Jul 30, 2018
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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