Citrus: After the Hype – What Comes Next?

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Don’t worry guys, this is not going to be a “Life after Citrus” kind of post. I have to admit that I feel a little lost after the show has ended, seeing that the one anime I’ve been waiting to air for years has come to an end now. But this is supposed to be a different post.

I’d simply like to talk about what comes next after Citrus has ended, or let’s just say after the first (of possibly more) season has come to an end.

I see the Citrus anime as a milestone, and maybe even a turning point for the genre. But let’s approach this from a different point, its source material. I don’t know the numbers, but even—or should I say especially—the manga was, and still is, a fan favorite. We can especially see it in the amount of people showing interest in the work, talking about it, and, of course, also ranting about it. Despite the ranting kind of engagement, Citrus mostly received positive feedback, and some people even began their yuri journey with it.

Some of you might disagree, but in my eyes, Citrus is the most popular yuri manga out there, and even on this blog, it has earned the top spot on quite a few of our little Yuri Tournaments, over the past few years.

The anime, on the other hand, has shown to be just as popular as the manga, and maybe even more so. The DVDs just went on sale, so I don’t have any numbers to see how well it’s actually doing, but we have some different indicators to use in order to at least estimate how well this show did.

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Of course, having your own funny memes being one of these indicators~

I guess having your opening theme done by a famous Japanese band like nano.RIPE might not exactly be one of said indicators, but it’s nevertheless a factor that will surely boost the level of awareness for the show. In addition to that, we can clearly see how much people talked about this show online, be it on forums, social media, or even Youtube. Hell, when the first episode aired, Citrus was even trending on Twitter in Japan.

It was a much-talked about show, to say the least, and as I already said a few years ago, our community needs exactly that.

I admittedly wasn’t around as a fan in the glorious yuri anime year of 2007, and even in what we call the best year for this genre (so far) 2009, I haven’t been paying attention to how well the shows that aired back then did at all. The years that followed after that, however, were mostly just disappointing when it comes to yuri.

Don’t get me wrong, we got quite a few full-yuri shows, be it Sakura Trick, Netsuzou TRap, Yuri Kuma Arashi or Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, to name a few. But most of these shows are either clearly products of a low budget, short anime, and/or ended up simply not doing well sales and views-wise. Shows which did well were mostly those with only yuri subtext where the main focus simply isn’t set on a relationship between two female characters. And that is precisely why we needed something big, something that already comes with a huge fanbase, and something that is capable of drawing people’s attention without having to revert to ramping up the ecchi level.

That’s what Citrus is, a story centered almost solely around the love between two girls, and it was capable of competing against other popular shows that air at the same time. Citrus was able to stand its ground, get people who already read the manga to watch it, and what’s probably most important, get new people to give it a shot.

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A fitting comment someone left on the blog just recently

What I think the genre needs the most to grow is more attention, and the best way to get it is by having a show like this.

So now, what do I think will happen now that we finally managed to get a show that meets all these requirements of being popular and doing well?

Well, with the attention now at least slightly shifted in favor of the genre, what might happen is as simple as that. We could get more yuri shows—more full yuri ones like an adaptation of Bloom Into You or anything really by Milk Morinaga, for example. Of course, it’s all just speculation, but I’m sure anime studios would rather go for something that has already proven in the past that it could do well, instead of risking a flop. So what was needed, in my eyes, was simply showing that a yuri show can in fact do well, so others might want to come and try having a piece of that by attempting something similar, meaning another yuri show.

I doubt all or much of the credit goes to Citrus, but there’s already the adaptation of Happy Sugar Life in the summer anime season, the OVA of Kase-san in June, and, of course, recent addition Tachibanakan Triangle to look forward to or to already enjoy in 2018.

Seeing how well Citrus did and what the year is already promising us, I think the future for the genre might look bright, and at least I am expecting more news like this to hit us as the year drags along. Maybe a second season of Citrus, maybe an adaptation of another of the big yuri titles, or maybe something just as unexpected as Happy Sugar Life. No matter what it is, I’m sure we’ll all be happily awaiting more news like this.

So now, what kind of news would you like to hear next?

citrus yuri anime

Simply had to add that one 😛 (Source: @Regike_)

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46 thoughts on “Citrus: After the Hype – What Comes Next?”

  1. Well, that article took the wind out of my sails.. but just because it essentially is exactly what I feel already so I now have little to add. lol

    Citrus, a decently budgeted, good looking and great sounding show, got people to start looking at yuri not just as an oddity but as proper content. That is a huge thing. It showed audiences about one side of yuri content that they may not have even known existed, and it pushed people into not only checking out Citrus further but even into starting to explore yuri on their own. It also showed studios and production houses that people weren’t going to run away scared by making good content where clearly lesbian characters were allowed to clearly be lesbians instead of stopping at the all too common baiting. Heck, even the people who hated Citrus for whatever reasons were still pushed to find and explore examples of yuri that fit their own tastes rather than dismissing all yuri out of hand.

    Will this amount to anything in the long run? Who knows, but Citrus, like it or not, may well end up being the catalyst for more.

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    • *Rings bell, bows, claps hands twice* Please let Bloom into You anime be a thing! And have it be 52 episodes of 24 minutes! While we’re at it, let it be made by KyoAni and directed by Miyazaki Hayao. And since we’re wishing for stuff, let Lena be in the German voice over. *bows again*

      Also, I have a dim view of live action anime/manga adaptations… they never quite work. Though, I would like to see who would have the guts to put that much kissing into a live action movie however. 😛

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  3. It may be a big stretch but now that Netflix is doing anime I began to dream about a Netflix Pulse adaptation. Or any of the big yuri manhwa…but mainly Pulse. Anyway, Im quite happy and optmistic about the future of the genre on anime and other medias, and if I had to choose something to be adapted into anime I would definitely choose Kindred Spirits. Just imagine that one Seina scene animated.

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  4. Do we know how long it’ll be until the Citrus manga finally ends?

    I’m not sad when a series ends – I enjoy seeing stories through to fruition and enjoying them holistically. But Citrus in particular has… how shall I say… a penchant for cliffhangers.

    I don’t think I can get into reading the manga at the pace of a chapter a month. My heart can’t take it. Like with TV shows, I’ve started to prefer binge reading at my own leisure.

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  5. I agree that Citrus is a milestone in the genre, so much so that I can see it in my own country. One of the better bookstores here has a section dedicated to English translated manga, and one of the only yuri titles is (you guessed it) Citrus. Now, I do most of my manga reading online, but when I saw that, I had to at least buy the first book to show my support. 😀

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    • Same for me 😀
      When Citrus came out in German, I had to buy it even though I haaaaate reading German manga. Now I have the first volume in Japanese, English and German… great 😀

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      • Hmmm… Out of curiosity, Lena, what do you consider to be your primary language, German, English or something else? I am fluent in two languages: English and Filipino but, having grown up in America, English is what I am most comfortable with – I think and even dream in English.

        I bring this up because when I was in high school in the 90s, I bought a Marvel comic book that was translated into Filipino (it was one of those issues I didn’t yet have, but had all of the ones before and after it, so I was desperate). I Haaaaated it, so I think I can understand where you’re coming from. For me, the fact that Wolverine was “speaking” in Filipino was SO out of character that it broke the suspension of disbelief for me.

        Is that what it is with you and German translated manga? Sorry for the strange question from out of left field. Does anyone else have a similar problem like this?

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        • Woops, seems like this slipped through my radar until now, sorry for the wait.

          I consider German my primary language. However, when I read, no matter if it’s a book or a manga, I prefer it to be in English for some reason.
          People say German is on point – there is a word for everything, but I think I rather enjoy how you have to describe it more in English.
          Well, reading manga in German is just…. urgh, makes me wanna throw up. There are things like how people address each other that just don’t really work. For example, in Citrus Himeko calls Mei “president”, since she’s the student council president. This would mean that she regards her as someone with a higher position than her, so in German she addresses her with a formal pronoun. So seeing Himeko use this for a classmate and friend is just so, so weird – it just doesn’t work like this.
          I often think that the ones translating our manga are in their fifties since it all just sounds so weird. If I knew Japanese, I’d show them how it’s done 😀

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  6. I think I said at the beginning of the season that a lot of editors have their fingers on the dial button to producers, waiting for the sales number to see if its an investment worth doing. Even without, Bloom Into You ranked 3rd in Anime Japan’s online poll for manga/LN you want to see adapted (https://i.imgur.com/INg1uAn.jpg) (also Nogi Wakaba is a Hero was 7th). Barring that one, I think the next most likely candidate to be greenlit is Kiss and a White Lily – their magazine is somewhat major, and previously got an anime adaption for Sasameki Koto.

    A Bloom Into You anime adaption – if done well – could genuinely change the world.

    I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but Citrus’ sales are looking very weak right now – http://www27392u.sakura.ne.jp/index2.cgi?smd=title&tn=citrus as you can see here, the Blu Rays of volume 1 are barely cumulatively over 1000. Sales aren’t everything though; Kakegurui got greenlit a 2nd season almost instantly without sales. I’m not sure if the manga has had a boost, or how popular the airing was.

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    • Also I forgot to mention in my post that Crunchyroll were one of the producers of Citrus, so Western audience participation would actually affect the potential discussion for a 2nd season or success. They could be the ones leading the charge in the anime industry for yuri adaptions – but who knows?

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      • Seeing Bloom Into You in 3rd place seriously makes me super happy, but then the news about Citrus brought me back down to earth 😛

        I honestly don’t know much about how to read sales numbers of these things, so I’m gonna trust your word that what is known so far is just not that great. I really thought it would do great seeing how many people were into it…
        Then again, since Crunchyroll helped produce the anime, I’m gonna do what I do best, talk more about Citrus online. I hope that helps too~

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        • From what I’ve gathered, selling about 3000 copies of each volume is considered “breaking even” (so when I said something like Princess Principal sold 5000-6000 of each volume, that was BIG news for a 2nd season, or when Houseki sold north of 7000 and more than doubled its manga sales then that feels like a guarantee). Kakegurui sold even worse than Citrus, but I’ve heard that was one of the highest watched late-night anime in that season on Japanese TV and got a 2nd season announced super fast (and that live action TV version which is uh… something). In this specific case, we also have Crunchyroll to consider, and as other people have mentioned it was doing really well there with several US states/EU countries having it as one of their most watched. And like you said, it was regularly trending on Twitter which is probably unignorable too.

          It’s hard to read into it since it feels very unstable and we have lots of odd things to consider. Still, Bloom Into You doing really well in that poll could genuinely lead to an anime adaption. Though I’m terrified of a repeat-event of Aoi Hana, but the world is much different now with Western producers like Crunchy and Netflix getting in on the action, and a different way of looking at success criteria.

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  7. To say Citrus is huge right now would be putting it mildly! I saw a post on Anime News Network where Crunchyroll released the statistics of each state in the US and what anime was ranking #1 for each state. Citrus made it to the top of the list in 4 states. I don’t think any yuri anime before it has ever reached a milestone like that! Citrus seems to be hitting all the right notes and keeps breaking boundaries for the genre in the mainstream and as you said Lena that can only lead to good things for us yuri fans! 😀 With other yuri shows coming out this year like Kase-san and Happy Sugar Life yuri will only get more attention especially if we keep getting show after show after show across the year. I’m really hoping for a Season 2 when the final volume of the manga is released but since the manga ending is a bit off in the year still we probably wont get a second possible season until next year at least. In the mean time we just have to keep doing what we do best and support the genre in the most effective way possible. with our wallets! 😀 Hopefully seeing how popular Citrus is we may hear about Citrus anime being licensed for home release outside of Japan! I would for sure buy that series! And don’t worry Lena we all had that lost feeling when an amazing yuri anime has ended. when Yamibo, Simoun, Strawberry Panic and especially Kannazuki ended I felt lost and a tad depressed when it was all said and done. 😛

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      • Wish we had the numbers and info on how past yuri franchises did when they aired so we can compare them to Citrus to see how it is faring overall. But considering how much attention Citrus is getting worldwide I think it’s safe to say Citrus is a major milestone for the genre!

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  8. All I want is for there to be an insanely popular action anime, where the main character is a Yuri girl. Love Yuri anime where it’s the main story, but I get jealous of all the SAO and My Hero etc. I would love to be watching a show like this with friends and family that then a big explicitly Yuri romantic kiss happens.

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      • I think the new SAO anime involving guns will have a surprising amount of yuri in it from what I read on 4chan’s /u/ board. Apparently the main character, a female player, and another female character start developing something throughout the series and at least 2 yuri kisses occur. This is all from the visual novel of course not sure what will come of the anime but fingers crossed! 😀

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  9. I was utterly disappointed, the ending was nice but just not right…Hell the manga hasn’t even ended yet–how is the anime supposed to do the manga justice when it just drops everything so quickly?? At first the animation quality was excellent and then BAM–all of the sudden it looks just like all the other B-list anime out there just itching to get cancelled. I was looking forward to the Kase-san OVA but if they’re going to keep butchering things I love then I may not even bother. Normally I wouldnt be so critical about a yuri anime because we NEED more good yuri out there…but this particular anime was going to be my favorite thing EVER…and it was, for several episodes but at what cost?!…AT WHAT COST?!?! I literally screamed at my laptop for thirty minutes watching episode 12 “THEY CANT TURN YUZU CHAN INTO JACKIE CHAN JUST LIKE THAT?!?!!!” I mean, did ya see that leap she did as she slid down those stairs?! It was totally badass and really surprising but I just cannot…And dont get me started on the bear kiss…it was freaking adorable and I DID cry, but this is not Yuri Kuma Arashi…I cant accept this.

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    • I’m sorry if I can’t comprehend this all, but the anime did stick very very closely to the manga. The bear kiss was there too, so the most important parts were basically exactly the same as in the source material.

      I also don’t think that a manga has to be finished for an anime adaptation to happen or to be good – we already knew the anime could never cover all the chapters with just 12 episode and even 24 wouldn’t be enough, so that was mostly to be expected. The good thing however is that we can now possibly get excited about another season, which would be awesome~

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  10. Honestly, I stopped watching the anime after episode 3 or 4 because I was just too invested into the manga to care about the anime. That being said, I agree that it’s another important stepping stone in Yuri gaining its footing in becoming more mainstream. It also helps that over the past few years LGBT(Q?) is becoming more and more publicly accepting, as it should.

    What I’d like to see is an ORIGINAL Yuri anime. No adaptation from a manga or VN. This is one of the reasons why the genre to me is in a slumber. There aren’t any new solid Yuri series being released, and because it’s not as popluar as other genres, creating original content for it is probably a risk. As a side tangent, I’ve been enjoying DARLING in the FranXX A LOT, particularly becase it’s original. Having original content is a breath of fresh air. Watching something that I’ve read months (YEARS IN THIS CASE) ago is kind of bland to me. In this respect though, I suppose we’re in a loop. Either we wait for it to become popular and mainstream, or some daring soul takes the plunge and gives us something that’s worth taking the risk for.

    Even looking at manga, we haven’t had many (if any at all) new series. I’m still invested in Citrus, Bloom Into You, This Love That Won’t Reach being the big ones, with some side ones being sprinkled in there. Out of all of the ones that I keep up with, I think there’s maybe 1 or 2 new ones that are only a few chapters in, and I don’t even know if how long they’re going to be. The rest haven’t been updated in months, but I don’t check out raws, so I don’t really know.

    I can keep rambling on, but I’ll just leave all of that on the table. I feel like I mentioned something like this a while ago, but I really can’t remember.

    Also hi! It’s been a while.

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    • Hey, hey, good to see you back Reese~

      I agree that it would be really awesome to get an original yuri anime – but just like you said, I think that is highly unlikely to happen, at least for now.

      Well, I do love seeing something I loved to read come to life, just like Citrus did, but I get how the source material can be something that is already too good or maybe even perfect in your eyes – so an adaptation can’t come close.

      The closest thing that might happen however, is a manga getting an adaptation that you haven’t read yet – maybe simply one that hasn’t gotten a translation so far. I’m actually not up to date with manga releases lately – really haven’t been reading much, so I don’t know what’s new and out there, but that would be nice too.
      Knowing myself, I’d probably take a peek before the anime airs though 😀

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      • You’re not really missing much as far as manga releases go. You can just check Dynasty Scans and see either:

        1) Old series that are slowly updated

        2) Very short series

        3) Oneshots

        Not a lot of concrete stories out there other than what we already have.

        I started out only watching anime, not even entertaining the thought to read manga, for whatever reason. Once I got my first taste, I’ve been hooked. It’s similar to the “Dub vs. Sub” debate that we viewers have, and as of right now, I’m starting to favor manga over anime in general as I’ve noticed that I’m constantly looking for manga to read while my anime backlog continues to get even more clogged. I think you hit the nail on the head saying that I’m starting to prefer the source over adaptations. All that being said, I’m sure I’ll pick up where I left the Citurs anime eventually.

        I know I’m just being impatient in wanting my unquenchable thirst to be relieved, BUT I WANT STUFF NOW!

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        • I was actually getting worried by the fact that I’m not too much into reading right now, but seeing that there might not even be that much new stuff that I might like… I think I can live with that for now.
          Though, I do hope you can find something to satisfy your hunger for more 😀

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  11. Also here waving the flag in favour of Bloom Into You. A Kiss And A White Lily would also be amazing to see animated.

    In both cases though it might be worth waiting for the mangas to conclude before starting an anime adaptation. Bloom Into You especially.

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  14. I agree with so much of what you’re saying here, Lena. While I have my problems with Citrus and it’s by no means my favorite thing in the genre it is so, so, SO nice to see a true yuri show where girls kiss and hold hands and deal with relationship issues. I get so tired of living off of subtext and fan service because that’s all the genre comes to most of the time. To see a show about gay girls being given a proper budget and mainstream attention does bode well for our community. I guess what worries me about the future is that yuri shows won’t be taken seriously or picked up unless there’s some kind of shock value or gimmick. Did Citrus garner so mcuh attention because of the relationship between the leads or because of the whole incest angle? I wish I knew for sure. I’d be more confident if something like Bloom Into You or A Kiss And a white lily was adapted,where there’s no gimmick and it’s just about the relationships. Still, not going to complain about increased attention for our genre, especially if it leads to more investment. (And those memes were too damn funny.)

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    • I was actually surprised by how little the anime tried to put emphasis on the fact that it’s (pseudo) incest. I think what you said is absolutely right, some kind of shock value may be needed in many cases, but for some reason, it didn’t strike me as something quite important in case of the anime.

      I was expecting to hear the term “sister” more often, or let’s say more often in the context that love between sisters is a taboo. But nope, I think Yuzu may have thought about this once or twice but that’s about it, and I like that.

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  16. I’m about 2 years behind but I feel I need to say something about Citrus because it’s a creation that’s just that amazing which made me fall in love with yuri last year despite the fact that I used to label lesbian-thing as something that turned me off. Now I’m all for yuri. I should even start a yuri manga…. 🙂 Everyone please promote and support this amazing genre. Cheers!!!

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