My First Impression of: Yuri Kuma Arashi

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The new year just started and we already got a new yuri anime. Kinda reminds me of how 2014 started out, though Yuri Kuma Arashi is definitely not Sakura Trick. It doesn’t even come close. Though, that doesn’t need to be anything bad.

So I first watched the first episode in Japanese without subtitles. Since I haven’t read the manga, and also pretty much didn’t get the whole setting from online sources, I started watching this without knowing anything and finished watching just the same way.

It was so random, so weird and so bizarre that by the end of it, I was just sitting in front of my laptop wondering what kind of drug they were on when creating this. We of course shouldn’t forget that the yuri was there. Like, 20% of the whole episode consisted of girls confessing to each other, girls kind of making out with each other, and other girls licking each others “lilies”. Yeah, you’ll only get that last one if you’ve already watched the episode, but it really happens.

So like I said on Twitter, the first episode felt like 20% yuri and 80% WTF. However, after watching it again with subtitles and especially after reading something that I think all of you should read in order to really understand just what the hell is going on, I now view this anime much differently.

First, if you think Yuri Kuma Arashi doesn’t make any sense, please just <a href="read this and have your mind blown. This is just a theory, and I think there are many more floating around the internet, but it sounds damn good!

So after reading this and watching the whole thing again with subs, I actually really enjoyed it. Well, there were still a few moments that I don’t get, like when they were licking that lily that rose from that girl’s body, but hey, it still looked good. 😛

The animation, as well as the characters, look really good, too. I’m actually surprised to see a yuri anime with that obvious yuri in such high quality. Same goes for the music. I mean, I had to listen to the opening twice to get used to it, but now, I’m loving it!


Well, it was a confusing start to say the least, but I’m really excited to see what will happen, and I’m definitely even more excited about the yuri that will hopefully follow!

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40 thoughts on “My First Impression of: Yuri Kuma Arashi”

  1. I think many people were confused when they first watched it. In my case I didn't expect anything, but now I want to see the deeper meaning behind this WTF. It's interesting how people can judge and already make a whole interpretation of the series in one episode.
    There's also another interesting interpretation I was reading, but you have to make up your own opinion about this show!
    We certainly will see a lot more Yuri in the next episodes or at least that's what I'm expecting, but there might be a lot of critics against our current society and philosphical questions which we won't get until we deal with these topics.

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  3. I wish we knew for sure it was Sumika who was being 'eaten' at the end or not. Hopefully next week will shed light on that. The court itself is probably what threw me off the most, this whole wall thing confuses me. If bears have to eat to live, then how are they able to live with the wall there? That one interpretation would make sense of that, but the words used during the court didn't make it seem like it was limited to the two. But, I guess another episode could make things clearer….or less clearer xD

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  5. AHAHAHAHAHA…….oho~-. The opening still offsets my “normality meter” and reminds me I'm diving into a confusing, symbolic world of Yuri Alien Bears. The Mystery feeling to the music really builds up my tension to expect something big to happen. And I know I won't be let down.

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  6. Not a yuri anime, but a girl-centric one that expresses the beauty and love of eating with those close to us~
    Ending music is pretty nice too~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpizbqxsZBg
    It's cuteness overload this January.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dfuku_Graffiti
    Did I mention that the episode names are ridiculously cute onomatopoeia too?

    Since you're being “forced” to watch yuyuyu already, I'm not gonna bug you on this one, but will just leave this here anyway~ if anyone particularly needs a moe-rotic food eating, slice of life, comedic, heart-touching anime~

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  8. I'm also going to watch Koufuku Graffiti, but haven't see a subbed HD version yet, so I'll keep waiting. Also, the cover looks interesting, already fell in love with the person on the right hehe 😛

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  9. “the first episode felt like 20% yuri and 80% WTF” basically explained my thoughts.

    …then I read that link your provided… now I'm like…”Whoa. Deep. This sh*t must be artwork”

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  10. Not expecting anything might be the best thing to do when it comes to most shows 😛

    Though in this case… well, I really still don't know what to think of it or how to approach it the correct way.

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  12. Well, I still don't completely know what they mean when they say “eating humans”.
    Do they really eat humans, like killing them.
    Or is this another way of saying “raping”?
    Hm, that's just another thing I don't get…

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  14. I was thinking the same thing.
    It really help building up this mysterious, yet also a little erotic atmosphere.
    It doesn't really fit the whole image of the show yet, though that might change.

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  18. heh~ once you finish Yuyuyu maybe~~~ (that's no excuse to say you haven't finished it xP)
    I just watched the raw HD (already have the book too anyway)~
    -ticks off a checkbox on the to-do sadistic acts list-

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  23. Being someone who enjoys madness…as long as there is a minor hint of structure within its context, YKA's premiere was an easily enjoyable batch of lunacy. Also symbolic “feeding time” ftw! You saw all my reactions so all I can add is that I am ready for more “Kuma shocks!”, sexual advances, war between purity and raunchiness and of course killer teddies.

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  28. Ok my interpretation thus far (which should be taken with a grain of salt) is that the series is not just a series with Yuri, but about Yuri!

    The main setting is in the human domain, centered around an all-girl's school. In a secluded garden two school girls are in love. This is a basic Yuri premise, down to the perceived innocence and purity of their love. They may be in love but they only hold hands, gaze in each others eyes, and sometimes even lean on one another. It's basically a 'Story A'/Yuri Manga world.

    So if the humans and the school are the pure yuri 'Story A', then what are the bears? Well we know they are separated from this world of innocence by an impenetrable wall. We know that bears want to 'eat' girls. The bears are also very physical with their feelings. They all are much more sexual creatures.

    I don't have the answer (it is only episode 2 after all), but there are a variety of options. One is that they represent the opposing force, the brutal reality that girls do have a sexual appetite. Another view could take it a step further. They are the forced sexual appetite onto a world that regularly has none; basically smut doujinshi/fanfiction writers

    Two opposing ideals. Purity and sexual fetish. The war for Yuri's soul. Of course, the reality is that it isn't a choice. Balance is needed. Too far in any one side is bad for the genre. Purity is it's roots, and people love those tales. At the same time, as we grow up we desire more adult yuri stories.

    Well that's what I got out of it from the first few episodes. It's still a work in progress. I am probably far off the mark, but that's the fun in making theories after 2 episodes!

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  29. Oh I like that theory!
    Thanks to you, I started reading like 5 other theories and I can't get enough.
    It's so interesting to read about all the possibilities and see everyone just talking about yuri so much 😛

    Also, to come back to your theory, I read a lot of what you said in other theories as well, but to me, after just seeing 2 episodes, pretty much anything is possible .P

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  30. Ep3:: so instead of doing the “slowly becoming friends with those who are against you” sorta shonen manga development among humans, the producers just got bears to eat those hostilities up and save them the trouble.

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  36. It's like Revolutionary Girl Utena (confusing plot & habitual screenplay like Yuri Approval) + Kill la Kill (WTF moments) + a pinch of Attack on Titan (eating humans & morbid context). I have a nagging feeling that YKA has a deep meaning to it, but I and many others are too dumb to see it…or maybe it's a WTF anime with yuri. I still don't know what the plot is. Bears eating humans, and everyone's a lesbian?

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  38. You’ve probably already read of this something like this somewhere, but I do like spamming so><
    My theory By ep11:
    Dead-class rep bead aka Ginko’s “normal” conscience speaks of “desire” which she attempts to “force” onto Ginko. “desire” here can represent multiple elements,in what I suggest specifically is the Society-enforced mentality of Class S, that “hetero= true real love” (like how hetero is painfully recycled in Disney movies) which can also be taken as “hetero= natural instinct” (people who use the excuse that it is natural to enter hetero relations in the end for it is nature of living beings) which is what is being implied by dead class-rep bear;
    when Ginko leaves behind dead-class rep bear on the “stairs” (which symbolizes the path of life/society’s evolution), she has decided to reject society’s norms completely (she mostly already had from the start), in order to pursue what she herself defines as “real love” , not some old peoples’ long enforced values,
    Perhaps her struggling for dominance against “Desire/dead-class rep bear” over her conscious mentality is yet another “clash of differing mentalities” but we know what Ginko chose in the end.
    And her breaking of the mirror literally symbolizes her “breaking the gender-barrier” just like Kureha’s mother depicted in the story book (which is a metaphor within a metaphor of a show haha)
    Have you noticed that Kunihiko Ikuhara’s Wikipedia page is actually pretty interesting as well? Note the “cosplay as opposite gender” and “INTEREST about Yuri media” sections. Plus the fact that this is the same person who helped make Reveolutionary Girl Utena, which is indeed revolutionary, tho I only realize now after watching YKA (I also only just found out this person made Utena)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunihiko_Ikuhara

    I also find this post to be most convincing for me as one of many theories
    http://thequietreviewer.com/2015/01/08/your-guide-to-interpreting-yuri-kuma-arashi-episode-1/
    Oh, and related maybe? perhaps the show also shows that “bears/Homosexuals can be violent if provoked” thus going against people who think “non-heterosexuals aren’t human, they’re just weird” as represented by Ginko’s rampage killing.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankebetsu_brown_bear_incident

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  39. oh, and Yurika's (blond principal bear) death was a symbolization of a common fate of many victims of the society-enforced “class S mentality” which is to die unrequited of the lover's love because that lover subconsciously/consciously views the homosexual relationship as a “Phase” and that “real love” is what society enforces people into thinking it is, that is “hetero= real love, everything else=fake”

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