Urahara

In the writing of this review, I noticed one big problem, spoilers. As you can probably guess from my rating of this show there is a whole lot going on here and there is so much more of it than what one would expect at first glance. The issue is, it’s hard to convey all of that without going into what happens later on. And so what I can do is tell you what I think this show does well, while sometimes the why will be somewhat obscured, I will do my best to convey what I can. The main thing that you should know ... is that Urahara manages to do a whole lot of amazing things.

One of the unique things about fiction is it’s ability to connect to people. There is something powerful about stories that not just remind us of our own lives but those that can add even more meaning to them, or present something in a way that just facts can’t. When one looks through people’s favorite anime it’s usually filled with all sorts of anime that have reached out to the viewer in question, at least in some way. While it’s not the hallmark of a good anime, it’s a very good trait for a show to be able to do that.

Urahara is a show about young creatives in every sense of the word. It’s not just that the characters are young artists themselves but rather that the whole series is filled up with style and creativity that matches up with the subject matter they’re talking about. Every part of the show connects to the two main themes of the show and their representation. To say why they are so brilliant, it needs to be understood why they are that way, and how it reflects on the subject matter and themes of the work.

Let’s start with the art and the animation. The best way to describe the art of the show is by stating that it’s aesthetic. So very aesthetic. While the animation itself can be simple and lacking at times, the background is almost always detailed and filled with all sorts of random items that may or may not fit in naturally. Things like floating sweets and random tanukis sometimes make up the backdrop. And then there is all of the color. There is never a dull frame in the show as pretty much every frame is a colorgasm with each object radiating its own color. Frequently lines aren’t connected together but rather are loosely drawn close enough.

Each person will react to that differently. aesthetic for the most part is a matter of taste. While some won’t enjoy the chaoticness of the screen and its focus on colors rather than animation there are others like me, who love the aesthetic. But the brilliance of it isn’t related to whether I like it or whether someone else doesn’t but rather how it’s able to relate to its themes. First off it perfectly melds in with the setting. Harajuku is the capital of kawaii and creativity in Japan. There people who dress up in all sorts of wild and interesting styles in order to carve out something unique. Which is exactly what Urahara does with its art. Whether one likes it or not it’s hard to deny that there is no anime that looks exactly like Urahara. Furthermore, lots of kawaii art features the same sort of ideas: lots of colors, lots of random cute items, a cute cluttered mess. I remember looking through various kawaii art books in stores and often there was a common trend of filling up the page with all sorts of random colorful items. So in a city that is focused on that kawaii aesthetic, that is colorful and norm-breaking itself, Urahara lives up to that with its own unique artistic style. Not only carving out its own niche but also in representing its subject matter in a way most anime couldn’t even dream of.

It's not just the art that is able to live out its themes but it’s also the story that connects well with its themes. On its face, it’s a simple story about some girls who try to defend the place that they love. Which is fine but doesn’t look notable. That is until one looks at what that means and how that relates to the story as a whole. Urahara is just as much about these girls protecting the place they love, as it is about creators protecting their creations and their imagination from the pressures of those outsiders.

This is further proven by the enemy that they face, the scoopers. They’re basically aliens that only know how to steal. They can’t create and so they steal the works of others to use as their own. This basically goes into one of the issues of being a creative. Especially if someone wants to be able to profit from their works. When art becomes a business there is a lot of murky details that get added into the discussion. The artist isn’t allowed to just do what they want but rather they have to live up to what the audience wants or else they won’t be able to get profits and they’ll fade into obscurity broke. The mirror, in this case, is the scoopers are the consumers while the three girls are the creators. Consumers are interested in nice things that they can take and enjoy. The artist’s intent and thoughts behind it no longer matter as much. Each consumer is going to use the product in a different way, and have different thoughts about it. In a sense, publishing one’s work is also letting one’s work be stolen. If one were to keep it to themselves it would be theirs and only theirs forever, but once it floats into the public it’s no longer that simple.

This cuts into one of the core issues that the girls have to deal with. The difference between doing what they want and doing things for attention. In a perfect world one would be able to have both, but sadly this isn’t a perfect world. One can either do what they want and get nowhere or do what other’s want and be successful. Trust me, this is a pretty significant problem in the art community. Any artist who does both fanwork and Original Creation drawings will know this. While the fanworks is usually drenched with praise and love, the Original Creations are often ignored. People want to see what they like. It’s understandable but it puts the content creators in an interesting position. Do they compromise themselves to please others or do they go with their heart? The girls have this issue throughout the show and face it in multiple ways.

The characters too face the issues of creators and each represents multiple parts of creation and what is needed for it. One of the brilliant parts of the characters is their ability to not just be good characters with flaws and pros, but also to be examples of both main themes of Urahara. With regards to Urahara’s musing on creating each of the girls represents a different part of creation. They each have different skills whether it be social skills, knowledge, or pure creative talent that makes them a good unit together. But more incredible than that is how accurately they are able to represent the young creative lifestyle.

First off the character designs do this well. They are quite varied and show the unique personality of each of the girls in what they wear and look like. The accessories, like the cat ears and tail, and oni horns may seem out of place, but this is the land of Harajuku were weird creative things exist. Furthermore, on the internet, I have often seen creatives using sonas as a representation of themselves rather than using something "truer" to themselves. I feel like this is what the designs of Rito and Kotoko are. Representations of themselves based off of their imaginations. It fits with the characters they are and the scene that they’re in.

Second, the interactions between the girls and their character traits also show this well. Often times they’ll do weird things or just do whatever they feel like just because they want to do it. This is best shown in the first episode when Rito decides to meow like a cat in order to get a cat's attention. It’s a bit weird, but it’s something that I’d expect. In fact, one of the most amazing things about these characters its how real they feel to me. Especially Rito. They remind me of various people I’ve observed in the past. As well as their bonds. There’s this rapport in creative groups, and often times there is a pattern of collaboration of support that is gotten from them. They become close friends and with that comes encouragement and the desire to see them succeed. The way the characters interact feels very genuine like they really do care about each other from the bottom of their hearts. When things go well they’re willing to lay it all down for each other and help what they can. This too reminds me of how I’ve seen others act. However even with all of this niceness that doesn’t stop them from having issues. All three of them have issues that lie underneath the character. These issues are explored adeptly and show what sort of problems can arise from this creative struggle. The path of a creative is a hard one. What is success? What is good enough. It's not like other paths where there can be one simple answer. It's murky, and with murkiness, there's so many opportunities for something to look off. And those things are the sources of their issues. The anime does a very good job of painting a complete picture of who these girls are.

All in all, Urahara is a complete package. Not only does it have good characters that are great to root for, but it has a strong compelling story that not only stands as being entertaining but also has a lot of value with the message of the show. Added to that it’s unique art style and the aspects of the young creative’s life that are rarely touched upon so well. There’s a lot here. Every idea in this anime was well thought out. It’s all on purpose. The characters, the art, the sound, the story, they all come together to tell a compelling story, muse on its themes, and be relatable. At the end of the day that’s what it was to me. A show that was able to show the struggles of being a creative, and most importantly being a young creative. I felt many of the struggles they went through. I could relate to them all. And it felt so much like times I’ve spent before. It feels nostalgic in so many different ways. As I said from the start, one of the amazing things about fiction is it’s ability to connect to people. And this show most certainly connected to me. And while it did that, it also got me to love the characters, the setting, the style, and everything about it. I don’t know how it was able to capture all of this so well, while also providing meaning, but I am in awe. I don’t know if I’d label it a masterpiece but it’s pretty dang close to one. But I can say for sure that this is one of my absolute favorite shows, and for me well deserving of a 10.

Note: This review contains minor spoilers.

Urahara is a highly entertaining joyride rich in craze and color. However, its inexperienced staff fails to blend its creative concepts in a cohesive fashion.

Set in Harajuku, the show does a great job at adopting the district’s zany culture. It celebrates art and creativity, both of which are sought after by the Scoopers - the alien invaders threatening to steal all of Earth’s culture and creativity. What initially seems like trivial tale of weekly mahou shoujo-esque monster-of-the-week turns out to be a commentary on what constitutes creativity and the relation of artist and popularity. The transition between the two may ... have been aptly foreshadowed, but still ends up feeling rushed and jarring; the second half puts a nice bow on the show as a whole, but the surprisingly cruel twists end up clashing with its overall silliness.

However, that is not to say that the show doesn’t stay entertaining at all times.
The monster-of-the-week format of the first half is carried by its short and simple, but smart fights. Enemies are first examined and their weak points determined, the main trio then acts accordingly. Be it abusing a certain vulnerable time frame, luring a horde scattered throughout the town to one place, or just simple combat techniques - the diverse Scoopers and the great coordination of the protagonists makes the fights wholly enjoyable.
The messier second half on the other hand is mostly carried by the great foreshadowing of the first few episodes. Hidden in plain sight, it’s easy to miss these hints, but they serve as the cornerstones necessary to hold the plot together:

The inhabitants of Harajuku are shown fleeing from the district; until the bubble surrounding the city due to the girl’s wish appears, there are no people in sight. When the people then showing up in the city are first shown, they are depicted as shadows - not as people.

Episode 1 first shows the key plot twist without any context - we are then introduced to the colorful culture of Harajuku.
However, the paneling and camerawork suggests that what is shown on screen is actually the view of a rather important onlooker.
The clownish nature of Park’s peculiar visitor also reminds of another character introduced just a few minutes later.
Through these subtle hints, which at first seem rather irksome than meaningful, the later plot is already laid out in the first handful minutes of the show’s runtime.

Sadly, this subtleness isn’t at all present in the rest of the show. Rather, it often resorts to indiscreet infodump dialogue to e.g. characterize its protagonists. However, there are moments when these introduced character traits are used to great effect, especially pertaining Mari’s anxieties.

Therein lies one of Urahara’s major strengths: in the second half, the character’s minor traits and weaknesses are exposed and exploited while serving as cornerstone for the parallel narrative of artist and popularity. While initially the protagonist trio seems unassumingly simple, they are actually a lot more nuanced than they are made out to be.
The calm and caring Rito first followed her gut feeling; she drew what she felt like drawing. But her art isn’t praised or recognized like other’s is and thus she grows frustrated. However, when Mari and Kotoko praise her art and she is granted the opportunity to sell her art and be recognized, she grows dependant on the two and their praise.
On the contrary, Mari has copied other people’s art; she follows trends and copies the vogue - and she gets praised for it. She also grows dependent on praise and popularity, but wishes to keep up her appearance as self-confident designer, which results in ever-growing anxiety and her eventually being broken by the illusion of losing her followers.
Kotoko’s curiosity, often highlighted through cat-like appearance, led to others being annoyed and disgusted by her urge to discover. Unable to suppress or express her curiosity, she grows insecure about annoying or talking to other people. She also ends up finding solace in and depending on their group of three.

The visual style of Urahara oozes creativity; it uses tablecloth as backgrounds and highly-saturized candy colors which paired with the usage of panels instead of new cuts create a colorful and delightful experience. It’s designs are a sight to behold: be it casual clothing, battle suits, Scoopers or Harajuku itself - they are diverse and use a huge repertoire of animation and coloring techniques to underline important characteristics and create an amazing visual experience.
Unfortunately, whatever excitement might stem from its gorgeous designs, Urahara is often sparingly animated - at times even lazily so. During important scenes in the second half, the lackluster animation completely ruins all immersion and dampens what should have been the show’s high point.

But it is not only during the dramatic scenes that Urahara fails - the music and sound effects are mediocre and straight-up misplaced all the way throughout the show. It restricts itself to generic gleaming sounds and uses dramatic orchestral music when the scenes themselves actually aren’t tense at all. Because of this, the actually tense scenes, playing these very same tracks, feel less special and not as emphasized as they should have been.

Urahara may stumble along the way, but remains an enjoyable watch. However, it is a niche show in a niche medium and as such I only recommend watching if you can look past its childish and amateurish presentation.


Score: 60

Urahara is dreadful.

It tries to trick you into liking it by having a unique style and plot twists but don't be fooled, Urahara has very little to it in the end.

Story: 3
The story in this show is nothing. Aliens called Scoopers come to earth and steal culture, because that's what they do, they have no culture so they steal it. It's worth noting that, in episode 1 the humans decide to call them Scoopers because of how they "scoop" up culture and that turns out to just be the actual name of the species. Anyway it takes place in Harajuku where three girls ... with a barebones ability to simulate human emotion are running a store called "Park." A little girl and sentient fried shrimp show up and give them these little things that look like truffles and they get magical girl transformation sequences and go to fight the Scoopers. It could definitely be more generic but it's certainly not creative, despite its overuse of the word.

Art: 6
Art is the only thing I give a decent score because the backgrounds at least are unique. It has a distinctive art style that does not at all translate into animation. The animation in this show is terrible, I've seen One Piece episodes that were animated better. The character designs are interesting but none of it means anything. Kotoko has cat ears and a tail and Rito has devil horns but they're just like... a fashion thing. Kotoko doesn't act particularly like a cat, Rito doesn't act particularly like a demon, it's just a shorthand to make the characters look different. Also, after a few episodes the pastels start to hurt your eyes, so the art style doesn't actually work that well.

Sound: 3
I don't remember any of the tracks from this show outside of the opening, which changes tempo seemingly at random. I eventually started skipping it. The voice acting is pretty bad, though it does improve a little by the end of the series. Misa's verbal tick becomes flat out grating once she becomes a more important character though.

Characters: 1
The characters in this show suck. They are basic character traits extrapolated into people.

Kotoko is the biggest offender. She's the smart character, and as such, they'll just have her say smart sounding things. One of the most obvious examples is when a character mentions DNA and she interjects to explain that DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid.
Mari's personality is all over the place. In one episode she'll be a diva, obsessed with her followers, and in another she's always just been a clothing designer who really wants to own a store.
Rito's personality is that she is the quiet one. She has at least some development in terms of accepting that her art's quality isn't defined by how many people see it.
All three of them are terrible at expressing emotion, their eyes basically always look the same, which is weird in such a stylized show where they should really be going off-model more often. Instead they have a standard model and a chibi model.

Enjoyment: 1
This is not a fun show to watch. It's tedious, some episodes have just actual filler. Episode 9 has 10 actual minutes of people begging with each other and getting nowhere. The end of the series in particular is really bad with its time wasting, and I get the feeling this was supposed to be a 10 episode series that got stretched on to 12. Seriously episode 11 has an almost Scooby Doo-esque chase scene that is just there to waste time. It's not even well animated. On top of that, some of the scenes in episode 9 are legitimately vomit inducing.

Overall: 2
I can't in good faith give Urahara a 1. It has inventive character and background art and I think someone there was trying, but there is just no appeal here. Do not watch Urahara.