First Impressions – Yuri Kuma Arashi

Let’s Go and Let’s GAO!

There are two ways to approach Yuri Kuma Arashi. One is to take everything seriously, paying attention to the plentiful visual metaphors and enjoying a deep and complex story. The other way is to take everything at face value and just get kicks from a flashy show about naked lesbian bears. I plan to do a healthy mix of both.
Hindsight is 20/20. I recall that the opening episode of Penguindrum wasn’t a dense affair. But, that was nearly three and a half years ago, with repeated viewings over that time. It makes sense seeing it in the rearview. But it is a lesson learned….
The winter season is finally starting and first on the list of premier episodes is Yuri Kuma or as I call it Yuri bears! I don’t know why I am excited about this series, but I will say that the artwork and super cute character designs have me quite interested and just about everyone knows that this series is from the same creator that brought us Mawaru Penguindrum which means things might get CRAZY later! I just hope people give it a shot even if they plan on dropping it after three episodes.

Yurikuma 002

Rated M for Metaphors

Overcooled// Only one episode in and we’re knee-deep in metaphors, double entendres and visual tricks. It’s the kind of show you have to watch twice just to be able to really see everything – as almost nothing is placed without having some sort of deeper meaning. The bears seem to represent raw sexuality in how much they unabashedly give into their base instincts. The constant references to lilies (especially them being cut or “deflowered”) is also an interesting vehicle to communicate a number of things, as the language of flowers can say quite a lot. I’m sure there are many, many more hidden gems and messages yet to come. Are the bears being shut in behind a wall symbolic of society repressing sexual tendencies? What does the invisible storm really mean? Why does that one chick have a rifle that hasn’t been confiscated yet? Why did I watch French subs and probably miss out on a ton of wordplay? The questions keep coming and I’m glad the first episode sets things up so well, yet still leaves me with a taste for more. Ikuhara really has a knack for subtlety.

…But on the other hand, he also has really, really blatant imagery. How else are we to interpret two bear girls enthusiastically licking a flower stem dripping with honey from a moaning girl as anything else other than sexual? By “eating people” it seems they mean “eating out hot schoolgirls.” Flower hiding all the naughty bits and all, it’s pretty daring to deliver so hard on the “yuri” promise that you have oral sex right smack dab in episode 1. That’s one way to retain an audience. The name of the anime really says it all, but I honestly didn’t expect this much yuri. They even have the nerve to name almost every character a hilariously terrible version of Yuri-SOMETHING. Yurizono, Yurigasaki, Yurishiro, Yurika and Yurikawa are all characters in the show named about lilies/lesbians (because the word sounds the same in Japanese).

So although I can gush over some of the brilliant moments, I’m always brought back to earth by the fact Ikuhara just didn’t give a fuck when he named his characters. Life Cool? Is he my long lost cousin? Are the dude bears going to start giving head to schoolboys or are they the only straight ones in the show? Truly, Yurikuma is the perfect balance of flamboyant nonsense, softcore porn, and a deeper commentary on the state of society and female sexuality. How he managed to marry all these things is beyond me, but it worked so well that I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

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Yurikuma 003

Girl meets girl

skylion// I think it’s a mistake to take any show by this director literaly, that much is very obvious. His love affair with dense background, foreground that takes on even more character, at times, than his human, penguin, ghostly, and now bear figures. We’ve had psychedelic train stations and trains, training grounds upon skyscrapers, and now a Court of Bears holding authority over who eats and who doesn’t. It’s the eating that can get me. But more on that in a bit.

But, given the narration, the set-up, we have a classic faerie tale in modern form. The asteroid breaking up is a metaphor for actions beyond human agency, given rise to predation. In the sense of the morality tales, it treats vicitimization as a form of natural justice. So we have the Invisible Storm, that lays love and purity to waste. And then there is the eating. Given that we can’t go a single scene without title cards giving us the very obvious, Lily, History, Location, Alarm, etc. It’s like a set of stage directions, so with the eating are we looking at the actual devouring of human flesh and bone and blood, or is this another metaphor, the rather explicit scenery of licking the honey from lily seems to suggest more is going on than meets the eye.

Which makes me think of the Honeypot scene in the OP, whose lyrics underline the plot almost word for word. That was the Class Rep and Teacher pouring that honey. Setting a trap? Or guiding the bears to their targets? Nothing is as it appears in an Ikuhara work, and I rather enjoy that. But this time, it feels a lack of inherent charm that Penguindrum gave with it’s opener. Even though love is spoken of often and highly, there is distance between the speakers, as if they are just saying what is expected, rather than in the heart. What is really beyond the Severance Wall, why do they loathe and love us?

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Yurikuma 004

The cutest devourers of humans ever

Foshizzel// Gao Gao! When I heard about this series using bears I was like huh? That certainly seems like an odd choice of animal to use until my brain was like bears? Wait a minute didn’t we see bear pop up in some series last year? Oh right episode one of terra formars had a human wrestle some giant monster bear thing! Now the bears found in this series honestly come off as adorable mascot characters much like the penguins that appear in Mawaru Penguindrum, but of course we all know that quickly changed after those two were seen eating a human or do you still think they come off as cute? I think it is a bit of both especially the moment when Lulu and Ginko attacked Kureha while in their cute bear forms which lead them to some bear court? What? I know insane but that is what I love so far about Yuri bears so far. So how do humans protect themselves from the bear invasion? By building a giant freaking wall that’s how! Which is barely (yes pun intended) acceptable in anime because now everyone is calling this the second coming of Attack on Titan or is it Madoka again? I can’t even tell anymore! Yes some people out there actually believe there is a Madoka connection, but that is for another talk later.

Besides a giant wall what else can the humans? Because at first glance the world of Yuri Bears doesn’t come off as a world filled with any advanced tech otherwise they could build some bear hunting robots to defend the city or something right? Now I just want to know how those bears managed to sneak into the city?! Part of me thinks they might be getting help from some human group that supports them? Maybe they are the real invisible storm? I don’t know why I think that but I honestly could see a group like that existing that feel as if the bears are not threating or are there just a lot of bears hiding out as humans much like Lulu and Ginko? Also how the hell did Mitsuko find out it was the two transfer students eating that human at the end of the episode? Did she hear them talking and matched their voices and what about Sumika is she really dead, missing or actually a bear herself? I know that last one is a bit out there, but after watching a second time I was thinking how that would make for an interesting plot twist if it was true; however that is just a shot in the dark! I do know that Kureha is super important and Lulu and Ginko really want to her “honey” or are the creators using honey in place of blood? Wait never mind I really don’t want any bear vampire types running around in this show.

Fk ya extra yuri

Yuri Kuma MEMES (1)

Om nom nom~

Yuri Kuma MEMES (3)

I love this face.

Yuri Kuma MEMES (2)

D’awwwww

Yuri Kuma MEMES (4)

Don’t you just love puns?

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Final Thoughts

Pretty sure I would stab a man just to get the privilege to blog this show (luckily, I don’t have to). Let me summarise: I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH. I feel and almost immediate love for this ridiculous show about lesbian bears that is both cerebral and dumb as a dog. I think I’m naturally attracted to a show where on stressful days I just tone out and see it as a funny show about transforming bears, but if I’m inclined I can watch with a little more scrutiny and find some surprising revelations. Ikuhara always has a powerful and interesting message to deliver, but he never just gives it to you straight (haha unintentional homosexual pun there). You have to put in work to decipher everything – maybe not the obvious stuff like literally every character having “LESBIAN/LILY” in their name, but the little things are harder to spot. Take the time to treat Yuri Kuma Arashi kindly and with respect and you’ll get so much more out of it. I find it so rewarding to be able to work things out for myself and slowly piece everything together in an organic way, at my own pace, and without pressure to understand it since it’s not mandatory to the main story. Also, it has a really cute bear wearing a maid outfit which is an INSTANT SELL.

There could be much to argue about with the style of this show. Is it style over substance, with little if any cohesion. But for me, his work is always about seeing the world through stained glass. The perspective changes, but the world doesn’t. You just need to observe and sort it out, figure out what you are seeing by subtracting the red, or the blue, or whatever the color the glass is. It’s challenging, but it is never superfluous. And it’s always very engaging….

OH MY GOD those voice actors for Lulu and Ginko were by far the best part of the episode for me! Especially all the Gao Gao moments which I know probably got annoying to some after the first few times much like those episode previews of Kanojo ga flag right Sumairii? So what else happened? I didn’t mention the invisible storm which I took as some secret group helping the bears or is it just some students bullying Sumika and Kureha for having a yuri relationship? Oh yeah I really liked that opening and ending! So yeah this will be a fun series to follow weekly because everyone interprets everything differently so it will be interesting to see all the crazy theories people come up with.

Yurikuma 001

Bread heals all wounds

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We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
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87 Responses to “First Impressions – Yuri Kuma Arashi”

  1. Di Gi Kazune says:

    This show literally has…

    The PedoBear Seal of Approval.

    A show in a sense filled full of yuri pedobears. The guy who wrote the anti2D article on the BBC would have suffered multiple seizure if they watched this show. 😛

  2. akagami says:

    This is like Mawaru Penguindrum x Yuri. Didn’t know that going in, because I don’t really research shows, but it makes sense given the same author as Fosh said above. The Shaftiness levels were strong, but it works.

    Those are the cutest killer bears I’ve ever seen. Gao Gao~

    • akagami says:

      Oh, and ED kuma dance~

    • JPNIgor says:

      Yeah, I noticed some of the shaftiness. It’s kind of different, because it’s more defined, less abstract, but it’s definitely there.

      • BlackBriar says:

        The scenery makes you think of it. The difference is we don’t have SHAFT-like character designs for the girls.

      • Overcooled says:

        I think Silver Link, the animation studio behind this, is basically a bunch of ex-SHAFT people

        • skylion says:

          …from what I recall, quite a few were jumping not just from SHAFT, but also from the Aniplex/Sony publishing concern.

        • JPNIgor says:

          I don’t know but seeing Silver Link’s jobs, they seem like a bunch of styles put together, or a copy of it. I remember seeing Kokoro Connect and remembering K-ON, though that was because of the character design being K-ON’s author…

        • BlackBriar says:

          If that’s true, they certainly aren’t denying it in the scenery animation.

        • akagami says:

          That would explain why the characters look out of place and not at all Shafty. My brain was having trouble fitting the characters to the background (like the speaker poles that were in almost every episode of Nisekoi that just cried Shaft).

  3. Highway says:

    The visuals in this show might be too much schtick for me. And it may be too abstract / metaphorical for my tastes. We’ll see if I stick with it more than 5 episodes. I’d like a little more straightforward story, but maybe I can get into it.

    • skylion says:

      Ikuhara is not the type to deliver a straightforward style of story. But five is better than the typical three…

      • Highway says:

        5 episodes is not a commitment. It’s more of an over-under bet. As I’ve said before, if I don’t want to watch it, I don’t watch it. I’ve dropped 12-episode shows at episode 11. I’ve dropped 24-episode shows at episode 18. And I’ve dropped plenty of shows after episode 2, when episode 3 comes out and I realize I just don’t want to watch it.

        And I’ll say that it’s thanks to the writers and commenters here that I feel like I can do this. Because we get good articles on shows, and discuss their strong points, weak points, and what they’re doing, I can determine the things that I like or don’t like about a show, and stay up to date on whether those things change. I will say that, generally, they don’t change, except for the worse, so if I drop a show because of things I don’t like, it’s unlikely I’ll pick it back up later. But the possibility still exists, and it’s not like dropping a show means you can never watch it again.

    • BlackBriar says:

      I think we’re going to get riddled with metaphors before getting anything straightforward.

      • Highway says:

        There are plenty of ways to have a story and still have the metaphors. There are ways to have a psychedelic look and have a story (as anyone who’s seen Yellow Submarine could say). But you need to clue me in on the story, and not couch every single thing in metaphors. I guess there are people who like that (there are people who watched Twin Peaks, after all), but it’s not really me.

        • Overcooled says:

          I hope it ends up being to your liking! I’m actually really curious what you’d have to say about a show like Yurikuma.

  4. JPNIgor says:

    I just wanted to know what…

    I seriously have no idea what happened, because it raped my mind so hard… It isn’t even in my list for this season, but I couldn’t help it…

    I guess I probably would have to be a Penguindrum fan to like it, which I’m not because I didn’t watch it. But I just wasn’t expecting anything like this. It caught me so off guard it turned me off.

    Definitely not keeping up with this.

    • Overcooled says:

      Basically, lesbian bears who want to eat people sneak in and try to eat schoolgirls who are just trying to eat lunch and plant flowers. That’s all you need to know for now, really.

      It’s a weird show so I’m not surprised to see this sort of reaction.

      • JPNIgor says:

        It’s not only the weirdness, and not only the yuri stuff, but both of them together, is just too much. I remember how I suffered to watch Sakura Trick, and that was a normal yuri anime.

        • BlackBriar says:

          That would be because of the difference of tolerance levels in people. I breezed through Sakura Trick as though it was nothing at all. Yuri Kuma is far more outlandish.

        • Highway says:

          Sakura Trick was lovely. So cute and so beautiful. I do wish they’d had a *little* more acknowledgement of love, but eh.

          • JPNIgor says:

            They kissed a lot and for very little they didn’t strip in school. I guess that’s quite enough hahaha.

            And as I said, the problem isn’t exactly of tolerance. As I said, normal yuri is still bearable to me, because it has some fun to watching it. But this, I can’t. It’s too much.

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              That’s where those with extreme tolerances for cuteness come in. :3 This is yuri with diabeetus inducing levels of cuteness. There is at least one person here who can tolerate that.

              *raises paw* 😉

            • BlackBriar says:

              I’m here to find out if I can withstand 11 more episodes of this.

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              BB: Is that a challenge? 😛

            • JPNIgor says:

              *raises paw as well*

              I like sweet cuteness.

            • Highway says:

              And as I said, the problem isn’t exactly of tolerance. As I said, normal yuri is still bearable to me, because it has some fun to watching it. But this, I can’t. It’s too much.

              So you can’t bear it? hur hur hur

            • BlackBriar says:

              “Paws”, “Bears” These puns will be the death of us all when this show is through.

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              You are suggesting it be pawsed?

            • JPNIgor says:

              Oooh, I did it and I didn’t even see hahaha.

              After the bear jokes, I’m gonna take a pause from Animal Planet for some weeks…

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              Do not pooh-pooh the ability to make puns.

  5. Di Gi Kazune says:

    Reia and Sensei should be a pair. Reia should be an idol with sensei as her manager!

    Sumika’s voice is so… familiar. *hums* kimi to baby sweet baby love~

    They have money to hire a Life Sexy GARcher.

    My Impressions:
    1) Who the F let Kuro hijack Silver Link. (then again, its difficult to stop her…
    2) Someone is trying to imitate *monogatari.
    3) Yuri innuendo heavy. Delicious. gao-gao. Then again you’re asking someone from the Chikane x Himiko, err.. Kaon x Himeko, err.. AAARGH Chikane x Himeko x Kaon x Himiko school of yuri so 😛

    I would pick this to watch over Absolute Duo and read the Absolute Duo LN instead.

    • BlackBriar says:

      “Yuri innuendo heavy” is right. Almost enough to be crushed by its weight.

      • Overcooled says:

        They’re fully making out in the OP, it isn’t even just innuendo lol

        • BlackBriar says:

          Right, it’s full blown yuri for all to see.

          • Di Gi Kazune says:

            Don’t get me started on Care Bear Yuri…

            • skylion says:

              Back in the day we used to get a bit “wiffy” and make up Care Bear Names.

              Drinks A-Lot Bear was a dead easy, but my crowning glory was Infected Band-Aide Bear…not a dry eye in the house.

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              I suggest you try out the webcomic Bearnuts. It is quite obvious where the inspiration comes from.

              My Friend Bear was already into ‘Befriending’ even before the advent of Nanoha.

            • skylion says:

              I’m fairly sure my early drunk years of 1990 beats out the concept of a webcomic…

            • BlackBriar says:

              And if I wanted to get you started deliberately?

            • Di Gi Kazune says:

              Funshine Bear x Cheer Bear. You have opened a Pandora’s Box. 😛

  6. Di Gi Kazune says:

    Spammy, you shall NOT stop my YURILICIOUS POST!!! Get back here!

  7. BlackBriar says:

    It truly is the start of a new season. First Impressions are beginning to flood in but… good lord!! Okay, Fosh and skylion could pass but my expectations never considered seeing Overcooled here. To be honest, I was going to ignore this because it didn’t appear interesting but since even OC got roped in, it was time to pull a 180 so I downloaded this right after the post went up.

    I don’t remember what I was doing at the time but I never saw Mawaru Penguindrum. This was something else. So much it’s difficult to describe. A lot of fluffiness wrapped in metaphors with a considerable amount of danger in bears eating humans. Which is something natural should it occur, mostly in forests but the trouble here is that these bears have a will and desire of their own. Not good!! And the yuri is so strong and sweet here I may die of diabetes or loss of blood from nosebleeds in the future. Consider my attention fully grabbed.

    The series, I find, is barrowing a lot of material from other shows. An enormous wall to keep vicious predators at bay? A tribute to Attack on Titan or Black Bullet. Some character appearances? Kureha looks like Kotone Noda from Sakura Trick. The animation? Though the studio isn’t involved, it’s like looking at SHAFT’s work. SILVER LINK is beginning to copy others with great detail. Differences ranging from Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, Strike the Blood, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya (most would think it was done by ufotable) and now Yuri Kuma which would have one under the impression they’re watching something similar to Monogatari or Mekakucity Actors.

    • Overcooled says:

      Ahahaha glad I could change your mind! I was a big fan of Penguindrum (I had never seen an Ikuhara anime before that) so once that converted me, I knew that I would want to see Yurikuma.

      Even I’m not so sure what it is about the first episode that made me fall in love so hard. There’s really just an endless amount of mysteries than intrigue me…all wrapped in ridiculous cuteness and absurd fabulousness a la JoJo’s Bizarre’s Adventure. I don’t know if anyone else will agree with that connection, but I can’t help but mention JoJo whenever I see something FABULOUS~

      Yeah, lots of similarities to be found when you look for them! Although to be fair, I think Silver Link is an off-shoot from Shaft (so they’re not copying Shaft since they were Shaft themselves!). I’m also seeing a lot of similarities to Penguindrum…which is expected, but wow…the dude really likes to put staircases and flowers in his anime.

    • Foshizzel says:

      I gotta try some new stuff! Besides the lack of giant robots this season has left me needing something weird and out there to talk about and no I won’t be reviewing Fafner that mecha is dull and boring.

      • Di Gi Kazune says:

        Review PreCure!

      • BlackBriar says:

        Besides the lack of giant robots this season has left me needing something weird and out there to talk about

        I think this counts as a cooling off period for you, then. Seeing how the last two seasons were loaded with mecha anime, even those from Fall 2014 are still ongoing. And they might be what should tide you over for a while because I’m not seeing any anime for next season either.

  8. bobob101 says:

    I could JUST watch this show and be mildly entertained. Or I can try to unpack-age everything I see on screen to ring the most from the show. This show seems to demand the later. When I have like 5 hours to reflect on my experience watching the show, then I’ll watch it.

  9. Namaewoinai says:

    Ahh, Another Yuri Genre, But this one is seem to be more intense, and also…Bears? they are kinda…small. and hmph…Sure those bears have a habit of eating humans and…gnashing teeth!

  10. Highway says:

    Let’s see if I can get this out of the way.

    The director certainly cannot be accused of sloth, quickly delving into black comedy, perhaps to panda to those who want to see the grizzly spectacle of bears eating people. But perhaps they were trying to say that the girls were perhaps the polar opposite of innocent, with the brown earth staining their hands as they planned to meet under the early morning sun. They didn’t drop as far as explicit fanservice, however, such as showing a character in a teddy. That might have been a Boo-Boo.

    • Di Gi Kazune says:

      Of course they’re smarter than the average bear. With the sun out on Paddington, maybe the critics can pooh-pooh this show.

    • skylion says:

      In Severance Wall puns eat you!

    • skylion says:

      Quite the Spectacle this show is….

    • BlackBriar says:

      Too many bear references in one comment!! Now you’re just showing off!! 😀

      • Highway says:

        That was the point.

      • Highway says:

        Well, part of the point was to get all 8 kinds of *real* bears in a single comment.

        • BlackBriar says:

          Then I can tell it took some time formulating what was going to be said because I doubt it was easy.

          • Di Gi Kazune says:

            It had to be unbearably well-thought of…

            • Highway says:

              In truth, it was easier than writing a whole season of Photo Kano without using a single photography pun, or even anything that could be construed as a photography pun. No “This episode focused on…” or “In a flash” or “shutters” or anything.

        • akagami says:

          I only counted 7 =(

          • Highway says:

            Then I win! 😉 Sloth, Black, Panda, Grizzly, Spectacled, Polar, Brown, and Sun Bears. It’s kinda actually 7 because there are two kinds of black bears, and Grizzlies are a Brown bear, but there were 8 actual bears in there. Plus Teddy and Boo-Boo.

  11. […] LOLIIII KUMAAAAAAAAA ARASHI!!!!!!! […]

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