2025 NHK Trophy Mens FS PBP - TuranDomo

[Jay42]

Some of Yuma's jumps were kind of wild I think but his overall skating is just

 

[skatingguy]

Yuma Kagiyama
Rank after SP: 1
Coach: Masakazu Kagiyama, Carolina Kostner
Music: Turandot Christopher Tin Finale Concert Suite

4S
4T - weight back, fall
3Lz
3A+1Eu+3S
Flying Change Foot Sit Spin 4
4T+2T - quadruple toeloop landing was off balance
3F+3Lo - loop landing was tight
3A
Change Foot Combo Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
Step Sequence 4
Flying Change Foot Combo Spin 4

Again today the performance was tight, and that resulted in several jumping errors.

-1.00 = Falls
188.66 = 2nd Place
287.24 = 1st Place

 

[Lizziebeth]

Yuma sold that to the rafters!

 

[MINAM]

Honda praises the speed and flow after the elements.

The fall didn't discourage him. That's strength. Good artistry. Liked it.

 

[MINAM]

Laughing at Kagiyama's "Saved it!" gesture.

OK, winning NHK 3 years in a row. Nice job.

BRITSCHGI giving SATO a congratulation hug.

 

[MINAM]

Interview coming up.

 

[MINAM]

KAGIYAMA interview:

(Blinking nervously)
Skating last made me nervous, but I told myself to enjoy. There were mistakes, but I recovered.
This program has much much more potential. I hope to skate to show it.

I need to fight and practice harder. I want to skate at GPF.

I want to deliver the audience a better program. Wasn't able to do that, but I did my best.

THere's an interpreter. Ugh.

THere ya go. Hadn't done a PBP in years. Thanks!

 

[MINAM]

Nice to see Kagiyama and Sato laughing and talking.

 

[Lilia A]

And with that, Sato makes the GPF and almost certainly the Olympics and the team event barring injury. Put him in the free and Yuma in the short.
Men's GPF currently has Ilia and Shun guaranteed. I have an idea as to who the other 4 men could be but I don't want to jinx anyone and besides anything can happen (and this is men's skating we're talking about so really anything and everything possible).

 

[skatingguy]

Free Skate Protocols

 

[jenny12]

Yuma’s jumps have not been solid this week but the man can sell a program. He seemed kind of shaky throughout this competition but hopefully he got that out of his system.

 

[Ross H]

I love Yuma's program and think it is a masterpiece. If I were judging a totally clean version of it, it would be really hard for me to not give him +5 on the last three elements and near 10s in PCS. That being said, I think I prefer the previous version of the music without as many vocals. The music itself is so beautiful that it doesn't need the vocal - I can definitely see more skaters using this new version of Turandot in the future.

 

[thvu]

Catching up on skating, just finished watching Yuma, and I'm crying. That was such a beautiful program and skate. I can't stop crying. The combination of his skating skills, his whole body performance. How his choreo sequence goes straight into the step sequence like it's one element, how everything flows so well from one element to the next with difficult transitions and choreography.

This is the program of the year. I could watch this all day.

 

[Private Citizen]

I’m a crank as usual but don’t get the Kagiyama hype especially for such a hackneyed warhorse of a program. I’m glad Sato won the free and thought he should have won overall. Was robbed even. I agree with the tepid PCS for Kagiyama, which I guess were limited by the fall but seem (deservedly) conservative regardless.

 

[Aceon6]

Tomoki Hiwatashi currently in the pole position.

Naumov says hold my beer.

 

[Wyliefan]

Trying to catch up now, when Peacock will stop buffering and allow me.

Someone needs to interview Jimmy, if no one has yet, about the thought process that took him from Turandot to It's Raining Men.

 

[Badams]

I’m a crank as usual but don’t get the Kagiyama hype especially for such a hackneyed warhorse of a program. I’m glad Sato won the free and thought he should have won overall. Was robbed even. I agree with the tepid PCS for Kagiyama, which I guess were limited by the fall but seem (deservedly) conservative regardless.

I disagree. I absolutely love Yuma. The fall was unfortunate, but it just makes me want to see this program clean even more. I honestly just love his skating. It's just so beautiful.

 

[Ross H]

Jun I want him on the Olympic podium so badly. I wish he could take some time to work through his issues, but knowing the Korean fed, they'll probably have him competing again in the next week or two.

 

[Sally1214]

Made it through to the Men's FS. The Asian time zones definitely create problems for me but I'm thankful for post-event videos.

Haru Kakiuchi - Well, that was a nice start to the event. A "clean-ish" skate for Haru and he looks so happy just to be skating here. Good job.

Gabriele Frangipani - A bit of a rough outing for Gabriele but, my gosh, that Japanese audience always giving such great support no matter how things are going for the skater. True appreciation of the tremendous efforts being put forward by these athletes. It's great to see.

Jimmy Ma - Okay, so there were a number of problems BUT Jimmy had the audience going with the YMCA arms, so I'm down with it. Jimmy's fun to watch but I think it might be time to (as Mark just said) "segue into his professional career." He is a crowd-pleaser.

Adam Hagara - Wow, that was way better than I was expecting. A clean program and a partial standing ovation. Awww ... he's SO happy in the K/C. How wonderful for him.

Andrew Torgashev - Well, I can definitely see that the talent is there but this particular NHK competition won't go down in his "greatest memories" journal. Some moments of brilliance (choreo sequence near the end) but too many errors. Must be terribly frustrating for him.

Matteo Rizzo - I liked this program by Matteo. One error on the 1st jump aside, that was a very good skate. His connection to his music was wonderful. Much like Roman Sadovsky, Matteo is a skater whose basic skating is pure and a joy to watch.

Francois Pitot - I liked the Beatles medley but the program just didn't gel the way Francois (or I) wanted it to. He's had injuries to deal with, right? I really like him but this was not his best skating. Hope he fully heals and has strong showings the rest of the season.

Lukas Britschgi - A couple of glitches but, overall, a decent skate for Lukas. He was really into the program and I thought he interpreted the music well.

Boyang Jin - YES!! That's the best FS Boyang's done in awhile. Audience loved it and it was wonderful to see how happy he was at the end. Well done, Boyang.

Junwhan Cha - Sigh. What is there to say? Such talent ... so many errors. Shame.

Shun Sato - Fantastic skate by Sato! Talk about throwing down the gauntlet. He made some of those jumping passes look SO easy. What a super competitive season he's having so far. Two thumbs way up from me. And, once again, his coach gives us a
medal-worthy K/C reaction. LOL

Yuma Kagiyama - Some of Yuma's jumps were a bit shaky at this competition but, oh my gosh, the man can skate!! The speed, flow, ease of difficult transitions, musical interpretation .... he really has it all for me. I can hardly wait to see this FS performed perfectly cleanly. If he can do that in Feb., it will be (as Mark said) truly "an Olympic moment." I think it has all the makings of a masterpiece in skating.

Phew ... that was a LOT of skating for me today (Pairs FS, Free Dance and Men's Free). Tomorrow, I will have to try to catch some of the women .... they've been getting the blind eye from me so far this season .... nothing more than just lack of time to watch, so I need to catch up with what's going on with them.

 

[Matryeshka]

For a hot second, I considered not watching men's at all after the SP because Kagiyama and Cha is pretty much my dream podium, and Sato's OK. After Kagiyama and Cha, he's in a wide pool of male skaters I like a lot and hope do well. And well, if that's the last men's comp I watch, that's pretty much the same as the actual Olympic podium (true fans will understand this).

I'm sorry, but Kakiuchi's coach should be strung up for allowing him to skate . I know this is a big opportunity for him to get this invite to NHK, but did he really want to make his debut with content that Jason Brown finds lacking? He needs to heal and be strong at Nationals, if not for this Olympics, but for consideration for a post-Oly Worlds. They aren't sending a skater that has done a DOUBLE AXEL in international competition. While I think he has the potential for beautiful lines, expression, and musicality, he's not at artiste level yet. I'd also be terrified I'm injuring myself further. He's going to regret it if he trains so hard he can't walk, much less skate.

Frangipani/Rizzo, I swear to Dick Button, they are playing hot potato with Memola, no you go to the Olys with Grassl, NO, YOU go to the Olys, no you go!

I think the US, if they're not going to do the right thing and give the third spot to the Japanese, should just put the top 12 after Brown and Malinin and pull a name out of a hat. I think whoever gets third at Nationals, whether it's Ma or Sanchez or Torgy or someone who comes out of nowhere, will go. Ma, I'm not opposed to fun programs at all, but this isn't fun enough to be an exhibition or good enough to be an LP. It's stuck in the middle.

If Kakiuchi was healthy, watching him and Adam would have been quite exciting as potential future medalists on the GP circuit. Welcome Adam! Not a bad debut at all!

Pitot is so French it kills me. I will skate to the English music in the Frenchiest of French way possible.

Lukas Britschgi watched every Egyptian/vaguely Middle-Eastern themed program ever and threw every element from them in this program. Look, a tribute to Tatianna Malinin! Some Madi snake charm! Let's throw in some Davis and White for funsies! I mean, he clearly likes it and believes in it. JET LAG was the issue? REALLY? I hope the Japanese skaters who went to Skate Canada and France and did so well had a good laugh about that.

Boyang. If Boyang's skating because he loves it, good for him.

DAMNIT CHA. The Finns called and want Mouiin Rouge back. I want the SP results back!

Sato was lovely as always. There's this nice, quiet confidence about him.

KAGIYAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope he skates forever and ever and ever and ever.

 

[Karen-W]

Finally got around to watching the men - it wasn't nearly as BAD as the scores would lead one to believe, but it also wasn't without a questionable result.

Kakiuchi – yeah, skipped again, not watching the injured & just-up-from-juniors 3rd Japanese man struggle.

Frangipani – such a shame he’s dealing with injury; it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great technically and it has the potential to be a very entertaining program when skated well

Ma – I don’t know what to say… Skated clean, it’ll definitely bring the house down anywhere, but even the step sequence itself was rather mediocre, and it only really came alive during the choreo sequence and final spin. Meh.

Hagara – well, that wasn’t too shabby at all; not a lot of style or expression but solid technically.

Torgashev – I do like his shirt – best costume for him in years; nice opening 4t; oof – popped the 3a and that wasn’t even the first mistake, just how much worse does this get? Ooof – the second 3a was even rougher. It’s an interesting program, but too many mistakes today. LMAO – Mark’s mentioning Max’s great FS at IceChallenge. The man really is tuned into EVERYTHING happening every week in the sport!

Rizzo – he needs to not wear loose, flowy shirts made by Junwhan’s Italian auntie; this program is such a yawn – I’m not sure it would be all that interesting even skated clean with maximum tech content.

Pitot – hey, skaters & choreographers – there are other Beatles song aside from “Eleanor Rigby” and it would be nice to use some of them in its place whenever you create a Beatles medley FS. Just sayin’… That wasn’t too bad from Pitot, just not great and the tech content isn’t going to be enough to move him up the standings.

Britschgi – well, this is off to a solid start; what the hell was that 2a+2a+a sequence? The 3a is not his friend today, which is a shame since everything else was really good. I don’t love this program or find it as compelling as some of his past programs.

Jin – oh, that’s right… This is that terrible GMB duet in both English & Italian. This program is too sappy for him, but I can’t really criticize the judges for putting it ahead of Rizzo because that program is a real yawn, if I haven’t mentioned it before, lol. Do we think the audience in Italy will love this?

Cha – well, this isn’t a good start; please, Mama Cha, make him a new shirt before K-Nats and the 2nd half of the season – I’m thinking fuchsia would be much better than this beige crap; sloppy 2nd half did him in, but oh, I do love his Ina Bauer.

Sato – bit messy on the 4t+2t landing and he still needs more fire in his “Firebird”, but he’s certainly putting his name in the Olympic podium conversation this GP season. That was a really solid skate, if not the most compelling or mesmerizing.

Kagiyama – fall on the 4t – can he keep the errors to a minimum? Messy on his own 4t+2t combo; and tight on the 3f+3lo landing – that should be enough to give Sato the surprise win, IMO. Overwrought choreo seq and step seq to “Nessun Dorma” and I still think his team should swap the step seq and choreo seq in the elements order because the choreo seq is far more effective than the step seq into the final spin. Oh, shut up, Mark, this isn’t going to be an iconic program in the history of the sport – it’s so predictably pandering it’s painful.

I already know the results, and I have to say I disagree with them even though I find Sato pretty boring. He should have won this competition. He was underscored in the SP and Yuma was overscored in the FS.

 

[Matryeshka]

Trying to catch up now, when Peacock will stop buffering and allow me.

Someone needs to interview Jimmy, if no one has yet, about the thought process that took him from Turandot to It's Raining Men.

I would not be shocked if he changed it after he found out Kagiyama was using it. I would never use music Kagiyama was using in that season.

 

[SlavicaK]

Andrew looks like he is planning out how to pack his suitcase towards the end of his program.

I want to see Andrew's wonderful SS and performance bring him success. Could he pull a Takahashi and have a second career in dance?

 

[PRlady]

No. Unlike Japan, the U.S. has a long line of good dance teams with more in Juniors, and Torgy is not young by skater standards like Emilea was. And Dai kinda failed at the transition, it’s one thing to have nice skating skills and quite another to learn lifts and one-foot and twizzles.

 

[MacMadame]

No. Unlike Japan, the U.S. has a long line of good dance teams with more in Juniors, and Torgy is not young by skater standards like Emilea was. And Dai kinda failed at the transition, it’s one thing to have nice skating skills and quite another to learn lifts and one-foot and twizzles.

And skating with another person.

 

[peibeck]

I finally caught up with watching the men.

I love Yuma, but I'm sorry this musical arrangement swallows him whole. Even if it was skated flawlessly, which wasn't today, it would be just too much. As beautiful as his skating skills are, he doesn't emote enough to overcome a 65 piece orchestra and full operatic choir on steroids.

Sato isn't emotive either, but this was still a great performance and his jumps were incredible.

I will say, since the last Olympics, Britschgi has become a better performer, and that really helps with a piece with choreography as hackneyed as this. It reads middle eastern more than Journey through the Orient though...

Cha was so disappointing here, but every time I write him off he comes back, so maybe he'll get his equipment and technique back in time for Milan?

This was probably Boyang Jin's best skate in a long while, but let's face it, without the big jumps from his youth, there is literally nothing compelling about his skating.

Torgy... sigh. Well at least we had almost one full season of you having your s**t together.

Jimmy Ma... truly WTF? I already endured the Fun Finns messy camp version of Moulin Rouge this weekend, and now you're doing this weird tribute to... Rudy Galindo?

 

[Andrey aka Pushkin]

Jimmy Ma?
Jimmy, sir!

Private joke