Yurikuma Arashi: The Complete Series (Review)

In a world divided between humans and hyper-intelligent, man-eating bears, Kureha attends an all-girls school and holds onto a simple wish—to spend the rest of her life with her classmate and soul mate, Sumika. But after a secret rendezvous ends in tragedy, Kureha vows to never back down on her love and put a bullet in any bear she meets. As she plots her revenge, the bear-attack body count begins to rise and two strange girls transfer into Kureha’s class. She doesn’t know it yet, but the girls who call themselves Ginko and Lulu are actually criminal bears in disguise! As they try to win Kureha’s heart, an army of high school girls gears up to go to war with all of bear-kind and anyone else who stands up for love. At this rate, getting the Yuri seal of approval from an inter-dimensional tribunal of cool, beautiful, sexy judges is going to be the least of their troubles.

If you're like me and have been a little fatigue from the same anime plots like hero saving the world, childhood friend secretly in love with other childhood friend and many other  scenarios that plague anime today. Yurikuma Arashi might be a anime you want to talk a glance. From the opening sequence of the show where the story history is explained. The planet is hit by a mysterious asteroid called Kumaria. The material has an effect on the planet causes the bears of the planet to rise up, evolve and now the bears eat the humans. After the bears uprising the governments of the world create a giant Severance Barrier in order to separate the humans from the bears. I give Yurikuma Arashi points for a refreshing story and originality. However if you're familiar with the work of director Kunihiko Ikuhara (Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena) you know that there is some deep symbolism and themes in the anime. Yurikuma Arashi narrative is driven by the character Kureha Tsubaki played by Alexis Tipton. Kureha has seen nothing but hardship at the hands of the bears. Her family and her lover were killed by the bears and she has held a need for vengeance ever since. Kureha is the most normal and relate-able character out of the show. You will connect with her drive for vengeance and her backstory oppose to any other character. The anime story structure and pacing will take some getting use too. There is a plot and characterization but unlike most shows it's not presented in your face. In true Kunihiko Ikuhara style the themes, and core meaning of the show will take a few multiple viewings. I'm not saying the story is complex but I'm saying the story would have better if the narrative was a little more contained. One scene we have the focus of Kureha and her dealing with the pain of losing her loved one and not being able to let people into her life. Then we cut to the scenes with the bears who motives something you really don't get why they even doing what their doing. With a more proper story structure balance this show could have been great instead of good. There is a little bit of fan service and some mature scenes but overall it's tone is lighthearted with a few laughs.

Yurikuma Arashi has a good voice cast in English and Japanese. Alexis Tipton does great as Kureha. Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi also play great support as the the two main bears Ginko and Lulu. The voices are cute, soft and warm for the bears which is what you expect from the animation and art style. Speaking of art style I love the use of lighting and background color during the school shots. The music is not that memorable and the score seems pretty basic but it works for this type of show. Overall if you're looking for something original and different Yurikama Arashi might be the show for you. The story is fun and lighthearted and it has some themes of lost, moving on and acceptance. The Blu-Ray features some episode commentaries which was great to hear from cast and the people who worked on the show. Check this one out it's definitely unique.

Final Score - 3.5 stars out of 5