Yuuko Nishigori

**Yuuko Nishigori** (西郡 優子, *Nishigōri Yūko*) is a childhood friend of Yuuri Katsuki and Takeshi Nishigori (whom she is married to) and the mother of Axel, Lutz, and Loop Nishigori.

## Appearance

   Yuuko has reddish-brown hair that she wears in a short, messy ponytail with her fringe swept to the right of her head along with two strands of her hair in the front, large chestnut-brown eyes and a short and slender frame.

She is first seen wearing a high-collared white jacket with a hot pink turtle neck sweater underneath. Accompanying these are black shorts with dark leggings, black leg warmers and black/hot pink colored sneakers.

As a young girl, Yuuko's hair was longer and she wore a ribbon to hold up her ponytail.

## Personality

Yuuko has a very colorful personality and is extremely bubbly. She is also a very supportive person, standing up for Yuuri Katsuki when they were younger, and then encouraging both Yuuri and Yuri to do well. Yuuko is a caring parent, trying her best to properly educate her triplets to sleep early, but her parenting efforts rarely match her intent and she is often frustrated by their behavior.

Yuuko has been very passionate about figure skating ever since she was young. Though she no longer skates competitively herself, her love for the sport is still clearly evident; she is a huge fan of Victor Nikiforov, and her daughters are all named after skating jumps.

## Background

As children, Yuuko often skated with Yuuri Katsuki and Takeshi Nishigori where she was given the nickname of "Madonna" due to being the best female skater in her rink. Yuuko is also a great admirer of Victor Nikiforov and was the one to introduce Yuuri to him, which led to Yuuri idolizing Victor himself. She and Yuuri would often copy Victor's techniques when skating together.

She now manages Ice Castle in Hasetsu where she is married to Takeshi and together they have triplet daughters named Axel, Lutz, and Loop.

## Relationships

### Takeshi Nishigori

Yuuko and Takeshi are childhood friends. When they were younger, Yuuko defended Yuuri Katsuki from Takeshi's teasing. She, Takeshi and Yuuri were always together.

Currently, Yuuko and Takeshi are married and have a set of triplet daughters together.

### Axel, Lutz, and Loop Nishigori

Axel, Lutz and Loop are Yuuko's triplet daughters who is often exasperated by their behavior of constantly being on social media, even going as far as secretly using her account to upload videos without her permission. She often reprimands them for staying up late or making noise late into the night, but these scoldings are rarely effective on the three, and Yuuko sometimes even joins the three of them in getting updates.

Yuuko is likely the one who induced the triplets' passion for figure skating.

### Yuuri Katsuki

Yuuko is Yuuri's childhood friend along with Takeshi Nishigori and she is the one who introduced Yuuri to Victor. Yuuko and Yuuri would often try to imitate Victor when practicing their skating together. Yuuko adored Yuuri's poodle and supported Yuuri's figure skating dreams. Yuuri held great admiration for her as a child. When Yuuri returns to Hasetsu, Yuuko insists on Yuuri calling her Yuu-chan instead of Yuuko-san, which Yuuri does (though he eventually settles for calling her Yuuko-chan). She often follows Yuuri's skating progress along with her family, whether it is watching him train, or spectating his competitions on television.

### Yuri Plisetsky

After following Victor to Japan, Yuri meets Yuuko and the two become friends. Yuuko is friendly and supportive towards Yuri, helping him train for the "Hot Springs on Ice" event and showing concern for him when he decides to leave Hasetsu after Yuuri Katsuki skates his program. Yuri and Yuuko periodically update each other on their current ongoings via text, though Yuri wondered at one point if Yuuko was helping him to spy on Yuuri and Victor.

Yuri refers to Yuuko as **Yuuko-chan** and she was one of the people whom Yuri dedicated his Barcelona GPF free skate to.

## Quotes

* *"I hope I can see you compete against Victor soon*." (to Yuuri Katsuki)
* *"How could you use my account without permission again?!"* (to the Nishigori triplets)
* *"I hope Victor will bring out a side of Yuuri-kun that we've never seen before."* (to Takeshi Nishigori about Yuuri)
* *"Everyone will hate you now for taking Victor away! (laughs) Ah sorry Yuuri, we're on your team!"* (to Yuuri)

## Etymology

**Yuuko** is an alternate transcription of **Yūko**.

* The name **Yuuko** means "excellence, superiority, gentleness" (優) (**yuu**) and "child" (子) (**ko**), which reflects on her kind personality despite her constantly scolding at her triplet daughters at time.
	+ Her name is written as **Yuko Nishigori** on Yuri Plisetsky's phone .
* Yuuko's surname **Nishigori** means "west" (西) (**nishi**) and "county/country, district" (郡) (**gori**).

## Trivia

* Yuuko is highly proficient at typing in English .
* On the official site, Yuuko is described as "the woman of Yuuri's dreams" [4][1].

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Yuri!!! on Ice* Episode 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Yuri!!! on Ice* Episode 4
3. ↑ *Yuri!!! on Ice Episode 2*