(*spoken with my best Richard Nixon impression* “I am not a fashion guru!”)
Even with the death of the published magazine, FRUiTs, Harajuku is internationally famous at this point. Who hasn’t heard of the colorful, flashy, eccentric fashion district by now?
However, Urahara is comparatively less known. The term is short for Ura-Harajuku and refers to the backstreets of Harajuku (as ura literally means “back”). Compared to the flamboyant Harajuku, Urahara style is more conservative (and old school) as it revolves around oversized streetwear, graphic t-shirts, and vintage items.
Despite being less renown compared to Harajuku, this unofficial area occupies an important part in the history behind Japanese fashion as it represents a melding pot, a place where Japanese and foreign cultures joined hands. Before Urahara became lined with these stores selling casual brands and secondhand clothes, Japanese youth were primarily wearing imported foreign brands. With the rise of shops that borrowed ideas from other cultures and made it their own, the fashion field became filled with creativity which resulted in domestically made fashion that is reminiscent of yet different from foreign brands.
We can see traces of Urahara in the Fall 2017 series, URAHARA. For instance, the three main protagonists are dressed in Urahara-kei – Rito is wearing the classic letterman jacket, Mari sports a floral A-line skirt, and Kotoko rocks the preppy tie and v-neck sweater combo. In other words, the girls are draped in vintage, casual, and layered clothes, which are the very definition of Urahara style!
This still holds even when the trio essentially transform into magical girls by using Amatsumara (which basically look like janky orbs, but I digress). Rito now has a cropped vest, Mari now has suspenders, and Kotoko now is wearing a nekomimi jumpsuit. Their designs after their transformation now incorporate (slightly) more modern fashion trends, however: Mari now rocks a form of zettai ryouiki due to her thigh-high boots (with garterbelts!), Kotoko now has an oversized belt around her waist, and Rito now has these fresh boots on (and is still rocking the classic sweater-tied-around-waist look).
Be that as it may, the art style and animation leaves much to be desired. While it isn’t exactly not fluid, the characters and the backgrounds simply look unpolished. The result is decidedly amateur and is rather unappealing. Furthermore, the reactions the characters express throughout the episode seem to consistently miss the mark. None of the girls seem that flustered over the fact that aliens are stealing famous landmarks (and human culture) and their attempts at making jokes are simply not funny (I’m looking at you, Mari). But I do like the OP a lot, which is admittedly very bubbly and squeaky and not to everyone’s taste.
Urahara-kei is harder to find these days, but the style lives on as the base for other styles (namely Salon-Boy-kei or Kireime-kei). And while I can appreciate that URAHARA features characters who can be said to embody a style of fashion that has more or less disappeared, the series is a disappointment in many other aspects thus far.
Still, maybe it’s too early to write the series off. Sometimes fashion makes a comeback and sometimes a series can win back viewers with later episodes. We’ll have to see!
Sources:
http://www.jmode.com/fashion/trend5.htm
https://hypebeast.com/2014/10/pioneers-of-urahara-the-past-and-future-of-japanese-streetwear
The Lily Garden 
Ahaha! There goes an entry for Lost in Translation. XD
Nah, but seriously, this was a great read. But yeah, it’s a shame that this show just fell flat on its face.
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Oh, yay! A great editorial series has returned!
Well, I’m convinced someone else basically outdid me in an article that was posted on CR, but I’m glad you enjoyed it. Episode 2 doesn’t really help the series, unfortunately.
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Thanks for the heads up. I actually had no intention of continuing the series, so I’m not too surprised to hear that the follow-up didn’t do any better.
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I survived the first episode.
To think that it is Luna Haruna’s debut… poor her because at least in the first episode alone, she was the best at voice acting there.
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Gotta root for your girl!
Mmm I didn’t want to harp on the voice acting but Rito definitely did sound the best overall. Haruna Luna is too gooood!
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WHOA I didn’t exactly expect this haha but great job!! I never heard of Urahara until now. I really like how you used that to talk about this show. Can we expect more articles about Japanese culture in your reviews;)? (If you have the time of course!)
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Haha, thank you!
Mmm the series is Crunchyroll’s first foray into actually producing anime and it’s airing this season. Unfortunately I’m not in love with it, but it’s there.
The girls continuously talked about Harajuku, which led me to want to talk about how the character designs doesn’t reflect the crazy fashion trends in the fashion-forward district. And then I found out about Urahara-kei and here we are!
Hmmm I try every few months but I’m not exactly an expert. I do like writing about these, though!
(If you liked this you can check out this post, too:
https://remyfoolblog.com/2017/05/03/mori-girls-and-anime/ )
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Haha some shows are a miss.
Whoa, that’s really cool! I think there’s so much that we can learn as anime fans from the shows. While it won’t mirror real life, it’s fascinating what real things do slip in.
Oh thank you so much for the link!!!
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I learned a thing today ^.^ Interesting post Remy, I enjoyed it 🙂
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Mmm I’m glad to hear it!
But you should look around and see what other people think about the show. I’m afraid I can be rather narrow-minded at times and I need to work on this.
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I was more interested in the fashion bit and not the show itself. I just thought the article was really interesting 🙂
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0.o There was something that didn’t suck about Urahara?
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I had to dig real deep.
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OMG a fashion post!!!
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It was fun yet frustrating to write!
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