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uhh. not to praise yoi or defend fujoshis but yka ended up being nasty misogynistic homophobic trash where the Male Gaze is literally divine, it's cool to let a lesbian be murdered if you're in love with her girlfriend, and sexual assault is sexy so… not feeling this critique

Ok but I’m actually curious as to why Yuri Kuma Arashi didn’t blow up on this website like y/oi? Like??? A show about how Japanese wlw are viewed and treated by Japanese society was slept on by this website? I don’t understand. Oh no wait, I do. It’s because you guys don’t care about wlw and constantly erase/ignore us and our stories. It’s because fujoshis on this website will praise a mlm relationship, that was written by a straight woman probably fujoshi herself, and then turn around and rip apart yuri (wlw) relationships and stories. All the #lovewins posts were all bullshit. And don’t give me that “but yuri kuma was made for men with all the fanservice” bs. Yes, there was fanservice but it wasn’t used in a conventional way because the staff had a high ratio of women working on the show. Second, Ikuhara got a Japanese LESBIAN mangaka, Morishima Akiko, to work on the show with him. A member of the LGBT community worked on an anime about wlw. She did the character designs for the anime and wrote the manga with him. Also, the kiss between the two female characters was shown and not “censored” and this was in 2015, : ) . So in conclusion, all of you are fuckin hypocrites.

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as a lesbian, I gotta say: anon, are you kidding me? the intended audience for YKA is not lesbians, it’s seinen. And this idea that no westerners can criticize it–when anglophone tumblr is full of (a) people praising it for “breaking down class S ideals” and other stuff pretending to understand Japanese culture and (b) .gifs of the sexualized rape scenes tagged “ecchi”– is disingenuous and frankly ridiculous

good to know a non-japanese non-lesbian person is criticising a show not targeted to non-japanese non-lesbian people...learn to do some research on the topic at hand instead of shaming people for enjoying yurikuma. Also it's incredibly ironic that you shame it for being symbolic or metaphorical when Utena is exactly the same. In saying that do you even have a clue what Utena is about? and at that what is it about from a Japanese perspective instead of a western one?

Sure thing, person who is most likely non-japanese as well but is too cowardly to come off anon, knowing that revealing their sorry ass wouldn’t make them look half as creditable, and whose “research” and most likely only knowledge about japanese lgbtq-culture in general has come from reading Tumblr posts, most of them written by even more non-japanese people, about defending an anime proclaiming rapist bear fanservice as the liberation of lesbians by using japanese lesbians as a tool for everything that doesn’t add up or seems rightfully disgusting in the show, and who has never used their own brain to analyze anything in the show on their own but rather just goes reading what other people had to say about this, creating the biggest fucking hivemind of a fandom with 99% the same theories with only the smallest of variations, making you feel smart for enjoying something “deep” without actually having to go through any kind of critical thought process.

lmfao of course this is what I wake up to, it’s not like this trainwreck fandom could not harass anyone who doesn’t enjoy the taste of shit like they do.

#jesus christ every single person saying ~you can't judge it by western standards~ is a white westerner

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hopes for YKA finale

overthrow the patriarchy life judges

Ginko and Kureha don’t end up together

Chouko get some kind of resolution that acknowledges that the scapegoating thing was bad but also that but she really was trying to protect her classmates from being eaten

SUMIKA IS ALIVE

#yuri kuma arashi #my bet is 0/4 of the things are going to happen #but a girl can dream

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BRING BACK SUMIKA

What's your problem with Yuri Kuma?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the show, I’m enjoying watching it!

I just feel like the story that it’s trying to tell doesn’t resonate (at least with me and my friends) in a way that we expected or a way that we think is positive.

A lot of people bring up the point that the show wants us to support Kureha and Ginko’s love… but… the way things have been presented to us, almost everyone is like ‘But what about Sumika? Where’s Sumika gone?” We’d rather have them be together, and Ginko and Lulu together.

Most of the people in the show are… not actually that great of people? Even though it seems like Ginko’s “crimibear” act is meant to be forgiven…. She allowed Sumika to BE KILLED AND EATEN because she was a rival for Kureha’s love??? THIS IS REALLY FUCKING UNHEALTHY

Cool motive, but still completely accessory to murder?

Like, yes, I 100% allowed the death of the person that loved and was beloved of my crush, BECAUSE I WANT HER TO BE WITH ME INSTEAD

totes healthy, yet Ginko is still our positive choice?

We’re being told a story of “star crossed lovers” across the Wall of Severance… when the wall of severance and the bears existed as we understood it, as a metaphor for the exclusion of sexually agressive and predatory lesbians??

The way it’s been told is like Romeo and Juliet; two lovers from warring sides cant be together because warring sides. But the metaphor suggest our love story is between the star crossed lovers of an accessory to murder unhealthy stalker rapist cannibal lesbian, and a “purest form of love” chaste and naive girl.

The original metaphor of “The invisible storm” and the class being a tool of society that outcasts and shuns those that do not conform; that Girl’s Love must remain pure and not carnal or it becomes evil, etc…. actually seems to be in the right these past few episodes?

Kureha WAS harboring bears. That’s true. Those bears DID kill and eat their friends. And they have no way from their perspective to know that the other dead girls (even the bear ones!) weren’t their victims too. They are currently on a mission to hunt down dangerous predators that KILL their friends. And their prior exclusion now seems like less of a “shun those that don’t conform” and more of a “desperately protect ourselves from legitimate threats”

Even if you consider the fact that Death may be a metaphor for Sexual Liberation it is still done to their friends by CLEAR RAPE ANALOGIES so ?!?!?!??!

Basically the only metaphor that has remained untarnished by the plot is that the Judgemens are the male authority of society that deems whether female sexuality is acceptable based on whether it titillates them; seen EXTREMELY LITERALLY HERE, where Life Sexy peeps on a pair of girls and gets off on them for his purely heterosexual male fetishization. Surely, that is Sexy, Shabadadoo.

What are we left with? A number of very unhealthy and damaging portrayals of female sexuality portrayed as positive in the narrative of a show that was designed explicit to discredit negative protrayals and lampoon tropes and criticize societal values.

This show was set up so well, but where it’s falling flat is in the writing.

We’ll see if it can redeem itself in the next two episodes (Bring back Sumika), but It would be very hard pressed to given the story it’s been telling the past several episodes.

I really want to like this show. I DO like this show. I just wish that it’s narrative was not dissonant with it’s themes and metaphors, and that it was a positive one.

#cosigned 100% #I like it but #kureha should not forgive ginko #and the rape metaphors are gratuitous and upsetting

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#can I just say I love chouko #chouko oki #oki chouko #yuri kuma arashi

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ah yes 100% asexual

lulu fom yuri kuma arashi is asexual homoromantic

#???

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looking forward to meeting this character! Even though it appears she's taking over as Asshole #1

#yuri kuma arashi #possibly #oki chouko #chouko oki

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Frank is trash which I knew from the beginning, now all we can do is hope that Laurel didn't kill Rebecca otherwise she's trash too and they deserve each other

also, I've been seeing "OMG Frank is Huck!" in the tags, which is such bs. would Huck have killed Amanda Tanner if the president told him to? Hell no! Frank has some messed up loyalties that I think he should ponder while rotting in jail

#I still look at Bonnie sometimes and see Amanda Tanner #abc scandal #htgawm #htgawm spoilers

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ow my heart hurts

can someone write a Lila/Rebecca after-death reunion? please these two deserve some kind of happy ending

#htgawm spoilers #lila x rebecca #rebecca x lila

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I'm seeing people saying that this means that Reia didn't love Yuriika romantically, but I think that's incorrect and out of line with everything else we've seen this episode (and tbh this entire show). Reia's love was different, but that's because she was truly in love with Yuriika, while Yuriika only knew how to love in a twisted, possessive way that doesn't allow for the object of love to change or grow – because that's how she was raised.

#yuri kuma arashi

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all ready for YKA episode 8

#yuri kuma arashi

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and actually the whole Virgin Beary thing adds credence to my theory that Kureha was conceived through parthenogenesis

#yuri kuma arashi #aka ~virgin birth #I mean besides the fact that there are no human men

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so if Kumaria-sama is the Virgin Mary, who are the male divine Trinity?

THESE NERDS

#except they're underlings instead of the boss #yuri kuma arashi #there are actually a ton of threes in this show #Catholic school education coming in handy in unexpected ways #still can't believe that Beauty is supposed to be a dude

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her symbol is literally a crucifix!

*Kumaria

a part of me wants to be mad at the translators for not realizing this, but i’m honestly more mad at myself for not realizing this. considering the church bells in the opening theme, the mention of the Crusades in the third episode, the everything in the seventh episode, not to mention the fact that, oh, yeah, Maria-sama is an important theme and part of the title of the series that’s only the most influential and well-known story in the yuri genre — it’s obvious. “Kumalia" should have been translated as "Kumaria"— aka, a bearified version of the Virgin Mary

homework: what’s the significance of a divine virgin mother in a series about female sexuality and love? furthermore, what does it mean that the bears have apparently deified a minor planet that blew up?

#THANK YOU! #cannot unsee

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theory/insight: Yuriika is Akio/Satan

uses sex for manipulation/control

fallen from an original state of innocence/goodness

generally control things from behind the scenes (duels vs invisible storm) while pretending to not be involved

but will kill someone in an intimate setting/behind closed doors (Kanae vs Kaoru)

manipulates the protagonist even as the protagonist looks up to them as an authority figure

purple?

#maybe I'm reaching with a couple of these but there are some striking similarities #yuri kuma arashi #revolutionary girl utena #purple is akio's hair/rose color and yuriika's uniform/fur color

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calling it: Sumika is alive

a little late to the party, but I didn't get this until re-watching episode 1

they never found a body

does this look like the face of a yandere who just killed and ate her love rival or someone who was prevented from doing just that? (h/t)

#yeah I mean she could be pretending #but here's hoping Ginko's crime that day somehow involved stopping her

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after episode 7

Yuriika confirmed for bear, so I'm thinking that the storybook could definitely refer to her and Kureha's mom, except for the fact that they became friends before the severance wall existed – but maybe there was already a social separation if not a physical one

also, what if she killed Reia? she definitely went evil at some point, and her nostalgia for her love is a lot creepier if she had turned on her. (alternatively, of course, some other bear killed Reia and Ginko killed it)

#yuri kuma arashi