2018 NHK Men's Free Skate

[Ichatdelune]

Caught up. Overall impression: :hopelessness: I am very cranky since 1) my night meds haven't kicked in yet 2) I got on the wrong bus while coming home (my fault for being preoccupied, but still) 3) I am still upset about a certain darling's free, so I may be overly harsh. Please feel free to add me to your ignore list if I say something that irks you.

- Junhyeong started nicely with a 3A-2T, then he started falling... He's only 22 and he may get back his game as Brezina and Voronov have, but then me the (bleep) wonders about the other case scenario. He'll make a great choreographer, hope he'll go that route when he does retire. Side note, what was with his shirt missing a back...

- Kevin Reynolds, Sato Hiroaki, Yaroslav Paniot, the three were painful to watch. I can't remember what the programs were like, it's just a whole bunch of pops and falls in my head. Moving on.

- Alexander Johnson popped quite a few jumps, but he didn't fall for the first time in the first group. I also remember a nice split leap.

- Deniss Vaslijevs had a nice, although cold-looking, costume. Not a fan of the music (the shouting was off-putting) and far from clean, but nice energy. Oh, and bonus points for Stephane Lambiel.

- Matteo Rizzo wasn't clean, but when nobody is that's enough for bronze. I still find the cuts awkward though.

- Yamamoto Sota receives the Best Costume award here. Good program, and he's quite charming. Would love to see it clean.

- Vincent Zhou had a very awkward pop for a beginning. Still, even with all those underrotations his layout was pretty impressive. The thing is, although he had a nice costume and great music (I love me some good nice traditional East Asian music), he seemed so focused on the tech that the performance aspect fell somewhat flat to me. Some face, s'il vous plait.

- God Dmitri, you have such beautiful lines, lovely musicality, a good program, and height and speed in your jumps, why do you have to pop them jumps... I think he's becoming a sweet poison (I saw some people using the term cactus, I'm used to using the poison simile - it kills you yet you take it eagerly - so I'm keeping it), another one to add to my list.

- Sergei Voronov wasn't clean, but with nobody clean that was practically stellar. And um, RIP Denis Ten, but am I a terrible person to say that I don't feel much from the program?

- I still want that lovely white costume Uno Shoma wore at Lombardia back. And I have no idea what to make out of him, to do nice, clean quads then to stumble on a 3S... But at around 90% clean he was the cleanest here today, so he gets that gold (as expected).

 

[Jaana]

Poor Shoma, he's saying in the winner's interview that he realises he couldn't fulfill the audience's high expectations.
His priority is to skate clean in both SP and FP.

It would not be the right time to skate to faultless sp and fs in November, better to peak at Worlds.

I´m so happy for Rizzo´s bronze, WOW!!!

Shoma has a beautiful choreography to beautiful, beautiful music, I love this program!!!

Congratulations to all medalists!

 

[el henry]

Deniss:sad21:

But yay Matteo. A medal is a medal, in a bad comp or a good:agree:

 

[QueenOfTheRoad]

Voronov best Russian man in GP. While I´m really happy for grandpa Voronov still going strong, on the other hand I´m crying buckets over Aliev and Kolyada. They have it all imo, but make so many mistakes over and over again

Well, Voronov needed many many years till he got stable. Let's hope that someday Aliev and Kolyada will do also.

 

[elektra blue]

catching up with men

Deniss VASILJEVS: I like his costume, program and attitude, so it’s even more sad watching him bomb so badly!

Matteo RIZZO: first Italian medal in the gp this year! Kudos to him for be one of the cleanest. Anyway @WeakAnkles this season he is in the 60s, maybe next year he will be in the 70s I predict a short on a mina’s (holy monster of Italian music) mash up and a fs on david bowie

Sergei VORONOV: dyadya sergei just came out to teach some youngster how to skate a cleanish program!!!!

 

[CellarDweller]

I feel like this music expresses the mood of this entire event. Or maybe of the entire men's discipline. Just incoherent screaming into the void and disco beats

 

[Mrs. P]

Honestly Deniss is being SO ridiculously extra with his programs and packaging I kind of want to back him, LOL.

 

[TallyT]

Poor Shoma, he's saying in the winner's interview that he realises he couldn't fulfill the audience's high expectations.
His priority is to skate clean in both SP and FP.
He was under a lot of pressure, I mean, he HAD to win NHK. Second wasn't an option.
I'm sure he will up his game in the lead-up to Worlds.

The cooked scores annoy me, but this is home ground, they all get it and always have. And Shoma's honest attitude - owning where it wasn't as good as he's capable of - goes a long way to helping ease that. I am glad he won the whole (still think Sergei should have had the SP)

My beloved Shoma, coach fluffy and santa claus, I've never asked for anything, but here we go:

1- Could you go back to the previous costumes? Especially for the short program?

I like the top for the FS, but not the pants. The SP costume makes him look like an adorable little perambulating eggplant, has to go.

 

[CellarDweller]

dramatic hands over mouth moment

To stop himself from screaming over his own performance.

 

[Hyena]

This was a very weird event to catch up on this morning. I just kept waiting for the awesome performances to come and rescue it, but it never happened. But on the good side, the final placements look fair, Sergei has a decent shot at the Final where he could potentially redeem himself from last year, and Matteo gets a GP medal!

 

[Sai Bon]

Thanks for the translation!

I'm also intrigued by your avatar, is it an accurate representation of yourself?

Sergei! The crowd showers him with love, yay!

Hello again, anonymoose! My avatar is a minor character from the Ghibli film The Tale of Princess Kaguya. She was a streetwise young maid to the princess. Very cute and kickass. I'm not really like that, but I found her totally charming.

 

[jersey1302]

I'm trying to search history here... Correct me if I am wrong.. is Matteo Rizzo the first man from Italy to capture a medal on the Grand Prix circuit? Samuel Contesti won a silver at Europeans but thats not on the GP circuit.

 

[Arriba627]

Poor Shoma, he's saying in the winner's interview that he realises he couldn't fulfill the audience's high expectations.
His priority is to skate clean in both SP and FP.
He was under a lot of pressure, I mean, he HAD to win NHK. Second wasn't an option.
I'm sure he will up his game in the lead-up to Worlds.

Isn't this just the usual kuyashii routine?

 

[anonymoose_au]

Hello again, anonymoose! My avatar is a minor character from the Ghibli film The Tale of Princess Kaguya. She was a streetwise young maid to the princess. Very cute and kickass. I'm not really like that, but I found her totally charming.

She is cute! And definitely looks ready to beat some sense into people with that stick

 

[MaiKatze]

Congratulations my dear Shoma! I knew you would win this one!

 

[Heleng]

Dmitri could easily have medaled here, so it was tough seeing him unravel in the FS. I still enjoyed watching him, though, he has such lovely musical sensitivity, softness, and fluidity to his movements. This probably sounds crazy, but watching him yesterday I suddenly noticed resemblances between his and Jason Brown’s skating style.

 

[blue_idealist]

Dmitri could easily have medaled here, so it was tough seeing him unravel in the FS. I still enjoyed watching him, though, he has such lovely musical sensitivity, softness, and fluidity to his movements. This probably sounds crazy, but watching him yesterday I suddenly noticed resemblances between his and Jason Brown’s skating style.

Nah, not crazy, I can see the similarities between him and Brown.

 

[demarinis5]

Isn't this just the usual kuyashii routine?

Yup!

 

[Colonel Green]

I'm trying to search history here... Correct me if I am wrong.. is Matteo Rizzo the first man from Italy to capture a medal on the Grand Prix circuit? Samuel Contesti won a silver at Europeans but thats not on the GP circuit.

He is, I believe.

 

[Latremu]

On my way to the Hiroshima airport... what a fun event the NHK Trophy was! Fine, the first group of men was sort of disastrous, but I still fell in love with Hiroaki Sato and seriously wish he would consider ice dance. I enjoyed Deniss' program because he was so into the fighting thing. Sad for Kevin Reynolds, but though I appreciate him skating to Chrono Cross, I didn't understand what the program was about, and don't really have much to say about his skating here. Must have been difficult to have to change the program music in such a short time though. June hyoung is a lovely skater (cute too, actually, even if I'm not normally into Korean men), but the jumps... oh well. Johnson and Paniot didn't make much of an impression, except that I remember that Johnson was the only on in the group who skated without falling so... good for him, I guess?

Last group: Dima looked very nervous in the warm up, so I had very little hope for him. I'm not a Vincent fan, but I give him some credit for improving his posture and his skating. He also had more emotion and I honestly liked his performance of Crouching Tiger better than Boyang's. It suits him. It seems he's also learned some important lessons in this past year. Less ego and more humility in that face. Sota had nice flow, although I wish he'd get more interesting programs. I can only admire him for continuing to skate despite all the injuries he received. Matteo was the only one to fall in this group, but I'm okay with it because it was on the 4T. I enjoyed watching him but can't remember the music now. Dima... he made me sad. Stop popping your jumps!!! Such a lovely skater, with passion and lines and the beautiful motions... but those nerves are not doing him any favors. If I could have cheered for him in Russian, I would have willingly done so.

Now Shoma, unlike the very nervous Dima, looked very focused and determined in the warm up and before the performance. I couldn't cheer for him because I was afraid to distract him! Game face was on. The japanese guy beside me, who was just rwally accompanying his mother I think, was cheering for Shoma's every jump. He landed all his quads solidly and with nice flow in the warm up (of course, he didn't do the combos- oops). Having seen it live, I can tell you that Moonlight Sonata DOES NOT look empty. I watched him and was absorbed by him and his contemplative energy. Every step and movement was to the music. When the music was slow, he skated slowly; and when the music sped up, he skated faster with it. From the haunting first half to the frenzied "flight of thoughts" second half, everything was on beat, even when he overturned his 2nd 4T and the 3s and missed those combos. His spins were really nice and centered too. It was a beautiful performance of a subtle program.

As for Voronov, he's a very energetic performer, and a much more consistent one than Dima (Dima! You make me sad. I can't say it enough.) But the spins were okay, the movement and steps were nothing to cry home about. He's a solid competitor. I was happy for him. In neither the SP nor the FS did I think he had a chance of beating Shoma, contrary to the opinions of some here, and I think he knew it. He's happy for his Silver, he worked hard for it. And now he has a chance for the GPF!

By the way, don't worry about Shoma. During all of his interviews, the crowd kept laughing at his self-effacing ways or his blunt humor. He was smiling when he responded, and would laugh when the audience did so. The crowd adored him like a brother or son they were proud of and whom they loved for his funny personality. The question "what do you want to do 40 years from now?" asked in the interview before the gala, where he answered "Whatever!" Or "Nothing!" got a load of laughs (Sota had said before that that he wanted to still be involved with skating). Such an adorable boy. Even the podium was funny, because people laughed when he stepped directly on it, laughed again when they announced that he would be given the Hiroshima wreath, sounded disappointed when he put down the NHK Trophy so he doesn't have to juggle everything, then laughed again when he picked it up. This crowd knew him very well and loved him for it.

Congratulations to the NHK Trophy Gold medalist Shoma Uno, to Sergei Voronov for silver and having a good chance for the GPF, and to Matteo Rizzo for his first senior GP medal!