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May 29, 2019
The more immersed you are in the anime/manga world and its usual tropes, the more blind you can be to its flaws. I get the feeling that I would have deeply enjoyed this series as a closeted lesbian teenager, back when I was a voracious consumer of manga. The "pseudo-incest" romance would be just edgy enough to appeal to the love of taboo that I held back then.
Maybe it was that past self who was calling out to me when I saw this manga on the shelf at a local bookstore. I picked it up, drawn in by the cover which promised lots of cheesy,
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melodramatic yuri goodness. It made me feel nostalgic for the types of things I used to read. And when I looked at the description on the back, I put it down almost immediately. "Why does it always have to be incest?!" The fact that this one random book I picked up was based on a ~stepsibling romance~ plot reaffirmed one of the most common negative stereotypes about manga.
Yet, after going home and sleeping on it, Citrus remained on my mind. I felt that I simply had to check it out. Maybe I was all wrong about it; maybe my teenage self had good taste after all. Nostalgia and curiosity won me over.
So... I read the whole thing. It was fun to sit down and read manga again, even if the material itself was often cringeworthy. There were heartwarming moments to be found nonetheless. I did root for the main couple. And I did enjoy the resolution of the story.
I'm not squicked out by the nature of Yuzu and Mei's relationship. In fact, I think anyone reading this specifically for the taboo elements will be disappointed. They're attracted to each other from the moment they meet, so the fact that they met through their parents' marriage doesn't seem important. It isn't a major problem at any point. The conflict mainly centers around their inability to communicate and Mei's external obligations. Why make them stepsiblings at all, then, if you're not going to fully milk it for drama? Why does Yuzu bother trying to "be a good sister" at the same time as she's crushing on Mei? Sometimes they're trying to choose between being sisters and lovers, other times they're trying to be both. It's very inconsistent.
You have to be generous with your interpretation of Mei's character, or you're not going to like her at all. A lot of the things she does to Yuzu are really not okay. Ultimately, I accepted her as a flawed and damaged human being who grows throughout the series, but I wouldn't blame anyone for disliking her. I still don't feel like I have a solid handle on who she really is, even having read the whole series.
The side characters and their relationships are not particularly compelling. They're mostly constructed from stock tropes - the supportive best friend, the cute sociopathic girl, the shipping fangirl, the quiet and creepy girl... 99% of the characters are female, and 100% of the relationships are female/female. I know there are a lot of yuri fans who like stories like this. I'm not one of them, but hey, that's a matter of taste. I just would have preferred something slightly more realistic. It's usually not so easy, in real life, to accept that you're gay, and you're usually surrounded by straight people unless you specifically seek out people like yourself. Granted, this is an all-girls' school, but that could also have been an opportunity to play with the "lesbian until graduation" trope.
I feel like this is sounding mostly negative, so I'll tell you what I did like: Yuzu. She's a really likable character. Yuzu/Mei. I couldn't help but root for them; they did have some really cute and sweet moments. And the art. It's beautiful, especially in a certain scene at the end.
Those elements were enough to carry me through to the end of the series. I can't say I would recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of yuri manga. And... if you are a fan of yuri manga, there's probably plenty of much better series you could read that don't lean so heavily on cookie-cutter tropes and characters.
But it was cute.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 17, 2010
Azumanga Daioh is a popular classic for a reason. Simply put, it's a work of comedic genius. Everyone should read it and watch the anime.
STORY: 9/10. There isn't much to the story; just another slice-of-life tale of Japanese schoolgirls. However, it's done brilliantly. There's never a dull moment, and you'll find yourself laughing out loud at the hilarious conversations these girls have and the situations they get into. There are also heartwarming moments, especially at the end. Though it could be considered somewhat cheesy, it seems like the best possible way to end the lighthearted series.
ART: 8/10. Since it's a 4koma with a new gag
...
in every strip, most of the drawings of people are from the chest up. As a result, the designs are pretty simple and allow you to focus more on the humor. At the same time, the art is very expressive, clean, and it looks great. There are also occasional "special" strips that are set up like a regular comic, and this is where Azuma's art skill really shines. The details are lovely and not to be missed. Overall, the art does its job beautifully.
CHARACTER: 10/10. This is what makes the amazing comedy possible. Every character in this manga is well-thought-out, original, and completely hilarious. From spacey Osaka to firecracker Tomo to lecherous Kimura-sensei, they all add their own unique flavor to the manga. I'd say my favorite character, though, is Chiyo-chan's dad. You won't find a cool cat like him anywhere else.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10. Holy Cthulhu, this series is funny. The weakest of the strips will make you crack a smile, and the best ones will have you laughing out loud. This isn't your typical anime/manga humor- this is off-the-wall, unpredictable, and overall clever. It's just as enjoyable for a Westerner as a Japanese person- you won't have to understand Japanese culture to appreciate the jokes. It's totally fresh and nonstop funny.
OVERALL: 10/10. Basically, this manga is a masterpiece- and I don't throw that term around lightly. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen, done, or eaten. You should go and pick up a copy right now. You won't regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 5, 2010
I'm writing this review without having played through any of the sound novels.
I went into Umineko expecting something similar to Higurashi- inexplicably creepy behavior from otherwise trustworthy people, grisly murders, etc. What I didn't expect, though, was that Umineko would be EXTREMELY CRACKED OUT.
That was a mistake. Because I've got to say, out of all the anime I've ever seen, Umineko is one of the most cracked-out of all time. Just when you think things start to make sense, they throw in something that will make you spit your drink all over the screen. By the end of the series, it only made a modicum
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of sense.
STORY: 7/10. I wish I could rate the two parts of the story separately, because I enjoy one far more than the other. I didn't like the whole "Battler tries to solve the mystery" part at all, because I've never been a fan of whodunnit mysteries. When he's explaining the "this person could have been in this room and killed this person, and then this other person..." shtick, I find myself completely and utterly lost. The whole situation really reminds me of the "Remote Island Syndrome" plotline from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, except ten billion times more complicated. I can't keep up with that kind of detective-style reasoning. It doesn't help that a lot of this comes many episodes after the murders themselves happen.
However, the other side of the story- with the various witches and Beatrice attempting to prove herself as a witch- I found extremely compelling. Maria's story was the part of this that I enjoyed the most. The reason that Beatrice had to make Battler acknowledge her was very clever, I thought. The mythology of witches in this anime is really awesome.
Some people have said that it's stupid that Battler continues to deny witches even as he is shown proof that they exist (he is teleported, separated from his physical body, etc.) and we, the viewer, get to see actual scenes of magic being used. The explanation for this is that magic scenes in this anime are pretty much just hypothetical. We don't know whether they actually happened, or if they're just a visual illustration of what COULD have happened if magic existed.
ART: 8/10. When I was watching Higurashi, especially the first season, I was like, "dang, Studio DEEN, you're not always that great at this." But as time went on, I saw that art improve. I think that by the time this series came out, the art had improved a lot. I didn't have any complaints about the art in this series, nor do I remember even a single instance of animation that looked off-form or weird. The character designs are lovely and look great, the colors are rich, and the Victorian-styled setting is beautiful. Nothing really knocked my socks off about the art, but overall, it's pretty good, at least above average.
Oh, and also, the particular videos that I got of this series were censored. They had pixelated censors over any particularly gory scene. Now, censorship scares me more than any creepy murdering witch ever could, and I have to say that the censorship here completely sucks the enjoyment out of the gore in this show. I hope some uncensored versions are released soon.
SOUND: 8/10. I don't always notice sound that much in anime, but there were a couple instances where I was like, this soundtrack is pretty awesome. Some of the background music in this anime is truly great. I also love the OP and ED. The OP is just straight-up epic, very heartfelt and emotional, and it fits the anime perfectly.
The ED took a bit longer to warm up to, since the guy who sings it has a pretty weird-sounding voice. However, as I got used to it, I really fell in love with it. It's raw, dramatic, and scary. The one thing is that I think for horror anime, sad songs work better as EDs- they really add punch to the tragic death scenes, while this ED sounds more angry. Then again, this anime doesn't give you much time to mourn the characters that die. They're really more like pawns in the game than people to feel sorry for.
CHARACTER: 5/10. There are a LOT of characters in this anime, and they just keep adding more and more and more as it goes along. Even from the very first episode, you're hit in the face with at least 10 different characters, and I found it very hard to remember them. At least they all have the same last name. The sad thing about this is that, since there are so very many characters, none of them really get that much time to shine. Only a few characters (such as Maria and Ange) get background stories or character development.
While most of the characters seem fairly well-thought-out, there are a few that left me asking, "Why?!?!" The prime offenders are the Siestas, who are just completely out-of-place in this anime. They look like stereotypical villains in a sci-fi magical girl fanservice anime. With bunny ears, crazy hair colors, whiny voices, and slutty costumes, they really took away my ability to take certain scenes seriously. Their hyper-precise death blows are very scary indeed, especially when they're ruining a touching scene by killing people out of nowhere, but why couldn't they have been more like the Stakes of Purgatory?
Kanon and his laser-sword-arm also take away from the creepy gothic feel of this anime, but some of the other characters ARE really awesome. Maria reminds me of Rena from Higurashi, with her crazy pendulum swinging between cutesy little girl and psycho killer. Bernkastel and Lambdadelta (who have some connection to Rika and younger-Takano from Higurashi) didn't get nearly enough screentime to do justice to their awesome little side story, and I hope there's a second season that explores them a little more.
ENJOYMENT: 7/10. A lot of the time, I was just sitting through the Beatrice/Battler deduction scenes, because I couldn't follow Battler's logic at all. The scenes I really enjoyed were the grisly murder scenes... the touching scenes between lovers, especially when they were suddenly killed right afterward... and the scenes exploring the Rosa/Maria relationship, anything with Sakutaro, Ange's past, et cetera. It was often hard for me to keep up with all the new characters being introduced, though. I had a pretty decent time watching the anime.
OVERALL: 8/10. I think I enjoyed the concepts behind this anime more than the show itself. A lot of the time, the pacing was too fast to keep up with, and the events happening onscreen were too ambiguous to understand. However, when I finished watching the show, I found myself sitting and thinking, appreciating the concepts of witchcraft and the struggle between the humans and witches. For that reason, I think I'm going to check out the sound novel, since it probably goes into depth about those things a lot more.
I'm hoping for a second season that will explain what's going on and unveil the mystery of the events on Rokkenjima Island. Kind of like what Kai did for Higurashi. The ending to this series was both satisfying and unsatisfying- it felt right, but left so much more to be explained. Ultimately, I'm hoping that even someone like me, who can't grasp Battler's detective reasoning at all, will be able to comprehend Umineko.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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