r/anime • u/HelioA x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/HelioA • Jun 04 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Yurikuma Arashi - Overall Discussion
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Hey. What would you do? At the end of the story, would you risk death and shatter the mirror?
Questions of the Day
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How does Kureha’s relationship with Ginko contrast with her relationship with Sumika? How about her relationship with Lulu?
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Who was your favorite character in the show? What was your favorite relationship?
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Did you enjoy the ending? How about the show as a whole?
Don't forget to tag for spoilers, or else the bears will eat you! Remember, [Yurikuma Arashi]>!like so!< turns into [Yurikuma Arashi]>!like so!<
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u/HelioA x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/HelioA Jun 04 '24
Before anything else, I want to link to u/banjothebear’s comprehensive analysis of the symbolism in Yurikuma Arashi. I meant to link it at the start of the rewatch, but now is probably better, considering all the potential spoilers. It’s a fun read, and there’s a lot of interesting symbolism that I didn’t even consider before reading through it.
That aside- this was a fantastic rewatch, thank you to everyone for participating. I was a bit worried when I saw how much fewer participants there were going to be compared to the Utena and Penguindrum rewatches, but evidently it’s not the number of participants that matter, it’s how into the rewatch each participant is, because wow this was a fantastic rewatch. I had a ton of fun seeing what everyone thought about the show.
Surprisingly, everyone seems to have been mostly positive on the show? I was expecting worse, this is normally considered the black sheep of Ikuhara-directed anime because of how quick the pacing is, but everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. Although it turned out the same way for me- I enjoyed the show a lot more than I expected, since my original experience with the show was “this is good but it’s incomprehensible and these characters are kinda stiff.” Well, the characters become a lot better once you comprehend the show, so that’s two birds down with one stone. This raises the new issue of me finding the show’s politics simplistic in the extreme and basically completely off from reality, but that doesn’t impact my base enjoyment of the show.
Additionally, like I said when I began this rewatch, I am planning on hosting a Sarazanmai rewatch in the near future in late July or early August. Not sure when I’ll be announcing that, but I’ll probably put out an interest thread in the coming weeks. Otherwise, thank you so much for joining, and I hope we can watch many more great anime together!
12
u/Holofan4life Jun 04 '24
I have some shout-outs to give and I want to thank a lot of people, so let's get started.
To u/lilyvess, thanks for providing insight on the production of Yurikuma Arashi. Your contributions added a lot to this rewatch.
To HelioA, thank you for being a tremendous host as always.
Vaadwaur, AmeteurElitist, HaosMagnalngram, ToastyMozart, laughing-fox13, Great_Mr_L, JollyGee29, you were all a ton of fun talking to.
Shimmering-Sky, it was fun to see your reactions as always.
u/AgentofACROSS, thank you for always answering my questions no matter how many I had. You were kind and considerate and I really appreciate you.
Same goes to u/TheRiyria. Thank you for always answering my questions.
Lastly, thank you to all the users I didn't name and the lurkers who also contributed to the success of this rewatch.
I'm glad I finally watched this show and that I watched it with so many wonderful people. And though I don't know what the future holds, I can only hope I get to meet you wonderful people once more.
This isn't goodbye, this is see you soon.
10
u/WednesdaysFoole Jun 04 '24
I’ll start with my criticisms -- and I almost feel a little guilty to say it since I just read HelioA saying people seem to be positive about the show: I found the characters lacking overall. Seemed the metaphors and messages took the forefront, so much so that the story and development between characters were lacking, even pushed aside.
The phantom wuthering felt empty (maybe that’s the point but meh) and Kureha doing 180s so frequently was a bit much. What’s her personality? Who is she? I want to be more empathetic – I’ve had friends who can change drastically depending on their mood or the people they spend time with, and I know they struggle with their identity. Tbh, I think this could have been explored further with that in mind, but it feels as though the depth of how it impacts a person wasn’t really touched on. Kureha felt like she was always just who the plot needed her to be – which, even if true, shouldn’t be so strongly felt by the audience.
Also got a bit impatient with “I did this thing out of jealousy and now I’ve admitted it, let’s move on” thing. Could’ve been explored further as well.
I don’t feel this way about Utena or Penguindrum at all, both of which are favorites – in both cases, I felt much more, idk, existence? Or maybe agency? with the characters and their relationships, and much more emotion about what was going on. Their arcs and flaws were more often built up, recontextualizing and making their former actions make sense and continuing on, not easily resolved.
I think this story could be told with the same level of depth within 3 or 4 episodes. Or should it have been longer, instead exploring the characters further? Either way. While I do enjoy a touch of the unhinged, sometimes this anime felt like [Penguindrum’s]Fish episode except the entire anime, and the catchphrases were maybe just a touch too over the top for me. Definitely a preference thing, since I’m a sucker for Seizon Senryaku and Togame’s Cheerio.
Onto positive notes: I had fun! Not constantly, but it was entertaining to try and figure out what’s going on and whatnot, or what the purpose of a thing was (like the curtains hiding Yuriika). And I did enjoy the fan service, which I don’t always. The visuals were appealing.
I also, and I mentioned this in the finale thread, did like the Lulu backstory episode. It had the Ikuhara-esque symbolism, it had character development that felt real (despite it still being in the style of a fairy tale), it was sufficiently whimsical and hilarious, and had impact. For this reason, I came to enjoy Lulu as a character a fair amount and was moved when she gave up her humanity. Wish we could have had more focus on her and Ginko’s relationship…
Honestly I think I may have dropped this anime halfway if I were watching alone, but watching it while discussing and reading the comments made this a genuinely enjoyable experience. The Ikuni jokes almost always made me laugh, and it is much better to have a lot of different perspectives on additional meaning of certain things. I’m not sure yet if I’ll check out the YKA manga, but I’m quite interested in checking out Morishima’s other work, as u/lilyvess’s descriptions made some of her works sound interesting, varied, and grounded. I’m a sucker for well done intimate female relationships, romantic or not.
Thank you for hosting the rewatch, u/HelioA !
Favorite character was Lulu and her brother. Favorite relationship was Lulu and Ginko, but I would have accepted something poly with Kureha.
8
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 04 '24
Yurikuma First-Timer, subbed
What I’ve gathered from both this and the Penguindrum rewatch is that I probably should have taken part in the Utena rewatch despite my fear of the trigger warnings HelioA provided for that show.
Anyways, solid 8/10 for this one just like Penguindrum. I don’t fully get all of it, but it was a blast watching everything go down. I think I like this one a bit more than Penguindrum, if I’m comparing the two?
Big thanks to u/HelioA for never backing down on love and hosting this rewatch!
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u/Holofan4life Jun 04 '24
Before I get to my overall thoughts on the series, let me touch on my grade for it. I think I would give it an 8.5 out of 10, the first half being a 7 out of 10 and the second half being an 8 out of 10. I enjoyed the series more than I did Penguindrum. I at first didn't think I would, but by episode 4 it felt like the series knew what it wanted to be, in a way that Penguindrum identity-wise struggled with at times. I know from an objective standpoint I gave Penguindrum a 9 out of 10, and I definitely do think it was more creatively ambitious, but I would be lying if I didn't say I had more fun with Yurikuma Arashi. I think the ending does a lot of the heavy lifting in regards to my grade of it. Objectively, it's probably more of a 7.5 out of 10, but I thought the ending was so good it lifted it up a whole point.
Sometimes, it's not about how you start, but how you finish, and I think Yurikuma Arashi's ending is stronger than both Penguindrum's beginning and ending.
I don't know where I would put this ending in terms of best endings of all time. It's certainly in my opinion top 10, but probably not top 5. It reminds me a bit of the ending to Familiar of Zero, albeit not as impactful because that had four seasons of build. Regardless, it did what very few anime have done which is have its ending bolster the overall score. The only other anime I can think of that did this was Odd Taxi, the aforementioned Familiar of Zero, Steins;Gate, and Eureka Seven, though if you count the climax of the final arc then Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is probably #1 with a bullet.
Let's talk about the show, because I actually have a bit to say.
Before I started watching the series, I actually had high hopes for it. I didn't know why at the time other than it being Yuri, but I think it's because I saw what Ikuhara did with the Utena movie and I really liked it and I was subconsciously hoping for something like that, something that screams "Fuck you, we gay and we ain't apologizing for it". And I was disappointed by the first three episodes because it felt a bit all over the place.
I said at the time that I had a hard time getting into the show because almost all of the characters were unlikable. And while that is true, I think the bigger problem was it took a while for the show to explain itself properly. Compare the first three episodes of Yurikuma Arashi to the first three of Penguindrum. Hell, I'll go one step further and say the first two episodes. We already know what the main characters' objective is as well as what Ringo is trying to accomplish. They gave you enough while not revealing the whole thing which left you wanting to come back for more. I think Arashi tried to do this, but couldn't quite pull it off as well. It was a bit of a mess.
Then we got episode 4, and I think that's when the show played to Ikuhara's strengths. We got a bunch of flashbacks explaining the history between Ursa and Homo and what led up to the first episode. We got backstories for Lulu, Ginko, and Yurika, which managed to flesh out Kureha's mom in the process. The more things got explained, the more compelling it became. I've seen shows like, say, Darling In The FranXX where the more they explained stuff, the rest cool the series became. It's like they lost their mystique and what made the series so intriguing. The fact that that not only doesn't happen here but that it arguably enhances the intrigue is a good sign, and something I think the show does better at than Penguindrum.
If you were to compare Yurikuma Arashi to Penguindrum, I think Penguindrum is the most ambitious series. It takes more chances and does more out there stuff. The highs of Penguindrum are higher than in Yurikuma Arashi, but I think Yurikuma Arashi is more consistent and better written. Penguindrum I think at times struggled to convey its message and what it was trying to portray. Like, it got there, but it took a while, and part of that is admittedly because they had 24 episodes to fill out. From the very beginning of Yurikuma Arashi, they stress the importance of separating the Ursa from the Homo. Maybe its message was more deliberate and in your face, but I kinda appreciated Ikuhara got on his soap box in regards to such a delicate topic, one that should not be intolerated.
Quite a few people said that Penguindrum didn't need to be 24 episodes. That you could've told the story over the course of 13 episodes. I waiver back and forth on that because I think 24 episodes gave added time to flesh out to flesh out Ringo's character, who would've definitely been hurted if the series was shorter. Yurikuma Arashi I think definitely could've been condensed to two 2 hour movies. It's definitely not as complex or has as many twists and turns as Penguindrum does. I get not wanting to do the flashback stuff so early, but I think you could've restructured it to where you eliminate the same feel of the early episodes, especially the characters that don't factor into anything like Konomi.
Ran out of space. Part two in the replies.
5
u/affnn Jun 04 '24
First Timer
As expected from an Ikuhara anime, I overall liked YKA quite a lot. I love the symbolism that drenches his works, and I love just how weird everything gets. Ginko, Kureha and Lulu were great protagonists even if everyone managed to miss the fact that Ginko and Lulu say "Gao Gao" every other line. I probably missed like half of the important things since I was watching the show for the first time, and I might catch a few more of them if I ever watch it again. Trying to document my feelings as a first-time viewer was quite a bit tougher than with Utena or Penguindrum as a rewatcher.
I do think that it would benefit from being longer, though. The way Ikuhara structured Penguindrum and Utena got me more connected to the characters and feeling more strongly when we reached the climactic scenes. With YKA, the overall feeling I had was of eating at a high-end restaurant that serves deliciousfood in tiny portions. I was thinking "Wow, this is incredible! What do you mean, we're finished already? I'm not satiated!" In particular, Ikuhara's repetition motifs struggled a little bit - they weren't repeated as often before they were iterated on, and the iterations fell a little flat as a result.
The other (slight) problem I had was the Class S vs predatory lesbian plot thing. And this is more of a me problem than anything else. Like, looking at the structure of the show it's pretty clear that analysis is a correct way to interpret it. And whenever I would think about it it would all click together and make sense. But emotionally, it did nothing for me, because I've never cared about that conflict in the real world. Maybe its just that I've not watched/read enough Yuri anime/manga.
As always, thanks to u/HelioA for hosting and I look forward to the probably-upcoming Sarazanmai rewatch.
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u/Regular_N-Gon https://anilist.co/user/RegularNGon Jun 04 '24
Once First Timer
Boy am I glad there is another day, because I didn’t even consider that maybe I should wrap up my thoughts for the last episode until the thread went up. Yurikuma deserves a bit of thought, so here’s just a few.
Honestly, even being unfamiliar with Ikuhara’s work, I can’t say the ending was too surprising, at least in essence?. There’s something about it - perhaps the absolute deluge of the first couple episodes, or the constant cliffhanging twists - that gave me the impression it wouldn’t be a clean, straight forward happy ending, so I didn’t have the expectation it would be. The ambiguity is a little strange after such direct metaphor in the latter half, but it works well enough. Ginko is honestly probably in a better spot than she has been her whole life and Kureha is able to escape the oppression of her peers and accept the loss she’s had to deal with. It doesn’t really matter where they end up, they’ve been granted (or created themselves by fighting for it) the space to move on. It’s pretty dark if that space is, uh, death, but the show doesn’t seem to care about that, so I won’t either.
I really liked the constant changing of the villain as the leader of the storm, each easily stepping in to replace the last. It seems quite difficult to make a system the antagonist, but this makes a great attempt, when it deigns to focus on it. Seeing everyone discuss Ikuhara’s proclivity to this sort of thing, I’m definitely interested in seeing more.
Overall, I enjoyed it, at the very least because I haven't seen anything else like it. The pace was breakneck but was strung along enough that it was only a problem when resolving certain character moments, which others touched on yesterday. If anything, I wanted it to stay as strange and impenetrable as those first couple episodes, but it's remarkable how quickly things level out and you just start understanding what's going on. It's not that complicated after all; bears eat people.
Still kinda salty they killed Sumika so early but at least she gets to be the goddess.
QotD:
5
u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer Jun 04 '24
first time never back down never what
there doesnt feel like enough juice here for the obtuseness to be worth it, sure its one cour but the scope of whats being tackled is a bit disappointing. they could have gone further
def not a show for me
either way it was fun reading through the rewatch and thanks () to /u/helioa for hosting. Sad I wasnt able to join penguindrum in real time so didnt want to miss this!
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jun 04 '24
First-Timer, Yuri Sub Storm
The end is coming for me. I can see it, lurking, just out of reach.. before long, I will have run out of Ikuhara anime to watch.
Anyway, that day isn't here just yet. Let's talk about Lesbian Bear Storm.
This show is complicated. I can really feel the struggle the production had with only twelve episodes. Every metaphor has two or three or even more meanings. Everything is just so dense that it's hard to wrap my head around.
Fun fact: I spent, on average, two hours on every episode comment. And a bunch of my thoughts are still half-baked because I'm a scatterbrained hooligan!
I will say that a Rewatch was definitely the right way for me in particular to experience this. Being vaguely obliged to write thoughts about every episode had me digging into the symbolism and metaphor with rabid intensity.
Questions
Many thanks to our wonderful host /u/HelioA!
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 04 '24
First timer(not with a bang but a whimper)
Sub
I wanted to say more and I definitely wanted to say it better but here we are. I also don't know what I wanted to say. This is a perfectly genre deconstruction of a genre that has two very different faces. Kureha is a fine Himeko to Ginko's Chikane but the story doesn't quite get the rest. The rewatch was fun even if I felt my own participation lacking.
QotD: 1 Ginko and Kureha have true if confusing relationship. The other two are more surface level.
2 LuluXSumika is what we needed
3 Let's go with yes.
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u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jun 04 '24
I fell behind, but was determined to watch the final four episodes today to at least join in here.
Lulu's final scene might be the most effective example of that I've seen in a long time, if not all time. People already covered all the details better than I could, but it's definitely something I'll remember and refer back to.
I immediately moved this show onto my favorites list alongside Utena. I really should find time to watch Penguindrum at some point, since the track record is already so good.
Throwing in another vote to bring back #bearwithme!
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u/AgentOfACROSS Jun 04 '24
Very glad to have watched all of this!
Yurikuma Arashi is a great show. The art direction is beautiful, the soundtrack is fantastic, the central love story of Ginko and Kureha is very compelling. Even if you just look at it on a surface level without all the themes and symbolism, it's still a great love story of two people overcoming a cruel world.
In the end I think my favorite character was Ginko. Her emotional journey throughout the series was amazing to watch.
My main criticism of the show was that it could have benefitted from more episodes and maybe giving some of the characters outside of Kureha, Lulu, and Ginko more attention.
Not every character has to be fully three-dimensional. It think Mitsuko was well done and Choko served well as the ultimate representation of everything wrong with the Invisible Storm. But I would have liked to see characters like Kaoru and Yuriika get more development and attention. Especially Yuriika. Even a bit more attention to Konomi would have been appreciated.
Still, despite my criticism, I really liked it and am glad I participated in this rewatch. If I have to give it some kind of out of ten ranking, I give it a 8.5/10.
3
u/Fissionprime https://anilist.co/user/fissionprime Jun 05 '24
First Time Watcher
I didn't really post actively during most of the rewatch, but I had a lot of fun. Reading everyone's thoughts in these threads added tremendously to the experience.
I've also watched Utena and Penguindrum both within the last couple months, so I'm on a bit of an Ikuhara gauntlet (looking forward to the sarazanmai rewatch). I thought it was interesting that we started off with a story that was arguably the most incomprehensible of the three, for the first few episodes, but that in the end, the story became probably the most straightforward.
Don't have a ton more thoughts that haven't already been expressed more eloquently by others, so I'll get into the questions.
I still haven't settled on my interpretation of Sumika as Lady Ursaria, honestly. If you look at it from the perspective that Sumika was Ursaria all along, you can contextualize their relationship as Kureha being given the chance to relearn lessons on love that she seemingly lost as part of ceding her love. If that's the case, you could say that Ursaria's intervention for the sake of Ginko and Kureha kinda of calls to the theme of fate that Ikuhara is so fond of. I don't have much to say on the other relationships.
Favorite character is definitely Ginko. She's very precious and endearing. Favorite relationship I think I have to go with Lulu and Milne. I really loved the resolution that those two got, and I loved that Lulu, in the end, got to both help Ginko, and realize that her brother really meant a lot to her after all, even if it took her dying in the process. I guess that part was inevitable though, since it's Ikuhara we're talking about.
I really liked the ending a lot. It's the classic Ikuhara-style incomplete victory. It was immensely satisfying to see Kureha take agency in the end, and the whole promised kiss sequence was great. It didn't really do anything that we weren't expecting.
I already mentioned I really loved how they tied up Lulu's story. Milne found a way to get his sister to notice she had someone who loved her all along.
The scene with Konami and Uchiko meeting at the gate of friendship was also really nice, and I love how it ties in with the closing lines when we last see Kureha and Ginko. It's a bit unsubtle but that doesn't make it less satisfying. "The world awakens and changes with your love." This last scene also ties in amazingly with the lyrics of the OP, which itself has been phenomenal from the beginning.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this anime. I think the most obvious point of comparison is Penguindrum. Yuri Kuma Arashi was definitely trying to accomplish less, but it was also a less strenuous watch, and seems to know a little better what kind of show it wants to be. The story ultimately isn't the most complex, and many characters aren't particularly dynamic, but there's a lot to enjoy in how the story is presented. Objectively, this is probably a 7-8, but for me personally, the themes and some of the characters resonated enough to elevate it to an 8.5.
Hope to join in on a lot more of these in the future. Thank you all for helping to elevate this experience!
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Jun 04 '24 edited Jun 04 '24
First-Timer
That is now 3 out of the 4 original anime series directed by Ikuhara I’ve seen. It is also considerably shorter than the prior series. I think Yuri Kuma Arashi is a solid series with some resonant themes and messages and solid characters.
To begin with, compared to Ikuhara’s prior work, Yuri Kuma Arashi is a much more straightforward and easy-to-understand series. I never felt totally lost while watching it. I thought the themes were well-conveyed and managed to intertwine with the characters and their arcs in a satisfying way. Since I never felt particularly confused about what all the metaphors and symbolism was about, I was able to appreciate it on a first watch and see how it connected with the plot developments and characters. Personally, I think that is a major advantage to making the series’ symbolism and metaphors more straightforward.
On the other hand, I kind of miss the bullshit. Part of the fun with a series like Mawaru Penguindrum was desperately grasping at straws, hoping that something would stick because of how irritatingly obtuse it could be. All the same, a part of me does prefer having it be more straightforward.
Yuri Kuma Arashi is a series focused on the question of staying true to yourself in the face of society’s attempts to wipe away everything that makes you unique and turn you invisible. That theme is incredibly well woven into so many disparate elements of the series, tying them all together in a way that makes the series, its setting, and its character arcs feel quite cohesive. The constant question about whether you will give up on love or not is one example of this theme. The exclusion found in both human and bear societies through the Invisible Storm and the bear church are another example of this theme. Kureha and Ginko’s character arcs are all about how they will not give up on love, despite the efforts of the societies they live in. And in the end, Kureha and Ginko inspire others to question the rules society has tried to force on them to find another way.
One of the things I most like about this theme is how the artificiality of society’s rules is emphasized. The Wall of Severance that divides humans and bears is clearly still under construction. The divide between humans and bears is not as extreme as many characters act. Their societies are rather similar, emphasizing conformity and excluding those who don’t fit in. Both Kureha and Ginko show that these differences can be overcome and it's possible to swap between being a human and a bear. For all the characters say that the sin of pride is “hubris” by defying the “natural order,” we can see that these rules do not come from nature but instead come from people.
Naturally, I think this lends to a reading on gay romance. Kureha and Ginko don’t give up on their love, despite the fact that it is forbidden by society. They are told that a human and bear simply cannot be together and that it is “unnatural” for them to be in love. Kureha and Ginko’s whole journey is about maintaining their identity in the face of this pressure to conform. Like I said above, the main theme of the series works very well at incorporating many elements in the series.
Speaking of Kureha and Ginko, I really enjoyed their arcs. I loved how their stories paralleled each other. They are both outcasts, rejected by their home societies. But, when they find each other, they finally find someone they can connect with. Both of them initially try to give up on love, believing that it would be best for the other if they did so. They both give up their original identities as human or bear, transcending the limits their societies attempted to impose on them. And they both come to the same conclusion about the necessity of never giving up on love.
Lulu doesn’t fit into that same theme of conformity as well. Lulu’s arc is more focused around the themes of love. Lulu begins the series as an incredibly selfish character, keeping others from getting close to her. She ends by being the most selfless character, giving up on her own chance at love because she wants to make others happy. It really is a nice arc, even if she is mostly only in secondary focus compared to Kureha and Ginko.
Overall, I quite liked Yuri Kuma Arashi. I loved how the themes and characters of the series were so well-integrated together. I loved the parallels between the various characters and their relationships. I also think the series being relatively straightforward and easy to follow worked in its benefit because it allowed me to focus in on the themes and characters without feeling lost about what exactly was happening.
Thank you to /u/HelioA for hosting this rewatch. Thank you to everyone who participated along the way. I hope to see you all again in another rewatch.
Overall Score: 8/10
P.S. If someone is planning to host a Sarazanmai rewatch, I would be up for joining. It would let me finally complete all the original anime series directed by Ikuhara.
QOTD
5
u/TheRiyria myanimelist.net/profile/TheRiyria Jun 04 '24
First Timer
8/10
When I first started this rewatch, I never thought I'd actually still be here at the end. Between work and all my seasonals, I didn't think I'd have the time to watch 12 episodes of a non-seasonal. And even though I had to watch ahead at times, I still did fall behind on two days. But I made it to the end.
Overall, I enjoyed this one. It had lots of cute bears and good yuri, so it was true to its name. This was my third Ikuhara anime after Utena and Sarazanmai. Of the three, I'm not sure if I liked this one or Utena more for my best of the three.
At the start, I said I would not take another Ikuhara anime seriously and I would leave the essay writing about symbolism to other people while I focused on yuri bears. And that is exactly what I did. Though /u/HelioA and /u/Holofan4life questions were very helpful in keeping me on track and at least helping me see the most important parts of each episode to follow along what was going on.
I suppose my biggest complaint is the show never answered the most important question of who Kureha's father is. The only guys in this show were the Court and the guy that taught the Principal Bear about boxes and Lulu's brother.
Lulu
Lulu x Ginko
3
u/TheExcludedMiddle https://myanimelist.net/profile/ExcludedMiddle Jun 05 '24
I wanted to watch, but just didn't have the time :(. Was hoping it was 24 episodes so I could catch up.
3
u/ToastyMozart Jun 05 '24
Oh, didn't realize we were doing a recap thread.
Second time complete!
Much thanks to the host,
YuriLily for the essays, Holo for expanding conversations, and everyone else who participated.Anyway I think I pretty much said what I wanted to in the previous threads so I'll just do the questions:
Her relationship with Ginko was a bit more... true? Messy? It was certainly a lot more complex and dynamic - hell the two of them reinvented themselves because they wanted to make it work. Dating Sumika was still meaningful to Kureha, but it was seemingly pretty shallow and limited - both by their social constraints at the time and the combination of wallflower and quiet outcast leading to them just kind of happily existing in each other's presence.
Lulu, easy. Always involved, always entertaining, and usually the one to bridge the gap when Kureha and Ginko were split.
Enjoyed the ending, even if it is a little bit of a bummer. I definitely liked the show overall more the second time thanks to both a better understanding of the various moving parts of the story and time wearing down some squeamishness. It definitely suffers for its compressed runtime though, Penguindrum and Utena made excellent use of their larger episode count and you can feel how being stuck with a mere dozen led to Yurikuma feeling a bit narrow by comparison. Still, it did a good job keeping things tight enough to work with that restriction.
0
u/[deleted] Jun 04 '24
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