Citrus

SPOILER FREE and short

This is really realistic anime actually, and it has deeper meaning to the plot. Characters development did not occur in great scale because it has only 12 episodes . The main focus is on emotions and relationship between people. It has a lots of mature scenes (at least 15+) which can relate to more mature audience. I dont think everyone can get this anime. Message is based on current problems in society.
Although plot is not creative, message behind is solid.
Animation is on point, so is art. Sound was good.
The real question is, why did i rate it 6/10, it is because ... it has ALOT of unnecessary scenes at least for me.
In the end i was very very disturbed by the realism, i could not sleep 2 hours constantly thinking about anime.

Okay so I'll get straight forward to my experience with this anime but first of all I'd like to say that I haven't read the manga so I'm kinda clueless of how the plot was presented. Anyways, when I found Citrus and watched the first episode I was over the moon happy because I thought that I finally had found an anime I really could relate to on a personal level. Because of that I developed fond feelings for it as I watched the next 2 episodes. But after a while, I started to realize that Citrus really didn't make sense for me. I thought ... it was a little bit confusing how they decided to portray love with the scenes they included.

It was almost like they mixed up love with assault? They continued with this until the very end of the story. Don't get me wrong, I like when you show love through action and all that stuff, but throughout this anime it was almost like there only was action and no sincere words from the main characters towards each other that usually makes the watchers hearts melt in another way.

Also, I don't think you ever had a chance to get to know Mei enough. Even in the end of it, I still didn't get why Mei did certain stuff at certain points. Like for example at the end when she did some questionable things, they never explained anything that could have traumatized her to make her do such weird things (her being so obsessed with sex and "love"). The only reason I could find was her having a form of detachment disorder because of her dad, and now being obsessed with having someone fill in the gap that her dad left out (but I really don't know). Also following the other main Yuzu, you never got to know too much about her as a person either. Just about her problems with her sexuality, which can be good in someways but not if you want to do a series. I think in my opinion a series can't build up on one certain emotion (movies are better for such things).

The anime was also all about Yuzu and Mei which kinda is understandable since they're the mains, but I found it really sad since the other characters only existed for the sake of Yuzu's and Mei's relationship to develop. Like Yuzu's friend Harumi. I felt bad for her throughout the whole series and thought it was bad that they mistreated her all the time since she was so nice and Yuzu always seemed to complain about her feelings for Mei. It almost seemed like Yuzu's and Sara's friendship grew closer than Yuzu's and Harumi's which also felt bad since Yuzu only had known Sara for a few hours before they started to call each other "best friends" etc. This leads to my opinions circling Sara. In my opinion, she was the best character out there. Even though you didn't get to know a lot about her she always seemed so humble and nice all the time. You kind of misunderstand her though since stuff towards the end happens (SPOILERS: between her and Mei).

You always seemed to misunderstand the characters who interrupting Yuzu's and Mei's "thing" going on. Like how the presented Matsuri and Himeko felt really bad too. All they wanted was love but ended up being painted as creeps or really bad human beings. (Which you end up finding out in the end is false).

Although, I'd still say that I liked the ending (even though it seemed very rushed). As you watched it, it was really hard keeping track of the time since Sara (SPOILER) ended up expressing that she knew a lot about Mei after only dating her for what seemed for the viewers as (a day?).

So the things I did like a lot was probably the animation, the way of relating to Yuzu (if you've ever been a questioning gay girl hehe) and the ending. Hands down talking about the animation, I think it was really beautiful and also the main reason to why I continued to watch the whole thing.

I also I would've liked the anime better if the series was longer and gave us some more insight in the characters and more variation in the plot, or a movie that in some way both focused on the relationship but varied too. I really don't think I would recommend it if you really don't like that fanfic kind of vibe, cause that really was the vibe I was given while watching it. Also if you like the yuri theme or a pretty animated anime, I'd also recommend it.

It was okay half of the people who watched this didn't like it and the other half wishes there will be a season 2. I honestly enjoyed the manga way better. The anime was entertaining I think that even if you hated the anime you probably still felt like you needed to finish it because every moment something is going on and it is really quite exciting to watch! It was cool to see some of the moments animated! But overall the animation felt pretty cheap and dry, unlike the manga. The anime ended right when stuff was getting good too so that sorta sucked. ... But overall entertaining to watch but not really outstanding in anything else had a very solid storyline but it was something for sure.

Why is this random shoujo ai (I use that genre loosely) show called “Citrus?” Because the main character’s name is Yuzu, a fruit. Mystery solved! Moving on...

This show is absolutely gorgeous in a niche way. It celebrates Gyaru and high fashion. Everything has an over the top, warm sheen to it. I don’t know how else to describe it. Think Roppongi or Otemachi. It’s not even Harajuku, it’s classier than that. The art work reminds me of Peach Girl in that the characters all have style and everything is detailed in a way that must have been expensive to produce because there isn’t a “set” ... way for characters to look; they’re different every episode.

I’m not impressed with the storyline. From time to time you get a reason to keep watching. I was about to give up by the episode in which Yuzu invites Mei to visit her father, but it was such a great outcome. Which Yuzu predictably ruins by turning it into an excuse to go on a date with Mei. She is obsessed with Mei to the point that there is no other character development for her. She talks about how much she loves Mei, and everyone around her makes comments about the kind of person she is (caring/loving/selfless/great sister, etc.). It’s a cheap way to get out of actual character development. “If I tell you the character is like this, then we don’t actually have to do the thing.” It almost reminds me of the travesty that is Amnesia, where minor characters point something out that the viewers are never really exposed to. Most conversations in this anime involve Yuzu blushing hysterically, gushing about her feelings (or not feelings) for Mei, then Mei glaring/staring blankly/crying. Then the two trade very short lived ecchi moments before moving on to hurt each other again. It’s a headache.

Nothing special about the sound. Yuzu sounds annoyed and frustrated every time she opens her mouth. I think the show could have been drastically improved by edgy, cool music in the same tone as the art. But it wasn’t.

Nothing special here at all, unfortunately. If you want a good shoujo ai about star crossed high school girls, try Strawberry Panic.

Oh Citrus. This series may be the most debated over yuri anime of all time (Candy Boy is worse but lesser known). It is known for being controversial due to it being stepsisters who have just met along with some nonconsensual advances. Not every anime series especially yuri has to have characters without flaws. I am not condoning what happens in Citrus, but any of the major criticism online stops at those points.

I think everyone approaches this with well this is not a healthy relationship or representation, the show is awful. I think people who have not read the manga and went in blind ... were expecting it to be a wholesome show and are upset that it is not what they wanted a yuri anime to be. Yes, the anime community is starved for girls love, but not all of it is going to be amazing, perfect love stories.

Now let's get down to the anime content and quality itself. The art and soundtrack are really stunning. They are some of the best seen from a yuri series. My main issue is with how rushed the series was. Squeezing it into twelve episodes was not beneficial. They threw in some characters in briefly that felt out of place due to the series length. There are some weird conflicts thrown in at the end that could have been fleshed out in a 24 episode season.

If you are a yuri enthusiast, sure go for it and watch it. If you have issues viewing what I talked about in the first section, skip it.

Gave this a bad rating although i enjoyed it. It starts off really interesting but like so many anime fails to deliver at the end.

The story is weak, basically a lesbian relationship that gets stretched by challenges, it teases you with the promise of two people getting together which is common in other anime too.

The thing is that there's not really a backstory to one of the main characters, leaving you to wonder why she is acting this way, and it's never explained apart from her saying that it's just how she is.

There were parts where it got interesting, but it just went unexplained.
Holes in ... the story, that frustrate you.
Characters that seem to know everything from another character when they just met.
A highly unpredictable character that is unpredictable without reasons.
So much more that's wrong with this anime.
All to arrive at a "they lived happily ever after story".

To be fair, there are things like the interactions that felt really realistic and they did a good job on those and i found it at least enjoyable to binge watch this, however it's only worth watching this when you like to be teased with relationships, and don't mind being disappointment in the end.

Spoilers -->>

The part with the pink haired juvenile wanna be pimp confuses me the most, how does she know just by looking at Mei that she'd kiss just about anyone, and that she's twisted like that. And WHY in FREAKING hell does she just casually get away with blackmailing her into being a hooker and instantly gets forgiven by yuzu. ALSO we don't know how Mei dealt with her "client" either, no way in hell that he's just gonna walk away from free sex like that.

In the first five or so episodes I count about six cases of "sexual assault". Or at least what would be sexual assault by most western viewers. Yet you don't really feel a sense of outrage because in each case the victim's response is to swoon in a mock-Victorian way, and then get all horny about it within the next three scenes. Followed by some light self-contradictory angst, followed by more swooning.

The art is super low budget, technically pretty bad, but there is enough kitschy weirdness in it to raise it above the cost constraints.

The characters are kitschy but still pretty shallow.

The end of the ... anime isn't quite so good, the characters get a bit less creepy and when things start to make a fraction of a sense then the kitsch stops making up for the poor writing.

I still enjoy it though. It's groovy. Sort of...

The ending was extremely underwhelming, the characters felt terribly underdeveloped, and the pace wasn't that great, either. It was almost like they were trying too hard to keep the story interesting but at the same time didn't give the characters any effort at all. The characters' personalities felt messy and were missing a lot.

The most enjoyable thing about this anime? I'd say the art, and that's really about it. I wouldn't recommend this to any yuri fan really, as it was lacking in so many areas.

Overall rating: definitely a 5, was very close to giving it a 4

So let me just say..I liked this anime but to say I loved it is a bit of a stretch. If Im honest I found myself getting a headache once nearing the end..

Story- The story itself was rather straight forward and if Im honest annoying, It had alot of repetitive content assaulted love that always ended with the other not being interested, Roles reverse then ends the same way other girl not interested all of the sudden..Girls become close only to have a third wheel come along and try to ruin it..So repetitive and really just a headache to watch in one sitting.

Art- The art ... was fine sure it had some stupid scenery and the same backround girls doing the exact same thing throughout the anime, walking..But nothing bad.

Sound- I liked the music probably this animes strong suit the music added atmosphere to the whole anime.

Characters- Now this is when it gets bad..One of the main girls I could not stand she was annoying and just so confusion, I found myself sighing with each screentime she got..Considering she was one of the main girls it really wasn't good..Hard to enjoy an anime where a main character is just annoying and not fun to watch.. Not to mention the side characters where boring and a sore to watch also. The only character I liked was Yuzu who was pure until the end.

Overall I'd say this is one of the better Yuri animes out there true it has alot of down points but for 12 episodes it did keep me hooked until the end, I wish I could of liked it more but yeah I cant see myself watching this again and if for some reason a season 2 does come out, I cant find myself watching it.

To sum Citrus up: it wasn't enough. I was hoping for girls consensually kissing, girls discovering their sexualities, family bonds being re-tied, reserved people making friends…but I clearly expected too much.

The main reason that I rated Citrus higher than my review might suggest is because the art style’s beautiful and I was able to push aside a lot of the things that bothered me, to a certain extent. Citrus also has a lot of potential, which is why I’ll probably be reading the manga in hopes that it can offer me everything that the anime didn’t.

Let’s start with the most obvious problem. ... Why the flipity fuck has Yuzu not met the man who her mother’s supposed to marry? I know this happens in a couple of anime, but it never fails to piss me off. Like, who was at the wedding? Did the mum just run off with some guy for a few months then come back married? I need a justification.

That point aside, Citrus starts off with the potential for a very interesting plot line but then spirals down into a tedious, generic story.
Mei has daddy issues, people try to get in the way of their relationship and that’s pretty much the entire plot.
The first four (or was it six?) episodes are very enjoyable and they had me seriously anticipating the next stage- the moment when the plot was going to get real deep. It didn’t happen. Those first few episodes focus mostly on family dynamics, but the moment Yuzu realises her feelings for Mei, it becomes a case of other girls getting in the way. Over and over again, that’s all there is: two episodes centring around one girl who wants to separate them, then the next two centring around another girl who wants to keep them apart and the cycle’s never-ending.

In some anime, sexual harassment’s not talked about as an issue. To enjoy these, there’s a need to acknowledge that what’s happening’s terrible but still look past it. I know. Not an easy thing. But it’s the case for Citrus. Mei, Yuzu, and multiple other girls touch and kiss each other without consent- when the person’s vocally and physically resisting their advances- and I was hoping that this anime would actually talk about it, seeing that it’s a recent one. But no. Shitty excuses are given and the affair’s never to be mentioned again. In fact, it’s kinda romanticised. Nevertheless, as much as it disgusted me, I managed to not let the sexual harassment bother my watching experience.

There’s, ironically, a serious lack of discussion about sexuality. I first thought that Yuzu was straight- seeing the way she fawned over boys- and hoped to watch her discover her sexuality. Then, because she accepted her crush over Mei so fast, I assumed she was bi. But then, suddenly, in the later episodes, she pulls out the infamous line: “Liking girls isn’t normal.” Excuse me- what? Where did this come from? And the worst part’s that this statement never comes back again! I was so confused! Are you questioning your sexuality? Are you homophobic? Are you already bi?

The characters truly are the saving grace of this anime. Well, their relationships are. The friendship dynamics are heart-warming (Harumi’s friendship goals, the girl seriously deserved more screen time) and the conversations are amusing enough. There’s just not enough of it. The series is so focussed on Mei and Yuzu that the interesting relationships I actually cared about were explored so little.

Individually, the characters are well fleshed out, but again, just like this entire anime, not enough. I wanted to learn more about them as people, instead of how horny they were. Mei’s a meh main character; Yuzu, though, is a protagonist worth talking about…

Yuzu’s the typical high school girl who loves fashion, going out with her friends and cooking (She’s actually referred to as “the perfect wife”- I shit you not- I wanted to throw up). Despite her slightly trope- filled personality, I enjoyed her character a lot, thanks to her daring attitude. However, that attitude quickly withers away as she spends most of the episodes, her head in her hands, whining about Mei, Mei and Mei. The latter’s the only thing on Yuzu’s mind, to the point that she could look at a fucking table, or a bright orange lamp and somehow draw a parallel to her sister. I’m not sure if it’s an illness or a superpower.
Here are some un-canon things that Yuzu would surely say:
“Oh look a floor- Mei walks on floors”
“Hey there’s my old friend, I wish that Mei was my friend *cries*”
“Let’s go to Karaoke- Mei doesn’t go to karaoke’s…”.

TL DR and lack of spoilers: It's cute and sweet but is far from an impressive piece of art. It's particular problems are a repitition of the same general conflict and the sexual-assaulty way Yuzu and Mei start off their relationship.

How I got to this point:
I finally got around to finishing this anime at the dawn of the new year mainly because of the manga. I got impatient with wanting to see what happened with the story as to was airing so I saught out the manga, caught up with what I had watched in anime form and quickly started to get annoyed at the ... plot, and promptly dropped it (I'll explain why a bit later). I did finally pick it up again as I was busy with personal things but I also don't want a story to stay unfinished in my mind.

The story:
It's difficult to explain what I liked and disliked about a story without explaining the story, so I summed it up in the beginning if you want to avoid me spoiling it for you. This is also the lion-share of my review so you have been warned.

The Citrus anime, imo both benefits and suffers from not adapting the entire manga. While I have not yet read the whole thing myself, the reason why I stopped is also the way I think the anime improves on its sourse material - too many girls are in love with Mei or Yuzu. I stopped reading the manga after the forth coflict in a row was revealed to be "this girl is in love with one of the main couple". I was like: "Oh come on! DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" The anime thankfully stops at the third one but I think the story would have been better for it if they had dropped one of the three - Himeko's being my choice.

The story also has a problem right out of the gate as well. I mentioned at the start that I have some misgivings about how Mei and Yuzu start off their interactions and the topic is concent.

Yuzu first encounters Mei on her first day at her new school when Yuzu unknowingly violates the dresscode and is confronted about it by members of the student council at the gate. Mei being the council president sees this and conducts a quick search of Yuzu's clothes for her smartphone as it is off limits to carry a phone into the school grounds and confiscates it. I didn't take this bit very seriously as I though the sensual way in which it was shown was intended to be taken as Yuzu's perspective and that she was just taking it as more sexual that it actually was (Mei was just looking for her phone after all) because she didn't realize she was into girls yet.

The real problematic part is when they are at home and Mei, completely out of the blue pushes Yuzu on her back and gives her a very long kiss. This is another instance of sexual interactions under dubious concent, unfortunately common among yaoi works of fiction as well. It's rather hard to judge whether this was against Yuzu's will or not - at one point she starts kicking and knocks over a case of make up, on the other hand when the two of them finally part lips they are both visibly out of breath so it could be that Yuzu was only struggling because she was running low on air. The anime (and, if I'm not misremembering, the manga as well) makes no attempt to clarify which is it and just leaves it up to interpretation. I'd rather go with the lack of oxygen as it means that Yuzu isn't in love with a family member who sexually assaulted her.

Their next "romantic" interaction comes up after they fall into a pool of water outside and need to take a shower together. Mei makes another unambiguously sexual advance on Yuzu who this time pushes her aways but doesn't bring up the issue of whether or not that kiss was consentual and instead only wants to ask about the mixed messages she's been getting from Mei. The story keeps side-stepping the issue instead of adressing it but I've seen much more blatantly rapey interactions between romantic couples in anime so it's thankfully not that bad.

The plot-point about Mei's grandfather was very good but I think it came much too early in the story. It's the first conflict after Yuzu and Mei meet and what flows it is 3 of the same conflict back to back, it would have been much better passing to have it happen in-between 2 of those, preferebly as the second-to-last conflict as it actually has by far the highest stakes.

These last few have been factors it shares with the sourse material, but I do need to bring one particular scene in the manga as I think the show is worse off for not having it.

The story opens with Yuzu chatting with some of her female friends about her transfer and in the manga she meets up with them again. At that point she's pretty sure she's in love with Mei and during that second conversation, the two girls she's talking to show that they have some pretty overtly homophobic views. This really hammers home the point that a lot of people would view even her interest in girls as unnatural much less her step-sister. I don't remember the manga very clearly, but I'd be shocked and disappointed if this point in particular goes unadressed. It's a very real conflict with very real stakes no matter how it is dealt with.

But I criticize because I care and I recognize that there is merit to the story the writer is trying to tell. At the core of it is the question "What is love?" not just "Will they get together?" as it usually is in this genre.

The art:
There isn't really much to talk about here. The animation is basic for the most part - nothing that will blow your mind, but nothing distractingly bad that I've noticed. The animators did put in a bit more effort than the usual for an anime in the characters eyes. And any credit regarding the design of the characters themselves, with is good btw, would be due to the sourse material. There is a bit of same-face syndrome going on here with the girls, but that's all really.

The sound:
... Is not my forte of analysis, so I'll leave this one alone. I gave it a 5/10 because the tracks did stand out too much to me and I can't really say much about it.

The characters:
This links with my opinion of the story itself as while it does iritate me that so many characters are just third wheels (... or forth... or fifth) to the relatioship we follow, I will grant points here for at least making them feel like seporate characters that go about splitting the main pair in different ways and different reasons for liking the one that they do. This goes a long way to mitigate the problem with the same-y conflicts.

My enjoyment:
I found it an overall enjoyable show despite the times when it annoyed me and I didn't find the ambiguity of concent here as problematic as it could have been and it happened only at the start of the story and other interactions were much more clear cut with how consentual they were.

Primarily in Citrus though common in many Shouji Ai series the viewer needs to abandon moral judgement in order to make the series enjoyable. The idea of “Citrus” is mostly unrealistic in it’s general concept and presentation of the series which touches on potentially sensitive subject matter, and without separating the show from reality, it may be troublesome for some viewers to comfortably sit through the series, never mind enjoy it.
While this subject matter was not an issue to me, it most likely was to many viewers, hence the scoring being below a seven on MAL when most potentially “bad anime” to the general ... population can generously receive a seven or higher. However, the use of this subject matter or the way it’s presented doesn’t reflect my score of “Citrus”, I just personally see many flaws in other parts of the show that made it exceptionally less enjoyable overall.
“Citrus” by many of it’s top rated viewers praise the series on it’s strength in story progression and character development, which I personally saw little of. Though I am aware of it’s adaptation being a manga, and have not delved into the manga myself, this may have been the issue with the adaptation in terms of the lack of progression in story and characters. Potentially as by much of the audience who have read and watched the series said it adapted much of the mange “well” or “correctly”, it may have also adapted some of the manga’s issues, however I’m not too sure myself.
The storyline in “Citrus” didn’t progress much farther off than the issue from the first episode: whether Yuzu or Mei would get together. And yes, while this is typically an okay concept for a twelve-episode anime to cover, the progression made it seem like as soon as they should be together, something (most commonly a character) got in their way and their feelings resulting emotion and overall progression of their relationship went back to square one, over and over again. I personally felt as if I watched the first and twelfth episodes of “Citrus” that would be the story, and everything in-between had minimal to no impact on the storyline after the “arc” was over and was like it hadn’t ever been an issue in the first place.
Like the storyline, this is what created ineffective side characters in “Citrus” and though yes, side characters are often introduced to progress the plot, they never really did. I felt as if I could go into “Citrus” without meeting the majority of their side characters and that would completely be fine. One after another, a side character was introduced into the story as a block between Mei and Yuzu’s relationship, and once that was settled everything went back to normal, and they either a) never appear again, or b) remain supportive of Mei and Yuzu’s relationship like they just could’ve been to begin with. Even major characters such as Yuzu and Mei have minimal character development themselves until the last episode, while in-between after every conflict any progression we saw from either disappeared.
So, while lack of storyline and characterization was an issue for me, one thing that kept me around in “Citrus” was the fanservice. And while many criticize its consistent use of it throughout the anime, I felt as the way it was presented was the only thing that kept me interested, as it was so raw and often did have reason through the plot.
However, apart from this, there’s little I can praise of “Citrus”.
If you watch anime purely for the enjoyment, while that be in “Citrus” through fanservice, a yuri relationship, or what have you, this anime will surely interest you, and I highly recommend as one of the “Guilty pleasure” watches. Otherwise it’s not positive you’ll find much enjoyment through this anime through the use of storytelling and plot development.
However, by the end of “Citrus” I personally believe the entire audience may question why it’s called that in the first place.

Citrus is kind of a bad show in the way that its presented. The main character is basically just a thirsty high school anime girl that wants in her new stepsister's pantsu entirely because she stole her first kiss. Now i'm all for ideas revolving around the fluid nature of human sexuality, but that sounds like a bit of a stretch. Especailly in almost every scene before the kiss, she's stupid boy crazy. Almost always complaining or asking about the lack of guys at her new all-girls school. Which would be fine, if yuzu was seen spending more time mulling over her sexuality than ... "I kissed a girl and I liked it" so i'm gay now. It just feels unrealistic to be honest. Though given that same token im a cis-het man so id say its more than fair that my opinions on that are less than adequately informed.

However! Where this show truly fails is the aftermath of the kiss. Where the stepsister, consequently the actual most intruiging character in the show, is made to put up with typical harem trope bullshit from her sister and childhood best friend, (Up to and including attempted sexual assault by episode 5) that I really feel she should be the only character in this show. If this show followed a loner high school president with MASSIVE and I mean MASSIVE daddy issues who basically is forced to move from home to home throughout childhood due her papa-san's delinquency from responsibilities. Well, that would certainly be a show I'd be down for.

That all being said, if you just came to see two beautifully animated girls make out then you've come ot the right place. Lets all have a party when we get thrown in prison together, okay? I'll bring the streamers made out of unused toilet paper.

TL;DR: Anime is trash and so am I :5/10

I'm always excited by the idea of a new shoujo-ai series coming out, simply because there aren't many and within those few that exist, there aren't many good ones. So I allowed myself to get excited, only to have my expectations drop lower and lower with every episode.

Story & Characters:

warning: If you're looking for a legit gay story, this isn't gonna cut it for you. Although the material is there, after all, Yuzu does struggle with her feelings and identity, that's all there is to it.

This is the typical pseudo-incest love story, which I have no issue with at all. The protagonist Yuzu is ... likeable, she's aloof and reckless and for once found myself enjoying this personality type especially when in stark-contrast to her step-sister Mei. Mei is the girl of a few words, the silent type. But there's a fine line between writing an observant, introspective character and a bland,robot that is devoid of feelings or reason. This is where Citrus starts to falter.

There's no communication between the characters, they are both supposed to understand each other's feelings via psychic abilities (which by the way, none of them have). Instead, we have a bunch of sexual harassment scenes which will might make the viewer uncomfortable or confused. In Citrus' defense that's how such a situation should feel, so it does that well. But it does it too much as an excuse for lack of conflict.
The antagonists are both painfully annoying stereotypes, that for a lack of a better term, will make you want to claw your eyes off. The conflict which these girls bring also revolve around sexual harassment or blackmail. Surprise (!)
Finally, however, when it introduces an interesting point of conflict that differs from the distasteful tone of the story so far, it does it too late and we only have two episodes to explore this area which led to an extremely disappointing ending.

Animation:

Key frames are nice, otherwise it's bland. Typical use of ugly ass CG for cars, buildings and npcs around the world.

It has some raunchy scenes, it's love between girls and it's (pseudo) incest. It had everything to be great, but alas, it's an average watch with many frustrating moments. The very end of the last episode did something which I want to applaud, which I will not go into detail to avoid spoilers, but it is explicit in the intention that our protagonists have towards each other. That is something that many girl's love series won't do. But what a shame that it took 12 episodes and 21 minutes to get to that point.

If you ever wanted to watch a romance as trashy as Domestic Girlfriend but with yuri relationships instead of just non-blood-related incest, here you go. I say trashy, but it's like a classy kind of trash. Trash that's been spit-shined and polished to be nearly presentable. The kind of trash you might even put out on display on your mantel to show the world. I think I'm losing the metaphor, the point is that I'd have to be awfully cynical to dismiss this show as having nothing of value in it.

I think it's funny how in yuri works like this it's rarely even a consideration ... that they're both girls once they've decided they like each other. What I mean is that the supposed taboo here is not so much the fact that it's a girl on girl relationship, but the fact that they're step-siblings. I mean I guess either would be pretty spicy on its own, but I just felt more emphasis was given to the whole incest angle being bad. Is it really that much of a foregone conclusion as all girl high schools that some of those girls are going to hook up with each other? I don't know.

I guess I don't really have any deep analysis or profound insights to give. I found myself not all that interested in the plot around the time I watched this. I'll admit the only reason I watched it in the first place is because of the yuri and my head space at the time was just wanting to watch some girls kissing girls. It delivers on that aspect at least, but when your in it for just that the drama feels like its just getting in the way and pointlessly drawing out the run time. So I was bored, mostly. Perhaps I'll give the series another go some time in the future but I really have no desire to at the moment. I give it a 6/10

Citrus is like the grapefruit video that went viral a few years ago, it had it's moments here and there, but I wouldn't want to watch it again. The story was passable and had a couple of moments that actually made me go woah, but other than that, it failed to continued to engage me. Character depiction is mostly ehhhhh, and disappointingly does not improve upon the tropes. The opaque soundtrack is mostly basic and nothing that will blow you away. The art direction follows the same trends. Overall, I guess you could watch it? I know I won't be recommending it though.

Oh man, I hate to do this review, I really do. All I have to say is: Thank you for Studio Passione for the making the most out of the source materials available. The source material was not that bad in the beginning; in fact, I quite enjoy the early episodes. However, as you can see in the anime, the wheels just FELL RIGHT OFF in its second half.

Sound & Art : 9/10. Again, thank you for Studio Passione as they've done all they can for this anime.

Story: 5/10. oh boy.
At first, it's your standard yuri anime. With the standard trope: step sisters! The flow ... of the first six episodes were quite exciting to be honest. The best episode of this anime had to be episode 6. Honestly, watch that episode, then stop watching afterwards, cause there is nothing else worth staying in this anime. The story just became more unrealistic, and more frustrating to keep up with. The seeds are planted first with that train scene in episode 5 (you know which one). Then, Mei just decided to become a harem MC for like 3 episodes straight, it's trash.

Character: 5/10
Nothing else to tell about the characters. They're all damaged goods at the end.

Enjoyment: 6/10
God bless Harumin for being there, she's the only character worth staying for.

TL;DR thank God for Bloom into You for not making this anime the Yuri Anime of The Year.

After watching the first six episodes of this anime, I was thinking to myself it would score a rare 10/10 from me. It was extremely well-written, the characters were well-thought out and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Then came episode 7. Oh, dear.

Why do so many Japanese writers suffer from an uncontrollable urge to add an annoying nuisance character half way through and ruin all their hard work? We've seen it so many times. Well, Citrus does this in some considerable style. The last six episodes were about as enjoyable as sandpapering your buttocks. A younger character with ... a vile personality joins the show in episode seven and serves no purpose other than to get in the way. She's so irritating, I lost all interest in the show and getting to the end was a struggle. After such an excellent start, my rating dropped from a ten to a six. Ten for the first half of the anime, two for the second half; averaging out at six.

Would I recommend this show to anyone? Put it this way, I'd recommend watching the first six episodes; after which, you might as well bin it.

I'll make this short and spoiler-free.

I had started watching Citrus a while back (the first few episodes) and having an interest in the story, decided to read the manga and compare both. To my great demise, I am utterly disappointed in the fact that there are only about 16 out of the 50 chapters of the manga that were adapted. I found the manga intriguing, exciting and had quite an emotional time binge-reading all of it. I personally found the pacing adequate and the ending relatively believable and satisfying.

I then decided to continue watching the Anime adaptation, and to my surprise, there's simply a fat ... chunk of the story that's been completely left out and wasn't adapted. I was looking forward to watching it animated, anticipating what kind of music or atmosphere would be used to depict the scenes I had such a great time imagining and picturing in my mind. Alas, my hopes were unfulfilled and crushed as I watched, episode after episode, telling myself time and time again "only a couple episodes left, no way they adapted everything.. I hope they did though..". So, I'm very disappointed about that, and that's what impacted my enjoyment the most. Nonetheless, the adaptation was good in my opinion, the art and characters reflect what I had imagined whilst reading the manga. And the story pretty much follows the chapters in order, but there's like 70% of it missing, so yeah. I didn't really get emotional whilst watching, even though I did when reading, and I'm usually the kind of person that gets teary eyes easily when watching romance/drama.

The only redeeming qualities of this adaptation are the Art, the animation fluidity and the OP that's pretty great, in my opinion. Otherwise, what a waste of an opportunity to adapt a good manga. It needed a 24 episode season at the very least.

If you want to know how it (truly) ends, you have to read the manga. Actually, just read the manga, it's better that way, you get the full story and the same great art, minus the animation/music/sounds. Anyway, since I doubt there's going to be a sequel to this adaptation, I'm going to cherish the memories I've made within myself when reading the manga and imagining what it'd actually look like animated.

This anime was literally made for horny straight boys, and its awful. The characters are super one-dimensional and it almost feels like Yuzu and Mei weren't even in a relationship. The only interactions you get of these girls being "romantic" are kiss scenes and touchiness. They barley talk, they always complain, and its just not that healthy of a let alone FRIENDSHIP. Half of the anime, it's bullcrap love triangles that all go like
"oH I lOVE _____ i'm gonna ruin your relationship with ____ so you can be with MEEEEE".
It just wasn't interesting, time to look for other Yuri anime.
Oh, the art just looked ... gross. Their blush and eyes did not need to be so over exaggerated.