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Yuri Kuma Arashi (TV).


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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:37 am Reply with quote
And so the spoiler[teacher was done in by her own system]. And Ginko's sin spoiler[is that she did not stop her from being eaten, not that she actually helped].
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justsomeaccount



Joined: 24 Oct 2014
Posts: 471
PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:26 am Reply with quote
There are things that I like and things that I don't in this episode. I like the irony of the director in charge on the system who thought wouldn't have consequences for betraying it, beaten down by those ones. For once the 'pawns' haven't been treated as 100% evil and mean-spirited and actually protecting someone out of good intentions which was what was missing all this time. Yuurika dying this early instead of being the "final boss" or something is also refreshing for what could happen in these final episodes, I feel kind of bad for Lulu and although I didn't find very emotive Yuurika's scene with Kureha's mother, if someone found it I could see why.

What I didn't like was that Ginko and Sumika's backstory was this easy. Sumika annoys the hell out of me, all her dialogue is painful to listen of so blatantly artificial and catch-phrasey it is, the same with her unidimensional character. The framing of those naking scenes was also very uncomfortable, and I didn't like after so many struggle with Kureha, her mother and Ginko before, and the relation between her and Yuurika, now finding out that Yuurika killed her is for Kureha like "oh okay so that's what happened".

So mixed bag.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Wait, did they have to use a spoiler[ray gun to exterminate the bears? D:]

Anyways, solid episode with the spoiler[symbolism and development still. Seems like Kureha has a big target on her back now as being hunted by almost everyone. Looking forward to the yuri trial next time.]

The Kureha and Lulu conversations were pretty interesting as well especially since it had emotional appeal to it.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:37 pm Reply with quote
Wow....they are still using that ray gun machine in discriminate ways. Felt bad for spoiler[Lulu this episode for not surviving into the finale of the series Sad]
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Glamrgrl104



Joined: 25 Mar 2015
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:46 am Reply with quote
Just my opinion but dropped this one after the first episode, I could just not get into it. It wasn't even good like Penquindrum. If going for cutesey animals.
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getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9117
Location: Bedford, NH
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:35 pm Reply with quote
ok then. I have no idea what just happened, but it looked nice. Guess I'll wait for Gabby's ep review to go up to get a better understanding
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:08 pm Reply with quote
The way the show was crafted seems a bit confusing but I like the unorthodox style of it. The theme of love is expressed in a very unique way and the amount of symbolism in this show is really quite something.

Glad to see spoiler[Sumika] one last time in the finale as well while the ending of this show was satisfying imo.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:30 pm Reply with quote
getchman wrote:
ok then. I have no idea what just happened, but it looked nice. Guess I'll wait for Gabby's ep review to go up to get a better understanding


Yep.

Rated this show Good which is a bit of a creative triumph for the show considering there was a lot that bugged me and a lot I just didn't get (until I read some of Gabby's reviews).
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:35 am Reply with quote
Episode 12 (finale)

I liked the reveal that Kureha spoiler[is the one who made the wish that Ginko would be a human girl, which is why she lost her love/memories]. Through the episode I did have a strong feeling that this was clearly going to end with spoiler[her instead wishing to become a bear, it felt like the perfect thematic ending].

Honestly I was having a bit of a hard time caring about the characters at this point, but I did actually care about the theme. I think what I really liked about this series was the style. And the OP and ED, I think they were my favourite set of theme songs of the season. The OP made me feel a little uncomfortable at first, I think like in general the show has, but I think I learned not to be afraid of the sensuality. The ED in my opinion showed the kind of cuteness/strangeness of the chibi bears that became something I grew to like.

I rate this as Good, I was not a fan of everything, but some of the style was very likable to me. I will leave trying to make sense of everything by reading others.
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 6:05 am Reply with quote
Lets dissect this show:

Concept/setting/story:

1) the setting is super random -- why would bears all of sudden start eating humans? And there are ways for humans to protect themselves without creating stupid separation wall, or even need to kill the bears;

2) if not every bear is humans-eating, then the policy to always kill them all is absurd, it makes no sense whatsoever;

3) weird that main goddess has "bear" in her name, as well as three severance-wall courts judiciaries are also bears -- not fair to humanity;

4) severance-wall courts that always approve bears eating human are ridiculous;

5) there is no reason why bears would need that stupid court to be able to eat people, if they are already beyond the separating wall and in human domain;

6) a lot of repetitive nonsense like "I will not give up on love" -- all while in most cases there is no need to give up on love, and no one ask or demands anyone to give up on love;

7) of course, absurd all around with phrases like "We hated you from beginning, and we loved you from beginning" that supposed to have deep meaning while there is nothing but nonsense in it;

8) "we should be invisible" majority mantra directly is nonsense, because the majority would not blatantly say it about themselves, but indirectly it makes sense in terms of illustrating totalitarian "be like everybody else" mob mentality that humanity is ill with (amended thanks to BodaciousSpacePirate's post below);

9) the show has allegories of totalitarian societies and division between the nations/groups of people -- Korea, Vietnam, Germany, South Africa, USA (political, ideological, nationalist, reservations, ghettos, guarded heavens for rich near to destroyed Detroit -- all kinds of divisions and separations);

10) this anime is double-deep and tricky because it depicts basically all-female society where same sex love is accepted, but relationship with bears -- even with those that do not want to eat humans -- are not;

11) great example of mob psychology, which is very good at declaring certain people an enemy and eliminating them;

12) since all of the bears that eat people in this show have two forms, and one of which is human, it all is kind of cannibalistic;


Characters:

1) maybe the cutest female characters ever; cute kind of cannibalistic bears;

2) bear friend Lulu/Ruru Yurigazaki/bear princess is horrible, cruel, brother-hating monster murderer maniac;

3) main heroine bear is also awful -- she has let innocent girl die just because it was useful to her purposes.


Sounds/music:

1) cute bear sounds;

2) really cute opening and, especially, ending song.


Summary:

A lot of repetitive absurdity, nonsensical setting -- but still delivers on story, and with cute bears and girls and high quality animation: "Very good". Yes, as authors' previous works show, throwing a lot of pointless confusing mess (that eventually kind of, almost makes some sense) is his/her intentional "style", if you will, but whether it is "Emperor has no clothes" moment, "wonderful mystery" or something in between, is matter how cynical a viewer is.


Last edited by MaxSouth on Wed May 13, 2015 6:47 am; edited 9 times in total
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:06 am Reply with quote
@Maxsouth, I interpret this show as being pure symbolism. Nothing here has it's literal meaning and this is a characteristic of Ikuhara's work in general, his work is extremely symbolic "artistic" stuff.

In this case it's a more adult series than his previous shoujo/shounen stuff, still preserving his fairy-tale storytelling style though. I don't think a show has to deliver a story if it is still is an interesting work of art. I rated it very highly, higher than Mawaru Penguindrum.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:40 am Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Lets dissect this show:


Cool.

Maybe it was because I recently re-watched both Utena and Penguindrum, but I really didn't have as much trouble interpreting Ikuhara's imagery this time around. I'd probably say that this was his "most accessible" or "most straightforward" show.

...when in doubt, though, let's remember that human rules don't work on bears.

IMAGINE!

First of all, every Ikuraha show since Utena has employed rituals in order to convey concepts.

Rituals involve repetition, because you do them over and over again. Sometimes, in the exact same way. Sometimes, you do different things each time, but the meaning is the same. Rituals also involve representation... I'm going to need to talk about Dragonball Z for a minute. It's important.

When Goku says "kamehameha" in Dragonball Z, the words he's saying mean "Turtle Destruction Wave". He's reminding himself, and announcing to others around him, that he follows the Turtle School of martial arts, which has certain connotations, but basically can be summed up as "victory through strategy, strategy through peace." It means that even though Goku is strong, he prefers peace to war. In fact, he only fights to defend, and to preserve peace... but when he fights, he fights to win.

The kamehameha attack itself actually achieves powers by harnessing the "latent energy" that builds up within his body when he is at peace. He then channels it into a ki blast. Goku is a pretty cool guy.

Anyway, the important thing about this example is that the author of Dragonball didn't call his attack "kamehameha" just because he thought turtles were cool. His wife actually borrowed the name of Goku's attack from a Hawaiian word referring to a roughly hundred-year long line of kings. Why did she pick the name of that particular dynasty? Well, the word "kamehameha" is generally translated as "the one who stands alone." It is also often translated as "the lonely one." Both of these describe Goku early on in the Dragonball series.

Back to Yuri Kuma Arashi. This is a show where a lot of things are repeated over and over again.

"From the beginning, we hated you. But we also loved you from the beginning, too. That's why we crossed the wall."

"Let's search evil!"


"For that is sexy. Shabadadoo."

"I'll never give up on love."


There's also the repeated pattern of birds flying in the same direction, as seen any time the characters go up or down the ol' spiral staircase.

That's the way a drill works!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

When the "bears" ascend or descend the staircase, the birds are shown flying in a different direction from them. This ties in with the constant reference to the flock, or the herd. Which are ways of thinking about society... basically, this whole show is about conformity.

Now, if you are watching Dragonball Z, you don't need to know all the weird stuff I mentioned about the kamehameha being a reference to a line of Hawaiian kings. You can totally understand Dragonball Z without knowing what ritual Goku is performing... but unfortunately, you really need to determine what all the symbols are in Yuri Kuma Arashi in order to understand the story.

For example, "Invisible Storm" is a reference to the explicit ways that people are isolated and ignored when they do not conform in Japanese high schools, and also in Japanese society at large. It's also a reference to the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident a very, very famous series of bear attacks in 1915, which are sometimes called "The Bear Storm."

It also helps to know that the name of the bear planet that causes the show's titular lesbian (meteor) bear storm is a combination of the Japanese word for bear and the name "Maria", and that lesbian-themed anime and manga have used imagery related to the Virgin Mary for decades. Most notably, the Virgin Mary is tied to an influential Class S shoujo novel series, "Maria-sama ga Miteru", or "The Virgin Mary Is Watching You", or "Maria Watches Over Us."

When Class S literature is adapted to appeal to male audiences, it generally presents the following message to actual, factual lesbians: it's okay to be a lesbian until you graduate from high school. After that, you'd better find yourself a husband. There are two characters who have this kind of relationship in Yuri Kuma Arashi.

Speaking of male audiences, another interesting set of symbols are the Judges, who are the embodiments of what men think women find attractive about men. They're kind of leftover from Utena's discussion of princes and patriarchy, just like the Invisible Storm is similar in concept to Penguindrum's horrifying "Child Broiler." The judges may also be representations of the elements of Japanese society who find girl-girl relationships hot in anime, but would be disgusted if they saw two lesbians kissing in the real world.

This is what I think the whole "Yuri Approved" thing is alluding to, in part. Some aspects of homosexuality are considered okay in Japanese society... but society gets to determine for homosexuals what is okay, and what isn't.

----

Well, I'm going to get back to my dissertation (which is not about lesbian bears, thankfully). If anyone wants to chime in, or disagree with me, or whatever, then feel free to just pick up where I left off.
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2015 6:45 am Reply with quote
Yes, I agree, there is way to see more allegories than I listed; thanks. Especially on "we should be invisible" majority mantra, which directly is nonsense, but illustrates the same totalitarian mob mentality that humanity is ill with.
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2015 5:00 pm Reply with quote
@bodacious, nice dissection. Its indeed the only Ikuhara show that I had the impression of not being just ambiguous symbolism but being more straightforward in its themes. Its very characteristic of his style though, I noticed this was one of his works without knowing he was the author beforehand in a couple of minutes of the first episode.
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