“The Radius”

Title: Yuru Yuri Premium Edition

U. S. Distributor: NIS America

U. S. Release Date: Sept. 3, 2013

Genre: Yuri, Slice of School Life  and Comedy

Length: 12 episodes, 288 minutes

Format: Blu-ray, 2 disc, Art Book and Box

Age Rating: Teen

Overall Personal Rating: B+

At an all girls middle school, there is a group of friends who make up the Amusement Club. They are also friends with the girls from the student council. Together they go about their school lives, doing homework and finding fun things to do. It is everyday life filled with imagination and friendship, not to mention a few crushes on each other.

Synopsis:

I don’t know if you have seen the first season, but it isn’t really necessary. This is like a sitcom where basically the episodes can be watched in any order. The only exception is the character introductions at the beginning of the series but it would still be fun to watch starting at season 2.

Akari daydreams about being more popular, or rather, having people notice her at all. Chinatsu still has unusual hair and a more unusual art style, Kyoko is still self -absorbed, Yui is the sensible and reliable one and Chitose still the bloody nosed pervert.

The girls go on a school trip, but it is close to home, and they need to figure out how to make it different from just hanging out at the Amusement club. First it is ping pong, then the bath and spending the night.

Returning to school, things get back to normal, everyday stuff; classes, cleaning and dealing with a runny nose. The girls often get together to eat, play games, or talk at the tea house. There is plenty of schoolwork to do, or in Kyoko’s case,  to avoid it. She puts a lot of energy into doing anything else, including her manga. Sakurako is the same and makes studying for exams a little crazy.

Valentine’s Day brings the usual stress of the big chocolate give away. Do you make it, buy it, what ones, how fancy? Or do you make something totally different as a gift? And then you need to be brave enough to actually give it to someone.

Vacation gets them away from school. Even then, Kyoko is an expert at avoiding what she is supposed to be doing. During summer break, the girl’s visit each other’s  homes and we also get to meet their sisters, both older and younger.  A trip to the pool doesn’t go as planned, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun. At Christmas, it is a trip to Karaoke.

As they were preparing to clean, the girls discover what appears to be a time machine. Could this be what makes Akari’s dream come true?

During the school Festival, the girls put on a play that turns out to be an interesting version of Snow White.

Commentary:

Yuru Yuri is pretty much what it sounds like; a cute anime with yuri elements. Cute is definitely the overwhelming impression of the show, then friendship and finally, yuri fan service. The level of the fan service is probably considered mild; innuendoes, groping, crushes, etc.

As a series, Yuru Yuri, is mostly slapstick comedy with little depth and drenched in cuteness. It isn’t about anything in particular, nor is there much of a message. I can’t help but think of how Seinfeld was usually described; a show about nothing. It seems to be friends being friends in an everyday slice of middle school life, only it isn’t everyday life but a platform for random yuri humor. This brings up the biggest issue that I have with the series, it shouldn’t be about middle schoolers. It is rated for 13+, but I believe it should be higher. Even in the wildest stretch of imagination, if this is how middle schoolers acted, as an adult, I wouldn’t want to see them do so as entertainment. I would have a much better personal opinion of the series if they were high school aged. It’s may be a little issue of semantics to some, but for me, there is a sort of switch that would make it okay. Now, if I’m saying all of that, why give it a B+? Well, I was able to grade it for what I believe to be the target audience, and well, it is a cartoon. A live action Yuru Yuri would be atrocious.

Season Two has an easier stride since the introductions are all finished of the main characters in the first season. It was best when the girls were just hanging out at the teahouse doing nothing special. This season we did get to meet several of their sisters, bringing a whole new meaning to sisterly love (hint: custom body pillow).  This was so much farther out there, that it seems funnier as it embraced the social creepiness. Using the girls’ imaginations also pushed the action and the comedy to another level. The yuri elements were treated as neutral and everyday for the characters, perhaps to draw the audience in closer to the humor.

There were no guys around, except a few standing around in the background city scenes. This is all about girls and their relationships. Their friendships are well developed and with the added in crushes, it was difficult to keep up with who has a crush on who. Basically, I assumed everybody was hot for everyone. The characters generally overact in an environment that balances between a soft spoken realism, to an overdone, special effects event. The one character I still cannot stand is the bloody nosed girl. Even her notebook is blood stained. She is gross and creepy and that’s enough of her, it isn’t funny.

As an anime, the series is well done. It is very colorful as the cuteness is given great focus with the hair, faces and outfits. I really like the backgrounds. The everyday stuff for them, makes it fun and interesting for Japanese cultural fans in America. The sound support was really superior. The music, effects and voices all work seamlessly with the script and characters to created the whole feel of the show. It uses anime style exaggerations and over the top cutsey affection to superb effect. I have only one complaint here, and as often in anime, some of the feet animation is surprisingly weak.

My favorite episode when they found a time machine. There was actually a story about something that held my interest. It was rather thoughtful and sweet, although the ending did bring it back to a reality. The final episode followed this, and it was rather clever the way they used a play and it was an excellent way to end the season and the series if that is what it is meant to be.

For its intention, Yuru Yuri does a really well. 

Overall Personal Rating: B+  A very friendly group to spend 12 episodes of your time with.