Yurikuma Arashi Review

4 stars for an intensely bizarre Yuri anime.

Yurikuma Arashi is produced by Silver Link (Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya) and directed by Kunihiko Ikuharaus (Mawaru Penguindrum).

It is a Yuri anime, a Japanese term meaning any animation which deals with female to female relations and it’s jammed with not too subtle innuendos from start to finish, so it’s not for the faint hearted, or the easily offended.

“Growl, growl!”

Yurikuma Arashi is set in a divided world. Many years before the start of the story many meteorites fell to Earth, remnants of the destroyed planet Kumeria. On that day, all the bears of the world rose up as one and began to attack the humans. To keep the peace, the humans built a huge wall, the Wall of Severance, to separate themselves from the bears.

At Arashigaoka High School, Kureha Tsubaki (Alexis Tipton – Guilty Crown) and her best friend and true love Sumika Izumino (Lindsay Seidel – Assassination Classroom), feel safe until a bear siren goes off, alerting the students to imminent danger. However they are more concerned about the impending “invisible storm”, an uprising of the students against those they consider to be evil.

Their lives are about to change forever with the arrival in their class of two transfer students, Ginko Yurishiro (Monica Rial – Tokyo Ghoul) and Lulu Yurigasaki (Jamie Marchi – Brynhildr In The Darkness). The two girls are in fact bears, who have arrived in the human world disguised as school girls in order to feed on the flesh of “invisible girls”.

They have achieved this via the Severance Court, presided over by Life Sexy (J Michael Tatum – Free! Eternal Summer), Life Cool (Christopher Bevins – Karneval) and Life Beauty (Josh Grelle – Attack on Titan), the judges who determine Yuri approval and thus which bears may enter the human side of the wall.

Although Yurikuma Arashi looks quite frivolous and girly on first inspection, it is in fact quite dark. There are several pretty strong social comments, for example the classmates hold sinister votes on their phones to decide who to “exclude” from the class. Anyone who refuses to follow social cues is considered to be evil, a cynical look at modern society.

In addition to the mind blowingly evocative imagery, including licking nectar off lilies, butt licking and various other innuendos, there is also plenty of death and mayhem, as well as plenty of messages about love and friendship.

A very interesting series this one, it won’t be for everyone, but it’s well worth a watch and has a very compelling story.

“We are bears. We can’t help that. Bears eat people. That’s kind of our thing.”

Yurikuma Arashi is available to buy now on Dual Format DVD and Blu-ray.