YURI!!! ON ICE 1

The show opens at the Grand Prix in Russia, where Victor has just won gold–we see our protagonist Yuuri has barely come in 6th. He’s very talented, but he lacks self-confidence and crumbles under pressure. He rushes into the bathroom to call his mother and begins crying to her over the phone.

Overhearing his conversation, skating prodigy Yuri–a teammate of Victor’s–kicks in the door and berates Yuuri for being a loser. He tells Yuuri that he’s going to be moving up to the Senior division in the next year (he’s just won Gold in the Junior division) and that two “Yuri”s are not needed, so Yuuri should just retire.

As Yuuri prepares to leave the arena, going back home in shame, Victor and Yuri are chatting with their coaches. Victor catches Yuuri looking at him, smiles, and offers to take a picture with him if he wants one. Yuuri scrambles away, embarrassed.

He returns home to Fukuoka, his hometown–the first time he’s been back in five years. He’s met at the station by Minako-sensei, his ballet coach, who is thrilled he’s back in Japan. She’s very brash and loud and fun and takes Yuuri back to Katsuki Onsen, the onsen his family runs. There are rumors that Yuuri, depressed by his string of crushing defeats, is going to retire, and his older sister even asks him if he’s going to come work at their onsen now. But he still wants to skate, and to have some time to himself, he goes to the local arena.

The arena is staffed by an old rinkmate and childhood friend, Yuuko, and Yuuri has a very poorly hidden crush on her. They catch up for a bit, and then Yuuri explains that he has a routine that he’s been wanting to show her–and he performs Victor’s gold-medal-winning routine perfectly.

Victor has been his idol ever since he was little and saw Victor performing. He is an unapologetic Victor fanboy–his room is decorated with posters, and he even bought a poodle just like Victor’s and named it…’Victor’–but he’s terrible ashamed that he’s nowhere near as good as Victor and is constantly embarrassing himself in front of his idol.

Yuuko is thrilled with the performance, going on and on about how cool Yuuri looked skating like that, cooler than Victor even, and this gives Yuuri a burst of strength. He summons everything inside of him, and confesses that he’s always…always been in love with–

BUT

before he can finish his confession, three little faces burst into the scene. These are…Yuuko’s triplets. Because she’s married! To their mutual rinkmate Takeshi. Yuuri reflects silently that he’s been gone five years–it’s no wonder so much has changed.

Yuuri goes back home, but his vacation is very short-lived, as he quickly learns that the triplets, devious little scamps that they are, RECORDED HIS SKATING ROUTINE AND UPLOADED IT TO YOUTUBE.

The skating world is FREAKING OUT, everyone talking about Yuuri and Victor and Yuuri-and-Victor, and Victor himself is extremely intrigued by Yuuri skating to his own routine.

Yuuri is helping his family out at the onsen one day shortly after, though, and is nearly bowled over by a poodle. It looks JUST like Vicchan, who died a while back, but Yuuri knows it’s not–though the dog looks VERY familiar all the same. When he’s told that the dog belongs to a ‘foreign customer’ who just arrived at their onsen, Yuuri’s heart jumps into his throat and he rushes into the baths.

But there’s only the usual customers in the baths–what about the open-air bath outside? He slowly opens the door…

And there, in full nude glory, is his idol, Victor, who stands up (and presumably introduces Yuuri to little Victor too in the process) and announces to Yuuri in no uncertain terms that he’s come to Japan to be Yuuri’s coach.