STORY
Asteroid breaks up over Earth. Bears go nuts and start murdering girls (or humans, perhaps, since all humans in the show appear to be female). Humans justifiably freak out and build a wall to keep them out. Bears and humans appear to have wars with one-another. Two bears disguise themselves as humans and sneak over the wall in order to eat humans, and wind up befriending a human girl with a mysterious past. This loose plot synopsis might sound terse. If it does, it's because the show doesn't really care about its plot, and as such, I don't either. Things don't happen in the world of Yurikuma Arashi in any meaningfully objective sense. I have the feeling that this work only has a sense of narrative cohesion at all because Ikuhara wanted a continuous story to expand upon his themes. The general rule here is that everything in this show content-wise, from story to character, is subservient to the iron grip of the themes and multiple layers of symbolism Ikuhara wants to explore.
Enough twists and turns are included to make the plot watchable, but there was clearly little effort put into this aspect of the show. It's not what Yurikuma is about.
5/10
CHARACTER
There is little to say about the characters in this work. They're all very pretty, and since they're Ikuhara people, they often say and think interesting things. This show, again, isn't interested in exploring characters, though, and so their function and nature are subservient to the themes and symbolism. This is not, by any means, a character-driven show.
4/10
THEMES
This is the big focus of the show, so unsurprisingly, this aspect of it is complex, multifaceted, and fascinating. I won't say too much about the themes in this show except to note that it is very uniquely Japanese in its social critiques and that it is worth analyzing this title on multiple levels in order to understand it as fully as is possible.
10/10
ART/DIRECTION
This aspect of the show is incredible, which is unsurprising, as everything Ikuhara has done since Utena is incredible in this regard. The character designs are fairly generic (although I doubt we'll ever get back to the unique, angular designs of Utena characters), but the design of the environments and the visual flair of the show itself as simply stunning. The school environment was inspired by Suspiria, and one can see several surprising and awesome influences elsewhere in the show as well. Many of the scenes have a gorgeous poetry to the way scenes are staged and progress.
9/10
SOUND
The soundtrack for this show is eclectic, to say the least, and stylistically very diverse. It's not a masterpiece like Cowboy Bebop or Vision of Escaflowne, mind, but it does an excellent job of pulling you in the weird world Ikuhara creates. Also, it has a killer opener.
8/10
OVERALL
The biggest problem with this show is that it never really comes together into a greater whole that justifies any of its individual weaknesses. It's an artistically inconsistent experience that is memorable but, at the same time, will be unlikely to end up being considered a classic of anime. The dense layers of symbolism and strange style to the show will probably alienate many viewers, although this is par for the course for a modern Ikuhara anime. It's worth watching, but it is perhaps one of his weaker shows.
6/10 overall
