YuruYuri

I've been busy sampling the new shows of the Japanese summer anime season.  The first series I took in was one called YuruYuri.  It's about four girls in middle school who form a club that exists mainly as an excuse to goof off while fulfilling their school's requirement that they join a club.  It is based on a 4 panel manga by the same name.  It isn't a bad little show, it's just sort of lackluster.  If I had never seen K-ON, A Channel or Softenni (which aren't exactly amazing shows by themselves) maybe YuruYuri wouldn't have seemed as unoriginal.  The aforementioned shows all have four girls in a club or group of some sort who do cute or silly things that are supposed to amuse the viewer.  This formula is successful in that it's lighthearted with little to no plot, and the viewer does not have to invest themselves emotionally in the characters since they tend to echo common genre tropes.  As a result, this would probably be a show to watch when unwinding from a stressful day at work, but not one to watch if you are more inclined to like thought provoking series.

I didn't hate YuruYuri, nor did I think it was bad.  It's just not exceptional.  And since there are quite a few potential exceptional anime series airing this season, I feel my time is better served watching those.