Tag: Yuru Yuri

Yuru Yuri,

Yuru Yuri,

10th Anniversary

Yuru Yuri, (ゆるゆり、) is the 10th anniversary OVA for the Yuru Yuri series. However, its release in 2019 doesn’t actually line up with the 10th anniversary of any part of Yuru Yuri. So, I’m not entirely sure how that works.

The Yuru Yuri manga started in 2008, so 2018 would have been the 10th anniversary. And the anime started in 2011, so 2021 would have been the 10th anniversary. I guess 2019 is close enough to 2018 and 2021 so it works out?

Anyway, in case you were wondering, yes, the comma is supposed to be at the end of the title of this OVA. One of the ways Yuru Yuri seasons, OVAs, and specials differentiate themselves is by using different punctuation at the end of the title. This time around, it’s a comma.

Caveman Chinatsu trying to start a fire from the anime OVA Yuru Yuri,
Caveman Chinatsu trying to start a fire

Since this OVA is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the series, the girls of the amusement club decide to rewind back to the start to relive their best moments. However, they accidentally rewind too far and end up in prehistoric times.

I thought this was a good gag for maybe the first 30 seconds. But it definitely overstayed its welcome. At least it recovered slightly when the gag ended with it turning out that the girls were just pretending to be cavemen and they were caught in the act by Ayano and Chitose.

After that, it’s decided that the Amusement Club is going to throw an extravagant party to celebrate the anniversary. Chinatsu bakes cookies with Himawari for the event, and all the girls work together to decorate the club room. This portion of the episode is fairly bland and plays up Chinatsu’s poor cooking skills.

Party Games

Where the episode starts to get better is when the party begins and the party games get broken out. The charades card game was pretty decent, especially when it came to the cards Akari and Chinatsu drew.

But, even at this point in the episode, I wasn’t finding it as entertaining as I’ve found the three seasons of the series. And, after I finished this OVA and rated it, I looked at my ratings of the seasons and other OVAs/specials and noticed a pattern. I rated all the OVAs/specials 2 points lower than the seasons.

I’m not really sure what it is about the OVAs and specials, but they’re generally worse. You wouldn’t think that’s the case for a series like Yuru Yuri, which is an episodic slice of life comedy. I guess all the best content makes it into the main seasons. But there’s no real reason for the OVA content to be any worse.

High-energy Akari Akaza from the anime OVA Yuru Yuri,
High-energy Akari Akaza

With all that said, there was one part of the episode that made me laugh and which was definitely on par with the main seasons. This was when the girls began playing high-energy rock-paper-scissors.

The rules are simple. It’s a rock-paper-scissors free-for-all in which the losers of each round have to bump up their energy levels during the next round. Think of it like this: round 1 > ROUND 2 > ROUND 3!!.

Now, those rules alone aren’t really enough to make this game entertaining to watch. But it’s the gag of Akari continually losing and being the only one to lose in every round that makes it funny. And on top of that, Akari bumps up her energy level a bit too much the first time. So every successive round, she has to go even further beyond that.

Honestly, this is probably the only part of the OVA worth watching.

Akari’s Birthday

At the end of the episode, it’s revealed that not only is this party celebrating the 10th anniversary of Yuru Yuri, but it’s also celebrating Akari’s birthday. I thought that was a nice touch since although there’s not really a single protagonist, the series did start with Akari.

But, because I like to ruin things, I decided to find out if Akari’s birthday and the 10th anniversary actually lined up — or were even close to each other. If we’re to assume the true anniversary is when the OVA begins and the girls are playing cavemen, it should fall 3 days before Akari’s birthday.

So, let’s start by figuring out when Akari’s birthday is since that’s actually the easier of the two dates to pin down. Akari was born on July 24th. That means the anniversary should fall on July 20th or 21st depending on how you’re counting the days.

Akari celebrating her birthday with her friends from the anime OVA Yuru Yuri,
Akari celebrating her birthday with her friends

Well, the 10th anniversary OVA itself was released on September 18th. So I guess that means the OVA wasn’t actually released on the anniversary. Though, considering the year discrepancy I pointed out earlier, we could have assumed this much.

What about the manga’s anniversary date? The Yuru Yuri manga was first published on June 18th. Again, that doesn’t match up with the anniversary date we get by using Akari’s birthday as a baseline.

As you might have guessed by this point, the anime’s anniversary also doesn’t line up. But this anniversary is the closest to the one being celebrated within the episode. The anime first aired on July 5, which is only 15 days off.

But, again, the years still don’t add up. In 2019, the anime was only 8 years old, not 10. So, maybe they were celebrating a different anniversary entirely. 10 years of friendship, perhaps.

Conclusion

As with all the Yuru Yuri OVAs and specials I’ve watched, Yuru Yuri, is a 6/10. Unless you’re a Yuru Yuri super fan, I think this is entirely skippable. You can probably just find the rock-paper-scissors scene on YouTube.

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Yuru Yuri

Yuru Yuri

Yuru Yuri San☆Hai! Cover Art featuring the Amusement Club and other characters
Yuru Yuri San☆Hai! Cover Art

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.

Kyouko Toshino from the anime Yuru Yuri
Kyouko Toshino

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.