Surreal Humor and the Absurdity of Love : Nihilistic Expressionism in Yuru Yuri

One of my favorite shows in the last few seasons is Yuru Yuri. I enjoyed it not only because it’s a funny and enjoyable comedy with a cast of  cute girls, but because the show is surprisingly robust and works on many levels. While it appears to be another show about cute girls doing cute things, the show drops subtle hints of existentialist and nihilist critique. Behind the thin veneer of moe and light humor, Yuru Yuri is a Kafkaesque depiction of the vain search of love in a sea of ennui.

Nihilism and Yuru Yuri

Nihilism is a prevalent undertone in Yuru Yuri, manifesting within both the storytelling and the characters. An oft-cited, cliché, but accurate critique of Yuru Yuri is that it is a “show about nothing”. While action and reaction do occur throughout the narrative, there is no intrinsic meaning to anything that happens in the anime. The show is a series of minutiae that focus on pointless events, such as a cicada flying into Akari’s room or Yui playing video games. It is from this absurdity which Yuru Yuri draws its humor and strands its characters. The cast live their lives existing not in a world of friends, school, and homework; but in a world of quiet madness, desperately seeking some kind of stimulation or true meaning. This meaning, of course, does not exist.

Curiously, the characters of Yuru Yuri are symbolic not of meaning, but of the lack of meaning. Friedrich Nietzsche defines nihilism as human existence devoid of purpose, essential value, or comprehensible truth. Each character inYuru Yuri reflects a different aspect of meaninglessness. The most striking examples are Nishigaki-sensei and Rise, the student council president. Nishigaki-sensei is a science teacher that constantly runs experiments that explode. When reproached by other characters, she describes the blasts as necessary for discovery. Nishigaki-sensei represents the meaninglessness of science. As a human construct, science is a mortal attempt to explain the objective universe and improve the existence of man. Nishigaki-sensei’s experiments seem to explode at random, for no purpose other than destruction – a striking contrast to the noble pursuit of knowledge. Her explosions bring danger and chaos to the world, depicting science as an ultimately fruitless and quixotic endeavor that creates entropy at the expense of order.

Rise represents the meaninglessness of government. Rise is the head of the student council at Nanamori Middle School; yet her defining character trait is silence. The student council (more generally, all authority) in Yuru Yuri are usually depicted lounging around and filling out myriad frivolous paperwork. This is a reference to Franz Kafka’s Der Process, which depicts a stifling and inhuman bureaucratic process paralyzing the characters. It is an obvious critique of how powerless government is in the face of true reality and struggle in the human condition.Rise’s close relationship with Nishigaki-sensei expresses the absurd juxtaposition of silence and chaos that permeates the inexplicable and absurd universe within which humanity resides.

Futility is expressed in other characters as well. An example of note is Akari, who represents the meaninglessness of existence. However, a character of particular importance is Chinatsu. Chinatsu represents the meaninglessness of the dichotomy of good and evil. Morality is a construct of humanity to create meaning. Thus good and evil are subjective to the interpretation of observers; Chinatsu is ignorant of her own “evil” nature because she is ignorant of the reactions of the other characters to her behavior. In his seminal work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche described der letzte Mensch, or the “last man”. Similar to Chinatsu, the last man seeks only comfort (metaphorically Yui) and is incapable of self-realization of its own nature. The last man fends for only itself, as depicted in the episode detailing the cast’s encounter with Chinatsu on a playground as children. I’m not sure if this implies that Toshinou Kyouko is the Übermensch, but let’s go with that.

Love Does Not Exist

One of the main focuses of Yuru Yuri is the pseudoromantic relationships between characters. The characters desperately seek love and true affection, which do not exist and thus the resulting absurdity is why the show is funny. Toshinou Kyouko does not reciprocate Ayano’s feelings — not because she’s an airhead, but because objective happiness is impossible and God is dead. The way Ayano, Chinatsu, and Chizuru act is the manifestation of the frustration of desire. This is the Kafkaesque surreal humor of the show. They are disillusioned with the impossible state of happiness. Human nature enslaves them to the sisyphean quest for meaning, forever marooning them on the isles of discontent.

Though the characters appear to get along and have fun, they are in fact alienated and discontent. The name “Amusement Club” is both cold irony of the loneliness imposed by the human condition and a reference to the hedonism of the last man. The cockroach from the Kafka’s The Metamorphosis appears in the show, much to the horror of the characters. They are repulsed not because they are afraid of insects, but because it is a reflection of themselves.

Himawari and Sakurako are the very antithesis of the ideal relationship. Viewers may read them as an extreme tsukkomi and boke pair that are actually deeply affectionate with each other, but they are actually the personification of the destructiveness of the human condition. The two verbally abuse each other, and Sakurako particularly focuses on Himawari’s breasts (symbolic of how humans are merely animals despite their apparent and constructed sophistication and morality). Despite their harmful relationship, Sakurako cannot exist without Himawari, thus illustrating the inevitable suffering of mankind and its helplessness in an unforgiving reality.

In conclusion, what’s wrong? Yuru Yuri too deep for you?