Citrus (Series Review)

When Yuzu’s mother remarried, she had to move to a new house and attend a strict all-girl school. She even got a new step-sister, Mei, who didn’t seem to like her all that much, but then Mei kissed Yuzu!

What did you read?

I had heard of Citrus before I started reading it, but knew very little about it. I’ve seen that it can be fairly polarising, which made it interesting enough for me to want to check out. So, when I saw that my library had all ten volumes, I reserved them all and dived in head first. I have definitely been on a bit of a yuri kick of late so this should be an easy win. The question is can they make a romance between step-sisters interesting and not weird? Let’s find out.

What happened?

Yuzu was into fashion and friends. She was constantly attached to her phone and very much the life of the party. So, when her mother remarried and she had to attend a new school, she showed up in her best outfit ready to make friends. Unfortunately, it is a very strict school and on her first day, she had her phone confiscated, had a run-in with the student council president, and was told to change her hair colour back to its natural colour. What a day!

When Yuzu got home, she met her new step-sister, the student council president and heiress of the school, Mei. Yuzu did her best to ignore what happened at school, especially the part where she saw Mei kissing a teacher, but it slipped out. Then, out of nowhere, Mei kissed Yuzu, leaving her stunned. What did that kiss mean? Did Mei like Yuzu?

What did you think?

I’m just going to come out and say it – I loved this series. I felt like I would, but I had no idea just how much I would get sucked into Yuzu’s life. She was a fantastic main character and the way the story was put together left me crying and grinning like an idiot. There is a lot of drama and some of it did feel forced, but overall, it came together beautifully, especially in that last volume which was enthralling. Their romance felt real and the way Yuzu had to fight for it was incredible.

Citrus Volume 7 Mei and Yuzu kissing fireworks

What was your favourite moment?

It has to be the scene where Yuzu tries to save Mei from her arranged marriage. The guy she was set to marry was a nice guy and he was great in the scene when he forced Mei to hear Yuzu out, even at the expense of his marriage to her. However, Mei obviously didn’t want it, but it was the only way she could inherit the family school and she had been working towards that all her life. Yuzu was desperate to save Mei and called on all of her friends from the previous volumes to help. When I say the story came together, this was the pinnacle of that. It was amazing seeing everyone pull around Yuzu to help her.

Of course, the moment Yuzu asked Mei to marry her was immediately after that in both my favourite scenes and chronologically.

Citrus Volume 10 Yuzu asks Mei to marry her

What was your least favourite moment?

Mei had always known that an arranged marriage was her destiny, but she eventually allowed herself to fall for Yuzu and believe they could be together. That reality all came crashing down when they ended up in a bridal boutique photoshoot, both wearing wedding dresses. Mei held it together as best she could but as soon as Yuzu was out of the room, she broke down. It was heartbreaking.

Of course, not long after that, Mei left a farewell letter for Yuzu to find when she came home from school. That was brutal. The end of the ninth volume wrecked me and I was so glad that I could pick up the tenth and push on for that happy ending. I can’t imagine what it would have been like waiting for the tenth volume to drop or even the final chapters.

Citrus Volume 9 Mei crying in a wedding dress

Who was your favourite character?

It’s one hundred percent Yuzu. I have no doubt about that at all. There were lots of great characters that fell in around her such as Harumi and Shiraho. Even Matsuri came through in the end. However, this story really was from Yuzu’s point of view and as such, I bonded with her and felt everything she did. The highs were exciting and the lows devastating. I’m glad that I got to experience it. All the heartbreak was worth it for that ending.

Citrus Volume 10 Mei and Yuzu get married

Who was your least favourite character?

Every time, this series rolled out what could be considered a villain in the context of the story, they ended up not only becoming Yuzu’s friend but respecting her enough to help her chase the love of her life. So, that makes it very hard to pick someone as my least favourite character. The one character that I have the hardest time understanding is Mei’s father. I understand that he didn’t want to fall into the family way of doing things, but surely he could have done something that didn’t mean abandoning his daughter to live alone. He was so lucky to meet Yuzu’s mother. He needed to step up his dad game.

Would you like some more?

So, when I started the manga, I knew that the chances are I would want to watch the anime too. However, I wanted to finish the manga before jumping into the anime. Luckily, I schedule my posts and arranged my schedule so that the manga and anime reviews would run at the same time. So, if you’ve been following my posts, you will have seen all the episode reviews already. I did the reverse with Sankarea: Undying Love where I watched the anime first and then read the manga. I’m a big fan of total immersion into a story so this allows me to enjoy everything the story has to offer. There is also a Citrus+ manga series which I will check out at some point too.

What have you learnt?

There was a lot to learn from this series because it was so well put together. It did an amazing job of foreshadowing the arranged marriage early on and then breaking it off. That allowed the audience to forget about it and get sucked into the romance. Then, when it re-emerges as the final spanner, it feels natural. You almost kick yourself for not thinking it would be a problem, because of course it would. Hindsight validates foreshadowing.

I also loved how all of the characters had a purpose. Many were introduced as hurdles from Yuzu and Mei to get over, but then became friends. Everyone brought something different to the table and when they were needed they all stepped up. Of course, it can work in the reverse too, but the idea is that a character needs to have a purpose and that can change with the character. The more things tie together in the end, the more satisfying the conclusion will be regardless of whether it ends happily or tragically.

Citrus (Series Review)