An end of summer reflection: On pleasant weather and the dog days of summer in Yuyushiki

“August has passed, and yet summer continues by force to grow days. They sprout secretly between the chapters of the year, covertly included between its pages.” —Jonathan Safran Foer

While Yuyushiki is primarily about Yuzuko, Yui and Yukari’s time in their high school’s data processing club, one of the aspects that is often passed over during discussions of Yuyushiki is its depictions of the summer season. Throughout Yuyushiki, the lighting and colours are typically of a moderate intensity and saturation to convey a gentle mood throughout the anime as Yui and the others go about their everyday lives in the data processing club, looking up uncommon topics and having enjoyable discussions about the things they learn during their time in the club. However, when the hottest days of the year arrive and classes are no longer in session, the atmosphere in Yuyushiki takes on a different tone. Summer skies are of a a dazzling blue hue, with the landscapes fading away closer to the ground, where moving air creates a sense of heat. The brightness of the landscape reinforces the sun’s intensity to accentuate the hot days of summer, and to complete the presentation, the sound of cicadas are openly heard. In spite of the simpler artwork of Yuyushiki, it’s quite evident that summer is in the air. There’s a palatable sense of excitement at the unlimited possibilities conferred in a season characterised by long days and pleasant weather; all of these feelings are captured in Yuyushiki to give the sense that this is really an anime to be watched during the summer, and from a personal perspective, the summers of Yuyushiki remain the most vivid in my memories of this anime, despite the fact that only two of Yuyushiki‘s original twelve episodes were actually set during the summer itself.

• One of the things about Yuyushiki that took some getting used to were the unusual facial expressions. They’re very much a part of Yuyushiki now and are a fantastic visual indicator that a character is feeling exasperated, mischievous or confused. Close inspection of this image finds Yui rendered in rather higher detail in some parts than others, while background characters remain quite two dimensional.

• I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but Yui is my favourite of the main characters. I’ve not actually been to a pool in the summer for quite some time now; while I have basic knowledge of swimming and could probably survive in water, but I’m generally not fond of pools, owing to the smell of chlorine, which lingers for a while after leaving the pool. Even the unseasonably high temperatures of this summer have not been sufficient to motivate me to visit the local pool: the most I’ve done this summer to cool off on a hot day was to buy a Pepsi-flavoured slush by evening.

• The hot summer weather of this image evokes memories of a quiet neighbourhood following the aftermath of the Great Flood of 2013: on Canada Day, the weather had been most beautiful, and I spent the day at home in the cool, playing Tribes Ascend and Vindictus after stepping out to a nearby Dairy Queen for a burger. Quiet summer days of this sort can induce a melancholy if one’s schedule is not filled, but in the time that’s passed, I have come to appreciate a quiet summer afternoon to myself, if only for the fact that I now only experience thus on weekends.

• Most of my summer activities this year involve hiking in the mountains: during the course of the summer, I made three trips out to the National Parks, compliments of the free Park Pass. The first trip of the summer was out to Yoho National Park, then I visited the Vermillion Lakes and had dinner at Melissa’s Missteak in Banff, and more recently, hiked to Lake Agnes and the Big Beehive. It’s been fantastic, and into the autumn, there are plans to visit the mountains again provided the weather is favourable.

• Besides going into the mountains, I’ve also enjoyed our equivalent of a summer festival in the Calgary Stampede, attended the GlobalFest 2017 fireworks finale show and watched Dunkirk. The weather this summer has also been quite conducive to eating watermelon and corn on the cob: we’ve had one watermelon a week since July and nothing defeats the summer heat quite like a chilled cut of watermelon. Other notable summer activities include enjoying a vast BBQ dinner at Big T’s.

• The only real downside about this summer was the fact that, the beautiful weather that has given so much opportunity to spend time outside and the associated heat also means that conditions were ideal for wildfires. To our neighbour in the West, vast fires having been burning since July, and at least twenty days have seen smokey skies. According to old weather records, the last time my city was covered by this much smoke, it was 1969. The smoke’s wrecked havoc on my lungs, and just last night, I awoken to a face full of smoke.

• It’s actually somewhat surprising to note that as I’ve enjoyed this summer to quite an extent considering my busy schedule: work’s been an uphill climb since I returned from Japan, and I fully appreciate weekends now that I’ve finished university for good. Back in Yuyushiki, Yuzuko, Yui and Yukari make for the beach. There are precisely two episodes set during the summer: the first has the girls going to a pool and spending time at Yui’s house under the air conditioning, while the second is the finale, which sees Yui and the others visiting the beach.

• In these moments, Yuyushiki conveys the sort of carefreeness associated with summer; even I feel the effects of pleasant weather on Fridays leading into a weekend, and productivity typically declines by a small margin when the day grows late. The images above illustrate the sort of skies in Yuyushiki that so effectually capture the summer feeling despite the minimalist art in Yuyushiki – other anime, including The Garden of Words, CLANNAD, Non Non Biyori and Ano Natsu de Matteru, are rather more detailed with respect to foliage and environment details to convey a sense of warmth and brightness.

• Unless I’m mistaken, Yuyushiki‘s manga is still running: it’s been four years since the anime’s original run, and there’s likely quite a bit of material that could be adapted into anime form. Having said this, Yuyushiki‘s premise is remarkably basic, even for a Kirara-kei anime; while I’d likely watch a continuation, there’s no guarantee that there is a market for more Yuyushiki.

• It feels appropriate to conclude this post with an image of Yuzuko, Yui and Yukari walking home after their day at the beach under a sunset. As summer turns to autumn, days begin shortening, and winter will be upon us once again. No longer do I mind the end of a season so greatly loved, knowing that it light return once again.

It’s been some four years since I’ve watched Yuyushiki, and the fact that the summer episodes remain quite memorable is a powerful testament to the effectiveness that the use of visual and aural elements can have in shaping the viewer’s recollections of an anime, and in retrospect, some of Yuyushiki‘s best moments are set during the long days of summer, when Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari capitalise on the weather to create their own memories. The fantastically agreeable weather also brings to mind the events of my own summer. While I’m no longer a student and therefore have no summer vacations, this has not diminished my enjoyment of the season. Owing to a high pressure system in the area, the whole of this summer has been sunny and hot: from the various hikes I’ve taken, to the quiet days spent at the local library or bookstore, from the journeys out into the mountains to watching a partial eclipse happen, this summer certainly has been enjoyable. Today is the last day of August, and with it, we march into a season where students begin returning to classes. For me, this means the gradual cooling of things, the transition of the landscape from verdant to gold, and traffic jams. In my Tamayura: More Aggressive review four years ago, I reviled this, saying that it was a return to “that most hated of seasons”; looking back on my old words, it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that my outlooks on things have changed considerably since then. Autumn is a beautiful season, with its own merits that make it worthwhile, and I imagine that this shift of heart perhaps is a sign that I’m growing older. Furthermore, contrary to my assertions four years earlier, I’ve not completely forgotten Yuyushiki, and that in itself is an indicator that the anime was worthwhile to watch.

Annoying and Being Annoyed: Yuyushiki OVA Review and Reflection

“Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!” —Joseph B. Wirthlin

The last time I had written a Yuyushiki discussion, memories of the Great Flood of 2013 were still fresh in my mind, and we were in the depths of summer. I had remarked that it might be possible that I would forget the events of Yuyushiki with the passage of time, were it not for the fact that Yuyushiki excels at a very special brand of humour surrounding everyday conversation. The events of Yuyushiki‘s anime proper concluded with the end of summer and the return to classes: this OVA, titled “Annoying and Being Annoyed” (Japanese title: “Komarasetari, Komarasaretari”), is set during autumn of the new school year, starting with the Yui, Yukari and Yuzuko share a conversation about gestures in conversation. After an ordinary day of classes and the girls’ characteristically non-sequitur conversations), they make for the data processing club room. Chiho, Kei and Fumi soon join their activities, where the topic turns to how Chiho came to be friends with Kei and Fumi. Later, on a brisk autumn’s day, Yui, Yukari and Yuzuko discuss the future as their third year approaches. The OVA marks a welcome return to the sort of nonsensical humour that drives Yuyushiki, bringing back the fun that allowed the anime to provide a lift to my spirits amidst the sunny yet melancholy July days after as the city began picking itself up from the Great Flood.

Puns and non-sequiturs, desultory thoughts about the most unusual of things is central to Yuyushiki, mirroring Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari’s everyday activities at the data processing club — this particular brand of humour is unorthodox and can be difficult to follow in places, with some even counting Yuyushiki as one of the most disappointing anime of 2013 because how things are presented. Such conversations in Yuyushiki are understandably in a format unconducive towards discussions in reality, and so, is not particularly easy to relate to, but the ridiculous situations that arise, usually whenever Yuzuko and Yukari start thinking on the same wavelength and begin exasperating Yui, wind up generating much of the humour in the anime. The OVA ultimately captures this sense succinctly, bringing the girls’ lives back into autumn. Even the change of seasons cannot alter their trains of thought or their easy-going lives — when we consider that Yuyushiki (ゆゆ式) translates directly to “serious” in English, this provides a sort of juxtaposition that shows the anime is not what its name may suggest; the girls come and go as they please, living life in the manner and pacing of their choosing, quite unconcerned with the destination and making the most of their journey.

Screenshots and Commentary

• As it turns out, I’ve not forgotten about Yuyushiki over the past several years since the Great Flood. Yuyushiki was an anime hailing back to spring 2013, running from April through June. However, I did not pick the anime up until early May, wrapping up the anime mid-July and returned in August to write about it. One way or another, it’s been some time since the likes of Yui, Yukari and Yuzuko have graced this blog, and so, for this OVA discussion, I’ve lined up the usual twenty screenshots, which also happens to be the internet’s first and only collection: no other comprehensive reviews of the Yuyushiki OVA exist at the moment of writing, so folks looking for the OVA screenshots will only have this blog as an option for the time being.

• Chiho, Kei and Fumi are the ordinary counterparts to Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari. This comparison is emphasised by contrasting their conversations to illustrate the differences in their content. These two groups generally go about their own activities, but Chiho admires Yui to an extent and longs to know her better. This brings the two groups into contact with one another, whereupon the contrast between Chiho and Yui’s friends become quite noticeable.

• Animated by Kinema Citrus, the Yuyushiki OVA seems to use a colour scheme having a reduced saturation value compared to the vivid colours of the TV series. This was especially noticeable during the summer episodes, where the skies are of a dazzling aquamarine hue to convey the heat of a summer day, so it stands to reason that, now it’s autumn in Yuyushiki, the colours are a bit more subdued to indicate cooler temperatures. The golden-yellows of the leaves pop out in this screenshot.

• Yui suppresses laughter after her conversation with Yukari about how folks tend to move their hands around while talking. From an article in Nature, it turns out that this is an ingrained part of human nature and help people formulate their thoughts, as well as for others to understand them by means of body language — individuals who are blind make gestures when talking, and our inclination is to trust people who are more expressive with their hands while talking. With this in mind, there is a moderation to this: folks who do not gesture might be seen as colder, while folks who make excessive gestures convey a sense of nervousness.

• I use science to provide some of the figure captions that arise from Yuyushiki, but in the anime itself, the nonsensical inclinations that Yuzuko and Yukari are prone to means that conversations usually go sideways, moving in a direction driven more by humour. The sudden changes in topics and ideas are possibly a hint of the shortening attention spans of H. sapiens: in an article I read, the average attention span of a person back in 2000 was twelve seconds, whereas in 2015, it was eight seconds. To put things in perspective, a goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds, so that raises the question of how many people actually have enough focus to read through all of my posts.

• It is quite fitting that in the OVA, Yui and the others begin looking up how the act of annoying others works. Reading from whatever in-universe resource stands in for Wikipedia, Yui notes that the act is to bother someone for amusement rather than malice. The English-language Wikipedia article in reality defines an annoyance to be a stimuli that distracts one’s conscious thinking, resulting in frustration and notes that annoyance can be used as a form of psychological warfare, a far cry from the gentle forms of irritation that Yuzuko and Yukari subject Yui to. Curiously enough, there is no equivalent article in Japanese at the time of writing.

• Chiho arrives at the data processing club on short order, and Yuzuko offers her Yui’s seat. The yuri elements are out in full force; Chiho is plainly flustered while sitting down in the same seat, and sweat drops are lightly emanating from her. Despite being intimidated by the shenanigans that Yuzuko and Yukari partake in, Chiho generally gets along with the Data Processing Club’s members.

• The girls’ instructor, Yoriko Matsumoto, is affectionately referred to as “mom” (お母さん) by Yuzuko, and in the series proper, is subject to some rather interesting things in the girls’ imaginations. She’s the only instructor shown at the girls’ school and occasionally drops in on the Data Processing Club to see how they’re doing.

• Back in 2013, I had just purchased a shiny new custom rig and a wide-screen monitor. Previously, I had a Dell 19-inch 4:3 monitor whose maximum resolution was 1280 by 1024, and the new monitor finally brought me into the world of 1920 by 1080. My machine has not changed since then, save a substantial upgrade to my GPU, and from the looks of it, the Data Processing Club is still rocking the computers they had back in Yuyushiki‘s anime.

• One of the aspects that gave Yuyushiki a unique feel was the fact that details in the background art is kept to a minimum. Their world is one that feels incredibly clean, almost sterile, forcing audiences to keep their focus on the characters. However, while minimalist, landscape scenes are still rendered nicely to create a specific atmosphere and backdrop to frame the characters’ interactions.

• The girls wonder about the idea of small talk, which serves a social function in defining social stature amongst a group of individuals, filling silences in conversation and acting as a means of politely marking when more formal conversations end or begin. Their topic soon reaches how Chiho befriended Kei and Fumi in spite of her shyness — Kei initiated conversation, starting off their friendship. It brings to mind the story of how I became friends with half the people in my health science faculty: our story differs in that our interactions were forged by the common interest in not getting eliminated by our first medical science inquiry course.

• There’s a gentle quality about some of the songs in Yuyushiki‘s soundtrack that capture the anime’s friendly and carefree spirits. Whether it be Yui and Yukari’s themes, or the tracks that play in the background when the girls’ minds begin wandering (such as “Monopole”, “Going Home” or “Puppy Love”), the warm songs of the soundtrack contributes substantially to the atmosphere in Yuyushiki despite being otherwise mundane compositions: my mind is pulled to the hottest days of the summer whenever these songs play in my music rotation.

• Yuyushiki kicks off in late spring, at the start of a new school year, but with only twelve episodes, it blazed through the seasons, predominantly focussing on summer and spring: only a few episodes are set in winter itself, and to the best of my recollections, the golden-yellow of autumn leaves were not shown in the TV series proper. While I expressed a distaste that the summer was ending so soon back in 2013, my perspectives have changed somewhat, and I’m presently fond of all seasons save winter, if only for the fact that windchill makes it highly uncomfortable to be outside.

• Conversations about ear-cleaning and curry parties soon give way to a restlessness that sees the girls take a walk outside in the autumn air. Yui begins thinking on her friends’ strong points: despite their relentless messing with her, Yui finds Yuzuko to be reliable and capable despite her outward actions, while Yukari’s curiosity is her most endearing feature. The cool air leads the girls back to Yui’s house, where things are rather warmer.

• Similar to Yui, I’m rather fond of books: ranging from non-fiction books explaining the effects of technology on the mind and how learning to cook our food might have contributed to the growth of human intelligence to Tom Clancy novels and even manga, my personal library expanded over the past few years, requiring a new bookshelf to hold everything. Unlike Yui, who’s rather embarrassed to read her book out loud, I have no qualms reading any of my texts out loud, except for maybe Strike Witches: The Sky That Connects Us.

• One of the most distinct aspects about Yuyushiki is the unusual transformation of the characters’ eyes whenever they are deeply confused, irritated or mischievous. Looking back on my old Yuyushiki posts, I note that the figure captions were much more simple and feature more one-liners. The most infamous one follows Auralnauts’ Bane Outtakes. It’s quite surprising as to how much time has passed since I first found the Bane Outtake reels; besides a hilarious depiction of the first fight between the Batman and Bane, it also has Freestyle Bane, which features one of the best mic drops of all time.

• The Yuyushiki OVA is set in October 2013: in the TV series, Yoriko is looking through a calendar at the end of summer vacation that is dated September 2013. I was enrolled in open studies at the time while trying to figure out my future directions, and was taking a Japanese history course, as well as a course on proteins. Having only three courses meant that I had a bit more free time than usual, accounting for the large number of blog posts during this time frame — by this point in time, I’d largely retired my old website and wrote posts entirely here.

• Evening sets in, and the girls head home; Yuzuko resolves to take a bath the instant she gets back, and resolves to sound like a train before entering said bath. One aspect of Yuyushiki that surprises me to no end is the fact that Yukari is voiced by Risa Taneda (Aya Komichi of Kiniro Mosaic and Rize Tedeza of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?): gentle and air-headed in quality, Risa’s voice in Yuyushiki lacks the shyness of Aya’s or the decisiveness and confidence in Rize’s voice, attesting to her skill as a voice actress.

• Later during the quiet evening, Yui discovers that there is indeed a love story in the novel she’d just purchased and transmits this knowledge to Yukari and Yuzuko. In a quiet evening of my own, while I relax after a dinner of southern fried chicken, my mind turns to how different things are now in comparison to when I first watched Yuyushiki. It’s been quite the journey, and I was happy to learn that there would be a Yuyushiki OVA at all: news of the OVA’s existence was announced March last year, although I only heard about the OVA in January.

• At the end of the day, the Yuyushiki OVA is intended for folks who’ve seen and enjoyed Yuyushiki back during 2013. Returning fans will find it to be a pleasant trip down memory lane, bringing back the best aspects of Yuyushiki, while those who dislike Yuyushiki will find the OVA to be quite disjointed and incoherent. With this OVA now in the books, I turn my eye to Kiniro Mosaic: Pretty Days  — this OVA is fifty minutes in runtime and deals predominantly with Aya.

In the three and a half years since I wrote my last Yuyushiki discussion, a great deal has occurred. That I still vividly recall Yuyushiki is an indicator of the anime’s memorability: far from being dull and derivative, the unusual conversation topics, situations and even art style has allowed Yuyushiki to remain a clear memory that brings to mind the events of summer 2013. Thus, the OVA is a welcome return to the world that is Yuyushiki, and a cursory glance at the manga shows that it is still ongoing. If the anime performed reasonably well with respect to sales, it is possible that a continuation could be in consideration. A bit of inspection finds that five years of manga content corresponds to twelve episodes’ worth of material. Since Yuyushiki received an anime adaptation in 2013, five years after it began running in Manga Time Kirara, it might be reasonable to estimate that a continuation could be seen in 2018, although these time spans suggest that this Yuyushiki OVA might be the last of the anime we’ll see in the foreseeable future. This is a shame, since Yuyushiki proved to be quite entertaining with its uncommon approach to building humour — I would’ve liked to see more of this anime and what adventures await Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari as they enter their third year.

Yuyushiki Review

The summer is in its dying days by this point, and I will hopefully have some midseason impressions for some of the series I am following before this week is out. For the immediate present, however, my attention turns towards the second half of Yuyushiki, which I finished long ago but failed to discuss until recently. My interest in Yuyushiki was motivated by its initial premise of data processing, but as time wore on, it was obvious that there was very little in the way of actual data processing: the show is about everything and nothing, occasionally passing to its viewers some interesting trivia. As such, the end product is a very slow-paced show that exemplifies what one might do in the absence of other activities: browse an online encyclopaedia or Google.

• In around a year, I’m probably going to forget about Yuyushiki completely. Then, one day, I’ll be digging through my hard drive, and come across all of the episodes. Taken by curiosity, i’ll take a look and then suddenly recall why it is I came to enjoy this anime. For this final review, I have only ten images, because most of my thoughts at the halfway point still hold true for the present.

• I can’t quite recall what led to this moment, but I can recall its similarity to what happens in Adam Richman’s Man V. Food and the consequences of a spicy challenge. In general, Richman is successful at completing the spicy challenges, with the exception of one challenge in Saratosa, wherein the hot wings in the challenge annihilated him before two minutes even elapsed. Upon seeing the episode for the first time, I hoped that the MCAT would not do that to me, and thankfully, it didn’t.

• Yuzuko and Yukari converse in popping noises that irritate Yui to no end. This was one of the most amusing moments in the latter half of the series, and Yui’s “quit popping already” requests sound equally as amusing.

• The last home economic class I’ve done was back when I was still a high school student. Since then, I haven’t cooked for a class, but I have cooked at parties with friends and at home where required.

• The single most enjoyable aspect about Yuyushiki was the fact that each episode touched lightly on various, diverse topics of curiosity, ranging from ice cream to Japanese interpretations of ogres (not the graphics engine) and solar subjects (e.g. the Maunder Minimum and Zeller’s Congruence).

• While data processing is reduced to what we consider the equivalent of browsing random Google searches and doing Wiki walks, I imagine that most readers would probably have done the same at least once in this day and age purely out of boredom or while procrastinating from other things (say, work and school).

• Yuzuko and Yukari spend a lot of time at Yui’s house, having good times in general and opening up the possibility of jokes and gags otherwise not possible at school. On closer inspection, the best parts of summer always involve either going places or going to a friend’s house. On Friday, I was invited to a raclette party out of the blue and spent the evening chatting with friends while grilling sausages and melting cheese, all the while talking about everything and listening to my friends sing in an unexpectedly epic manner.

• The use of lighting in this depiction of Yui (actually used in the anime; for the curious, it’s in the finale) create a more three-dimensional image with the impression of depth and contour, sharply contrasting the flatter art style seen elsewhere in the anime. However, owing to the content in this image, I’ve decided to not provide links to their original 1080p or 720p resolutions.

• The final episode is titled “Uneventful good life”, a phrase that describes the entirety of Yuyushiki neatly: the anime ends up being a light-hearted series about nothing in particular and comes across as the perfect anime to watch for those lazy summer days following the end of yet another academic year.

• Yuyushiki makes a complete circle and returns to where it started on the first episode, only this time, Yui is a lot more confident and willing to hang with her friends as yet another school year starts.

I’ve kept this discussion short because all of my thoughts have already been exhausted by my previous mid-season post. At the time of writing, I remain pleased with the anime for its capacity to evoke the calm feelings associated with the halcyon days in one’s life. However, there is one additional element that now contributes to this atmosphere that was not considered previously: the anime has a soundtrack that suits all of the moods Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari experience, ranging from relaxing to wistful to elegant, and even chaos. Naturally, some of the songs are more memorable than others, and the best tracks truly convey the atmospherics in Yuyushiki. Thus, taken together, the combined art style, complete lack of a story and the gentle music serve to reinforce that Yuyushiki is an anime directed at reflecting upon and exaggerating the more interesting moments in the older days of one’s life. In general, the high school setting of most anime is intentional for the nostalgic values, but I contend that one’s days as an undergraduate student are equally interesting; it is only when one decides to take graduate studies or enter the workforce where this will become apparent. Beyond one’s undergraduate career, most anime will gradually become predictable and uninspired, largely owing to the fact that there won’t be anything new in a medium directed at audiences in their high school or undergraduate days. For the present, however, anime still remains amusing to watch, even if they bring nothing new to the table. Thus, I do not openly recommend Yuyushiki to all audiences, even though I myself thoroughly enjoyed it. Individuals with an open mind and/or busy, hectic work and/or academic schedules who find some spare time may enjoy Yuyushiki simply because it is so laid-back and whimsical in nature.

Yuyushiki Gallery

This was made after a request to host this for folks at TV Tropes, to help them better illustrate some examples. From the sounds of things, the previous links led to a compromised website, so I hope this new gallery helps.

Yuyushiki Original Soundtrack, “Feeling good (nice) wind”, to release July 17

As per the title, the Yuyushiki Original Soundtrack is set for a release on July 17. That is a little more than a day away at the time of writing; the OST itself will retail for ¥2000 (around 22 CAD) and consists of 39 tracks, a surprisingly large number considering the nature of Yuyushiki.

• Yuyushiki ended up being one of the more unusual series for the Spring 2013 season. The background music adds a heart-warming, relaxing atmosphere to the show, bringing to mind a handful of tracks from the Girls und Panzer soundtrack, where a few piano pieces are used to cover what I’ve come to refer to as “Miho’s Theme”.

I noted that there would be 39 tracks: in all their glory, they are presented below. Owing to the length of the anime relative to the number of tracks, I imagine that some of the songs would be quite short, although I could be quite wrong.

1. SE-NO ! (OP Theme Arrange)
2. Skipping
3. TekiPaki (Yui’s Theme)
4. Morning Waltz
5. Pastoral Song
6. Good Grief!
7. Monopole
8. Slow Tempo (Oka-san Theme)
9. Give Me More Energy
10. Cheerful
11. Small Good Stories
12. Pizzicart (Cute Ver.)
13. Talking and Shouting
14. Screw up
15. High-Tension
16. Fresh
17. PoyoPoyo (Yuzuko’s Theme)
18. Thinking Time
19. Drinking Song
20. Play Tag
21. March
22. Marimba Dance
23. Wonderful Time
24. Dramatic
25. Emotion
26. Wurli (Elegant Ver.)
27. Old Blues Man
28. The Sorrowful Story
29. Got of Long-T
30. FuwaFuwa (Yukari’s Theme)
31. Nostalgic
32. Go Home
33. Carefree
34. Spring Flowers
35. Summer Vacation
36. In The Fall
37. Winter Bell
38. Puppy Love
39. Affection (ED Theme Arrange)

Detractors might be wondering why I’m even bothering to talk about the Yuyushiki soundtrack, given that the anime itself does not do anything unique with its data processing premise. While the anime itself is unremarkable with respect to these aspects, it proved to be a fun series in its own right. This factor is augmented by the music, which seems particularly well suited for the kind of atmosphere this anime evokes. Much as how Yui, Yuzuko and Yukari do random, endearing things throughout the anime’s run, the music is gentle and light-hearted. In particular, there are a few songs that capture my interest owing to their unique composition: I do wish to hear them in their original glory.

Yuyushiki and Zeller’s Congruence: A midseason discussion

“Quick! In the Head Museum! It’s free on Tuesdays!” -Bender, Space Pilot 3000

December 31, 2999 is in fact a Tuesday, and the use of Zeller’s Congruence can be used to verify this claim. Zeller’s Congruence is also seen in Yuyushiki: we’re now past the halfway point in the anime, so it makes sense to consider what I feel about this show after six episodes. Thus far, we’ve seen Yui, Yukari and Yuzoko partake in traditional summer events, recall their childhoods, talk about whales and potatoes, enjoy nabe with Yoriko Matsumoto, their teacher and even watch as Yui goes on a sleep-deprived rampage after she spends an entire night reading a book.

• Yuyushki is considered to have countless similarities to Lucky Star, and admittedly, the unusual character designs, paired with the premise of information processing, led me to pick up the show, despite it not being in my list of things to watch initially. Of course, I now have more shows to watch than there are seconds on the clock, but the relatively few anime that interest me from the summer offerings might permit me to catch up.

• [Bane’s Voice] Wait…I have something to tell you: stop hitting yourself!

• Someone’s probably going to have my head for posting this image, but Yuzuko’s daydream was too amusing to pass up.

• I watched the first episode way back in in May, a little more than a month ago and noted that their computer screens are probably of the 21 or 23 inch 1080p type. Had I watched this anime back in April, I might’ve been a little envious: ever since January, I found myself wishing that I had a widescreen monitor, which would have helped me write papers more efficiently (on Windows 7 and 8, the snap feature allows windows to be viewed side-by-side), but I only picked up new hardware, well, you guessed it, after finishing my thesis.

• Chiho Aikawa is a classmate of the girls and the class president. She is a quiet girl who admires Yui a lot and wants to become friends with her, but is usually intimidated by Yuzuko and Yukari’s antics.

• Nope, not going to deal with these n00bs today, telegraphs Yui, who is seen here hiding behind a workbook of some sort.

• Fanservice is pretty limited in this anime, but there is a fair portion of episode two dedicated to talking about…well, I’m not going to go there.

• Insofar, Yuyushiki has been less about data processing and more about the outrageous antics the girls partake in in their day-to-day lives. Slice-of-life anime are enjoyable (for me) because they remind me of my high school days, and also because believe it or not, university has been a similarly unique experience.

• Yuyushiki carries over the unique characterisation style from Lucky Star and the girls-love overtones from Yuru Yuri. There are also more comical, random elements that find themselves at home in Nichijou.

• Yui’s sleep-deprived state is immensely amusing to watch. I’ve spent a handful of days in a partially awake state, usually as a result of not sleeping well and developing a headache. To reduce its impacts, I carry Advil in my office to prevent myself from being too heavily affected from coding.

At the near-exact halfway point of the anime, Zeller’s Congruence is discussed as a means of determining the day of week. Upon hitting their equivalent of Wikipedia, Yuzuko and the others find the mathematical expressions for both the Gregorian and Julian calendars, although they are unable to understand how the equation itself operates. Carrying out the calculation itself turns out to be a relatively simple matter, requiring only a basic understanding the floor operation. The expression itself consists of simple operations, as well as a handful of floor operators and the modulo operator: the former simply means “round to the lowest integer” (e.g. the floor of 1.9 and 1.3 is 1), and the modulo operator finds the remainder in a division operation (e.g. 15 mod 7 is 1). Thus, let’s give the Zeller’s Congruence a spin for December 31, 2999. I will ignore the software implementation for this example, and assume that we are using the Gregorian Calendar. For h as the day of week (0 = Saturday, 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday, etc.), q as the day of month, m as the month, K as the year of the century and J as the century. Then:

Thus, using Zeller’s Congruence, we have demonstrated that December 31, 2999, will indeed be a Tuesday. Similarly, the equation yield h = 4 when asked for the day of week for January 1, 2020 (by the same methodologies above, although we use m = 13, k = 19 and J = 20 owing to special parameters used in the algorithm). This corresponds to a Wednesday, as expected. Unlike Yuzuko, I have some background in mathematics, so wielding this equation is not particularly problematic. After watching Yuyushiki and pursuing Wikipedia, some Tropers have come across the same page, which tells them that Zeller’s Congruence is for determining the day of week of any date on a Gregorian or Julian Calendar, although much of TVTropes’ user base will run into the same problem Yuzuko did, lacking the mathematical background required to wield the equation.

• On a typical day, I only have hot food during dinner, making it especially delicious. For the sake of inconvenience and efficiency, I prefer eating things that are quick in the mornings and during lunch; this is not to say they don’t taste good.

• I was originally wondering how I would go and add figure captions for all twenty of the screenshots, but I realised that I could probably talk about random stuff that (somewhat) pertains to the images the caption is supposed to accompany.

• Apparently, human interest in cute things is an evolutionary characteristic: our attraction to cute things, such as infants and children, arose from selection choosing for individuals who were more interested in taking care of small children and infants. Because parents who took more care of their offspring were more likely to pass on there genes, this behaviour would eventually have a higher proportion in a population and as such, modern society values cuteness.

• I remember this one time, I was watching a game of Street Fighter II and began laughing so hard, I was crying. The damage mechanics, coupled with unique sounds in Street Fighter II make a handful of unique jokes. I also recall laughing myself silly over some of the stuff that happens in Pure Pwnage (most notably, FPS_Doug’s antics and Jeremy’s tendency to pelvic thrust his CRT screen upon a victory). Laughing to the point of tears is supposed to be healthy in moderation.

• Admit it, the English version on Wikipedia of the Zeller’s Congruence is significantly easier to read. I’ve provided an example of how it works above: the equation is probably beyond the scope of materials that most high schools cover, but university students should feel right at home with the floor and ceiling operators.

• Yui resorts to her fists to keep Yuzuko in check after the latter tries to blackmail Yoriko into letting them have hotpot on campus in their clubroom.

• This is the first time I’ve seen crab meat in nabe: nabe differs from Chinese hotpot in that all of the ingredients are mixed together and cooked all at once, while the versions I’m used to involve cooking the meat first, followed by seafood and vegetables, and the noodles last, resulting in the flavour from everything put in previously to imbue with all of their flavours.

• Voiced by Minami Tsuda, Yui behaves in a very similar manner to Yui Funami from Yuru Yuri. Yuzuko, on the other hand, is voiced by Rumi Oubuko, who also played Chinatsu Yoshikawa from Yuru Yuri. Unlike Chinatsu, Yuzuko’s innocent nature does not belie a more evil side.

• In anime, the cameras are almost always “conveniently” placed for the viewer’s amusement, except maybe mine, especially since I choose my titles very carefully to avoid this stuff, and thus, are usually found watching anime in the presence of others, who don’t particularly mind my hobby. However, when this stuff shows up, people start asking questions.

• I’d never thought I’d actually be able to generate figure captions for this many images, but here you go.

Insofar, Yuyushiki has turned out to be a remarkably simple anime that is more minimalist than even Lucky Star in the way of story, focusing almost entirely on the girls’ daily lives. What sets Yuyushiki apart from other anime of this class would be its unique integration of data processing into the mix, making it fun to see what the girls will look up and summarise next. From a practical perspective, the girls are really getting nothing of value done (their club activities are essentially equivalent to looking up various topics on Wikipedia), but this aspect is forgiven owing to how well it interfaces with the girls’ unique personalities, making the anime a light-hearted alternative to the more focused series that this season has to offer. I note that I am following Suisei no Gargantia, Yahari ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru and Ore no Imouto ga konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai (second season) at the present and will discuss those in greater detail, hopefully before June ends.