Citrus

Some spectators consider themselves sophisticated, modern and avant-garde. However, when they become aware of some social taboos, they change their mind and create a disapproval towards some topics. One example, the lesbian romance. Citrus has potential but fails with some distasteful scenes as described below.

The Ugly: The story mistake love with rape and forces affection from a lame sexual assault. In this world, Weinstein’s behavior would be considered romantic and not the act of a sick predator.

The Good: As the plot progress you can observe the protagonists’ insecurity, problems, and feelings.

The Bad: Unrealistic begin. Some characters are not well developed because the time ... is not enough to let them grow.

Citrus introduces a homosexual storyline where we can see a lesbian nexus, yet you don’t need to fear it. No matter your gender, you can enjoy some parts of the narrative. The plot isn’t as bad as some writers want us to believe, but it’s not surprising either. Besides, the series begins with some weird and awkward moments that sink the possibility of a good romance, and I consider them fictional and unrealistic. On the other hand, Citrus emphasize the inexperience and the doubts in a relationship and tries to establish a link between the protagonists. In some scenes, you can sense the character’s feelings. Sadly, in this modern era the taboo persists, perhaps for a woman, it is easier to tolerate this type of bond. Finally, Citrus is a Yuri anime, if you cannot bear this kind of affinity, it is better to stand aside and ignore the adaptation, or you might end up disappointed.

The story

The story isn’t as marvelous as you can expect, the author sometimes mistakes rape with love, though. Also, the only way explored to conceive the romance is through the physical force. For example, it is ridiculous comparing intimacy with a sexual assault under the diplomatic motto “since I love you, I can obligate you to adore me.” In a real world, this concept will be judged as rude and out of place, it will generate repulsion, a restriction order and could end with a visit to the jail. Those actions could lead the spectator to misinterpret the characters’ feelings and leaves the personal problems, fears, doubts, the lack of experience, and psychological aspects in the missing objects box. In the case of Yuzu, she does not know how to approach Mei, so the storyteller merely throws her over Mei literally, and the latter doesn’t hesitate to assault Yuzu. Can you accept it as a romance? Furthermore, this keeps happening during all the adaptation. If you read the manga, those scenes aren’t intrusive, you can pass them faster but in the anime the director focus and prolong them. Call it fanservice, hentai or sexual harassment; it does not fit the feeling setting momentum.

In addition, this erroneous idea creates a false meaning of a lesbian link. From my perspective, a lesbian is like a straight; the relationship rules are alike. Why does the author use a weird and a wrong approach to initiate the attraction? Thus far, the plot fails on producing a good start for the romantic connection, it just leads the characters to a forced rape, deceiving the spectators with a cheap and fake drama.

Nevertheless, the narration improves as it advances. I am not considering Citrus as a masterpiece, but the progression is acceptable. As the series continues, we can observe the inexperience of a usual acquaintance, the doubts, the pain, the suffering of the protagonists delivering the audience a better development and a different perspective. While the story picks up, it still has some defects such as the recurrent fanservice. If the social taboos do not slant the viewer, you could enjoy Citrus, though.

Unfortunately, the lack of sense at the beginning ruins the possibility of a more vibrant narrative, a palpable romance and leads to the audience’s boredom. Going further, you can notice some pacing problems. You need to be honest with yourself because some characters were just placed to fill a scene. The casual spectator will only watch the first episodes and decide if skipping the show. Since the issues appear from the start, Citrus will be readily considered a bit grotesque, a raw passion and a potential drop.

Finally, the overused sexual assault as a “comedy” (for some) or as a “romance” change the plot and the enjoyment. If you can survive those scenes, you can see the character’s authentic feelings. Honestly, I like Citrus manga, but the anime has been highly criticized by some unpleasant development that leads to a different meaning. In conclusion, you cannot compare intimacy with ravishment, and you cannot exploit the sexual assault to propel a romantic or comedic moment. For some viewers that scenes show affection, for others is a rape. In my case, SOME are sexual abuse and unnecessary. Lastly, the twelve episodes present a portion of the story and not all the published material and the most significant parts of the series still on the source.

The characters

Yuzu. In the beginning, she displays some atypical feelings for Mei. Since she has no experience in love or relationships, she could fool the viewers with her naivety, show an emptiness and a similarity with a mundane generic girl. However, as the story progresses, we can see her emotions, problems and real doubts.

Mei. Some can judge her as a cold and expressionless robot. Since she is the school president, she might look strong. Nevertheless, inside she is baffled and seeks to follow her dad’s steps. She will give up everything to keep alive her family legacy and traditions. Also, she cannot communicate her emotions and has vast inexperience in the relationship area. Thus, always leads her to mistake love with sexual assault or perhaps she just enjoys doing that.

Matsuri. I consider her introduction misplaced. From nowhere she arrives and creates some problems just because Mei needs an opponent. Her feelings for Yuzu are vaguely explained.

Sara: Added in a similar way to Matsuri but her nature is the opposite. She is Yuzu’s rival, and her sentiments appear almost instantly.
The rest of the characters help the narrative progression such as Harumi and Himeko.

The art and sound

Technically speaking, Citrus has a beautiful animation, clean and fluid with excellent drawings catching your attention. Despite the plot issues, you will enjoy it. The camera angles and planes blend well with the narrative and the emotions; they focus on the details. One negative aspect, the unnecessary fanservice scenes. You could misinterpret them and will sink the real story.
The series has good sound. They give us a remarkable OP and ED. Honestly, I like the OP, the tune and rhythm combined with the lyrics create a fabulous composition.

Enjoyment

Citrus isn’t an anime for all tastes. The social taboo may make the observer indispose from the beginning. However, after some episodes, the story improves, and you can feel some character’s emotions. I like some aspects of the plot. It isn’t perfect and has a weird unrealistic start letting you with a big question mark, “is it going to be worth my time?” Thus, in combination with the “sexual assault” scenes could lead your apathetic side and make you drop the series. Finally, the manga is superior. It shows a significant evolution with better pacing. I understand, sometimes most of the spectators avoid this genre, but if you reached this point of my review, perhaps you could watch the anime and read the source to feel Yuzu’s emotions in a more desirable approach. I wanted to give Citrus a high score my conviction prevents me. I cannot accept the constant use of a sexual assault as a romantic or comedic filler that impacts the plot negatively. As I said, Citrus isn’t for all the tastes.

Lastly and talking in general, you need to be broad-minded and don’t bury a show just for a sexual preference. You can criticize but don’t stigmatize the lesbian topic. If you dislike the story, skip it.

This anime is okay if you leave out some major plot points. I don't count this as a girl's love anime, I think there's a little too much rape like moments for it to be counted as a genuine relationship.
I understand that Mei is really screwed up and mentally ill, and that Yuzu is a closeted lesbian, but it still seems rapey. Like Mei is just pissed off and letting out her pent up emotional frustrations by trying to have sex/whatever with Yuzu.
It's not hot, it's mental illness. I do love yuri anime, I really do, I'm gay myself but this does not ... represent a healthy girlxgirl relationship.

This anime seems to not have decided what it wants to be. Either just the yuri fan service show or a romance drama. Typically romance anime's load themselves with misunderstandings but not this show, this show has ascended past such silly tropes. Because this show only can further the plot with sexual assaults. For example Momokino has supposedly been friends with Mei for over 10 years but only decides to do anything sexual with Mei when Yuzu starts being friendly with her. She also goes from being a stuck up bitch to immediately ok with doing that in school grounds. All because her best friend ... got a new sister. Wouldn't it only be natural for someone to spend time with someone who just became part of their family. Nope, all logic and reason takes the backseat until we have gotten at least one sexual assault per-episode. Yuri is nice and everything, but that doesn't make it a good anime.

Citrus is a yuri romance manga that started in late 2012 and just recently ended. Although it looks like a second manga called Citrus Plus is planned. I don't know if it's going to follow the same characters nor have I read the manga. Early this year the studio Passione, also behind Rokka no Yuusha, aired a twelve episode adaptation to cover the first part of the story. So, let's see how that went. 

Story:

Aihara Yuzu finds her life turned topsy turvy when her mother suddenly remarries and the pair relocate, forcing her to enter a new school. Things turn awkward immediately when she unknowingly breaks ... the rules and finds herself afoul of the young student council president. She returns home for a surprise, she has a new step-sister and it's the same student council president she met earlier, Aihara Mei. To make matters even more awkward, she finds Mei really attractive. 

Let's start with the problems with the series. There are two major ones. The first is that, like Love Stage, it doesn't have a great first impression. I will say, to Citrus's credit, it isn't nearly as bad since the initial encounter between Yuzu & Mei involves a stolen kiss and not attempted rape but it's still not a great way to begin a romance. The big one, however, is more reminiscent of the bad episode from Sasameki Koto. In that episode, we had a young girl act deplorably only to be instantly forgiven with no real consequences and her behaviour was never mentioned again.

Citrus has the same type of thing with a character named Matsuri except her actions are even worse and they span a couple episodes. She's introduced about halfway into the series and decides to try and seduce Yuzu. But first she needs to deal with Mei, which is where the deplorableness comes in. Now, I'm not opposed to having an antagonistic character who's absolutely atrocious as a person but the problem here, and in the aforementioned Sasameki Koto, is that they try to treat the characters as sympathetic. And that doesn't work when you have characters act this horribly. Not without a lot of time and effort put into redeeming them. Which neither series does. Their plots end and they basically say they're sorry and get told not to do it again and that's it. 

Moving on to the positives, I'll give Citrus credit for having romantic content between siblings in a way that's only mildly sleazy, and that's entirely based on the stolen kisses early on. Because it makes sense for two high school kids who are suddenly tossed together as step-siblings to still be attracted to one another. The series also does feature some strong scenes. Some of them are quite funny, and usually involve Yuzu making an ass of herself. While others have a bit of an awkward tension betwixt Mei & Yuzu with enough positivity to make them kind of sweet little moments. The best part, by far, is the whole arc with the twin sisters, Sara & Nina. Those three episodes are where the series gets elevated to fantastic. It's funny because it goes from the low point of the series, with Matsuri the sociopath, to the high point with the twins and it's kind of hard to believe these were written by the same person.

Characters:

I've already covered the basics of what's wrong with Matsuri's character and the handling thereof. Needless to say, she's the worst character in the series by a wide margin. As for the other characters, there are aspects of Yuzu, Mei and their budding relationship I really like. The awkwardness has verisimilitude. Yuzu's conflicting feelings of wanting to be a good sister but also being greatly attracted to her new step-sister is compelling. Mei's desire to be needed and her drive for exceptionalism versus her uncertainty over how to proceed is also good stuff. But then there's the way things are initiated betwixt them and the way it gives a poor first impression. Harumi is a fun character. Sara is a sweetheart. I also really like what little we get of Mei's relationship with her wandering father. So, quite a strong cast with one very notable exception. 

Art: 

Here's one area where I have to give Passione a lot of credit, their artwork is really great. The characters are well drawn. The backgrounds and various world objects look good. The animation flows smoothly. It is a good looking series. 

Sound: 

Our main heroines are voiced by Taketatsu Ayana & Tsuda Minami, two strong actresses who deliver fantastic performances. We've also got Kubo Yurika, Kanemoto Hisako, Fuji Yukiyo, Matsuzaki Rei and some others who are really good at what they do. Even Izawa Shiori, voice of the worst part of the series, doesn't perform badly. She just got stuck with a shit character. Takahashi Ryo put together a strong soundtrack for the series. 

Ho-yay:

In addition to the obvious budding relationship betwixt Yuzu & Mei, Mei's childhood friend blatantly has feelings for her. Yuzu has some kind of flirtatious moments with Harumi but a lot of that is Harumi teasing Yuzu after seeing her yuri manga. Sara's whole arc revolves around her developing a crush on Mei who she refers to as "her destiny." In short, this is one of those series where the only important straight character seems to be Yuzu's mum. And I wouldn't exactly be surprised if the latter part of the manga introduces her female "friend" who seems to always visit while her husband's away. Which he always is. 

Final Thoughts:

There are plenty of things to like about this series. The last arc especially. Unfortunately, it's really weakened by those three episodes heavily featuring Matsuri & by having the relationship begin in a poor way. Would I watch a second series? Well, yes. This may well be like Sasameki Koto where the manga gets past the point that made up the seventh episode of the anime and it just stays consistently fantastic afterwards. In which case, the bad part's out of the way. But, by the same token, this isn't a good yuri series thus far. It manages to average out to being decent but there are plenty of better ones out there. I'll give the first series a 6/10. If they do come out with a second one I'll give it a go but I'm not really going to go out of my way to go through the manga or anything like that. 

As a manga reader, there’s many things that must be addressed. For one, since it was 12 episodes long, I knew it would end in the shittiest arc possible. I hated it in the manga, I hate it here as well. Second, the adaptation was close to perfect, unfortunately the presentation of certain scenes were overly expressed more than it needed to be. With the 90% Rape and the 10% Consent, I felt a need, a need to think about this again.

Let me get this straight, as of right now, I enjoy the manga. The latest chapters started spicing things up. However, since the anime ... adapted such a crappy arc in the first place, there comes no surprise to when I say that I hated the second half of the anime.

Citrus is a Yuri manga that decided to show up after a long time since its announcement. It’s one of those series where you say “fuck it, there’s yuri.”

When I first made my review, I gave it an 8, simply for the fact that I’m biased towards yuri and am basically obligated to watch it for such a reason. But knowing the fact that it goes downhill once the second half begins, just enjoying it for the “yuri” doesn’t become something I say often.

The first half is what you call exceptional, a girl goes to an all-girls school where her mom remarries and her step sister turns out to be someone of important. Thus the encounter captivates her and gives her the green-light to pursue such a love. But can such a love succeed when all Mei can do is use her hands for anything but love. I understand her situation, I get that her only way of communication can be through sexual acts, but when this continues for a long time with little to no change throughout the series, it makes it harder to take her seriously each time.

I appreciate the mature-ish tone that the anime decided to take, but each time they try to make it “impactful,” the actual effect decreases each time they attempt this. I also disliked the fact that they try to drag out the story but putting *ahem* “antagonists.” The first time Matsuri showed up, I was pissed, but thankfully later on she redeemed herself a little bit and became more tolerable. Now when Nana and Sara showed up, oh boy I was attempted to drop the manga there and then. Even though Sara and Nana didn’t stay within the main focus for too long, I just disliked the fact that they’re practically insert characters to prolong the conflict as long as possible.

But of course, not everything about Citrus is bad. The art for the anime looks just about the same as Uta’s drawings, which I do appreciate. The voice acting was superb, each seiyuu fulfilled the role perfectly and captured the feelings no matter the circumstance or situation. The music and opening song were fantastic since I appreciate the stuff nano.RIPE makes. The animation was fine but the CGI near the start of the series was really off-putting. Thankfully, this occurs less as it goes on. Those were really my two cents of the series. I didn’t hate everything about it, but boy did it get annoying to watch later on.

Citrus as an adaptation did well. It followed the panels and it showed almost every detail. Unfortunately they extended scenes that were not needed. Even if it didn’t drive off from the original source, there are things that must not be added. It was quite a shame that it ended off at one of the worst arcs possible, however if you do have the time to read past where the anime ended, then I suggest you would. The manga does get somewhat better, but don’t expect it to be amazing. I am enjoying it thus far now. I do have one pet peeve however, I hated, and I mean hated the way they adapted chapter 8’s kiss scene (out of love). That kiss was one of the best in the manga, and it looked awkward and weird on the anime. That’s just me being picky though.

Citrus succeeded in terms of adaptation, but failed in all other aspects. Although it falls flat, I must say that Saburo Uta did one thing right…





Making Harumin one of the hottest characters in existence.

So, before I start this, I’d like to mention that I only watched this because of the memes. I’ve never really been into this kind of show -I’ve never watched a hentai before- and it probably would’ve completely passed me by if it were not for /r/Animemes.

Now, into the proper review. I went into this optimistically, I know it involved two lesbians and was a yuri, but I thought I should watch it so I’d know why it was in so many memes, and because I might enjoy it. But, I didn’t. I suppose I enjoyed the first few episodes, but I constantly felt like ... I was doing something wrong by watching this, it was almost like feeling guilty in a way, and this only got worse as I saw more of it. In fact, it’s actually the reason why I dropped the show. When I saw that episode 7 was out I went to watch it, but I couldn’t really watch it and enjoy myself, I felt like I shouldn’t watch it and it felt overpoweringly wrong, so I gave up on watching the rest of the show and dropped it.

But, It’d be wrong for me to give this anime a bad review, it is a good anime, the art is well done, the characters are detailed, the special effects are mostly great, and some of the 3DCGI suprised me with their quality, and I definitely enjoyed some parts of it. The problem for me is the plot.

I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t say too much, but this anime is definitely a yuri. I was shocked to find lesbian sexual harassment happening in the first episode and lesbian sexual assault by the third. I personallly think that that’s the problem I have with this anime, the fansevice and sexual scenes, while clearly designed to interest the viewer and in some cases turn them on, didn’t have that effect on me. If it was normal lesbian relationship then yeah it probably would of, but Citrus has the opposite effect on me because the characters are litterally sexually assaulting each other within the first the first few episodes, and that’s a huge turn off for me.

Overall, I’m going to give this anime an average score, because while it is a good anime that people can enjoy, I clearly aren’t the target audience and as such I didn’t enjoy this anime.

Let it be known prior to this review that I am yuri/ecchi/etc. trash. Of the /highest/ calibre. along those lines, this anime was practically made for me and my biases, specifically the sales pitch of a cutie lesbian innocent gyaru, I was 100% I was going to love this show, and for the first few episodes, that idea was solidified somewhat. But lets break things down somewhat to figure out why it ended up leaving me... dissapointed.

-story-

The story started out promising, as mentioned above. On a very superficial level, I was loving it! but from very early on there was a nagging doubt, something that ... was bothering me. That doubt was how they were going to handle the various elements of sexual harrasment/forced sexual contact. it happens initally quite offhand, which made me pass it off that maybe I just interpereted it incorrectly, but then a few instances later, the show itself brings up this matter and then sort of... drops it. this was certainly one element that let to my dissapointment, since these elements can be extremely powerful literary tools! and if this show that was superficially amazing, ended up being good on a more interesting level as well, then we'd have a really great show on our hands.
Other than those elements- the story never really tries to do anything particularly interesting, beyond "Hey look, they're GAY!" which, I mean, cool. but that isnt as groundbreaking as it once was anymore. They introduced some new characters here and there, attempted to pick up the afforementioned harrasment themes and failed again.
I feel like the story would have been fine if it didnt try and fail, and stuck to what it knew it could do, but I do at least commend it for trying in the first place. Nothing will ever get better if people dont try to do something new every now and again.

-Art-

Its really rather pretty actually. The animation isnt really anything to shout about, but the style is quite nice, and the end cards are really cool, with a more artsy style that would make a wonderful desktop background. Props to whoever the artists where for that- Im gonna have to look them up actually...

-Sound-

Very little too say about it honestly. The OP by nano.RIPE was pretty good, the vocals reminded me a little of HSoTD's OP, which I also liked. The rest of the soundtrack was, forgettable, at least to me.

-Character-
I /love/ Yuzu. She's pure and kind and waaaaaaay to easy to take advantage of sadly. But sadly most of the rest of the characters, to me, are just very bland. Mei has a chance of being interesting- with the attempted stoicism, and the strong but flawed character archtype is an interesting one, but I feel she is criminaly underused as such, I can name, maybe two instances where the elemnts of her character that /are/ intersting are used effectively.
The side characters are just that, side characters, and in contrast to shows with a great supporting class (AssClass being a fantastic example) these side characters serve to spark 1 interesting interaction between the main couple, and very little beyond that. As literary devices, they're fine.

-Conclusion-
Overall, I feel this show was a severe case of missed potential, its perfectly enjoyable as a generic Yuri, but its failed attempts at being more than that leave a sour taste in my mouth. I respect it for what it attempted, but in terms of my own enjoyment, I can't say it really appealed to me, certainly not as much as I had initially hoped.
I think I can recommend it if you are a hardcore Yuri fan, but not so much if otherwise.

A wise man once said "Repetition is the death of art" and no quote can be more applicable than to this anime. Citrus was as expected a romance, yuri based anime with a hint of comedy and love struggles. However while the genres may be correct, the execution was at best mediocre. So join me in the review of Citrus, to see what's right, and what's not.

So we'll compare it against another anime of similar proportions, Sakura Trick. Both feature excessive yuri, romance and kissing so I believe it's the perfect anime to compare it to as basis.

I think that both animes did ... well into making a kiss look very "kissy", the same sort you can find from a hentai but a bit more restraint. The slight gasp and the flustered emotions from citrus to the more quieter subtle kiss from Sakura Trick, i think they basically did first base spectecularly. Audio and design wise, citrus is clearly the winner, even besting some of the current animes in character design and maybe fall short of violet evergarden and koe no katachi, big names basically. Audio wise also felt very airy and spacious with hints of background activity rather than closed up like sakura trick.

They did kissing well, they nailed the objective, give them a 10 already! Well not so fast. The issue is repetition. If this sort of detail of kissing was in a romantic anime like say koe no katachi or maybe chunnibyou, then well done 10/10. While most romance animes want to lightly sprinkle fanservice to make it as magical as possible, citrus decides to just pour the entire bottle. When kissing is done regularly and repetitively, it becomes superficial and very meaningless, very shallow. Like there is no meaning in it no matter how hard they try to express it. Sakura Trick also faces this issue but citrus did it way worse. While Sakura Trick only does it to people they truly love with specific couples set, Citrus decides that as long as that person is a girl, she's kissable.

The height of demand is a principle I use for shipping. Koe no katachi, I want them to start dating. For couples, i want handholding. For handholding couples, maybe a kiss etc. But for citrus, there's not much beyond it, because beyond it is second base, and that's too lewd. They were not expecting it and that led to a downfall when i get bored of something and I want more but didn't get it.

This would be still fine if there's other things to add to the magic of the excessive kissing. But unfortunately dear viewers, there isn't. At most one or two lines of comedy, the weird love "polygon" with very depthless drama, not even the slice of life part was done particularly well to fix the issue. Character quality wise, nothing special to add. While the main characters are ok, side characters are just jealous assholes.

Citrus was a godsent. Yuri, romance, kissing. Nothing could be more perfect than these three genres together. Unfortunately while they may have nailed the genre combinations right, they simply failed in execution.

Maybe it'll be a great drinking game. Who knows?

> Wait is it me or does Sara looks and sound like Nayuta. Sneaky...

When all was said and done, I enjoyed Citrus, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to most people.

The first few episodes are a real barrier and I wouldn't blame someone for not being able to get past it. It's a romance show that relies entirely on non-consensual advances (we call that "sexual assault" where I'm from) to move the plot along. While most of it sorta makes sense in the context of the characters if you read between the lines, it's also clearly done for the titillation of the viewer, which is kinda gross. Nonetheless, I kept watching because I like yuri and thus have ... no standards.

However, the show makes a pretty big shift in episode 5. The main character, Yuzu, previously motivated purely by her desire to fuck her sister, has an epiphany moment, and suddenly wants to... be a good person and a supportive sister.

Huh.

She's still monstrously thirsty, but from this point forward I'd say the main character is probably the best thing about the show. She's an adorable ball of awkwardness and a genuinely good person that doesn't deserve all the soap opera drama bullshit that happens to her. And oh man, do they ramp up the soap opera drama bullshit, and I ate that shit up no matter how cheesy it got.

Citrus is an overly dramatic smutty Drake and Josh with lesbians that I would definitely never admit I watch to anyone in real life, but if you're into that kind of thing you could probably do worse than this.

This show really could’ve been something interesting but alas, it was written with fetishist men in mind and doesn’t honestly depict sapphic relationships. The story consists of awkward pseudo-incest and non-consensual acts perpetrated by Mei onto Yuzu. And being that it’s written with men in mind, Yuzu gets harassed and essentially assaulted by Mei and is just written to like it as opposed to addressing the unhealthy nature of their relationship. It gets even worse when Matsuri is added to the series. A girl who looks no older than 14 that alludes to sending grown men nude photos of herself (or photos off the internet ... rather) for no real reason at all. The whole show is just teen angst and sexual frustration of teenage girls made for the male gaze- particular those that are next level creeps. I really wanted to like this show because of the minimal sapphic representation in anime but of course, this is fetishist and just straight up wrong. The art style is great, the sound track is great, and the voice actors were great picks but it all falls flat when all those things try to cover up an irredeemable story. If anything, since the girls were made to live together anyway- why not make them college students (adults) at the very least? And not related either?

I want to write this review to explain why I enjoyed citrus even though I don't like ecchi or yuri. I did not read the manga so this is my first time encountering this series.

Citrus is an anime about the love of two girls (yes it is about love and not lust). There is fanservice throughout (naturally) and of course it is not the type of anime that is always comfortable to watch. However, citrus is enjoyable and tells a story with somewhat original characters; even if they're not the most exciting.

I'll be honest and say what's bad about this anime first. This isn’t everything ... bad, or everything good but it's what I gathered so far.

1. Citrus can be uncomfortable to watch. There is a lot of scenes where sexual acts are forced and it can be so uncomfortable that I look away from the screen or take out one headphone. The over sexualisation is not something that is always necessary and can put some people off watching, myself included.

2. The story attempts to tackle realistic scenarios but without realistic approaches. The relationship between the two main characters sometimes simply doesn't make sense and there hasn't been significant progression yet. Either things happen too fast or too slow. I guess realistic pacing, both for character development and monologue, are not the strong points of the anime.

3. THE FANSERVICE. Simply put, I hate this. Both from a personal and objective point of view, the fan service is forced and once again uncomfortable. Rather than placing these moments within the story, the story revolves around these moments instead. They aren't particularly enjoyable so it doesn’t really work as good fan service.

So why do I like citrus and think you should watch it?

1. IT'S NOT BORING. Sure Citrus isn't going to be the best anime that you've ever watched, but it isn't dull either. The script isn't perfect and the mix between serious and comedy is confusing but it's enjoyable nonetheless. I've had fun watching Citrus even though it certainly isn't my usual genre.

2. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S REALISTIC! I just wanna stress that it is an anime not a documentary. Some things that happen in Citrus are strange or don't make much sense (like the fact that her mother didn't tell her about the step sister). Sure these plot holes take away from the overall quality but not from the enjoyment. Watch Citrus for fun and for a bit of weird drama. If you take it too seriously then how can you enjoy anime?

3. It's an unusual romance. As a huge romance fan I will admit that there is no build up to falling in love. Yuzu literally goes from seemingly asexual to lesbian in a day or two. But that doesn't mean that the romance isn't beautiful. It is not a cliché school romance, so if you want that look somewhere else. Love comes in different forms and the love shown in Citrus may be different but it's refreshing.

4. The art is pretty, the voices are great and the characters are easy on the eye. Visually it has been pretty well defined to make it easy to watch. I love the voice actors (especially for Yuzu) and really get drawn in by the clean visuals and fitting voices.

Overall PLEASE GIVE CITRUS A CHANCE. Episode one is uncomfortable and that is a big flaw of the anime I won't doubt. However it is a romance that is different to a typical shoujo and is certainly unique in its execution. Citrus isn't for everyone, and it isn't even the best anime airing right now, but it is enjoyable and I will happily finish the season; hope you do too!

2018 was Year of the Yuri for GL fans.
Bloom Into You introduced a dramatic story about seemingly one sided love.
Happy Sugar Life brought back a yandere MC with a loli complex.
And Citrus gave it's shot at stepsisters falling in love.

Citrus kind of fell flat for me for a couple reasons:
-It has the Stawberry Panic problem of characters throwing themselves at eachother.
-The drama is played up but it's hard to empathize with the MC's love interest.
-The third arc takes the pacing of the show and fucks it up with weaker characters and a poorly delivered message about loving something enough to let it go.

The story is ... intriguing, obnoxious teenager thrown into a school after her mom remarries. Everyone else is completely bland and boring. She proceeds to break every rule she can and stands out among the student body. Later, it's revealed that her mom married the father of her new stepsister, who happens to be president of the student council and granddaughter to the chairman of the academy. The two girls struggle with their feelings for each other, unsure of whether they are romantic, sisterly, or an obligation.

I felt the character designs for the main cast were really good, but the background characters are so bland it's as if the rules of the school were written around a lack of an artistic vision rather than necessity.

Overall, Citrus is a mixed bag.
There are plenty of yuri moments if that's all you want out of it.
But character development is slow and even after an arc is finished you can be left annoyed with the way the characters handled their situation.

Summary: mediocre the anime.

Cheap, derivative, manipulative, highly-polished nonsense.

Frankly, I surprised myself that I was able to struggle though this one. Perhaps it was just Yuzu's character design and the ever present blushes. I'm a cheap date apparently.

Full of generic characters, and a nonsense story line it is really not worth your time....and if I could have mine back too, that'd be great.

additional characters required...surely an anime like this doesn't required much typing to describe, rate and review. At best it is fluff and fantasy wish fulfillment, which isn't always a bad thing and the animation isnt really all that bad - high praise, I know.

The only people who will probably say Citrus is really good are those who are into pseudo-incestual lesbian/yuri stuff. THAT SAID, this series ended up being better than I thought it would.

For some reason, every studio seemingly insists on hitting you hard with the overtly perverted vibes early on, which will probably be off-putting to anyone new to anime or to this type of genre. Underneath all of that, though, is something of a story about struggling to convey emotions and dealing with societal/family expectations. The writers ended it in a way that gave some closure, but left the story open for continuation. I wouldn't ... be too surprised if we get a second season late next year.

The opening theme is good, as was the score. There was occasional ugly animation, but that can be said most series, so we'll call it the norm. Overall, fairly pretty, and fairly enjoyable if you're into romantic dramas. If not, it's probably best to pass this one up.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with "Citrus" I'm not really big on the genre in the first place and my initial thoughts were to expect the worst.

However, after completing the show, I can confirm that it exceeded my expectations, I didn't think the show was bad, but that doesn't mean I thought it was good.

So obviously the whole "Step sibling incest" thing is a bit of a cliché within anime. I'm not particularly fond of it myself, I just find it a bit weird, I know that it floats some people's boat, but not mine. Because of this, the show had ... this slightly weird feel to it. I probably would of liked the romantic angle of this show a lot more if I wasn't reminded every 5 minutes that they're sisters.

One area where I think the show really did do well was in the visuals. the show looked really good and the animation was fluid and pleasing to the eye. it's definitely the best thing about Citrus.

The sound was decent. I enjoyed the voice acting and there were a couple of stand out tracks from the soundtrack. However I wasn't particularly fond of either the opening or ending theme. I never usually skip opening themes but I found myself doing so on Citrus on more than one occasion.

The characters in Citrus are a mixed bag. For example I really enjoyed Yuzu as a main character, she was fun and silly, but also had her share of emotional moments that I feel made her a well rounded character. She also had a great chemistry with her friend Harumin, who was always there to lighten the mood.

Unfortunately, I can't really say the same for Yuzu's love interest, Mei. She seemed very one dimensional and often lacked any emotion. I know this is her character trait, but I didn't really feel any need to try and look deeper into her character that what was shown on the surface. I also don't particularly agree with her method of seduction but that's a whole different story.

There were some genuinely good moments in the show. Times where the drama felt real and like it really mattered. The humour is good. It looks great and had a few likeable characters.

However, there were a lot of moments that I felt just didn't really make sense or just were forgettable in general. The soundtrack was a mixed bag of good tracks and completely forgettable or overused tracks, and the whole show I feel was just tainted slightly by the slightly odd romantic incest angle.

And really, that is Citrus in a nut shell. It has a few standout moments, but overall, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I give Citrus a 5/10.

if you like having blue balls from back and forth will they do it? won't they do it? will some character development finally stay true and not be completely disregarded 2 seconds later?

then this is the anime for you

honestly, i was watching this since i was curious to see how shoujo ai romance is handled but the appeal is mostly fanservice at this point, plot is garbage and frankly it gets really annoying.


tldr; if you like lesbian fanservice and don't care about a shitty romance plot watch it
if not stay away; characters will just piss you off..

6/10 for fanservice lol

The premise is good, the characters are likeble and at the beginning there is some good drama with Mei family conflicting with Yuzu style. However I think Saburouta kind of put it to waste when she start recycling jealousy drama... But that critc fits more the Manga, since the anime didn't went that far on the story.
At first glance the Anime is visually beautiful, nice colors and character design that translate well Saburouta style, but at second glance, the amount of bad CG on the background is depressing.
Op and Ed are great, one of my favorites of every Anime, can't get tired of listening to ... it. On the other hand the background theme get repetitive sometimes and it is easy to noticed that they are trying to force a dramatic climax using the music.
As I said the original story is great but kind of waste it's potential by repeating dumb jealousy drama, the anime adapted 3 of those repetitive arcs, but the first family conflict arc and the father arc are really good, and of the jealousy arcs the Matsuri is my favorite, because she is cute. Also the anime kind of disfigured some key plot points of the Manga, which was kind of upsetting, for exemple the scene where Yuzu give Kumagoro to Mei is switched for Mei's father giving it to her.
Overall, it is an enjoyable Anime to watch if you don't want to think much about it.

I won't go into political statements like other reviewers as it does not fit this anime whatsoever and frankly, it's unneeded.

Citrus in a nutshell is a manga adaptation badly done, rushed and at times bland.
It doesn't do anything too badly but doesn't do it right either. At the end of the show Mei is still a enigma, Yuzu doesn't go into depth as a character past the first impressions and everyone else seems to be there just for the ride. No doubt this is the result of a rushed adaptation.

I can't recall a single song or OST that striked me as grandiose and ... the animation/art is what you would expect in every single other show.

This is the definition of an average anime that just so happens to be yuri, nothing more, nothing less.

Although the finale presented some excitable moments, it's still felt anti-climactic for the best part of the episode.
Obviously, romance themed anime in general tread a very bumpy road, it's Yuri equivalent fared no better and largely remained with those cringy awkward scenes where you question the likelihood of it actually happening in reality.
Not the greatest anime, and I'd be lying if I said there was no part of me here for the exaggerated Yuri tropes.
However, I do see it slated for a second season.

Recently there's been a movie release dates Love, Simon which explores homsexuality; I haven't watched it but what I've heard and from ... the clips I've seen is that of the closet mentality typical of people of that orientation and how to come to terms with it. This anime does not cover ihomosexuality from this perspective, which let me down; it's built a setting where towards those people around you it is a taboo, but when leaving that crowd it is a social norm i.e. the kisses that took place in public locations.

Now, this isn't homophobia, but at this moment of time even though strides have been made in equality for different orientations it has not compleely integrated with society yet; which is a shame.

Moving onto Japan, I've read up on Japan time and time again for various things (because of my interest in japan); historically, lords were allowed young boys (before maturity) as servants with which they could have intercourse with -however further research is pending, so don't take my word for it- what im getting at is this suggests sexual tolerance, but recent reports have suggested that there is a number of homosexuals in Japan who get into heterosexual relationships out of fear/humiliation/embarrassment.

In any case, such symptoms are naturally more severe in younger individuals, particularly because of expectations from parents, guardians, elders etc. So yeah, whilst it may be a harmless anime, it had the potential of helping homosexuals adjust and empower them by going through the same circumstances -of which it failed to do.

Apart from this rant, this anime in general had an average story but whatever me the most were that pedestrian themes of the anime had somehow elevated e.g. the glittery eyes, the flowing hair, the sadist, the dangerous rival, the silver haired wildcard...
It had everything, and everything was enhanced by the artwork.

From time to time. It was gripping. The suspense had my heart skip a beat. I made memes FFS. MEMES. And it was because I hated on the rival.
Then there was the calm... The quiet... The intimacy between the two protagonists (yuzuha and Mei it seems).
I'm a guy, not gonna lie, fingers crossed for some scenes to cross the threshold. Honestly, some scenes were on thin ice that I am not at fault. Some scenes were suggestive.

To summarise, the romance story was generic... Who cares, anime's a tendency to do that; but if you like borderline suggestive Yuri, I don't see why not.

Crean o no, este fue mi primera (Y capaz única) serie de genero "Yuri" que vi y que en el momento que hago esta review no he leído el manga que segun tengo entendí por comentario de tercero tiene material que no pudieron adaptar en susodicha adaptación. en fin ¡¡QUE EMPIECE EL ANALISIS!!

Historia (Story): 5
La historia trata de una adolescente enérgica y extravagante en cuanto a ponerse la ropa del día, llega a una preparatoria femenina en donde de repente... <<(*¡¡Plot Twist For Plot Twist!!*)>> (Lo que ya vieron almenos el primer episodio entenderán).
En fin, esta junto a otra chica, comparten polos ... opuesto, que a lo largo de la serie, sus formas de ser choca entre si o con personajes relacionadas con ellas. En si, este tipo de cosas puede ser visto en tu típico Shonen favorito en la que el prota tiene al obligatorio rival, solo que acá, en vez de agarrarse a golpes, suelen siempre a comerse a besos (En casi todos los capítulos). En varios casos, los sucesos tienen a caer en lo cliché del típico drama romántico (Amistad de la infancia, tercera en discordia, traumas infantiles, etc) sumado a la desesperante relación que tienen este duo haría que cualquiera "Droppeara" de inmediato la serie, en la que nos entrega un desenlace "Conformista" después de tantos problemas.

Estilo artístico (Art): 7
A pesar de verse algo genérico la animación es estable, a pesar de no ser destacable, en algunas escenas me sorprenden los aspectos lumínicos en cuanto al diseño de la ciudad, hasta lo hacian perecer un jodido Wallpaper. Aunque lo que si el uso de CGI, fue medianamente sutil, si ignoramos los estudiantes sin vida que salen en las tomas aéreas de la escuela o los trenes sacados de un juego de PS2.
En cuanto al diseño de personajes como ya mencione, es genérico. y siempre me incomodo el coloreado rosado en las piernas (Mayormente se nota más en Yuzu).

OST/ Seiyuus (Sound): 8
En cuanto a la banda sonora, fue normalona y no destacable, pero funciona en las escenas en la que las complementan. En cuanto a las voces, fueron buenas y supieron darle vida a los personajes, aunque siempre habra alguna voz que te sacara de tus casillas.

Personajes (Character): 4
En este apartado seré sincero, los personajes no fueron nada entrañables, Yuzu fue tu tipica chica buena samaritana con todos y la vez muy sumisa...demasiado diría yo. Y Mei, la peor del duo, en la que su personalidad me desespera, ya sea por su inestabilidad emocional en la que hace que la serie se alarge más de los debido, y la relación entre ellas se complique más. Luego están los secundarios que no aportan mucho y solo sirven de alivio después de escenas de besos entre las féminas.

Entretenimiento (Enjoyment): 8
Después de mencionar todos los problemas y cierto puntos a favor que tiene la serie, tengo que decir que supo mantenerme enganchado (Lo vi todo en un día ¡¡OMG!!), aunque peca de mostrarnos Flashbacks continuamente de sucesos del mismo capitulo, por lo que lo vuelve cansina ¬_¬
Y sus escenas "Hot" digamos que es su fuerte, aunque cae en darnos eso en casi toda la serie y que al final de tanto lió, sentís que la historia no avanzo mucho y que hasta la telenovela de tu madre hubiera concluido mejor.

En fin, no se si voy a seguir continuando de ver esta serie (Si le dan una segunda temporada) después de ciertos sentimientos encontrados junto a un hate que lleva mi yo critico, solo el futuro lo dirá.
- Atte. Your Partner Max