Yuri is My Job – Sweet and Forgettable

There is no ZOM 100 this week, so how about an extra series review 😉

Yuri is my Job looks pretty good. I have to admit I quite like the character designs which is what is doing most of the heavy lifting here. The backgrounds are fine but not particularly inspired and there are few of them. You’re not likely to be charmed by the vistas. Even the dream sequences of the school aren’t that impressive and most of the time, the backgrounds fade away altogether. The animation is similarly fine but modest. It’s hardly a liability in this context but it’s not a draw either.

What I will give a nod to is the shoujo sparkles. There are plenty of them and it’s those classic flower strew frames with tones of sparkling stars flying through the scene. It’s super nostalgic and I loved it every time. And I haven’t even watched many classic shoujo. Somehow it just feels like what classic shoujo should look like. And that gave the show a bit of visual charm it really needed.

The voice acting was decent. Hime really did sound particularly cute. I can’t speak for the dub but the Japanese voice actress was hamming it up n the best way possible!

Ok, so like I said, I pretty much went into Yuri is my Job knowing what would happen. I was mostly hoping that in the adaptation to animation, there would be something added that I would enjoy more than I did in the manga. And you know what, there was!

I can’t really explain it. If I was to be perfectly honest here, Yuri is my Job is sort of a middling anime. It’s fine in just about every respect. The characters are likable but not particularly developed or interesting in my opinion. Just sort of people you might meet. The premise is cute but also a little cliché and the plot is … fine. There aren’t enough jokes or even funny moments to call it a comedy (despite the fact that I did just that!), it doesn’t lean into the cutesy stuff to really be a moe title and the romance is really light. It’s also sort of old school in that regard where all the lesbian relationships are implied and aside from Kanoko, no main character is actually ever confirmed to have romantic feelings for a girl so it’s more of a shipping show.

None of that is actually bad. I mean I would have liked more fleshed-out characters but for the purposes of this story, they weren’t strictly necessary. Ultimately though, what you are left with is a show that doesn’t have much staying power. It’s inherently watchable and I think a lot of people would enjoy it at least on some level, but as soon as you stop watching it, there’s nothing that stands out enough to make it stick in your memory. It’s just one of those shows that you can file away with all the other ones of those shows. I’m probably not making myself very clear.

Ok, instead of trying to be a big objective reviewer and all, let me tell you about my experience. Let’s leave the manga out of this for now and just talk about the anime. From the very first episode, I enjoyed watching Yuri is my Job. I really did. It was pleasant and I was often in a good mood after a couple of episodes. But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

You see, one of the things I really liked about Yuri is my Job is that it’s undemanding. I don’t need to think too deeply about any aspect of this show. It’s really not that deep bro. And if you’ve been here before, you know that I think way too deeply about most anime. But Yuri is my Job is one of those anime that let’s me just zone out a little. The story is very easy to follow and doesn’t do anything unexpected. The characters being a little shallow means that I had them figured out pretty much from the start and they stick to their archetypes. It’s a show where you can step away from the screen and not feel like you’ve missed anything.

It may sound like I’m damning with faint praise here or even no praise at all, but it’s all a matter of perspective. It depends on what you need at the time. If I wanted a deep whirlwind romance that would touch my heart then obviously this isn’t going to provide that feeling. If I wanted to engage my brain and really give my mind a workout… again not for me. But what I wanted was a little show with cute characters to help me start off my day right, when I work out at 5:30 am. And boy oh boy, Yuri is my Job sure did the…job. It was the perfect show for that. And you know, that’s its own kind of special.

I’m starting to sound like I drank a bit too much tea at the salon here. Let me wrap it up. In the end, if you have watched a bit of anime, I suspect that Yuri is my Job is exactly what you think it is. I hope that helps!

If you feel like watching a standard yuri-light anime with cute designs!

Mai! She’s the most fun!

A Long Island Ice Tea – what? It’s tea!