Japanese Figure Skating 2016/17 season news, national team, updates

[Karpenko]

Now I witnessed a 3A-3T from a 14 yo Jr skater Rika Kihira
https://twitter.com/mamiyuzu519/status/760950192728186880

.

Amazing! The Japanese ladies are going to be fine (for many years).

Nobu is so cute in that video I have no clue what he's saying in Japanese, but I pretty much figured it all out because of his candid facial expressions and awesome personality.

 

[NMURA]

JSF international assignments (updated on August 5)

JGP #4
Yuna Shiraiwa, Kokoro Iwamoto

JGP #5
Marin Honda, Kazuki Tomono, Rika Kihira

Lombardia Trophy
Shoma Uno, Wakaba Higuchi, Kanako Murakami

US International Classic
Takahito Mura, Keiji Tanaka, Satoko Miyahara
Muramoto/Reed, Suto/Boudreau-Audet

Kihira could be considered better than Shiraiwa. Her first competition of this season is on this Sunday. Reportedly she is attempting the 3A-3T.

 

[rosewood]

Calendar: Domestic competitions
Sep. 22-25, Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional, Okayama
Sep. 22-25, Tokyo Regional, Tokyo
Sep. 29 - Oct.2, Kanto Regional, Ibaraki
Sep. 30 - Oct.2, Chubu Regional, Aichi
Oct. 7-10, Tohoku-Hokkaido Regional, Aomori
Oct. 7-10, Kinki Regional, Osaka
Oct. 21-23, National Novice, Hyogo
Oct. 27-30, Western Sectional, Kyoto
Nov. 3-6, Eastern Sectional, Tokyo
Nov. 18-20, National Junior, Hokkaido
Dec. 22-25, Nationals, Osaka
Mar. 4-5, 2017, National Synchronized, Shiga

 

[Jeschke]

do we have any infos/updates who is sent to nebelhorn?

 

[Jeschke]

Koga/Spencer SP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6nILNvRTJc

i actually liked that; very curious who of the japanese pairs might make it to worlds in the end.

 

[NMURA]

Rika Kihira FS 108.62
http://www.jsfresults.com/local/2016-2017/fs/26/01/data0105.pdf

The 3A is yet to come. But her TES potential is impressive.
She has another competition in next week.

 

[Maofan7]

Marin Honda (Asian Open 2016): Short Program, Free Skate

 

[Sylvia]

2016 Asian Open Trophy - Junior Ladies Final Result
1 MARIN HONDA JPN 173.67 3 1 (116.41 FS) - fan cam video links posted above
4 KOKORO IWAMOTO JPN 139.64 4 5 (85.68 FS)

1 MARIN HONDA JPN (FS) 116.41 61.61 54.80 6.75 6.50 7.00 6.92 7.08 0.00 #15
Honda doubled her opening 3Lz and then landed the rest of her 6 planned triples: 3F+3T and second half 2A+3T, 3S, 3Lo, 3F, 2A+2T+2Lo. Two spins were level 4, layback was level 3, step sequence was called level 2.

Senior Men Final Result
1 KEIJI TANAKA JPN 212.29 2 1 (148.74 FS)

Senior Ladies Final Result
1 YURA MATSUDA JPN 161.89 1 2 (105.47 FS)

Senior Pairs Final Result
3 MIU SUZAKI / RYUICHI KIHARA JPN 133.25 4 3
4 MARIN ONO / WESLEY KILLING JPN 125.46 3 4

Junior Men Final Result
1 KOSHIRO SHIMADA JPN 185.09 3 1
6 YUTO KISHINA JPN 151.60 4 6

ETA:

Koga/Spencer [Howe; scored 48.70] SP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6nILNvRTJc

Here's Koga/Howe's Junior Pairs FS at Quebec Summer Skate:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x...we-2016-championnats-quebecois-d-ete-fs_sport
Music: Selections from the Taiga drama "Ryōmaden"
"龍馬伝", "標的", "刀剣", "海へ" - composed by Naoki Satō
Segment score: 77.84
Total score: 126.54

 

[WanderlustTO]

Marin Honda (Asian Open 2016): Short Program, Free Skate

I really like Marin's programs!

She looks taller even from world juniors - but it doesn't seem to affected her skating.

I wish she was a bit older - it would have been nice for her to get some senior experience before the Olympic season, but oh well.

She's really a wonderful skater.

 

[rosewood]

Here's a short clip of Shoma's new SP from today's ongoing(?) rehearsal for a Chinese show in which he skates together with Boyang. The show starts in a few hours.

ETA:
I forgot where but somewhere I saw a photo of Wakaba working with Rohene in the US (maybe it's a part of summer training). Does anyone know further info about this?

 

[rosewood]

Mao's SP from THE ICE Nagoya show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=486CiZo_Ko8

 

[rosewood]

Shoma's SP from a show in Shenzhen, China.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTY4NDA0NDk4MA==.html

 

[rosewood]

Here are videos of national summer camps. They have full programs or short clips of the programs skaters showed during the camps.
Novice (scouting comp)
Junior
Senior

 

[rosewood]

JGP #1 Ladies http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1617/jgpfra2016/
Silver- Kaori Sakamoto
SP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJ83IHxbl4
FS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcRZeFJ4-TY
Bronze- Rin Nitaya
SP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBC-WZsvBNc
FS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2n2AfNvV40

Congrats to them! Sakamoto's programs are choreographed by Scali and Nitaya's are by Akiko.

 

[Sylvia]

Koshiro Shimada, 15 next month, won the bronze medal (his first JGP medal ) in St. Gervais, setting new ISU personal bests in the FS & Total (186.18). Misao Sato choreographed his SP & Kenji Miyamoto his FS: http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00014685.htm

SP (59.32, 5th): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUply_VdsV0
FS (126.86, 3rd): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF4wR6KeE34

 

[rosewood]

I thought Koshiro was a mini Nobu last season. And this season he grew a bit and turned into a mini Yuzu??

 

[rosewood]

This weekend there was a local competition named Tokyo Summer FS Competition.

Sr ladies: Wakaba won with 60.89+120.49=181.38.
1 Wakaba Higuchi, 2 Reia Funasako, 3 Yuka Orihara
https://twitter.com/comet2054/status/769431037516533760
podium photo http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq6P5qJUsAALb56.jpg
According to people's twitter reports, in SP Wakaba skated to Lady caliph - 2A / 3Lz-3T 3F. In FS she skated to Scheherazade in a PINK costume - 3Lz-3T 1Lo 2S / 2A 3Lz-3T 3F 2A-2T-2Lo (stsq Lv4, all spins Lv4).

Jr ladies: Yuna Aoki won (58.36+102.43=160.79)
1 Yuna Aoki 160.79, 2 Akari Matsubara 151.88, 3 Shika Yoshioka 138.08
https://twitter.com/maki_flower/status/769492994797936640
Twitter reports said in SP Yuna skated to Meditation - 3Lz-3T / 3Lo 2A. In FS she skated to On my own - 3Lz-3Lo(fall), 3S, 2A-3T, 3Lz, 3Lo(fall), 2A-2T-2Lo.

Novice A ladies:
Akari Matsuoka received over 100. IIRC she's the second current Novice A girl who received over 100 in domestic competitions. The other girl was Rika Kihira last season. Twitter reports said Matsuoka did 3Lz-3T 2A-3T 3Fe 3Lo 3Lz 3S-2T-2Lo 100.33. People said the silver winner Riwon Sumiyoshi had 3-3 combo (3F-3T) in the warming-up. Too bad her 3F of the combo was shaky and missed adding the 3T on the end of the combo. She ended up with 82.73.
https://twitter.com/comet2054/status/769389634140901377

Seems Wakaba's debut in Sr field can make a splash with the two 3Lz-3T combos in FS. I'm relieved Yuna adopted 3Lz-3T instead of 3Lz-3Lo in SP and it works to some extent. I wonder if she can do 3Lz-3T in FS too since she made mistakes on 3Lo twice in FS. Wish she'll make a redemption this season. She is too good to end up as an underachiever this early in her career. Fingers crossed.

 

[clairecloutier]

Really looking forward to seeing Wakaba this season!

 

[oleada]

Thanks for the info! I hope wakaba changes her costume ...

 

[rosewood]

Thanks for the info! I hope wakaba changes her costume ...

lol Maybe lots of people agree with you, but in a sense I wish she'll keep the baby-pink costume and the headband. I wonder if she picked the color since in the international scene Anna's image of the blue costume is still too strong especially in the beginning of the season as well as in the domestic scene she might have disliked to be labeled by Japanese media as a heel in the rivalry between her and Marin who looks pretty much princessy and Mao-ish. I wish Wakaba will do well in the baby PINK! Headband power!

 

[rosewood]

It's just announced in a local TV news show that next season's GP final will take place in Nagoya, Japan. From December 7th at Gaishi Hall.
source (1)(2)

 

[rosewood]

Satoko's SP from THE ICE Kitakyushu show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG08pvPJYxo

 

[petro]

Satoko's SP from THE ICE Kitakyushu show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG08pvPJYxo

What a lovely program! I really enjoyed that, very classical style program done very well IMO. She skated with a lot of freedom which was nice to see.

 

[alexikeguchi]

Satoko's SP from THE ICE Kitakyushu show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG08pvPJYxo

That looks fabulous! Her triple flip looked really good too. I have to say, I was favorably impressed with Satoko's jumping when I saw her live at Worlds; the lack of height for which she is faulted really didn't stand out so much when looking down from above, and she has excellent distance with flow into and out. Of course, I've been a fan for a while.

 

[ostile17]

I thought Koshiro was a mini Nobu last season. And this season he grew a bit and turned into a mini Yuzu??

Last year he worked with Takahashi shortly, and he said that was of great help.
Funny fact: Koshiro was very, very surprised to find out that Dai is a strict and serious coach.

 

[levineismine]

Confirmation that Sota Yamamoto is injured again
on IFS: Sōta Yamamoto is off the ice again after recently suffering a right ankle stress fracture.

https://twitter.com/ifsmagazine/status/772647400821362688
https://twitter.com/ifsmagazine/status/772647400821362688

 

[kwanfan1818]

I love Miyahara's SP! Thank you @rosewood

 

[gotoschool]

To me in the Junior Grand Prix in Yokahama, Kaori clearly had the best performance in terms of skating skills (smooth speed and sharp edges), commitment, wonderful height, distance, flow and symmetry in jumps and engaging and passionate expression without obvious moments where she stopped to pose; she also had the biggest reaction from the crowd. She is charming, energetic and fairly graceful for being so athletic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or22n0HTqmM


I though Mako did really well for her first Junior performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm4C0uhoFIQ

Marin was graceful and her skating was beautiful as always. Too bad about the mistake on the opening combo. I really felt sympathy for her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQpMtz1T6tE


I hope she comes back strong in the long and that all the Japanese ladies perform well.

 

[Marco]

Marin is wonderful. Everything about her is musical and beautiful. Such effortless skating. She even makes the overused R&J/ Kissing You tolerable. With a silver here, she needs at least another silver to secure a spot at the JGPF.

Not a fan of Kaori's jumping form and line in general, but no doubt she is a promising athlete with loads of power and charisma.

 

[Jun Y]

I'm hoping that Japanese female skaters can collectively use less pink costumes for their programs. Several current skaters are more powerful, fast, aggressive than polished and conventionally feminine, including Rika Hongo, Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi. I'd rather see programs highlighting their strengths --- like Hongo's programs last season --- than going the usual routes of old-fashioned "feminine" and "pretty" programs playing to their weaknesses.

Marin Honda's free skate is very nice and she expressed the music nuances beautifully. I don't like the short program --- not the jumps but choreography. It's too surgary and demands the skater to literally smile the whole time. This kind of approach grates on my nerves. Besides, what if the jumps are not going well and the skater does not feel like smiling?