YuruYuri

YuruYuri (ゆるゆり, lit. Easygoing Yuri) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Namori. The series began serialization in Ichijinsha's Comic Yuri Hime S magazine from June 12, 2008, before being moved over to Comic Yuri Hime in September 2010. An anime adaptation by Dogakobo aired in Japan between July and September 2011; a second season aired between July and September 2012. An original video animation by TYO Animations was released on February 18, 2015. A third TV season by TYO Animations is currently in production. A spin-off web manga, Ohmuroke (大室家, Ōmuroke), began release on Nico Nico Seiga in July 2012.

Plot

Taking place at the fictitious Nanamori Middle School in Takaoka, Toyama, the series revolves around the daily lives of the Amusement Club ("ja">ã"らく部, Goraku-bu), consisting of Akari Akaza, her childhood friends, Kyōko Toshinō and Yui Funami, and her classmate, Chinatsu Yoshikawa; along with the school's Student Council which is made up of its own set of unique characters.

Characters

The Amusement Club

Akari Akaza (赤座 あかり, Akaza Akari)

voiced by: Shiori Mikami

Akari is a polite red-haired girl who is supposedly the main protagonist of the series. However, due to her rather small presence and plain personality, she is often forgotten about or pushed into the background. One of her only unique features is her odango hairstyle. A running joke is that Akari's lack of presence gives her the ability to become invisible, accompanied by the sound "Akkari~n!". Kyōko and Yui are her childhood friends, while Chinatsu, Sakurako and Himawari are her classmates.

Kyōko Toshinō (歳納 京子, Toshinō Kyōko)

voiced by: Yuka ÅŒtsubo

An optimistic and selfish blonde girl who is a year older than Akari and is the more substantial main protagonist of the series. She is often causing Yui trouble and crushing on Chinatsu, who resembles her favorite anime character, Mirakurun. Despite her lazy attitude, she often gets high scores in tests after cram sessions. She enjoys eating rum raisin ice cream and is also a talented dōjin artist.

Yui Funami (船見 結衣, Funami Yui)

voiced by: Minami Tsuda

A cool-headed girl who often acts as the voice of reason, usually when it comes to keeping Kyōko in check. Yui is good in cooking, leaving Chinatsu to be obsessed with her food. She is a reliable friend and usually lives alone in an apartment complex, but actually feels lonely without anyone else around. Although generally quiet, she will sometimes burst into stifled laughter upon hearing Ayano's puns. She likes playing video games.

Chinatsu Yoshikawa (吉川 ちなつ, Yoshikawa Chinatsu)

voiced by: Rumi ÅŒkubo

Akari's pink haired classmate who originally wanted to join the Tea Ceremony Club, but ended up joining the Amusement Club as the Tea Ceremony Club was already abolished. Chinatsu is often competitive to Kyoko when it comes to Yui, despite Yui being oblivious to what they are fighting for. She is often chased after by Kyōko due to her resemblance to Mirakurun, though she herself has a passionate crush on Yui. She generally acts cute, especially in the presence of Yui, but she occasionally shows dark thoughts and a terrifying lack of artistic skills.

Student Council

Ayano Sugiura (杉浦 綾乃, Sugiura Ayano)

voiced by: Saki Fujita

The Student Council vice-president who is often not too honest with her feelings for Kyōko and always refers to her by her full name. As a diligent student, she constantly sees herself as a rival to Kyōko who always manages to beat her in tests. She often makes puns on place names and likes crème caramels.

Chitose Ikeda (æ± ç"° 千歳, Ikeda Chitose)

voiced by: Aki Toyosaki

A member of Student Council who is almost always seen with Ayano. Though she has a gentle disposition, she has various yuri fantasies whenever she takes her glasses off, almost always pairing Kyōko together with Ayano, which often leads to near-fatal nosebleeds. She speaks in soft Kansai dialect and likes tsukemono. Whenever she gets drunk (or eats chocolate in the anime), she goes on a kissing rampage.

Sakurako Ohmuro (大室 櫻子, Ōmuro Sakurako)

voiced by: Emiri Katō

A cheerful candidate for the Student Council vice-president next year. She has light brown hair and a petite build, which she often has a complex about. She and Himawari are constantly arguing as they are both aiming to become vice-president, though they do seem to hold feelings for each other. She is also quite friendly towards Akari. She and Kyōko are quite similar, but she appears to be much lazier than Kyōko when it comes to school work.

Himawari Furutani (古谷 å'æ—¥è'µ, Furutani Himawari)

voiced by: Suzuko Mimori

Another candidate for the Student Council vice-president next year. She has blue hair and large breasts, which often leads to her being teased by Sakurako. She generally behaves in graceful manner and speech toward everyone except Sakurako. Despite this, she does appear to hold feelings for her and often helps her out with her homework.

Rise Matsumoto (松本 りせ, Matsumoto Rise)

voiced by: Saori Gotō

The current student council president who has very little presence and often speaks in a whisper-quiet voice that only a few people such as Nana can understand. She is Nana's "Explosive Friend", because she always suffers the explosions she causes.

Family members

Mari Funami (船見 まり, Funami Mari)

voiced by: Maaya Uchida

A daughter of one of Yui's relatives. She is a fan of Mirakurun, though does not take kindly to Chinatsu after learning her personality doesn't match her image.

Chizuru Ikeda (æ± ç"° 千鶴, Ikeda Chizuru)

voiced by: Momo Kuraguchi

Chitose's twin sister, who looks identical to her except for eye color, but has a completely different personality. Much like Chitose, she often takes off her glasses to invoke yuri fantasies, albeit she prefers to pair Ayano up with Chitose and drools instead of having nosebleeds. While she has a strong love for Chitose, she strongly dislikes Kyōko as she constantly tries to play pranks on her and is seemingly a barrier against her fantasies.

Akane Akaza (赤座 あかね, Akaza Akane)

voiced by: Yui Horie

Akari's older sister who is nineteen years old and attends a university. She is secretly infatuated with Akari, often doing various perverted things with her belongings when she is not around and reading lots of doujins about sisterly incest.

Tomoko Yoshikawa (吉川 ともã", Yoshikawa Tomoko)

voiced by: Ayano Ishikawa

Chinatsu's older sister who is also 19 years old and is in love with Akane.

Kaede Furutani (古谷 æ¥", Furutani Kaede)

voiced by: Aya Uchida

Himawari's younger sister who is six years old.

Nadeshiko Ohmuro (大室 æ'«å­, ÅŒmuro Nadeshiko)

voiced by: Chiwa Saitō

Sakurako's older sister who is eighteen years old. She also has small breasts like Sakurako, but she is very intelligent. She is in a romantic relationship with a girlfriend.

Hanako Ohmuro (大室 花子, Ōmuro Hanako)

voiced by: Rina Hidaka

Sakurako's younger sister who is an elementary school student, and is eight years old, both Hanako and Nadeshiko think Sakurako is lazy and stupid.

Others

Nana Nishigaki (西垣 奈々, Nishigaki Nana)

voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi

A faculty member at Nanamori Middle School who is constantly trying various experiments, often using Rise as a test subject, and has a love for explosions, which are generally caused by her experiments. She is one of the few people who can understand Rise's quiet voice.

Hiro Takaoka (高岡 ひろ, Takaoka Hiro)

voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki

Akari and Chinatsu's classmate, who is an admirer of Kyōko's doujin works and is the heroine of Namori's other manga, Reset!.

Ai Miwa (三輪 藍, Miwa Ai)

Nadeshiko's classmate.

Miho Yaena (八重野 美穂, Yaena Miho)

Nadeshiko's classmate.

Megumi Sonokawa (åœ'川 めぐみ, Sonokawa Megumi)

Nadeshiko's classmate.

Mirai Souma (相馬 未来, Sōma Mirai)

Hanako's classmate.

Kokoro Ogawa (小川 ã"ã"ろ, Ogawa Kokoro)

Hanako's classmate.

Misaki Takasaki (高崎 みさき, Takasaki Misaki)

Hanako's classmate, who sees her as a rival.

Mirakurun

Kurumi (胡桃) / Miraclen (ミラクるã‚", Mirakurun)

voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu

The heroine of the fictional magical girl series, "Majokko Mirakurun". When transformed, she greatly resembles Chinatsu.

Raika (雷香) / Rivalun (ライバルã‚", Raibarun)

voiced by: Aoi YÅ«ki

Another magical girl who competes with Mirakurun. She is secretly Kurumi's classmate.

Ganbo (ガンボー, Ganbō)

voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa

A spherical robot who is Rivalun's boss.

Media

Manga

YuruYuri began its serial run in Ichijinsha's Japanese manga magazine Comic Yuri Hime S on June 18, 2008. In September 2010, YuruYuri was moved to Comic Yuri Hime when Comic Yuri Hime S ended its publication. Additionally, the series has been released in twelve tankōbon volumes, published between July 17, 2009, and August 4, 2014. As of December 2011, over a million copies of the manga have been sold. The manga was briefly released in English on the online reader site JManga before it shut down. Another manga series set in the same universe, Reset! (りせっと!, Risetto!), began serialization in Caramel Febri magazine's first issue, released on July 24, 2010, and went on hiatus after the fourth issue, on January 25, 2011. A spin-off web manga by Namori focusing on the Ohmuro sisters, titled Ohmuroke (大室家, Ōmuroke), has been released on Niconico's Niconico Seiga service. The series first released chapters alongside episodes of the second anime season between July 2, 2012 and September 17, 2012, before resuming on Ichijinsha's Niconico Yuri Hime web manga publication from February 17, 2013. The series has been collected in two tankōbon volumes, released on August 1, 2013, and August 4, 2014.

Anime

An anime television adaptation of the manga series was announced in the May 2011 issue of Comic Yuri Hime. Produced by Dogakobo under the direction of Masahiko Ohta, the series aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between July 5 and September 20, 2011. A second season, titled YuruYuri♪♪, aired in Japan between July 2, 2012 and September 17, 2012. Both series were simulcast by Crunchyroll. The series won the Television award at the 17th Animation Kobe Awards. NIS America have licensed both seasons in North America, releasing the first two seasons subtitled Blu-ray Disc on September 3, 2013, and January 7, 2014, respectively. A new anime project was announced to have been green-lit on February 9, 2014, later revealed to be an original video animation titled YuruYuri Nachuyachumi! (ゆるゆり なちゅやちゅみ！, YuruYuri Summer Vacation!). It was screened in five theaters in Japan on November 29, 2014 and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 18, 2015. Unlike the series, the OVA is animated by TYO Animations instead of Dogakobo, with Hiroyuki Hata replacing Ohta as director, Michiko Yokote replacing Takashi Aoshima as scriptwriter, and Motohiro Tanaguchi replacing character designer Chiaki Nakajima and serving as chief animation designer. A third anime season, titled YuruYuri San Hai!, was announced on March 7, 2015 and is being produced by TYO Animations.

Music

The main opening and ending themes are performed by the Nanamori Middle School Amusement Club (七森中☆ã"らく部, Nanamori-chu Goraku-bu), a unit consisting of the four main voice actresses, Minami Tsuda, Rumi ÅŒkubo, Shiori Mikami and Yuka ÅŒtsubo. For the first season, the opening theme is "Yuriyurarararayuruyuri Daijiken" (ゆりゆららららゆるゆり大事件, The Great YuriYurarararaYuruYuri Incident) while the ending theme is "My Pace de Ikimashō" (マイペースでいきましょう, Let's Go at My Pace). For the second season, the opening theme is "Yes! YuYuYu☆YuruYuri♪♪" (「いぇす！ゆゆゆ☆ゆるゆり♪♪, Iesu! YuYuYu☆YuruYuri♪♪) while the ending theme is "100% ChÅ«~gakusei" (ï¼'００％ちゅ～学ç"Ÿ, 100% Middle Schooler). The opening theme for episode six is "Yonde Mirakurun!" (よã‚"でミラクるã‚"!, Call Me Mirakurun!) by Ayana Taketatsu while the ending theme for episode eight is "Girl's Power" (ガールズãƒ'ワーで, Gāruzu Pawā de) by Minami Tsuda and Rumi ÅŒkubo. For the OVA, the opening and ending themes are "YuruYurinrinrinrinrin" (ゆるゆりã‚"ã‚Šã‚"ã‚Šã‚"ã‚Šã‚"ã‚Šã‚") and "After School Days" (アフタースクールデイズ, Afutā SukÅ«ru Deizu), both performed by the Nanamori Middle School Amusement Club.

Appearances in other media

Characters and songs from YuruYuri will appear alongside other anime characters in an upcoming rhythm game, Miracle Girls Festival, which is being developed by Sega for the PlayStation Vita.

References

External links

• Manga Official Website (Japanese)
• Anime Official Website (Japanese)
• YuruYuri (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia