Is Citrus just a normal romance anime where all guys are replaced by girls?

FrozenLich said:
I mean there is no mention of the trashy guy who used Mei. Conflict of feelings would sure be better if some guys fall for these girls and try to get them to date while these MCs struggle to explain things away or make a right choice based on gender restraints. I am yet to read the manga. But does things really improve from here?

MHEEC said:

citrus is about teenage drama and romance, not some unnecessary politically correct liberal appeasing gender bullshit aka "omg we need to show the whole world that lesbian and bisexual people actually exist because absolutely no one knows that people can feel attracted for other people of the same sex so we definitely need to shove it on their faces"

FrozenLich said:
Politically correct? So shoving some random female characters just as a plot device to mess up the MC feelings is what teenage drama and romance is about?

MHEEC said:

citrus is about teenage drama and romance, not some unnecessary politically correct liberal appeasing gender bullshit aka "omg we need to show the whole world that lesbian and bisexual people actually exist because absolutely no one knows that people can feel attracted for other people of the same sex so we definitely need to shove it on their faces"

FrozenLich said:
I have watched upto episode 10 of this anime. At first I was interested since I thought there would be a romance that suffers from gender restrictions of the society (and of stepsisters no less) in addition to what normal romances face.

But so far, 10 episodes in, it has only shown some ppl randomly falling in love with the mc's just to make things harder for them while others are the inevitable trope of childhood friends who have a crush. In general, anime these days dont have a lot of episodes or seasons. Most are 13 eps long and 2 seasons max.

So to find out that 10 eps of 1st season is only about girls just thrown in to show the conflict of feelings is really disappointing. Mei has 1 childhood lover and 1 random lover now. Yuzu already has 1 childhood lover. Especially when it is shown that the series can also deal with realistic and great parts such as those with Mei's dad.

I mean there is no mention of the trashy guy who used Mei. Conflict of feelings would sure be better if some guys fall for these girls and try to get them to date while these MCs struggle to explain things away or make a right choice based on gender restraints. I am yet to read the manga. But does things really improve from here?

watchanimu said:

Personally, I like it better because there's not much mention of guys, since I only watch it for the girls. Why can't it be just girls for once? Citrus is not well written and this makes it disappointing, but if it was properly written it could have been good with just that.

Energetic-Nova said:


You mean like Evangelion which has a bisexual romance and a lot of bisexual people identify with? I mean... it is the only anime you rated 10/10.


And then watch as people say #nohomo and really bend over backwards to explain Kaworu's actions and Shinji's responses....

I mean I guess Wandering Son could be considered "Gender appeasing bullshit" but, it is actually good... but if you don't like it fine. And if you like this fine. But it doesn't mean everyone should or has to.

MHEEC said:
not some unnecessary politically correct liberal appeasing gender bullshit aka "omg we need to show the whole world that lesbian and bisexual people actually exist because absolutely no one knows that people can feel attracted for other people of the same sex so we definitely need to shove it on their faces"

BurningSpirit said:

As such, I do find less issue with a character like Matsuri and so far Sara. But more so with the fact that these side characters are so quickly tossed aside or relegated to the background once the arc is over, making them feel like they were written first as a plot device then as a character. This applies not only to that teacher that was exploiting Mei (as you mentioned), but also to Mei's grandfather, Mei's father the twin drill girl and Matsuri... well basically every character except Harumin, whose role is to be the long term moral support for Yuzu.

BurningSpirit said:
Way to bring politics into this... I mean what better way to convince others than bringing in politics?

Look, I find it annoying when surprisingly excessive emphasis is placed on <insert identity group here>, then the entire media goes crazy parading it around and glorifying it. But if you're looking at it through a lens of "Oh there's so much of this, they're shoving the existence of lesbians in my face!", then you've seriously got to relax and realise not everything is politically charged. I'm pretty sure we were expecting lesbians in the show and we got that. It's just that when writers swing, sometimes they tend to go all the way to a point where it becomes unrealistic. Citrus have a few lesbians.... oh wait every single one of them are lesbians. Kuzu no Honkai had screwed up people.... hang on let's make them all screwed up.

FrozenLich said:


Yeah I am totally fine if they handle these other girls properly. I mean, I did state that I was interested in a different kind of romance anime than the usual fare. Its not like guys HAVE to be there. It was an easy example I could think of since this is my 1st time watching a same gender romance story. But there are a lot of things that are put in there just randomly. Why did Mei kiss Yuzu just to make her shut up? Why did Yuzu suddenly feel she is in love with Mei for no concrete reason other than a forced kiss? Why do some characters come in, butt heads with the MC's other partner and then conveniently give up just after 1-2 episodes?

It just seems like a plot full of holes and the romance is not progressing in a good way. Especially the part about Mei's grandfather showed much promise, only to be discarded later on.

MyWayHighWay said:
Why is Yuzu in love? It's not that hard to understand.

The thing is Mei is Yuzu's first crush. Remember your first one? It's usually quite senseless, just someone who captures your attention and you become obsessed over. In Yuzu's case it was the moment when she saw teacher pushing Mei to the wall and kissed her. Yuzu's eyes were glued on Mei and her sensual face and boom! Then its mostly just about whether the feeling is mutual or not. With extra complications here being that their are both girls and that they were just adopted in a same family, which confuses things even further.

Back in her original school Yuzu always pretended to have a boyfriend, but she never fell in love with a man. Basically she's aromantic towards men, even though she doesn't find cute guys unattractive or anything. She's a bisexual with a preference towards females and Mei just happens to really be her type on superficial level. Of course she soon finds that Mei is also a little bit difficult person to love...

As for Mei, she's actually damn complex character with a lot of baggage and she is written with almost merciless consistency. Writer doesn't let you hear what she thinks, not even when she is the viewpoint character. She's deliberately enigmatic because the main viewpoint character Yuzu also doesn't understand her that well. Some of it is revealed only later in manga, because that's the time when Yuzu and Mei properly discuss and experience things together. It's simply not within the scope of these 12 episodes.

Mei is borderline mentally ill in some ways. She really is just a few steps away from breaking completely at beginning of the series. Her circumstances kind of suck besides being in a rich family. She's constantly under mental pressure due to her supposed future and being replacement for her father. Her body is has fragile constitution too, just like her father and grandfather. She always whips herself up on every mistake. She has some trouble speaking up as well, because even normal Japanese person won't burden others with their problems, let alone a heir of a prestigious family. Gotta keep that face and pride and not humiliate the family.

She's been mistreated by her fiance as well and literally has come to believe that stuff like kisses and touches are mainly for just controlling people and romance is some sort of a sham or trick. Cue to having barely any concept of personal space. Even further, her parents apparently had a bad breakup she had to witness as a 10 year old kid. She is as shocked as Yuzu is in first chapters when she finally falls for her after she managed to patch things up with her father a bit. It messes her up completely from the inside to find out that there may still be hope for her.

MHEEC said:
funny how you literally cut the part where i explain what i said

in case english is hard, ill repeat really slowly what i said:

they are not

unnecessarily throwing boys in this

because

they dont feel the need to point out

the fact that girls can actually prefer other girls over boys

to appease edgy liberal teenagers

FrozenLich said:
Why did Mei kiss Yuzu just to make her shut up? Why did Yuzu suddenly feel she is in love with Mei for no concrete reason other than a forced kiss? Why do some characters come in, butt heads with the MC's other partner and then conveniently give up just after 1-2 episodes?