Yurikuma Arashi

Episode 6

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

So Kaoru really is evil. KUMA-SHOCK!

At least we know what's up with Kaoru now. She's Lady Touga, the hypocritical student executor of the evil authority's whims in Revolutionary Girl Utena. They even have the same bedroom. Lady Touga, however, implies a Lady Akio, and there's only one person left who might fit that profile.

But first, let's talk about bees.

I think I might have figured out what's going on - the academy is a “beehive” in that it's designed to produce food for bears, specifically one bear, who rules over it as the “queen.” While the hexagonal “honeycomb” pattern isn't all that common around the school, the overall look of the academy is chambered and segmented

In fact, bees are an almost entirely female species. They're also somewhat interchangeable with birds as a symbol. They're both pollinators, and thus associated with heterosexual reproduction in conjunction with flowers, such as lilies. Bees are hierarchical, with one “queen” living off of the workers. But who could this bee be? Well, head honcho Kaoru was shown reporting to another person (while nude and in bed, of course). While the framing makes this person's identity ambiguous, the one glimpse we're given reveals a figure too mature for anyone in the show besides the one adult woman – Yuriika. Considering all of the shady stuff surrounding her, she's probably the Lady Akio to Kaoru's Lady Touga. She certainly shares his penchant for statutory rape.

I think the academy is Yuriika's farm. She engineers the Exclusion Ceremony in order to depress and isolate specific girls, whom she subsequently targets. For what purpose? I'm not sure. The predation metaphor runs deep, so there's definitely a food/sex element to it. If there's some sort of Child Broiler-esque sacrificial mechanism at its root, Yurikuma hasn't revealed it yet, but that would definitely clinch the recurring bee imagery.

Some notes on reading symbolism: it's best not to approach an Ikuhara show in terms of static symbols. It's not so much that “birds” always mean “freedom” in every situation, for example. His symbolism floats between different meanings depending on the context of a scene. It's better to think of symbols in terms of their associations with other symbols. Turning this example to bees, in Lulu's episode, bees represented her hatred. On the Wall of Severance, however, the honeycomb pattern (bee association) represents its purpose as a symbol of separation and conformity. These meanings aren't contradictory – they're just different ways of reading “bee” that inform the situation, but are likewise informed by context. “Bee as hatred” and “bee as separation” can even operate at the same time, but on different levels. Lulu's bee is also an isolating agent, while the Wall of Severance is constructed out of hatred.

We got some insight into Sumika as well. She was a gentle person who admired Kureha's strength and chose to martyr herself for her lover's happiness, much like Lulu. It turns out that she was a participant in the Exclusion Ceremony up until she fell in love with Kureha. When she saw Kureha's name come up on the inquisition's list, Sumika defended her, only to be targeted herself. She decides to break up with Kureha in order to protect her, writing a letter to that effect. However, Yurizono killed Sumika before Kureha could open the letter. Sumika had arranged for Kaoru to become Kureha's replacement partner/friend, but that turned out to have been a trick – Kaoru was just using Sumika to hurt Kureha.

After Sumika's death, Kaoru finds another way to integrate the letter into her plans. Having faked a friendship with Kureha for a while, Kaoru throws an elaborate birthday party for her at the lily garden. Kureha, at the peak of her happiness, opens the letter and learns that Sumika was planning to leave her. Kaoru reveals to a distraught Kureha that the class' kindness was an act, sets the lilies on fire, and chucks Sumika's letter into the blaze. Ginko runs over, throws herself into the fire, and rescues the letter as the inquisition disperses.

This looks like the event that will push Kureha and Ginko/Lulu together. It needed to happen – Kureha was still hostile towards her freeloaders – and it happened through the most emotionally resonant moment of the show so far. Sumika's letter, meant to destroy Kureha, instead points to Ginko as her real “new friend.” Ginko and Lulu are agents from outside a system meant to entrap Kureha. They can throw a wrench into its plans and liberate her.

This episode's one flaw is some confusion over the exact goings-on between Sumika and Kaoru. I didn't realize until the second viewing that Kaoru was manipulating Sumika the whole time. Notably, Kureha and Sumika are shown naked in bed together, indicating that they're having for-realsies sex. It's not just "Class S romantic friendship" pussyfooting; these two are a serious couple. In fact, all of the girls are probably having sex. Kaoru definitely is, and with a woman, in spite of her homophobia. (This makes for another echo of Touga, who tells his sister that homosexuality is wrong while shacking up with Akio.)

Visually, it's like Ikuhara is in a competition to top himself over how beautiful he can make an episode with as little animation as possible. The “Moon Girl and Forest Girl” sequence is the show's most stunning one so far, and it's pretty much a slideshow. Thematically, it was just a reiteration of the show's themes – two girls yearn to transcend the arbitrary social barrier between them and must destroy their self-images in order to do so – but it's good that they're doing this. Yurikuma is less “repeating itself,” and more carefully expanding on its very tight thesis, episode by episode. It doesn't go on tangents. By contrast, both Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum are extremely tangential, sometimes to their detriment. I'm impressed by how Yurikuma manages to convey the same thematic material over and over while still giving me new insight into its trajectory. With each new episode, I feel that I've both learned something new and had my hypotheses confirmed.

If I had any qualms about Yuri Kuma Arashi in the beginning, they're all gone now. Ikuhara's still got it. On to the second half.

Grade: A

Yuri Kuma Arashi is currently streaming on Funimation.