Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night

Marinate1016★ 10

It’s honestly hard to quantify exactly what Yorukura has meant to me over these last 3 months, but I’m going to try to express it. This show and its cast have been an irreplaceable part of my life and ignited a fire in me that few anime have. It’s the type of show that motivates you to be a better person and take risks to seize what you want in life. It’s the type of anime that lets you know it’s ok to be yourself. Shows like this come around only every so often, and I’m glad I was here for this one. Doga Kobo areno strangers to blowing my mind. They’re one of my favourite studios, producing some of my favourite series from Plamemo, to Yesterday wo Utatte and Oshi no Ko. This studio has shown time and again they’re able to create magical anime with characters you can truly empathise with and relatable themes. Yorukura, their latest anniversary work is right there at the top. It’s one of several amazing female driven musical anime this season, but in my opinion it stands head and shoulders above the rest thanks to its cast and themes. Those themes being anything from depression, suicide, bullying, gender dysphoria, sexuality, hopelessness, abusive parents, the toxic Japanese entertainment industry, etc. Some real dark stuff gets tackled in here and it’s done in a very tasteful way and feels real. The other big thing for me is the cast. These girls are amazing and I don’t know how I’m going to get through the weeks without them going forward. Seeing a group of girls who seemingly come from completely different backgrounds come together and bond over their desire to pursue their artistic endeavours was very heartwarming. Basically all the girls in the story had dreams that they gave up on. Whether it’s drawing, singing or being a vtuber, for one reason or another they lost their way in life and abandoned the things that really make them happy. By meeting one another, they’re given the encouragement needed to pursue those creative ambitions again and find purpose. It’s something that I think a lot of people can really relate to. Sometimes life happens and we just stop doing the things we used to enjoy, or we even lose faith in ourselves. Having someone that believes in you and encourages you to continue working at what you want in life and to improve in that is beautiful. The girls’ dynamic could not be better in this one and it made every episode a joy to watch. Further to that point, when a couple of the girls get back into the things they love to do, it’s revealed they’re doing it because another cast member is their motivation. I like that the characters gradually realise this isn’t a healthy or sustainable approach either. Validation and satisfaction can only come from within and singing for others or drawing for others won’t make you love yourself or your work. The writing is just so good here and as someone who has done things that I enjoy, but got lost in seeking approval from other people I related a lot. In a way, Yorukura also acts as a pushback on the traditional Japanese ideology that “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” This refers to the need to conform in Japanese society. All these girls are social outsiders in a sense and deal with a ton of pressure to fit in. By the end of the show, they all realise that it’s more important to be happy with yourself than to fit in and I just think that’s such a powerful message that kids, especially Japanese kids today need to hear. Of course you can’t talk about this one without the Yuri undertones as well. Actually, undertones aren’t even a good word. This show is gay, gay as hell and in the best way possible. There’s proper lesbian confessions and clear romantic inclinations between characters. What I like most though is that that didn’t define the girls. Yea, they might be queer, but they’re so much more than that and that’s all in the background while the story focuses on them as people and developing to overcome past trauma and insecurities. I think one of my biggest pet peeves in fiction is when a relationship or sexuality is someone’s entire personality, sure that’s nice to get, but let’s not minimise characters to just being romantic tropes and I think Yorukura’s author nails it perfectly. Honestly, this comes as no surprise as Yaku sensei, who also wrote Tomozaki kun, is one of my favourite authors and has a talent for writing realistic teenaged/young adult characters who do things that kids their age in real life would. They’re kind, thoughtful, selfish, nasty, lost, hopeful and hopeless all at the same time just like we are in real life. People are complex and when an anime can capture that, it’s special. Production wise, wow man. Doga Kobo have never made a bad looking anime, but this is their best looking yet, which is saying something because Oshi no Ko looked amazing. Just every aspect of this show was masterfully crafted and elegantly designed. The character models, the letterbox aspect ration emphasising impactful moments, the seiyuus, the musical performances, it’s just all.. great. If it sounds like I’m gushing over this show and biased, it’s true, I am. I unapologetically love everything about Yorukura and it’s changed my life for the better. An instant classic and one of the best anime originals ever in my opinion. A must watch for any fan of realistic characters, and those who had big dreams, but maybe lost their way. Keep going. Yorukura gets a very easy 10, out of 10

Mcsuper★ 7

Music anime with girl bands or groups being the focus have never been more prominent in the anime sphere, with recent hits like Bocchi the Rock, and old hits like K-On. In this season alone, we saw the revitalization of another old music hit in Sound! Euphonium Season 3, and new kids on the block in Girls Band Cry, and Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night. There’s so much that writers can do with this type of show, from stories of inspiration, stories of young people trying to find their passion, or in other cases, more comedy-oriented shows that serve to brighten up one’s day.In the end, the formula remains similar, to showcase the growth of the characters and their differing personalties, through their involvement in a music group. Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night is a bit of an odd case to me, because while it has its share of light-hearted moments, and the comedy is snappy and quite honestly, amazing at times, it also goes down the slippery slope of leaning into heavy melodrama. With the limited runtime that this had, with just twelve episodes, it was a bit of a questionable decision to me. In the first number of episodes, it was all about how people motivate each other, rather it was through art, music, or any other expressive outlet, and it was indeed very interesting. As the characters got introduced, they were characterized through various backstories that showed how tough their pasts were, or how they got to know other characters in the show. I’m not always a big fan of that story structure, as while it might provide great emotional highs, I’d much rather see the characters get characterized with how they act in the present, which this show does eventually do as well. I call this an odd case, because each individual bit of character drama was honestly handled quite well, with very realistic and relatable struggles, for example, wanting to enjoy and behave in a way that people think is “childish”, or having one’s path to stardom broken because of a response to injustice. It led to some brilliant character chemistry between the members of JELEE for sure, but I also don’t think the drama contributed to the big picture of the story well enough, and also got in the way of what I expected the show to be more like, which was seeing the creative process of JELEE’s music. To do all this in twelve episodes is no easy feat, and I just do not think there was enough time here to flesh everything out. The messages were really good, the pieces were there, but with twelve episodes, it was virtually impossible to fit in the progression of JELEE and the character drama, leading to various aspects feeling contrived and rushed, lacking the organic growth that we could have seen if this series had more of a runtime. JELEE gains a following in almost no time at all due to a timeskip, Mahiru’s art is suddenly highly respected from being mocked just a few episodes prior. Suddenly, a performance at a venue happens with not much build up. A career is put to a halt because of one single internet warrior. The antagonistic character suddenly goes along with what the protagonist proposes. You get my drift. Could this all have been fit into twelve episodes if the script was just a bit tighter? It’s hard to say how this anime should have went, because on the one hand, if you don’t have the comedy and light-hearted moments, the audience would not have as much of an attachment to the characters and their respective personalities, though on the other hand, if you don’t have the drama, the plot does not move forward. The best anime series are able to balance both the aspects of character building and pacing effectively. I do believe that the script could have been a bit tighter with the removal of a few characters, such as Baba and Koharu, so that the eventual drama could be less contrived. Again, I want to emphasize that the individual stories were good, but they just did not mesh well enough with each other. Some emphasis of side characters took away from Kano and Mahiru’s issues, and led to the overall storyline being resolved rather haphazardly. Visually, this anime is stunning. Props to Ryouhei Takeshita for directing this as well as he did. It had a very snappy feeling in the editing made it a great vessel for comedic timing, which I still believe is the strongest part about this anime. I might not have agreed with some of the drama, but the way some of the dramatic scenes were directed was superb, along with the sound direction, to illicit as much emotion as they could out of the viewers. Furthermore, the voice acting performances here were excellent. Shout out to Rie Takahashi, Miyu Tomita, Miku Itou, and Miyuri Shimabukuro for their incredible work as Kano, Kiui, Mahiru, and Mei, respectively. There were also several music videos from JELEE that served as special ending themes, and you could see the improvement in the visuals with each passing music video. That type of subtle growth was what I wanted this anime to be like, but obviously, it went in a different direction. With how solid the first few episodes were, I think it really showed that sometimes, things do not need to be deep and hugely thought-provoking to be good. The message was there, the characters were perfectly fine, the growth was JELEE was being seen, the comedy was snappy and funny, but the decision to go into heavy melodrama was one step I feel this anime did not need to take. The sheer energy of the show, the vibrance of the characters, all of that was sucked out with the melodrama, because even though the comedy still remained throughout, there was always that bit of drama that loomed large over it all, leaving it less fun than it could have been. It lacked a proper identity, and tried to do too much in a short amount of runtime. In the end, it was like a slightly overcooked steak. It tastes good, but it is chewy, and leaves you slightly underwhelmed. Occasionally, some anime just have that sort of a fate. Oh, what this could have been…