Yuru Yuri ♪♪ OP Single – Yes! Yuyuyu Yuru Yuri – Review

Review: Yuru Yuri‘s first season wasn’t exactly known for its subtlety, and its opening animation similarly bludgeoned you in the temple with its blunt cricket bat of an OP theme. The song was trashy, mindless, absurd nonsense, and, you know what? I liked it. As for why I liked it, that’s a little bit tougher. It’d be easy to write the OP off as one of those “so-bad-it’s-good” numbers, but it wasn’t quite that. “Yuriyurarararayuruyuri Daijiken” knew exactly what it wanted to be – and succeeded. It went just far enough, crossing that definitive line from lukewarm mediocrity into ironic listenability (Lucky Star‘s OP, anyone?). It was crafty and exploitative in that endearingly retarded way that made you ignore how stupefyingly meaningless it all was.

Fast forward to this season, and I was all ready to be pleasingly appalled at whatever this awful show’s awful second season’s awful opening theme would be. I was prepared to enjoy the absolute worst that low-budget Japanese animation had to offer. The result? Well, they say that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and, unfortunately, Yuru Yuri season 2’s OP is a little underdone. It’s simply not as horrifyingly abysmal as it could be. It’s gross, but not quite disgusting enough to be novel. Where is the pitchy, screechy, overblown chorus? Where are the lyrics that have been reduced to a repetitive syncopation of the show’s title? Why are there more than two chords in the song?
Questions like those only rub in the fact that “Yes! Yuyuyu Yuru Yuri” just casually checks the boxes of the ADHD anime opener. It only goes through the motions of being ghastly; it has no passion for being genuinely horrendous.

The song, despite its unrelenting maelstrom of camp and cutesiness, isn’t catchy or engaging enough to be truly listenable, nor is it crazily over-the-top enough to be ironically pleasing. It’s just sort of there, awkwardly occupying those 90 seconds before the (equally as banal) show starts.

Season 1’s OP was truly deserving of the rating of “Awful.” This season’s opening fails to live down to that impressively low, low bar. Its heart just isn’t in it, and, (un)fortunately for all of us, that’s just Bad.

If you’re going to make a halfhearted attempt at an opening song, at least do it wholeheartedly. Does that make sense?

Rating: Bad

Did I forget something? Imagine my delight when, after the OP was almost disappointingly OK, the strong stench of utter garbage drew me to the b-side of this single. I’ll be clear: “Let’s Love~de Ikimashou” is hands-down the single worst anime-related song I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

These sad, sad three minutes and fifty-four seconds mark the most abominable attempt I’ve ever heard at filling up space on a b-side. It was so awful, so utterly worthless, it didn’t seem fair to let it affect the score of the OP. There is absolutely nothing redeemable about this track. It is utterly nutrient-free filler material meant to pad out this single release. This is now my benchmark for the rock-bottom in artistry and musicality.
Nothing more specific needs to be said about this song. Listen to it, recoil in disgust, and live your life knowing that, sometimes, atrocities do happen.

Rating: Worst Ever

I guess I do have to grade the single as a whole set given this site’s imperious protocol governed and enforced by the all-knowing, all-powerful overlord zzeroparticle. I’ll just split the difference and call it a day.

Rating: Awful

Yuru Yuri OP Single – Yes! Yuyuyu Yuru Yuri