Yuri Seijin Naoko-san

For those of you wondering why I'm not starting horror anime month today, it's because I should've posted this two days ago. So, Yuri Seijin Naoko-san is an OVA based on a long running manga that ran from '05 to '14 and had 110 chapters. This OVA came out in '10, so a little over halfway to the end of the manga. The manga was also done by ufotable, the studio behind Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, Fate/Zero and Kara no Kyoukai. Story: We open with a quick introduction, Naoki is an alien here to bring yuri to the world. She's staying with Misuzu and there's agroper on the loose. From there we get six minutes of hyperactive "comedy." That's the big issue with this OVA. They throw out "jokes" very quickly and energetically, but they aren't really funny. At best there might be a couple in there that almost get a chuckle but because they're so keen on moving from one gag to the next and just throwing in as many jokes as possible, there's no real time to build up the jokes properly or give them good pay offs. I kind of wonder if the manga is one of those four panel strip ones and ufotable just didn't know how to translate that into an anime properly. Characters: What you get for the characters is a vague schtick. Naoko loves girls and does hijinks. Misuzu is the "straight man" character. The little brother is the butt monkey who takes abuse for our theoretical entertainment. Mizuzu's friend Hii-chan is the one who gets easily caught up in the craziness. In theory, I could see those character types working in a comedy. They just don't execute it well with this one. Art: You might expect a studio to at least make a six minute OVA look really good. That's not what we get, however. The art in this is pretty cheap and low effort. It's like something a single person could animate for Youtube or one of those sites with Flash animations. It doesn't look bad. It just doesn't look like the product of a professional studio. Sound: Speaking of things that seem amateurish, let's talk about the acting. The line deliveries in this are all a bit awkward. Frankly, I blame the directing because I've heard Arai Satomi and Nonaka Ai give strong performances. I know they can act. But if this was my first time hearing them, I would have trouble believing that. Ho-yay: For an OVA about a yuri alien, there's very little actual les-yay. We know Naoko likes girls and that's pretty much it. Areas of Improvement: 1. Pace your jokes better. Frankly, you could put half the jokes in this OVA and it would be much funnier. All you'd have to do is give them some proper build up and stronger pay off. 2. Better Animation. I don't know what ufotable wanted with this OVA but when you only have six minutes to work with, you really need to make those six minutes look fantastic. Which they definitely didn't do. 3. Better direction for the actors. Because the acting in this is really not good. Final Thoughts: I'd hesitate to call this a bad OVA. It's more that everything in it isn't quite up to par. From the rapid fire jokes that never land to the characters to the art to the acting. Well, maybe the acting is actually bad. It's all not properly realised. As such, I'm giving Yuri Seijin Naoko-san a 4/10. As for whether or not you should watch it, it's only six minutes so if you're curious, go for it. If it just sounds stupid, go ahead and skip it. Look at some Axelstation on Youtube or find another talented artist who does gag animations instead. You are liable to find something funnier that way.

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