MAPPA Confirms ‘Yuri!!! on Ice the Movie: Ice Adolescence’ Is Canceled!

Remember Yuri!!! on Ice? The ice-skating anime series was a big hit back in 2016, as it was praised for its aesthetical approach, character development, the depiction of ice skating (which was praised even by professionals!), anxiety, as well as homosexuality. And while the original anime series had only 12 episodes and one OVA, it is still dearly remembered by many fans as one of MAPPA’s boldest outings. The series was streamed internationally by Crunchyroll, which enabled it to become globally popular.
The series was created by Sayo Yamamoto and Mitsurō Kubo, who co-wrote the series with Yamamoto serving as co-director as well. If you remember, back in April 2017, an anime movie sequel was announced at the Yuri!!! on Stage exhibition event, but it is 2024 and the movie has not premiered yet. Recently, MAPPA issued a statement confirming the sad news that the planned Yuri!!! on Ice the Movie: Ice Adolescence has been officially canceled!
It is strange for an anime movie to be in developmental hell for seven years; this might not be strange in Hollywood, but anime works are rarely on hold for so long. This usually means that a project is either canceled or is facing some serious trouble. While the fans had hoped for the latter in this case, MAPPA confirmed that the former was the cause in this case:
The exact reason, as you can see, has not been revealed, but the original crew members left MAPPA and have worked on numerous other projects in the meantime, so this could definitely be one of the reasons why MAPPA ultimately decided to abandon the project; with the main creative minds behind the movie gone, creating something new would ultimately ruing the final product and MAPPA was probably not ready to take such a risk without the original creators.
The series itself has been summarized as follows:
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!
We really don’t know what the movie would have looked like and how deep it would go in terms of character development and evolution, but we do know that we would have seen the characters compete at the Winter Olympics, which makes the cancellation news even sadder. Before, a teaser trailer focusing on a young Victor at the Olympics was also released, and that is, sadly, all that we are going to see from the canceled movie. Here is the trailer for you:
The movie probably would have been as beautiful as you’d expect, and we’re sad to confirm its cancellation. Be sure to keep following us, though, as we are going to bring you all any potential updates related to the series and its future!
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!