Yuyushiki

It's funny how short the synopsis for this anime is on MAL, because there's really not much to add. There's no deeper premise than the Data Processing Club; the show relies entirely on its quirky humor and how that results in specific dynamics between the characters (in addition to being a CGDCT with yuri undertones).

Apart from Yui as the "straight man" and Yuzuko as "the funny man", Yukari is an interesting and functional addition to the typical manzai (漫才) style present in the show. By being a bit of a bakadere who goes along with Yuzuko's antics, while not having herself the same eloquence and ... mania, she acts as an "instigator" that enables Yuzuko's rants to run just long enough until they meet Yui's necessary pullback to reality. She also often plays the whole of the teart that ties together the two more opposing forces of the trio, pacifying their eventual conflicts when they verge on seriousness.

This setup works fine, but it will inevitably get repetitive over time. Fortunately, later episodes introduce a few side characters (Aikawa Chino, Okano Kei, Hasegawa Fumi), who, in a way, mirror the main trio, although they display enough idiosyncrasy to not come across as redundant (the first is a shy and kind girl; the second, a tomboy who easily gets jealous for Aikawa; the third a more sober, yet sardonic type). More background is also added to Yui and Yukari's childhood, as we learn that they became friends before meeting Yuzuko, which is a nice touch for characterization and opens up new jokes where Yuzuko acts jealous of their unique bond.

Lastly, we have "Okaa-san-sensei", or Matsumoto Yoriko, who is the advisor for the Data Processing Club to which the main trio belongs. She is conscientious, is easily frightened, is warm and attentive with her students, and has oppai. Despite the previous comment, Aikawa does feel a little redundant to Yoriko, although the two characters rarely interact and have different motives for interacting with the main trio (i.e. Aikawa has a secret "crush" on Yui, which often drives her jokes).

It should definitely be interesting to revisit this anime a few years later, having learned more Japanese. There is a lot of wordplay and references to personality clichés (I say "personality" instead of "character" because sometimes they partially play with real world stereotypes. E.g. Yuzuko's monologue as Yukari's "father" in ep. 12). Many of Yuzuko's leads for jokes are phonetic similarities between words, category errors, and attempts to connect vaguely related topics, which make it a hard — if not impossible — anime to translate. Some cultural awareness (such as of Japanese dishes or of the aforementioned tropes/clichés) is necessary for other jokes as well, but the Data Processing Club scenes help the anime feel somewhat grounded even for the foreigner viewer, due to the "googling random stuff" element being universal. The characters' quirks are also a main source of amusement, and those can manifest purely through behavioral traits.

At the end of every "research activity," the Yuyushiki trio gathers to summarize what they’ve learned, often delivering a punchline for their skits and thus manifesting their quirks through how off-topic and out-of-the-box some of their “summaries” are. This is yet another moment where some knowledge of Japanese can be key for appreciating the comedy (although not always required), by observing how they transform the research topic into the most random, most irrelevant まとめ.

As for the moe, it can get too much at times, and the occasional "characters laughing at their own jokes" moments are always cringeworthy to watch. But, overall, it didn't feel like the humor was trying too hard; the flow is very natural. In fact, it's able to put you in the scene with these characters' erratic way of connecting ideas, to the point you being to question why it's starting to make sense. Fortunately, in this regard, the imminence of Yui's retorts and the presence of normal side characters also help in keeping this usage of nonsense and randomness moderate.

The last ~3 episodes fell off a little in terms of creativity. I cannot imagine enjoying the manga for 13 volumes without getting sick of it, but as a 12-episode anime it was a rather pleasant experience. It has a certain coziness and banality (in a good way) that can evoke memories of one's own school days, along with the silly "strategies" we would employ to escape monotony in a world not yet so afflicted with the internet (or with our current hectic pace of life). In a way, this type of play and banter can be seen as the very essence of adolescence — or the fight against boredom in general. That's sort of the experience with Yuyushiki. Simple fun, one moment after another.

Yuyushiki is a simple, fun, formulaic, and cute show where you can just enjoy the 'cute girls do cute things' trope without having to think about any of it. The story is exceedingly simple, and throws no real surprises one's way. A typical episode is simply following in the lives of Yui, Yuzuko, and Yukari as they go about their daily lives and engage in various hijinks. You have the themed setting, like summer break or new year's, the themed activity, like going to the beach or having a sleepover, and the one-episode arc of minor conflict, which can be ... as simple as it raining outside, or that they want to be friends with someone but they're embarrassed about it. There's also a running theme of sexual humor throughout, much of it directed at other girls, which is par for the course given the modest fanservice. There are rare exceptions where the story stands out, particularly that one incident with the 3D animated snowflake, but that seems to be a one-time thing. The most striking aspect of the writing for me was the constant wordplay, a good 70% of the show's humor relying on various chains of verbal word games.

The art direction for Yuyushiki is, again, at least as good as it should be. Being from 2013 it has a fun, quasi-nostalgic style and character design, though you can absolutely tell they spent all their money on the pool scene, beach scene, and that one snowflake. Shots of the sky are also rather pretty, and seemed to be a cut above the rest of the art in the show. Beyond that all the art met the baseline for quality, the only major drawback being the totally-expected reuse of various shots.

The sound design, much like the rest of the show, met the basic standards of quality. The music was alright, as was the voice acting, and the few 'sounds of life' that were present were of fine quality. The character designs for the three main girls are distinctive enough to leave an impression, though as a result of their use of bright colors therein the show suffers from a case of 'gee, guess who the main characters are', which is fine.

The characters themselves had only as much depth as was necessary to tell the story at all, and their surface-level personalities weren't so shallow as to have them feel inhuman. In fact, this was one of the stronger points of the show. The studio, Kinema Citrus, in making an unadulterated slice of life anime, brought to life 3 characters who play off each other particularly well, and were perfect vessels through which to deliver the story. Yui, with her firm exterior veiling a genuine love for her friends, felt the most 'real' to me, and I feel like she anchored the show in a way her carefree compatriots couldn't. At the end of the day, while this anime isn't anything to write home about, I still watched the whole thing, including the OVA, which was a good addition, and the Blu-Ray extras, which were bland and a poor excuse for extra content. I thank Yuyushiki for the simple and uncomplicated contentedness of watching a Slice of Life anime, even if it isn't perfect. "Sh'pon!"

Work days can be exhausting. Solution? A light-hearted anime to help you unwind!

Unfortunately, this isn't the right anime for me. It consists of three friends bantering and goofing off, which would be fine if they were witty and interesting individuals, but alas! they are dull as wallpaper. Their bantering is downright banal - in fact, the high point for me was the pun "mochi-vated". And I'm a person who LIKES banter!

The characters were: a normal, straight-laced kid; her two lesbian best friends who want to fondle her; and a big-busted teacher, who her friends also want to fondle. I am pro-LGBT, and it's annoying to ... see lesbian characters used purely as fanservice/objects of comedy. I wish the creators had used more quirky, unusual, bizarre, and even grotesque characters.

[In Secret Code: Ja sam zapravo odgledala samo dve epizode, ali ovi jebeni birokrati brisu moje komentare o serijama zatosto "nisam dovoljno odgledala za pisanje". Moram negde da priznam da sam samo odgledala dve (citav sat ovoga!), pa cu da napisem ovde i mozda ce neko da koristi Gugl Prevodilac. U ovakvim serijama, cak i jedna epizoda ti kaze sve sto trebas da znas.]