(Stylized as Yuri!!! on ICE) is a Japanese sports anime television series about figure skating. The series was produced by MAPPA, directed and written by Sayo Yamamoto with original scripts by Mitsurō Kubo under the chief direction of Jun Shishido. Character designs were handled by Tadashi Hiramatsu, and its music was composed by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba. The figure skating was choreographed by Kenji Miyamoto, who also performed routines himself which were recorded and used as skating sound effects. The series premiered on October 6, 2016 and ended on December 22, 2016, with a total of 12 episodes. A Yuri on Ice feature film, Ice Adolescence, was originally planned for release in 2019, but has been delayed to a later date. The series revolves around the relationships between Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki; his idol, Russian figure-skating champion Victor Nikiforov; and up-and-coming Russian skater Yuri Plisetsky; as Yuri K. and Yuri P. take part in the Figure Skating Grand Prix, with Victor acting as coach to Yuri K.
Yuri on Ice has been well received in Japan. It won three awards at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival, a Japan Character Award, seven awards in Crunchyroll's inaugural Anime Awards, and in 2019 was named by the website's editorial team as one of the top 25 anime of the 2010s. In Japan, the series was released in six parts on Blu-ray and DVD, with all the releases coming No. 1 on the Oricon Animation Blu-ray disc and Animation DVD disc rankings respectively. It was the eighth-most successful media franchise in Japan for 2017, had the second-highest combined Blu-ray and DVD sales of any anime in Japan for 2017, and had the highest combined sales for a TV anime that year. It was popular on social media outlets such as Tumblr, Sina Weibo and Twitter, where it received over a million more tweets than the next most-talked about anime series in the season it was broadcast. It also attracted praise from professional figure skaters, with some skaters in the 2018 Winter Olympics performing to music from the show.
Yuri on Ice has raised discussion concerning its depiction of a same-sex relationship between its protagonists, with some critics praising its depiction of anxiety, its covering of homosexuality in a way that differs from most anime and manga such as the yaoi genre, and for dealing with homosexuality in a country and sport that has present-day issues with homophobia. Others criticized its depiction for being unrealistic, and of visual censorship that arguably makes it ambiguous to some viewers.
Plot
After a crushing defeat in the Grand Prix Final and other competition losses, 23-year-old Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki develops mixed feelings about skating and puts his career on hold; he returns to his hometown of Hasetsu in Kyushu after 5 years abroad. Yuri visits his childhood friend, Yuko, at an ice rink (Ice Castle Hasetsu) and perfectly mimics an advanced skating routine performed by his idol, Russian figure skating champion Victor Nikiforov. When secretly recorded footage of Yuri's performance is uploaded to the internet, it catches Victor's attention, and he travels to Kyushu with an offer to coach Yuri and revive his figure-skating career. It is later revealed that Victor was already familiar with Yuri, having met him before at a banquet where Yuri got drunk and asked Victor to be his coach.
After learning about Victor's career decision, Yuri Plisetsky, a rising 15-year-old Russian prodigy skater, travels to Hasetsu to make Victor keep a promise made prior to the beginning of the series. Victor had promised he would choreograph a routine specifically for Yuri P. if he won the Junior World Championships. Victor, having forgotten about his promise to Yuri P., makes the two Yuris compete against each other to decide who he will coach. He chooses two pieces for the skaters, both with the same melody but with a different meaning. The first piece, "Agape", about unconditional love, is given to Yuri P. The second piece, "Eros,” about sexual love, is given to Yuri K. Yuri K.'s performance wins, and Victor becomes Yuri K.'s coach. Yuri P. returns to Russia, and both Yuris vow to win the Grand Prix championship.