At last! I have started to actually watch Yuri Kuma Arashi! And two episodes in, so far I... don't hate it!

I guess it goes to show what kind of impression I can get from something based on second-hand opinions. I couldn't watch YKA back when it was originally airing because Funimation didn't make its streaming services available to my country at the time, so everything I could know about it came from other people on my Tumblr dashboard and such -- so when I was hearing glowing praise as if Ikuhara can do wrong from some people, and scathing criticism of its noncon fanservice and other problems (which the fans seemed to love waving aside) from others, with basically no middle ground and everyone involved apparently having strong biases either which way, I couldn't help drawing some conclusions of my own and being put off. Because of that, even when the show did become available to the UK, I felt so pre-inclined to hate it that I could never bring myself to even try watching it to judge for myself.

Until now, that is! I almost certainly have Sarazanmai to thank for getting me to finally do this. >>;

My impressions so far:

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I genuinely like the presentation of this show -- that's to say, the design work and the music. It's nice to look at and listen to, at the very least.

I'm already noticing quite a few things that've been obviously recycled from Utena: the spiral staircase that I remembered from the old PV, the roof scene with Sumika looking like something right out of the movie, the start of the trial scenes reminding so much of Utena's student council meetings that I was immediately mentally replacing the soundtrack... just to name a few, and this is just in the first two eps. I'm not complaining at this point, mind you; these references are kind of neat, though I'm worried the novelty will wear off fast if there gets to be too many of them beyond the requisite stock footage. (One of my big criticisms of Penguindrum was that I felt like it recycled too much from Utena...)

The characters have mostly been pretty flat so far. I gotta say -- and I'll admit I'm probably biased because of what I'd heard about the show before -- I already don't like Ginko. Even without her sexually assaulting Kureha in ep 2, I don't exactly care for her monotone delicious smell gau gau routine. (And since I am spoiled: my God was she blatantly fucking jealous in the first ep!) Can't say I'm looking forward to the narrative propping her up later on, if that's indeed what happens.

Bizarrely, though, I am kind of fond of Mitsuko -- at least in a trainwreck-y guilty pleasure sort of way. Here I am disliking Ginko partly for being predatory, and yet here I am having some fondness for Mitsuko the serial rapist/murderer... I think the key difference is that the narrative is honest about Mitsuko being fucking terrible, once it's revealed her true nature? (Also, her being a bitch in sheep's clothing means that at least she has a personality!) I hope the narrative stays honest about her being fucking terrible, instead of woobifying her like it will apparently do for certain other characters...

As for other people, Lulu has some charm to her, the trial boys are kind of fun, and Kureha and Sumika were honestly cute together; but like I already said, most of the cast is pretty flat, and at this point I don't know how much that changes later. (While I'm on this topic, Konomi's flatness especially stood out because her entire character pretty much began and ended with "I love Mitsuko and am jealous of Kureha for drawing her attention"... though then again, I guess she was little more than the antagonist of the day.)

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Since I haven't instantly dropped it, I'll definitely be watching the rest! Let's see what I make of later episodes...