<P> The relationship has also been criticized as unrealistic, with Yuri K. and Victor not receiving the homophobic abuse they would experience in real life . Others have remarked that some viewers might refuse to acknowledge the relationship because the homosexuality was not explicit . Although the "kiss" is obscured by Victor's arm, it is implicit . Cecilia D'Anastasio of Kotaku wondered why the "kiss" was blocked when other anime, such as Shin Sekai Yori, had depicted gay kisses . </P> <P> Wolf of Anime UK News originally said of the scene that: "I'm 99.999% sure the kiss did occur, but that 0.001% is horribly getting to me . I don't want to go by what everyone else sees--I want to see what is actually going on, and share in the reaction of the characters at the same time as them". However, by the twelfth episode, he said that the scene in which Victor cries was the proof he wanted: </P> <P> "If the kiss is the initial spark, and the rings the visible sign of love, then the tears are proof that you don't want it to end . I have been saying all the time that what I wanted was text rather than subtext--but in end, I think the subtext did actually pay off ." </P> <P> In January 2017 the Hallmark Channel announced the release of a TV movie, Love on Ice, about the relationship between a female figure skater in a career slump and her new male coach . It was seen by some fans of Yuri on Ice as plagiarism due to plot similarities, and Hallmark was accused of trying to "straightwash" the relationship between Yuri Katsuki and Victor Nikiforov . Fans of Yuri on Ice responded to Love on Ice by posting a Change.org petition demanding an explanation of the similarities between the two stories and hijacking Love on Ice's IMDb page to contain the plot summary of Yuri on Ice . The similarity between the stories is apparently coincidental, since Love on Ice began filming in early November 2016 (about a month after Yuri on Ice began broadcasting). According to Hallmark, no one involved in the making of Love on Ice had heard of Yuri on Ice . Mitsurō Kubo posted on Twitter that she believed the similarities to be a coincidence, and the creator of the Change.org petition acknowledged that Love on Ice was not plagiarism . </P>

Who are yuri on ice characters based on