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Kunihiko Ikuhara sat down one day, picked up a Mad Libs book, and found his first prompt: "Adjective, Noun, Noun." Of course, he chose "Lesbian," "Bear," and "Storm" as any normal and respectable individual would.

Although it certainly might seem like Ikuhara just threw some words together to make this series, Yuri Kuma Arashi (Lesbian Bear Storm) is not a "thrown-together" series by a long shot. Now please bear with me-- I promise the puns won't be this terrible-- for my take on YKA.

Disclaimer: Although I am majorly biased towards Ikuhara (Utena and Penguindrum are my #1 and #2) I'd like to think that ... this review attempts to eliminate bias. If my fanboyishness is too flamboyant in some areas, please tell me so I cna review that and correct it.

STORY (9/10):

I don't just hand out 9s for stories-- YKA has a damn good story to tell. Contrary to what some other yuri shows might present us, YKA isn't just girls mashing their faces into one other (although that certainly does happen and is welcome, oh based Ikuhara).

As with any Ikuhara show, YKA is riddled with extended metaphor, symbolism, various motifs, and a whole bunch of other fancy terms. Don't get me wrong, they're all great and I like them a lot (the ones I picked up on, anyway. There's plenty I missed, I'm sure). However, YKA is great in that it's enjoyable even if you don't read heavily into the symbolism. Despite it's somewhat outwardly wacky nature, it's a fairly accessible story, as opposed to a show like Utena. Of course, some people are immediately turned off by any hints of symbolism, writing the show off as 3deep5me and cursing everyone who likes the show, calling them "anime hipsters" and the show "pretentious." I don't really care. We all have our own opinions, and I happen to enjoy the symbolism.

Anyway, YKA boils down to a story about love, bullying, and society. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure that out. And despite a limited arsenal of 12 episodes to work with (as opposed to his 39 with Utena and 24 with Penguindrum), Ikuhara manages to seamlessly craft a heartwarming story with a few KUMA SHOCKS! along the way. With a genius like Ikuhara writing, it's no wonder that the story is so good.

ART (9/10):

Ohmygawd was this show pretty. So many scenes were screenshot worthy. Every location, every surreal still shot... just gorgeous. The characters all look brilliant. The yuri is high def. What more can you want?

Just to drive it home a little more, when I say surreal, I mean surreal. This god damned show freezes certain moments in time with some shots, mostly towards the end. Bobduh's episodic screenshots capture most of them.

SOUND (9/10):

Soundtrack was great, too. Ikuhara knows what he's doing so he knows when to play the music, etc. etc. But wha really makes YKA stand out musically is its OP and ED. Bonjour Suzuki does the OP and it is phenomenal. Breathy singing is exactly what this show needed. And it works so well. The ED is a techno-sounding tune that's really upbeat. It might be slightly generic, but it contrasted certain scenes EXTREMELY WELL. I'm not going to spoil a thing, but I was a bit listless after a certain scene nearing the end of an episode, then BOOM the first few notes start playing to confirm reality and shake everything back into existence. I guess that might just be limited to a personal experience I had, but boy did I like that.

CHARACTER (10/10):

This category is really where any Ikuhara show excels. YKA's characters are the backbone of the entire show. The characterization and development of the three main characters (Kureha, Lulu, and Ginko) is just stellar. All three are so interesting, so unique, so... Ikuhara. The interactions between these three characters are just fun to watch because of how well these characters are portrayed. The three of them have overarching essences to their being that Ikuhara emphasizes with dialogue and actions. For instance, Ginko initially acts out of pure desire. Her desire is portrayed through her actions around Kureha, her ignoring of Lulu, etc.

YKA also succeeds in making its other characters interesting. Anthy 2.0-- excuse me, Sumika-- serves her purpose well (no other words on her). The student council president is such a fun character. All of the girls that lead the exclusion ceremonies are unique. [Not really SPOILERS, as you'll have no idea what this is until it's literally right in front of you, but skip the next sentence if you're so inclined.] I cared about the girl in the van with the cyborg bear effortlessly, because just with all of the characters in YKA, Ikuhara makes the audience care about them.

Uniqueness, archetypes, and the ability to make me give a damn? 10/10.

ENJOYMENT (10/10):

Okay, so the fanboy can't hide here. This show has been the highlight of my week for the past 13 weeks (including the week with the interview). I couldn't wait until Monday to watch my lesbian bears.

This show is just so god-damned fun to watch. Bias aside, with all of the aforementioned factors working together to create this beaut of a show, it's hard NOT to have fun. Watching YKA unfold was bliss. Watching it end was sad.

OVERALL:

Yuri Kuma Arashi gets a 9/10. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a damn good show.

WATCH OR DON'T WATCH:

With a 9/10, this should be accessible to all audiences, right? I wish. As much as I'd like for this not to be true, technical greatness of this show aside, the symbolism can be a turn off for some. Although YKA can still offer you a great story even if you don't read into it, this show is best enjoyed with some analysis and thought of what's going on. I'm not saying it's necessary to pick every symbol apart-- you'll go mad. But I'd say to watch this if you're willing to think. If not, probably not the best choice. Whatever your choice is, don't let others judge you. That' s the sexy way. Shaba-da-doo.

[EDIT AS OF 9/23/14: So it finished. I liked the last episode. The final 3 episodes that aired after I reviewed were pretty decent compared to the rest of the show. That being said, they don't make up for a lot of what happened before them. The score is now 4/10.

[EDIT AS OF 9/15/14: So episode 11 just happened. Episode 11 (and 9) are great examples of how good the series COULD be. Why all episodes aren't the qualities of these two, I couldn't tell you. But if Re:_ Hamatora concludes with the same strength as episode 11, ... and maybe intelligently, I may review my review-- I have to say, Re:_ Hamatora surprised me with that episode. Does it make up for everything else I pointed out up until now? Absolutely not.]

I didn't see any reviews of Re:_ Hamatora that best fit how I take the series, so here's my go at it. If you disagree with anything I say, please tell me. I would love to have my opinion changed about Re:_ Hamatora, though I haven't the slightest idea how it will be done. (Note: I'll try to keep the discussion to only the second cour.) (Also note that while this show isn't finished, I've seen enough to get a sense of the show. Especially after the first season.)

Re:_ Hamatora is the second season (well, 2nd part of a split-cour) of Hamatora, a story that appears similar to Darker than Black at first. I had high hopes for the show- the art was interesting, the music was pretty good, and the premise was interesting, to say the least. Sadly, it fell flat. In my opinion, here's why:

[ART: 5]

The first season had some really cool art early on. Every time I watched the opening I sort of felt like I was on an acid trip. Despite Hamatora's colorful approach, the art isn't really all that great, but at the same time, it's not terrible. Pretty much the definition of mediocre. Inconsistencies here and there are understandable (we're obviously not watching the BD or anything) but the art style itself isn't all that interesting.

[SOUND: 7]

Pretty much the only thing I like about both seasons. Re:_ Hamatora has a pretty awesome OP, not to mention a fairly catchy ED. Asides from that, the music throughout is played quite well. I never felt bombarded by music playing during each and every moment. And I liked the music to boot.

[CHARACTER: 3]

Finally, trouble's a' brewin. Re:_ Hamatora really falls flat on its characters. All of our characters are fairly one-dimensional, a problem in both seasons. Nice is the M.C. who will win no matter what. Murasaki is the friendly rival who always is trying to get better. Art would carry the show if he didn't annoy me so much. He gets pretty badass, but Art's actions don't exactly have motivation now (and just leave us asking "WHY?!"), but from what the show has given us so far I doubt it will be a very good reason. The addition of Honey felt sort of forced (1st season), but hey, why not?

Hajime is standable as the show's best character. Sure, you have your trope of the small, hungry girl, but the show doesn't shove that down your throat too much. Her backstory is cool and somewhat intriguing. If every episode was the great quality I saw in her backstory episode this season, this would be a VERYYYY different review.

[STORY: 3]

A show REALLY has to annoy me to get any worse than this. Re:_ Hamatora has a lot of problems with its storytelling. Let's get an especially glaring issue that only appeared this season: THE GOD DAMNED TRANSITIONS. I swear that they were only put in because all the episodes weren't long enough.

Another glaring problem: why did we get filler [EDIT: by filler, I don't mean non-canon, I mean not contributing to the overall plot. I use it for them interchangeably, however wrong I am (sorry).] episodes? They don't add to the enjoyment at all, and what's even worse, this is a 24 EPISODE SERIES.

Now, on to the actual story. The first season quickly proved that, excuse the cliché, "we weren't going anywhere fast." I hoped that Re:_ Hamatora would maybe attempt to break this pattern, but unfortunately, it didn't. From the last episode of the first cour to now, you could probably fit all that happened RELATING TO THE ACTUAL PLOT in 4 episodes. Sure, I'm pulling that number out of my ass, but it's probably not all that wrong. As of right now, 9 episodes have aired. Not a lot has happened. These last 3 episodes are either going to leave us unsatisfied or we're going to get 3 episodes that try to tell us more than an Evangelion fan on speed contrasting the original series versus the rebuild.

Yet another problem here (see a pattern?) is that the show takes it self way too seriously. I've had to pause an episode from time to time to take a breather from all the pseudo-philosophical bullshit it was spouting one moment, then be subjected to more mindless filler.

[ENJOYMENT: 4]

Maybe I'm slightly masochistic but I slightly liked watching this trainwreck of a show. I like watching bad anime-- it makes me appreciate the good ones more.

[OVERALL: 3]

Re:_ Hamatora really fell flat, which wasn't all that surprising after the first season. I would not recommend this show to anyone in search of something good-- but maybe to someone who wants to watch something with a good premise fall flat.