YuruYuri: Happy Go Lily

Azuriin~! Hai! Yuru Yuri review, hajimaru yo~! “Meh, here’s another god damn moe blob slice-of-life. I don’t understand why people like shit like this…” If this is your mindset, then even without saying it, you know you should pass up on the offer; however, if you have do have an interest in slice-of-life anime, comedies, or shoujo ai (You should note that shoujo ai is not a major genre. It doesn’t have as much yuri as you would expect from its title), then go for it. I started watching Yuru Yuri thinking it would be fantastic, and do you know how it turned out? Yuru Yuri absolutely amazedme by how it was more than fantastic, it was glorious! I do not even remember the last time I have laughed so much. I know that I laughed in every episode and I loved every minute of it. Do you know what else? I am actually quite sad that the show is over, but as they say, “all good things come to an end.” What is anime? Anime is a form of entertainment. If you find anime unentertaining, maybe you should pick up another hobby (I’m looking at you, Mister “I rate everything 5s and below”) and think about it. Next question: Does entertainment need things like “plot”, “development”, or “climax”? The answer is no. Entertainment is something that entertains you. It is most does not have to have any of those things. Recently, many anime watchers are too stuck up in their ideals that all slice-of-life shows are bad because they lack a plot. I can only reply by saying that slice-of-life entertains me to no end. Tying this all back to Yuru Yuri, I can clearly say that Yuru Yuri gave me such an abundance of enjoyment that I can only agree that Yuru Yuri is indeed a good anime. So does Yuru Yuri have a story? Does Yuru Yuri have development? Does Yuru Yuri have a climax? It probably does not more than it does, but does that stop it from being entertaining? You can bet it does not. If you think you could enjoy Yuru Yuri, if you are not a slice-of-life hater, you will enjoy Yuru Yuri. If you watch the beginning of the first episode, you may think it looks exactly like a stereotypical slice-of-life, but don’t be fooled! That opinion will change very quickly! Every episode made me laugh. Some episodes made me surprised, some episodes left me shocked, and some even left me sad. Yuru Yuri can definitely bring out all of these emotions and more, but still have you smiling at the very end of each episode. Opinions are always hard to form on art style and quality. You can hate it, love it, or don’t mind it. If you’re like me, art doesn’t play that big of a role and you’re excepting of most art styles. So how is the art style for Yuru Yuri? It’s fantastic to me. The character designs are pretty darn cute and the animation flows nicely and sometimes reminds me of Gurren Lagann. Art actually takes a big role despite being your typical anime. The art switches to fit the mood, and in one episode in particular, the art is definitely interesting… I won’t explain though, as I don’t wish to spoil the fun, but it definitely left me laughing. Bottom line? The art style is cute and definitely fitting (The facial expressions always make me laugh), and the animation certainly flows smoothly. And what do we have for characters? Surprise, it’s your typical four cute girls doing cute things, right? Yes and no. If you continue to watch the show, there’s only three main characters… no wait… uh… In any case, there are more than just your four main characters. We also have the four members of the student council that frequently (almost every episode, so they might as well be main characters) appears and interacts with your four main girls who are members of the Amusement Club. Our lovely protagonist is Akari, who appears at the start of each episode, actually has the least amount of presence. You may think it’s a bad thing, but it’s not because that’s the joke. It’s referenced to in every episode and it’s a genius joke that never ceases to make me laugh. If we were to name the true main character, it would most likely be Kyouko, our hyperactive and fearless leader. She’s hilarious and makes everything enjoyable. Yui, her close friend, plays the straight man and gets embarrassed easily leading to very laughable situations. Chinatsu, our typical pink haired character, has a somewhat nasty personality, but her cosplay and hilarious art makes up for it. Finally, we have our student council members who are recurring characters for each episode. Ayano, the vice president, has a love interest, the most prominent source of Yuri in the show, with Kyouko. Ayano’s a bit of tsundere making her a likable character, but she also has a hilarious way of speaking where she will put the first syllable of the word at the end. Next, we have Chitose who has nosebleeds and is fond of KyoukoxAyano. Her twin sister, Chizuru has a drooling obsession for ChitosexAyano. Chitose has much more of cheerful personality in contrast to Chizuru who is cold. Chitose has much more aire time than her younger sister does, though. Finally, we have the two first year members of the student council, Sakuraku, who is a “baka” tsundere, and Himawari, who is the breast/ojou-sama factor. Hilariously, Sakuraku and Himawari are tsundere for each other leading to endless hilarity. Furthermore, the creator of the series went as far as submitting a marriage proposal under their names. Truly, that’s genius! Yuriyurarararayuruyuri~ The OP and ED are hilarious and are more of an acquired taste. If you don’t like them, you’ll either end up finding them annoying or end up loving them. I personally find the use of the anime title in any OP genius. The soundtrack was fantastic, there wasn’t any piece of music that made me want to kill myself; furthermore, the music smoothly fits each scene to ensure the viewer receives the right emotions. And how about that voice acting cast? First, we have the pro, Toyosaki Aki (Chitose), returning for another voicing role as well as another well-known voice actress, Fujita Saki (Ayano), who is famous for Miku’s voice if you didn’t know; however, the four main characters are all voiced by fairly brand new voice actresses who are only taking on their first or second roles. And how did it turn out? These girls did a fantastic job. Their voices were brilliant. I can absolutely see them, Ootsubo Yuka (Kyouko) especially, rising to the top in the future because she did a marvelous job. So did I enjoy this series? You can sure bet I did. And you know? If you have any interest at all, you’ll enjoy it too and end up laughing hysterically! I promise. To those of you who have actually stuck around to the end of this review, I thank you graciously for taking the time to read it. To those of you who are reading this after finishing Yuru Yuri and disagree with me, I only wish you tell me a few things: Tell me you didn’t laugh when you saw what was in Akari’s sister’s room in episode one. Tell me you didn’t laugh when Akari is totally blocked/loses her presence in the beginning of the episode three. Tell me you didn’t smile at the Higurashi reference, or tell me you weren’t shocked at the sudden development in episode five. Tell me you weren’t scared as hell in episode six. Tell me the presence jokes don’t continue to make you laugh in episode ten. Tell me you didn’t almost cry in episode eleven. Tell me you didn’t enjoy Yuru Yuri.

“Yuri your way to success! Vol. 1” -Now with footnotes! Approximately 12 years ago, we were introduced to a certain J.C.Staff series about a girl from Osaka and her five friends. A couple of years latter, KyoAni presented to us a self-entitled otaku and her friends: the twin-sisters and the smart-but-clumsy bishoujo¹. Those stories would go around these girls and their (barely average) easygoing high-school paradise. Interesting? Entertaining? What is the point? It doesn't really matter, deshou? It just happened that the community saw it was good, the industry saw it was profitable, and from that on, we started watching shows about cute girls doingcute stuff for no apparent reason (both us and the cute girls). The story: Oh... the story! Yuru Yuri main plot is the daily events of Akari, Yui, Kyouko, Chinatsu (don't forget to add the -chan!). As middle-school students without a serious goal to achieve, YuruYuri focus on showing these girls having... fun! As the opening song itself explain "My real job is to 'student'! What's with that?" so all the key events of this series are pretty predicable and are related somehow to their school/hang out activities. The typical school slice-of-life. But this isn't the real reason why 90% of us watches it anyway. I bet you interpreted “fun” on the previous paragraph in a malicious way, huh? While those easygoing and relaxing events of their daily life would give a fair amount of entertainment, seeing cute girls expressing their affection to each other in a PG-13 way is also pretty entertaining! And perhaps the key part of it: delivering such a thing without the inclusion of a douche male protagonist neither having to label the series as he-he-hentai! is what draws the attention of crowds to it. That said, straight from the first episode, it becomes clear that "Yuri"² moments are one of the key components of Yuru...YURI storyline. Besides from being astonishingly cute and having these girl-love moments, the series strongly bets on their visual gags, practical jokes and references as save-points, keeping the viewers from being bored during long scenes or dialogues. A proof that it works can be easily found online, it's the amount of internet “memes” that were created from scenes of YuruYuri.³ Anyway, I digress. There's no point into further developing this topic. Someone who is reading this didn't got here by accident and most likely have a backlog on series like this. If YOU happen to be one of these people and is now nodding in agreement, the reviewer thanks you for cooping with it. *brofist* Following the same idea of the story, characters of YuruYuri are what one would expect of a show about easygoing school-girls. In a nutshell: They're patterned. We have the clumsy, resident airhead MC; the admirable, dependable senpai; the polite, dependable "notice me senpai!" kouhai and finally the over-hyped, loose cannon senpai. Not to mention they are all, obviously, CUTE. Why are they always four? ...who is producing this, anyway!? Oh, not to be forgotten, there are also the often forgotten supportive characters! They are there to add a bit of spice to the overall sweetness, some even have a separated story arc just for them which is great considering the flow of the story since it helps to keep the attention level. To be honest, these characters even get more screen-time than a certain MC ...you'd find out sooner or later. Along the story progression, some other characteristics of theses girls become easy to notice and the classical tsundere/yandere/dandere⁴ action finally shows up. Hahi, That was it!? Actually, there isn't much to digress about... giving a further explanation on these characters would spoil the first two episodes and completely ruin the mood. But still we want you to believe this is character driven so.... can we pretend we explained why, and you pretend you got it? *pshhh! No mod's gonna see this!* In the era of moe, what isn't moe is a pagan non-believer!⁵ The artwork! Oh yes! *nosebleed* did I already mention it is... cute? What kind of reviewer describes every aspect of the show with one single word? Well, watch it and then we can discuss. Just like its ancestors mentioned in the beginning of this review, YuruYuri's artwork is simple but well colored and surprisingly detailed at close ups. The “moe” factor is obviously part of it, which means, you won't find a character that is “ugly” at all. Worth mention: animators did a very good job with characters' eye design. They doesn't have that artificial feeling to them neither artificial lightening, which makes it really fit the overall coloring. yuriyurararara yuruyuri yuriyurararara yuruyuri yuriyurararara da-i-ji-ke-n! Ain't I missing a “Kyarun!★~”!? It doesn't takes much to create a OST for a slow paced school slic- *stabbed* Still, it wouldn't be a lie ...to some extend. The OST really matches the pace of the story, meaning, we get lot of relaxed synthetic instrumentals AND some funky remixed opening/ending. If you think you've heard these songs before, it's not a problem at all. Since this kind of series always use the same tempo and arrangement for their songs, sounding similar is just part of ride. Both the OP and ED are also performed by the main characters' seyuu-tachi. They're at the same time hilarious and addicting... during the first 5 episodes. Later on it gets really annoying and you'll just skip it all together. Overall, YuruYuri is way more enjoyable than it seems. Really. Not because it later turns into a full ecchi yuri R+ hardcore anime (!?), but because it manages to -somehow- make you laugh for 288 minutes. Who would imagine a school slice-of-life about pure teenager girls could be this fun? I wouldn't. So, if you're wondering about watching or not, accept the challenge and get started on it already. The entertainment value may vary from person to person, however, it will absolutely manage to take a laugh from you, even if it's just with a short Higurashi⁶ reference (Heh, is that a glace of curiosity?) or a quick reference joke with the YuruYuri Akari x Aria Saga Akari and her signature expressions "waaay!" "hahi!". Secure your loli and prepare for impact! A furious ride into the amusement world of these girls is about to begin! The Footnotes: ¹ – extremely beautiful, cute, amusing, girl. Notorious examples: Anything Key/Visual Arts produces in collaboration with KyoAni. ² – Yuri is a modest synonym of Shoujo Ai, girls love, lesbianism, girl-on-girl action, etc. ³ – Seriously, YuruYuri related memes were all around /a/ by the time it aired. Ask Mr. Google. ⁴ – Japanese slang used to describe one's characteristics. (e.g: the tsundere is the girl who is violent (tsun) but loving (dere) towards the one she cares about. ⁵ – Yes!!! YuruYuri is 100% MOE, meaning, they can't possibly be less cute. UrbanDictionary gives a pretty neat explanation: “Moe is when your heart gets a boner.“. ⁶ – Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Cute series. obs: credits to @MAL Ikusagami for the insight of the review title.

Yuru Yuri is a shoujo ai anime that focuses on 4 school girls as they form an amusement club. The cast is stretched out shortly after to more characters, and with the exception of Ayano and Chitose, who become the most reacurring characters with the exception of the four mains ones; Kyouko, Yui, Chinatsu, and Akari. The main joke of the story is Akari, and the fact that she is considered to be the main character of the show but never stands out. She is noticed for being unoticed, even making jokes about her having the power of invisibility. Toshinou Kyouko is the main focus of theshow. She reminds me of myself, a crazy and relentlessly random girl who could shout out or come up with any weird or wacky idea on the spot. Toshinou is just plain loveable, the very basic term to describe her. Yui, the tough one or guardian in the group. She is not necessarily a barbarian or roughian, nor could she be considered a tough-guy kinda girl, however she maintains a type of quiet atmosphere around here, and often acts as the voice of reason or the keeper of order of the group Chinatsu is the mean and somewhat snobby one of the group. She makes no attempt to hide her feelings for Yui, and is often seen rejecting Kyouko. I didn't really like Chinatsu that much, and infact i would classify her as the least liked character in general, of the four, however yuru yuri wouldn't be the same without her. As for the opening and ending songs, I have never, and I mean ever, seen a more enjoyable opening and ending for anything, let alone any anime. This is the only anime i would look up on youtube just to watch, and the ending is really catchy as well. Both are well suited for the spirit of the show. And that brings me to plot, there isn't much in the way of plot, the show revolves around the characters, what they do, how they react with eachother, and over all it works. The comedy in the show is great, I have laughed myself to tears on a number of occasions, and well besides the cuteness of the show, there isn't much else to say except job well done. For what would be considered another generic slice of life anime, i loved it from start to finish. 10/10 and it is at the top of my list of favourite animes. I would also class this as one of the best Shoujo Ai animes released in a long time. I think this was very well balanced, they kept the shoujo ai element but didn't make it the centerpiece, which most shoujo ai animes do.

Yuru Yuri is one of those shows I was curious about, wondering why it was so popular. I decided to give it a go, and I can't really understand why so many people like it so much. My biggest issue is two things: The characters are incredibly bland and annoying, and it's not very funny... At least to me. Honestly, it was difficult finding any of the characters likeable. The only two I enjoyed throughout the whole run were Kyoko and Akarin. Everyone else is basically a walking stereotype like Ayano, Yui, or Chitose. Ayano is your textbook tsundere and really loves Kyoko for no real goodreason. Sakurakou and Himawari are just there for the breast jokes. Chitose only exists to impliment some yuri fanservice... Do you see what I'm getting at here? Everyone feels like they're simply pawns to make an unfunny and predictable joke. It was so one-note and by the book that I had a hard time laughing at anything. I really disliked Chinatsu in particular because she ended up being so unlikeable. A very stuck-up and pretentious girl who's only defining trait is hating Kyoko and being madly in love with Yui. I'm not exaggerating when I say that's what happens when the show tries focusing on her, one of those two things happen. Or maybe both. There also was a part in episode 11 that made me dislike her even more, but I won't spoil it. Nothing about her is a good character to me, and the show would have been much better if she wasn't part of the main cast. Now for the jokes, which unfortunately don't land well most of the time. Like I said earlier, a lot of the comedy stems from the characters which are all very stereotypical so you can see what's coming a mile away. What's worse is that they like to really hammer in the same jokes over and over across the entire season. Was Chitose getting a nosebeleed and fantasizing about Ayano and Kyoko being together not funny the first time? Well too bad, because it's going to happen many, many other times! You can really tell what's going to come up just because it all is painfully predictable. There were a few times were they threw curveballs and made me laugh, but it was very few and far between. There's one joke in particular which just felt way too mean spirited, which is Akarin barely having any screen time despite being the supposed protagonist. It's a cute funny joke at first, but overtime it just ends up being kinda hard to watch because it feels like the world is against her and nothing goes her way. There are even times where she doesn't appear for an entire episode just because of a short gag in the beginning. Maybe I'm looking too deep into it, but I really didn't find that funny and just became grating after a while. So overall, I really wanted to like Yuru Yuri, but just ended up really bored and wanting it to be over near the end. The characters did absolutely no favors as they made the show very bland and predictable, and hardly any of the jokes landed for me.