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Before I watched Himouto, I read a couple of chapters from the manga a couple of months before the episode, and I knew that the anime would be great too. So was it?

STORY

The story is rather simple. Umaru moves in with her brother, and she is a secret otaku. Although that ... is the overall story, each episode is split into several different mini-stories that usually contain many laughs and parodies of Japanese culture. Speaking of parodies, there are a lot and you may come across many parodies throughout your time watching this anime. One parody that many people might not catch is that the famous Japanese department store Aeon is named Nyaon. Nya is the sound a cat makes in the Japanese language. Besides these things, don't expect to have a full blown story with plot elements. The parodies are what makes this show so great and I think many people will like The Grudge parody.

ANIMATION

The animation is typical of any shoujo anime, so don't expect any awesome cgi. I will say that I love how the characters are dressed and drawn and it really fits there personality. Whether Umaru is wearing her hamster hooded coat or her cute attire, it is fun to see how cute she really is. That brings up another good point. In my humble opinion, the Japanese have some bad fashion taste that I have seen so to see these anime characters dressed so nicely, it was another one of those special treats.

SOUND

Let me start off by saying that the opening and ending theme songs are really great and whenever I think of Himouto! Umaru-chan anime, those are the first sounds to pop in my head. The OST is not that bad either, but don't expect a Clannad OST here. It's just your typical shoujo anime OST, except slightly better.

Characters

There are five main characters: Umaru (indoor and outdoor mode), Ebina-chan, Umaru's brother, Kirie-chan, and Tachibana. Each character has his or her own personality that I think people will rather adore. Some anime fans I know or at an impasse when it comes to Umaru. Some think she is selfish and stuck-up while others don't care and say it's part of the show. I, for one, like both personalities that Umaru presents to the anime. I, like everyone else, wish that her brother would put his foot down sometimes, though.

VERDICT/ENJOYMENT

I thoroughly enjoyed Himouto! Umaru-chan and think that fans of comedy or the shoujo genre will like this anime too. My only real complaint is that I wish we would have seen more of Umaru's outside mode more because she is so freaking cute. Also, I think that we didn't get to see enough of Ebina-chan and Kirie-chan. Besides those two things, the anime was great and followed the manga panel by panel.

Aren't we a spoiled bunch. Tokyo T.V. once again gives us two more OVAs. That's 40 more minutes of Yuru Yuri and the cute cast. Were the cookies put into the oven for too long this time? Let's find out.

JAPANESE LEARNERS (2/5 Easy to Understand)

Do I ... even need to explain this anymore since I've reviewed Yuru Yuri three separate times already. Honestly, if you are at the intermediate or advanced level, then you should have no problem watching this anime without subtitles. Once again, you newbies can use this OVA as an excellent resource for your studies as the phrases and vocabulary are easy to learn.

STORY

It's summer time again which means we must be going to the beach, right? No. Okay, maybe we will go camping again. No. You said water balloons. Oh my, there is nothing better than cute Yuru Yuri chicks wearing bikini's throwing water balloons at each other. Wrong! They are still wearing their clothes. Okay, that was my ecchi side. Let me get straight to the point. Over 13 minutes of the first OVA episode took place in the club room where they looked at pictures from the camping trip and there were no parodies present at all. It was dreadful, and had I not been an anime reviewer I would have turned off my computer right away, but I must bring you anime otakus high-quality reviews.

The second OVA had a much better story. The girls haves a sleepover together in two separate groups. The group with Kyouko wanted to get a picture of her negao (sleeping face). The nice thing about the second OVA was the Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing parodies, which were a welcome treat. Unlike the first OVA, this OVA was much funnier and entertaining.

ANIMATION

If there was one thing that went well with the OVAs, it was the animation. Once again, I loved how the characters were presented and how the environments looked, even if that time was short. Don't let me forget that you can see Kyouko's......
SOUND

Let me just say that Yuru Yuri doesn't exactly have the greatest OST in the anime universe. Even while writing this review just after 5 minutes of watching the OVAs, I can't even remember any music. The opening and ending songs are also not that great either.

CHARACTERS

There really isn't much to say about the characters since they all maintain their previous personalities from the original anime. No new characters are added. Kyouko and Akari still are my favorite characters.

FINAL VERDICT/ENJOYMENT

We all like cookies when they first come out of the oven. They are sweet and chewy. That is how the first and second season of Yuru Yuri are presented. Unfortunately, the first OVA was left in the oven for too darn long and it left a burnt taste in my mouth. The second OVA was much better. Here is the gist of it, skip the first OVA and watch the second OVA unless you have some kind of OCD where you have to watch every anime episode (like me).

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What's better than a 24-minute episode of our favorite Yuru Yuri anime? An OVA that is 1 hour long. Yes, that's 60 minutes of Yuri Yuri's cute cast. Is it really worth watching for an hour, or is this OVA a bust.

JAPANESE LEARNERS (2/5 Easy to Understand)

Yuru Yuri still manages to be an easy anime to understand without subtitles if you are at the intermediate and advanced levels. It may just be me, but after watching Yuru Yuri seasons ... 1 and 2, I've come to the realization that the grammar and vocabulary used in this show is rather simplistic. No matter, if you are a beginner, feel free to use this anime as a tool for your Japanese learning.

STORY

For a one hour OVA, there really isn't too much of a plot to be expected. In short, the girls go on a camping trip during the summer. Yes, I know what you ecchi fans are thinking (I'm one myself). Why the heck are they going on a camping trip doing the summer? What about the beach? Yes, the beach. The number one place where our cute Yuru Yuri cast can be seen in tight bikinis and school swimsuits. Ah, but I have some good news, my ecchi friends. If you are patient and wait until the near end of the one-hour episode, you are treated to an osen scene where you get to see all the characters butt-naked. That's pretty much it for the story, though. They should've gone to the beach.

ANIMATION/ART

I was really impressed with the animation. It might be because the developers had a lot of time and budget money to work on this OVA. The character models are fascinating. Also, there are two scenes which were reminiscent of a Miyazaki Hayao film. The camping scenes in the forest were also nice and made me feel as I was camping too, if only it would have been the beach, though

SOUND

There was nothing special about the sound this time around. The OST was that of a typical slice of life anime. I will say that I did enjoy the cicadas and cricket noises as it is a perfect summer noise. I would have loved some campfire music since most of the scenes were taking in the forest. Just don't expect any Clannad OST here.

CHARACTERS

By this time around, you should be really familiar with the characters so I won't go in-depth with them. However, I am proud to say that all the main characters are in this episode. In the original season, certain characters appear in certain episodes so if you hated one certain character then that particular episode might have been painful for you to watch. Thankfully, there is a 99.9% chance that you will get to enjoy your favorite cute Yuru Yuri character in this episode.

FINAL VERDICT/ENJOYMENT

Let me get right down to it. No beach. There I said it. Who goes camping during the summer. Why couldn't they just go to the beach. I wanted to see bikini-clad Yuru Yuri chicks.(っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ Okay, despite that detrimental setback, this one hour OVA was rather quite good. It wasn't as funny as a regular Yuru Yuri episode and there weren't many parodies, but it was well worth a watch.

Like my reviews? Want to learn Japanese? Stop by my profile and leave me a message. As always, hope you enjoy my review and thanks for reading until the end.

Oh Season 2, How I enjoy the puns and puns and puns and mimicrys and mimicrys everywhere. Such a fantastic season filled with more cuteness. Let's get to the review. With that said Hajimaru Yo (始まるよ)!!!

JAPANESE LEARNERS (2/5 Easy to Understand)

Once again, I found this anime easy to understand without subtitles. If you are at the intermediate/advanced level, then this anime should present no problem if you watch it without English subtitles. ... The grammar and vocabulary spoken is mostly at the basic level. There will be some times where advanced grammar will be used. If you are at the beginner level, this anime will be an excellent learning tool to use.

STORY

Despite there being no actual story plot in the anime, that doesn't stop it from achieving many plot elements in each episode. There are about 2-3 mini stories in each episode that feature the many characters in the anime. These mini stories are usually based on Japanese puns and most of the puns will go unnoticed by many people who don't know much about Japanese culture. For example, one of the puns has to do with Akari's two buns that she has on her hair. The two buns represent teru teru bouzu, which is a superstition that makes the next day sunny. Despite there being no actual plot, these mini stories, and their puns are well appreciated.

ART/ANIMATION

For the most part, the animation is excellent and typical of a slice of life anime. The loli appearances of Akari and Chinatsu may turn some people off if you don't like loli type characters. If you are looking for an anime where characters have a nice size bust then you won't find any here except for Himawari, who haves a huge rack. All of the other characters are flat chested. If you enjoy short skirts, though, you will definitely find that here. Aside from that, each character is well animated and designed to fit their personality.

SOUND

If there is one thing that Yuru Yuri lacks, it's sound. The OST in this anime is neither exciting nor interesting. I even found the opening and ending themes to be pretty disappointing despite the first season having an excellent opening and ending theme. The good thing is that if you are watching Yuru Yuri, you are probably not remotely interested in the music.

CHARACTER

Now we get to the part that Yuru Yuri shines its brightest at. Yuru Yuri features loads of characters and the best part about it is that each character has her own unique personality. You have Akari, clumsy and rarely appears on-screen; Kyouko, who is funny, smart, and adorable; and Chinatsu, who gets frequent nosebleeds when she appears on-screen. The hard truth is that there will be characters you hate and characters you love depending on what type of personalities you love, and yes, there is a tsundere character for you tsundere lovers. In all honestly, the characters are what makes Yuru Yuri such a fantastic anime. Most slice of life animes contains 3-5 characters who all have a the same personality. The nice thing about Yuru Yuri is that you get to explore over 10 different personalities.

ENJOYMENT/FINAL VERDICT

I loved the second season of Yuru Yuri. However, there were some episodes that were not as entertaining as they could have been. Unlike the first season, I found some episodes to be quite bland and boring. If you loved the first season, then there is no doubt that you will love the second season. What are you waiting for, get to watching!!!

Like my reviews? Want to learn Japanese? Stop by my profile and leave me a message. As always, hope you enjoy my review and thanks for reading until the end.

Before watching Yuru Yuri, I first had to get through the tongue twister title. Ahh, but after that, I was already watching the first Akari~~~n opening. With that said...Hajimaru Yo (始まるよ)!!

Let's begin with those that are learning Japanese I rate Yuru Yuri a 2/5.

... JAPANESE LEARNERS (2/5) Easy to Understand)

Fortunately, this anime is easy to understand without subtitles if you are at the intermediate or above level, there will be some advanced words or grammar phrases that will actually be used, and you should have no trouble watching this anime without subtitles. If you are a beginner Japanese learner, you will learn a lot of phrases and words without the subtitles so use this anime as an excellent learning tool.

STORY

The girls want to start a club. They get a club. They get members. The end. That’s the story, but where do does 12 episodes actually take us, though. I like to think of Yuru Yuri as one of those Japanese Cop dramas where every episode is different yet gives us a little bit of a plot. Unfortunately, if you wanted a good story like a Shonen Jump anime, you won’t find one here. However, one should not watch the anime because of that reason alone. Each episode is amazing and unique in its own way. There is one episode where the girls go to the beach and one where they go to a hotel in Kyoto. This is how the anime is presented. Although you won’t get a story, you will get plenty of laughs along the way.

ART/ANIMATION

Ah, how I adore cute anime characters. The good thing is that Yuru Yuri is not short of any cutesy-want-to-squeeze- characters. I also love how each character is drawn. They are drawn perfectly to fit their type, except probably Kyouko, who is drawn cute but is a total crazy girl. I will say however not to expect any awesome cgi or whatnot because the animation is typical of your regular slice of life anime.

SOUND

Upon writing this review, the only music I remembered where the opening and ending song and those were pretty darn good. Actually, they were so good that I downloaded the songs. Aside from the theme songs, I didn’t think that any of the anime songs were of memorable nor of any particular interest.

CHARACTERS

Lesbians. Lesbians everywhere. This is where this anime truly shines at. The characters all like another character and they show jealousy for each other, which is hilarious.

Each character has her own unique personality. From the clumsy Akari, adorable Chinatsu, and the nosebleed crazy Chitose, we are given a lot of characters to love and hate in this anime. If it wasn’t for these characters, I’m afraid that this anime would have been a disaster.

ENJOYMENT

Funny characters and an amazing opening and ending theme song is what keeps this anime so great in my book. The story and sound are lacking, but I think that since this anime is a shoujo-ai and slice of life anime, none of those things are particular needed, but they are welcomed. Also, if you know a lot about Japanse culture, then you will most certainly find puns and mimicrys everywhere. I laughed on every episode because of them. If you enjoy any slice of life or shoujo-ai anime and don’t care about the story, I recommend you give this a watch.