Story & Characters
It's Akari's first year in middle school, and she's eagerly searching for a club to join. Luckily, her
childhood friends Kyouko and Yui, who are one year above, take over the former Tea Ceremony Club and form the a club
called the Amusement Club. As it name suggests, the club is a pretense for goofing off and having a big cool room to do
it. A girl named Chinatsu, formerly wants to join the Tea Ceremony Club but was soon attracted by Yui's coolness
and ends up becoming the fourth member. Together they bumble through their school days without doing anything much,
except goofing of a lot and saving some lesbian jokes and girl-crushes.
If you're wondering what Yuruyuri is about, the title really says it all. The girls go to school and do something
"fun." The girls bring in some lesbian jokes in the premise. Roll credits. There isn't a thought in this
show's frazzled, violence-fried. Outside of providing a silly, outrageous good time, that is. It's all deeply
stupid—and quite fun.
Sure, Yuruyuri is filled with humor signifiers, but in terms of semiotics, it's pretty pointless and episodic.
There's no chance to make a compelling arc. A club the purpose of which is to facilitate the doing of nothing. As
for its version of school life, there isn't a grain of truth in it. No one worries about the future, friendships
never end, and fun is the order of every day. After so many anime series about trying one's best or giving it your
all, Yuruyuri is extra-frustrating.
The prospect of a twenty-five minutes of lesbian jokes and girls hooking each other might be horrifying, but the
series' unflagging energy and unabashedly juvenile humor are actually kind of endearing, and it's never sloppy
or crude. Characters are quickly and simply sketched, and are distinctively cliche. Akari is the nice girl type with a
"not so main character-ish" presence, Yui is the smart, cool one, Chinatsu is similar to Akari but poses a
dangerous threat of sadism, and Kyouko is the energetic and irresponsible one and so on. Much fun is similarly had with
the three tsunderes in the student council, and the glass girl Chitose, who often takes off her glasses to
nosebleed-fantasize about her classmates. There's so little variation on the usual character themes that whenever
there's any crossover it gets hard to tell characters apart. It takes a particular kind of viewer to enjoy
something like Chitose's fantasies, during which things are pretty normal until she takes those damned glasses off,
but if you're that kind of viewer, you're unlikely to find a funnier series with better characters than
this.
The only sign of life the show has is the comedy, with some (relatively) complicated gags and naughty fantasies. When
two of the said tsunderes, Sakurako plans to uses Himawari's younger sister as hostage to win some answers for her
homework, just when the situation seems like it couldn't get any funnier, in comes a heartwarming and quite clever
self sacrificing speech from said little sibling, that leaves her captor on her knees, apologizing. The rest of the
series could use some of that spunk. Or some backbone it takes to stage an episode about Chinatsu's murderously
funny artistic skills, and Akari loses her lips virginity is laughable, but not very clever. F'd-up, but in its own
way, brilliant.
Rating: 6
Art
For a series as frivolous as this, the production values are pretty solid, so the visuals tend to be up to the task.
Yuruyuri isn't poorly animated, but it sets the bar low with few locations and a lot of talking scenes (cheap to
animate!). Character designs, objectively speaking, are standard to the point of plainness - the way they are used being
far more interesting than their appearance. Backgrounds, particularly the Yui's apartment and the Amusement Club
room, are well-detailed and fully sufficient to their purpose, but they're given to little scene time to be called
impressive. There's fanservice to be sure (it is about girls falling for girls) and plenty of naughty, but not
dirty, fanservices, particularly involves Himawari's boobie gags and Chitose's delusional fantasies that could
make their way to DVD extra are worth watching. Chibi and simplified character designs are used in addition to the usual
stills and speed-lines to allow allocation of the animation budget to the girls' unusually (but not overly)
expression, and are also deployed to maximize the laugh-factor.
Rating: 7
Sound
Like every other aspect of the show, the music is used primarily for maximizing comedic impact. The director knows
exactly which tone of goofy music to use in support of which kind of gag and when to let the visual energy carry itself
without support. The music really is just varying shades of sonic silliness though, and its usage is fairly pedestrian,
especially (just to keep the comparison alive) in comparison to what anime like Lucky Star or K-ON! did with music.
Other than the two theme songs sound like polka on speed, also suits well, Yuruyuri's music keeps quiet and to the
back, supporting the jokes and moods (all two of them) of the show, never overextending itself or growing the least bit
noticeable. When it isn't invisible, it's relaxed—effective and forgettable. The same could be said to the
voice acting, which consists of many newcomers ands sound cheesy, but is suitable.
Rating: 6
Presentation
There aren't that many people into this girls liking girls stuff, but perhaps it's hard to look away
Yuruyuri's hilarious comedy. If it sounds like there isn't a plot to this one, you'd be right. This
adaptation of a short-gag manga plays out like one, the goofy content is essentially what one would get if one crossed
Lucky Star with K-ON!, or even Hidamari Sketch. The artistry and animation are deliberately very basic - and that works
to the content's advantage in a couple of places - but the succession of gags is usually so funny that it
won't matter.
No one will find any real depth here, but anyone who leaves without a smile is probably the kind of person who thinks
its predecessors are unfunny slops. If that's you, then this is one series you'd probably best avoid. On the
other hand, Yuruyuri is a cliche and pretty dumb show, but delivers good enough to make everyone darn happy. At least,
there's more to watch than just gags about a bunch of lesbian schoolgirls.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Story: 6
Characters: 6
Art: 7
Animation: 7
Voice: 7
Music: 6
Overall: 7.75
Good:
+Effective, relentless comedy that doesn't pander (too much) to the lowest common denominator.
Bad:
+If you weren't into lesbian, then you wouldn't hesitate to turn off the screen.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
6.8333 (above average)
Reviewed by Weskalia, Jan 13, 2012
