Yuru Yuri♪♪ Review

This is review number one hundred and seventy five. This anime is part of the Summer 2012 lineup. I’m just dusting off some anime I missed before I take on the 2013 anime. Anyways, I’ll be reviewing Yuru Yuri 2. It’s the second season and its twelve episodes long about a group of girls and their strong friendship that is a bit cute and sexual in its setup. I love the first season so I really want to see the new season badly. Let’s read on.

Story

The anime is still about the girls of the amusement club who lounge around in the tea club’s room after it disbanded. They still lounge around in the club and waste time talking about random things and doing activities together. This season, some of their friends and classmates introduced in the first season are also given a spotlight where their friendship and tenderness towards each other is nicely highlighted.

Taking the Pants Off

The first season of Yuru Yuri is certainly enjoyable. It combined the promise of girl on girl tension with the laidback appeal of the moe slice of life shows that was a huge trend in anime. Even though there wasn’t really any serious girl on girl action in the anime because everything was lighthearted, I still enjoyed it because it was a new take on a very overdone concept. Some characters also kissed so all is well in the end. I wanted a second season for a long time. One of the reasons was because I actually wanted the anime to deliver on what it promised, some actual yuri. I want some full on moe girl on girl action, damn it. I felt that the second season will finally deliver it. I mean, it’s only natural, right? You dangled a carrot on the first season then you let the viewers have it on the second season. Maybe I’m just a pervert for expecting middle school girls to actually give into their sexual tendencies. Maybe. Anyways, another season of this great anime is certainly welcomed.

Surprisingly, the anime’s focus is still the same as the first season. It’s still about the four girls of the amusement club and their various friends in school. The anime is still very much Slice of Life than anything else. I say it is surprising because the status quo wasn’t challenged by the anime. They are still in the same grade, the same clubroom with the same acquaintances doing the same things they did last season. The anime still doesn’t have any story. It’s still just about the normal lives of the girls and their time together in school and in the club room. The characters still act the same with very little transformation and they still do the random routine things they did the last season.

I was a bit surprised that the anime never tried to change the status quo of the anime. It seems very unlikely that two girls would have some intimate moments in the anime because there seems to be no sign of any change in the show. It’s the same old same old. I guess some people would love to see the same setup that made the anime great. The shining personalities of the characters and the lively interaction they do are very much missed but I was left wanting more. I wanted something new that would get the girls to do something I haven’t seen before since it is a new season. I want something to make the whole experience worthwhile and above the bar set by the first season. It’s odd that the anime never considered it.

So what is new in the anime? Well, one thing I did like about the anime is that it was able to utilize the current cast. All of them were able to have a decent screen time in the anime. The hassle of character introductions are already done with so the characters were just bringing forth some decent laughs and memorable segments. The skits in the anime were able to use the large cast. Some skits would involve the original four cast but other skits would involve the first year students spending time together and the second years bonding as well. This is a great thing because the character dynamic of the anime has become more complex and it has become a lot more interesting. The bright personalities of the original four main characters blended nicely with the personalities of the once side characters in the first season. I personally like this because I wanted more scenes involving some of the interesting side characters of the first season.

Another new thing in the second season was dedicating more time to the relationship of Sakurako and Himawari. They are the other members of the student council and they have this playful love-hate relationship that you can’t get enough of. Their fights would often seem to be playful flirting that I was personally interested in. They had this yuri promise in the first season and they now fully focused in the second season. They have the same dynamic as Yui and Kyouko from the original cast but, like I said, they have a much more yuri potential between them. The anime gave the two a lot of screen time exploring their beautiful bond, their funny tandem and just how they became friends. I also love how blunt yet honest Sakurako is while Himawari is a bit serious yet caring towards her best friend.

Another new thing in the show is Kyouko’s favorite anime, Mirakurun, actually getting some segments in the show. They aren’t long segments or fairly important ones. They are just short scenes that seem to be a commentary of the ridiculousness and the childish nature of the magical girl genre. The anime often feature small episodes of the Mirakurun show where the story is absolutely bonkers and the characters are laughably idiotic. It’s a familiar scene though if you’ve ever indulged yourself in shows like Nanoha and the like. The joke though is that most of the characters in the anime would find the show dumbfounding yet Kyouko absolutely worships it. Damn, anime characters displaying the obsession of anime through non anime fan’s eyes? That’s certainly something.

The Comedy in the anime is a bit of a hit and miss at times. The thing that irks me is the fact that the status quo is unchanged so we are seeing the same jokes from the first season. Akarin being invisible, Chinatsu trying to score one from Yui, Kyouko doing stupid things with Yui being a bit annoyed and other things we’ve seen from the first season. Is that really all the anime have to present to make us laugh? Recycled jokes from the first season don’t really make me giddy with excitement waiting for the next episode. The familiarity of the characters and the jokes does make the anime pretty fun to watch. It’s the reason you fell in love with the characters so there’s not a lot of damage seeing it again. I just don’t think seeing the same jokes in a new season are something that’ll elevate the anime though.

There are some new materials in the anime though. To be fair, the new ones are pretty funny but they are often repeated over and over that they become a bit tiresome. I did read somewhere that repeating the same jokes over and over will generate some laughs soon or later because if it wasn’t funny the first time then surely the next fifteen times would bring in the laughs. It does make me wonder though what the anime might’ve been if it had a new story a bit polished than the one in the first season. The jokes would’ve been a lot better as well.

I’m really just pissing over something that doesn’t exist when it comes to the yuri aspects of the anime. The anime is literally about easygoing (yuru) girl’s love (yuri but more like Shoujo Ai, really) so the lighthearted girl on girl presentation of the anime is really all it has to offer. Yeah, it would’ve been awesome to see the girls kiss and do other things because there really aren’t a lot of Yuri anime. The last one I saw was Strawberry Panic back in 06 which is like the Junjo Romantica of Yuri anime. I haven’t seen one since then and I was hoping I’d get some in this anime. There is nothing here and there wasn’t any to begin with. Easygoing girl’s love is really just a comedy show about the everyday lives of close friends. Let the audience misinterpret the anime, it’s totally normal, but it’s not something to hold the anime against with. I’ll just satisfy my craving for girl on girl awesomeness with some doujinshi of the anime, I guess.

The characters in the anime are pretty much the same. They don’t really have a transformation because that requires a story and the anime don’t possess one. They still have the great personality that made them great in the first season. It’s not much but it is greatly appreciate. I love Akari’s level headed nature and the way other characters overlook her. I love Yui’s seriousness but soft spot for her friends. I love Chinatsu’s obsession with Yui and her overall vibrant personality. I also love Kyouko’s catchy energetic personality. I really did miss it all. There are new characters as well. Some siblings of current characters are introduced and it gave an idea of how the anime was gradually expanding. They offer little to the anime though. They are minor characters with very little purpose expect to make the old characters look good. Some are nice stand outs though like Akarin’s sister. Remember in the first season we saw her room full of Akarin’s picture and used panties. Well, she was featured a bit in the anime and her obsession is really interesting. It was a new thing in the anime that I really appreciate. The rest of the cast is the same old same old. Nothing worth noting there.

There aren’t a lot of good things from this anime we haven’t seen from the first season. It’s a bit unremarkable how it didn’t even try to fix the short comings of the first season. It’s the same minus the character introductions. I guess if you enjoyed the first season then you do deserve to see them again busting out their stuff in another season but don’t expect much because you’d be a bit disappointed. They retain their great qualities and I guess that is a very huge positive in the anime. Other than that though, it’s basically the first season all over again.

Sight and Sound

The character design is pretty much the same. They are the same cute characters with slender bodies with cute faces and big bug eyes. I did miss the way the characters look because they have a bit of sexiness and cuteness in them that I am attracted to. The uniform as well, I miss those lovely uniforms. They drape over the characters enhancing their cuteness but it stops too short on the legs accentuating their sexiness. It’s another reason why I want the characters to just go animalistic on each other. The character design nicely complements the personalities of the characters and I find it a bit funny that the blondes are annoying and energetic while dark haired girls are reserved and serious.

The animation was pretty decent. It’s not as great as the first season though but enough to deliver the character’s individual charms. There are a lot of running in the anime and a lot of hugging that are nicely animated. I don’t like how the background remains stationary though and you can see the background characters aren’t moving. It was also missing some great moments that defined the animation. The kissing scenes in this season were a bit pathetic. It pissed me more than anything else. The expressions of the characters are nicely animated though and those scenes nicely stand out because the characters are really energetic at times.

The anime’s OP is “Yes! Yuyuyu☆Yuru Yuri♪♪” by Nanamori Chu☆Goraku Bu. The song is sung by the four main girls of the anime. It’s as energetic as the OP of the first season but this one had more flare to it since we are already familiar with the anime. It’s an energetic song nicely capturing the madness of the anime. The OP sequence features the four main girls acting cute and doing the stuff you usually see them do in the anime.

The anime’s ED is “100% Chu~Gakusei” by Nanamori Chu☆Goraku Bu. It’s sung by the four main girls as well. It’s basically the same as the OP. It’s energetic and catchy and it embodies the spirit of the anime. The ED sequence features the various characters of the anime in a walking home montage.

Overall Score

7/10 “It’s experiencing the first season all over again in a very unremarkable way.”

There are some great things in the anime. If you didn’t get enough of the first season then the second season is there to fill you up some more. If you’re expecting new things from the anime then don’t bother because you’ll just be disappointed. Is it a bad thing to do the same thing the first season did? No, not really. But even K-on’s second season went through the trouble of adjusting the anime and changing the status quo of the first season. So I find it a bit of a cop out Yuri Yuru didn’t do much. Hey, if it ain’t broken, right? It’s all up to how you want your viewing experience to be, to be honest. If you saw the first season then by all means, check the second season out. If you like comedy slice of life shows with light hearted yuri then you’ll love this show. You don’t even need to see the first season. It’s really the same.