Approximately 12 years ago, we were introduced to a certain J.C.Staff series about a girl from Osaka and her five friends. A couple of years latter, KyoAni presented to us a self-entitled otaku and her friends: the twin-sisters and the smart-but-clumsy bishoujo¹. Those stories would go around these girls and their (barely average) easygoing high-school paradise.
Interesting? Entertaining? What is the point? It doesn't really matter, deshou?
It just happened that the community saw it was good, the industry saw it was profitable, and from that on, we started watching shows about cute girls doing cute stuff for no apparent reason (both us and the cute girls).
The story:
Oh... the story! Yuru Yuri main plot is the daily events of Akari, Yui, Kyouko, Chinatsu (don't forget to add the -chan!). As middle-school students without a serious goal to achieve, YuruYuri focus on showing these girls having... fun! As the opening song itself explain "My real job is to 'student'! What's with that?" so all the key events of this series are pretty predicable and are related somehow to their school/hang out activities. The typical school slice-of-life.
But this isn't the real reason why 90% of us watches it anyway.
I bet you interpreted “fun” on the previous paragraph in a malicious way, huh?
While those easygoing and relaxing events of their daily life would give a fair amount of entertainment, seeing cute girls expressing their affection to each other in a PG-13 way is also pretty entertaining! And perhaps the key part of it: delivering such a thing without the inclusion of a douche male protagonist neither having to label the series as he-he-hentai! is what draws the attention of crowds to it. That said, straight from the first episode, it becomes clear that "Yuri"² moments are one of the key components of Yuru...YURI storyline.
Besides from being astonishingly cute and having these girl-love moments, the series strongly bets on their visual gags, practical jokes and references as save-points, keeping the viewers from being bored during long scenes or dialogues. A proof that it works can be easily found online, it's the amount of internet “memes” that were created from scenes of YuruYuri.³
Anyway, I digress.
There's no point into further developing this topic. Someone who is reading this didn't got here by accident and most likely have a backlog on series like this. If YOU happen to be one of these people and is now nodding in agreement, the reviewer thanks you for cooping with it. *brofist*
Following the same idea of the story, characters of YuruYuri are what one would expect of a show about easygoing school-girls. In a nutshell: They're patterned.
We have the clumsy, resident airhead MC; the admirable, dependable senpai; the polite, dependable "notice me senpai!" kouhai and finally the over-hyped, loose cannon senpai.
Not to mention they are all, obviously, CUTE.
Why are they always four? ...who is producing this, anyway!?
Oh, not to be forgotten, there are also the often forgotten supportive characters! They are there to add a bit of spice to the overall sweetness, some even have a separated story arc just for them which is great considering the flow of the story since it helps to keep the attention level. To be honest, these characters even get more screen-time than a certain MC ...you'd find out sooner or later.
Along the story progression, some other characteristics of theses girls become easy to notice and the classical tsundere/yandere/dandere⁴ action finally shows up.
Hahi, That was it!? Actually, there isn't much to digress about... giving a further explanation on these characters would spoil the first two episodes and completely ruin the mood. But still we want you to believe this is character driven so.... can we pretend we explained why, and you pretend you got it? *pshhh! No mod's gonna see this!*
In the era of moe, what isn't moe is a pagan non-believer!⁵
The artwork! Oh yes! *nosebleed* did I already mention it is... cute?
What kind of reviewer describes every aspect of the show with one single word?
Well, watch it and then we can discuss.
Just like its ancestors mentioned in the beginning of this review, YuruYuri's artwork is simple but well colored and surprisingly detailed at close ups. The “moe” factor is obviously part of it, which means, you won't find a character that is “ugly” at all.
Worth mention: animators did a very good job with characters' eye design. They doesn't have that artificial feeling to them neither artificial lightening, which makes it really fit the overall coloring.
yuriyurararara yuruyuri yuriyurararara yuruyuri yuriyurararara da-i-ji-ke-n!
Ain't I missing a “Kyarun!★~”!?
It doesn't takes much to create a OST for a slow paced school slic- *stabbed*
Still, it wouldn't be a lie ...to some extend.
The OST really matches the pace of the story, meaning, we get lot of relaxed synthetic instrumentals AND some funky remixed opening/ending. If you think you've heard these songs before, it's not a problem at all. Since this kind of series always use the same tempo and arrangement for their songs, sounding similar is just part of ride. Both the OP and ED are also performed by the main characters' seyuu-tachi. They're at the same time hilarious and addicting... during the first 5 episodes. Later on it gets really annoying and you'll just skip it all together.
Overall, YuruYuri is way more enjoyable than it seems. Really.
Not because it later turns into a full ecchi yuri R+ hardcore anime (!?), but because it manages to -somehow- make you laugh for 288 minutes. Who would imagine a school slice-of-life about pure teenager girls could be this fun? I wouldn't.
So, if you're wondering about watching or not, accept the challenge and get started on it already. The entertainment value may vary from person to person, however, it will absolutely manage to take a laugh from you, even if it's just with a short Higurashi⁶ reference (Heh, is that a glace of curiosity?) or a quick reference joke with the YuruYuri Akari x Aria Saga Akari and her signature expressions "waaay!" "hahi!".
Secure your loli and prepare for impact! A furious ride into the amusement world of these girls is about to begin!
The Footnotes:
¹ – extremely beautiful, cute, amusing, girl. Notorious examples: Anything Key/Visual Arts produces in collaboration with KyoAni.
² – Yuri is a modest synonym of Shoujo Ai, girls love, lesbianism, girl-on-girl action, etc.
³ – Seriously, YuruYuri related memes were all around /a/ by the time it aired. Ask Mr. Google.
⁴ – Japanese slang used to describe one's characteristics. (e.g: the tsundere is the girl who is violent (tsun) but loving (dere) towards the one she cares about.
⁵ – Yes!!! YuruYuri is 100% MOE, meaning, they can't possibly be less cute. UrbanDictionary gives a pretty neat explanation: “Moe is when your heart gets a boner.“.
⁶ – Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Cute series.
obs: credits to @MAL Ikusagami for the insight of the review title.
