Tokyo Anime Award Festival Recognizes ‘Yuri!!! On Ice’ As Animation Of The Year

The Japanese sports anime TV series on figure skating, “Yuri!!! on Ice,” will get two awards at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival in Ikebukuro, Japan, on March 10-13. It would receive the Animation of the Year: Anime Fan Award which is the result of a fan vote that closed on Feb. 16. The show beat 549 other programs that were eventually whittled down to 100 finalists.

According to Anime News Network, the poll covered all anime shown between Oct. 18, 2015, and Oct. 15, 2016. The second award that “Yuri!!! on Ice” would receive would come from the Television Animation Division. These two awards add to the growing collection of industry awards for the Japanese anime also popular in other countries such as Singapore, Poland, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Poland.

Series Gets 16 Percent Of Votes. Comicbook reports that the poll got about 257,000 votes of which 41,439 went to “Yuri!!! on Ice” It was more than 3,000 votes than what “Joker Game,” in second place, received. Fans were allowed to vote once daily for their favorite anime. The figure skating anime won because of its large online fan following and presence.

“Yuri!!! on Ice” revolves around figure skater Yuri Katsuki, Japan’s representative to the Figure Skating Grand Prix who lost badly in the finals. After his humiliating defeat, Yuri Katsuki returns to Kyushu, his hometown, and hides in his family house, mulling if he would retire or still compete. Two other figure skaters, Viktor Nikiforov, a world champion for five straight times, and his young teammate, Yuri Plisetsky, show up in Kyushu and help Yuri Katsuki return to the skating rink and compete again in the Grand Prix.

Merchandise On Sale. “Yuri!!! On Ice” Season 2 is now in production and slated to air in autumn 2017 in Japan, according to Anime News Network. Its Season 1 premiered on Oct. 6, 2016, and its merchandise is now selling. At the Shinjuku Marui Annex Department Store in Tokyo, the “Ice Castle Hasetsu Branch Office in Shinjuku Marui Annex” event, which started on March 1, is still ongoing until March 26. The merchandise includes mugs and ceramic coasters of Yuri and Viktor in cute animal costumes, acrylic badges, acrylic stand key holders, hair ornaments and other products, Travelers Today reports.