Well here we are, with bearly twenty more minutes of Yuri Kuma to go. I enjoyed a lot of what this show had to offer, and though I wish it were a bit more emotionally strong, it’s certainly offered plenty to talk about. Even if they did kill the best character goddamnit Ikuhara that’s not okay. Let’s see it end well!

Episode 12

1:11 – Right back where we left NOOOOooooooo

2:35 – Poor cyborg bear still roped into all of this

2:41 – This is certainly a very pure and classic form of exclusion. A group ritual of forcing someone to sacrifice themselves that binds everyone else together in complicity

4:40 – Kureha’s turn to shatter the mirror/herself for love

4:54 – I really like how much the show has focused on how we become instruments of our own oppression in this last act. It’s easy to think of stuff like bigotry as an abstract “enemy,” but it’s propagated through intelligent systems that aren’t apart from the people it affects

5:10 – Man, what a great response. The girls who are accepted hide in being nobody, but that doesn’t make life satisfying for them, either

5:42 – Often the best they can do for each other is attempt to please the system

5:52 – But Kureha is tired of hiding, and has never been good at playing by these games

6:30 – Nice Ginko expression

8:13 – And she walks down the stairs herself! Directly challenging the system, no longer a victim being debated

8:34 – Nice stark shot

9:12 – Always time for more last-minute revelations, I guess!

9:40 – Ouch. Really sharp to portray the guileless Kureha as attempting to change Ginko “for her own good,” but plain infuriating that these assholes are the ones lecturing her about it

10:06 – I’m not really sure how this even works timeline-wise with the last flashback. Did Ginko just contextualize her own rejection over time? Or did the court just tell each of them something different

11:04 – Does the court even have to exist as an external force? Could it solely be the unfair judgments we place on ourselves and each other? I mean, obviously it’s already somewhat metaphorically that, but what if it’s a, a double metaphor. We make sacrifices of ourselves because we fear the external, we live hobbled by an inability to love because we compromise with the court society grows in all of us. It’s a necessary fear in an unfriendly world, but if Kureha doesn’t give a damn, the court has no power

I also like how this gives Kureha her own version of selfish love

12:24 – Aw dang, yep, seems like that’s where we’re going. When she figured out her actual legitimate crime, she was set free

Though the cultural assumptions that hold us back aren’t all internalized, obviously. But maybe that’s just not what this show is specifically about

12:40 – Kureha’s restraints are destroyed in the crosshairs of the pattern of the roof that’s always been the place of judgment

13:36 – They’re once again framing Kureha and Ginko specifically in frame to create a sense of intimacy. At the same time, the ominous wall of severance dominates Ginko’s background, implying the weight of everything behind her

14:06 – Two girls suspended, small among the giant walls in the distance

14:36 – Kumaria is alive and apparently also real! Who knows what the fuck is going on

14:47 – This is what I get for doing writeups of an Ikuhara show

15:08 – Ikuhara sure knows how to make an ending

15:31 – Why not. Not like anything can surprise me anymore

16:04 – Yeaaaaaah! Fuck wanting to be human, bears are awesome

16:05 – This episode’s got some shots

16:45 – Don’t worry girls, I don’t think anyone expected “Kumaria is real and Sumika and a bear”. Though I guess Kumaria would be any one person’s Sumika – the important thing is what Sumika taught Kureha

17:01 – She makes a pretty great bear

17:27 – No friggin’ “they’re just really good friends” for Ikuhara. He damn well heard people arguing Utena isn’t actually gay

18:20 – Yeah, that was some crazy shit

18:33 – POOR CYBORG BEAR AWWW

18:58 – The leaders always have the most to lose. And also some people are just bigots – whatever brought them to internalize that, they’re not going to change

20:03 – Seeing the alternative has made one girl realize who she is. It’s why shows like Yuri Kuma are important, after all – these systems work because they disallow alternatives, but stories like Reia’s book can always offer us other potential truths. Which may be why this love story took the form of that storybook altogether – not because that storybook demonstrates the one correct way people could cross severance and come to love each other, but because having been given that one alternative, it was the only path Kureha and Ginko knew to follow

21:03 – Whoa. So they’re in a “better world,” one way or another

21:20 – Systems are slow to change, but individual hearts can

21:40 – This is the saddest thing. Abandoned in Yuriika’s equally abandoned boxes

22:04 – This show is too adorable

23:00 – Lulu damn well better have gotten herself “excluded” right back into her original happiness

23:38 – Jeez these are some lovely shots

23:58 – Gorgeous

24:28 – Now with kissing and no text!

And Done

Well that was a crazy damn ending for a crazy damn show. It all tied together quite nicely there – the bear court ended up being somewhat metaphorically vindicated, as the show’s villainy proved to be most sharply focused on the ways fear makes the social order propagate itself. Framing Kumaria as Sumika was an unexpected but nice touch, and I think my favorite thing might have been the burgeoning romance between the former excluder and her poor cyborg lesbian bearfriend. This was a dense show, and it didn’t always possess quite the emotional weight it deserved, but I think it pulled together very well. The world will be less bright with fewer lesbian bears.