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REVIEW: Yurikuma Arashi BD+DVD

>two Bs and two As
>goes for A rating

The math on this....

That is an interesting admission to make. To laud a director to the extent that you do, but to simultaneously say that their creations are not really for you, whatsoever this means exactly, strikes me as unorthodox. Now, many people afford a respect for Ikuhara's abilities despite his works' content or presentation not quite resonating with them. Indeed, had I seen any such things, I would probably fall into this group myself. (Regional locks are fun.) Judging by Jacob's highly lucid review though, the bar to entry does appear to be placed above those unwilling to adapt to the imaginative requirements the director imposes on his audience, and you openly admit this, yet your praise also transcends a mere expression of recognitional respect.
Are the enthralments provided by Ikuhara's abstractions so great that they outshine the issues you take with their means of conveyance? Do his shows evoke and invoke in a good way more than they provoke in a bad one? I would be interested to know the degree to which his works affected you in general.

There's probably not an in-universe explanation for the asteroid exploding beyond "it just happened," but I have some thoughts about it from the standpoint of the show's social commentary:

Yurikuma implicates the Church in the perpetuation and enforcement of anti-LGBTQ ideas and views, and it ties the goddess Kumaria to the Church. Kumaria is also the name of the asteroid that explodes. So, if you look at the asteroid Kumaria as representing the solidarity and influence, overall, of Christianity, then its explosion into tiny pieces could be seen as analogous to how Christianity's influence has waned over time. That waning influence is an important part of what led to society gradually becoming more amenable to pro-LGBTQ ideas and views and to acceptance of people who are LGBTQ. This is why the explosion of the Kumaria asteroid led to the bears rising up. It's not that the asteroid fragments caused some change in the bears, but that the lack of a solid, whole asteroid (waning influence of Christianity) led to the ability of the bears to rise up (greater social acknowledgement and acceptance of people who are LGBTQ).

The reason the bears' rising up is described as such, and is explained as them attacking the humans, is because that's how it's viewed by the humans, as a revolt against what they feel should be the natural order, and as an attack on those in power and privilege. It's similar to the general narrative espoused by those in power against those who they've oppressed and/or suppressed who are becoming able to improve their standing in the world and come to be on equal footing with the people in power. That narrative is based on assumed violence and various kinds of unruliness and inferiority of those who were oppressed/suppressed, as well as fear of that violence and unruliness, and insistence that stricter order, or punishment, or something along those lines, is needed to improve things.

/analysis

Now, I must admit that I'm not 100% sure of myself here, as there are a lot of things about Yurikuma that I still don't understand the (full) meaning of, including some things about other uses of Kumaria in the show. Those things could render my analysis moot, and I do need to re-watch Yurikuma to be more sure of it. But for now it seems decent enough.

I thought the show was a pretty decent yuri fanservice, but then I read people talking about how it's actually a super deep critique about being gay or the anime industry. See, to me this looks like hot futanari fetish imagery but it could actually be a metaphor like using a flower instead of a penis showcases that they don't need no man and all they need is women and women can take the place of a man, or something. Sometimes you have to wonder how many metaphors are actually supposed to be metaphors how many cigars are supposed to be cigars. For me personally it's hard to take a comment like " the show is ironically twisting the notion that being lesbian is okay as long as it's sexy" seriously because they still show hot girls doing fanservicey things. It sounds like the kind of excuse a kid would give his parent after being caught watching porn, trying to play it off as an educational thing. Did the creator ever say anything about all this metaphorical stuff or is this all fan speculation?

The chief oddity about this to me is that it ties the asteroid that shares the goddess's name to the church that worships the goddess rather than the goddess itself. Plus you have to ask how it fits into the climax... and come to think of it, the church is presented as a bear institution, not a human institution.

There's also some interesting questions to be asked here about where homophobia comes from IRL, and how much religious institutions have contributed to stigmatizing lesbians vs. gay men, and how the linked stigmas differ, and what the historical timeline for all this is like (I only remember some of what I read in Marriage: A History).

I've seen commentary on the differences between catering to straight male viewers and catering to queer female viewers in the context of this show... but I'm not sure where, and I'm not remotely qualified to comment myself. Something about T&A vs. yonic imagery?

For me personally it's hard to take a comment like " the show is ironically twisting the notion that being lesbian is okay as long as it's sexy" seriously because they still show hot girls doing fanservicey things. It sounds like the kind of excuse a kid would give his parent after being caught watching porn, trying to play it off as an educational thing. Did the creator ever say anything about all this metaphorical stuff or is this all fan speculation?

In one shockingly lucid statement from him though, I believe he has described how bears are portrayed in society as either dangerous predators or cute mascots, a description you can also apply to lesbians in anime.

Because it's not the sort of thing that happens by accident? And certainly not the way it happens here?

The complete absence of men (minus the Judgmens and Milne) in the show isn't something that could be a simple mistake, like, "Oops! We forgot to draw the men!"

And when you consider the very purposeful inclusion of the male characters that do exist in Yurikuma, the idea that the creators simply goofed by not including other men is pretty farfetched.

Really? You think that nobody having a dad is a mere oversight?

That kind of thing just doesn't happen.

The question, I think, is why these questions even need to be asked or answered.

certainly not with the answers you gave, which have no place in the types of stories being told. It's more model-train-building.

The fact that Reia had a child at all proves that you are supposed to wonder about this.

There's probably not an in-universe explanation for the asteroid exploding beyond "it just happened,"

Ultimately, male characters aren't allowed to appear in this world

Quote:

Ultimately, male characters aren't allowed to appear in this world

Is this your theory or did someone on staff explicitly say this?

It is not a "theory" or a "fact", but instead an "analysis".

Have you watched Madoka?

He is a male character who exists to create a straight relationship in a show about non-straight interactions.

Reia's partner therefore never shows up on screen because he would have no role to play. He exists ONLY as a piece in a relationship. In some anime, female characters are the focus, but for the sake of male viewers relationship pieces have to be inserted into the world in order to not lose that male audience. This is much to the dismay of Yuriika who comes from the more sexual side of the yuri genre, one in which concepts like "purity" and "moe" need not apply.
No matter how much Yuriika thought that Reia and her had a relationship, the rules of the human world were ones of what we in our world would call 'queerbaiting'. That's what Yuriika experienced; finding what she thought was a story she could relate to (look! the girls are flirting!) only to find that, in the end, the status quo could not be broken.

Because good writers usually bother to explain and give coherent understanding to their setting. Not doing that gives the impression nobody cared or intent including insulting the audience, either way it deserves to be called out.

Quote:

certainly not with the answers you gave, which have no place in the types of stories being told. It's more model-train-building.

Why? Because I can point out holes in a story that make no sense? A story can be symbolic and ambitious all it wants, but at the end of the day that isn't anywhere near as relevant as "does it do what it is supposed to do properly" I also don't understand the model-train-building portion.

Quote:

Ultimately, male characters aren't allowed to appear in this world

Is this your theory or did someone on staff explicitly say this?

Reia's partner therefore never shows up on screen because he would have no role to play. He exists ONLY as a piece in a relationship. In some anime, female characters are the focus, but for the sake of male viewers relationship pieces have to be inserted into the world in order to not lose that male audience. This is much to the dismay of Yuriika who comes from the more sexual side of the yuri genre, one in which concepts like "purity" and "moe" need not apply.

No matter how much Yuriika thought that Reia and her had a relationship, the rules of the human world were ones of what we in our world would call 'queerbaiting'. That's what Yuriika experienced; finding what she thought was a story she could relate to (look! the girls are flirting!) only to find that, in the end, the status quo could not be broken.

For others, however, that factoid could be a big red flag, making it far more likely that this story will pedestalize, fetishize, and otherwise alienate the love stories between its female characters into something less than human (like countless other yuri anime and, frankly, Blue is the Warmest Color)

I suspect the irony of being an ANN male reviewer complaining how Ikuhara being male might be inappropriate for the yuri story is somewhat lost on Jacob Chapman.

While this is a completely valid concern, I hope this show's unusual pedigree doesn't push too many people, especially LGBTQ audiences, away from giving this remarkable show a chance. As director Kunihiko Ikuhara has proven in the past with Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum, he always brings an overwhelmingly human investment to the very queer stories he loves to tell.

I suspect the irony of being an ANN male reviewer complaining how Ikuhara being male might be inappropriate for the yuri story is somewhat lost on Jacob Chapman.

What are stories for?

If they know what they're doing, you can learn to tell what that is, just from observing the work.

If you read a long enough excerpt from Gadsby, for instance, you can tell its author wasn't just avoiding the letter E by happenstance. It's not always that easy

But it is plain as day to me that men are intentionally absent from YKA

But it bears (ha ha) all the signs of a deliberate choice. Taking it back to the original quote, we don't have to be told male characters are being blocked from appearing because we can see Ikuhara blocking them from appearing.

but are you the same person who said they don't believe in metaphors on the Paranoia Agent page?

Yurikuma is mired in metaphors from head-to-toe, and understanding it on any level other than surface-level is going to require accepting the metaphors as such (though I'm sure posters far more intelligent than I would be happy to explain the metaphors to you in more detail if need be).