since mao, japanese ladies have been subject to harsher scoring standards than their international peers, constantly getting docked for their flaws (which, fair), but very rarely if ever getting fully rewarded for their strengths (which is infuriating)

you have someone like rika who is so well rounded with no glaring weaknesses and some of the highest technical difficulty in the field and it's met by international judges with little more than a shrug. she has to be perfect to sniff the podium despite being objectively better

in most quantifiable aspects of skating than the peers who regularly score above her. you have kaori who has some of the strongest basics in the entire field, is an incredible performer most of the time, has absolutely gorgeous triple jumps, yet all of these qualities are ignored

because she has a flutz (like half the ladies field lol including many of the ladies who regularly score ahead of her) and is lacking traditional ballet training. it's honestly infuriating. 'well it would be better if they were more consistent' man i saw KO get massive scores

all of last quad despite being inconsistent as all hell, inconsistency is just an excuse, the problem is JSF and its CONSISTENT unwillingness to throw its support behind its ladies and this has been a problem for OVER A DECADE NOW. when you have someone like rika who is doing

everything right and it's still not enough it's just jfkdlasjflksajkfas JSF I WILL FIGHT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe consistency wouldn't be such an issue if the japanese ladies felt they had a fed who backed them up at all.......