Meet the 'fanyus,' the passionate yet chaotic force behind Yuzuru Hanyu

Casual fans of Yuzuru Hanyu know what to expect when the figure skating star steps onto the ice.

There will be grace, technique, no shortage of gravity-defying jumps and — of course, under normal circumstances — hundreds of Winnie the Pooh toys and bouquets thrown out to be collected and eventually donated to local hospitals and charities.

But what the average TV viewer may not be aware of is the vast global fandom that has developed around the Miyagi Prefecture native, with supporters cheering on their hero and muse with thousands of social media posts consisting of everything from strings of heart emojis to exquisitely detailed fan art.

Known as “Fanyus,” the 27-year-old’s most fervent supporters have forever changed the way figure skating is appreciated in the internet era, just as Hanyu himself continues to redefine the sport with his artistry and athletic ability.

Yet the diverse nature of the community centered around Hanyu — formed at the confluence of sports and popular culture — also gives rise to unique conflicts that highlight the challenges of fandom in the internet era, when disparate communities can suddenly be brought together by the most unlikely of forces.

“The thing that sets him apart from other skaters is his skill, but (also) in terms of popular cultural cachet,” fandom studies expert Dr. Lori Morimoto told the Japan Times. “The fact that he plays with popular culture in his performances, and his routines tend to be very stylized.”

According to Morimoto, Hanyu’s “Seimei” program — featuring a costume inspired by natural philosopher Abe no Seimei and with music taken from the soundtrack of the film “Onmyoji” — struck a chord among not only figure skating fans but those of Asian popular culture when he debuted it in the 2015-16 season.

“There's this kind of turn towards a sort of ethnic identity that we've seen with different skaters,” Morimoto said. "But that specific fan cultural thing — that would be recognized by a very sort of select slice of ice skating aficionados — I had never seen that before.

“And I just thought, my first reaction was ‘this is the best thing I've ever seen.’”

Hanyu’s long period atop the world rankings between 2012 and 2018 resulted in near-constant exposure in Japanese media, drawing those with even just a passing interest in figure skating into his orbit and creating legions of new fans.

“Seeing him on TV shows and commercials and also all the magazines, that kind of introduced me into this figure skating fandom,” Tokyo-based writer and translator Maria-Laura Mitsuoka said.

One year after “Seimei” rocked fans, another shockwave arrived in the form of “Yuri On Ice,” the figure-skating anime that became a global sensation and attracted a new community of fans to the sport.

Not only were the show’s fans able to transfer their interest in fictional skater Yuri Katsuki to real-life skaters such as Hanyu (whose resemblance to Katsuki has not gone unnoticed), but they also brought their own methods of participatory fandom such as art, written fiction and short videos known as fan edits.

“No other figure skater before had so many people who painted them or who produced other kinds of art,” Mitsuoka said. “I think that Yuzuru’s managed not just to rule the sports world inside his fandom, but also other parts of the fandom like art and literature.”

The mid-2010s rise of K-Pop fandom, whose demographics overlap with that of anime fandom, further influenced the way Hanyu’s fans interacted with each other and the figure skating community at large — especially as boy band BTS rose to global superstardom and inspired its infamous “army” of loyal superfans.

Tweets featuring photos or videos of the skater, which often include hashtags of his name in English and Japanese, are liked and retweeted hundreds or even thousands of times. But the number of fans participating in this activity isn’t always clear: Like K-Pop fans who coordinate intricate campaigns to drive up views and plays of their favorite artists’ content, some Fanyus are known to create multiple accounts in order to increase the engagement of tweets and generate excitement among their peers.

“I think this is one kind of support they try to show,” Mitsuoka said. “It's fun. And you can kind of dive into your own fan world and be with other people who think the same and kind of cut out all the other things ... and all the other problems.”

But if retweeting Fanyu-centered content is an act of devotion and purification — not unlike a Buddhist monk reciting a sutra — there is also a darker side of the community that can manifest in problematic outbursts.

While the majority of Fanyus adhere to a policy of positive support for their idol, a vocal minority has become infamous for disruptive activity online, whether directed toward fans of other skaters, journalists who they believe have unfairly criticized Hanyu’s performances or even each other.

“There are clashes between real figure skating fans who are kind of objective, and other people who are kind of admiring Yuzu as a god,” Mitsuoka said. “Because there are those who say, ‘No, everything he’s doing is 120% perfect,’ and other people who are saying ‘No, if you’re objective, then this time, Nathan Chen was better.’”

Another frequent target of Fanyu ire is the International Skating Union, which is often accused of stacking the deck against Hanyu by underscoring his routines and boosting the scores of American rival Chen.

“If one of (the skaters) is sort of being perceived to be promoted or exalted above the others, and the fans think that their skater is being shortchanged, it invokes those feelings of protectiveness,” Morimoto said.

As social media users mounted a boycott of the federation’s 2020 award ceremony, Hanyu himself urged viewers to watch the event in a video posted by the ISU, a rare — if indirect — acknowledgement of his fandom’s activities.

Mitsuoka says she’s among a growing number of fans who are both frustrated by the level of aggression within the community and aware of how difficult it will be to dial back.

“I feel very sorry, as a fan of Yuzu, because I don't have the feeling that we're supporting him,” she said. “I just have a feeling that there are even more problems, or that he has to take responsibility for problems that are caused by his fans. I don't really like that and I know many other people who think the same.

“I was (in the) BTS Army, I was very passionate. But as I became older, I became more objective. I think this clashing is very exhausting, and I want to put my energy into different things, but try telling that to a 13 year old.”

In explaining the roots of conflicts within the Fanyu community, Morimoto invokes the concept of “contact zones” — spaces where “cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other” — first introduced in 1991 by scholar Mary Louise Pratt.

“Somebody coming from American figure skating fandom, and somebody coming from Japanese figure skating fandom to the contact zone are oftentimes bringing quite different cultural baggage to the table,” Morimoto said. “Just because we share something in common, just because we have this shared interest, does not mean we understand it in the same way.”

Ironically, it is Hanyu’s ability to draw fans from a wide variety of backgrounds — from different cultures, societies and communities — that results in such a contact zone, amplified by the immediacy of the internet and imperfect tools of communication such as automatic translation features found on many websites and platforms.

“The more interesting story to me is the fact that it's not just fandom that's communicating this way,” Morimoto said. “Globally, in every aspect of our lives, if we're online, this is how we're understanding the rest of the world imperfectly, and we don't have the space to learn about other cultures before we’re engaging with them.

“On the one hand, (social media) brings you into contact with people you might never have engaged with otherwise. But the flip side of that is always going to be you're coming into contact with people you might never have engaged with, and you don't know how to do it.”

But while contact zones can seem — and often are — messy at times, Morimoto sees signs of hope in a growing generation of fans who are increasingly aware of — if not literate in — transculturalism, and subsequently more willing to listen.

“There's more of an understanding that ‘There are things going on here that I don't get.’ Not everybody, but I think especially people who are acting in good faith, are more quick to recognize that than they used to be,” she said.

“I think the best we can do is just tell people (that) you don't know everything. You may think you understand what's going on, but you're missing things. And hopefully it'll trickle down to younger people at some point.”

Mitsuoka, for her part, says she’s more cautious about who she shares her love of Hanyu with — dialing back her passion when she encounters someone with extreme views of the skater — but is determined to continue supporting him through thick and thin.

“I don't want like 10% of the fandom to destroy my passion for figure skating and for Yuzuru,” she said. “I hope that the fandom will be more peaceful, just for Yuzuru, because he's such a wonderful person and he deserves to have a wonderful fandom.”