“YURI!!! on ICE: ICE ADOLESCENCE” Officially Cancelled

On some level, I think we all knew this was coming. Still, after years of absolutely no news, I wanted to hope that we would eventually see Ice Adolescence, the film prequel to the immensely popular Yuri!!! on Ice anime. Sadly, it was announced today on official channels that the project has been cancelled.

The 12-episode series ended with an optimistic “see you next level”, implying a second season, a film, or some other sort of continuation. Yuri!!! on Ice: Ice Adolescence was originally announced all the way back in 2017. News trickled out for about a year or so after – a teaser poster, the premise. A teaser trailer was actually screened in 2019, indicating that there had been some level of production completed. In late 2020, the trailer was released to the public accompanying an announcement that they were definitely still working on the film.

But alas, it’s all for naught. The official PR account for the series tweeted late last night that the project had officially been cancelled.

Thank you very much for always supporting “YURI!!! on ICE”. 

Regarding the postponed release of “YURI!!! on ICE the movie: ICE ADOLESCENCE”, we have come to the decision to unfortunately cancel its production.

We deeply apologize for not being able to meet the expectations of all those who have been waiting and continued to support us throughout these years.

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

We sincerely apologize to everyone who has been anticipating its release and thank you once again for your continued support.

On the one hand, it’s good to finally have confirmation. This project was announced years ago, and our ears were to the ground for any drip of news about it ever since. There was a burst of news for a while, and then a long stretch of absolutely nothing. It’s been more than three years since we heard anything at all.

On the other hand, this feels like a huge slap in the face to the large, international fanbase who made this series the phenomenon that it was. I know this anecdotal and not evidential, but Yuri!!! on Ice is what finally got me to start watching anime. This series exploded when it aired back in 2016. I’ve never seen a series break containment quite like this before, much less one about figure skating centered around a gay romance. Real-life Olympic athletes were praising the show.

Fans are struggling to understand how this series, which had such popularity and critical acclaim, can have been allowed to dwindle silently into the background and disappear with a whimper. What happened behind the scenes to cause the studio to abandon a franchise that basically put MAPPA on the map?

Did the studio just overload itself, taking on huge titles like Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man, among others? Did the Russian doping scandal and subsequent banning of Russian figure skaters from international competition play a role? Or was it just that despite its worldwide popularity, the little figure skating anime that could did not actually generate that much money for the studio that animated it?

We’ll likely never truly know how this got fumbled so badly, but this was truly devastating news to wake up to. I don’t even know if there’s a chance this could be sold to a different studio. After so many years, would another studio even want to take this on? Then again, right now would be the best time to do that, as fans are up in arms.

I hope you’ll all join me in pouring one out for Yuri!!! on Ice, and cross your fingers that maybe, potentially, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of it.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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