(the Italian text is here)

Not even three years have passed since Yuzuru Hanyu decided to leave competitions and go professional. But what is professionalism in figure skating? There are no associations, rules, or predetermined paths. In fact, it is all in the hands of the skaters.

Many of them perform in a lot of shows. There are countless in Japan: Stars on Ice (born in the United States but which has expanded over the years with tours in Canada and Japan), Prince Ice World, Fantasy on Ice, Dreams on Ice, Friends on Ice… And then there are careers related to figure skating such as that of coach, or choreographer, or within the federation, or even as a sports journalist. Many skaters undertake one or more of these careers.

In this reality, Hanyu chose a path different from that of anyone else. Of course, he participated in traditional shows, in Stars on Ice in the first season, in Fantasy on Ice for two seasons, and he also collaborated to create a show in which he performs alongside other skaters, as several champions of the past had already done. However, he also created solo shows, something that was unimaginable before him, and that will hardly be replicated by anyone else. He created choreographies, even if he created them only for himself, but he also performed choreographies created by others, because the number of programs he performed in these three years is very high. He opened his own YouTube channel, like many other skaters, and yet it is a different channel, not only because his few videos have attracted considerable attention, but also for how he has made these videos. He goes on television, even if not as a journalist. More or less not as a journalist, because he has covered the role of “Special Messenger” several times. In just three years, Hanyu has done an infinite number of things. Let’s see what they are.

YouTube

On August 7, 2022, Hanyu opened his YouTube channel. He made it clear that it would be a channel dedicated to figure skating, not to his private life, which is only his. In October, he also opened a section reserved for paid subscribers. Most of the videos for members of this section are videos in which he talks about what he has done or mentions his future projects. They are in Japanese, but in some cases there are English subtitles, in other cases there are English translations made by fans among the comments. Some of the videos also include a handful of seconds dedicated to a jump. Hanyu said that we can talk about the videos for members, unless he say to us otherwise, so I will mention them from time to time, but I will focus mostly on the public videos. The channel is this one:

https://www.youtube.com/@hanyuyuzuru2624

Later Hanyu also opened his profiles on X (and then he also opened profiles related to his shows, Prologue, Gift, Re_Pray, Echoes of Life and Notte stellata) and on Instagram.

The first video, very short and only in Japanese, is a simple greeting, the information that Hanyu has opened the channel.

In the second video we start to see some skating, a 3A, a 3Lz, a spin and a 4T, the first three elements filmed from a very particular angle, with the camera placed on the ice. Between one element and another Hanyu provides some information about the channel and gives the appointment for the next day, when he will hold a training session live on the internet.

The training session, which he calls SharePractice. For a few months it was not visible outside of Japan due to copyright issues. When Hany found out about it, he took action to solve the problem.

The training, lasting about two hours, took place partly in the corridors of the Ice Rink and partly on the rink. And on the rink Hanyu performed several jumps and skated some parts of his past programs such as Hana ni nare, Ten to chi to and Hope and Legacy (of these two programs he skated only a small piece to perform some quadruples) and, at the end, White Legend (with a different music for copyright reasons). The climax came when he skated Seimei perfectly with the layout he had created for the 2018 Olympic Games: 4S, 4T, 3F, 4S+3T, 4T+1Eu+3S, 3A+2A, 3Lo, 3Lz.

Hanyu showed his subscribers part of another training. In the summer of 2023 he published in the membership a video of a dozen minutes containing numerous jumps.

In October, Hanyu began posting entire programs on his channel. The new video contains one of his historic programs, Change, which he performed in exhibition for the first time when he was still competing in the junior category, and the first new program choreographed by him, Dreamy Aspiration. Some of the cameras are placed on the ice, the shots are particular, and we will find these characteristics in all of Hanyu’s programs. Hanyu often skates very close to the camera, with remarkable effects. As for the special effects inserted during the editing phase, we will see Hanyu’s skills improve video after video.

Between the two videos, Hanyu speaks a little, and for the first time the video contains English subtitles. In the membership it is possible to see both programs without any editing, with the shooting done by a single camera, the demonstration that editing is a choice but that Hanyu really skates the programs from beginning to end, without interruptions.

Sasanqua is a new program choreographed by Hanyu and related to Prologue. I will talk about the shows later. In fact, this music accompanies one of the videos of Prologue, and Hanyu had shown some of the images that we see in the video during Prologue.

Instead, it is a gala program from his competitive period The Final Time Traveler, performed for the occasion at the Ice Rink Sendai.

After Gift, Hanyu uploaded Boku no koto to his channel. This is a new program choreographed by him that he used in Gift for the closing credits. In the membership we can see the program, with its 5 quadruples, filmed by a single camera: Hanyu really skated Boku no koto as we see it.

On March 11, 2023, the 12th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, Hanyu uploaded Requiem of Heaven and Earth on his channel, one of the many programs he dedicated to the earthquake and performed at galas during his competitive career.

The next program is an old program by Hanyu, Notre-Dame de Paris. It is the free skate of the 2012-13 season, the first one choreographed for Hanyu by David Wilson and never skated by Hanyu to perfection because at the time he did not have enough energy to be able to complete the technical content to the fullest (without considering that in the last two competitions in which he performed Notre-Dame de Paris, Hanyu was not in the best physical condition). Here the program is perfect, but only members can watch it.

Months later, in December 2023, Hanyu uploaded Goliath, a new program choreographed by him. In the membership it is possible to see the same program performed not on the ice but in the Ice Rink dance studio.

Along with Goliath Hanyu uploaded another new program, Aqua’s Journey, and again the choreography is his. There is another version of this program in the membership.

For the closing credits of the Re_Pray tour, Hanyu performed Estpolis II, another new program choreographed by him. Actually, Estpolis II is the Japanese title of the video game whose music Hanyu used, the English title is Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. If you click on the title, it will take you to the English Wikipedia page dedicated to the video game. Music is important to Hanyu, so where possible I have included links to an explanation.

The costumes worn by Hanyu in this video are those of the new Re_Pray programs: A Fleeting Dream and A Fleeting_RE (the first is actually a program created for Prologue, but here, with the second version of the program, the music for solo piano and a costume of a different color, it takes on a new value), Gate of Living, Megalovania and The Darkness of Eternity. In this case, for the special effects he collaborated with GEEKPICTURES.

The latest program uploaded by Hanyu on his channel is Last Ambient. Once again the choreography is his, the music by Taisei Miyakawa. For this program in the section dedicated to members it is possible to watch part of the work on the choreography done in the dance studio.

Edit: After I wrote this post Hanyu uploaded to his channel two versions of Danny Boy that he recorded in April at the Sendai Ice Rink. Full version:

Short version:

Edit 2: On July 19, 2025, Hanyu posted another video on his channel. It’s Mass Destruction: Reload, a program from the show Echoes of Life, which he performed between December 2024 and February 2025.

Other events

In 2022 Hanyu participated for the last time in 24-hour. The program he performed on that occasion was Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. After this program, even we can’t see it in this video, he added an encore, the choreographic sequence of Seimei.

In December, Hanyu made a surprise appearance at the Sendai Major’s Cup, a competition for young skaters that was founded with money he donated after his second Olympic gold medal. Before the competition began, Hanyu performed Parisienne Walkways, then encouraged local skaters to have fun, do their best, and keep chasing their dreams.

In 2025 Kenshi Yonesu wanted Hanyu for the music video for Bow and Arrow, the opening theme for the anime Medalist. When he came up with the choreography, Hanyu tried to be as faithful to the anime as possible, just performing figure skating elements a little more difficult than the ones we see in the anime.

This is the “short program” version, with Hanyu skating, while we only hear Yonezu’s voice:

Yonezu also uploaded on his channel an interesting conversation between him and Hanyu about the birth of this program. You can turn on the subtitles and set them to automatically translate into English, but in the comments someone published a real translation:

In March 2025, Hanyu performed and filmed two different versions of Danny Boy. The videos were broadcast by NHK as part of the final episode of the program Ogensan to Issho, hosted by Gen Hoshino. In the summer of 2023, Hanyu was invited by Hoshino to one of his programs, and on that occasion Hoshino talked about the song Danny Boy as one of his favorites. A few months later, Hanyu began performing Danny Boy, choreographed by David Wilson, in several shows: Notte stellata 2024, Fantasy on Ice, and Echoes of Life. There are currently no official versions of the program on the internet, mentioned in this article:

https://worldfigureskating-web.jp/news/12191

The second post about Hanyu’s professional career is here.