OP Sequence

OP: 「ゆりゆららららゆるゆり大事件」 (Yuriyurararara Yuruyuri Daijiken) by 七森中☆ごらく部 (三上枝織, 大坪由佳, 津田美波, 大久保瑠美) (Nanamori Chuu Goraku-bu (Mikami Shiori, Ootsubo Yuka, Tsuda Minami, Ookubo Rumi)
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼

「中学デビュー!」 (Chuugaku Debyuu!)
“Middle School Debut!”

I’m never opposed to a series about cute girls doing cute things, so I’m always up for a slightly different spin on it. To that end, we have a trio of trio of middle school girls, Akaza Akari (Mikami Shiori), Toshinou Kyouko (Ootsubo Yuka), and Funami Yui (Tsuda Minami), and the unofficial “Fun Club” they run in the ex-tea ceremony clubroom. Akari is a year younger and just entering middle school, and upon doing so, she realizes Kyouko and Yui don’t do anything but laze away in their club. Before long, first-year Yoshikawa Chinatsu (Ookubo Rumi) is tricked into joining using her actual interest in tea ceremonies, completing the main foursome.

What distinguishes Yuruyuri from K-ON and A-Channel are the minor lesbian undertones care of Kyouko, who’s later supported in her endeavors by student council member Ikeda Chitose (Toyosaki Aki). Idiocy also comes into play more, as the girls won’t hesitate to make fun of Akari like we saw here, and Yui in particular won’t hesitate to smack Kyouko when she gets carried away with her rampant lesbian behavior. What isn’t too different is the level of humor itself, which isn’t quite the laugh-until-it-hurts kind, and instead the quirky and mildly amusing kind. Most of the entertainment value comes from the silly character interactions, such as Kyouko’s interest in the manga character Mirakurun (Taketatsu Ayana) and her cougar eyes set on Chinatsu because of the latter’s uncanny resemblance. Then there’s Yui as the sensible and respectable senior, yet she too will join in on the laughs at Akari’s expense. Even the seemingly innocent Chinatsu isn’t dumb enough to be preyed on, and will quickly sacrifice Akari to get away from Kyouko. (She sure learns fast.)

Despite what this premiere episode will have us believe, the comedy isn’t all about preying on Akari though. The student council has a group of four girls as well, and their president Sugiura Ayano (Fujita Saki) is always at odds with Kyouko for being surprisingly book smart even though she doesn’t put in any effort. The jostling between those two provide some quirky humor of its own, while the aforementioned Chitose takes things in the lesbian direction as well. Last but definitely not least are heated childhood rivals, Oomura Sakurako (Katou Emiri) and Furutani Himawari (Mimori Suzuko), who already sent sparks flying before being formally introduced. Compared to Yui simply keeping Kyouko in check, Sakurako and Himawari are downright cut-throat as even compete over student council work. In short, we don’t only have cute girls doing cute things, but we also have cute girls doing really stupid things. Does that work for everyone? No. Does it work for me? For the most part, yes.

Admittedly, I’m still not overly excited about Dogakobo’s latest adaptation, due to the relatively green cast that’s starring in it. However, I do see Yuruyuri as an opportunity for their careers to gain some steam, much like how K-ON did wonders for its relatively unknown cast at the time. Now we see them getting roles in just about everything, including Yuruyuri. At the moment, what this series does have going for it is the director and screen writer of Minami-ke s1 and Mitsudomoe s1/s2, Oota Masahiko and Aoshima Takashi. I always felt the first season of Minami-ke was the funniest and that Mitsudomoe was an absolute riot, so hopefully some their stylistic touches carry over.

Note: This is one of Crunchyroll’s new simulcasts for the summer season. See here for new simulcast titles as they’re announced.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「マイぺースでいきましょう」 (My Pace de Ikimashou) by 七森中☆ごらく部 (三上枝織, 大坪由佳, 津田美波, 大久保瑠美) (Nanamori Chuu Goraku-bu (Mikami Shiori, Ootsubo Yuka, Tsuda Minami, Ookubo Rumi)
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼

Preview

45 Comments

  1. i didn’t laugh to much yet you’ll suddenly feel that your about to laugh when they’re doing those silly interaction.
    Yup true.
    Poor akari. 😀

    I still can’t graps who they are yet specialy their names. Need to watch more to love them.

      1. Funny enough, in the manga she had an older brother instead of a sister. And the obsession got far worse in the anime too. The brother in the manga only had some incest related manga lying around.

        Zannafar
  2. I feel sort of sad for my lost anime innocence — I used to really enjoy shows like this, but somewhere in the last couple years, while making fun of cranky elitists, without even realizing it, I became one of them! I seem to have lost the ability to just laugh and have fun at a show; now I can only enjoy “meaningful” or “unique” anime.

    I suppose in the long run, it’s for the best :P.

    1. It’s not your fault. I love this kind of comedy, yet, this episode was not really funny. Actually, I think the most recent slice-of-life shows are not that great, what is pretty sad.

      André
    2. Well, I still think I’ll like K-On and lucky star if I rewatch them, but I still forced myself to complete this episode and through A-Channel last season. Maybe I’m just trying to prove to myself that I still have that anime innocence, but it still seems that the quality of animes with this genre have dropped. Probably because they seem easy to produce and are being taken for granted as easy money? 😛

      Anyway, I guess I have to drop these animes and become a cranky elitist myself >_>

      dxb_blackwolf
      1. If you want great slice-of-life, you can watch Working! or Manabi Straight! There are some other, but I’m too lazy to try to remember them right now. But these two are great, especially Working!

        André
  3. Wow that’s a lot of fun characters for the first episode. I think I’ll like this one. Though if the humor is more like Yuruani’s (which is pretty slick in my opinion) then it’d be all the more entertaining for me to watch. Oddly enough, despite loving the first season of Minami-ke so much, I didn’t find Mitsudomoe so hot. I think it was the art that bothered me.

    Also, what does “relatively green cast” mean? D:

  4. If anime has taught me anything, it’s that young girls are fascinated with groping and massaging each other’s breasts, especially their classmates with prestigious oppai. I’m sure it’s strictly for the yuri fanservice, but it makes me wonder if Japanese girls are especially grabby with one another.

    Guardian
    1. As you figured, japanese girls aren’t grabby. No girl groped me and I didn’t grope any, either.

      And this here isn’t yuri service, this is actually yuri, the girl’s actually supposed to be lesbian. The anime is based on a manga running in Yuri Hime( from Yuri Hime S) after all.

      Kyouko fangirl
  5. The target auditorium of this show seems to be even more perverted than Ro-Kyu-Bu! …
    Divine, do you intentionally pick the most perverted shows for blogging ? 😉

    SpoilerMaker
    1. Ro-Kyu-Bu: Loli fanservice everywhere, elementary girls with D-cups, fetish clothes
      Yuru Yuri: Very mild lesbian fanservice

      I dunnow, I think Yuru Yuri’s much, much tamer than Ro-Kyu-Bu. Lesbianism doesn’t seem inherently perverted to me, and while Kyouko’s a bit…open about it, it’s not particularly bad, either.

      Kyouko fangirl
      1. I meant the point of view of more “normal” people. I have no doubt that most of the target auditorium find it “not perverted”.
        From the point of view of “normal” people, lesbianism IS PERVERTED. So here we have lolis + lesbians + perverted scenes = 2x more pervertness than in Ro-Kyu-Bu!

        SpoilerMaker
  6. As someone who has never had much presence, I feel for Akari >.< The tea scene where Kyoko, Yui, and Chinatsu were dog-piled felt like a clip out of my school life lol. Not that I didn't laugh at all her suffering 😛 So far, Yui is the favorite with Chinatsu as least-favorite.

    I REALLY want Akari's sister to get introduced after seeing that room!!

    Aex
  7. The first season of Minami-Ke was definitely the funniest, Divine. It was fantastic. I try to forget what came after it because that first season is gold.

    I don’t know if I’d be into this, but what the heck. It doesn’t hurt anything just checking something out.

    Discoman
  8. Kind of mediocre. Gonna watch the second episode, but I have a feeling that I’m going to be dropping it pretty soon. They should make a sequel to Working! Best slice-of-life evar.

    André
    1. Second season for Working already got announced months ago.
      Even got a lot of attention due to them making a fake announcement on april 1st and then announcing it for real the next day.

      Zannafar
  9. So help me out here peoples and non-peoples, since I still haven’t figured it out from the screencaps, comments, other sites etc

    I enjoy cute shows, but I prefer them to be way closer to “spastic” than “iyashikei”, and I’m not big on the really ecchi stuff, though I can deal with perverse humor. It’s extreme loli-service that’s a dealbreaker. Don’t want any of that. Jokes are fine, large amounts of blatant fanservice not so much.

    Is this a show I might enjoy or is it one I should run far away from?

    Oh, before I forget; as for Minami-ke: there are only Episodes With Hosaka, which are fantastic, and Episodes Without, which only Uchida can save.

    1. Hmmm… I think you might enjoy this show. There’s some fanservice humor, but not really any actual fanservice so far. Girls looking up skirts without and grabbing breasts without showing anything and stuff like that. Don’t know if I’d call it spastic, but it definitely isn’t slow. Kinda “dumb” humor at times too.

      Anyways, I recommend it.

      Aex
    2. If you one of those … em … people, who like lolies and have weird delusions about lesbian lolies perverted as a street whore, it may be the right show for you

      SpoilerMaker
  10. Meh…wasn’t horrible enough to deny it the few episode grace period, but this episode pretty much bored me to death. The humor its going for just isn’t my cup of tea.

    Xin
  11. Well, it didn’t send me to sleep like A-Channel did. so my faith in SoL is… somewhat redeemed.
    Usually in shows’ such as this, the voices tend to get on my nerves, yet I was pretty much unaffected by them and found a bunch of the jokes fairly funny. Considering Minami-Ke s1 is probably my favourite SoL it could be some of that direction is rubbing on to this show.

    I didn’t find the “yuri elements” all that offensive either, Yui quickly nullified kyouko’s advances without making too much of a fuss. But if the lusting continues for the remainder of the show it could get annoying, and fast.

    Overall, not a must watch but still enjoyable imo.

    Pepper
  12. A very interesting episode. I have to admit, the picture of the invisible girl shooting boob missiles made me laugh out loud. I didn’t expect to like this show, but now I’m looking forward to next weeks episode.

    =^.^=

    Nekore44

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