Toho Cinemas Roppongi held an all-night screening and talk show for Yuri!!! on ICE, the popular skating anime which aired during the Fall 2016 season. Around 30.000 fans gathered at 49 cinemas around Japan to watch the live streaming of the Tokyo event.

The event marked the first YOI talk show since the series finished airing. Mitsurou Kubo, the original creator, storyboard artist, and character designer, was joined by main cast members Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Junichi Suwabe, and Koki Uchiyama as guests.

After introducing themselves, they introduced specially-drawn new visuals. At the live venue the visuals of the ice skaters were greeted with cheers.

Then each cast member looked back upon their performances. Tomonaga told the audience, ‘I wanted to put my heart into the performance, so I don’t remember much after episode 7. But, during this work I developed a deep connection with Suwabe.’ To this, Suwabe replied like his character, Victor, with ‘Really?’ which caused the audience to erupt in laughter.

Uchiyama talked about his impressive ‘pig’ lines from the anime. He said such high-impact lines as ’I’ll make the pig eat my gold medal!!’ and Kubo then realized that ‘Katsuki has become a kachiku (slave)!’

They also answered questions that were sent beforehand to the official Twitter account. Kubo was asked ‘Who was the guy that came to pick up Chris in episode 11?’ The rest of the audience also showed interest in the question. Kubo answered that it was a man from the Swiss Figure Skating Championships.

The talk show was an exciting event, and the final greeting also showed the affection that each of the cast members feels towards Yuri!!! on ICE.

Toshiyuki Toyonaga | Yuri Katsuki

Kōki Uchiyama | Yuri Plisetsky

Junichi Suwabe – Victor Nikiforov

Mitsurou Kubo – Original Creator

After the talk show finished, the all-night screening began. The fans that rushed to the venues held paper fans with messages of support for their favorite characters and enjoyed the screening freely by laughing out loud and even applauding the characters.

Even at 4 in the morning the excitement hadn’t faded. In the last episode when Yuri skates for the last time, they were cheering him on loudly. The venue erupted with applause when the screening ended and it became obvious just how much the fans love the anime.

(C)はせつ町民会／ユーリ!!! on ICE 製作委員会

source: http://animeanime.jp/article/2017/02/13/32530.html