12 Days of Anime (2012) – Day 8 – Giving a Forgotten Anime a Chance

Much like last year’s Day 8, when I wrote about sticking with a bad anime to find it somewhat entertaining and certainly worthwhile, this post will be able an anime I never gave a fair opportunity to when it aired in the past only try it now and find it enjoyable and definitely worth watching.  It serves as an excellent reminder of the potential gems and stars among the forgotten or ignored anime of seasons or years bygone.  Resting in obscurity or uncertainty, these anime were rejected or dropped due to flawed research, lacking prospects, evolving tastes, time constraints, or for whatever reason we decide not to watch an anime.  However, when the opportunity appears, taking another chance with these anime may completely reverse our opinion on it simply based on the fact that we actually are watching the anime rather than just speculating about it.  For me, that anime is Yuru Yuri, an anime I gave a second (or first?) chance to in 2012 and have loved it ever since.

When Yuru Yuri premiered in Summer of 2011, I passed on the anime, mainly through indifference, misunderstanding, and time management.  My first impressions of Yuru Yuri were that it’d be a yuri-themed slice-of-life anime with otaku-oriented humor, something that I only find mildly amusing and not at all original.  I never bothered to verify those claims, which left that impression to stand for a while.  Not only that but my anime schedule consisted of about 15 anime that season, including a few comedies like Nichijou and Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu II as well as a few the predominately featured comedy like Usagi Drop and Nekogami Yaoyorozu.  And so rather quickly, I dropped Yuru Yuri without even giving the first episode a chance.

Over the year, however, I do recall a number of people making reference to the anime, posting joke pictures, and other amusing tidbits, and I found myself becoming interested in the anime again.  It wasn’t until I began interacting more with the anime community online did I realize how popular and entertaining the anime was, that it was an anime with original, enjoyable comedy first and foremost.  Energy and enthusiasm grew among these fans as the second season approached, so I ultimately decided to give the original another shot and, if successful, watch the second season as it aired over Summer 2012.  Besides a brief stint where a friend requested I watch the first episode of Season 2 before watching anything from Season 1 (which I did, actually quite an amusing experiment), I marathoned the first season in early July and watched the sequel every week throughout this Summer.  Not only did I love the first season for its comedy and entertainment value but I found the second season to be one of my favorite comedies of the year.  Having said that, giving Yuru Yuri a chance meant I was able to enjoy two delightful comedies this year rather than missing and disregarding both.

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, watching the original season of Yuru Yuri this year serves as a reminder that giving rejected or dropped anime a chance again can be extremely worthwhile and quite beneficial.  Of course, not every anime that is neglected is something that is meaningful to watch, but it doesn’t mean that there is no value in going back and researching these anime again to see if we should watch it again or not.  Fortunately, the positive reviews and passionate fandom of Yuru Yuri helped convince me that the anime is worth another, more thorough examination.  As it turns out, this processes of giving a forgotten anime a chance turned out to be one of the 12 biggest and memorable influences of the year on me.  As a result, I have begun looking through various other, older anime and trying to find forgotten or overlooked shows that I might be interested in again.  Unfortunately, budgeting my time has effectively reduced how much anime I can watch at a given time and so some of these endeavors do become delayed as most of the other catch-up anime have been besides Yuru Yuri.  However, the effect of this event is still discernible in how I evaluate and reevaluate anime and hopefully it continues to create a positive influence on my anime life.