I think the reason Yuri on Ice could get so popular was because of the time, care, effort, money, and indeed love put into its creation.
Because an important thing about YOI is that it’s not only popular in the western anime community right now - it’s also popular in Japan which is actually a huge surprise (even for the creators who really didn’t expect such a success).
And the reason this is so surprising is that Yuri on Ice is an original anime, meaning that it is not based on any manga or novel, it was crafted from the ground up for the sole sake of becoming an anime. And the thing about such anime is that, contrary to manga, novel or game adaptations they have no established fanbase. Which is also why many original anime don’t sell that well or have a tiny following and never get popular - because many many anime fans support and talk about the anime that are adaptations of mangas or other media that they already loved.
Original anime like Yuri on Ice meanwhile, at the beginning of airing have no fans whatsoever, start out as a completely clean slate and are expected to garner some minor attention in some niches, but not really much beyond that. They’re experiments, essentially, not meant to make large profits, simply hoping to break even.
And so far it looks like YOI will do far better than just breaking even. It was literally the most tweeted-about anime in the Fall 2016 season, with over 1.2 million tweets, which is twice as much as the second most popular anime this season and four times as much Haikyuu which is one of the most (if not, THE most) popular sports series in Japan right now.
And that is insane.
But do you know what all of that means? That a 12 episode anime which started out with no fanbase at all managed to make people fall in love with it in the short span of time of only 12 weeks (and in most cases, even sooner than that). In fact, it managed to become so popular that it seems that the authors changed the last episode to allow for a second season simply because enough people wanted it.
And I personally think that all of this shows that if you really love your work then so will your audience. If you really put effort and care into something, people will appreciate it. If you invest the necessary time and money to create something you consider great then everyone will be able to see its greatness.
And if you add to this the fact that Sayo Yamamoto, the director of YOI, literally spent years pitching her idea for a figure skating anime and was turned down again and again and again until she was finally given a chance to make her dream come true with the help of studio MAPPA and the cooperation of Kubo Mitsurou-sensei who herself loved figure skating and was excited to write a story around it then all of this becomes a story of perseverance. It turns into an example of why you should never give up.
Because in the end, your small, precious story which you shyly hold up in your hands, hoping that at least a few people will turn their eyes and look at it and maybe even enjoy it, may turn into a brightly shining, well-beloved and highly acclaimed worldwide phenomenon among the Japanese and international anime communities (and perhaps even beyond them, judging by the amount of people who say that Yuri on Ice was their first anime).
And as such, all of this illustrates perfectly how love breeds more love and how something that is created out of passion and genuine interest will receive the attention it deserves. Because when something is created with actual care, it shows. And in a world where our entertainment is all but pragmatically and automatically produced with little personal feelings involved, there might just be nothing better than feeling that the creators love and care for something as much as the fans do.
