Yurikuma Arashi

Episode 5

WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers for Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Well, I can't accuse Yuri Kuma Arashi of withholding information. This newest episode opened with a confirmation of what everyone has suspected for a while – that Kureha and Ginko have met before, in a situation involving Kureha's mother, Reia. Kureha is in fact Ginko's lost lady love, and the maulings she's committed so far have been to protect Kureha from her classmates' abuse. Ginko and Lulu have now moved into Kureha's home and spend the episode trying to warm her up, only to be constantly rebuffed. In the end, the two are captured and ousted as bears by Kaoru Harishima, the new leader of the school tormenters.

I wouldn't have imagined Lulu as the reasonable and grounded one, but this episode proves that beneath her cool demeanor, Ginko is an enormous goofball who's got it bad for Kureha. She's constantly getting lost in romantic fantasies about Kureha greeting her, bathing her, and feeding her oversized fish. The situation between Ginko and Kureha seems most comparable to the one between Utena and her prince. The Prince is a savior figure who came to Utena as a symbol for unconditional love during her time of need. As she grew up, however, her perception of him was warped into something more carnal. This is what lets Utena accept Akio's abuse – she's become normalized to the idea that love is selfish, possessive on the part of one person (of course the man), and that this is the closest she will ever come to happiness. Ginko is similarly misguided, but in her case, she's the one who wants to possess Kureha. She's somehow become convinced that love is something you satiate yourself with. I finally understand the contrast between Ginko's composed human form and her on-edge appearance as a bear. Her seriousness is a barely-maintained façade to conceal that she's starved for love – Kureha's in particular. I'm glad that during this week's Court of Severance scene, Lulu looks horrified when Ginko admits to wanting Kureha all to herself. I hope that Lulu finds the strength to set her friend straight.

That might be a good measure for what makes up a bear, actually – bears are girls who believe that love (physical or emotional) is something that you satiate yourself with. Ginko wants to be loved by Kureha without considering the kind of love that Kureha needs. She's obsessed with Kureha as the object of her salvation. By “eating” girls, bears inflict pain to obtain pleasure. As a love martyr, Lulu lives for another to satisfy her guilt. She thinks that she killed her brother and forces herself to suffer as penance. It's emotionally selfish selflessness. That's why Life Sexy (who seems like an avatar for Ikuhara's authorial voice) called Lulu “arrogant” and Ginko “egotistic.” To truly love, you have to place another's needs above your own. Their motives in love are selfish.

That said, it's best not to think too hard about what differentiates “bear” from “yuri” at this point, and under what conditions one becomes the other. I'm pretty sure that Lulu's family from the previous episode was only made of bears to maintain the illusion that there's a divide between these two worlds. “Bears” vs. “maidens” only means something insofar as it illuminates character, so there isn't any rigid rationale behind it. “Bears” themselves are doing double duty as a metaphor for both queer women specifically and oppressed groups in general, so the emotional logic working behind the scenes is permeable and constantly shifting.

Meanwhile, Kureha is coping with Sumika's loss by clinging to her memory. The food they ate together, once liberating for Kureha, has become another crutch. Yuriika advises her to make new friends, and while that suggestion seems tinged with ulterior motives, it's still sound advice. Kureha is in danger of closing herself off from the world again, and this time it could be permanent. It doesn't help that her schoolmates only befriend her in order to better exclude her later. Ginko and Lulu have been munching on school bullies in order to protect Kureha, but now Kaoru's got them cornered, so who knows how it's going to turn out. Maybe this will be the point where Kureha warms up to them?

If the Yuri Code holds true, Kaoru is invisible and thus exempt from beardom, but there's a big discrepancy between her motives and design. As the head of the schoolgirl inquisition, whose main aim seems to be keeping the girls in line with the heterosexist status quo, she stands out for her lack of a uniform and her masculine attire. The bears we've seen besides Ginko and Lulu (who are somewhat exempt due to main character color scheme requirements) have made conscious efforts to appear normal. Kaoru is a wild card, possibly neither bear nor fitting into the rigid constraints of "yuri," while still allied with the Invisible Storm.

On that note, Yuriika is also looking sketchy. The Black Rose Arc-esque cabinet full of dead children in her office was the first clue that something's up, honestly. She's likely a bear, considering that her name has the word “yuri” in it and she's present in the opening alongside the irredeemable Yurizono. I want to know more about her backstory with Reia. As of now, it seems that they had a relationship much like Kureha and Sumika's that was somehow broken up. Kureha's existence implies a man, after all. Come to think of it, we haven't seen a single non-bear or non-yuri human in this entire show. I wonder how they'll be presented if/when one finally shows up. Kureha might occupy a strange emotional place for Yuriika as both a continuation of Reia and the product of some schism or obstacle between them. For now, however, this is leaning too far into speculation, so I'll address it more if/when it becomes relevant. Wait, wasn't Reia killed by a bear? Something smells fishy, and it isn't Kureha's lunch.

If Yuriika is a bear, the constant horror film references would make more sense. Like in Utena, the entire school might be a trap by the administration to ensnare and consume girls. This would align with the haunted buildings in Suspiria, The Shining, and Psycho. (Psycho has a scene where a bear “eats” someone, while Suspiria and The Shining's visions of evil are monstrously feminine. Yuriika's followed around by a mosaic reminiscent of M.C. Escher's Sky and Water, which is about fluidity between polar opposites. Birds are also a subtle recurring image overall. Traditionally, they're symbols for both freedom (and confinement when the birds are caged), and heterosexual procreation, specifically in the context of “the birds and the bees.” While I'm not sure how applicable this English-language idiom is to a Japanese production, it offers a tempting reading of the mosaic as representing homosexual love between girls (lilies) being reformatted into compulsory heterosexuality (birds).

“Seventeen” might be an important number. Kureha is about to turn seventeen, while both Ginko and Lulu are already that age. Yuriika gave Reia her trademark pendant – which is now in Ginko's possession – on her seventeenth birthday. Now that I think about it, the age may not be as important as the aging-up: the transition from childhood, where "romantic friendships" are permissible, to adulthood, where one must abandon them. Other details - could the star-shaped pendant have something to do with the planet Kumalia? When Ginko first sees young Kureha walking through the wasteland beyond the Wall of Severance, she mistakes her for “Lady Kumalia.” Maybe possessiveness is part of Yuriika's character? Reia's nobility seems to have come from her passing down a symbol of love rather than hoarding it. It's a lot to process.

Also, did Sumika know that she was going to “die?” Did she die? Kureha didn't open Sumika's letter, and the conversation between them is oddly prescient – Sumika admires Kureha because she didn't give up on love and looks forward to “watching her from afar.” Did Sumika give up after all? For that matter, what horrible crime does Ginko admit to? Ginko's been humanized, but she's still an enigma, and her story will be the one to carry us forward.

Whew, there's always a lot to say per Yurikuma episode. I feel as though I haven't even exhausted this episode yet, and like I have to mention everything. So much is suggested by so little, and it's all intriguing. It helps that the show is funny. Three sexual fantasies serve as the meat here, just like Lulu's three murder attempts from last week. While it didn't quite reach last episode's heights of lovable fratricide, it's still great, only comparable in style to other Ikuhara works. The one flaw to this episode is that it doesn't look as good as usual. There's less animation than previous episodes, and the extras are noticeably off-model in a number of shots. Fortunately, great direction and design sensibility still make this a visual feast. The -gorigorigorigorigori- rolls on.

Grade: A

Yuri Kuma Arashi is currently streaming on Funimation.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.