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| From https://cdn.myanimelist.net /images/anime/13/28214l.jpg |
Director: Tetsuya Takeuchi
Screenplay: Tetsuya Takeuchi
Based on the manga by Kashmir
Voice Cast: Akari Harashima as
Misuzu; Satomi Arai as Naoko-san; Ai Nonaka as Hii-chan; Yukari Kokubun as
Ryōta; Kumi Kawai as Mother; Manabu Sakamaki as Alien
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
In mind to ufotable's usual work, does this mean that Yuri Seijin, about a female alien who wants to "yurify"
the Earth into a lesbian (yuri) planet, exists in the same universe as Fate/ and their other famous titles? For
the uninitiated, ufotable is an anime
studio whose reputation is increased by being the main adapters of the work of Type-Moon, whose Fate/ franchise and other work, originally a doujin
(self-published) group who made visual novel video games and now has become a
group known for having hardcore fans. Type-Moon,
with ufotable being usually the
studio to adapt their work, are a double-edged sword in that, with their titles
interconnecting as one giant universe, to fully get the lore of their work
would require reading and watching everything, coupled by the fact (whilst
relevied by streaming widening access) their titles are the kind usually
licensed by Aniplex, a production
company whose American distribution wing in the United States can be notorious
for their Japanese pricing of physical media, i.e. extremely limited editions
and very expensive.
One shouldn't judge a book by its
cover mind. Type-Moon also created The Garden of Sinners (2007-9), a
unique theatrical film serial which, for showing their flaws, was also an
incredible, grotesque and boldly unconventional genre hybrid. Likewise, ufotable adapt other titles. (They also
like doing claymation sequences, which even with The Garden of Sinners they did comedy cinema ads with the cast
asking patrons to not do bad things like answer phones or eat loudly, so to
their credit ufotable have a charming
additional bow to their cap). Yuri
Seijin is not a Type-Moon title
despite my initial joke but a curious obscurity in their filmography, but it is
a curiosity.
Yuri Seijin is in fact quite a surprise, as it's something
completely different, a comedy manga adaptation that gets away paradoxically with
some tasteless humour yet is so whimsical and strange in its tone that I swear,
even if it's merely I, it "just" gets away with it. The premise,
which is only really elaborated on in the thirty minute 2012 OVA rather than
the original six minute 2010 adaptation, is that schoolgirl Misuzu came home
one day to be told her older sister has returned, only to meet Naoko-san, a
female alien from the Planet Yuri, a lesbian planet, who is posing as her older
sister. The tastelessness, implied but explicitly, is in that it has no issues
with playing with taboos and strange sex jokes, like Naoko-san leaving porn
magazines everywhere or the expense Misuzu's little brother Ryōta has
especially in threats to his genitals, being asked to suck the snot out of her
older sister's nose when its running and, despite being a young prepubescent
boy, being pushed by Naoko-san in trying to pose as an adult in an adult store
in a robot suit.
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| From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uk82GttkBqg/maxresdefault.jpg |
Also, its explicit Naoko-san likes little girls in their "cuteness", remarking on the virtues of girls playing in water any time of the year in one monologue in the 2012 OVA, or that to contact her home planet she has to pop underneath one's skirt to communicate on the receiver. Again this would be tasteless in any other context, and unfortunately anime and manga has taken this type of idea even into pornographic levels which don't help paint a good picture of Japanese pop culture even if it's merely a subculture used for unfortunate xenophobia against the Japanese. But with Yuri Seijin there's the factors that a) it's an intentionally surreal piece of weirdness in both OVAS, and b) is structured especially in the longer 2012 OVA as a whimsical, light hearted surreal comedy where these jokes are never explicit, and undercut by the sedate pleasant, brightly coloured mood of the style.
Now if this is still unpleasant
to consider, don't watch these shorts, but the irony is that this is closer to
an absurdist slice-of-lice tone in mood, closer to something like the high
school comedy Azumanga Daioh (2002)
in tone rather than a lecherous work, which is befitting as both source mangas
were published in the monthly manga magazine Dengeki Daioh originally. And Yuri
Seijin, even next to Daioh, where one of the female lead's
father was depicted as a talking sentient cat, is deeply weird, honestly so.
The six minute one, about a mysterious pervert roaming the streets that turns
out to be a tentacle alien, is probably the weirdest of them whilst the 2012
one neuters this a little. It gets into slapstick where Naoko-san has succeeded
the super punch further in that she can summon whole trains to run over people
in the street, without killing them in cartoon logic, Misuzu is the butt of
joke by being the figure on the wanted posters and thoughts in imagining who
the creeper is to track them down, whilst her friend is fascinated by the
aliens and relaxed about, porn mags are left on the street like leaves fallen
off an Autumn tree, and the completely bizarre tangents that top what
strangeness was already there before.
One the ending credits scene sat
on one of those trains Naoko-san summons, and the cut to Misuzu's internal
monologue which, involving a male voice in English going insane in existential
despair, led to me thinking I had accidentally watched a fan re-edit for a
moment like those you find on YouTube.
That audio cut in particular is a bar further, in another dimensional space as
height or depth are beneath it, than most anime I have covered in terms of true
bloody weirdness and it was a surprise.
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| From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7Y0Pq1eMBzM/maxresdefault.jpg |
The 2012 OVA builds a bit more
drama and charming comedy which, yes, is strange against the deliberately
provocative comedy; its candy coloured tone neuters it, adding as much a general
sense of absurdist comedy in just having an eccentric new house guest in with
idiosyncratic behaviour. This longer version softens the experience, making it
merely eccentric, be it the subplot about Naoko-san having food from her home
planet which makes all television sexier under the influence, which you never
see the example of but naturally gets the interest of the entire male
population in the city in earshot of this, leading to communal viewings of the
Japanese morning news in droves. Young pubescent girls also apparently wander
around this world in groups being paid to play in the background of festivals nonchalantly,
which is part of the tasteless humour but was admittedly funny when Naoko-san
has to cancel their hiring and still pay them nonetheless. In any other
circumstance, this would be off putting, but there's no fan service to speak
of, which a huge virtue for balancing the tone, and the show's overt
strangeness makes these aspects a complete joke.
It softens the blow and a sense
that the content is being written by someone who wants to take on this type of
humour but is aware of the line not to cross, prodding at it on purpose, is
felt throughout. If anything, the biggest surprise with the 2012 adaptation is
how it even becomes sweet natured in the end, the life of Misuzu and Ryōta with
a new big sister figure there for an absent one who may have accidentally been
swapped onto Planet Yuri is one piece of dialogue suggests the truth. These two
works also happen to be another blessing for female voice actors as even the
younger brother is voiced by an actress, and everyone gets to stretch their
comic timings. I'll eventually come to great examples of male voice acting
roles in anime more, but especially with comedy, anime to its merit allows for
this bizarre material a great range to work from, allowing actresses to be
weird, to put on strange voices, and generally here get into some crass stuff
on purpose, like the blasé attitude to the Misuzu's mother and Naoko-san over
the porn mags starting to be left over the house. It really has grown on me how
good you have to be for the work, and comedy be it improvised (which I have
seen quite a bit of within only a couple of years) and normal scripted dialogue
really is a pleasant challenge that helps you come to appreciate actresses'
craft.
Is it any good? It's oddly
charming, building from an utter non-sequitur of a first version to a lighter
hearted one where you even get a skit about Naoko-san providing technology that
allows people to see their fantasies; it does play to some dark comedy, but
when it leads to people just sleeping through the entirety of summer, it's
still whimsical of all things, like a warm hug to end the OVA on. Neither short is better than the other, as
their tones are very different, but it depends on whether you can get past some
of the perverse humour and their general oddness. Between them, the first 2010
is a thing of just pure intentional madness, but it proved a virtue to have the
longer, tonally different one run with the same material. It is a surprise duo
that I wished had a longer form version; it might've lost its lustre but there
is just the question to ask in what would've happened to try to stretch this
premise out, which would've been fascinating to see.
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| From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PhigifLwV_E/maxresdefault.jpg |
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