It’s interesting to write about this because in my mind, Yuri and Viktor are canonically in love, engaged, and have kissed on live television by the end of the show. I would argue it was the agonizingly ambiguous nature of the relationship between Yuri and Viktor that really sucked people in.
Perhaps it has to do with the intense wave of popularity of sports anime at the time, or perhaps it was the pure ambition of it all that garnered people’s disbelief and subsequent curiosity. It seemed to be a project destined to fail, and yet it was largely regarded as one of the best animes of its season, becoming the eighteenth most lucrative media franchise in Japan in 2017. In all respects, I found “Yuri On Ice!!!” to be a feat of nature. Add on top of that the central relationship being the budding romance between Yuri and Viktor, and you have an expensive, labor intensive, and risky project that managed to succeed beautifully.
#Gay anime series 2017 professional#
To not only draft these routines - which have been praised by actual professional skaters for their accuracy and attention to detail, some of which even have original compositions - but to animate them as well was a large task and a hefty contribution to its ambition. Throughout the span of 12 episodes, quite literally dozens of ice skating choreographies are showcased. It centers around the life of Yuri Katsuki, a 23-year-old, Japanese professional figure skater at a make-or-break moment in his career and the subsequent results of him accidentally recruiting his longtime idol and Russian national sensation Viktor Nikiforov to be his new coach. As a project, it was extremely ambitious. A prequel film was scheduled to be released in 2019 but has been delayed due to difficulties operating within COVID-19, despite the show’s generally overwhelming popularity and warm reception. It was produced by MAPPA, directed and written by Sayo Yamamoto, scripted by Mitsuro Kubo, and under the chief direction of Jun Shishido. “Yuri On Ice!!!” is an original animation that premiered on October 6th, 2016.
It’s not a piece of queer media about being gay per se, but one that allows queer characters to simply exist in their own complex realities. The show intimately deals with bigger issues, like overcoming insecurities, general self worth, and confidence. Similar to “Given,” a show I talk about in more depth in my previous Gays In Anime piece, “Yuri On Ice!!!” is a show in which the characters have complex, stand-alone arcs separate from their sexual identities. “Yuri On Ice!!!” is probably the most well known modern anime acclaimed for its LGBTQ+ themes and characters.