Yuyushiki

What a delightful little show! I love the colors, the character designs are super cute, the music is fun, and the show looks really, really good. There are times when over the top animation is used for comedic effect and it works really well, but most of the time the show still looks really good. I had never heard of this show before either, and probably would have never checked it out if it were not suggested to me, so I'm happy about that.

I would say I have two problems with this show, and they both sound pretty major, but they're really not. The first is that the humor didn't always click with me. A lot of it is non sequiturs and Japanese puns, so that's to be expected. This show captures more than anything else I've ever seen the feeling of a "you had to be there" joke, for better or for worse. The second is I didn't really get the personalities of Yukari and Yuzuko at first. It felt like there was an imbalance with the two wacky ones and one straight man, especially since they were kind of serving the same role in the group. Over time I got used to them and what made them different, but I feel like the side characters could have been used more. Whenever they do appear, it's always a great time, because they're often just as wacky as the two Yus but in their own unique ways.

But neither of those issues I have are really that major, because like I said, this show is the quintessential experience of fucking around with your friends, and that's pretty priceless. Over time the characters really started to grow on me, and by the end I was laughing a lot. I don't know how I didn't notice this before, but a few episodes in I noticed this show actually has the characters whole-heartedly laugh at the end of most gags. Whereas a lot of absurd comedy anime (especially rapid fire 4 koma adaptations like this) will just cut from a deadpan punchline to an exasperated reaction or just the next joke, in this show there's almost always one character laughing over the punchline (usually Yukari, rarely Yuzuko, almost never Yuichi) and the laughs always sound really genuine. It's a little detail but it makes the whole show come together and I don't think any other show does it quite like this. If I'm bored I might make a Yuyushiki giggle compilation cause this was honestly what sold most of the jokes to me. I also love the OP, it is the absolute peak of hyper saccharine Jpop and it has been stuck in my head for about 30 days continuously. An OP sung by the cast is always great, but I especially love the contrast between the goof's angelic voices and Yuichi's unquavering earnestness. There's also a really nice OST which is apparently Yui's theme, the whole OST has this off kilter vibe that kind of reminds me of Azumanga Daioh.

Ultimately, this is an extremely underrated show and any fan of slice of life should check it out. It's one of the consistently best looking shows in the genre in my opinion, and despite not being that different from a lot of other shows on its face, it has a distinct personality and vibe that is worth experiencing. It's also basically exactly what I was looking for in terms of this kind of show.

Sidenote: I went deep into this rabbit hole trying to figure out how to read the manga (it's untranslated past the show but it's ongoing) and I found out that there's a freaking fantasy RPG mobile game crossover game in Japan called Kirara Fantasia featuring 4-koma moe characters from Manga Time Kirara. So if you want to see mage Yuzuko do a special move against the gang from K-On or Yuru Camp look up some vids on Youtube, lol.