The Yuri!!! on Ice Movie is Cancelled

Seven years after its announcement, the Yuri!!! on Ice anime film, Yuri!!! on Ice the movie : Ice Adolescence, has been cancelled. 

The figure skating title’s production committee and animation production studio MAPPA said in an official statement, “We deeply apologize for not being to meet the expectations of all those who have been waiting and have continued to support us throughout these years.

“The production committee and staff have been in constant discussions to create and deliver the movie, but due to various circumstances, we have had to make the difficult decision to stop the production.”

The announcement of a Yuri on Ice!!! movie was made in April 2017, a few months after the end of the Fall 2016 Yuri on Ice!!! TV anime. A delay was announced in 2019, and an update in 2020 stated that production was still ongoing. The teaser trailer indicated that the movie would be a prequel about a 17-year old Viktor Nikiforov, one of the main characters of the TV series.

During the multi-year stretch between the series’s conclusion and the movie’s cancellation, the series’ animation producers Fuuko Noda and Takahiro Ogawa, who were likely the animation producers for the movie as well, could be found in the credits of more than a few other productions. Noda was animation producer on shows like Garo: Vanishing Line, Dorohedoro, Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather, Mr Love: Queen’s Choice, The Gymnastics Samurai, The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace, and the 2023 film Maboroshi. Furthermore, she recently left MAPPA, where she had also been production head, and is now an animation producer at planning and production company CHOCOLATE Inc. 

Meanwhile, the titles Ogawa was involved with include Kakegurui‘s second season, Listeners, Zombie Land Saga, Dance, Dance, Danseur, Kakegurui Twin, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, and Winter 2024’s Bucchigiri?!. His latest animation producer credit is on the recently announced Zenshuu.

As for Yuri on Ice!!! director and story composer Sayo Yamamoto (Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine director), her 2017 to 2023 output has been limited to the openings for Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul (storyboards and unit direction) and Kakegurui (storyboard) and the OVA SEX: Prologue (direction).

Other core staff members of the Yuri on Ice!!! series included Tadashi Hiramatsu (Jujutsu Kaisen, His and Her Circumstances) as character designer, manga artist Mitsuro Kubo as draft writer and original character designer, and Jun Shishido (Attack on Titan Final Season) as chief episode director. Aside from Yamamoto, Hiramatsu and Kubo’s names were also part of the movie’s credits.

Crunchyroll describes Yuri on Ice!!! as:

Yuri Katsuki carried the hope of all Japan on his shoulders in the Figure Skating Grand Prix, but suffered a crushing defeat in the finals. He returned to his hometown in Kyushu and hid away in his family’s home, half wanting to continue skating and half wanting to retire. That was when the five-time consecutive world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly showed up with his teammate, Yuri Plisetsky, a young skater starting to surpass his seniors. And so the two Yuris and the Russian champion Viktor set out to compete in a Grand Prix like none the world has ever seen!

Update: Added that Noda was MAPPA’s head of production, and that she is now with CHOCOLATE Inc.

Update 2: The article originally described Zenshu as a movie. This has been corrected.

Source: @yurionice_PR