He replies that he was at first, but started to deal with it by copying one of Victor’s old performances. His childhood crush, Yuuko, tells Yuri that she’d expected him to be depressed after his big loss. For most of his life, he would skate as a way to cope with this anxiety, often practicing for hours. This anxiety is, strangely enough, part of the reason Yuri is such a good skater. It’s made apparent almost immediately that he’s been struggling with his mental health for years, the focus of which being his performance anxiety, which is what caused his big loss at the Grand Prix. He’s embarrassed after the poor end to a season and minutes into the first episode we see him sobbing in a bathroom stall. The failure he suffered at the last Grand Prix Final left him utterly defeated. The start of Yuri on Ice focuses heavily on Yuri’s anxiety. This is one of the most ambitious shows in the entire medium, so here’s how that ambition nearly killed it.

The same can be said for the rest of the cast. The main romance is amazing and absolutely deserves a second season to be fleshed out more. The unmatched passion put into the show by its director/creator, Sayo Yamamoto, can be seen in every aspect of the show.

Yuri on Ice is one of the most compelling stories I’ve ever watched in anime.

Yuri on ice yuri crying