Konnichiwa! Maid-chan desu!
Hello my human readers! Are you sweating a lot?
Many countries are currently suffering from a heat wave, not only Japan. Portugal is also way into the 40°C and Germany had (for that country unusual) temperatures above 35°C for weeks. Everything is so dry the tiniest spark can ignite a huge fire, so don’t dare to throw a cigarette into the woods!!
Interestingly it seems the only thing the Uraras of Meirocho (Labyrinth Town) are not asked about is the weather.
Uraras??
The Japanese word uranai (占い) means “fortune telling”. The term Urara refers in the anime to the fortune tellers that dwell inside Labyrinth Town, the city of fortune telling. Everything here is made around fortune telling and customers come from far away to the city to learn about their future.
There are ten ranks of Uraras, rank 1 being the highest and rank 10 the lowest, and the whole city is build around those ranks. There are even walls around the districts of the ranks and Urara are only allowed to enter those where their rank is sufficient.
Every year, 15 year old girls (seems to be exclusively girls) come to Labyrinth Town to become
One of those girls is Chiya, and to say she is a country bumpkin is a big understatement. Chiya was raised by a single woman and lots of animals. She is going to the Urara town to find her mother who is supposed to be there.
By the way, Chiya does not know the name of her mother or how she looks. That should give you an idea about that girl. Maid-chan, even with all her experience, is always surprised about the “optimism” many humans have.
Just fresh in town Chiya makes troubles and meets the guards, especially the captain Iroi Saku, who later becomes her friend and tries to prevent Chiya from doing embarassing, shameless actions. But the captain always sees shameless actions. Everywhere.
The captain's loyal, and deep in love, subordinates.
But Shiya also meets the woman who will be her teacher for the future. The teacher, Natsume Nina, is a rank 5 Urara and runs a tea house in the beginner’s district.
She does her fortune telling using tea leaves, and that is one of the more normal ways.
Nina is also the big sister of Natsume Nono. Nono is incredibly shy, inseparable from her puppet, and one of the three other students in the tea house.
The two other students are the studyholic Tatsumi Kon and the rich house girl Yukimi Koume.
Kon is not a fox girl, as many people think, she just wears a ribbon. She is also a very reliable and traditional girl who uses kokkuri for fortune telling and she can even summon a fox into her body! But Kon is not a fox herself!!
Koume is fascinated by witches, western styles and uses tarot cards for fortune telling. She is quite the braggart, but not a bad girl.
Together the little group of energetic young girls has to learn a lot of stuff about fortune telling, the different types of fortune telling and of course the rules of the town. This does not happen without accidents. Quite contrary there are many accidents. But, as Maid-chan knows, everything becomes and experience, and to climb up the ranks of Urara you need a lot of experience. Just try to not destroy the town, okay?
Of course, even though she is busy with learning, Chiya always searches for her mother, but without much luck. But maybe this strange figure is a hint?
selling points
Urara Meirocho is one of those animes where the art is every important. It often looks simple, but all the places are very beautiful, colorful and sometimes even flowery!
The anime lives from his funny characters and slapstick comedy. There are hints to a darker history of Chiya, but unfortunately the anime ends after a few hints and the examination of the girls to rank 9. (Does Maid-chan spoiler when she says the girls make it in the last second?)
But 99% of the time you have fun watching the Uraras-in-training, what happens to them, and the diverse reactions.
The target audience is male, and if you by any chance weren’t sure about this until the end (Maid-chan doubts that), the last episode is the hot springs fanservice one.
Conclusion
But even when you don’t like that, it should not prevent you from watching. Urara Meirocho has some very interesting and funny episodes. The only thing Maid-chan would like to see more is more deepness into the concepts and world building. But since the original work was a four-panel manga, that may be asked too much.
Instead Maid-chan recommends you take it lightly, with a smile (that will be easy, promise), and enjoy the cuteness of Chiya and her friends. Just dive into the anime and don’t think too much.
In the end, thanks to a cuteness bonus point, Urara Meirocho ranks 8/10 on the completely objective Maid-chan scale.
Cute always wins!
See you next time!
