For what made Citrus so interesting to begin with is that it's the first full-on yuri show without the element of moe in a long time. Now that's not saying that I don't like moe, actually it's the complete opposite, but seeing a show that tries to add a bit of drama and reality into it's greater themes really did lit up the fire of expectations, for both, the fanservice and the story. And the story, for the most part, is the main reason Citrus as an anime completely failed in what it tried to do.
It resolves around the relationship of new step-sisters, Yuzu and Mei, who don't get along very well at the start. It's just a matter of time before Yuzu, the more lively out of the two, gets kinda obsessed with her sister and after sharing their first kiss, falls in love with her. However, Mei has a lot more admireres than Yuzu thinks and that is soon to be revealed... While the story doesn't try to be very complicated, you can't but feel that not much thought had been put into it. It it completely shallow, without a clear original idea and even though the promised drama is kinda there, it is actually the thing pushing the whole anime down. The way story develops is also very questionable, as instead of focusing on it's main couple, the anime constantly brings-up weird and non-relevant characters that somehow manage to create a fuss between the girls.
Propably the best way to describe the character cast would be saying that they're just not very impressive. Starting with the better, Yuzu is not a terrible main lead. She has this outgoing and dumb personality which I was never a really big fan of, but since it's so common in RomComs I kinda got used to it at this point. There are not many positive things that I could mention about her but she's just the kind of girl that is hard to really hate. Unlike some of the other characters. For example the second main lead, Mei. Who is, by any means, a bad character as a whole. Her melancholic attitude, her bitchy assertiveness and even her forgettable design all forge a very uninteresting character whom I couldn't care less about. The way she makes the biggest poor soul out of herself while constantly mentioning her somehow depressing past, which is by the way not depressing at all, is also not a very good way of making such a shallow character look better.
While the supportive cast was supposed to have positive impact on the growing relationship of Yuzu and Mei, by throwing some dramatic moments into their faces, they didn't really deliver either. There is Himeko, who started off as the biggest and most annoying Tsundere ever while also being a student coucil vice pres which is great combination indeed (sarcasm). Then there is Matsuri, who is supposed to be one of those bitch-ass characters. The problem with her is that her bitchiness is on the complete wrong side of things. I mean, comparing her to Akane from Kuzu no Honkai for example, Matsuri losses that battle on every line. She, unlike Akane, uses pretty lame tactics to get attention, her reasons to do so are not really valid and overall she just acts like a total kid. I mean, she doesn't just act, she literally is a kid. There is hope tho, and that is Harumin. Thank god for once atleast a little likeable character that saved many episodes purely by showing her friendly and funny attitude. There are also those two twin sisters who appear towards the end of the show, but since their addition worked only as another reason for Mei and Yuzu to argue and then make-up, they were pretty much completely irrelevant.
I mentioned drama, right? Yes, I did. On the scale of forcing Drama, Citrus would propably rank somewhere around the likes of Kuzu no Honkai, which I mentioned already I know please don't kill me for it. Which in itself wouldn't be such a problem, if the drama was the show's only goal. The mentioned Kuzu no Honkai, for example, was undoubtedly a very over-dramatized show. However, because the drama (and sex, but these two were related) was the show's only intention from the start, it was able to take it's sweet time with it and actually make it good. Which is the main problem of Citrus. It doesn't take it's time with anything. The jumps between comedy, drama and kissing are way too damn fast and unlogical to the point where you'll never even take the dramatic moments seriously, because they were literally trying to make you laugh like half minute ago. The cycle of every episode is almost always the same too. Starts off lightly, then something occurs, then Mei gets mad, then Yuzu cries for whatever reason, then she saves the day and then they kiss. And it's like that for the majority of the show.
Another area in which Citrus does terribly at is building relationship, which is something RomComs should be all about. Seeing your favourite couple coming from a blushing duo to full-on lovers mode is an important development aspect to this kind of anime. Citrus however, does it all wrong. Instead of resolving the whole story around Yuzu and Mei and giving them the time to fully develop their relatioship by themselves, the show constantly introduces new random characters that create some love drama through which then tries to continue the story. Not only this kind of appoach won't work because the ones pushing the story are not those who should, it also takes away any kind of satisfaction the moment they actually end up together, because outside of some rare moments, they just haven't had any remarkable time to set-up this kind of ending.
Credit where credit is due tho. What I really liked for example are the personal changes of some characters. Himeko in particular. You see, she starts off as the biggest and loudest Tsundere ever, but as soon as she gets rejected, she redeems herself and becomes a fairly respectable character for the rest of the show. Which is a good change compared to other harem-like animes when even the characters who get harsly rejected never actually stop with their sexual intentions. I also already mentioned that Harumin was a very likeable character herself and I loved whenever she appreated on the screen.
The whole yuri fanservice also wasn't very bad. Once I started ignoring the complete unlogicalness of the kissing situations, I got to enjoy them quite a lot. Though it's needles to say that there is almost no way of fucking up this sort of thing. Two girls kissing each other will always be hot. I still feel like they could've pushed the whole fanservice a bit further tho, and it's also a shame that Harumin never got any.
The overall art was good, but not anything breathtaking. The scenes look polished and clean, but little is actually animated and almost every background is just a static image. I should also add that the character desings weren't very appealing to my eyes. They were either forgettable or just not very well looking. The fact that a lot of characters were using earrings, which is a thing I hate in and outside of anime, didn't help the whole art situation either. And the sound was.. okay, I guess? I don't really know. The voice-acting wasn't the worse but I can't even remember if the show had an OST, which means it had but it was just very shallow and beyond forgettable.
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Citrus had a tough task coming into anime. There are tons of yuri fans, but only a handful of yuri anime. And having to adapt one of the more popular yuri manga didn't lower the expectations either. Even though however, Citrus as an anime fails at almost everything it tries to do. It's drama is not good, it's comedy is not funny and it's characters didn't hit the spot either. It still somehow manages to make the thing we all want, that being girls kissing each other, but that is just not enough.
So is the closure of Citrus, an anime that tried to bring drama into the world of only moe yuri, but failed miserably at it's quest along the way.
