Marin Honda: “When it comes to competitions, my weaknesses tend to come to the forefront. It’s not that my confidence disappears, but I feel that way more than when I was younger.”
Marin Honda about start of the season.
source: nikkansports.com
On September 23d, at the Tokyo Figure Skating Championships, 22-year-old former World Junior Champion Marin Honda made her debut in this season with a short program (SP).
She skated to Alan Walker’s “Faded” and had the choreography created by Shae-Lynn Bourne, who she asked to depict her figure skating journey with light and shadow through this music.
As she glided onto the ice in an outfit with light blue and purple gradients, the audience cheered her on with “Ganba!” (a Japanese expression of encouragement). However, she stumbled during the opening triple salchow, followed by a triple toe loop, and a double axel turned into a single. In the final step sequence, she skated while receiving applause and remarked, “I think I was able to skate carefully until the end. Tomorrow, I hope to skate more confidently and give it my all without hesitation.”
Earlier this month, she played the role of the heroine Vivi in the first-ever ice show adaptation of the popular anime “One Piece on Ice.” Through extensive rehearsals, she ventured into a new realm of acting on ice, synchronizing her skating with lines. During this period, she also rediscovered the joy of figure skating. She noted, “When it comes to competitions, my weaknesses tend to come to the forefront. It’s not that my confidence disappears, but I feel that way more than when I was younger. Being able to become something other than myself and skate in front of everyone became an opportunity to regain some confidence.”
In her seventh senior season, one of her goals for this season is the Japanese Nationals at the end of the year. Although her SP performance at this competition was far from what she had hoped for, it was met with enthusiastic cheers from the audience. She expressed her gratitude, saying, “I’m thinking primarily about repaying the support from all those who have cheered for me like they did today through my skating. The Japanese NAtionals are the place I desire the most, so I want to earn my place there.
Marin Honda scored 83.73 points in the Free Skate, bringing her total score to 125.53 points. Starting from the 17th position after the short program (SP), she concluded her performance.
By the time she finished her program, she was in provisional 1st place and passing the first gate to her ultimate goal of participating in the Japanese Nationals at the end of the year in Nagano.
For her Free Skate, Honda chose “The Little Mermaid,” which she performed for the first time at this competition. Initially, she had considered continuing with her program from the previous season, but she explained, “I’ve known the movie since I was a child, and I’ve also watched recent live-action adaptations. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to imagine what kind of personal expression I could create by skating to this music.”
Her recent experience with the ice show “One Piece on Ice” played a significant role in her decision. While playing the role of the heroine Vivi in the show, she rediscovered the enjoyment of embodying a character. She noted, “There were some overlaps in playing the character of Ariel in this program.” During the show, she performed with lengthy lines of dialogue while skating. Even during the preparation for her current program, she naturally skated while saying the lyrics out loud. She smiled and said, “I thought that what I gained from ‘One Piece’ was really significant.”
In her performance, she executed a combination of a triple toe loop – double toe loop followed by a 3 toe loop. While she encountered some mistakes in the latter part of her routine, she expressed her gratitude to the audience by bringing her hands together in front of her chest at the end. She said, “I’m still far from my best in terms of elements and composition. In the Eastern Japan Championships, I’d like to aim for jumps that make the audience feel more at ease and are more in line with my 100% expression in both the technical and artistic aspects.”
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