With Pearz back to Toronto at this point, I can finally relax again. She's so high-maintenance~ Hopefully, today is not my last day with stable Internet , seeing as how I'm grabbing a flight to some island in China in a few hours. I need my anime and Wiki~
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| The four main characters. |
So, Yuru Yuri, hm? I didn't know A Channel had a sibling, but here it is. It's incredibly reminiscent of A Channel, with perhaps a little bit more randomness. I hesitate to draw any definite conclusions, since A Channel began quite happily for me and then exhibited exponential decay. With the first episode of Yuru Yuri being very energetic and fast-paced, I'll continue watching this show with batch posts. (I know right off the bat that I don't want to do episodic reviews for this.)
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| That does take a lot of coordination... |
So, the episode began with the "main character" (the reason for the quotations will be obvious later) Akaza Akari being woken up with incessant doorbell ringing by her friends, Toshinou Kyouko and Fumina Yui. She ran around like a headless chicken getting ready super-fast, being super-late already, only to open the door and appear in normal clothes whereas the other two were wearing uniforms. Her excitement of starting middle school apparently didn't register fully in her mind, since she forgot to wear her uniform. (Why, hello, Run. When did you leave A Channel?)
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| ...oh, I see. It's like that, hm. |
While Akari changed, Kyouko convinced Yui to snoop around the house with her (these people...). It also allowed for some characterizing moments; Yui seems to be the straight man whereas Kyouko is the free spirit (exhibiting signs of lesbianism, forced or not). I must say, the scene where Kyouko saw the older sister's room (complete with signs barring entry; do all older siblings feel the need to have that?) and then walked in was pretty funny. The massive number of pictures of Akari, including an Akari body pillow (with kiss marks all over the face) was a turn I did not expect (although I
just saw Kyouko's own brand of lecherousness), and even funnier was the way Kyouko tried to figure out whether or not Akari should know (she decided against it in the end).
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| Why so judgemental?! |
At the school, I began to have numerous suspicions that Kyouko and Yui were upper years, seeing as how they didn't seem flustered and were not in Akari's class (moreover, they walked
upstairs; that's usually a sign). Beyond the obvious A Channel dilemma (poor Tooru, not making any real friends her own age...), Akari began her middle school life with a strange introduction. If someone in my class did such a pose, I'd be far from thinking they were quirky (despite my love of anime). I bet she'll be known as the "crazy girl" to her classmates from here on out.
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| Dreams are overrated. |
The Amusement Club that Akari alluded to turned out to be a club formed by Kyouko and Yui (quite obviously, at this point, they really are not first years). They utilized the room that belonged to the disbanded Tea Club, doing whatever they felt like. For some reason, that was "boring" to Akari and she wanted something "stimulating". Seriously, if I could be in a club and do whatever I felt like, that would be just perfect. It looks good on my high school/university applications, and I didn't have to work my ass off. But, I suppose some people have a hard time embellishing reality, and so need guidelines.
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| Some form of witch jumping jacks? |
After a scene of various stimulating activities (including an out-of-control ferris wheel, although that really seems more horrific than stimulating) and then finding out that Kyouko was a mangaka (of sorts, drawing doujinshi), the 4th cast member of Yoshikawa Chinatsu was introduced. Having an older sister complex, she wanted to join the Tea Club in order to be just like her, but got roped into the Amusement Club instead (totally baited by the face that there was tea-making equipment everywhere).
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| Such intense lust... |
With Kyouko blatantly lusting after Chinatsu and Chinatsu shyly admiring Yui, the dynamic was set for the next scene. After the three had a particular suggestive rubbing moment (seriously, with slightly less clothes, it would be quite ecchi), they realized that Akari had lost her presence as the main character of a school anime (way to quietly break the fourth wall). The group began to formulate ways of getting her to have more presence, along the way revealing her difficult elementary school life. Seriously, that sounded very sad.
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| ...Homura? |
The various suggestions on how to make Akari a bigger character made very little sense in the context of
real life, seeing as how being invisible is generally not easy. Kyouko's little movie was pretty funny, especially since it basically retold the events of the beginning of the episode except in magic girl format. Akari, for some reason, did not take well to the insanity and, after the projector stopped working, announced that she would come up with her own plan to reinvent herself, on her own two feet. However, just as she was about to reveal her plan (totally dominating the scene until that point), the door swung open and two girls (whom I assume to be student council members) barged in, angry with Kyouko. Poor Akari; there went her moment.
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| Mm, toast... |
This episode was kind of interesting, but I think I'm pretty jaded after what A Channel turned out to be. I'm also very suspicious with the rampant lust that Kyouko displayed; is it real? fake? development-material? Anyway, I'll continue watching this anime, but I'm relegating it to batched status because it doesn't seem like something I'd want to blog about weekly.
~Aaro
