It's easy to think that a lighthearted series like Yuri!!! on Ice would have cast who are all 100% likable. Well...
- Some fans' opinions of Victor took a one-eighty after Episode 3 aired because of the way he treats Yurio. While some viewers consider the contest fair, others believe that Victor, deliberately or not, rigged the entire thing to ensure that Yuri would win by giving Yurio the harder theme and not giving enough concrete advice. This came off to a lot of fans as selfishly dismissing a fifteen-year-old he'd made a promise to for the sake of getting what he wanted: inspiration for his own routines through working with Yuri, landing him squarely in asshole territory (although he did keep his promise to Yurio, since the agreement was that he would choreograph a program for him, not to be his coach). A further subset of fans thinks that while he may have been biased, there's still Character Development potential in him and that his good qualities outweigh his bad ones.
- This quickly died down after the revelations in Episode 10 wherein Victor has been in love with Yuri this whole time, having fallen for him during their Forgotten First Meeting at last year's Grand Prix banquet and therefore had no ulterior motives other than to pursue his affections for Yuri (which are eventually reciprocated) and fulfilling Yuri's request of him to become his coach. And as mentioned above, Victor already delivered on his promise with Yurio and was not obligated to become Yurio's coach in the first place.
- Everyone's got an opinion about Christophe — either he's sexy and his routines make for great comic relief, or he's creepy as hell. Also consider how broken the fandom is over how much of the animation budget for Episode 6 went solely to his ass. This has mostly died down after Episode 10 shows him in a better light as Victor's friend. The reveal about the banquet also made Christophe grabbing Yuri's butt a bit less creepy. It's nothing after naked pole-dancing together, and Christophe likely had a mistaken idea about their friendship from that.
- J.J. — you have a portion of fans who find his character obnoxiously narcissistic and see him as little more than a Jerkass, while others enjoy his Awesome Ego and appreciate him for being the antithesis of a stereotypical apologetic Canadian. Similar to Episode 10 for Christophe, Episode 11 made him more well-received by fans.
- For a side character, Anya can be pretty divisive between fans who think Georgi is too good for her and that she's a bitch, and fans who think she is a strong girl for going after the one she loves and not having to owe Georgi anything due to his grief over their break-up. For what it's worth, the series itself seems to come down on the second side, especially when taken in concert with Sayo Yamamoto's other work.
- Yurio is the biggest offender of this trope. People either love him because of the way he is or they hate him for it. After the events of Episode 10, people are divided even further as him being a kid is being tossed around as an excuse for his outright rudeness towards Victor and Yuri while others think that he's gone too far. It gets even more jarring to see this kind of behavior after his heartwarming moment with Yuri in Episode 9, which doesn't even reflect on his actions in the next episode. His actions in Episode 11 aren't helping as his condescending attitude seem to have sunken down to a new low with his subtly derisive insults towards Yuri even after the latter visibly breaks down on the ice and scores lower than expected during his short program, ranking only at fourth place.
- Simply put, he's so divisive that he has three types of fans: those who like him and disregard all his flaws, hand-waving it as a result of hormonal urges brought on by his age; those who dislike him due to his cruel and unsportsmanlike behavior; and those who like his overall character but dislike his personality and acknowledge that he can go too far and that nothing justifies his actions or his attitude. And then there's a fourth party who are entirely neutral about him because they simply no longer care.
- Otabek. There's no doubt that he's well-liked. What makes him a point of division however, is that many believe that he was essentially nothing more than a Living Prop, existing solely to expand on Yurio's character. This isn't helped by the fact that one of Otabek's defining traits — besides his stoicism — is his admiration for Yurio, with said admiration bordering on outright devotion. While there's nothing wrong with that alone, what doesn't help is that the other characters, even the ones who get less screen time than Otabek, also admire some of their fellow skaters while having their own individualistic agencies — which can't also be said for Otabek.
