Karatsu’s mayor with the tourists at the birthday celebration
The main character of popular figure skating anime Yuri!!! On Ice, Yūri Katsuki, celebrated his birthday on the 29th of November. Yūri’s hometown in the anime, Hasetsu, is based on the city of Karatsu from the Saga Prefecture. Karatsu has embraced the fandom with multiple tourism campaigns ever since the anime was aired. The mayor of Karatsu attended a scheduled pilgrimage tour to not only celebrate the character’s birthday, but also to the over 40,000 overseas tourists the tours have brought to the city so far, notably thanks to the popularity of the anime.
During the tour, the mayor of Karatsu made a special announcement that Yūri Katsuki is now an official ambassador of the city.
In addition to well-wishes from fans across all social media platforms with messages and fan art, Yūri’s other well-wishers include the anime’s official Twitter account, series co-creator and original character designer Mitsurou Kubo, Yūri Katsuki’s voice actor Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Victor Nikiforov voice actor Junichi Suwabe, Sara Crispino’s voice actress Marika Minase, figure production company MegaHouse, and Good Smile Company’s Kaho-tan.
今日は、勝生勇利くんのお誕生日〜っ♪
おめでとう〜っ☆
1年前にスタジオでお祝いした時の写真を見つけました。
懐かしい〜っ！1年経った今でも、色々と出演させて頂けてるって幸せだなぁと実感しております。
今週末のサンリオピューロランドコラボもお楽しみに♪#yurionice pic.twitter.com/3MVnyUPoWE— SETマネージャー 湊 (@hemp_m) November 28, 2017
Yūri Katsuki’s voice actor Toshiyuki Toyonaga wishing the character a happy birthday
Happy birthday 勝生勇利さん!!! Now I am home, Please wait for new celebration illustration…(This illustration was drawn before the start of broadcasting in 2016) pic.twitter.com/c2plWzoHX3
— KUBO!!! (@kubo_3260_yuri) November 28, 2017
Congratulatory message by series co-creator and original character designer Mitsurou Kubo
Source: Anime News Network, Nijimen, Twitter
