About the hype, it's just the impression I got from blogs, IRC, RL-friends talking about the coming TV... but never really gotten interested enough to pay close attention.
Also "soft" yuri IS NOT yuri, hardly shoujo ai, Marimite is a good dividing line where 99% it's friendship, but there were exception when things progressed beyond that.
Anyway, basically Sol, we are obviously looking for different things in this one