Story: Yuri is My Job! is the latest in the Girls-Love series which kind of has a similar setting to Maria Watches Over Us, which is a really old series that takes place at a super catholic school. I say "sort of" because our cast of characters aren't actually at a school. They all work at a café where they role-play as students at a school. It's here they both role play, all while serving their customers casual café food and drinks.
I'm just going to say it - the beginning is borderline terrible. Hime Shiraki, a student at a nearby school, has this dream where she wishes to marry a rich boyfriend and basically be a gold digger, while putting on this cute façade. One day, she bumps into Mai Koshiba, knocking her down and injuring her hand. When Mai explains that it's broken, she basically makes Hime work at her maid café where they role play as catholic students at an academy, Café Liebe. The entire thing is pretty much as ridiculous as it sounds, and it doesn't get better when you're actually viewing this happening in front of you.
The entire series basically takes place at Café Lieve, where Hime is "hired". After the series finally gets going, many of the happenings at the café actually aren't half bad. There are mini-elections, different uniforms for the summer and even some conflict in between our characters' shifts. Our cast play it off pretty well and even if none of this is technically 'real', it was believable enough that it didn't bother me too much. We also get some pretty heavy insight into one of our characters, Mitsuki Yano, and this was easily my favourite part of the series. It was well told and pretty realistic.
In between shifts, there isn't a ton going on with our cast. Most of it revolves around Hime and one of her classmates, Kanoko, but those moments tend to be pretty brief. Pushing a different setting would have been nice, especially because the audience knows that Hime isn't exactly the most innocent character early on, but the absence of that didn't feel problematic.
The way the series ends is definitely questionable, as it leans into some fan-servicey moments very randomly when the rest of the series was pretty tame. It almost feels like this series could have ended one or two episodes earlier as this felt like a bit of a different arc, especially because outside of Mitsuki's brief arc, any character interactions between her and anyone else felt minor. Still, the series keeps this light mood throughout most of it, and acts to play as a fun series. (5/10)
Characters: Hime's big thing is that she wants to marry into wealth by putting on her cute façade, and this kind of thing really doesn't jive with me. What's somewhat ironic is that it lands her this "job" early on, and part of that feels like well placed karma. The serious flaw in her character is that it doesn't ever really feel like she grows as a character in the totality of the series, which is disappointing when she's literally the main character. Her co-worker, Mitsuki, really doesn't have a ton going for her either, again, outside of the short arc she had of her in the middle. It also feels like her personality was all over the place, and we really didn't know much about her, or any of the café workers. It would have been nice to know the 'real' her because it does feel like something's there.
Kanoko is one of Hime's classmates, with Hime really being her only friend. I tend to like the shy types because there's usually something there and even though she does have a reason to be in the story, she doesn't do anything with it. She has some minor conflict later in the series, but it's mediocre at best. Mai is the manager of the café and never really falls into the likable range for me. By the middle of the series, you question how truthful she is being about her hand, and her personality never shines through, Sumika and Nene are two other workers, but both didn't add much for me either. (5/10)
Art: This series actually looks pretty nice when all is said and done. Due to the light nature of the series, everything remains light and there's a certain polish that I can appreciate at most every time. (8/10)
Sound: Much of the music matches the tone of the series well enough, even if I wasn't a huge fan of it. Neither the OP or ED are within my style of music preferences, but they were again, fine for the series. Voicework was equally fine, thought I felt like basically the whole cast outside of Sumika sounded way to similar at times. (6/10)
Overall: Yuri is My Job! really doesn't have a ton going for it outside of some sorter arcs in the middle. The cast aren't all that likable and the setting being the same over and over again really doesn't push the plot forward at all with these characters. This series is just kind of there, as the plot and characters never develop enough for me to recommend a watching. (5/10)
