Manga Lots of laughs and les yay
As a troper who found K-on, Lucky Star and A-Channel to be pretty boring, I was initially skeptical of this show when I first read the concept. "Four Girl Ensemble having fun." sounds familiar...
This one however proved to be more about comedy than simply girls existing. The characters rarely spend too much time sitting around talking about one particular thing, and if they do, jokes are usually thrown in to spice up the conversation. This troper personally found the show to be entertaining from the first episode, with a silly, spontaneous wit not often seen in a slice of life show.
The music is standard slice of life fare, setting the mood without really standing out. Nothing of the background music catches the ear enough to want an mp3 of, but it does it's job.
And of course where would a show in the slice of life genre be without it's characters? The show actually has two pairs of four girl ensembles, each containing two 13 year olds and two 14 year olds. Each character has a unique personality (though pretty typical for such ensembles). Kyouko is the wild card go-getter, Yui is the deadpan snarker who serves as Kyouko's straight man and so on.
Of course this brings one of the biggest problems the series faces, favoritism. It seems the show almost entirely revolves around Kyouko and those closest to her, Yui and Ayano in particular. Ayano's closest friend Chitose is the fourth most favored character, and her usual schtick, having nosebleeds over Kyouko X Ayano fantasies, is amusing, but YMMV. While they are interesting characters, I feel that they could stand to step aside and let the other four flourish a little more. The only one that stands out among the neglected four is Akari Akaza, who's more the show's Butt Monkey than anything else.
For a show with Yuri in it's name, this series doesn't particularly take it to levels you'd expect. A few girls crush on each other, but no one takes it seriously enough to develop anywhere. Most of the Les Yay of the show involves Kyouko and the trio of tsunderes, two of which are focused entirely on each other. Most of the moments you'd expect from a series with such a title are in the mind of Chitose.
So in short, if you're looking for a short, cute, silly series that doesn't try to take anything too seriously, Yuru Yuri is worth a look.
Manga Slice of Life for Yuri fans
I love it this show, I honestly do. I normally don't go for Slice of Life shows, yet I watched the entire first season, now wait in anticipation for every new episode of the second. Seriously, I tried to watch Lucky Star once, and despite enjoying the first episode, never got into it.
Maybe it's the fact that it contains Yuri, albeit subtle Yuri. I myself am a Yuri fan, and there isn't a lot of Yuri anime out there, so to find a show with Yuri as a main genre, I was quite surprised. Nevertheless, I enjoy this anime.
The animation is well done, the characters are well made, and constantly being developed (Even Akarrin~, who is intentionally flat and plain), and the storylines that differ from episode to episode are enjoyable.
The Yuri scenes themselves don't necessarily come from the characters interactions with each other (Though sometimes they do), but more from the in-show shipper, Chitose, who is always ready to whip off her glasses and give us users a taste of what she sees between the Tsundere and the "Protagonist".
The only real downside I would say is the Slice of Life genre. Most Slice of Life anime do have a one-storyline-per-episode thing going, but sometimes they'll refer back to those episodes, whereas with this one, it's basically a case of make a storyline for an episode, then never speak of it again.
That aside, it is a fun anime that I thoroughly enjoy, and would most certainly recommend to anyone looking for a laugh. And, of you're also a Yuri fan, then hop on board. Aside from some serious ship tease between certain people (Ayano and Kyouko, Sakurako and Himawari, Yui and Chinatsu, Chitose and Ayano) none of the couples are canon, so you're free to ship whomever you like. :)