#2011 summer

Two posts in one day! Summer-y fit!

Yuru Yuri

ゆるゆり

Comedy yuri by Doga Kobo Based on a manga by Namori

Seasons 1 and 2 Length: 24 episodes (12+12) Aired: 2011 (Summer), 2012 (Summer) Rating: A

Plot: The daily adventures of the Amusement Club who's occupying the school's tea room in secret, with Akari, a protagonist with no presence and her two childhood friends, the highly energetic Kyoko, the more reserved and dependable Yui, and joining them is Chinatsu, who walked in thinking she was meeting the Tea Ceremony Club.

Thoughts: Not so long ago as I was giving my impressions of Wasteful Days of High School Girls I mentioned I was looking into these surreal comedy shows disguised as a cute girls doing cute things, mentioned Yuru Yuri would be next... and here we are. By no means a groundbreaking show, but one of those that uses a well tried and tested formula with some twists and does them great. Sure, the cast number looks something I'd complain about, but it is mostly split between the Amusement Club: Akari, the "lead" who does that sort of mocking protagonists who are intended to be as bland as possible to viewers can project themselves into them, and while she has the honour of presenting the episode, very often with some mishap and not even allowed to finish it, and then being sidelined by the two actual leads: Kyoko, who fits the more traditional ultra-energetic character with gremlin tendencies and in spite of that is actually smart (or at least a fast learner) and talented, being a doujin artist, and Yui, the reliable one of the group who even lives on her own and tries to calm every situation. The Club has its last member in Chinatsu, a girl who intended to join the Tea Ceremony Club, meanwhile disbanded for lack of members, and ended up joining the three other girls. Unfortunately for her, she looks just like Kyoko's favourite character, a magical girl called Mirakurun, making her very infatuated with Chinatsu and creeping her out almost immediately, and she'd rather fantasize with Yui, anyway. She often does not have as much screentime as well, because the other two characters with more significant screentime are the other two second years from the Student Council: vice president Ayano, who holds a grudge over Kyoko because she's an airhead who somehow still ranks above her in grades, and also because she's a complete tsundere who can't stop thinking about her, and Chitose, the gentle, mild mannered character is often tagging along Ayano, and one of my favourite running gags is Chitose seeing Kyoko and Ayano fighting, removing her glasses to enter fantasy mode, hindering her vision and allowing her to see with her heart the perfect yuri scenario, at the point we return to reality and she's about to collapse from a nosebleed. Her twin sister Chizuru is the same, only that she starts drooling imagining situations involving her sister. The other two characters from the student council are Sakurako and Himawari, two childhood friends who both see themselves as future vice presidents of the Student Council, constantly fighting and taking shots at one another (how Himawari is a boob monster and how lazy and dumb Sakurako is), and they're in the same class as Akari and Chinatsu. These 9 core characters, plus Rise, the Student Council president who only speaks in inaudible whispers and Nana Nishigaki, a teacher who's constantly blowing stuff up, allow for a lot of flexibility on what to do at any point, as they can be in both pairs, their classroom or club line-ups, but even more when the gang is all together and you never know what direction things are going to turn, and overall, the first season is the kind of show you see there's something special in there from very early on, doing the balancing act of being cute, surreal and very gay perfectly.

The second season, ♪♪, just keeps building from that first season, you learn how Chinatsu isn't just terrible at drawing but also at anything handmade, an episode dedicated to their sisters, including Akane, Akari's siscon older sister who we got the see the bedroom in the first episode, and doing a half serious episode about Akari going into the past trying to avoid her having no presence. There was also a doujin anime short for Little Witch Mirakurun by Kyoko (who didn't animate the transformation sequence because it was too much work), and a school festival version of Snow White featuring seven elves: Tsundere, Glasses, Retorting, Evil, Boob, Stupid and Remarkably Unremarkable. a great way to end a continuation of a very good show. Visually, being Doga Kobo productions you know what to expect: impeccable character design, fantastic animations and almost too cute for it's own good. The VAs all do a great job of making the characters sound like you'd expect them they should, but if there's a problem with the show overall is, going back a few lines, it's how it is not exactly groundbreaking, but it does go around everything very well.

While the series would return after a three year break, with Nachuyachumi!, an hour long OVA with two extra episodes and the third season, all now by TYO Animations (who did Plastic Nee-san, so while I expect a drop-off, I think it will still be solid enough) for the sake of brevity I'll do those on a separate post next month, although it's likely it will be a short post, and even after that there's still more to cover: a 2019 OVA celebrating 10 years of serialization, this time by Lay-Duce and a spin-off with two movies focused on Sakurako and her family. So, a series with a lot to watch, particular to current standards where there's 12 episodes, gone, go read the manga, but one of those episodes just feel like they fly by.

Plus:

Fantastic animation and character design

it balances elements pretty neatly

Minus:

Double-J

だぶろじぇい

(Anime)

Comedy by Eiji Nonaka

Era: 2010s

Rating: C

Plot: at Nagashima High, Hajime Usami and her friend Sayo Arima come across the Traditional Arts Preservation Club.

Length: 11 episodes (~4 minutes)

Thoughts: Cromartie High ranks pretty high in my bizarre comedy lists, and one day reading about it noticed Eiji Nonaka had another of his works adapted, so I guess here we are.

I... Honestly don't know what to say because there's so little to talk about. The characters as you can imagine are a bit off, from the club president Ichiro, who honours his family heritage by trying to modernize the original manga, Maria, who does toothpick carvings, Aya, who writes fortunes for temples or bird trainer Shizuma, the stories are all short gags around these weird "traditional arts".

Visually, it has photos and video under what looks flash animation. I'm not opposed to very basic animation when properly used and wasn't fully sold until the glass cutting episode, but you know what, sure. Ultimately, it's a silly show that doesn't have anything to recommend it, but also doesn't have any reason to avoid it, or wastes your time, the whole precious 44 minutes it takes to watch it all, including the catchy ED.

Recommended to: People who want to fill a slot on their Tumblr in the least time to spend possible?

Plus:

The idea of modernising a 13th century scroll as a modern manga is funny

Minus: