"Is your love true? Readers, this is a challenge from Severance Barrier. If your love is true, come to the roof top at once. The bears are waiting for you." What if you got a call with someone saying these things from other side? Will you dash to rooftop?
Yurikuma Arashi ,as expected from name is Yuri, is one of the most exceptional anime I have watched yet. Not because it is Yuri, that's a totally different matter.
It's story set in world where bears and humans living space is bifurcated by a barrier called Severance Barrier. In a sense, bears have obtained intelligence. But! The wall wasn't always there. A certain incident, yes, the bears committed the sin of eating human meat. Maybe it was a spoiler.
Anyway, like anyother story, there is a twist. Bears cross the severance barrier and run amok! They can shapeshift, no, they were given this ability to blend. The bears who crossed this barrier just to eat the delicious meat or is it something more? Why target that one girl whose face was not known to them even before crossing the barrier?The execution is excellent. It's narration is so over the top yet it feels so nice. Even if the character were spewing cringey lines here and there, somehow it fitted perfectly. The character setting was somewhat dull and uninteresting, the change or development that followed was just the opposite.
It's story from a farther point is somewhat uninteresting and something with wasted potential, the execution and narration overshadowed it.
One of it's selling point is it's art and representation style.
In Yurikuma Arashi, all the symbolism is too obvious and can be hence easily recognized.
I was ready to drop it but narration and the art style kept me hanging on. The execution was simply amazing as said before but how so? The interweaving of character, that's the execution I am talking about. The random scenes that pop up, at the end are beautifully explained and wonderfully shown.
The ending, ah, it was amazing and totally satisfying to watch. All is well, when end is well. This was a catalysis in making it's execution stronger than before.
Even the backstories of other unrelated characters with same setting as main had their own stories and their own fair share of troubles. But the one thing lacking, which made the story sloppy was no emotions being attached. Yes, the scenes were gripping but empathy lacked in them. Certainly this is just a feeling which could be as badly explained as this so you are free to try to prove me wrong.
All in all, this review was just to make you watch this series which I would still recommend since other aspects overshadow it.
Sidenote
There is a review by Peng which explains all the aspects and elements of the story more vividly and better than me. So try giving his review also a read.