World champion figure skater Yevgenia Medvedeva recently toured Japan, which makes plenty of sense.
Not only does the Russian excel in what has become a national sport in Japan, but she also is a lover of Japanese anime TV series.
On a trip through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, Medvedeva was invited to compete on a Japanese TV show. She danced in an outfit inspired by the 1990s anime series “Sailor Moon,” and said she played air hockey and had to balance on one leg, according to Russian media.
Medvedeva dressed as the “Sailor Moon” title character for exhibition skates in Japan the last two years. She was born in 1999, two years after the end of the “Sailor Moon” series.
Search “Medvedeva” on YouTube, and those two “Sailor Moon” performances rank Nos. 1 and 2 by view count with more than 2.5 million and 1.5 million, respectively.
Her love for the show is so great that it appears she can recite the lyrics to the opening theme, “Moonlight Densetsu,” upon request. The series aired in the U.S. on Cartoon Network’s “Toonami” afternoon block in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Medvedeva and other top skaters also follow the anime series, “Yuri!!! on Ice,” which has a figure skating theme.
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