Yuru Yuri

Overview

Yuru Yuri is a slice of life comedy about a group of four girls who are part of the Amusement Club at their school. The Amusement Club does not have any real club activities, rather it is just a space for the main characters to get together and do whatever happens to amuse them.

While the layout of the show is episodic, it does not fall into the same trap as Konohana Kitan where it becomes predictable. It succeeds at this due to the fact that each episode is so random and different from the others.

There are currently three seasons of Yuru Yuri, each made up of 12 episodes.

Characters

The primary group of characters is made up of four girls: Akari, Chinatsu, Yui, and Kyouko. There are also reoccurring secondary characters comprised of the classmates of the main cast, and tertiary characters which are the family members of the primary cast.

Originally I thought that Akari was the main character because she is the one the first episode starts off with. However, there is no single main character in the show as each episode could have any combination of these characters, or all, or none of them.

Akari, or Akarin, is one of the two first-year primary characters. She has red hair which is put up into buns on either side of her head. One running gag in the show is that her buns are detachable and they are often imagined to work like rockets. She also suffers from a severe lack of presence and is easily forgotten by the other girls.

Chinatsu is the other first-year of the group. Originally she wanted to join the Tea Club but found the Amusement Club in the Tea Club room instead. She also has an obsession with her upperclassman, Yui.

Yui is a second-year student and is the serious, rational one of the group. Really, I only see her as the foil character to our final of the four, Kyouko.

Kyouko is the best of all the girls in the show. She’s an energetic second-year student who is, for all intents and purposes, the protagonist of the show. She is the founder of the Amusement Club as well as the driving force behind many of the things that happen in the series.

Conclusion

Yuru Yuri is probably the best slice of life anime I have watched. Or at least the best one I can think of as of right now. I find most of the characters entertaining, and Kyouko’s antics often gave me a good chuckle.

For all of this, Yuru Yuri gets an 8/10. It could have been a 9, but a few of the characters were either a bit too similar or a bit boring. And, since this is the type of show without an overarching plot, the characters are very important which is why this is such a big deal.

My review of the 10th anniversary OVA is available now.