The Italian version is here.
Second part of my very long post dedicated to what Yuzuru Hanyu has been up to since turning pro. When I wrote the post, only two years and nine months had passed, not three, but the exact title would have been a bit ugly. And since the title I chose refers to three years, I edited the post to add a show that, at the time I wrote most of the text, we still didn’t know anything about. The first part of the post, dedicated to the programs we can watch on the internet, is here.
Solo shows
The solo shows. Something that was unimaginable before Hanyu, because who would have thought that a single skater could have the energy to skate an entire show? Enough charisma to captivate the audience for the duration of a show instead of just a few minutes? And what would the audience watch during the time it took the skater to change? Just to name a few of the problems…
The first show was Prologue. Two shows in Yokohama, November 4th and 5th 2022, three shows in Hachinohe, December 2nd, 3rd and 5th. This is the official website:
Prologue was broadcast only in Japan. Now we can buy the DVD or Blu ray of the last show in Hachinohe on Amazon.co.jp (and on several other Japanese sites, the links are on the official website of the show). I commented it (in Italian) here. Here you can watch a short trailer related to the DVD:
The show’s set list is similar for all days, with only two programs that vary from show to show based on audience input:
- warm up
- Seimei
- Change
- Let’s Go Crazy / Hana ni nare / Otoñal / Étude in D-sharp minor
- Spartacus / Hello, I Love You / Mission: Impossible II / Somebody to Love / Sing, Sing, Sing
- Romeo + Juliet
- A Fleeting Dream (new program choreographed by Hanyu)
- Haru yo, koi
- (encore) Parisienne Walkways
- (second encore, only on the last day) From Russia with Love
Members to Hanyu’s YouTube channel paid section can watch Seimei as he skated it in the first of the two shows in Yokohama.
On the last day of Prologue Hanyu announced his second solo show, Gift.
This is the official website (in the English version):
https://gift-official.jp/index_en.html
Gift took place on February 26th, 2023 at the Tokyo Dome, the first time in the prestigious arena was built an ice rink. There were 35,000 people watching the show live, another 30,000 watching from numerous movie theaters in Japan, and it was live, on television in Japan, and on the internet via Globe Coding in the rest of the world, with subtitles in various languages, including English. Hanyu noticed that he had a large international fan base, and since then he has provided live coverage of one day of his solo shows in each city he has performed in. He doesn’t leave Japan – as far as we know after Beijing he has only left Japan once, on a private trip that saw him return for a few days to the Toronto Cricket Club – but we can still see at least part of what he does (although it would be nice to see everything).
Since July 2023 and until not too long ago Gift has been available worldwide on Disney+ with subtitles in a lot of languages. Now it is not available in Europe anymore. I hope that in the future they will decide to propose it again because here we are talking about art. At the moment the only possibility to watch Gift is to order the DVD or Blu ray from Japan, but unfortunately there are no subtitles inside.
I previously wrote in Italian about Gift in two parts, which can be found here and here. Here instead is a review of Gift made by a person who knows nothing about skating and that, for this very reason, helps us understand what impact the show has on someone who is not a fan of Hanyu.
Disney Singapore has made a trailer with English subtitles to promote the show:
Gift is longer than Prologue, has a more complex story, more elaborate videos, live music, and a compaly of dancers who sometimes accompany Hanyu’s videos or performances, and is divided into two parts. This is the set list:
- The Firebird
- Hope and Legacy
- One Summer’s Day (new program choreographed by David Wilson)
- Ballade No. 1 by Chopin
- warm up
- Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
- ——–
- Let Me Entertain You
- Ashura-chan (new program choreographed by Hanyu)
- Phantom of the Opera
- A Fleeting Dream
- Notte stellata
- (encore) Haru yo, koi
- (encore) Seimei
I published a review of Gift (in Italian) on FantasyMagazine. You can listen to part of the song Gift, composed by Satoshi Takebe for this show, here.
In the 2023-24 season Hanyu did a tour, Re_Pray.
There should have been six shows in three cities, given the huge success they became eight shows in four cities:
Saitama, November 4th and 5th, 2023
Saga, January 12th and 14th, 2024
Yokohama, February 17th and 19th, 2024
Miyagi, April 7th and 9th, 2024
In Japan, all the shows were broadcast, partly live and partly delayed. The first show in Saitama, and the second in the other cities, were broadcast live internationally on internet on Beyond Live. At the moment there is no news regarding DVD, we can only hope that Hanyu manages to obtain the rights to publish his show in a format that we can purchase and keep. This is a huge problem, probably I will write about it in the future. But even if he does not succeed, it is important to remember that the live broadcast took place, that if we follow his accounts we are able to watch what he does. And we can try to ask the various streaming platforms to include Re_Pray, and also all of Hanyu’s other shows, in their catalog. Maybe if they receive enough requests they will move to acquire the rights.
I found two different trailers for Re_Pray:
Re_Pray is linked to the world of video games, and at a certain point the show offers a choice, just as someone playing a game might have a choice. Depending on the choice made, Hanyu skates one or the other of two different programs. This is the set list:
- A Fleeting Dream
- Gate of Living (new program choreographed by Mikiko)
- Hope and Legacy / Ashura-chan
- Megalovania (new program choreographed by Hanyu)
- warm up
- The Darkness of Eternity (new program choreographed by Hanyu)
- ——–
- A Fleeting Dream_RE
- Requiem of Heaven and Earth
- One Summer’s Day
- Haru yo, koi
- (encore) Let Me Entertain You
- (encore) Seimei
- (encore) Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
I published an analysis of Re_Pray (in Italian) on FantasyMagazine.
The last solo show in chronological order is the Echoes of Life tour.
In this case, Hanyu performed in three cities, for a total of seven shows:
Saitama, December 7th, 9th, and 11th, 2024
Hiroshima, January 3rd and 5th, 2025
Chiba, February 7th and 9th, 2025
Echoes of Life had the usual Japanese live broadcasts of some of the shows and delayed broadcasts of the others, and also international live broadcasts on Beyond Live of the first show in Saitama and the second in Hiroshima and Chiba. Along with the subtitles on Beyond Live, this time Hanyu also created an audio guide in English for those who don’t know Japanese and would be watching the show live in the arenas. And since Hanyu always opens ticket sales to international fans, this time I also participated in the lotteries and won the chance to buy tickets for the two shows in Chiba. I shared my impressions of the shows I saw live here (in English).
There are two trailers for the show on X. Some images appear in both trailers, others only in one of the two.
On Hanyu’s social pages we can see some other short videos with training and some images of the preparatory phase or behind the scenes: https://x.com/echoesoflife_jp.
Prologue was autobiographical, and Gift was still tied to Hanyu’s personal story, although he transformed them in a way to make them universal. On a narrative level, Hanyu grew show after show. Re_Pray was extraordinary, with the narration that was detached from Hanyu’s personal story. Echoes of Life is pure narration, and is superior to Re_Pray. I wrote an article (in Italian) for FantasyMagazine. Again, there are no DVDs or other media to watch the show. I hope Hanyu manages to buy the rights and will be able to publish Echoes of life, but that’s something we’ll only find out in the future.
If we exclude the encores, the show is almost entirely made up of new programs. Chopin’s Ballade had to be placed at a very specific moment for narrative reasons, because it is the short program of Hanyu’s second Olympic gold, the one that laid the foundation for success, and then there are three programs from the professional period, two of which previously he had only skated for YouTube. The others are all new programs. We are not sure, but probably all but two were choreographed by Hanyu, who studied dance for months and who in some phases improvised the movements to best express the emotions of the moment. The program:
- First Pulse (new program)
- “First Echo” and “Circulation” (new programma)
- Utai IV: Reawakening (new program choreographed by Mikiko)
- Mass Destruction: Reload (new program)
- Piano Collection (1: No. 3 Ballade in G minor by Brahms – 2: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 by Bach – 3: Keyboard sonata in D minor, K. 141 by Scarlatti – 4: Étude Op. 25, No. 12 in C minor – Ocean by Chopin – 5: Étude Op. 10, No. 4 in C-sharp minor – Torrent by Chopin), new program coreographed by Jeffrey Buttle
- Ballade No. 1 in G minor by Chopin
- Goliath
- ——–
- Aqua’s Journey
- Eclipse/Blue (new programma)
- Gate of Steiner – Aesthetics on Ice (new program)
- Danny Boy
- Hymn of the Soul (programma inedito)
- (bis) Let Me Entertain You
- (bis) Ashura-chan / Megalovania
- (bis) Seimei
Hanyu has posted a video featuring some moments from the show on the music of First Pulse:
Notte stellata, Challenge and The First Skate
Notte stellata, the exhibition program, was choreographed by David Wilson for the 2016-17 season. Hanyu performed it several times. One of them was at the PyeongChang Olympic Games gala:
The name of this program has also become the name of a show. This is the official website:
The show takes place in the Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Rifu, near Sendai, on a weekend in March, on days as close as possible to that of the earthquake that devastated Tohoku on March 11, 2011. There are three shows, one per day. In 2023 it was March 10, 11, and 12, in 2024 March 8, 9, and 10, this year March 7, 8, and 9. It is an event commemorating the earthquake, but there is also concrete help, with part of the proceeds going to charity and the presence on site of people who were affected by that earthquake or, this year, also by people affected by the earthquake that devastated the Noto Peninsula on January 1, 2024.
In this case Hanyu is not the producer of the show, even if the show is centered on him. This is a more traditional show, with a cast of skaters alongside Hanyu. They are, in alphabetical order, Violetta Afanasieva, Shae-Lynn Bourne, Jason Brown, Javier Fernandez (only from the second edition), Rika Hongo, Satoko Miyahara, Tahakito Mura, Akiko Suzuki and Keiji Tanaka. More traditional, however, does not mean that it is a show like all the others. Each skater performs one or more programs, there are the opening and closing group numbers (Hanyu participated in the closing number on Song of Hope, choreographed by David Wilson), a collaboration between two skaters, Afanasieva who does programs other than the traditional ones because she is a hula hoop specialist, and then there is the special guest and Hanyu.
Each of the three editions was opened by Hanyu, who performed Notte stellata. The last program of the first half is a collaboration program between Hanyu and the special guest. In 2023 the guest was gymnast Kohei Uchimura. Together, Hanyu on the ice and Uchimura on the floor, performed Conquest of Paradise, a new program that, in Hanyu’s part, was choreographed by David Wilson and Hanyu himself. Towards the end of the show, Uchimura performed a gymnastics program, and immediately afterwards Hanyu performed Haru yo, koi. The first half of the show opened with a group number with Bourne, Hongo, Mura and Suzuki performing Dynamite, and Hanyu performing the song with them in a video shown on the big screen. A snippet of Hanyu on the big screen, without music and with the skaters who have stepped aside for the moment, can be seen in this tweet, although it is too little to really understand what the program is like.
In 2024 the structure of the show was similar, with Notte stellata at the beginning, Permission to Dance in the middle, with Hanyu still on the big screen and the same group of skaters plus Tanaka on the ice, and Danny Boy at the end. This was the first time that Hanyu performed Danny Boy, a new program choreographed for him by David Wilson. In this case the special guest was the actress Mao Daichi, who near the end of the show performed one of her historic numbers. The first half of the show ended with the extraordinary collaboration between Daichi and Hanyu on Carmina Burana. The choreography was created by Shae-Lynn Bourne and Rino Masaki, Daichi’s usual choreographer.
Some footage from Danny Boy (as well as Notte stellata, Haru yo, koi and the show Challenge) can be seen in this video, unfortunately without the music for copyright reasons.
This year’s show was a little different. Notte stellata again at the beginning and Haru yo, koi again at the end, but this time Hanyu always performed on the ice, not on the big screen. The guest was Mansai Nomura, and there were two collaborations. In the first, Nomura and Hanyu, plus Bourne, Miyahara, Mura and Tanaka, proposed a new version of Mansai Bolero, to the music of Ravel’s Bolero and with choreography by Shae-Lynn Bourne for the parts on the ice. At the beginning of the second half, Hanyu returned to the ice, did his warm up, and then went out. At that point, the onmyoji Abe no Seimei, played for the occasion by Nomura, arrived near the ice rink. The onmyoji summoned his shikigami to fight against the forces of evil, and Hanyu returned to the ice. This Seimei is pure theater.
Small problem: Notte stellata does not have an international livestream. Many international fans, including me, are asking for it, for the moment we have not received an answer. What we can see on the internet are some videos in English that talk about the behind the scenes, the preparation, and that show some images of the three editions of Notte stellata.
For now we can only purchase the DVD or Blu-ray version of the 2023 and 2024 editions (the latter has just been released, I hope that in a year they will release the DVD of the 2025 edition).
In the title of this section I indicated two other shows, Challenge and The First Skate. Challenge was organized by Hanyu’s request because he wanted to give concrete help to the areas devastated by the earthquake of the Noto Peninsula. This article in English is dedicated to Challenge:
https://olympics.com/en/news/hanyu-yuzuru-back-kanazawa-figure-skating-earthquake
On January 1st, 2024, Ishikawa Prefecture was devastated by an earthquake. A few months later, Hanyu went to Wajima, one of the hardest-hit cities, and met with locals:
On September 15th, together with Satoko Miyahara, Takahito Mura and Akiko Suzuki (and some local artists, a group of drummers and a group from a calligraphy school) he performed in the show Challenge, whose proceeds went to the areas devastated by the earthquake. Challenge was broadcast only in Japan by an on-demand service. Hanyu skated in two group numbers, an opening one to taiko music and a closing one to Que sera sera, with choreography by Akiko Suzuki and his own, and he performed again Haru yo, koi.
The other show is The First Skate. This one isn’t a charity show, but the inaugural show of the renovated Xebio Arena in Sendai. The show, which took place on July 5th, featured several Sendai skaters, in addition to Takeshi Honda, Rika Hongo, and Akiko Suzuki. Hanyu performed a group number on Turandot and then performed Haru yo, koi and Let Me Entertain You. The organizers announced they are working to make the show available online, with the purchase of a ticket. We don’t yet know if this option will be available only to Japanese fans or if tickets will be available worldwide.
Stars on Ice and Fantasy on Ice
Hanyu has performed in two regular shows, Stars on Ice and Fantasy on Ice. The first was Stars on Ice, which he participated in 2023.
https://figureskate-soi.com/2023
Ten shows in three different cities: Osaka (March 30 and 31, April 1), Oshu (April 3, 4 and 5) and Yokohama (April 6, 7, 8 and 9). Almost all of the shows had television coverage only in Japan, unfortunately the solo shows are the only ones for which we have an international broadcast because they are the only ones entirely managed by Hanyu and it is important to him that we too can watch them. For the other shows, we can continue to ask the organizers for a paid international live broadcast, maybe sooner or later they will listen to us.
Hanyu choreographed his part in the opening group number, All These Things That I’ve Done, and performed three different programs: The Phantom of the Opera on the first day in each city, Ashura-chan on the second day in each city and the fourth day in Yokohama, and One Summer’s Day on the third day in each city. In Ashura-chan and One Summer’s Day, whose choreography normally does not include jumps, he added a 3Lo.
Fantasy on Ice in 2023 was made up of two parts called Tour A and Tour B, both consisting of six shows. Tour A stopped in Makuhari (May 26, 27, 28) and Miyagi (June 2, 3, 4), Tour B stopped in Niigata (June 16, 17, 18) and Kobe (June 23, 24, 25). In both tours Hanyu participated in group numbers, choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle, and presented a new program, choreographed by himself. In Tour A the group numbers were Ain’t no mountain high enough/Rising Heart and USA, his program If… In Tour B the group numbers were History Maker and Stars, his program Glamorous Sky. Unfortunately not even Fantasy on Ice assists us with images, all I found among the official videos was a 3F in Glamorous Sky.
The last show in which Hanyu participated was Fantasy on Ice in 2024, only in Tour A. Two cities, Makuhari (May 24, 25 and 26) and Aichi (May 31, June 1 and 2), six shows in total. The opening and closing numbers, choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle, were Ray of Light and High Pressure. In addition to leading the group numbers, Hanyu performed two numbers, Danny Boy and Meteor, a new program choreographed by him. We only have an official video of the official rehearsals of the first group number (with Hanyu who had injured himself in a fall the day before and has a large plaster near one eye):
There are also a couple of official photos with the costume for Meteor, one on the ice and one backstage, shared by the singer Takanori Nishikawa.
Part three is here.
