YURI!!! ON ICE 2

Victor is not just going to be Yuuri’s coach, he’s going to LIVE WITH YUURI. Luckily, Yuuri’s family has a pretty big home, so they set up Victor and his fuck-ton of boxes in a room.

Back in Russia, possibly the only person more furious at Victor’s abrupt departure than his coach Yakov is fellow teammate Yuri. Victor made a promise to Yuri before, and by leaving Russia to go be Yuuri’s coach, he’s well on his way to breaking it.

And Yuri absolutely refuses to let that happen.

Back in Japan, Victor is learning the joys of being Japanese–he’s wearing a yukata, and he’s getting to know Yuuri. He tries Yuuri’s favorite food, katsudon, and falls madly in love with it. However, he tells Yuuri that Victor will be the only one enjoying katsudon for the foreseeable future–because Yuuri is going on a diet. He’s put on quite a bit of weight since he let himself go after the skating season, and he’s got to work to build up his muscle and stamina again. That includes no katsudon for a while! He dubs Yuuri ‘Kobuta-chan’ (’Piglet’) and establishes an exercise regimen for them.

There’s a METRIC BUTT-TON OF FANSERVICE throughout this part of the episode, as Victor gets to know Yuuri better. In one particular moment, they’re alone in Victor’s room, Victor in nothing but a thin yukata, explaining that in order to coach Yuuri well, he must know Yuuri intimately–asking questions like what he likes to do, if he’s ever had a girlfriend, if he’s ever kissed anyone. We ever see the yukata slip down Victor’s shoulder, giving us a flash of a nipple. Eat your heart out, nipple-less Free! characters.

The OST, it should be mentioned, is very orchestral, lots of swelling anthems and soft moments. There’s not a lot of quirky music to be had here.

But back to Yuri–he decides that since Victor decided to leave Russia, then he’ll just go to Victor himself and demand he make good on his promise. Which is how he winds up wandering the streets of Yuuri’s hometown in a foul temper–until he passes a clothing shop and sees a pull-over with a tiger stitched on the front. Yuri is absolutely BONKERS for animal-print, it seems, and he starts drooling over the sweater: “Oh MAN I want that so frigging bad……..” Moments later, he’s wearing it. Still in a foul mood, but dressed cute af.

He learns that Yuuri and Victor are at the local rink and confronts them (along with a squad of reporters who have descended upon the town after learning that Victor is there coaching Yuuri–their little story is rocking the skating world): he reminds Victor, since it seems he forgot, that Victor PROMISED he’d coach Yuri for his Senior Division debut if Yuri won the Junior Division. Well, he won gold–and yet here Victor is having fled to a completely different country!

Victor, forced to choose between coaching Yuuri or Yuri, decides he’ll make them compete for him in a skate-off. The ‘Onsen on Ice’ will be a public event where Yuuri and Yuri compete, dancing to the same song, using Victor’s choreography.

They’re a bit confused–he wants them to skate the SAME routine? Nope; Victor has chosen a song with two arrangements–one better suited for Yuuri, one better suited for Yuri. He’ll make different routines for each arrangement, and they’ll have a skate-off for his figurative hand.

Since Yuri is clearly going to be in town a while, he announces that he’ll be staying with Yuuri and Victor as well. Casa Katsuki is getting a little cramped, but the family seems happy to have guests. Yuuri’s older sister is more than a little star-struck by Yuri, because he looks like her favorite boyband member, and she nicknames him ‘Yurio’. Yuri loathes the nickname–but it sticks, to his chagrin, until that is His Name.

Victor explains about the arrangements of the song later: the song itself is about love, and the two arrangements focus on different kinds of love–agape (unconditional, innocent love) and eros (romantic, sexual love).

He plays the arrangements, and Yuuri is immediately drawn to the slower agape arrangement, while Yurio is bound and determined to skate to the eros arrangement, as both feel this fits them better. Victor agrees–which is why Yuuri will skate to the eros arrangement and Yurio to the agape arrangement. He wants to shock the crowd, and he wants them to discover a new image of themselves, and to show that image to others.