Japan Super Challenge 2008

"Japan Super Challenge 2008"

DATE: 01/11/2008(FRI) 19:00
Place: Nihon Gaishi Arena (Aichi-pref. Japan)

Official site in Japanese
http://tokai-tv.com/event/jsc2008/index.html

Guest: Ilia Kulik，Evgeni Plushenko, Shizuka Arakawa, Elena Leonova & Andrei Khvalko

Members:
Daisuke Takahashi, Yasuharu Nanri, Kensuke Nakaniwa, Takashiko Kozuka
Miki Ando, Mao Asada, Yukari Nakano, Fumie Suguri, Mai Asada

This show will be on air at Saturday Jan. 12, 2007 at Fuji TV broadcast.

According to Fuji and Tokai TV sites, The members for each teams was announced.

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/0112figure/index.html
http://tokai-tv.com/jsc2008/

Members:
*Team ARTIST
Nana Takeda, Uzuru Hanyu, Rumi Suizu, Miki Ando, Yukari Nakano
Daisuke Takahashi, Kensuke Nakaniwa

*Team DREAM
Mao Asada, Mai Asada, Sari Roanna Oshikawa, Akiko Suzuki
Yasuharu Nanri、Takahiko Kozuka、Akio Sasaki

Guest: Ilia Kulik，Evgeni Plushenko, Shizuka Arakawa, Elena Leonova & Andrei Khvalko

Special Judges
Midori Ito, Takeshi Honda

Will Daisuke do new exhibition?
Yey, Akio Sasaki will attend this Gala!

I like the idea of teams!!!

just a question: does Takeshi Honda still skate???

Thanks Leode!
I'm looking forward to seeing him on TV this Saturday. (I hope this time my recorder will work properly... )

anne-marie wrote:

just a question: does Takeshi Honda still skate???

Now Takeshi skates as a professional skater in Japan. And also he occasionally coaches Dai-chan to improve his jumps.

Momoko wrote:

I like the idea of teams!!!

Yay!!

Leode wrote:

Will Daisuke do new exhibition?

Do you mean this?? It was wrote in a magazine that he was thinking to make one more EX program because Bachelorette wasn't suite for skating last at shows. I think it means he wants to have more spectacular one.
But Leode, I think you would be sad if so. You love Bachelorette so much.


BTW I know it isn't worth to talk among his fans but I'd like to ask you Leode. Do you think Dai-chan will add some alterations to Romeo & Juliet after JSF manager's 2 times suggestion?
(And I think it was very stupid that JSF manager said such thing in public!! )

Thanks for the info Leode!
I wish Akiko had been in the Team Artist, then it'd have been more or less my Japanese "dream team"! LOL

miyu wrote:

BTW I know it isn't worth to talk among his fans but I'd like to ask you Leode. Do you think Dai-chan will add some alterations to Romeo & Juliet after JSF manager's 2 times suggestion?
(And I think it was very stupid that JSF manager said such thing in public!! )

But now you got me curious... do you mind sharing what he said? (since it's public anyway)

Thank you Leode!
I wanted Akiko had a same team with Daisuke, too!

Did anyone went there?

Hi. I'm sorry I made you confused, MissC.

The story is that JSF figure skating manager Junko Hiranuma spoke to media after GPF and JNC(Now I'm not sure enough she spoke again at JNF after I carefully read the article.) refering the problems of Dai-chan's R&J.

She said: (I'm sorry I can't make it short.... )

"I think he needed more variation of expression in his 4.5 minutes program. Takahashi has excellent originality by his nature. But the people who have seen his performances have accustomed to his character because Phantom and Romeo looks similar.
In terms of elements, this time the softness stood out too much in steps. I wanted the intensity too. I concerned with the similarity between Cist and Slst. Regarding spins, there were many same combinations. He did very low sit spins in all of 3 spins. Even if it is his speciality, it can't show up well enough when he does it too many times. It is required some more creative thinking in the way how he shows it. "

"Men's battle is so hard. The level is really high. I'm demanding him a lot of thing so severely.....
He has ability. So it depends on the strategy. It is good for him if he can understand what is weak now. He can improve more and more."

"There still remains the problem which he has to reconsider the struacture of the program. Regarding spins he did sit spins at all of his. The Slst and Cist looked similar each other. I've heard the judges in the world had the impression that the program lacked variation of expression."



What I can't understand is why she had to spoke it to media not to Dai-chan and Nikolai directly..... And I think she is too demanding. Dai-chan has already tried so many things so far and did his best each time....
So I'm wondering they will add some alteration into R&J. But I know what we have to do is " Just trust him!!!".

Go Dai-chan!!!

Quote :

But I know what we have to do is " Just trust him!!!".

I completely agree with you here miyu! And thank you for your translation of the Japanese figure skating manager's comments. They really shocked me. Does something like this ever need to be addressed publicly by a federation? It seems a bit demoralizing to the skater as well as the national team.

What we must remember about Daisuke's LP is that despite any imperfections it may have, it still has received some of the highest scores overall this season. Daisuke beat two competitors with it at SA and NHK Trophy and received second place PCS marks and first place TES scores at the Grand Prix Final with it. This is hardly terrible at all. If the Japanese figure skating manager feels that Daisuke has so many things to improve on for this program, then she is also implying that all the many competitors below him have even more flaws then he does to correct in their programs which is very unfair in my opinion. And I agree with you miyu that it would have been more classy and effective if she had addressed this issue with Daisuke and Morosov directly in the first place so that they can fix it earlier instead of perhaps creating unneccessary drama by bringing it up in the media.

Thank you miyu for your translation.

i think JSF menager's comment is not completely wrong for contents. In this forum we've already talked about some of these elements... more intensity during the program... Cist and Sist so similar also with the same music...
So, even if I can understand some comments, I really don't understand why she needed to tell this to media. Totally tactlessness.
Something like "He has ability. It is good for him if he can understand what is weak now. He can improve more and more" could be sufficent and with more class.
IMO she has to substain Japanese skaters in front of press and I agree with miyu and UMgal: she could tell this directly to Daisuke and Morozov... I hope she did this!
BTW I think she said this because she knows Daisuke's potential and she's waiting for a big result!

I'm sure Daisuke and Morozov understood her words in the right way and they didn't get demoralized!

And yes... "Just trust him!"

GO DAISUKE!!!

Hi, DTFF members!!
Thanks for your comments! I'd like to thank you all and Daisuke!!
After watched today's TV program for the show, Daisuke was really great at his performance "Swan Lake"!
And I'm glad to see that he always relaxed and smiled to everyone. Pls check it on members only topic. Don't miss it!

UMgal wrote:

If the Japanese figure skating manager feels that Daisuke has so many things to improve on for this program, then she is also implying that all the many competitors below him have even more flaws then he does to correct in their programs which is very unfair in my opinion.

I totally agree with you, UMgal. No matter what they say, Daisuke always knows what he needs for the perfect performance.

Thank you for posting that, miyu.

I totally agree with all of you that she should not have said that publicly. That wasn't very smart of her.

But then I also agree with most of what she said about R&J... It's not really that it's a bad program "per se", but Dai can do so much better and be much more original and unique, as he's already shown us with Swan Lake, Roxanne, Nyah, Bachelorette, Nocturne, etc. (just to name a few)
Hopefully he can improve the program before Worlds.

Dai-chan, ganbare!!

Thank you for translation, miyu

OMG...
I think her comments are not wrong, and I agree to some parts of it though, I agree that why she said that in public... she could just told Daichan and Nikolai.

Quote :

But I know what we have to do is " Just trust him!!!".

Yes ITA!!!

Anyway I saw today's broadcast, Daisuke was really burn up at on-ice, and so cute at off-ice!
I think Swan Lake is real masterpiece and Daichan got more relaxing and confidence of this program.
It was really great!

the Japanese figure skating manager's comments ARE VERY STERN; certainly a perfectionnist!!! easy to say , difficult to do!
Nobody is perfect.
but it is not fair for Daisuke to tell that in public instead of encouraging him: she should quote that figure skating is difficult, that he has worked and improved a lot ,and what he is doing now is enough to put him between the top skaters on a world podium.