Yuri on Ice and Finding Confidence

Yuri

Yuri on Ice is an anime about a Japanese figure skater, Yuri Katsuki, who struggles to perform in front of an audience the way he can during practice. He never really feels confident during the show's beginning which leads to him landing in last place in his first Grand Prix Final. He’s so bummed about it that he considers retiring at age 23.

Yurio

Within the first episode, we meet Yuri Plisetsky, or as they call him later, Yurio. He’s a 15-year-old skater from Russia whose outward behavior conveys immense confidence but it goes hand-in-hand with his arrogance.

Victor

Then we have Victor Nikiforov (also Russian). His confidence levels when it comes to skating are sky-high. He always wins and expects it too. That’s not to say he’s arrogant about it, but he knows he’s good at what he does.

Yuri and Building Confidence

I think these three main characters display interesting and relatable types of confidence and lack thereof because of their personality and disposition, but also what happens when they all meet. When Yuri and Yurio talk, it’s always Yurio telling Yuri to retire and insulting him. Yuri just takes it for the most part. There is a turning point with this, however, when Victor comes to Yuri’s hometown to coach him and Yurio follows to get Victor to come back to Russia. When Yurio gets there he tries to intimidate Yuri again but Yuri finally realizes that he’s being underestimated.

We see Yuri begin to build confidence when he meets Victor. Because of plot that took place earlier, which neither the audience nor Yuri knows about until later in the show, Victor knows he can be confident in front of a crowd, he just has to draw that part out of him.

Before the events of the show, there’s a banquet for the skaters after the Grand Prix Final where Yuri placed last. He spent his time in the corner drinking, not socializing until he got so drunk that he started a not-so-PG dance-off with Victor and the other skaters. He then drunkenly told Victor to come to his hometown and be his coach, and Victor (after falling in love a little) does just that.

Yuri doesn’t remember any of this, and doesn’t know for most of the show. But this is the kind of confidence Victor wants to help Yuri find again. Victor figures the best way to draw out Yuri’s confidence is by choreographing a song for him all about eros (sensual/passionate love), a style Yuri is not accustomed to. After coaching him through the choreography and helping him step out of his comfort zone, Yuri really starts to see progress in both his skating and his confidence.

Later on in the show when Yuri is having an anxiety attack before his free skate performance, Victor says if he doesn’t win he’ll retire as his coach, hoping to give him some kind of push. Yuri starts to cry and says, “Just have more faith than I do that I’ll win! You don’t have to say anything, just stand by me!”

His following performance surpasses everyone’s expectations when he does a quadruple flip (one of Victor’s signature moves) in the second half of his program, a jump difficult to perform that late when fatigue is high. He turns the prior incident into his motivation thinking that in spite of his nerves and low confidence in front of an audience, Victor must be stupid to underestimate him because he can become stronger, so why would he give up on him? So, what Victor said did end up giving him motivation, and he ended up surpassing Victor’s imagination.

Yurio and Arrogance

With Yurio, he starts to lose his arrogance when he sees Yuri as real competition, his confidence stays, but his arrogance falters. Additionally, once Victor choreographs a program for him about agape love (a kind of unconditional love), he discovers that he loves his grandfather unconditionally, and that’s what helps motivate him. He still has some learning to do, but he becomes a kinder person once he discovers that he can feel love.

Victor and New Territory

Victor is interesting because he has confidence when it comes to skating, and the show rewards him for it, but not so much when it comes to coaching. He initially thinks it’ll be easy, but as Yuri starts opening up and Victor realizes how much he has on his plate, he becomes not so sure of his next steps. He is only rewarded when Yuri learns something from him that really helps him. Otherwise, he isn’t rewarded the same way he is with skating.

The Three of Them

I love the ways these characters represent confidence because it reflects the ways it shows up in us. I wanted to mainly explore Yuri because he’s the main character and I find the way he experiences confidence to be the most relatable. But all of them convey something powerful. You have someone discovering their own self-confidence, someone finding something they’re not so confident in, and someone finding a different way to be confident. My favorite line from the show is Yuri’s line quoted earlier about Victor being more confident he’ll win than Yuri himself. If someone I love has confidence in me, I feel more confident in myself.

So...

Overall, I love the way these characters show how most of the time no one knows what they’re doing. No one has faith in their path all the time and that’s okay because it’s all about growth in one way or another.