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REVIEW: Citrus BD+DVD




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TanyaTheEvil



Joined: 11 May 2018
Posts: 331
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 11:10 am Reply with quote
I watched this anime and it was absolutey outstanding.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 11:16 am Reply with quote
B- is about where I'd put it. It's trash, but well-written trash that always keeps your interest, which in my opinion is better than a show with a "deep" story that's boring and hard to follow.
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Random Name



Joined: 24 Nov 2016
Posts: 642
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Definitely one of my favorites last year and looking forward to rewatching the Blu-ray once I get some free time.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 360
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Still wishing the anime had skipped volume 4 (the silver sisters arc). I love Citrus but that part just sucked.

It's nice to read a review that sees the value on both ends of the spectrum. Most of the reception tends to be seething hatred or undying love.
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TanyaTheEvil



Joined: 11 May 2018
Posts: 331
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Random Name wrote:
Definitely one of my favorites last year and looking forward to rewatching the Blu-ray once I get some free time.

Right on, It also was one of may favorites last year
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Dosmundos



Joined: 03 Sep 2018
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 7:47 am Reply with quote
It was rather difficult to get into a story where the main protagonist's mother re-marries, moves to a new place with her, she enters a new school, and it turns out she has never seen her new father, nor was she informed that he has a daughter her age, nor that this new stepsister would be living with her, nor that her outfit on the first day of school was so much against school rules that it looked like a deliberate provocation. While I have no problem with strange coincidences as a starting point for a story, and while I can stomach a lot of unrealistic settings, it took me a long time to figure out that Yuzu was NOT the dumbest and most desinterested blonde I have ever seen, and that her relationship with her mother was NOT incommunicado to a sociopathic extent.

A lot of reviewers were weighing in on Mei's offensive sexual behavior and the lack of consent in many scenes, but nowhere did I find any comment about the white elephant in the room - that Mei was somebody using sex as a weapon, to pry the smartphone out of Yuzu's skirt, or simply to shut her up (even saying so much), a tactic that backfired when she was trying it with Matsuri. I don't know what exactly it was she was trying to get out of the teacher she was making out with, but it couldn't have been anything good. The show never provided any explanation of her intentions and feelings (if she had any) in this relationship, though. Just as the show never really followed Mei's introduction as a deliberate sex offender, and instead continued to paint her as a nice girl without bad intentions, even becomin Yuzu's love interest, and completely to the contrary of what impressions she had left at the beginning of the show.

All in all, I liked Citrus despite this rather confusing setting as the trashy show it is, but it's easier for me to say that now that I finally was able to watch the serious and believeable yuri show I originally thought "Citrus" to be - "Bloom into You" - later last year...
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18101
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:20 am Reply with quote
^
The improbable cluelessness is inherent in the "surprise stepsibling" gimmick, which is why I dislike its use. I never could take the series seriously because of that start.

And yeah, Mei's character is just a mess. It's hard to accuse her alone of using sex as weapon when other characters are doing it, too, but at least the other characters had something else to their characterizations. I would have rated this series at least a step higher had Mei's portrayal been more developed and credible.
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Dosmundos



Joined: 03 Sep 2018
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:26 am Reply with quote
Quote:
The improbable cluelessness is inherent in the "surprise stepsibling" gimmick, which is why I dislike its use. I never could take the series seriously because of that start.


It actually works quite well in "Domestic Girlfriend", where both parents had a credible reason to keep their relationship from their kids until the very end (the real gimmick is, of course, that the kids had a relationship with each other before that). Plus, not having known beforehand did not mess with the protagonists' characterization.
Yuzu on the other side came out way worse than just "clueless" - only to be revealed to be a rather preceptive character on great terms with her mom, which made it simply impossible that she wouldn't have checked out the school (or her new stepfather, for that matter) beforehand, let alone her mother not telling her absolutely nothing!
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otagirl



Joined: 26 May 2015
Posts: 111
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:18 am Reply with quote
I don't have as harsh an opinion on Citrus as most since I followed it from the first manga chapters. Also I can relate to Mei in a lot of ways as an introvert and appreciate her character whereas a lot of young people relate to Yuzu and Harumi instead. Her expressions in the manga make it obvious she's thinking a lot, just that the reader has to figure it out themselves and that's difficult to do especially due to cultural differences.

Over the years, love rivals were introduced in the manga, but it didn't seem so glaringly repetitive. This problem smacks you in the face in the anime due to the quicker pace. This caused a lot of viewers to drop the show back when it was airing.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4771
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 6:47 pm Reply with quote
I think the review score is almost a little too generous as I would have given it a C. Yuzu being a likable and outgoing MC and the surprisingly high production values are the main selling point of the show. But I think it would have been better if it was more strictly focused on Yuzu and Mei and their family instead of bringing in all these side characters and romantic rivals I didn't care about. Matsuri was the most annoying and I didn't understand why Yuzu was friends with her.
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LinkTSwordmaster



Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 370
Location: PA / USA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:21 pm Reply with quote
I think what frustrated me the most about Citrus is the lost potential - can't we just have a heartwarming-yet-dramatic, Nana-quality show about two people that are (in no uncertain terms) in a mutual, same-sex relationship that is not exploitative or incestuous?

It's like when pitching the concept for this sort of story, the writer/publisher gets halfway to the end goal and then stops, does a 180, and says "Hey, let's add some sort of lame gimmick to this situation so that the characters read as objects!"

I see enough comments to note that the pace of the show messed with the pace of the manga & made things a bit more jarring, but even pacing.... I'm getting sick of seeing characters in a freaking high school setting! I'm getting sick of seeing characters that have romantic/flirty leanings together with no follow through.

I mean holy hell, GUNDAM. GUNDAM Iron-Blooded Orphans of all things had an infinitely more dynamic portrayal of human relationships and the various colors they come in and it was a scifi show about economic/political imbalance and not a romance/drama show like Citrus!!!!

~Angrily shoves Kare Kano DVD into player~
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
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Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:04 pm Reply with quote
LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
I think what frustrated me the most about Citrus is the lost potential - can't we just have a heartwarming-yet-dramatic, Nana-quality show about two people that are (in no uncertain terms) in a mutual, same-sex relationship that is not exploitative or incestuous?[/i]


You might want to check out Sasameki Koto (Whispered Words) or Bloom Into You. They might be more up your alley. As for manga (that has not had an anime yet but fits your criteria) I would suggest Girlfriends, Hana & Hina, or Kiss & White Lily for my Dearest Girl.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1290
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:37 am Reply with quote
Psycho 101 wrote:
LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
I think what frustrated me the most about Citrus is the lost potential - can't we just have a heartwarming-yet-dramatic, Nana-quality show about two people that are (in no uncertain terms) in a mutual, same-sex relationship that is not exploitative or incestuous?[/i]


You might want to check out Sasameki Koto (Whispered Words) or Bloom Into You. They might be more up your alley. As for manga (that has not had an anime yet but fits your criteria) I would suggest Girlfriends, Hana & Hina, or Kiss & White Lily for my Dearest Girl.

And don't forget Kase-san and...
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LinkTSwordmaster



Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 370
Location: PA / USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:20 pm Reply with quote
Psycho 101 wrote:
You might want to check out Sasameki Koto (Whispered Words) or Bloom Into You. They might be more up your alley. As for manga (that has not had an anime yet but fits your criteria) I would suggest Girlfriends, Hana & Hina, or Kiss & White Lily for my Dearest Girl.


I usually have an easier time both finding anime & digesting it with all the streaming services. In this case though, HiDive isn't one of my available streaming platforms and thus Bloom is out of reach. I actually think I did in fact see Whispered words aaaaaages ago, it's been a while. Really sucks that a ton of stuff was pulled off Crunchy and HiDive is further diluting anime availability. Sad
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