Highlights of Kubo’s interview from Pash! (2017/03)
First of all, credit goes to the ever amazing @toraonice and to her post with the full translation of the interview.
Now, for the highlights! (Aka “the meta that is now canonically confirmed”)
(ep 7) Yuuri pushes the whorl of hair on the top of Victor’s head in order to loosen up the atmosphere. He came up with an idea to ease the tension and just acted it out, then looking at Victor’s surprised face made him even more relaxed when he started the FS.
(ep 8) Victor doesn’t want to compete against Yuuri as a fellow athlete [in regards to a question asked by one of the news reporters in the hotel]
(ep 8) “By the way, I think that if Phichit-kun is the sun of Southeast Asia, Emil is the sun of Europe. And JJ is just on a whole different dimension than the sun.” [Bless this woman lol]
(ep 8) Yuuri skates better when he’s in an unfamiliar setting and tends to feel pressured when there are people cheering on him
(ep 8) The reason why Yurio didn’t skate his SP perfectly was not because his grandpa wasn’t there, but rather that Yurio’s development wasn’t fully complete yet [he was still discovering his agape, perhaps?]
(ep 8) “Treating Yurio as a lady is JJ’s idea of a joke. He doesn’t mean to be offensive. Maybe he thought that Yurio would relax.”
(ep 9) Yuuri has been able to work hard so far because he wants to win a gold medal and is confident that he is good enough to succeed. Even though Yuuri might look weak, he actually has been fighting the whole time.
(ep 9) The person Yurio most wanted to eat a katsudon pirozhki is Yuuri.
(ep 9) Victor hadn’t yet decided how long he would be Yuuri’s coach but hearing his feelings made him happy and made him realize that Yuuri also wanted to stay with him “until the end” (which Victor gladly wanted to do).
(ep 10) Yuuri bought both rings.
(ep 10) Victor is worried about people thinking that he has become stagnant and that he is dead as a competitor (or will become like that eventually).
(ep 10) In the scene by the beach, Victor was starting to seriously consider his future.
(ep 11) “Victor used to think that new surprises and impressive feats is something that he needed to create himself, however after becoming Yuuri’s coach his world broadened, he realized that it’s not necessarily that way and this changed him.”
(ep 11) “The reason Yurio could pull off his best performance is that many elements like his experience and the environment surrounding him all blended together perfectly right at this time. […] Every single second of a young and strong athlete’s performance is the result of their efforts. I wanted to show this with Yurio’s SP. ”
(ep 11) Victor and Chris have been in the Olympics and in ice shows together until now.
(ep 11) “Chris is probably the one that was closer to Victor in his career, and I think that Victor does genuinely like Chris’ skating. […] I believe they are good comrades.”
(ep 11) “JJ calls himself the “king”, but if you think about it as long as Victor was around he could only really become the king in the World Junior Championships or the Four Continents Champsionships… I realized that JJ is only saying that to motivate himself and in fact he is not a real king, he is just behaving like he is because it’s his goal, and fans are cheering on him for that… and in a way that moved me.”
(ep 12) “The part that I like the most in this episode is Yuuri’s monologue before he skates: ‘My name is Yuuri Katsuki. I’m just an ordinary figure skater, 24 years old.’ This is the same line he said in episode 1, so it’s like he is going back to his origin, and I think it’s the moment where he finally accepts himself. I cried writing the storyboard.”
(ep 12) Victor didn’t hug Yurio because he was begging for help to stop Yuuri from retiring or because he was asking for something. He only wanted Yurio to skate his best and wanted to show his support.
(ep 12) “The reason Yurio cries after finishing is also not something logical. But I think it was probably because he could skate at its best, and because of the sense of fulfillment caused by being able to skate that well despite a few mistakes. I’m sure he himself didn’t really understand his own feelings at that time.”
(ep 12) Victor and Yuuri tried doing lifts while fooling around during practice and ended up incorporating them in the “Hanarezu ni soba ni ite” performance. [My headcanon became canon, bless.]
(ep 12) “The selfish decision ultimately taken by the selfish Yuuri Katsuki was to continue competitive skating. I think there were many reasons that led to this conclusion. Not only what Victor gave him, but Yurio’s performance in the FS also managed to pull Yuuri back to the ice, and maybe he was influenced by the other athletes’ performances too. However, Yurio definitely wanted to see more of Yuuri’s skating, and Victor wanted as well. I guess Yuuri might be finally realizing how much things have changed from one year ago, when he almost decided to quit, and how now he’s on a completely different path.”
This got a bit long but I think it was quite a telling interview, so I encourage you guys to check it out in full (link at the top of the post). It definitely settles some discussions people had on some scenes, and is otherwise a good source of Kubo’s thoughts and intentions for particular aspects of the show. As always, big thanks to @toraonice!
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