Yuri Seijin Naoko-san (2012)

Yuri Seijin Naoko-san is a crazy little piece. It's a little hard to describe, but if you're familiar with the "denpa" aesthetic, you'll get this.

STORY: 6
There really isn't any story to be had here. Misuzu's sister left a while back and she's been replaced by a perverted alien who goes by the name of Naoko. Craziness ensues. The focus is obviously on the rapid-fire gags which will be hit or miss. There's one scene in which Misuzu dreams of her older sister which added a nice contrasting touch of nostalgia; it was very well done. Overall, it's all over the place, but that's the point.


ART: ... 8
It's very well animated. Seeing how it's only half an hour long or so, I would say watch it just for the pictures alone. It got me pumped up. The disconnected feel of the whole thing is both familiar and foreign--it's perfect for setting and motif. It's very denpa-kei.


SOUND: 9
BGM fits. OP and ED are awesome. If you like MOSAIC.WAV, watch it.


CHARACTER: 7
No depth. No development. Still, these characters are a pretty fun bunch and their interactions are lively.


ENJOYMENT: 8
I really liked this. It was very straightforward and it was a fun ride. Despite being little more than a half hour of gags, there's a sense of cohesion and scope. There's a sense of the ephemeral. When it isn't pounding you with excitement, it feels like you're drifting. Naoko-san can be summed up in the OP and ED. If anything, watch those.


OVERALL: 7
If you have time to kill, watch it.

This little gem really is underrated, with brilliant animation from Tetsuya Takeuchi and a pretty good OP and END theme.

Story: It's basically about an alien trying to conquer the earth by yurifying it. Not much else happens this this is an ova, but if you really wanted to get the whole thing I'd definitely recommend the manga.

Art: The animation is amazing, with maximum efficiency and minimal frames, from the brilliantly talented Tetsuya Takeuchi. You probably don't know, but his animation style usually fits into that category. The art is light and colourful, maintaining quality all throughout both ova's running time.

Sound: The show has ... a very retro feel to it, one that you would find on some of the old arcade machines and early 90's home consoles. Overall it's pretty enjoyable.

Character: Because this show is so short, there isn't room for much character development at all, but you get the idea that Naoko is trying yurify everything, with Misuzu disapproving of everything like a regular person would. But of course there isn't much room for character development, so once again I heavily recommend the manga.

Enjoyment: There were some pretty good moments all throughout the entire show, you'd think the entire thing would just be filled with lewd joke after lewd joke, which it is. However they are pretty funny throughout both ovas.

Overall: You can definitely tell Tetsuya Takeuchi cared about this, you can tell that he actually read the entire manga to get a feel of the characters and how they would react. And I definitely hope he gets more opportunities to show off his talent because I'd certainly watch whatever he makes.

8/10 They really need to make more of this

[Note: this is a review of both episodes of this franchise]

This was quite a surprise for an OVA with only two episodes (6 min. and 28 min.)

Story-wise, there's not much that happens; in fact, the first episode sort of just drops you into the middle of everything and you don't learn any back story until the second episode, so it relies more on its comedy and bizarre surrealistic sensibilities to hold your attention, both of which are almost always on-target. It isn't technically a yuri title, but it does use that theme for a lot of its comedy, and as someone whose enjoys that ... kind of humor, I got quite a few laughs out of this anime. It also has a very deadpan style of humor that doesn't need extreme character reactions to tell you that something was funny. All of the characters were really funny and also kind of endearing by the time the series was over.

With animation, however, there's a lot more going. I absolutely adored the aesthetic that this anime carried with its barely-outlined character, striking character designs, and just barely muted color palette. The animation also had an extremely fluid and free moving style, another aesthetic that I really love seeing and wish I could see in more anime.

Most of this, of course, is due to Tetsuya Takeuchi's heavy involvement with the series (director, script, storyboard, screenplay, key animation, character designs, AND animation director; plus he was also involved in End of Evangelion, R.O.D., Love Hina, and Nodame Cantabile). You can really tell that this guy has a truly unique vision and it comes through beautifully in this anime.

Oh by the way this was animated by ufotable. Yeah, THAT ufotable.

I also liked the editing style a lot as well. It's a lot slower than the norm and not even close to being as spastic as more modern comedic series, and the longer takes and fewer cuts let the bizarre comedy and surrealism shine through without being interrupted by constant cutting, which I appreciated a lot.

Music was very minimal, but when it did show up, it added the perfect touch of strangeness to an already strange environment.

Overall, this is a highly underrated gem that I definitely recommend. It only takes about 35 minutes to get through both episodes, so time commitment is a non issue. Even if it was, I'd still recommend this series, and I hope to see more from this series and from Takeuchi in the future.

"Yuri Seijin Naoko-san" is an OVA with really no plot. I somehow enjoyed it tremendously.

Story. [Spoilers]
Misuzu is a regular junior high student that is excited to see her older sister, as she rushes home, she opens her sister's room only to find an "alien" obsessed with yuri is now staying in her home.
After that they just have short little adventures and many skits in the rest of the episode. Until, it's towards the end. There is a scene where Misuzu has a fever and wakes up to her older sister taking care of her. After the ending song, the scene is then remade but ... with Naoko taking care of her and her other family members gathering in the room. I thought that the scenes seemed nostalgic and the story took a pretty serious turn when the end came near.

Art/Animation.
The animation is fluid and just plain great. ufotable has yet to disappoint me with their high standards of animation. Its art style is unique while the colors are nice and complementary.

Sound.
Now I really couldn't remember the OST itself. I don't even know if it had one. The ending really spoke out to me though, it was good at setting the tone for the upcoming scene. The animation during the ending theme was BEAUTIFUL. Honestly, and the song seemed so melancholic and very different from the electronic and high-pitched opening.

Characters.
The characters really have no development whatsoever. They really don't need any of that though. The characters reactions to the perverted things that spew out of our favorite yuri citizen Naoko-san, are really all we need.

Enjoyment.
I loved this OVA. The characters and situations were so bizarre and pretty funny. I had a really empty feeling at the end of the OVA because I knew that there wasn't another episode. It really deserves one, after the other plot point of Misuzu's sister, I really wanted to see more of this series.

Overall.
Watch it if you want some fun and got some time to kill.

Yuri is good; Yuri is great, let us thank Yuri for our food. By Yuri's hands we are fed, give us Yuri our daily bread. Amen. *Ahem* Yuri Seijin Naoko-san is good. My name is Neimaj, and thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this review.

Kekeke. If it really ended there, the review would still be longer than the OVA itself. Seriously, Yuri Seijin Naoko-san is really good. Twenty-eight minutes. That's the amount of time this OVA had to leave a good impression on me. And oh boy, did it leave an impression. Naoko-san is such a wonderful character. She ... came to planet Earth with a single goal in mind, to conquer it! By yurifying it! "That's a goal I can get down with," I thought to myself. I love her purpose, voice, and character design. Naoko-san is an alien from the planet, Yuri. Her entire character is obsessed with making girls go gay. She lives in a treehouse right above a young girl's home by the name of Misuzu. Misuzu, coincidentally, had an older sister with the same name as Naoko-san. Misuzu does ponder whether or not her sister is Naoko-san, but that idea never comes back up, unfortunately. That's definitely the most intriguing part of this story. And most of what I've said is the story. Naoko-san loves with a human family and bizarre things happen, like in Alf, or Urusei Yatsura, or any other show similar to this. However, Naoko-san is much more entertaining.

Now, I typically dislike "Straight Man vs. Funny Man" comedy in anime. I promise, this is connected to Naoko-san, just let me speak about this for a quick second. So, the double act structure in comedy with a "Tsukkomi" and a "Boke" I find this style of humor to be very obnoxious in anime, because the jokes get very repetitive and predictable in such a short period of time. There are a few exceptions of this style of humor being well done, e.g., Arakawa under the Bridge. In Arakawa, the straight man (Rec) is surrounded by a bunch of crazy people (Everyone living under the bridge) and the jokes/situations work, because of the strange nature of the characters. They're weird and wacky people that have some depth to their character. Although, some of the jokes do get ran into the ground later on in the manga. I brought this up because Yuri Seijin Naoko-san does an excellent job with this style of humor, considering how likable and charming the characters are. They're all full of personality. Watching Naoko's jokes bounce off of Misuzu is very entertaining. Did I forget to mention that this OVA is hilarious? It does a masterful job at creating these funny visual gags with gorgeous and fluid animation. Every single frame looks amazing! Even the OP was astonishing to watch. One of the weirdest OP's I've seen in a while. The ending of the OVA also does a good job at transitioning to the ED, which was also a great watch.

I didn't feel like it was appropriate to give this OVA anything higher than a nine, mostly because not much actually happens. You can't really do much in twenty-eight minutes. Y'know what? I'm going to give this OVA a 9 out of 10, just for the hell of it. Why not. It doesn't do anything wrong. I'm tired of giving the same scores whenever I make these reviews. It was a brief experience and I enjoyed a lot of it. I only wish it was longer. My scores:

Story: 6/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

Story: While there is a barebones backstory, there is practically no plot. The segments in this delightful anime are connected as coherently as your typical dream and by the end of the OVA; nothing is really achieved. The zany antics that do happen in this anime helps it avoid a score lower than 5.

Art: The colour palette is brilliantly selected and the animation is gorgeous, especially for the ending credits sequence; being an one shot OVA after all. In terms of visual design, the character designs to take the cake. In an age where everything looks inspired, this was refreshing. I loved Tetsuya Takeuchi's work ... in Jin Roh and this one is no exception.

Sound: I don't pay too much attention to anime related music but the background music is that of a stereotypical retro game chiptune of the early arcade game and C64 vein. It adds a distinctive tone to the anime and also adds to the hectic pace and wackiness.

Character: Being an one shot, there isn't much room for character development and you don't get to know the characters as much as you'd like to. The characters do have a chaotic yet complimentary chemistry between them, each being eccentric in their own way. The titular Naoko-San is brilliant, delivering some absolutely laugh out loud lines through that unashamedly perverted mouth of hers.

Enjoyment: What I really enjoyed about this anime tied in with the video game struff I mentioned earlier. Rabid retro game fanatics such as me will notice a decent amount of gaming references within a relatively short 30 minute timeframe. Whether its Virtua Fighter, the Sega Saturn controller spaceship or of course, the TRUXTON bomb.
Truxton! Truxton! Truxton! is the greatest game ever created!

Overall: Up there with the wackiest and non sensical anime ever created. A mere 30 minutes so there is NO reason you shouldn't check it out. Despite 'yuri' being in the title, a purely PG anime this is. Nothing offensive, apart from the overabundance of lewdness.