Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san

Every season, every year, there are new shows that you shouldn’t watch with your parents or little siblings around. The ecchi and harem category constitutes for bringing glorious fan service at every way possible. I’m not going to lie, watching Yuragi-sou n Yuuna-san (Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs) felt like diving into a pleasure of ecstasy. Based on the manga of the same name, it felt inevitable this show would eventually get animated on TV. It was just a matter of not if but when. The time came when the series decided to adapt itself into 12 episodes for a 1-cour season. What does that mean? Well, that pretty much says the anime will not cover most of the material from the manga. It’s a disappointment to fans for who wanted to see some of their favorite chapters in anime form. But make no mistake, this show still has what it takes to bring on fan service to a level that is satisfying. It’s not rocket science to figure out but the show features a harem of girls and a main male protagonist. Fuyuora Kogarashi is the lucky (or perhaps misfortunate depending on how you look at it) guy with an ability to see supernatural entities. After training and learning to fight against spirits, he is now looking for a normal life. This lands him to a boarding house known as the Yuragi Manor where his life really takes a turn. Pretty simple story right? To be honest, this show’s plot is about as simple as it gets. Kogarashi is the standard protagonist who encounters a variety of beautiful girls. The most unusual one though is actually not human but takes the shape of a ghost. Meet Yuuna Yunohana, the female Casper of the inn! I’ll be straightforward here. You better get used to seeing fan service like ass, boobs, and compromising scenes often in the show. It’s an ecchi that doesn’t try to hide its intentions from day one. The first episode easily positions Kogarashi as an accidental pervert when he gets into some awkward moments with Yuuna. It’s a bit impractical considering Yuuna isn’t human but the show loves to create these moments for the sake of fan service. Despite being a ghost, Yuuna is actually very innocent when it comes to feelings and is very shy about herself. Unfortunately, we don’t truly know more about her past although the show makes it clear that she’s not malicious in any way or form. The character chemistry between her and Kogarashi is very noticeable as the two understands each other more. As a show with a harem, expect girls of all type of personalities. Ninja girl Sagiri is serious and overreacts when she is complimented by others. Yaya Fushiguro has a cat-like personality of always being curious with playful energy. Nonko adds more of the adult humor in this series with her carelessness and seemingly never taking anything serious (with exception of manga drawing) Chitose Nakai has a more mature personality and is very helpful towards others. Then, there’s Chisaki, a friendly girl that misunderstands many situations in the show especially regarding men. You get the big picture here? It’s a troupe of female characters that fills almost every category of harem archetypes. If you don’t fancy harem shows of similar nature (example: To-Love Ru), you’re not going to find much enjoyment here. And unfortunately, don’t expect much character development from them either. It’s a 12 episode show that pretty much dedicates itself like supernatural sit-com of misadventures. Almost every episode consists of story segments to show Kogarashi’s new unusual life. There’s going to be tons of misunderstandings and teasing all around. As it also contains supernatural elements, expect some common logic to be thrown out the doors. To be honest, I didn’t really care who the studio for this show would be in the end as long as they made the characters look faithful. Thankfully, that is the case even though a studio like Xebec took on the project. Oh who am I kidding? They did work on the To-Love Ru franchise before. Nonetheless, expect fan service to be saturated all over the place. Some of the moments from this series also reminds me of To-Love Ru especially when Kogarashi accidentally gropes a girl’s chest, ass, or some other private body part. The main selling point is the character reactions as some characters tends to overreact more than others (I’m looking at you, Sagiri, Yuuna, and Chisaki) There’s a lot of suggestive camera angles on the female characters so be ready for that too. While the technical quality of the show isn’t anything spectacular, it definitely leaves little to the imagination when it comes to that fan service. It’s a harem. It has fan service. It’s sexy. There are probably countless other words to describe Yuragi-sou no Yuuna but it’s pretty much you’d expect. There’s nothing really unique about it with its harem cast and daily shenanigans. I can say honestly that fan service can be sold well to an audience when it has a clear mission in mind. For this particular anime, they completed that mission.