12 Reasons to Watch, Re-Watch, and Love Yuri on Ice

10. The Fandom

Yuri on Ice didn’t even start airing until the very end of 2016, with the final episode originally airing on Dec. 21. According to Tumblr Fandometrics, it still became the fourth-most-popular anime of 2016, and it won Crunchyroll’s anime of the year award, as you can see in the above video.

You can find fanart everywhere, from Twitter to Tumblr, and naturally, there’s also plenty of fanfiction to be found, exploring everything from alternate universes to just meditating on the characters and diving deep into their psyches. Even though there hasn’t been a new episode since December, the fans just keep on keeping on with their love of Yuri, Victor, Yuri/Victor (Victuuri/Viktuuri, for the uninitiated), and everyone else on the show.

In fact, actual professional figure skaters have also emerged as fans of the show. Most prominent among them would probably be Johnny Weir, an American skater, who spoke to Crunchyroll about how much he loves the show and how it reminds him of his career — down to the use of flower crowns and all of the dedication needed to succeed on the world stage. However, other skaters like Joe Johnson even have references to the show in their Twitter profiles; his current picture actually has him drawn in the show’s style and referring to none other than Jean-Jacques Leroy.