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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