Japan Super Challenge 2009

Official Site:
http://tokai-tv.com/figure09/index.html

Skater:
Mao Asada
Miki Ando
Yukari Nakano
Akiko Suzuki
Takahiko Kozuka
Yasuharu Nanri
Nobunari Oda
Takahito Mura
Yuzuru Hanyu (Junior Men)
Haruka Imai (Junior Ladies)
Sei Kawahara (Novice Men)
Mio Satou (Novice Ladies)

Guest Skater:
Shizuka Arakawa
Evgeni Plushenko
Fiona Zaldua & Dmitry Sukhanov
Violetta Afanasieva & Pete Dack

Does anyone know what will be the competition's format this year? Team or Individual..? And what type of judging will be used?

Oscilla wrote:

Does anyone know what will be the competition's format this year? Team or Individual..? And what type of judging will be used?

It will be a team competition - two teams of 6, and they'll pick the teams based on the results at Japan Nationals. Which I think means it will be like Team A has #1 man and #2 lady, and Team B has #1 lady and #2 man, etc.

For the seniors, I'm guessing that the teams will be:
Mao
Kozu
Akiko
Nanri

Nobu
Miki
Mura
Yukari

After every four skaters perform (two from each team), the teams will be judged based on "how much they excite the crowd," and the judges will assign points based on this. The audience members will also get to vote.

I'm guessing Mao gets to be team leader again? And Nobu will be the leader on the other side?

Woo-hoo, I'm getting excited to see this! The JSC is always fun!

http://tokai-tv.com/figure09/player.html

Team Red:
Mao Asada
Takahiko Kozuka
Takahito Mura
Yukari Nakano
Yuzuru Hanyu (Junior Men)
Mio Satou (Novice Ladies)

Team Blue:
Nobunari Oda
Miki Ando
Akiko Suzuki
Yasuharu Nanri
Haruka Imai (Junior Ladies)
Sei Kawahara (Novice Men)

The team names are somewhat uninspired this year. I preffered Team Artist and Team Dream!

But the teams are great! Too bad there's no Fumie and Kanako, they are great entertainers.

I hope Kazu and Mura won't overwhelm themselves with technical difficulty like at Medalists on Ice... Good luck, boys!

I wonder what Mao will skate to... Maybe "Sing, sing, sing" this time..? I miss it!

Many Nobu fans are wishing he would skate to "New Cinema Paradise"... Personally I think there would be no better program for this type of a competition than "Around the World", but I'll eat my pants if he skates to it... I put my money on "Tosca", unless the fans are persistent enough . Just please, no hair gel!

Finally, I hope Mio and Sei won't be chacked. I've never seen them yet, and I always keep an eye open for the promising new skaters...

Official site lists Mao as skating to Por Una Cabeza again. Hmm...I wonder if we'll ever see Singx3 again. Nobu has "Fly me to the moon" down as his program music, which is great!

Looks like Kozu is sticking to "Save the last dance." Hope he won't overload himself again. I'm quite surprised to not see Fumie on the list.

Fuji TV will broadcast the event (taped) on the 10th, from 14:30 ~ 16:00, so hopefully KeyHole TV will make things go smoothly, as I'm back in the States now.

But hmm...the time alotted to the broadcast seems to indicate that the novice skaters, and maybe even the juniors will indeed be skipped over, if you consider the likelihood that Shizuka and Plushy's EX will make it on air as well...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090109-00000013-nks_fl-spo

Quote :

The exhibition Japan Super Challenge took place in the Nagoya city on January 9th. 12 competitiors, 6 men and 6 ladies, were divided into 2 teams which competed against each other. The total score was awarded by the special judge - theaudience and the judges team, including Midori Ito.
Mao Asada, the leader of the Red Team, danced a wonderful tango, but lost 748-752 (4 points of difference). Mao said: "I'm frustrated to have lost. But I'm happy that everyone skated their best!"
"Before the competition I thought it would be impossible to win againstagainst athlete Asada! I'm happy to have won.", said with a smile Nobunari Oda, the captain of the second team, Team Blue.

Team Mao was defeated. But Mao skated wonderful, as always!

I've seen a (short ) news clip on a Japanese forum. Mao looked gorgeous , but I wonder if it would be better to have used "Sing..." after all. The rink looked a bit small, and the boards were high, so that when Mao did her famous step sequence, it was barely visible. In the news clips it was filmed from behind, but those people who sat in the front of Mao probably only saw her head and shoulders...
But still, it looked like a fantastic performance (as usual), and the audience loved it.

Nobunari looked great!!! He had a really cute hairsyle. He skated in the "FMTTM" SP costume to "FMTTM" EX music (with vocals), and the choreo seemed a bit different than it was when he skated it two years ago. He skated with more fire than I've seen from him in a long, long time.

Miki skated to Bolero and she did a great triple out of a back charlotte.

Shizuka skated to "Ave Maria" as a guest. She had a new white dress and looked just GORGEOUS.

No one else was shown in the news clip...

A news clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjEigAK3Xo

Mao looks so pretty! I just love Tango!

Congrats to Team Blue!

I can't wait to see the full show!

I just got home! Is anyone else around and watching this now?

Satou Miu is wearing Mao's 'Habanera' costume - awww, how cute!!

ETA Aww - Mao doubled the loop. It's too bad that Team Red lost (Mao+Kozu! ), and Mao said she was disappointed, but that's ok, I'm sure they'll get over it soon.

Watching the blue team celebrate is pretty cute.
Nobu says "Before I skated, I didn't think we could beat Mao, err, Team Red."

Here's another clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hryQqIxmE1w

[Nooo, not Ishikawa Ryo + Mao! hehehehe. ]

Is it just me, or has Mao's flip technique changed a little? I noticed this yesterday in the Nagoya festival vid - it seems like she's delaying the rotation until she's in the air or something...or maybe I'm just seeing things...

At the end, Mao is like "I was the captain, but I didn't really lead the team....in the end we lost, but the team competition was really fun and became a good memory."

Mao is looking so pretty!

Batsuchan wrote:

Watching the blue team celebrate is pretty cute.
Nobu says "Before I skated, I didn't think we could beat Mao, err, Team Red."

Thanks for the reports and links, everybody! -P

Found these two on YT. I really wanted to see Akiko as well, but I couldn't find any others. Her EX is just

Mao Asada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dApKD4EbDc

Takahiko Kozuka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwMVoJhdN0w

More YT videos

Mao Asada
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9dApKD4EbDc&feature=channel

Shizuka Arakawa
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4mpyI0nc6Bs&feature=channel_page

Yukari Nakano
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSJF6LMTU4&feature=channel

Miki Ando
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hYVVt-bNjJk&feature=channel

Akiko Suzuki
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZueCDWEOzxI&feature=channel

Takahiko Kozuka
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-UB2b4LeS1g&feature=channel

Nobunari Oda
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_HyqKQ7l8&feature=channel

Thank you for the links, chiyori and jeanettetan!

I loved Mao's performance. Too bad no "Sing, sing, sing" this time, I really hope we'll see it again. But Mao's Tango was fantastc. This program is really great for her and brings out her power and charm.

Miki was great! I read that her scores were rather low (and she thought that she'll make her team lose, but Nobunari replied "We'll win!"), and if that was the case, I think she was a bit robbed. Then again, maybe she got deducted for the screechy vocals... I appreciate the talent of the singer, but Bolero sounds just so much better without the unnecessary wailing.

Akiko was born to tango, her program was great. I think she might have scared the judges half to death when she suddenly struck a pose in front of them...

I really liked Yukari's program; too bad she fell in the middle of the step sequence. I wonder if she's injured..? She didn't attempt any upper tier triples as well...

I really wanted to watch Nobunari's program, but when I followed the link I got just the video with no sound and the message that the sound got turned off because of a copyright claim...

...Oh, come on! If it was a great quality video where the music can be clearly heard, I could understand the rationale of the cpyright claimers. But it's just the background music of mediocre quality with a lot of noise over it (the crowd reacions, the commentators). It's not like somebody's going to download it and put on their iPod. If anything, it might encourage somebody to buy the music.

I'm really afraid that YT will start to turn the sound off in those few videos that survived the wrath of IN and other broadcast stations.

Nobu's performance with audio:
http://okami.follownet.pl/fs/upload/nobujsc09.flv <-- you need to download the file to watch it!
(poor quality, though )

I have to write an essay for one of my classes, so I'll post my comments about the performances a bit later!

JSC backstage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCJcxheh8pM

Nanae wrote:

JSC backstage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCJcxheh8pM

I loved Nobu's finishing pose And wow, Miki's quad!!! Of course, Mao was fabulous, as always!! So nice to see them having fun

did someone notice at 9:02 ?? there is some pixel arts about Mao!

and can anyone translate some funny parts with the skaters backstage?? ThankS!!

Wow! Thank you, Nanae! This was such an amazing video.

A summary of sorts (I'm falling asleep as I write ):

0:55: "Team China! You're Team China!" - Nobu invented a new name for Team Red, probably because their jackets are red-gold, just like the Chinese Olympic Team. Team Blue = Team Japan (white collars and red lines).

1:20: As the competition took place in Nagoya, a lot of local people came to cheer for the Nagoya skaters - Mao and Miki.

1:44: What is Nobu doing to Kozu?!

1:53: The commentator says that Team Red with Mao and Yukari is the calm one, while Team Blue is very hyper.

2:03: Mao enjoyed the team competiton very much. Although in the end each skater skated alone, they could depend on each other. She wanted to present something new, a powerful tango.

2:27: Miki wanted to have fun together with the audience. She also wated to skate a Team Blue-like program for Team Blue's sake.

2:59: And that was a cool quad!

3:06: Captain Oda is instructing his soldiers team to have fun and enjoy the skating. Miki: "Our theme is "Enjoy!""

3:19: "Team Blue will do their best!!!" <insert warrior scream here >

3:31: And suddenly there was darkness... But this was not a power failure - it seems like Mao's trainer Makino turned the lights off by accident.

*summary of skater's performances*

5:38: "Ooh, he could have reached the moon with that axel!"

5:48: OMG, Takeshi's expression...! I wonder what he said to Nobu?

6:00: As it was getting close to Mao's turn her smile was replaced by the expression of a Worlds's Queen and she retreated into her own world to fully concentrate.

Oh, this is great. Every time I think this program can't get any better (The Ice, GPF EX...) it get's even better. And what a huge 2A!

8:31: I was really... nervous! But I think I appealed to the audience and the judges with my skating.

Announcement of Team Blue's victory... The little girst congratulate Miki on the victory!

8:51: "Three, two, one... Team Blue RULEZ, yeah!!!"

Mao wants to skate her best at 4CC and Worlds, which are getting closer. And the whole team aims for the Olympics in Vancouver. :thimbsup:

The commentators liked the team competition and are happy that Miki seems to have recovered from her injury at Nationals.

...And now it's time for me to sleep.

Okami wrote:

Wow! Thank you, Nanae! This was such an amazing video.

A summary of sorts (I'm falling asleep as I write ):

0:55: "Team China! You're Team China!" - Nobu invented a new name for Team Red, probably because their jackets are red-gold, just like the Chinese Olympic Team. Team Blue = Team Japan (white collars and red lines).

1:20: As the competition took place in Nagoya, a lot of local people came to cheer for the Nagoya skaters - Mao and Miki.

1:44: What is Nobu doing to Kozu?!

1:53: The commentator says that Team Red with Mao and Yukari is the calm one, while Team Blue is very hyper.

2:03: Mao enjoyed the team competiton very much. Although in the end each skater skated alone, they could depend on each other. She wanted to present something new, a powerful tango.

2:27: Miki wanted to have fun together with the audience. She also wated to skate a Team Blue-like program for Team Blue's sake.

2:59: And that was a cool quad!

3:06: Captain Oda is instructing his soldiers team to have fun and enjoy the skating. Miki: "Our theme is "Enjoy!""

3:19: "Team Blue will do their best!!!" >

3:31: And suddenly there was darkness... But this was not a power failure - it seems like Mao's trainer Makino turned the lights off by accident.

*summary of skater's performances*

5:38: "Ooh, he could have reached the moon with that axel!"

5:48: OMG, Takeshi's expression...! I wonder what he said to Nobu?

6:00: As it was getting close to Mao's turn her smile was replaced by the expression of a Worlds's Queen and she retreated into her own world to fully concentrate.

Oh, this is great. Every time I think this program can't get any better (The Ice, GPF EX...) it get's even better. And what a huge 2A!

8:31: I was really... nervous! But I think I appealed to the audience and the judges with my skating.

Announcement of Team Blue's victory... The little girst congratulate Miki on the victory!

8:51: "Three, two, one... Team Blue RULEZ, yeah!!!"

Mao wants to skate her best at 4CC and Worlds, which are getting closer. And the whole team aims for the Olympics in Vancouver. :thimbsup:

The commentators liked the team competition and are happy that Miki seems to have recovered from her injury at Nationals.

...And now it's time for me to sleep.

Ohh! Thank you so much! I always enjoy those kind of competitions!! it's sooo funny

this is a cute compilation of clips in the kiss n cry and backstage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-he6dO2LqAY
Any translation of the funny parts? Thanks =D!

I'll try to trnslate it tomorrow or on Friday! I'm sorry for such a delay, I'm really busy with my classes recently.

I wonder if any native speaker could help me with this part, though:
5:34-5:44
It's too fast for me! I'm not sure if I hear the vowels right.