Tuesday 5 July 2011

YuruYuri - Episode 1

It's Akari Akaza's first day of middle school... so of course we (well, I) have to be there to join her in her wacky school shenanigans!

The ditzy and dim Akari is initially joined by two friends who are in fact a year older than her, in the form of the rather perverted Kyouko Toshinou and the eminently more sensible Yui Funami.  These latter two characters have somehow managed to appropriate the school's unused tea club room for themselves, setting up their own after school "Amusement Club" as an excuse to basically do nothing whenever possible - a prospect that disappoints even Akari somewhat.


It looks as though things are likely to get busy sooner rather than later however, as this trio are soon joined by another newcomer in Chinatsu Yoshikawa, who actually wanted to join the tea club proper but somehow ends up hanging out with the Amusement Club anyhow on account of Yui's coolness and her ability to somehow avoid Kyouko's attentions and attempts to dress her as the magical girl which she resembles.  So, our major characters are resembled in all of their anime trope-filled glory... but can YuruYuri rise above the surfeit of mediocre slice of life anime comedy?

Judging by this episode, probably not.  It has some moments of polished animation but it's no K-ON, it has a couple of laugh of loud moments and is worthy of a few giggles but it's neither Mitsudomoe, Minami-ke's first season nor Lucky Star.  Still, this certainly isn't a bad episode either - if nothing else it has enough gags to keep my attention, and more importantly the decent jokes that were present were actually quite well delivered which holds at least some promise in terms of keeping this series entertaining.  It's certainly not going to be a classic, but there's enough value in YuruYuri to make it worth persevering with for now, and that alone is perhaps more than I was expecting of it.

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