist
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Thank you Meoima for providing information about Hanyu's hometown support and Newsbiespectator for your information about Mao's qualities that appeal to a wide range of Japanese people. I think it's great that two of my favorite skaters experienced such a surge of support after winning Worlds at home and making their mark in the Olympics in such different ways. I was just curious and didn't want to put them in any kind of contest.
 

GermaricanMix

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 8, 2014
Do you know how many people live in Sendai? Yuzuru is like their beloved son, it's nothing sort of surprised that many people in Sendai bought Yuzuru's DVD, like they want to support him, and many of them don't have to be FS's fans.
And maybe many people bought his dvd as a sign of supporting Sendai.
Anyways about the popularity contest, it's obvious that Mao is the most recognizable face in Japan among the athletes, since she has been famous from her 13-14 years old. It's 10 years she has been in the spot light so I am not surprised that she is the most popular one.

I thought I read somewhere that Yuzu's DVD is especially well produced for a skating DVD - someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Since that's the only one I've seen so far I can't judge but I do find the timeline set up and skating content for his DVD compelling and have watched it a couple times now. I would love to own Mao or Daisuke's DVDs but I can't find any info on if they're region free or not. I really hate region codes -_-
 

jace93

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
.
Anyways about the popularity contest, it's obvious that Mao is the most recognizable face in Japan among the athletes, since she has been famous from her 13-14 years old. It's 10 years she has been in the spot light so I am not surprised that she is the most popular one.

I think that the fact that Mao has been so popular for so much time, while Yuzuru 's fame skyrocketed after the Olympics, it's also an explanation for the difference in dvd sales... Mao has been around for nearly ten years, so there is already a great deal of merchandising about her, and apart from the most ardent fan I don't think many people would buy many similar products... on the other hand Yuzu started to get in the spotlight just 2 years ago with his world bronze medal and his first national title, and he really became a superstar just after the Olympics so merchandising about him was pretty rare before now and all the new fan he made thanks to his achievement created a great demand for such items. If you add the elongated wait for the dvd release, by the time it came out it was an highly anticipated and unique product so it's understandable that he sold so well...

but this are just my speculation, I have no fact to prove my thoughts :)
 

alia jackson

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
With figure skating being a popular sport in Japan, I'm wondering whether there are skater's merchandise. Example like in Formula 1, we have Lewis Hamilton t-shirt or cap etc.
 

cruzceleste

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
With figure skating being a popular sport in Japan, I'm wondering whether there are skater's merchandise. Example like in Formula 1, we have Lewis Hamilton t-shirt or cap etc.

I think in shows you can buy tshirts and photo books. But the popularity of figure skating is nowhere near the the one of F1 around the globe, and even in Japan F1 is very popular, Suzuka is always full. F1 is a popular sport lots of countries, so you have people ordering a Sebastian Vettel cap from Brazil. And since the event´s are in different countries and so massive (80000 in a day depending on the track) selling drivers merchandisin is very rentable.
 

ayarose

On the Ice
Joined
May 13, 2014
I thought I read somewhere that Yuzu's DVD is especially well produced for a skating DVD - someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Since that's the only one I've seen so far I can't judge but I do find the timeline set up and skating content for his DVD compelling and have watched it a couple times now. I would love to own Mao or Daisuke's DVDs but I can't find any info on if they're region free or not. I really hate region codes -_-

Only Shizuka, Dai, Mao & Yuzu has DVD's among TJ, all of them are region 2 codes, except Yuzu's BR. I think one of the reason why his DVD also sold well was because there were options unlike say Dai or Mao's. I can only compare Yuzu and Dai's because that's the only one I have. I have to say that if I were to compare Dai's first DVD and Yuzu's, then Yuzu has better presentation/packaging. Dai has a lot of BTS though. It's kinda unfair if you think about it, Yuzu had 4 years packed in 1 but Dai's DVD came out about a decade after he went senior. I'm still saving up for Mao but Dai is apparently releasing a new one this November.
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
I just read about Yuzu's withdrawal from Finlandia due to back injury.

Sorry to to hear about his injury. Wishing Yuzu a speedy recovery.
 

deedee1

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 14, 2007

:no::no:

Their blog does not mention about withdrawal from SA yet: http://ameblo.jp/reed-icedance-blog/entry-11936947619.html, but Chris hints it there by saying:
今 いろいろとある・・・
いろいろなことが起こっている・・・
乗り切るも乗り切らないも
僕達の心次第だ・・・ クリス

"Well, there are things we are dealing with...
there are a lot of things going on around us...
whehter we can get over them or not, it all depends on our will/mental toughness...
Chris"

Sincerely hope no more injuries for them, and/or no illness for their family members.
 

unico

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
https://twitter.com/masi0324/status/523742794158850049

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Takahashi thread or here, but there's this wonderful drawing featuring I guess the "prominent" men of Team Japan. It's a parody of the covers for the manga Yotsuba to!, changing it to Dai-chan to! ("With Dai-chan", "Dai-chan and", etc). Fitting because he's obviously been such a central figure in men's skating not only worldwide, but also as a leader among his teammates. Just like the messages of support and admiration TJ have left for him in wake of the announcement of his retirement, I think you can feel the same sort of love, camaraderie, and happiness from this drawing. And of course, Oda's tears :laugh:
 
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