It wasn’t the climactic part of the episode. The kiss - a relatively chaste one, partially obscured by Viktor’s arm - wasn’t the first same-sex smooch in anime. The internet exploded with surprise and delight. Years later, a video of him skating goes viral online and attracts the attention of Victor Nikiforov, a Russian skater who seeks him out and offers to train him for a comeback.Įach episode is stuffed to the rim with drama, but the 12-episode first season (which just finished airing in Japan) showed its colors in the seventh, when Yuri and Viktor kissed for the first time. The titular Yuri is a young Japanese skater who retires from competition after a demoralizing loss. Let’s hit the rink to discover how this unusual hit is upending decades of LGBT representation in animation. But the show’s transformation of queerness from subtext to text is unprecedented.
Produced by a relatively new studio named MAPPA, “Yuri On Ice” takes its cues from a lineage of sports cartoons, including “Slam Dunk” and “The Prince Of Tennis” - stories of young men working to beat the best and overcome personal problems. The athletes in question are male figure skaters, and you’re watching “Yuri On Ice,” the most unlikely breakthrough anime of the year.
