#this is in fact. about the gay ice skaters

[blueberryspyder]

Listening to Rusty Quill Gaming holiday episodes has me like

I’ve gotten into some niche shit before, but this? This is a bit much even for me

[wwasted]

on this Halloween i bring u this thought: figure skater gale au 🧎🏼‍♀️

Rich, pair figure skater Gale whose family moved to Wisconsin to further his skating career. Marge is his partner. He’s a bit of an ice princess (stoic, bitchy, very blunt) and dating his equally rich quarterback boyfriend. The boyfriend is a total self obsessed douche but they’re both dedicated to their sports so he never gets mad at Gale when Gale has to cancel or doesn’t text. He also makes his parents happy, because of his equal status and they’ve always been weird about him being gay so he figures why the fuck not. He keeps him around, even if the sex is shit.

Enter John. He’s a troublemaking burn out who has absolutely no interest in college, which is funny because he’s constantly hanging around their local college. And that’s only because his best friend Curt attends and someone has to save his ass from the rich pricks and nerds. they’re always at parties and hotboxing Curt’s dormroom (is Curt fucking the RA so he looks the other way? Probably) It’s hard not to be bitter when the whole town wrote him off before he even had the chance because of who his old man is, so he takes a special kind of pleasure in fucking with them and showing that he can be even worse.

They are absolute opposites in every way, and yet they can’t stay away from each other. They love arguing despite the fact that they shouldn’t even talk to each other because they’re in such different circles. Gale is constantly playing the “I’m better than you and you should be thankful I even look at you” card which backfires because it just makes John wanna hold him down and fuck him until he’s begging. Eventually the arguing becomes foreplay and the foreplay turns into them actually hatefucking. And he’s still definitely dating the douche quarterback, but honestly that just makes it hotter for both of them. The sneaking around, the fights in public where everyone thinks they hate each other, but secretly they’ll meet up in the some bedroom or bathroom of whatever house party they’re at and John will fuck Gale until he cries with a hand over his mouth because it turns out you never learn volume control when you don’t typically have a reason to moan or be loud.

(When Gale would have sex with his boyfriend, he would just lay there and get lost in his head, he’d go over the routines with Marge he wanted to improve, what assignments he had for class, he viewed it as his down time where he could get some mental housekeeping done. At least then they both got something out of it. Either way, he never got the urge to moan or make a single sound. And he often had the excuse of needing to be quiet so it worked anyway. The first time Bucky fucks Gale, he’s honestly expecting the same situation but thank fuck their first time manages to be somewhere they have time and is fairly private bc Gale is LOUD. At first Bucky thinks that he’s just faking it, and honestly gets kind of pissed, so he starts going deeper, harder, handling him rougher. But that just makes the noises and moans coming out of Gale even louder, more unhinged, his nails embedding themselves in John’s back and ass and he’s definitely going to end up with scars if they keep doing this. And he really fucking hopes they do. Gale sounds like he’s dying for John’s cock when he comes. He hasn’t even heard some of those noises in porn. Bucky never shuts up about it. Gale gets even bitchier when he’s embarrassed. It’s an endless feedback loop that leads to a lot of rough dirty sex.)

They get off on talking shit about each other to other people and seeing if it ends up getting to the other person. And if it does, repeating what was said during sex. “I wonder what everyone will think when they find out that you love being on your knees for me, since ya know, I’m such worthless trash” “begging for me? But I thought you wouldn’t touch me with a 10 foot pole since the frost would make your dick fall off” It becomes a thing. Until it doesn’t. Because at some point the hate fucking turns into deep emotional fucking where it’s pretty obvious they’re in love with each other. Instead of it being hot to sneak around on Gale’s idiot boyfriend, John wants to beat the shit out of him every time he sees him. Wants to tell him that he’ll never have Gale like John does. And when some guy or girl inevitably talks about how hot John is while Gale is within hearing distance, he wants to brag about how John would never touch them when he has Gale. So something has to give. Gale’s rich friends are shocked and appalled when they find out he’s dating Bucky. It’s honestly kind of a mini scandal at the college. Gale Cleven and John Egan? Unheard of.

But even when they’re in love and they’re dating, Gale is so bitchy. All the time. Constantly threatening Bucky that he won’t put out ever again bc Bucky didn’t respond to a text fast enough (the irony is not lost him) constantly smacking his hand away and turning his head when John tries to kiss him. Total brat. And John loves it. Is obsessed with it. The meaner Gale is to him, the harder he gets. And while Gale may be bitchy, all it takes is a few “princess” or “c’mon doll” in that voice and a hand sliding up under his shirt for Gale to cave and allow Bucky to touch him again.

They do have their sweet moments, especially after sex. if John fucks him just right, it’s like his brain reboots itself and he forgets that he’s supposed to be prickly. He’ll lay his head on John’s chest and shove his face into his neck and nuzzle. He’ll place soft kisses anywhere he can reach. He’ll say I love you while his fingers are tangled in John’s hair.

John loves that version of him just as much as the bitchy one. In fact, John would happily spend the rest of his life thawing his ice princess, just to let him refreeze and start all over.

Thots?

[rikeijo]

My friend doesn't think Yuri and Victor is in love romantically and it's more of adrenaline/trust is what's fueling their actions including some of the clickbait stuff since there isn’t anything official. I can understand where she’s coming from since I don’t usually like shipping unless it’s cannon but Yuri On Ice is a special case. Is there any comment from the creators about this? I saw say the creator confirmed they’re soulmates in an english blog but there was no source so I wasn’t sure if it’s legit

Hi! Thank you for the ask!💜

I also can't say I don't understand where your Friend is coming from.

Unfortunately, there was never any concrete confirmation that the relationship between Y&V needs to be seen as romantic. The official statement has always been that everything is open to personal interpretation of each fan.

The soulmates comments are from here and here.

Otsuka Manabu was pretty close to confirming Y&V during a con, but I have never heard/seen a transcription of his statement in Jp - it seems, however, that he indeed confirmed that Sayo wanted to portray 'romantic love'.

Adding my personal opinion - for me, the biggest 'proof' is that Yamada Reiji, Sayo's personal friends, talks openly about their relationship as gay. In Jp, it is still a taboo to some degree, and certainly was 10 years ago, to suggest that somebody may be gay - like there is zero openly gay Jp figure skaters, but there are countless discussions about ホモ疑惑, 'suspicion that somebody may be gay/the f word' (probably people, who are into Jp fs, know who has the longest history of being discussed in this way), but the word 'giwaku' is also used for eg. when somebody is suspected of doing something bad/illegal etc. That these discussions aren't 'neutral' is pretty clear. Because of the general taboo/negative stereotypes&connotations, imo, if Sayo wasn't content with Y&V relationship being seen that way, imo, her friend would surely respect that and wouldn't talk about it so openly and consistently - but 2016-2019, he always talked about YoI as a gay romance (and yeah, you can find negative comments from YoI fans under his videos bashing him for that). Fun fact is that he also admitted that Sayo used one of his works as inspiration for YoI, a manga titled... 'Agapes' 😆. The plot is about a gay guy in love with a straight guy. It's not my interpretation, but on Jp side, one interpretation of YoI's story that you can come across reading metas, is that it is indeed a story about a gay guy (Victor) in love with a straight guy (Yuuri), who really just looks up to him as his hero=the champion figure skater, and doesn't see him as romantic interest; that's why figure skating is always the bridge between them etc. In 'Agapes' the bridge is also a sport, to make things even more interesting - baseball.

On the other hand, it's also true that there was a lot of accusation of queerbaiting on both sides of the fandom - especially, after some of Mitsurou's statements. Here, imo, it seems the Eng fandom simply filtered out her less nice comments over time, to protect YoI's reputation of not being just another queerbait sports anime. (I don't think that it is anyway, but I also don't think it's as simple as 'Y&V are engaged and if we ever see a continuation they will get married'. It seems that this is what a lot of people in the Eng fandom want to believe.)

There is the rings-related stuff, about how engagement rings are not for engagement (but it's in the name...? yk, engagement? like people get engaged to be married?), but there is much more out there - listening to her mental gymnastics, I personally could summarize it as 'I wanted to portray 'deep emotions™' the way I wanted to, and yeah, people may misunderstand that, but that is their problem and I don't care, I'm not afraid of being misunderstood'. A lot of more progressive fans and YoI-antis alike were ridiculing these gymnastics in combination with eg. the 'exchanging of rings in front of the church' scene, as 'if you want to fujo-pander then pander, if you want to make them gay then make them gay, if you don't have the courage to do either, then just stop, bc that's pathetic' - in this context, it seemed she tried pretty hard to make people 'misunderstand' the relationship, including all those romantic/some people say 'pandering' scenes in the show, but then, when asked, it was always 'no, it's not like that, you see, people who work together...', but people are not idiots, so they were calling her out for that, simply speaking.

I was ranting a few times in the past why, imo, she decided to take this stance.

[uncleasad]

Dinner tonight was accompanied by An Ice Palace Romance, a recent Hallmark “Christmas in July“ movie. Although I’ve posted about several Hallmark movies, I typically don’t watch them unless the lead is an actress I know and enjoy (Lacey Chabert, Autumn Reeser, Rachael Leigh Cook, Bethany Joy Lenz, among others) or the premise really grabs me—or there is absolutely nothing else on and I need something to distract me while cooking/baking/enduring figmageddon. This one was definitely the second case (though the male lead is one of Hallmark’s regulars), and I wasn’t completely sold on it from the promos, but there was enough there that I thought it was worth recording—and I’m glad I did.

The plot was less obsessed with Christmas than some of Hallmark’s Christmas movies, which was fine, because I am not a Christmas obsessive; it played a background role and, honestly, they could have removed the word “Christmas” and everything still would have fit. The movie’s ultimate appeal was twofold: first, ice-skating, and second, a “you can’t go home again” plot, which is one of my favorite tropes. (Being from the south, ice skating was always something akin to magic, not a thing of this world—although one of my elementary school classmates was a competitive figure skater for many years. In college a friend of mine taught me to skate—or at least not fall down—one afternoon when I was back in town, and I later went twice to the Sculpture Garden Ice Rink in grad school…but for me, ice skating is still magic.)

Relative newcomer (as a leading lady) Celeste Desjardins was thoroughly charming as former hometown champion ice skater and Olympic hopeful, and current rising big city journalist, Lori Mitchell, and there is a real sadness to her face that was perfect here. The main plot was tried-and-true: a slick (and shifty) big-city developer steamrolling his way through, his sights set on the historic heart of the town—here, The Ice Palace, the local ice rink that has been in the male lead’s family for something like five generations. But like the best Hallmark movies, this one puts a nice twist on on the familiar plot, with a lesson, explicitly stated and applicable to many of the characters, and in fact to all of us: that we should hold on to and honor traditions, but we should not hold so tightly that we close ourselves off entirely to the idea of anything new or to all change whatsoever.

There was actually so much in this film, with all the action needed to move the pieces around for the main plot, that some of the emotional beats didn’t get quite the attention that they usually do—even the main romance itself was extremely understated. In particular, there was a subplot they only really hinted at, where Lori needed to reconcile the two halves of herself, the small-town figure skating champion of her past (and all of that trauma and baggage she has never unpacked), and the rising, driven, career journalist of her present, and figure out who she really is/wants to be. (She does do this, sorta, in a couple of sentences of conversation with her gay best friend/coworker, and she obviously makes her choice, but there wasn’t really screen time devoted to figuring that out.) I don’t think the movie is necessarily hurt for not giving that thread time, but I think with an extra half-hour or hour to devote to some of these subplots and spread out some of the action a bit more, it would have been an even stronger film.

And now my easily-distracted mind is thinking about those Hosie ice sports AUs I talked about with @evilpenguinrika…(I know, I know, I have something else to finish first! 😭)

[hopeymchope]

Hey. There was a new Raincode interview written a few days ago and in that interview, Halara’s gender was brought up. I made a post about that question on my blog and I am curious your thoughts about it. I also linked the interview in my post.

(This is the post in question, for anyone interested. Which I think you probably should be, but... )

My thoughts are mostly that Kodaka's quote/response feels frustratingly uninformative and devoid of any value, but also sadly unsurprising. I know it's just a machine translation, so maybe this isn't capturing the exact nuance of the statement... but the sentence "I didn't specifically intend a social message" is just exactly the kind of vague, wishy-washy, "I really don't want to be in trouble with or offend anyone on any side of any possible argument" language that I've LONG gotten used to in promotional interviews about movies, TV, books, games, etc. Because god forbid you possibly appear to be either for or against anything that might be considered controversial in any possible market! Having STANCES on THINGS could damage your profit margin with some potential demographic.

I suppose this could be all there is to it. Maybe Kodaka legitimately means what he says here and put no greater thought into Halara's lack of gender identity. But I also think it'd be weird if the implications of leaving their gender unknown didn't at least occur to him at some point, particularly as there's been a growing awareness of so-called "X-gender" people in Japan over the last year and a half.

But ultimately, "Master Detective Archives: Rain Code" is Japanese media, and that leaves this kind of question-dodging not only expected, but arguably maybe even necessary. Take a look at the recent of the recent controversy over The Witch From Mercury, the Gundham anime that is over-the-top mega-gay. Bandai Namco still felt the need to declare that the relationship between Suletta and Miorine is "open to interpretation" despite the fact that the two get FUCKED MARRIED.

In fact, this Kotaku article does a good job digging into not only that anime's particular can of worms, but also how queer-friendly media in Japan continues to be suppressed and censored from the dominant conservatives behind the media companies and government even while those works enjoy massive popularity with younger consumers. Get a load of what they say about Yuri! on Ice:

Look no further than the fate of 2016’s smash hit Yuri! On Ice, which tells the tale of a struggling figure skater, Yuri Katsuki, who is coached back to success by the charismatic and undeniably handsome Victor Nikiforov. Similar to The Witch From Mercury, the pair’s relationship is explicitly laid out in the story, and the characters also exchange rings. It was, and still is, celebrated as a landmark anime for LGBTQ+ representation. It received acclaim in Japan, winning Animation of the Year at the Tokyo Anime Awards as well as a number of fan-voted awards. It has consistently been named as one of the top anime of the 2010s by IGN, Anime News Network, and here at Kotaku. In what seemed like an obvious move to capitalize on the success of the show, a feature-length Yuri! On Ice movie was greenlit almost immediately. But six years later, a statement from Studio MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka said that despite the show being a hit, the company didn’t make a lot of money off of Yuri! On Ice, and as such, the movie likely won’t happen. Back when Blu-ray sales mattered to the anime industry, Yuri! On Ice torched the competition, selling nearly double the amount of discs of its nearest competitor, the juggernaut franchise Love Live. The runaway success of Yuri! On Ice led to MAPPA’s heightened profile in the industry, which helped it secure the rights to produce Attack on Titan’s never-ending final season, the massively popular Jujutsu Kaisen, and the second season of Makoto Yukimura’s viking masterpiece, Vinland Saga. For MAPPA to claim that the Yuri! On Ice movie isn’t financially viable is disingenuous and contradicts standard industry metrics for success. MAPPA could release the Yuri! On Ice movie tomorrow, and it would be a guaranteed hit. Which begs the question, what is the hold up? It's a reminder that speaking out against the anime production committees that dole out the work to animation studios is a dangerous game. In most of her press for Yuri! On Ice, creator and director Sayo Yamamoto played nice, answering softball questions that never directly addressed the very obvious love playing out on screen between Yuki and Victor. But, in the Yuri! On Ice fanbook “Go Yuri Go!” from 2017, Yamamoto claimed that the series had been censored outside of her control, and she had to fight to keep a kiss between Yuri and Victor in the final cut of the show. Since then, Yamamoto has not gotten any other projects. To have arguably the biggest hit of 2016, receive critical acclaim from your own industry, and then not be given any work? It doesn’t add up. MAPPA has tied Yamamoto to the Yuri! On Ice movie project and essentially strung her out for six years now, leaving her in a kind of professional purgatory. In an industry where the slightest scandal can lead to blacklisting, the idea that Yamamoto is being punished for wanting to go all-in on a queer narrative is not far-fetched.

So. Yeah. This is all a very long way of me saying "I don't know whether what Kodaka said here really tells us much about his intentions/thoughts, nor do I expect we'll ever hear much more on the topic." A lot of Japanese creators have gone the way of just letting the work speak for itself and vaguely denying anything else in public, because it's just safer that way... even if it leaves the rest of us clueless as to where the legit allies are.

Either way, Halara is a pretty awesome representation regardless. I'll just take that as a positive sign.

[sergeifyodorov]

Connor for the send me a character ask 👀

FIRST IMPRESSION

Have to preface this with the fact that I was really into baseball six or seven years ago when mcdavo was winning art ross number like. One or two. This was about 2016 or 2017 and i had the thescore app and I was looking at their simple ranked stats because i was bored, and instead of staring at the baseball ones over and over again I poked around on the other sports. I was not yet a leafs fan (born and raised in toronto so like, you support the leafs, but i wasn’t what i am now) and i looked at the points rankings and there was this annoying little orange background man in first. He had a nice 100 points and nobody else had that. And I was annoyed because I didn’t like that this Edmontonian fucker was doing better than anyone else. In retrospect it is very funny that my Oilers Hate Campaign is older than my actual hockey fandom.

IMPRESSION NOW

I have a lot of thoughts about Connor. I strongly disagree with the boring-sayers. He is not boring; he’s stiff and bland on camera out of both intention and The Tism and clearly has a lot actually going on once the panopticon is looking away (oxymoron statement but u know). Obviously he’s best in the world type whatever beat but thats like. The least interesting thing abt him. Dude is SO haunted it’s like you took a good portion of the sort of hockey curse an entire team typically develops and then dropped it right on his head like some sort of cartoon piano. But he is blissfully oblivious to the genre and is tragically determined to power through. 

I think he’s kind of spineless ultimately and this is what makes him say such vanilla things and let himself get so thoroughly and obviously managed by lk1 and stuff. but also that he is very single-minded and knows what he wants and is unafraid to pursue that at the cost of neglecting everything else in his life. Which is a pretty self-destructive habit when you have curses and whatnot but again, completely unaware of that, so he’s just barreling head-on towards the void, head down skates pumping

His edges are decent but he’s a speed skater by trade far more than a figure skater… jason brown could win 5 art rosses but connor mcdavid could NEVER do riverdance!!!

Completely unrelated to my thoughts on connor at all but the endless font of ohl bodies and the churning mill of eteri girls. It’s the same it’s all the same

FAVOURITE MOMENT

don’t say mccheatgate it’s not worth it--

In all honesty. Either Connor mc lukewarm gay rights statement, the adorable little standbyme video at the draft where it’s him n mitch and dylan and none of them can really sing and they’re all so obviously terrified but trying to cheer each other up bad, or that one ad where they’ve dolled him up and made him act. And he’s like beach chair lounging in the middle of the ice and stuff

IDEA FOR STORY

i think the most ideal thing narratively to happen to davo is Catastrophe. like we all know he has this very rigid and unquestioned worldview because he has never bothered to really look outside what the nhl straighttrack/lauren kyle has planned for him it’s most compelling to just. completely upend that

mccareer changing injury is a good one but ive already seen that one said. i do have this scrap of 9734 floating around thats like. leon gets fridged and he cant live with oilerhood after that so he goes the 1 other place he can stomach himself being (torono) and then falls in deeply toxic-homoerotic-codependency love with am34. and obviously is forced to reconsider his entire worldview about the ticking clock and the impermanency of life and grief and curses and haunting because damn leo you’re supposed to be dead why do i keep seeing u everywhere etc. it is important for my NARRATIVES that mcdavid is widowed and/or divorced

UNPOPULAR OPINION

i realize this one in context to the last sentence makes it look like i hate drai. I do not hate drai drai is the best oiler and his only competition is nuge. That being said.

I had a friend (knows nothing about hockey) and she thinks that connor is hotter than draisaitl. And like. I don’t completely agree. But i mostly do agree. very shallow of me yes i know but davo is CUTE and his cringefail ghost swag is kinda HOT and the long hair/mcjesus flow was SEXY

FAV RELATIONSHIP

bobby orr is a family friend and he knows wayne gretzky quite well because of oilersness and stuff. so im going to say his relationship with All That Came Before is my favourite

2997 close second tho. Get more divorced

FAV HEADCANON

the tism is kind of verging on the nebulously canon but like. Im not going to formally diagnose a man i dont know and enjoy sexualising on the internet so it’s getting put in here

[invisiblequeen]

For @spacecadet-sims 's Sam Application: Mael Stoddard

Name: Mael Stoddard

Age: 24

Gender & Sexuality: Gay Cis Male

Pronouns: He/Him

Occupation: Simtuber

Traits: Animal Enthusiast, Charming, Moon Child

Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast

Likes: Pink, White, Black, Red, Blue, Hip Hop, Americana Music, Easy Listening, Metal, Skiing, Rock Climbing, Snowboarding, Media Production, Outdoorsy Fashion, Rocker Fashion, Streewear Fashion

Dislikes: Purple, Romance Music, Spooky Music, Michief, Singing, Writing, Programming, Preppy Fashion, Polished Fashion, Country Fashion

Misc. Facts: Loves collecting snowboards. always wears a lucky bracelet given to him by his grandpa as a teenager. The one thing he's scared of is deep water, and will not swim anywhere that's not a safe pool. Loves spicy foods, has a love-hate relationship with sweets. Sometimes collabs with other sports simtubers for those beauty shots of snowboarding down high mountains watching the sun set. Seems to be the most productive at nighttime. Wants to try and film a sports video of himself at night, but it's forbidden to ski on the mountain after dark.

Bio: With a wide smile and full baby cheeks, Mael is the sweetest thing you've ever seen--until you've seen him snowboarding. In-air spins and flips are just the tip of what this madman can do and has been doing since childhood. While his mom, who was a professional ice skater, supported his dreams, his dad was less than excited about his career choice. "There is no STABILITY in SimTube!" Well, no, not with an attitude like that. So Mael has been on the grind for three years now, improving his filming and editing skills as he uploads a video three times a month, collabing with other sports enthusiasts to increase his circle, from gymnasts to skateboarders (never surfers, though. deep water scares the shit out of him.) For the camera, he's got a big smile and a fake "bro" voice as part of the gimmick. Off-camera, the smile is just as big, but the voice is shy and unsure. Because once he's off that snowboard, Mael can't think of a single reason why anyone would wanna stick around. And it makes his heart ache to think that his 500K Subcount of fans who seem to love him hasn't been enough to satisfy him. He wants love. He really, really wants love.

And maybe a pet or two.

[kutputli]

One thing I wished the show would talk about is racism in English Football, esp given how the Richmond team is comprised of mostly Black and Brown players. In real life, 43% of the players in the English Premier League are Black, and despite representing England, Black players are subjected to racist abuse should they fall short of spectacular. The fact that the white footballers are given more screentime and depth in the show is frustrating as fuck. But thats the product of a white writing room I suppose.

Mmm HMM.

I reblogged a Subjectify Media post yesterday that talked about this, and how it would be weird if the show had the crowds heckling Colin for being gay in a way the Black and Brown players and coach never were. It was a post I was deeply upset by because the two fans writing it were being so racist themselves, in a typical queer white fangirl way, while decrying the more obvious racism of football fans. Their take was that it was better that the show not get into spectator heckling at all, for anyone.

Which in and of itself is a valid way to tell a story. I think of my favourite sports anime Yuri on Ice, and how it just gracefully sidestepped into an AU where gay ice skaters are just normal and unremarkable and there is no homophobia at all.

It would be a logistically easier storytelling choice to limit the portrayal of bigotry to interpersonal interactions within the professional settings of the club. But here's why I know that the show won't.

Because they did already include crowd heckling. Only, the target was (presumed) straight, white man Ted Lasso. Ted is the only one we see getting yelled at by the crowd. And even though its the extremely tame insult of 'wanker', which gets cutely diffused into a term of affection, we see Ted reacting to being yelled at by the crowd with the beginnings of a panic attack.

So Ted Lasso faces the gauntlet of a hostile crowd, and pulls through it and wins them over through charm and shape-based jokes, and not once does he ever think that anyone around him might be facing hostility as bad or worse.

When I say the show gaslights fans of colour, its not just because we seem delusional for assuming that racist things are happening to characters of colour that the show never shows. The show gaslights us because none of the characters act like those things happen. Nate never says, 'yeah, the first time I was called a Paki I was...", Sam never says, "I never really thought of myself as Black until I moved to England and they were throwing bananas at me". And none of the kind, supportive people around Ted - Keeley, Roy, Rebecca, Leslie, Beard - tell him to put his heckling into perspective by empathising with what the people of colour around him must be going through.

The AU world that Ted Lasso lives in is where the the worst football heckling happens to a white man.

[justanothergreb]

Icebreaker Review (or how Jackz wonders if some authors actually do research anymore)

Content warning - maybe some potential spoilers, but also talk of sex, namely the ridiculous sex in this book. Also this is all just my opinion, you can differ but no need to get nasty because I didn’t like the book.

Oh my god a book review! Well a review of a book so bad it needed a post. I’m really starting to believe that Booktok, while doing great things for getting people into reading, is a bloody menace for making terrible books popular. Spoiler - Icebreaker by Hannah Grace is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. 

It’s long so it’s going behind a cut...

Romance is not normally a genre I venture in to (unless it’s the Jane Austen-kind or Kate Cann-type books) but this book seemed like it would appeal to me. Ice skating - yes please. Ice hockey - yes please. People raving about the x-rated content - yes please indeed. My god was I reminded why I avoid this genre.

Let’s start off with the characters. Anastasia is so irritating. She’s whiny, she’s judgemental and just not likeable at all. Nathan is a wet blanket with a big dick. I’m sure some would be very excited by how much of a prince charming character he comes across but he’s so bland. Aaron was an attempt at the only child trope (a trope I as an only child despise) but was just a thoroughly vile character. Henry was blatantly written by a British person as he came across so thoroughly British in his nature I forgot he was American. I also lost track of when we discover JJ is gay and how many times Robbie is spoken about like he is able-bodied when he’s in a wheelchair. Far too many side characters for me which just burred into one mess of a cast. 

Now the setting and some of the plot points. I’m all for suspension of disbelief but do we really think a college in Los Angeles would be seemingly specialising in winter sports? Also the way most US sports work you are drafted into a team AFTER you graduate so how was Nathan already signed to a team? What was the purpose Nathan’s dad? Was he there just to be a pointless dick? Why all the side characters? Can you just swap from being a pairs skater to a solo skater? All the skaters I know went solo to pairs but never the other way round. 

Now the writing. It bothered me from the out because I could pick up this was written by someone not American. Too many phrases and ways of saying things which were so obviously British it drove me nuts. Was I shocked that the author made a joke about it in her little “About Me” bit? Nope, more shocked that her editors hadn’t pointed out just how blatant it was in places. If you’re going to write a book, at least also do some proper research on how things work in other countries. I’ve never heard an American student call it “a lecture” but that’s what college classes were referred to in this. The not understanding the basics of how the drafting systems work in sport. It might seem trivial but for me, it really bothers me when writers don’t make the effort for things to at least reflect the setting of their book. 

On the subject of things not being reflective of real life...that Uber scene. Sorry how was any of that plausible? A car with seven people including a wheelchair user (who from my imagination/understanding of the car layout would surely be in the position Nate/Stas are in??) and no one notices what you’re up to? Are they asleep? Ignorant? 

In fact this was one of my biggest problems with the book - the sex scenes. They were ridiculous. It was like reading instructions for porn scenes. I often wonder if authors who decide to make their male characters well endowed actually have experienced this themselves because if they had, they’d know that a lot of the stuff they write is nonsense. Painful, not comfortable, nonsense. I’m all for a bit of some of things going on in this but it was borderline ridiculous how much these two were at it and in the positions they were supposedly in. Athletes or not, I just wasn’t buying it. I often find first person sex scenes a bit cringe and these had me cringing. A lot. 

But my biggest problem - how was this over 400 pages? Nothing happened. It dragged on and on and on and it felt like absolutely nothing happened. 

This took me nearly a month to read. Eurgh. 

[loz-tearsofahomo]

I love the fact I could say

"I love my anime gay skater boys who are eachothers reason for their passion, one of them tall, medium short legth pale hair and the other, japanese with self worth issues"

And you would still not be able to tell if I was talking about Yuri on ice or Sk8

[rikeijo]

...

About Ice Adolescence...

If you don't like to read about negative stuff concerning things you like I'd recommend not to read this post...

Saw the post about trying to make IceAdo related hashtag trending to make MAPPA say something about YoI.

I'm not going to preach to people what they should or shouldn't do. Everyone is free to do whatever they think is the right thing to do in this situation.

However, I must say that from my experience many people in the western fandom seem to know very little about how Japanese anime industry/fandom work. This is of course because of language barrier, cultural barrier etc... I know that shows like YoI are comfort shows for many people so they simply don't want to see/read/hear/think about the negative stuff. I get that.

That being said if you wonder why MAPPA, Avex etc. ignore foreign fans so easily its most likely because most of the things that you tweet at them are so... unusual, looking from Japanese perspective, that I bet their reaction most of the time is either "..." or "haha those gaijins again lol".

Like the "we queer people demand the representation we are entitled to so give us more YoI!!!" comments...

Meanwhile in Japan, YoI is either known as the disgusting "homo anime"/"fujo anime" or fujos do Olympic level mental gymnastics to prove that they are not gay. Pure love between coach and his student, but fantasies about kawaii uke Yuuri being pursued by masculine seme prince Victor are of course allowed and recommended✨ The level of causal homophobia is probably unimaginable to people who are used to western fandom where most people identify as queer...

There was/is a lot of crazy and disgusting sh*t going on in the Japanese fandom, caused mainly by the fact that a certain very loud subset of fujos wasn't happy with how the IP is handled (too much Yurio, too little Yuuri, Victor too cute and too feminine, Yuuri too manly...). So these fujos are in a state of war with Avex (fujos usually call the company "Avekuso", kuso means sh*t) and Mitsurou ("Dodai-sensei" among many other, dodai means "foundation", because fujos didn't like it when Mitsurou once said in an interview she is a part of YoI foundation... it's used in "how dare she?!!" mocking kind of way, because they don't like her interpretation of certain things in the show) since early 2017... If you know what was going on, you're going to notice that there is a lot of hilarious dog-whistling in articles, convos with staff members on twitter and so on. Hilarious if you think how weird people can get because of an anime they like... But the people who had to deal with them, and that includes YoI creators, probably weren't having the best time of their lives.

Add in the fact that figure skating in Japan is not as popular as it was, real life figure skaters are now more advanced than Victor even, Russian figure skating scandals, Russia's attack on Ukraine... This isn't really a good time for YoI.

Not to mention the fact that so many people, in western fandom too, demand IceAdo, but only if Yuuri and Victuuri are there... There's a very real possibility that this is not what Sayo had in mind originally. I know Victuuri is super popular and for a good reason... But it doesn't change the fact that it may also be just another form of trying to harass the creators into catering to fans because everyone likes Victuuri and we demand more and you have to listen to us!!!! I really like Yuuri and Victor as a couple, but this behavior is not cool, imo...

Just my two yens...

[eliemo]

You know this would be such a soft gay disaster too

Wade is a professional figure skater

He's the real deal, he's been doing this his whole life and he's won competitions, but he's had to slow down recently after some recklessness on the ice left him with some injuries

He's getting older and his body doesn't bounce back as quickly as it used to

A few people have pushed him to retire, but he's not ready to give it up because he's young and spry and hip and he still has it

He does end up mentoring two young ice skaters to keep himself busy

Yes, it's Yukio and NTW, yes they're adorable, yes they adore their weird fucked up mentor but NTW would rather face plant into the ice in front of everyone than admit that

Occasionally they have to share the ice with the local hockey team

Wade avoids them like the plague because if he wanted a bunch of big burly men slamming him around he'd find that on his own time

He does in fact need his body functioning if he's going to continue skating

One day Wade and his mini skaters show up to their regularly scheduled practice time at the same time as the hockey team

Wade knows he booked his practice time properly, and he's not about to miss out on his time on the ice or get trampled by hockey players in the least fun way possible

The team captain, Scott, is more or less civil about trying to work it out

Logan isn't

Wade is faced with the audacity of the world's angriest hockey player who looks like he should be cage fighting and riding motorcycles in an early 2000s action movie

Wade tells him that to his face, actually. Logan doesn't appreciate it

They argue for 15 minutes straight. Nobody really knows what to do about it. They're all pretty sure it would be a death sentence to try and intervene

They're making really intense eye contact

NTW thinks it's hilarious

Wade insists that they booked the ice for today and that the hockey team can skidaddle their happy asses to the nearest rage room

Logan insists that they booked the ice for today and they don't have time to argue with figure skaters when they have a game next week

Turns out they're both wrong.

The stadium accidentally double-booked

Neither of them are willing to concede but they don't want to share either

Cue the most awkward tense practice anyone has ever experienced

Both Wade and Logan are too busy glaring at each other from opposite ends of the ice to actually focus on practice

Nobody is amused

Except NTW

Logan is a little extra angry on the ice and Wade is absolutely showing off and getting in their way on purpose

Bodily harm and safety precautions be dammed he will make a point and be an inconvenience

Practice ends early for everyone

At some point, the hockey team is in need of a stand-in referee after Logan someone accidentally tackled their old ref

It was an accident, ok?

Wade, obviously, volunteers

Everybody advises against this decision

Wade just wants to fuck with people. He's a smug bastard

And he'll be fine it's not like his luck is so bad that he's going to get tackled into the ice

His luck is that bad. Guess what happens 20 minutes into the game

It really was an accident on Logan's part. He was trying to tackle someone else and Wade was in the way

Wade is fine. Ouch, what the fuck, but fine

He does swing on Logan immediately though. It's instinct. His bad.

Logan ends up being the one with a concussion and a bloody nose. Wade's back just hurts

He helps them escort Logan off the ice to sit out the rest of the game and, because he's a jackass and big bloody men are a little bit his type, asks for his autograph

"Please please please peanut right here on my shirt, nobody will ever believe me. If you get your blood on me I might faint, seriously, I'm a huge fan"

He's joking.

Logan, who can't walk on his own or see straight, writes his number on Wade's shirt

And then passes out

y’all aren’t ready to hear about a hockey player logan x figure skater wade au

[coeurdastronaute]

Winter Olympics, Ch. 5

Previously on Winter Olympics

The arena was quiet save for the slicing of skates across the ice and the huffing of lungs against the exertion of practice. There weren’t fans yet, as they elected to spend the day on the mountain where many of the first events were giving out medals. But the team slogged through their practice, buoyed by the smashing win in their first game, excited for the next challenge and aware that it might not be as easy. They watched the men barely win in a shoot out. Everyone had been there more than once, and they pushed now so they didn’t have to do it again.

Lexa put her head down and sprinted across the ice, enjoying the feeling of it as she did every time. She had speed, her mother made sure of that, and the simplicity of just skating was sometimes a welcome distraction from everything else. The coach called out numbers when he thought each person had given enough so they could go get water. It was a slow and brutal process. Lexa didn’t mind staying on the ice. It was expected of her, to be the last one called. Her father would always think she had more to give. 

“Nine!” he bellowed after a few more whistles and Lexa finished, all smiles as she tugged off a glove and reached the water near the bench. 

On the ice, her father and assistant coaches huddled. She tilted her head back to drink beneath her visor she tossed up. 

“Someone is all smiles today,” Mallory teased as Lexa wiped the water dribbling down her chin. “I don’t think anyone smiles after suicides.” 

“Just excited for some water,” Lexa shrugged and shook her head, kicking the toe of her skate back and forth as she swallowed. 

“Bet you need to really replenish those fluids today, huh?” Jas elbowed the defender beside her, earning a bump of their gloves. 

Lexa was certain she was burning red, and thankful that the exertion in the last drill was enough to hide it. They lasted longer than she expected, honestly, when she showed up to the locker room to change. There were only a few low whistles and giggles. She rubbed at the mark on her neck, tugging the hood of her sweatshirt a little higher, as if it was helping anything at all. 

It probably didn’t help that she changed the quickest and was the first on the ice to avoid any further embarrassment or questions. 

“You guys are disgusting. Can’t a girl blow off a little steam having a lively discussion about art and history?” 

“BOO!” a chorus erupted as towels were tossed at her. 

“Yeah, you talked about the Peloponnesian War, and I’m a figure skater,” Jenny chuckled, doing a spin, kicking her leg out terribly as she drifted by, earning chuckles from the group. 

“Guys, Nines a libra,” Chloe slid to Lexa’s defense. “Maybe she did talk about the Penelope’s War. I wouldn’t be surprised. She has a secret softness to her. Not one to just jump into something because she has an urge-- not like an aries or something.” 

She very much wanted to disagree, but that was dangerous, so she smiled gratefully toward her spaced out friend who happened to be an absolute blood-hungry defender. The fact that Chloe was somehow a chemist who liked to get into scuffles and taunt opposing teams was a surprise to Lexa, but she’d been on the receiving end a few times in college, and it was a very weird dynamic that existed there. But she would take all the help she could get. 

“Nine gets an actual goddess to chase her ass across campus, and I made out with a balding German curler,” Jas shook her head. “I’m gay now. I decided.” 

“It’s a great time to start,” Em put her arm around the distraught winger. “But if Woods isn’t going to kiss and tell, we’ll just have to respect that.” 

“Thank you.” 

“So there was kissing!” Em turned on her, overjoyed by the pseudo-revelation. “We got’em boys. Lock her up!”

Lexa accepted the punches on her shoulder as she pursed her lips and shook her head, betrayal teasing on her face, hiding her laughter. 

“There’s nothing to know everyone. It’s just a fun thing to pass the time or whatever-- we haven’t talked about anything-- it’s been like three days. So just… yeah. Don’t make it weird or a thing tonight.” 

“Are you embarrassed of us?” Jenny gasped, hand over her heart at the distressing news. 

“Terribly. You are all the worsts. Every single one of you.” 

“Nine’s got a snowboarder,” Chloe sang, weaving around the group in a singsong way, “sleeping in her bed. Keeping her company, keeping her fed.” The team laughed as Lexa shook her head and gave Em a look, accusing her of enabling this. “She spends her days on the ice scoring goals, she spends her nights pucking other types of ho--”

“Jesus Chris, Dawson!” the coach bellowed as she skated backwards into him. “It might have been sexist of me to think that I wouldn’t have to put up with this taking over this team. I appreciate everything you’re doing to continue my feminist education.” 

Frozen solid, Lexa closed her eyes and flipped her visor down, praying that her father hadn’t heard most of that song, or most of what the theme had said. She wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there, but when she looked back up, she instantly knew and cursed under her breath, shoving her hand into her glove and skating back out for drills, refusing to look back at him. 

“Alright ladies, shall we get back to practice or should we plan to be out here all afternoon? I don’t want that. I have a niece who is going to be chasing her first gold medal that I’d like to see. Is that alright with you all?” 

There was a murmur of yesses. 

“Then let’s focus and show me why we deserve a medal of our own, shall we?” 

Lexa put it all out there, everything she could, probably more than any other practice that she could remember. She also explicitly avoided her father’s eyes because there was certainly no way she wanted to know what he was thinking. Her discomfort was thoroughly enjoyed by the rest of the team, a few humming along as she skated past. She gave them the finger as best she could, or at least so they knew what was happening. 

But it was a great practice. Lexa could feel it when he called it, reminding them that their game was at two the following afternoon, to prepare and study and get ready for a decent match. Lexa nearly made it through the gate before he called her number. She skidded to a stop and rolled her head around on her neck. 

His jacket was zipped up to his chin. He hadn’t shaved yet. He cleared his throat. 

“That was a good practice,” he nodded. “Are you, uh,” she fiddled with her gloves, taking them off to tuck under an arm as she reached for water. “You have your head on straight, don’t you? I need to know that you are focused.” 

“Have I shown any indication that I’m not giving this my everything?” 

“No. But I hear things. Unfortunately. “

“Nothing is going to effect my play. I came here to win, to prove that I deserve to be a Woods. Don’t worry.” 

“If there is anything you want to--”

“Coach?” she shook her head. “I’m here to help this team win. I’m here to lead. I’m here to see this through.” 

He nodded, his eyes stern and searching. He had years of figuring out players, listening to lies, detecting weaknesses wherever he could. Lexa felt the scrutiny. She clenched her gloved hand and took another drink, hoping that holding water in her mouth would keep her from saying anything else. 

“Go get cleaned up. I’ll meet you out front to head up to watch Anya.” 

“Alright.” 

“I mean it, Lex. There’s no room for distractions.” 

Lexa skated toward the locker room and smiled slightly to herself. 

“Just a tiny, controlled one though,” she muttered to herself. 

XXXXXXXXXX

Vaguely aware of the camera occasionally zooming back to her, Lexa stood on the sidelines and chatted with her grandparents as they complained about the cold and having such prestigious grandchildren. It was all in jest, and Lexa liked spending time with them. They told her to have fun and not let her father run her too ragged preparing. And they pushed onto Madi, wondering when they’d be great-grandparents, and Lexa was grateful they moved on. 

With more interest than she should have mustered, Lexa focused on the second run of a certain Australian, and she she zoomed by and celebrated with her team, she caught her eye and earned a wink. 

The first run hadn’t been that great for her. But this one… Lexa didn’t know that much. Not more than Anya had told her. But she knew that Clarke’s last run was really, really good. When the score flashed, Clarke cheered and was swallowed again by her parents. Lexa clapped and cheered as inconspicuously as she could. 

Anya was set next and the crowd was silent. Lexa felt her father’s hand grip her shoulder through her coat, his nerves apparent as well. She couldn’t imagine him as a coach over something he had no control over like this. Two runs and that was it. He was a mess, worrying for his niece. 

But stoic and ready, Anya smirked at the top of the run on the big screen, and Lexa just knew what was going to happen. She set her jaw and nodded her head before jumping. Lexa knew that somewhere else, the current first place snowboarder was sitting in the holding area, watching as well, breath held, hands knitted into tight fists in her pocket. 

It looked flawless, to her inexperienced eyes, but Lexa didn’t know the intricacies enough, just that it was close to Clarke’s run. Anya tossed her helmet as she jumped out of her board and ran toward them. Their chorus of congratulations were met with her squeal of joy.

When the score was announced again, Anya had won, by just a point, and Clarke ran out and tackled her, hugging her tightly. There were never going to be rival rumors, and Lexa watched the joy as the two of them laid on the ground in the snow and laughed, overjoyed to be sharing it together. 

She had expected was her family to be so overwhelmed with the excitement as Anya and Clarke gave their interviews before the podium. What she hadn’t expected was Clarke to hug her parents again before walking the few feet that separated the families and hugging Lexa tightly. 

“See? Not distracted at all,” she whispered. 

When she pulled away she was all smiles, breathless and overjoyed smiles. Lexa held her sides, reluctant to let go. She wet her lips and chanced a look at Clarke’s. Her cousin crashed the moment, hugging them both. 

“Let’s go get on the podium, shall we? First time and hopefully not the last!” 

“Definitely not the last!” Clarke cheered as she was tugged away. 

Lexa watched, aware of her father’s eyes on her. She didn’t look at him though. She refused to look anywhere but the ceremony where her cousin reached the pinnacle of years of hard work. It didn’t hurt that beside her was the girl who went down on her last night. 

She definitely wouldn’t look at her father. 

XXXXXXXXXX

The party on the sixth floor was different than the one Lexa remembered from her first night, which felt like it’d been an entire lifetime ago. Of course, she hadn’t stayed very long to truly experience the wildness of the last one, but this time, Lexa made it a point to hang out with her team and friends, celebrating her cousin’s gold medal. 

Anya was over the moon, and she was drinking directly from a bottle of champagne. It seemed incredibly necessary that she get sloppy and live in this moment. So they sat in their circle, taking up the living room of a french skier, and Lexa leaned back in the recliner, savoring the evening, fully prepared to make sure her cousin got back to her room alright. So Lexa nursed her beer while her team played some drinking game, and watched as Bellamy slipped into the room and Anya launched herself at him, earning a huge hug. If he were here, then that meant that--

“You,” Clarke scratched her scalp and tugged her attention from the other side of the room.

“Me,” Lexa cocked her head and looked up at the silver-medalist. “You.” 

Clarke leaned down only to grab Lexa’s beer, finishing it in a few gulps. They didn’t break eye contact, but rather grinned and debated something, though Lexa couldn’t quite figure out what it was that they were arguing about so happily. Mostly, she just liked Clarke’s eyes and hair and chin. Clad in deliciously tight jeans and a Team Australia sweatshirt, she looked amazing. Lexa was convinced that she would think that about a sack, if Clarke decided to wear it. 

The snowboarder grabbed them both another from the fridge behind them before standing between the hockey player’s legs and sliding into her lap after handing one over. 

An arm instinctively went around her back and held her hip as Lexa clinked their bottles and they both took their first sip of the fresh drinks. 

“I hope this seat wasn’t taken,” Clarke pretended to fret. “Because it’s mine now.” 

“Nope, you’re the first taker.” 

“Lucky me.” 

“Congrats on the event today,” Lexa smiled, watching Clarke debate between her lips and her eyes. “You did great. Like really good.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll take it. It’ll make a nice story next Olympics when I swipe gold from a defending-champ.” 

“Hey!” Anya yelled with a faux-seriousness, pointing at the pair in the chair. “I heard that.”

“Good,” Clarke shrugged, sipping from the bottle. “It’s not supposed to be a secret.” 

She grinned and taunted her friend. Lexa watched like a tennis match, not really listening as they kept everyone entertained with stories. No, instead, Lexa found herself focused on the soft little sighs she could earn from Clarke when she ran her fingertip along the exposed skin of her hip, dipping occasionally below the top of her joggers. No, Lexa focused on the feeling of Clarke’s fingers massaging her neck, slipping into her hair on the back of her head and rubbing while she spoke. 

There was a certain bliss there. 

While everyone talked and played some game, Lexa circled around in her head how it felt so good and normal, to have Clarke in her lap. It was easy and natural in a way that she hadn’t experienced before, as if they already had a shorthand. She didn’t want to think too much about it, to live in the moment, to have this adventure. As if sensing it, whenever Lexa felt her brain start to go down a track, Clarke would touch her, squeeze a shoulder, tease her with a poke, tug her back into the present. 

“I think the question now is, yours or mine?” Clarke whispered, leaning forward and humming near Lexa’s ear. “It’s not a distraction is it?” 

“You? Yes, you are, but not in a bad way.”

“A good distraction?” 

“Yeah. Very tiny and cute and talented distraction. That’s you.” 

“I feel like I should get Chloe in here,” Em giggled after watching the pair. Jenny was draped across her lap while they drank. Jas on the couch behind them while Anya sat in Bellamy’s lap on the floor, wearing him like a sweater. 

“Ugh,” Lexa groaned and let her head lull back against the chair at the memory. The tune was hummed, almost as if they’d planned it. 

“Oh, were you being teased? Just like you told me would happen?” Clarke mocked as well. “You guys weren’t too mean to her, were you?” 

“There was a song,” Jenny laughed. 

“Oh, I want to hear!” Anya sat up a bit. 

“Me too,” Clarke chuckled. 

“No you do not,” Lexa decided. “We should probably get out of here. It’s getting late. We have a game tomorrow-- all of you need to rest and prepare.” 

“It’s not even eleven.” 

“We have a game…”

“At three,” her team reminded her, earning another groan. 

“Nines got a snowboarder,” Jenny began, giving it a deep bass. “Sleeping in her bed. Keeping her company, keeping her fed.” 

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Lexa shook her head and placed her bottle on the floor before covering Clarke’s ears. 

It only spurred her teammates harder as their voices grew louder, beginning again from the top with more gusto and harmonies.

“No! I want to hear,” Clarke laughed and tried to escape her grasp. 

“Nope. It’s inappropriate and your ears are too delicate for the second verse,” Lexa decided. 

“Hurry! I want to hear!” Clarke urged them as Lexa picked her up. 

In a move, Clarke was over her shoulder, ineffectively swatting at her through her jeans. Lexa held Clarke’s legs and turned toward her team as the snowboarder shrieked, laughing and begging for help half-heartedly. 

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to be somewhere else right now,” she nodded and made her escape.

The group circled around the coffee table yelled the song as best they could as Lexa lugged the silver-medalist back to her room. Australia’s dorms were closest, and that was how it was decided. That, and the dire need to not be reminded by that damn song that rang out in the hall. 

“I can walk, you know,” Clarke tried to lift herself slightly. 

“I don’t know if I trust you to not walk back to the party and ask for another rendition of that stupid song, which by the way, my dad got to hear.” 

“Well that’s not fair. Everyone gets to hear it but me.” 

“I’m going to take you back to your room and spend the night showing you what it was about, if that’s okay with you.” 

Lexa felt the body relax against her, draping herself over her shoulder. 

“Carry on.” 

With a satisfied nod, she carried her snowboarder across the Village. It was just a little distraction. There weren’t many things she would allow herself in this world, but she would allow herself Clarke, for as long as Clarke would want it.

NEXT

[kurowdayo]

KemoJi Seiyū and other Anime characters they voiced. Of course not every single role though but a close collection I can comment on.

Natsumi Fujiwara (Kabane)

Tōru Mutsuki - Tokyo Ghoul:re: Psycho Bitch? Obsessed with main char Kaneki, like obsessed obsessed. The unhealthy kind. In a squad under his command together with Kuki Urie.

Damian Desmond - Spy x Family: Little brat, rich, influential daddy. Has daddy and mommy issues. Wants his parent’s acknowledgment. Actually a nice kid if pushed. Can’t sleep without his favorite plushie.

Since Fujiwara voices Tōru Mutsuki, a main character starting from Tokyo Ghoul:re she worked closely with Natsuki Hanae (Shiki) who voices the main protagonist Kaneki. Tōru admires and obsesses over Kaneki and tries to kill his gf. She also has a thing for knifes and apparently knife play which does not fare well with her obsessive love towards Kaneki. The friendship their characters have in KemoJi is much better. There are no significant similarities between Kabane and those characters.

Junichi Suwabe (Inugami)

Fred/Freed Justine - Fairy Tail: Part of a trio that runs after a big guy. Very passionate about that fact. Masculine enough to rock the shit out of short beach wear. Uses runes and their scripture to fight. Gets hammered by a bartender maid at one point.

Shōta Aizawa - Boku no Hero Academia: A teacher but actually the Dad of 20 teens. Always tired, overworked, and unshaven. Carries a sleeping bag around. Adopts another child. Great resolve due to sad events in the past.

Yami Sukehiro - Black Clover: Captain of a squad of mages. Recruits people others see as losers. Uses his squad mates to do labour in and around the base. Scolds squad mates for breaking the base but breaks most of it himself. A smoker and an alcoholic. A nice lady is in love with him but he doesn’t get it. Spends like 50% of the series crapping and having his squad bring him more toilet paper.

Kyogai - Kimetsu no Yaiba: Some demon and a writer. No one liked his works and bullied him for it. He snapped. Not enough and ultimately worthless for the main baddie to entertain any longer so he gets dropped and tries his best to impress again.

Ryōmen Sukuna - Jujutsu Kaisen: A bad person. So bad indeed, he became an even badder curse after his human death. Wants to kill, maim, and rape. He does the former two. Gets reincarnated in the body of a literal ray of sunshine who can suppress him. Forces the kid to make sketchy deals with him in exchange for his life. Has something in mind regarding the kid’s buddy. Overall a bad person.

Hector - Re:Zero: Depressed warlock. Powerful but depressed. So powerful, he made another guy wait for his master for like 400 years but he can’t meet her in the end.

Victor Nikiforov - Yuri!!! on Ice: Legend ice skater, ice skating coach, gay. Becomes the coach of another dude (the main char) who admires him. He also becomes his fiancé. Charismatic but kind of an airhead. Does other things on ice (gay things).

His characters seem to have a trend of being dudes with an unfriendly demeanor who actually have a heart made of pure gold or they are completely done already and just all of their negative traits with clearly lots of trouble to them. In Black Clover Junichi Suwabe, Daisuke One (Mihai) and Natsuki Hanae (Shiki) all voice a powerful Magic Squad Captain and between the former two is a rivalry of years. His squad member Luck is voiced by Ayumu Murase (Akira) who works for him and the squad he leads. In the same anime, Hiro Shimono (Nobimaru) voices the second in command of the squad, Nacht Faust, but he dislikes Suwabe’s character Yami. Suwabe and Ono also voice characters in Black Butler which I left out, but apparently, they stab each other. Aizawa comes closest to Inugami. Unshaven and adopts kids.

Natsuki Hanae (Shiki)

Hikari Sakishima - Nagi no Asukara: Precious bean. Jealous of some other guy but overall a precious bean. Is in love with a girl. Doesn’t, at first, like his sister’s husband. His step nice is into him tho. Lives underwater with his family and friends but goes to school on land. Can be angered quickly.

Kosei Arima - Your Lie in April: Teen gifted with music but has a trauma related to that. Precious bean overall. His best friend’s gf is into him and only dates his buddy to be closer to him. Might overcome his trauma. There is more incoming though.

Ken Kaneki - Tokyo Ghoul: Precious bean (at first). Life gets flipped upside down and he tries to get a hold on it and learn to live with the “changes”. Freaks out at some point. Live turns upside down again. Guy doesn’t get a single break. One of the few characters in non-ecchi or non-hentai Anime to get a sex scene. Overall precious bean though.

Rill Boismortier - Black Clover: Squad captain obsessed with art and creating the perfect drawing. Powerful, but mostly busy with painting and defeating enemies as a side-effect. Got beaten up by a lady and fell in love with her.

Tanjiro Kamado - Kimetsu no Yaiba: Precious bean, loves his family and friends. Patience of a saint. Does everything to cure his little sister who turned into a demon, even things that could get him killed. Hunts the guy who killed his family but has a super gentle nature and pity with demons he kills. Overall he’s just boi.

Falco Grice - Attack on Titan: Precious bean and smol boi. Needs protection and doesn’t deserve anything bad. Has a puppy crush on a girl and goes great lengths to protect her. Is actually a chad and the only guy brave enough to confess.

Hajime Kokonoi - Tokyo Revengers: Obsessed with cash. Was into an older girl but she died, so he kissed her little brother instead, imagining it was her. The banker of several street gangs throughout the years.

Ryō Mizushima - Love All Play: Precious boi wants to play Badminton. Gets motivated by his complicated sister to do so in high school. Has a lot of friends in the team and plays his way to the top. (Hanae Natsuki’s pet cat voiced a cat in this anime.)

Most of these characters are known to be very gentle and good-hearted. They don’t ever try to harm if they can avoid it and only fight for to know others safe. Some of these character also share an airhead trait. Closest to Shiki would be Hikari Sakishima with a more abrasive nature but he’s a tsundere as well. All of them are precious beans tho, all of them! Together, Hanae and Hiro Shimono (Nobimaru) voice two protagonists from Kimetsu no Yaiba, Tanjiro and Zenitsu. They are great friends but Tanjiro is sometimes fed up with Zenitsu’s bullshit. That’s a nice parallel to Shiki and Nobimaru. They aren’t exactly friends but Shiki is pretty much always fed up with Nobimaru’s bull. They also voice two characters in Attack on Titan. Falco Grice and Shimono voices Connie Springer who, at one point, kidnaps Falco and tries to feed him to a titan to make said titan return to human form. Together with Kana Hanazawa (Inari), Hanae voices the protagonists of Nagi no Asukara, a romance anime, with a lot of romantic tension between their characters. That’s directly opposed to KemoJi where Shiki hates Inari’s guts and Inari… I don’t even think she knows Shiki exists… In the same anime, Kaito Ishikawa (Yui) voices another character that acts as a love rival to Hanae’s character. That’s actually not true and only a jealousy thing in Hikari’s mind. Outside of that “rivalry” the characters are good friends. There’s not much between Shiki and Yui, but I guess they’re friends? Overall a lot of interactions outside of KemoJi, phew.

Ayumu Murase

Atsushi Minegishi - Nagi no Asukara: Some super minor character but I’m still gonna mention it cuz I love the anime!

Shoyo Hinata - Haikyū: Hyperactive, tiny boy who wants to play volleyball. He’s alarmingly small and gets called a variety of names in honer of how small he is. Can jump. Ray of sunshine who annoys his team mate in the same year as him. Always has to go to the restroom before some big game where he meets future antagonist or important people.

Chigusa Fukasawa - Iroduku: The World in Colors: Rich kid and the youngest member of the photography and art club. Shit eating kid with shit eating grin always bickering the others. Has probably a crush on the girl he bickers the most with.

Luck Voltia - Black Clover: Mental guy obsessed with fighting. Can and will fight you. Constantly fights with another guy, shocks him and sets him on fire. Overall a little shit. Went to a mixer twice but he just wanted to fight so the girls didn’t really warm up to him.

Venti - Genshin Impact: Not really an anime but the character is super famous so I guessed I could mention him.

Kenjiro Minami - Yuri!!! on Ice: Innocent kid, younger than he looks, always excited and bubbly. Also a figure skater. Very energetic but can get nervous quickly. Overall precious. A little fanboi.

All in all, a parade of very joyous and outgoing characters with too much energy! Very much like Akira. Next to the connection with Junichi Suwabe in Black Clover, Murase also voices Hinata from Haikyū. His best friend and teammate Tobio Kageyama is coincidentally voiced by Kaito Ishikawa who lends his voice to Akira’s twin Yui!

Kaito Ishikawa (Yui)

Tsumugu Kihara - Nagi no Asukara: The perceived love rival of Hikari Sakishima. Saves a girl from dehydration but doesn’t love her. Pretty stoic and a man (teen) of few words. Later studies marine biology (he wants to do that in more than just one way but you need to watch the anime to understand that). His family lives from fishing.

Tobio Kageyama - Haikyū: Another rather stoic person. Arrogant and closed off at first. His team mates hate him. Thinks he’s the best player and blames his team for everything going wrong. Falls in his face with that attitude and changes.

Tenya Iida - Boku no Hero Academia: Strict but reliable class rep. Also a reliable friend. Often torn between his class rep duty and following the rules himself. Robotic movements and air chopping. Dislikes half-assed people who want to be heroes. Idolizes his older brother. A good, solid guy who worries about others and wants to help.

Kuki Urie - Tokyo Ghoul:re: Stoic dude, man of few words. He likes his friends though even if he pretends he doesn’t. Works in a squad under Kaneki’s lead together with Tōru Mutsuki.

Langris Vaude - Black Clover: Snob royal with too much pride in his abilities. Was made heir of his family’s possessions and name because his older bro is disappointing. Tried to kill his bro once. Second in command of the squad led by William Vangeance.

Overall the more stoic types that tend to come from more wealthy families. The stoicism can reach from being an asshole to just being overly serious but with a good heart. Together with Natsuki Hanae (Shiki) and Kana Hanazawa (Inari), he voices the protagonists of Nagi no Asukara. Hanae’s character perceives his char as someone who wants to steal his crush. In Tokyo Ghoul, Ishikawa’s character works under Hanae’s character together with Fujiwara’s character. And his connection to Ayumu Murase was already mentioned. Then there is the teacher student relationship between Aizawa and Iida in MHA. Many of the characters share Yui’s more closed attitude with his generally good natured self beyond the surface.

Daisuke Ono (Mihai)

Arthur Auguste Angel - Ao no Exorcist: Strongest dude in the exorcist order. Is actually a clone of a demon lord raised for scientific purposes. Has a speaking sword that his into him and that gets stronger if he feeds it with his long blonde hair. Solid guy who does his job but he’s kinda arrogant.

Erwin Smith - Attack on Titan: Eyebrows! For his goal he walks over hundreds of corpses and risks the lives of everyone including his own. Recruits a small dude into squad. Very brave guy who doesn’t fear injury. A big monkey threw stones at him.

Jotaro Kujo - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Didn’t watch that one (I know shame on me) but it’s so famous, I gotta mention it.

William Vangeance - Black Clover: Squad captain of the most famous magic squad. Wears a mask to hide his disfigured face. Makes trees with magic. You could say he has a split personality but he gets rid of it. The citizens really like him but most of his squad members are snobs. He doesn’t like them being snobs though.

Pan Ko Paat - Fire Force: Reliable firefighter. When he blows into his whistle, he can give his buddies a heat resistance buff. Is a little obsessed with safety and so used to blowing in his whistle that he preferably communicates like that now.

Phillip Boreas Greyrat - Mushoku Tensei: Wealthy nobleman of an influential family. His father bangs furries that are also the servants of the house. Takes in a distant relative to teach his daughter maths and magic. He also kinda tries to pimp his daughter for said teacher…

So on the one hand we have a couple of characters with unshakable, noble values and on the other hand characters with more questionable morals to put it lightly. Mihai, if compared, is kind of a mix between those. He does questionable things but never to the point when they become too questionable. As mentioned before, Suwabe’s and Ono’s characters from Black Clover have a long lasting rivalry while in KemoJi they live in a house together and Mihai wears Inugami’s old pajamas. At least they don’t fight.

Hiro Shimono (Nobimaru)

Connie Springer - Attack on Titan: Kinda stupid but has a good heart. Loves his friends and family but loses his family rather suddenly. Doesn’t really get over it. People make fun of him cuz he’s small but he’s also competent after taking shit seriously. Has a best friend who loves potatoes. Tries to feed a kid to a titan in a moment of madness.

Naki - Tokyo Ghoul: Kind of an underling at first but later the boss of a certain group. Loyal to this group and its members. He’s also a little unhinged and later has like 9 children with an inbred dwarf.

Dabi - Boku no Hero Academia: Barbecued himself. Barbecues others as well. Daddy issues and practically insane because of them. Also has mommy issues but the daddy issues are so big, they overshadow everything. Tried to kill his little brother and endangered his other siblings. Does everything to spite his dad. Very sad past. Like super sad.

Zenitsu Agatsuma - Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yells at least 12 hours a day. Is desperate to find a woman who loves him and proposes the first chance he gets. Secret badass who is mostly only competent when he’s asleep. Didn’t want to be a Demon Slayer but he was kinda sold into the job. Is actually a great friend and companion. Wants to marry his best friend’s demon sister.

Nacht Faust - Black Clover: Second in command of a magic squad. Never shows up for work though. Dislikes the squad leader and the fact that he was made second in command by him. Conjures and subjugates devils cuz he can so he basically plays with fire.

There seems to be the trend of characters that have more or less unhinged traits ranging from little like Connie Springer to much… very much… like Dabi. Generally, the characters are troubled in different ways with some more comically but others in all seriousness. I pretty much mentioned all character connections with other seiyūs already and too much of Nobimaru is unknown to make enough comparisons, but he’s probably closest to Dabi. I quote, “Nobimaru and Dabi are especially funny because they’re both arsonists who hate a red head in power and love being mysterious.” (Copyright @sistervirtue)

Kana Hanazawa (Inari)

Nadeko Sengoku - Monogatari Series: Didn’ watch that but seems important.

Shiemi Moriyama - Ao no Exorcist: Purest girl on earth. Gentle and caring. Didn’t know about the things coming with romance and couldn’t differentiate between friendship and romantic love. Got embarrassed by reading up on the topic in shojou manga. Very shy girl who spent her days gardening with her grandmother. She loves plants and makes herbal medicine for her friends.

Manaka Mukaido - Nagi no Asukara: Purest girl in the sea. Gentle and caring. Very shy girl but can be outgoing in the right environment. Is in love with one of her friends but to shy to confess. She entrusts herself to a friend tho. For a day, her knee was a fish.

Rize Kamishiro - Tokyo Ghoul: Psycho bitch. First thing she does is trying to eat the main char. She gets crushed by steel beams though and continues to be a psycho bitch in his mind cuz some of her organs got transplanted into him. Usually turns a place into a murder scene when she binge eats humans.

Sato Matsuzaka - Happy Sugar Life: Psycho bitch and lolicon. Kidnaps a little girl and keeps her in her apartment. Kills a bunch of people that encounter her over the course of the anime and investigate the disappearance of the child. Psycho bitch.

Mitsuri Kanroji - Kimetsu no Yaiba: Precious airhead. Super strong fighter and she fights for love. The snake guy loves her and gives her socks that she constantly wears. One of the few hashiras to kick the shit out of a demon moon without much losses. Just boss.

Rika Orimoto - Jujutsu Kaisen: Little girl with a sad childhood. Her only friend was a sickly kid to which she got engaged at the age of 10. She hated everyone but him. Got run over by a car and died but returned as the most powerful curse in history. She kicks ass with her fiancé but is also jealous and protective of him. She once shoved four guys into a single locker when they tried to bully him. Overall boss.

So, there are either the super pure and nice characters with boss attributes now and then, or the psycho bitches with loads of messed up stuff in store. Like Rize Kamishiro, Inari has a fun time binge eating and both prefer humans as their meal of choice. Like Sato, Inari also kidnaps, brainwashes and grooms a little girl which is super disturbing. It is interesting to mention that the older brother of the kidnapped girl is voiced by Yumiri Hanamori, who voices Kon in KemoJi. Other connections have been mentioned already.

Yumiri Hanamori (Kon)

Asahi Kōbe - Happy Sugar Life: Sad kid who’s searching for his little sister who was kidnapped. Got beaten up for not keeping an eye on her. Looks for her with increasing desperation.

Ai Hayasaka - Kaguya-sama: Love is War: Didn’t watch that but it’s pretty popular so I guess it’s worth a mention.

Hinaki Ubuyashiki - Kimetsu no Yaiba: Creepy, pale faced and seemingly emotionless kid. One child out of a set of quintuplets. Doesn’t speak much. Her dad leads the Demon Slayer Corps.

All characters are very much unlike Kon and there are no more seiyū connections left for me to mention.

Note that this list is far from being complete. I just didn’t know all the other animes the seiyūs voice characters from and in the end I was too lazy to do research.

[grumpywaterfalls]

Masterlist: Yuri!!! on Ice

Back to Main Masterlist

Yuri!!! on Ice

a hot mess by thishasbeencary

A Prince in Disguise by lourthor

Amateur or Expert? by Watermelonsmellinfellon

And the answer is… by nessiesaur

Back and Forth by kiyala

“Be My Sex Coach, Victor!” by lucycamui

believe in the heart, for tomorrow by karasunotsubasa

Enthrall by poppysicle

finding family by lilithiumwords

five theories about victor “my husband” nikiforov (+ one fact) by dadvans

Flush by MilkTeaMiku

Golden Days by Ren

Happy Like Home by orphan_account

I’m Not Gay by kanekicure

I’m Right Next Door by i_like_my_eggs_benedict

KO by karasunotsubasa

Of Bright Stars and Burning Hearts by Reiya

on finding your way; by crossroadswrite

on growing; by crossroadswrite

on standard deviations; by crossroadswrite

Rattle my Lungs by AshSeven

Real Winner by heartsdesire456

Russian for Dummies by cutthroatpixie

Sensei, Onegai Shimasu by TheSilentOtaku

Skater In Training by KasumiChou

Skater Next Door by KasumiChou

sorry, i was busy thinking about boys by ebenroot

starstruck by shizuoh

Until My Feet Bleed and My Heart Aches by Reiya

when the ice melts in the snow (that’s when you’ll love me) by lilithiumwords

You searched for: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov by Arumattie

Yuri Plisetsky has Two Dads by Metis_Ink

Last updated: 10.15.22

[100gayicons]

Roy Scherer, Jr. and Andrew Kelm had a lot in common. They had abusive fathers; their parents marriages ended in divorce; and they spent their formative years living with their mothers. After serving time in the military (Andrew in the Coast Guard, Roy in the Navy) they found their way to Hollywood.

They both became clients of Henry Willson, a talent agent who specialized in making young good looking men into movie stars. Willson always gave his male clients masculine and memorable stage names - Roy became Rock Hudson (and eventually a major star for Universal) and Andrew became Tab Hunter, a future Warner Brothers star. And Rock and Tab both had a secret that could destroy their careers - they were gay.

Tab’s mother was religious and she sent him and his brother to a catholic school. Athletic, Tab developed a love of figure skating, and competed in both singles and pairs. But it was his love of horses that eventually led to an acting career.

Tab was working at a Southern California stable when a crew arrived to take photos of actress Ann Blythe. Actor (later agent) Dick Clayton was on hand and noticed young Andrew and asked him if he ever considered being an actor. Boy, that sounds like a pickup line! A few years later, after Tab’s stint in the Coast Guard, Tab met Clayton again in New York and Clayton immediately began introducing him to people in show business.

That eventual led to a meeting with Henry Willson, an agent with a reputation for making young men into movie stars (among other things he made some of those men do).

Hunter progressed quickly at Warner. He had his first minor role in 1950 (The Lawless) and by 1954 he was the a leading man (Return to Treasure Island) with Linda Darnell as his love interest. Warner Brothers notice his potential in and offered him a contract. He had a hit with his next film too - “Battle Cry” about marines fighting in the Pacific.

But after 4 films with various studios, he became unhappy with Henry Willson and decided to change agents. That would have its consequences.

Meanwhile agent Henry Willson has a big problem. A scandal magazine threaten to publish an article revealing that his star client Rock Hudson was gay. Willson made a deal with the magazine - he would give them dirt on two other actors in exchange for burning the Hudson story. The first was Rory Calhoun who had an arrest record and spent time in a Juvenal prison. Calhoun’s on screen persona was that of a tough guy, so the article just help to prop up his image.

The other actor thrown under the bus was his former client Tab Hunter. In 1950 Hunter had attended a “pajama party for men only” that was raided by the police. Hunter was arrested (along with 20 other young men) and briefly detained. While this could have ended Hunter’s budding career - he was sparred. In fact, only a few months later he was named a promising young new comer in a national poll.

The studio would regularly send him on on public dates with his costars and fabricate sham resonances with rising young starlets.

Over the next few years, while continuing to star in hit films, Hunter experimented with singing and had a #1 record with “Young Love” in 1957. Based on its success, Warner Brothers actually creates a new division (Warner Bros Records) for him to release more albums. They even bought the rights to the Broadway musical “Damn Yankee” for him to star in the film version (1958).

But what if his love life?

In the 1950s Hunter met Olympic figure skater Ronnie Roberts and they started a long term relationship. Hunter, who always loved skating, sponsored Roberts training (athletes then performed under strict amateur guideline).

They spent spent as much time as possible together - once driving cross-country together so Robbiecould attend training in Lake Placid, NY. Hunter became friends with Roberts family too. But the skating world resented Hunter’s presence are events. And this began affecting Roberts scores. The two eventually parted but remain friends.

“I was infatuated with Ronnie.... To most folks, Ronnie and I were good buddies, sharing the ice. Few people considered what else we were sharing.”

Hunter next serious relationship was with fellow actor Anthony Perkins.

“I had a wonderful relationship with him,” Hunter said.

They met at the pool at the Chateau Marmont, and Hunter was immediately attracted to Perkins. The two went on double dates (the photos of which can easily be found on the internet). In them it’s clear the boys paid more attention to each other than the girls.

Venetia Stevenson, a young actress that the studio assigned as Hunter’s beard (fake girlfriend) thought Tab was more in love with Tony than Tony was with Tab. Hunter also felt betrayed when Perkins convinced his Paramount to buy a script for him, knowing that Hunter had already played the role on TV and working working to get Warner to buy the script as well. That was the beginning of the end of their relationship.

“You never really knew Tony 100 percent. There was always a secret side, and he was a bit of a game-player with people’s minds,” said Hunter.

Hunter said of his life in Hollywood, “(it) was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my (craft). There was a lot written about my sexuality, and the press was pretty cruel.”

At this point Hunter was feeling unfulfilled with the other roles the studio offered to him. So by 1959, he bought out his contract with Warner Brothers. The consequences of going out on his own was that he didn’t have the power of the studio promoting him. The quality of his films diminished during the 1960s and 1970s.

But in 1989, Tab Hunter had an unexpected career resurgence. Alt director John Waters asked him to star in “Polyester” opposite the ultimate Drag Queen Divine. Hunter’s his agent tried to convince him not to take the role but he decided, “What have I got to lose?”

The film was such a hit that Hunter decided to produce another film himself, costarring Divine. That effort would proved another turning point in his life.

Waters could only afford Hunter for one week. “I’m sure it was the least Tab Hunter had ever been earned on a film, and it was the most I ever paid an actor,” said Waters. “Polyester” was a hit, reviving Hunter’s film career.

While meeting with studios to raise money for what would eventually be call “Lust in the Dust”, Hunter met Allan Glaser, young executive at Fox. Sparks flew and the two soon became partners. Glaser also took on the role as producer of the film.

Hunter and Glaser settle on a ranch in Southern California when Tab regularly enjoyed horse back riding. Although out to friends, Tab was a private man. So he didn’t come out to the public until 2005 when he published his memoir. Hunter and Glaser married in 2013. The two were together for 35 years until Tab’s death in 2018.