Yurikuma Arashi(2015) 12EP by Kunihiko Ikuhara
One of the most interesting stories, not just anime, ever conceived and created.
I am not aware of any story quite like this if perhaps
The Saragossa Manuscript (Polish: Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie, "The Manuscript found in Zaragoza") is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki
would stand in as something of a model. This is both good and bad for an audience
who want nothing more than to sit back, relax and groove to the vibes because Yuri… is virtually impenetrable on first viewing. This reviewer had to see the entire series three times before some sort of comprehension set in and we could understand somewhat the extreme complexity of Yuri…. Anime News Network, IMDB, and MYANIME have all put Yuri… at 7.2/10, not bad, but not that good either. And the reviews by critics are all over the map. Most talk about Lilies, Lesbians, Bears, storms, and god knows what else. I got news for you folks. To talk about bears in any way, is not to talk about bears. Yurikuma Arashi has nothing to do with bears. If I were to tell you a story about Dick and Jane running off into the Corn field and making like the three toed Aardvark you would know exactly what I was talking about, and it would not be Aardvarks. So come on people where do you have your heads stuck, and again you know exactly what I am talking about. Same with Bears in Yurikuma Arashi, there are no there Bears there! Give it up! Forget it and lets move on.
This is a story you have to work at to fully understand what is going on because Mr. Ikuhara has loaded up on every artistic conceit ever invented and put them all here. We have stories within stories, framed flashbacks, euphemism, allegory, Symbolism, metaphor, subtext, and non-linear time distortions. Nothing is what it is on the face of it. Artists love this sort of stuff, but it is not very commercial for the general public. All of these techniques, are folded up with each other and then multi layered together, compacted, gzipped, and then passed through an encryption algorithm. Difficult to just sit back and groove with the vibes.
This is a very poor effort on the part of Pywackett Productions to unpack all of the above. We are sure that a proper analysis would do a much better job but until someone much more qualified steps up, here is where we are:
In The Name of Love
Yurikuma Arashi is literally Lily Bear Storm, ユリ熊嵐 where ユリ is Hiragana for Lily, 熊 is Kanji for Bear, and 嵐 is Kanji for Storm. ユリ comes from the Kanji and may carry some meaning like the cause of strength, or the reason for being powerful, or somesuch, or not.
Lily Bear Storm is the literal meaning in a primary sense of the Japanese. Of course American Otakus have adopted terms like Shoujo-ai and Yuri, but they have changed the meaning because probably Americans have a problem with sexuality. In American English Shoujo-ai means girl love where the love is chaste and pure, and Yuri is Lesbianism virtually identifiable with Hentai. Yuri ユリ in the Japanese means both, even in slang, and its overarching meaning is that of a flower, the Lily.
Yuri is a common girl’s name and parents would not name their girls Yuri if that really meant Lesbian. Its slang guys. Its Aardvarks all over again. Its using one word to mean another, hint-hint, we are in the know, so we know.
Yuri’s, Lily’s are so abundant a motif in Yurikuma Arashi, that vitually every scene has them, and in the incredible Episode 12, they in the Storm turns to a rain of Lilys falling from Heaven. Ep12 is one of the most Romantic, over the top, push every button, schmaltz like Pussy Galore! and in Biological factoid, all flowers are the sexual organs of plants. The Pistil which Ginko and Lulu lick is the Female flower equivalent of the Human Female vulva. Horrors! Horrors! Ban it! Make it go away, make it Invisible. The flower garden is nothing but a hotbed of sexual orgies. And you give a bouquet of these to your girlfriend/boyfriend!
And yet in another cultural stream, the Lily is the flower of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and represents chaste love, virginal love, innocence, the ideal of all Idol groups. Mary as the Matrix of all love, based in the power of Mother Love, the Madonna can be seen in the name Lady Kumaria, the goddess of this universe which combines Kuma Bear with Maria Mary. We all should know about Bear Mother Love especially after the Revenant(2015). As the backpacker knows, one rule is never, ever come between a mother bear and her cubs, unless you want to find out about the fierceness of Mother Love. Mother bears can easily beat the stuffings out of male bears.
So Lilys, Bears, and what is this thing about Storms? Well it rains during a storm, and rain from ancient times has been seen as a harbinger of the marriage between Heaven and Earth. The Annunciation of the Incarnation of the Divine, announced by the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary so Immaculately conceived, is often depicted as a rain from Heaven inseminating the Second Person of the Holy Trinity into her womb which is central in this story. So in EP12 we see a storm of Lilys raining from Heaven as the Lady Kumaria incarnates in Sumika who is Immaculate in her pure love which is why Kureha falls madly in love with Sumika.
And why Ginko is jealous of Sumika and her own love has yet to reach purity.
The artistic conceits of Ep12 are simply so incredible and wonderful and heart moving. Kureha purifies her love by admitting her sin of Pride, and in her solemn prayer to Lady kumaria, her love helps Ginko admit her sin of Jealousy, and to purify her love for Kureha, Lulu’s love for Ginko is purified of her sins by her willing sacrifice. Just thinking about this ending right now writing these poverty words, warms the Heart as Kureha and Ginko follow Lady Kumaria climbing the Stairway to Heaven, yes the same "Stairway to Heaven"(1971) by the English rock band Led Zeppelin.
Mr. Ikuhara is no polemicist for one type of love, but rather shows that all forms of love have their flaws. Except maybe for Sumika and Prince Milne, who appear to have pure love, love comes in so many variants, forms, and difficulties, that no reasonable person could possible form love categories. From the purity of Lady Kumaria down to the pitiful gross sexual desire and manipulation of Mitsuko, every character deals the hand they are played, and when you do not give up on love, there is always the possibility of moving your own love closer to Pure Love, to follow Lady Kumaria.
Sexual Love and Immaculate pure Love are so constant, and so intermingled in Yurikuma Arashi that they fuse, and become one during the Lady Kumaria Storm as the Ave Maria plays in the background. The artist, Mr.Ikuhara has done the impossible, in showing that love transcends categories and definitions and religious persecutions of those who love each other, and shows a path to a better world based upon universal love. Of course the Homophobes object to all this, and fall into the Shadow, becoming invisible, the Storm becomes invisible, The Invisible Storm.
One should be aware that Mr. Ikuhara shows graphic eroticism, girls kissing deeply,
nudity, and many other overt material that can only possibly drive a Baptist up the Wall of Severance. This is a warning that you may be shocked at what is on the screen. So be aware if you decide to proceed to watch all 12 Eps.
THE INVISIBLE STORM OF HATRED
Why is the Storm invisible?
The psychologist C.G.Jung wrote a little book called “Psyche and Symbol” where he speaks about the rather unpleasant experience of falling into the Shadow. The technical details are laid out there, but in summary, the Shadow holds repressed content of a rather unpleasant or difficult matter to hold, so it is made invisible by pushing out of consciousness into the Shadow. But it does not go away. Its there always inside you like “The Devil made me do it!” sort of thing, and repressed negative contents can suddenly and unexpectedly, return to consciousness, why we have Crusades to kill the evil people, to lynch the evil people, to party at Auto de Fe’s, to sacrifice to the gods in blood and human hearts, to offer burnt offerings of blood in a Holocaust to the Great God who demands blood. Brutality arises from human hearts out of the shadow in an orgy of blood lust, surely a sexual perversion unto itself. Thus “Hail to the King” by Avenged Sevenfold!
Mr.Ikuhara subtely brings all of this out of the Shadow into Consciousness during a study lesson where the teacher begins speaking about the Crusades. You might even miss this if you are not paying attention.
I certainly missed it until JOSEI in her analysis brought it to my attention.
Her series episode by episode:
http://joseinextdoor.tumblr.com/post/107480025390/yurikuma-arashi-recap-episode-1-never-back
Without love, you become indivisible and invisible, and if you’re invisible, who will find you?
So we have the context for an Invisible Storm. Invisibility has been an artistic motif for some time. J.R.R. Tolkein in his masterwork, “The Lord of the Rings” lays out what the consequences of falling into the Shadow mean. The analysis of evil in Tolkein can be found in “J.R.R. Tolkein: Author of the Century”(2002) by Tom Shippey, “Wraiths and Shadows: Tolkein’s images of evil”(PG119). Wraiths are the primary agents, angels of Sauron who carry out his mission statement. And of course, Sauron and the Wraiths, are in their essence, invisible, almost dead things with only a superficial covering to hide their dead being, things with no Face.
The One Ring of power, makes the wearer invisible, and the longer one wears the ring the deeper the injury. Although the Hobbits have a certain resistance to this power, it does cause injury, Frodo and Bilbo never recover. If you cannot be seen, how can someone love you, how can they find you as Kureha asks Choko. But Choko is too deep into the Shadow to understand the question. And even the appearance of a divine being, cannot move her. But Uchiko does see, and decides to become visible, and move out of the shadow forming the second love between Uchiko and poor Konomi.
Mr. Ikuhara is clear as a bell, saying, it is within the power of your own choice whether you choose to be or not to be, visible! Uchiko who was invisible, chooses through metanoia, a change of heart, having seen the love between Kureha and Ginko, and the Stairway to Heaven; to become visible, and she decides to care for poor, deformed Konomi in another love affair.
And with the Wall of Severance in the background!
Invisiblity may be as old as the Ancient Greeks. Plato in his Republic Book 2 mentions the Ring of Cyges. In the story, Plato’s brother, Glaucon, uses the legend
of the Ring as an argument in morality, as in who would be moral if they had the power of invisibility that the ring grants to its wearer. All morality is a social convention, and to be moral, one must be visible to others. The source of human evil resides in the Shadow of social existence. Plato’s response is not very encouraging but then he based it upon reason not upon love. Mr. Ikuhara’s rebuttal to Glaucon is much more incisive. Giving up on love is to become invisible and as a matter of course, those without love commit the greatest evil out of the social shadow, The Invisible Storm. And as his Uchiko shows, this is a unique, individual choice which can be changed by inspiration, which is to inspire which is the descent of the Holy Spirit through the Blessed Virgin Mary as the matrix of all grace.
Mr. Ikuhara then ends his inspired work, with a very kawaii story of Princess Lulu who is telling the story of Yurikuma Arashi to her younger brother Prince Milne to whom she has been very mean due to jealousy. But Prince Milne kisses Princess Lulu and says, “I love you, Sis.” Princess Lulu blushes and says “Thank you.”
By this time, with three successive couples in love (Kureha X Ginko), (Uchiko X Konomi), and (Princess Lulu X Prince Milne), Narrator ends with:
“No one knows where the girls have gone.
But that's as it should be.
You see, it is with your own love that the world awakens and changes.”
THE END
Yurikuma Arashi is an unqualified masterpiece not only in its construction, but also in the simplicity of its own message. But this anime is not for everyone, and we can easily understand why many people would dislike or not understand it because it does take a considerable amount of work to learn the vocabulary of Mr. Ikuhara, and by the way, this review only scratches the surface of his work.
So highly recommended with qualifications, and by this time you should know whether you will enjoy this work or not as the case may be.
THE END