Reviews

Mar 14, 2015
Preliminary (Unknown/12 eps)
Yuri Kuma Arashi, I’m sure that your first impression on it was the series is purely about “lesbian”. No doubt, Yuri Kuma Arashi is a series that talks about something related to lesbians, but what the series wants to present to the audience is more than the lesbian theme. Yuri Kuma Arashi, was translated to “Lesbian Bears Storm”. The title, however, is very misleading. “Yuri” actually refers to pure maiden while “Kuma” actually refers to sexual predators. In other words, Yuri Kuma Arashi actually is a show that symbolizing the difference between pure romantic friendship between two girls & the real lesbianship. Ikuhara might had set an objective for the series which making the audience able to differentiate a pure romantic friendship & a lustful lesbianship.

About the story, Yuri Kuma Arashi basically was about a bear who named Ginko wanted to be loved by Kureha who once was her friend in past. The series was set with a setting which at long ago, a far off planet known as Kumalia exploded, turning into a meteor shower that fell upon earth. This lead to the bears becoming violent and attacking the humans, who created the Wall of Severance between them and the bears. The setting was actually similar with Shingeki no Kyoujin (Attack on Titans) which human were living in the wall to avoid the attacks from the monster, but what made Yuri Kuma Arashi more interesting was bears can actually disguise themselves into human. The series started off by after several years, two bears, Ginko and Lulu, disguise themselves as humans and enroll in Arashigaoka Academy, where Ginko takes interest in a human girl named Kureha.

Having a great premise doesn’t mean the series was good. A lot of series which had a great premise usually failed to be a great series because most of the time the development was bad. In term of “development”, we’re talking about the pacing & the plot quality. Yuri Kuma Arashi is great part of the reason have to thanks to the slow-pacing development. Making the audience confused episode by episode and slowly revealing the truth is what Yuri Kuma Arashi had. The plot was developed with a slow-pace to present what Ikuhara actually wanted to prove us, the difference between a pure romantic friendship & a lustful lesbianship. From the series, you can actually see the love by Ginko to Kureha was changing slowly from the beginning to the current episode.

Now, let’s talk bout’ the characters. The characters are great and memorable. They are actually some realistic characters that you can related them to someone in your life. Almost all the major characters in Yuri Kuma Arashi get their character development. Start from the protagonists, Kureha Tsubaki. Kureha is a character that don’t give a fuck to the others except those who close to her like her best friend, Sumika Izumino. Moreover, Kureha is a character who not really well in making decision even though her hatred to bears are deeper than anyone. Also, Kureha is a character who was thirsty for having friends. You can actually relates her to Ruuko Kominato from Selector WIXOSS series. Move to the 2nd protagonist, Ginko Yurishiro. Ginko is a character who will do anything for Kureha’s love. Ginko is also a selfish character who ignore others as long as it doesn’t related to her. Comes to the final protagonist, Lulu Yurigasaki. Lulu is a character who similar to Kureha, cares about those who close to her. But at the same time, Lulu is also a character who full with jealousy. Aside from the protagonists, the other characters are well-written too and how that acted on situations are splendid. You can actually sense that realistic human nature are inputted to all the characters.

Advance to the arts, it’s great with a standard of above average. As you know, Ikuhara, who was great in symbolism usually take the advantages of visual to symbolize some messages he wanted to present to the audience. In Yuri Kuma Arashi, he used lilies to symbolize the purity of a maiden. This sounds confusing but Ikuhara actually did used more that lilies to present out some messages. Aside from the visual effects, Yuri Kuma Arashi actually had a great character designs. The characters looks cute and suitable for the series. Moreover, the background the series used is another tricks that Ikuhara used to plot something mystery. You can actually find something interesting from the background through series like Kureha’s room which was symbolizing Kureha was a lonely person by making her room looks full (Loners actually did this. When they are lonely, they actually filling up their rooms with a lot of objects so that the room isn’t big enough to fit in the second person, which at the same time the loners could able to make excuses for themselves that they aren’t lonely at all).

Move to the sound, Yuri Kuma Arashi also did well on it. Instead of hiring experienced voice actors for their protagonists (Kureha, Ginko & Lulu’s VA isn’t popular at all), the studio hired the experienced voice actors for side-characters. The studio was aware that the side-characters need a more professional voice acting compare to the protagonists to bring out great effects for the series. For example, they hired Junichi Suwabe (Archer from Fate/stay night’s VA) for voice acting Life Sexy because they know that his professional voice acting’s skill might bring effects to series. Not to mention, “SHABADADOO~~” had already became a memorable term to the audience. Aside from the voice acting part, Yuri Kuma Arashi also did well in bringing up the soundtracks. The OSTs are great which the audience able to feel the atmosphere of the situation. In additional, the sound effects that Yuri Kuma Arashi used is another kind of tricks for Ikuhara to plot some messages to audience.

My thoughts on Yuri Kuma Arashi is actually quite simple. Despite being about lesbians, this show manages to be great in its own right. The series actually does symbolize all kinds of stuff like friendship, desire for something, how the society treats lesbians, how people treat sex differences & the power of love. Besides that, the series was progressed well with a mysterious way which makes me getting more interested for the show. The characters are great and memorable most of the reasons because they’re realistic like someone who close to us in real life. As a conclusion, missing out Yuri Kuma Arashi might be regretful for you since it’s one of the best series in Winter 2015.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login