Madman present to us a new anime series; Yurikuma Arashi which is from the creators of a number of insanely popular Manga series. Kunihiko Ikuhara being a highly prolific figure involved. They both share similarities but are thankfully very different. Kureha Tsubaki is a happy high school student in requited love until one day, bears suddenly start terrorizing the school, two mysterious transfer students appear, tragedy strikes, and things get... well, weird. A long time ago, a far off planet known as Kumaria exploded, resulting in its shards falling upon Earth and causing the bears to attack the humans, resulting in a large wall being erected to separate them from the humans. In the present day, two bears, Ginko Yurishiro and Lulu Yurigasaki, disguise themselves as humans and enrol in Arashigaoka Academy, where Ginko takes an interest in a girl named Kureha Tsubaki, becoming jealous of her relationship with Sumika Izumino. When their favorite lily garden is butchered, the class president Mitsuko Yurizono offers to help Kureha and Sumika, who all become cautious when they are attacked by a brick out of nowhere. The next day, as Sumika mysteriously disappears, Kureha receives an anonymous call asking if her love for Sumika is real, leading Kureha to the rooftop where she is attacked by bears. Meanwhile, Ginko and Lulu undergo a "Yuri Trial" held by the mysterious Judgemens of the Severance Court, who grant them "Yuri Approval", in which they transform into half-bear half-human form and lick nectar from a lily flower growing from Kureha's chest. As Kureha recovers, wondering if what she saw was a dream, Mitsuko discovers Ginko and Lulu in their bear forms eating a girl behind the lily garden. Wall of Severance was built to prevent bears attack. One thing to note about the series is that it has its own unique animation style, very unlike any other anime currently being produced. The episode begins in Arashigaoka Academy with Kureha Tsubaki smells the scent of the Lilies she just planted at the special mansion of the school owned by Kureha and Sumika Izumino. Sumika, her classmate come to see her at the mansion's yard and both of them declare their love to each other. Suddenly, the peace is broke down when bears attacking the school compound and a girl's scream for help because of the bear attack can be heard not far away. The academy immediately issue a bear warning with Katyusha Akae one of those placed the banner across the academy, evacuating students and teachers outside. Sumika seems worried as Kureha ensured that she will protect Sumika no matter what. A monologue of Lulu Yurigasaki and Ginko Yurishiro in the sky said that they love and hate humans the same time and cross the wall to be friends. Lulu and Ginko then described the fall of Kumaria planet resulting in shooting stars falling upon Earth and causing the bears to attack the humans, resulting in a large wall being erected to separate them from the humans. One day, Lulu and Ginko arrived at the academy as transfer students. Lulu and Ginko sense the taste of Kureha's flesh which makes them wanted to eat even if she is sitting at the corner of her classroom. During recess time, Kureha race to find Sumika everywhere in the school, only to find her at the rooftop waiting her. Kureha's stomach growl for hunger after she found Sumika who shares the fish tempura in her lunchbox with her. They eat the food together at the rooftop and lay side by side together sitting on the bench on the rooftop. Meanwhile, Lulu and Ginko turn into their bear form and starring at Kureha at the rooftop side because they long tasting Kureha and becoming jealous of her relationship with Sumika Izumino. Suddenly, a mysterious person butchered favorite lily garden from the mansion of Kureha and Sumika, which Kureha and Sumika knew and claimed that it was the act of the Invisible Storm. Mitsuko Yurizono then visits Kureha and Sumika at their mansion, also admit the aforementioned fact and offers to help Kureha and Sumika, while having chat with them. Soon afterwards, a brick out of nowhere attacks and lands on a ground near them prompted the girls to be cautious. Meanwhile, walking down the rooftop, Lulu and Ginko wonder if they can started eat humans or not. Back at Kureha's house that night, she recalls her memories she has with her mother who is killed by bears, and resolve to protect the ones she loves, never to forgive and kills the bears. She is seen practicing shooting the bears with her rifle. The series at this point does not appear to be facing any pacing issues and reminds steady throughout, keeping us engaged and never feeling bored with the madness. The next day, the bears attack the school compound again and eaten a student, leaving traces of blood and a shoe. It become a hot issue discussed among students of the academy, Kureha unknown of the incident denies that her friend, Sumika is eaten by the bears. Until her phone rang, a mysterious voice tells her that if she loves her friend, she must go to the rooftop immediately with the bears are waiting for her. Although Kureha did not know anything, she takes her snippers and go up the roof, only to find the two bears are attacking her and only Sumika's spectacles remains. Before she could do anything, the bears charge after her and their giant paws pushed Kureha down the infinite stairs. The "Yuri Trial" is held with Life Beauty, Life Cool and Life Sexy lead the judge. Ginko and Lulu acts as the accused and undergo "Yuri Trial" held by the mysterious Judgemens of the Severance Court. Beauty and Cool debates in which Cool's issue accepted and with that, the life judgement guys grant Lulu and Ginko "Yuri Approval", in which they transform into half-bear half-human form and lick nectar from a lily flower growing from Kureha's chest and the three of them held their hands together. Kureha wakes up asking Mitsuko where she is only to be told she was passed out at the rooftop and now in the nursing room. Kureha started to worry that something happened to Sumika only to be calmed down by Mitsuko and wonder if this was a dream hope for Sumika to be okay. While going out, Mitsuko heard a voice at Kureha's garden only to find out Sumika is dead and her corpse was eaten by Lulu and Ginko. Mitsuko started to affirm that Lulu and Ginko are bears disguised as humans and possess threat to humans. Ginko slobbers. The series has a very offbeat feel to it, drawing you into this world of animals and humans and the confusion of not being able to identify. The characters themselves are intro cued to us as students with more underlying. A second year student at Arashigaoka Academy who has a strong hatred of bears. She was in love with her friend, Sumika, who was eaten by bears, and is defiant about making other friends. After forming a friendship bond with Ginko with the yuri approval from the Life Judges, Kureha is transformed into a bear by Lady Kumaria, and delivers to Ginko her promise kiss. Kureha and Ginko are last seen heading on a journey beyond severance; Lulu states that no one knows what has happened to them afterwards. The other protagonist is Ginko Yurishiro who is a bear who takes human form and transfers to Arashigaoka Academy, where she sets her sights on Kureha. It is later revealed that, as a bear, she was once friends with Kureha and her mother. At the end of the story, Kureha gives Ginko her promise kiss, and the two head on a journey beyond severance, guided by the "star of love".In her human form, Ginko has a dark purple bob with a pink fringe and purple eyes. She wears the pink variant of Arashigaoka Academy school uniform with red necktie and dress, a hat consisted of a red band with pink bear and yellow star badges attached to it and a pair of white boots. All very quirky in terms of fashion and appearance. This series is very different and if you have interests in animal transformations, a strong array of characters and beautiful stunning art, check it out! Special Features
Overall: 4.5/5
0 Comments
Madman brings us a new and very quirky anime, Its a highly unusual concept of gender transformation which also creates an interesting array of characters and setting. Sōji Mitsuka is an ordinary high school boy who has an obsession for twintail hair. Thouars entrusted Sōji with Tail Gear, imaginary armor initiated by powerful Twin-Tail attributes. With the armor, Sōji transforms into Tail Red, a twin-tail warrior girl, to protect Earth. Twintails: the glory of all mankind—or at least that is what first-year high school student Souji Mitsuka believes. when monsters from outer space attack Earth and claim the world's twintails for themselves, a strange woman named Twoearle enlists Souji to fight back using twintails of his own! By transforming into the twin-tailed warrior Tail Red, Souji combats the vicious alien organization known as Ultimegil, whose main goal is to colonize Earth and steal everyone's spiritual energy, or "attribute power." Alongside fellow twin-tailed fighters Aika Tsube and Erina Shindou, Souji must find a way to defeat the invading army and defend the twintails he holds so dear. So if this sounds weird, well its because it is and things are about to get stranger. Sōji Mitsuki is the protagonist of Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. Sōji is a student at Yogetsu High School, and has an obsession with the Twin Tails Haircut. He is the only male who knows how to use Tail Gear. When he uses the Tail Gear, he turns into Tail Red , a young girl who is a Twin Tail Warrior. Appearance of a young man with a height of 164 cm (5'4") with dark red spiky hair and orange eyes, usually seen wearing his school uniform, which consists of a white shirt, a blue tie, a cream-colored blazer, black shoes, and trousers. His character starts of quiet but then ultimate develops once things get going. As Tail Red Edit As Tail Red, he becomes a short and thin young girl with a petite appearance. She is very short, standing at a mere 129 cm (4'2") making her extremely short compared to Sōji and the other Tail Gear users. She has red eyes, unlike Soji's completely orange eyes. She wears a red necklace around her neck with a crystal in the center. On her legs she wears black tights that are red at the top and over her tights she wears long metal boots that are red, black, and white. In Episode 4, the Tail Gear malfunctions and only makes it halfway through the transformation back into Sōji. Because the Tail Gear adjusts the users DNA to fit the armor, it tries its hardest to work, and the best it can create is Sōra, a fusion of Tail Red and Soji. She stands at a height of 146 cm in between Sōji and Tail Red. A bit unlike Soji, Tail Red's eyes are slightly redder than her male counterpart's. Sora, like Soji, is also at the age of 15, meaning that her chest and breasts are much larger than the young Tail Red's. This makes Aika very jealous of Soji's new breasts being noticeably larger than hers. Humour wise this show is very quirky and appears to nail it quite well., conflicts like this show the offbeat nature and surrealism of it all. Tail Red behaves much like Soji in the way that they both have a sense of justice, but a sense of blitheness as well. Tail Red's little girl side showing while she is afraid of one of her enemies While in Tail Red form, Soji does have moments where she (he) behaves like a young girl would, although she still uses masculine honorifics such as 'ore', a very masculine way of saying 'I' in Japanese. This can sometimes have an effect on Tail Red's confidence in battle. Furthermore, Soji does not seem pleased with the fact that Tail Red was getting extremely famous, as he considers it embarrassing. Soji has been shown to have a liking towards his Tail Red form and often plays with her Twintails when he has transformed into her using the Tail Gear. Ever since Soji was a child he had an obsession with the Twin Tails haircut to always wanting them but could not have them because he was male. Aika would often tease him about it she even changed her hair style to twin tails just to annoy him. "Whats happened to me?!" - Soji transforms into Tail Red for the first time. On his first day at Yogetsu High School, The School council president Erina Shindō was attacked by the Ultimagills, who wanted to steal her Twin Tail Attribute. It was at this time that Thouars came to Soji and Aika, claiming that Soji is the only known male in existence that could use the Tail Gear. She gave him the "Red Courage" Tail Gear, and Soji complimented to the cute little girl with Twin Tails in the car only to realize it was his own reflection and the bracelet transformed him into a short little girl with red hair.. Much to his shock, an army has now targeted him as one of the Twin Tails they had been searching for finally appeared. Red Tail flapped her hands in cowardice, and, much to her shock, hordes of the beasts flew across the sky and she couldn't believe the power she now had. She could jump great distances, though she was a little thrown off by the new power. After defeating the Monsters, with her new found abilities, she was thanked by Erina Shindō, who at the time didn't know that the little girl was a boy she went to school with. Erina asked who she was, and the girl called herself "Tail Red”. Soji turns into Tail Red to play with her Twin Tails when nobody is looking Soji, now back as a average teenage boy, came to school the day after and felt embarrassed how famous Tail Red now was. On the bright side, Soji loved (his) new Twin Tails and would often transform into Tail Red to play with her Twin Tails while she thought nobody was looking. Although she may appear weak because of how physically small she is, Tail Red is considered by some to be the strongest Twin Tail. She can use the Ribbons on her head to summon weapons, such has her signature weapon, the Blazer blade, a long Red sword that can send even the heaviest opponents flying. The strength and powers add to ultimately add to the character development of the series, its keeps us engaged seeing which direction it will take. Her strongest attack however, is the Aura Pillar when all the gems on Tail Red's armor glows she is capable of firing a giant red energy beam from her cuffs. In this form, both Tailred's speed and strengh are incredibly increased. Of course this series does indeed have its show of sidekicks and characters, along with transformations and "evolutions". Tailred's Ultimate form by using two Tail Gear braces. She gained the Tail Gear and transform into Tail Blue the time Sōji gained his power. Aika has dark blue hair and red eyes. As Tail Blue, she has sky blue hair and eyes, her twintail become extremely long and her suit is more revealing than Tail Red's. However, her body size remaining the same as her human form.Aika has the personality of a normal high school student and is by far the most down-to-earth member of the main cast, often finding herself speechless before the ridiculous antics happening around her and takes more time than anyone in the Twintail Club to accept the supernatural elements appearing in her world, leading her to become the 'straight man' of the group. She is also pretty abrasive when she feels that her position with Soji is threatened or when Thouars is doing something 'stupid' (sometimes both at the same time), resorting to violence and threats against the perpetrator. Overall a highly energetic, amusing and unique anime, please check this one out if you are interesting in a gender bending tale* (no pun intended), with great characters and style. Special Features
Overall 4/5 |
AuthorThe DSC team dig into Anime . Archives
September 2016
Categories |