It has been a long time since any official announcement or updates about Yuri!!! on ICE the movie: ICE ADOLESCENCE, the upcoming sequel film to the hit anime of 2016, were made public. A few days ago, on the dedicated Yuri!!! on ICE website, the production committee declared the film would be pushed back to an undisclosed future date. Supposedly, when first announced in 2017 they were planning on having the film out in theaters this year but after an extended period of radio silence, some fans were even worried the film was softly canceled. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case.

In the production committee's own words, they want to 'scale up the content more than originally planned.' Whether this was the only issue or other factors the team can't discuss came into play, at the very least even though we have to wait longer ICE ADOLESCENCE may be better than we hoped! Sayo Yamamoto, director of the series as well as the excellent The Woman Named Fujiko Mine and Michiko & Hatachin, has never let us down – but with the extra time and hopefully film level animation quality, this film's likely going to be special. Here's hoping we'll see a 2020 or 2021 release at the latest.

When it comes to surprises, Yuri!!! on ICE might have been the biggest of the decade. No one could have anticipated a figure skating anime, much less the figure skating anime taking the world by storm. While Japan's had a more public appreciation for figure skating than the west with several Olympic gold medal skaters coming from the country, the show probably single-handedly made the sport more popular in other parts of the world. I hope by the time ICE ADOLESCENCE finally comes out, it won't be too late. I imagine people will be excited to come back to the series, but by 2020 or 2021 the audience couldn't be blamed for moving on.

Yuri on ICE!!! the movie: ICE ADOLESCENCE was delayed, and will come out at an unannounced future date.