After her mom remarries, Yuzu moves to a new school and immediately runs into a load of troubles. Getting into conflict with the student council on her first day for her “gyaru” looks? Check. Student council president frisks her and takes her cellphone? Check. School is an uptight all-girls school, largely killing off her chances at finding love for the first time? Check. Accidentally finds the student council president kissing their hot male homeroom teacher? Check. Returns home and finds out her new stepfather’s daughter is none other than that same student council president, Mei, and will now be living with her? Check. Confronts Mei about kissing the teacher and ends up getting forcefully kissed by her in response? Hoo boy. Yuzu’s life is about to get a whole lot crazier.
Okay, so the first question you are probably asking is, why on earth am I giving impressions on a yuri (romance between two girls) series on a Christian blog about anime? Personally, I believe that such shows can give interesting insight on the nature of gender in relationships, as well as other insights as to the nature of non-heteronormative relationships. There’s also the possibility of such shows exploring themes worth exploring in any show, regardless of subject. On these fronts, citrus does hint at some deeper themes: dealing with the school’s uptight atmosphere, Mei’s estrangement from her father and dealing with an arranged marriage, and Yuzu’s lack of love experience despite wanting to appear otherwise. That said, at the moment this show seems to be running more on the spectacle of relationship drama than on a serious exploration of themes. Mei force-kissing Yuzu may make for an intriguing scene entertainment-wise, but considering the non-consensual angle that would get many complaints if Mei was a guy, as well as the incest angle given that the two are stepsisters, this show may be too much even for Christian anime viewers that would otherwise be fine with a yuri anime. As for myself, I will probably give this the good ol’ three-episode rule to see if this show could actually be a reasonably good thematic exploration of a lesbian relationship, or if it will just be low-substance popcorn drama.
citrus is streaming on Crunchyroll.