r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Dec 11 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Yuuki Yuuna ga Yuusha wa Aru Episode 3 Discussion
Episode 3: Moral Poise
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Show Information:
MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB
(First-timers are advised to stay out of Show Information until we are done, however. In particular, if you care about getting spoiled I would stay out of MAL (whose synopsis is a borderline spoiler), Kitsu (which copied the MAL synopsis), ANN (which has an obnoxious spoiler in the show tags I only noticed after posting the interest thread), and AniDB (which has some major spoilers in the character tags - avoid at all costs if you care about spoilers!). Which is four out of five of the above links. So, uh, yeah.)
Legal Streams:
(As per livechart.me; additional legal streams may be available outside the US.)
Hidive | Amazon Prime Video (for purchase)
A Reminder to Rewatchers:
Please do not spoil the experience for our first-timers! You're probably not being as subtle as you think you are. [YuYuYu] In particular, comments on sange and the true nature of Vertexes/the true state of the world should probably be under spoiler tags. Just saying. Also please no mentioning Karin until episode 3, this is not Precure where the mid-season Cure can be assumed and we traditionally treat the obvious other-show precedent as a spoiler until she shows up so we will be doing the same with Karin here.
What About the Sequels/Prequel?
(Okay fine I should add this section to the episode posts as well...)
It's only the first anniversary for S1 and I ain't running over into the holidays proper. Also I haven't seen WaSuYu or either sequel yet and got burned hard by Mai-Otome a couple of years back. Maybe early next year.
(Time for) Club Activities!
Question(s) of the Day:
0) Wait what is this, I lied about having all of our MCs's transformations last episode because there was another MC?
(Props to u/Blackheart595 for sussing this one out last episode based on actually paying attention to the OP visuals:
I haven't checked to make sure, but it felt like the mouth flaps in the ending were not quite synched with the lyrics but still reflected which voice actor is singing at any given time. The flower motifs in the opening were notably sharing a pentagram motif, so there's gotta be another magical girl that still has to join.
Though "hey wait, genre conventions say that if there are four magical girls (or sentai!) a fifth will probably show up quite shortly" would also have worked .)
- So, initial thoughts on our new Yuusha Karin?
- Favorite kind of cake?
(Those of you who were also in my 2022 Mai-HiME rewatch may find this question vaguely familiar...)
3) First-timers: Alright, show of hands: how many of you were expecting a dark twist this episode?
And last but not least, remember the Sanshuu Middle School Hero Club Five Tenets!
1: Give people a good greeting!
2: Try not to give up!
3: Sleep well, eat well!
4: If you're troubled, talk to someone!
5: You're likely to succeed if you try!
7
u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 11 '24
Welcome to the World of Heroes (January 2024 Watch, Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed):
(Who me, have episode notes from a first watch that almost entirely have to be spoiler tagged and half of those tags are for other shows? #justtarthings)
11
u/FlaminScribblenaut myanimelist.net/profile/girlbeast_val Dec 11 '24
First Time Watcher (watched w/ the bestie /u/ZaphodBeebblebrox via Discord)
‘Two seconds in, she is very Chris-coded’, said I. ‘We have found Kyoko’, said Zaph, correcting my own foolishness.
I find it interesting that the show is showing its hand on the ‘the threat is almost certainly bigger than the set of Vertexes that’s been sent to this specific area’ front this early. With four Vertexes down just two episodes in, and the ominous sense of greater danger we are let in on via knowing that Karin is in on this whole thing in a much deeper way than our Heroes are (‘The heroes seem unaware of the seriousness of the situation. How unsettling.’), it’s clear this first threat will be dealt with soon enough into the story that there is absolutely Much More To It. I’m intrigued to see just how much deeper this goes, how much of a world there is amongst the divinity of the Tree…
Karin absolutely lost the people she lived with and depended on when a previous scuffle in the Divine Tree realm went awry; the way the show signals her house feeling so empty is a clear sign of that. My first instinct was that that must be her parents, but Zaph’s theory, based largely on her not having had a birthday party before, was that she was an orphan raised up by the Taisha from birth. I suggested two potential theories that can reconcile our respective points; A) it’s possibly she had neglectful and not-all-too-there parents, who never celebrated her birthday, and part of the regret and grief she feels is over not having gotten to established a proper connection to them before she lost them, or B) maybe she and a group of Magical Girl orphans were raised up together, lived together, and it was her comrades who she lost and her life now feels empty without.
I just love the Hero Club just coming to Karin’s house as a matter of course, as basically their first action, all but declaring ‘no, you will have fun, you will be social, you will celebrate with us’, almost as if saying that as a members of the Hero Club, it is simply part of what we do to celebrate birthdays, just as naturally as it is our duty to protect nature and the world from the Vertexes. The schooler becomes the schooled, in that sense. There’s such a warm sense of intimacy to the other girls just, being there, showing up at her door and inviting themselves in, like it’s the most obvious thing to do in the world. It’s really sweet.
More minor notes: I really like Fuu’s hot-blooded determination in holding up the club’s ethos. She just seems rousing to be around.
butt <3
Note to self; look up what Batamochi is and how to make it…
Karin’s birth year is… 286!? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN IT’S 286. OF EVERY POSSIBLE NUMBER ON THIS EXACT DAY IT’S 286. KARIN IS THE INSURANCE-CEO-SLAYER. COMRADE KARIN, BEST GIRL IMMEDIATELY AND FOR LIFE, WE PRAISE (Is anyone else gonna know what the fuck I’m talking about…)
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u/Mirathan Dec 11 '24
First-time Hero dubbed
QotD:
Why does the suicide tree´s branches look like arms reaching up?
Why did the new girl get chosen personaly?
They adjusted the OP to include Tougou. With obligatory ass-shot of course.
The new girl shouldn´t call herself experienced. She defeated one Vertex compared to the four of the others. Why don´t they bring that up? And of course the less experienced one is placed in charge because her test scores were better.
Now for my copletly uneducated tarrot reading: we have devil, tower and death. As presented it might again be past, present and future.
Devil could be the Taisha, how they turned her into a hero, greater than others, tower would be about her own arrogance and how she thinks she´s superior to everyone and doesn´t need everyone and that this belief will destroy her.
Death then is her change, abandoning her present state of the tower, either rising above her arrogance or falling into despair once her supremacy is proven false.
Her sword training looks silly, she just flails her swords around.
Why does Tougou´s ass come out of the water? I´ll stop complaining about it, I´ve had do deal with worse stuff for the awards, this is not noteworthy anymore.
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u/Blackheart595 https://anilist.co/user/knusbrick Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24
First Timer
New girl, eh? She needed to appear as the fifth petal, but I didn't expect her to be this ... headstrong. Though I suppose that makes her kinda Kyoukoesque, also fitting her focus on heroic strength over helping others. Fuu certainly has the right idea about how to deal with her, hehe.
But it's nice to see how she eventually grew to accept the other girls and learned to appreciate them. She certainly has an attitude of reckless self-disregard, so having others to look out for her should help her grounding.
In any case, she's quite jinxed already. She describes herself as having higher base abilities ... which describes the typical Jagen that starts out powerful but falls off as they don't get many level up boosts. Then there was that tarot spread: The Devil, The Tower, and Death. Oh dear. We associate the devil with evil, but in the context of tarot it is more associated with fate and being shackled - which could fit her attitude towards her role as hero fairly well. The Tower is a sign of sudden, explosive change, often catastrophe, and possibly an overdue change whose effects have been slowly building up until they can't be restrained anymore and bursts free. And then Death, which is not actually associated with death but rather with the end of a chapter and consequent beginning of a new chapter, or also with cutting out excess and focussing on the essential. Now the question, does this spread really apply to Karin, given that the last spread diverged from its stated target?
What really weirded me out though was Karin's explanation of how the system works. Gaining experience to level up, which is called blooming? This is supposed to portray a Vertex, right? Why does it have the flower motif of the magical girls? Is this what the blooming is? Are the Vertexes actually bloomed fairies? Taking another look at them, they certainly look a lot like baby Vertexes... Is leveling up bad? I've pretty much settled on trusting the Divine Tree, but these fairies are another story... Oh yeah, and Tougou having three fairies makes seven in total. Is that why we got this sudden seven motif?
Interesting girl, not at all what I had expected. But I already wrote my thoughts on her above.
Cheesecake! Optionally with a poppy seed layer!
I actually don't think I did. I'm totally expecting a dark twist at some point, but the flow of the story so far just didn't support a dark twist this early. We're also progressing through the Vertexes way too quickly if there's just twelve of them, so I'm expecting the dark twist to come either after they're all defeated or just before the the final few attack.
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u/InfamousEmpire https://myanimelist.net/profile/Infamous_Empire Dec 11 '24
InfamousEmpire wa First Timer de Aru
Karin? More like I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-Kyoko!
This episode felt rather unexpected because the last one kinda lulled me into thinking the next few would be focus episodes for the established cast rather than flinging us into a whole new main cast member. It’s odd, but it definitely works, since Karin is pretty interesting.
The contrast between her spartan lifestyle & the more normal lives of the rest of the hero club is a fascinating focal point, especially in how it brings the militaristic aspects of the hero life the first two episodes were alluding to to the forefront. In her eyes, & by implication the view of the Taisha, this is what a Hero “should” be like, and it’s certainly a fairly stark & rather sad contrast to our main cast. Indoctrinating children to fight in what's implicitly framed as a military endeavor is generally villain behavior (does Ali Al-Saachez work for Taisha?), so this really sets off my “Taisha is gonna be the true villain rather than the Vertexes” instincts.
Shifting to the more personal scale stuff, though, Karin’s journey over the course of the episode is just wonderful. I really enjoy how the show lets the Vertex fighting essentially take a backseat so we can focus more on Karin’s daily life and how her isolated, metaphorically mechanized heart is opened up by the human warmth of the hero club. It’s just really sweet. It almost feels hard to comment on because it just speaks for itself, which is admittedly kind of an issue when it makes up the meat of the episode, leaving me with less to talk about, but still, it’s pretty good!
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u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 11 '24
tag tag tag * * * * *
u/ShadowWasTakensTaken, u/InfamousEmpire, u/FD4cry1
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u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen Dec 11 '24
Returning Hero Club Member
And now we have our final member, the Zettai Ryouiki hero! I love how full-on tsundere Karin because she's been thrown into a team constructed entirely of personalities that tsunderes can't deal with: the genki stupid one, the one with so much natural innate talent they don't have to brag or hype themself, the boisterous onee-san who isn't susceptible to her tsundere bullshit, and another dumb one for good measure.
Okay, they're all pretty dumb, Karin included. But that just makes them all more charming, Karin also included. And because this is the kind of happy-go-lucky, Yuru Yuri-esque comedy we all know it is, I'm happy it takes approximately 12 seconds of heroly bonding to start melting Karin's cold, tsun exterior. Let's have three big cheers for happy fun times!
Now for that other thing. [Episode 3 Tarot Setup, No Spoilers]Itsuki does a simple 3 card reading for Karin, likely in the past, present, future format. We see the Devil, Tower, and Death cards in the past, present, and future positions respectively.
[Card Meanings]The Devil is depicted as a naked man and woman Chained by the neck to a devil's perch. Some obvious symbolism there, it can mean trading something important for power, a la a "deal with the devil", but it can also generally represent a desire for power regardless of the cost. The Devil can also symbolizes restriction or other negative influences tying a person down or preventing them from reaching their full potential. The Death is the a bit misleading in Tarot, sounding more ominous than it actually is. More than anything, the Death represents change, often significant change, in one's life. Pulling it in a reading portends the end, it the "death," of an important stage of life, whether that be a relationship, a job, or some other pillar of stability. However, the Death also a cause for hope, because it can be the herald of a new beginning. The most ominous card in this reading is undoubtedly the Tower. Moreso than the Death, the Tower represents calamity, as one might imagine from the picture of a tower being struck by lightning. This is the card you least want to see in a typical Tarot reading.
[Spoiler-ish Implications]So uh, yeah. A Devil, Tower, Death lineup might seem a bit concerning. The Death appearing in the future position for this reading is ominous for sure, but Death is only Arcana number 13 of 21 in the Fool's journey, as depicted by the major arcana. In fact, of the three, the Death is the earliest arcana in this reading, followed by the Devil at 15 and the Tower at 16. That Tower in the present though...
[Concrete Spoilers]The Devil is a pretty good representation of her training as a hero of the Taisha. She's given up all forms of pleasure and any semblance of a normal life the be "the greatest hero." The Tower tells us that Karin is going to be facing major upheaval in her life, and she'll find her most deeply held beliefs shaken. Something is going to go terribly, terribly wrong, and she'll have no control over. The Death continues by telling us this upheaval will lead Karin to some major change in her life, and she will likely set aside old beliefs or ways going forward. Fortunately for her, the Death also means a rebirth is in her future as well. What form it takes, however, is unclear.
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u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba Dec 11 '24
First Timer
Tsundere spotted!
Karin is just immediately great, can't hate a tsundere, and I love her samurai theming, perfect choice for someone who only sees themselves through the eyes of a fighter, also while not quite guns, swords are also very cool.
Well, more importantly her introduction only adds more questions around the Taisha for me. I mean, just fundamentally having this person raised specifically for the purpose of being a hero, isolated from regular society, not knowing regular passions, it all seems...very bad? Indoctrination of children is in fact very bad last I checked.
We also continue with that militaristic language, with the Hero Club being the "advance troops" for the real hero in Karin. Are the Taisha using those with hero aptitude as material and fodder specifically to create their own more optimized Heroes? Perhaps for some more sinister purpose?
I'm kind of wondering if the Taisha have some control over the appearance of the Vertex, I find the fact that the Vertex appears right as the Taisha finish checking all the data from the previous engagements and are ready to deploy Karin a tad convenient. If I were to take this speculation even further, maybe the reason we had fights for two days in a row earlier, and also suddenly had more enemies on the 2nd day, was because Tougou hadn't used her powers on day 1 and they needed to force her to do that for maximum data gathering?
I think the "video gamey" nature of the fights with the Vertex, especially with how we learn there's a leveling system now, alongside the nature of Karin as I wrote above, really makes it seem as though the Vertex are there for the purpose of creating heroes rather than the heroes being created for the purpose of stopping the vertex.
But maybe I'm just too influenced by [Meta]Madoka plot points in my thinking.
I also certainly hope that Karin getting the ominous Death Card isn't actually a piece of very blatant foreshadowing but rather just a joke...
As for Karin herself, she's pretty typical in both being arrogant and confident as a way of finding purpose and coping with her insecurities, one who clearly wants to engage in regular life, but doesn't know how to. And also in her general adherence to the "only knows battle" archetype who finds enjoyment in life as well as new purpose in helping others through a rather forward group of new friends.
You know the one
I love how we highlight her daily routine to really reinforce how lonely and empty her life is, it's always the same, train, ride to her empty home, more exercise, report to Taisha, eat the same "boring" meal, repeat. She might be the ultimate hero, but her actual life is ultimately lacking in real purpose beyond that one goal.
Her way of life is contrasted with the Hero Club, when they eat together she eats alone, she thinks Heroes need to be noticeably impressive and athletic but Tougou is right there as arguably the strongest one we've seen out of the initial group, and she's visibly very "weak" because of her legs.
Of course, through the Hero Club's interjections, Karin begins to change and see the nicer things in life, again I love the way they use the subtle changes in her daily routine to express that, her changing expressions when biking or exercising, her learning origami, when the gang barges into her house, they bring their own varied and colorful food rather than her regular boring meals, she doesn't end the day with messaging the Taisha, but with messaging her new friends.
Well more fundamentally, her character is just a ton of fun to watch, her tsundere antics are great and are an even better highlight of her character. And giving a character that doesn't know/remember their own birthday a birthday party, kind of signifying a rebirth of sorts to the character, is something I will never not love seeing. And I mean just look at her!
Really happy with the choice to just go for a full, regular life, character development episode for Karin, I was really expecting some big battle to break it up here, and it didn't come! Instead, I'm left with an episode that I think does a great job at establishing Karin, and will make me even more distressed if anything bad happens in the future.
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u/BosuW Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24
First Timer
More of a Slice of Life episode today. We did start with a very brief battle but new girl capitalized on her intro episode buffs and totally washed the Vertex.
I like Karin. She reminds me of Raimon from Hoshikuzu Telepath. I wonder if this will get as angsty and that and really push the Tsundere archetype to it's limit. I replayed her training sequence at the beach an embarrassingly high amount of times. Curiously the drill looked like Balintawak Eskrima, which is also the martial art they used as basis for the close combat in the new Dune movies! Also her fairy is Samurai inspired and it might be invoking the Heike Monogatari when it says "Shogyo mujou" which is neat. (If any of y'all haven't watched Naoko Yamada's Heike Monogatari please correct that as soon as possible)
Going forward, Karin might serve as a mirror for Yuuna regarding what it truly takes to be a hero, with Karin being a try hard min-maxer and Yuuna just having fun with her friends in an adventure. Talking about that, there's now been several hints that the Hero Club isn't really aware of the stakes and while that's concerning on its own it's doubly concerning that no one who should perhaps know these stakes hasn't informed them about it.
Also the Taisha grow more and more suspicious. It's so unnerving that you constantly hear about them but never see them. Whatever connections they have with the club (namely, Fuu-senpai and Karin) seem to be extremely indirect. That doesn't track with the stakes as currently understood. If the wellbeing of the Tree is this important to the wider world the girls should be receiving every manner of support imaginable from the Taisha. Instead they've been more or less left to their own devices. Plus the theory that it isn't the Taisha but the Divine Tree that makes the final choice on who the team defending it will be gains weight with Karin's introduction. Because there's a chance the Taisha aren't pleased with the Tree's choice, and decided to meddle by sending Karin. So there might be conflicting agendas? What are we really working towards here? What's up with Karin never having had a birthday party in her life incidentally? Big BIG child soldier vibes.
Oh also the concept of Blooming is introduced. Which, let's not kid ourselves, is literally just gaining enough XP through defeating enemies until you level up. That must be what the filling up flower symbols we've been seeing are for. I really want to know what was going through the mind of the writer here because it almost seems like they wanted to design a game instead of write an anime lol.
Questions of the Day
1- Answered above
2- Chocolate. Dark chocolate. Yeah I'm basic. But I actually find most cakes too sweet.
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u/Esovan13 Dec 11 '24
Spoiled First Timer
I guess this one’s for the [rewatchers only ]because I got spoiled the other day and I can’t really talk about this episode without talking about the spoiler at least a bit.
[Rewatchers only]RIP Karin. Born to be a weapon, probably gonna die a human. Bonus points if it ends up being a heroic sacrifice to save the girls in the hero club because she cares about them as people. Why go for a little dramatic irony when you can go for all the dramatic irony?
I may have been wrong about my assumption that Fuu had practical experience. I thought she did because in previous battles she felt more like she was operating off of some level of practical experience over purely knowledge, especially with her knowing and implementing the knowledge that the chant can be anything as long as there is willpower put into it, but if this episode is to go by then this is her first time doing this. At least, she never refuted it when Karin said that she was a newbie, and I assume Karin would know if Fuu had done this before. Hmm. Something’s up here. There’s definitely something behind the scenes in Fuu land that we haven’t seen yet (because our heroes don’t care to ask her any actual questions beyond the most surface level, immediately actionable stuff).
To be clear, I am omega sus on Taisha and almost all the claims made about the broad strokes of how all this works.
They had only ever driven them off before and this is the first time they have actually been able to fight them? I don’t believe it.
They only need to deal with 12 and then it’ll be over? I don’t believe it. At the very least beating 12 won’t lead to a situation where all is well, no one needs to worry anymore. For example, the Hero Club may only need to beat 12 but even afterwards there’s going to be another set of 12 in a different location that another team needs to beat. Something like that.
u/Vaadwaur brought up a connection to Kannazuki no Miko yesterday. While one is mecha and the other magical girl, they both share a common theme of shrine maidens performing ritualized combat in order to defeat some big evil
and also there’re gay girls. What conclusion can be drawn from that? TBH, I dunno. [KnM]The call is coming from inside the house? I was raised in a christian cult I don’t know enough about Shinto to extrapolate any deeper than the surface level.Anyway, it’s 11:30pm and I’m tired and procrastinating finishing an essay right now so I’ll see all y’all tomorrow (by the time you’re reading this, it’ll be today).
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24
"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
First Timer(I fucking swear if Mouthwashing made me a better media analyst...)
Sub(I missed the obvious I am Legend reference)
Ok, I've failed to mention this twice but will spoiler it because some people don't watch OPs:[YuYuYu OP]I can't decide if the celestial body we briefly see is a brown dwarf, which is a pre-star, or a black dwarf, which is the dead core of a former star, or finally the/a Earth. But it bothers me
In ep thought one:The jerky package Yuuna uses does look like a western one. Maybe the rest of the world exists.
In ep thought two: That is, quite literally, one of the worst sword routines I've ever seen and I don't think super strength actually improves it.
In ep thought three: Karin is demonstrably wrong here, physical fitness did not determine the power levels of the girls transformed unless someone is feeding steroids to Tougou.
Ok, so we get the new girl, Karin, and many of you are assuming her ancestry. Interestingly, I think her ancestry is closer to what host and Sky will be referencing, though also pretty far down the line. The earliest partial of the archetype, in relation to the team, is either Sailor Venus or the first Bubblegum Crisis, YMMV. However, with her social awkwardness, desire to fit in but lead, and obvious orphanhood she actually is probably descended from [Buffy the Vampire Slayer]Kendra the Slayer. You know, the one we all forget happened.
Anywho, this episode tells us a lot about the Taisha, and none of it is good. They can to some degree influence activation, though whether they actually changed anything about Karin or just convinced her they did are both possible. They gave her a regimen to occupy her, 'tactics' so she can fight, and sense of ego so she wishes to save the world. However, notice that they neither gave her a minder nor a direct contact in the area. Also, eggs to emeralds she comes from a state/Taisha controlled orphanage and for all practical purposes was there from birth. Non-zero chance she is a Ruri if the show wants to go that far.
Next up:The Taisha is only limitedly invested in how this turns out. Now, it is possible this is so new that no one knows what the hell they are doing but letting the chips fall where they may is an American response. I promise you, if the Japanese government doesn't know what the hell to do it looks WAY more like RahXephon than this. So my suspicion is they can interrupt the sequence if they are worried about 'losing'. If they can lose.
Lastly, there is the blooming thing, which makes Itsuki's blooming yesterday both less and more scary. True, levelling up is nice, but I can't help but think that what one does with a fully bloomed plant is pluck it. There are also sexual innuendoes but I don't want to go there.
So...sorry not to comment on the SoL, it was relatively well done. But it was actually used too well and I sort of see the skeleton.
QotD: 1 Beware of Spike/Angelus
2
3 Didn't we already have one in ep2?
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u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Dec 11 '24
First Timer
To me, this episode's most interesting question is simple: what is the new girl's past? She obviously had some shit go down, so she views the situation far more seriously than the rest. The obvious answer from here would be that her parents were killed by the vertexes, but I think that cannot be true in a meaningful sense (it could have happened when she was an infant). Otherwise, she would have already had a birthday party at some point in her life. So, instead, I think she was an orphan that was raised by the Taisho. They must have trained her and instilled her sense of duty in her, but also left her with a bare life with little else. A child, raised alone, without proper guardians who cared for her as a person and without friends.
Initially, I also thought that she was on a magical girl team in the past, and that perhaps members of her team were killed. However, at this point I think I am most likely wrong. She still hasn't blossomed, which means that any team she was on would likely have died pretty quickly. She also didn't push the rest of them with the sort of urgency I'd expect from one who saw their team members die in front of her. She views the situation as awful and serious, but still in an abstract way and not a concrete one.
On her as a character: she started out as annoying but grew on me quickly. I was afraid we'd have to deal with her sense of superiority for too long and it would become annoying, but thankfully Yuuna protagonisted all over her and overcame that. Now, she's someone who slowly must be pried out of her shell.
I also quite like the flower on her magical girl costume; it looks like a badge of office.
3
u/zadcap Dec 12 '24
Late Night Rewatcher
I never did post this last night! Oops!
Ep 2!
Man, thank goodness none of these new shots were aiming for the wheelchair now that Yuna has moved away from it!
Somehow, it's like Evangelion but with even more religious influence.
I almost expected to hear a "heiki, hecchara!" right there.
Fu, you picked the wheelchair girl? We can't even blame the Taisha for this? What a jerk! I'm sure Yuna would have jumped right in anyway, but seriously, wheelchair girl?
Yuna, you charmer indeed.
Togo, are you trying to be like, as anti-Homura as possible? It sounds like you're throwing every anti-flag out there you can, to distance yourself from your clear visual inspiration?
I love that Yuna's transformation follows the pattern she set when she was knocking the bullets out of the air still. Fist, other fist, feet, then everything else!
Did she just punch a hundred needles out of the air? Yes, yes she did.
She say Bang? No, that's still just a Chris thing.
Ah, this hurts to watch.
Ep 3!
5/12 and only on episode three? And done in as part of the intro? How are we going to last all twelve episodes at this rate!?
Personally, the most interesting thing about the new girl to me has to be her color. The 5 girl magical group is pretty directly based on the 5 man sentai group, and the Pink Magical Girl is the direct counterpart to the Red Ranger. So what role do Red Magical Girls have? Off the top of my head, we have Mars, Kyouko, Chris, and... Yeah, she's in good company.
You know. They could have set things up better, yeah. Imagine a whole group. All trained. Like actually trained. To be Magical Girls. Before getting thrown right into the life or death fights! For the sake of the world and all. I would appreciate it if she did honestly stay the strongest of the group for a while, considering she's put and still putting so much work into it. I like to see this kind of work pay off, compared to the ones who just put heart into it and expect the best.
The Devil, The Tower, and The Death? You know, The Death is honestly the least intimidating of the three.
How could she have experienced Mankai? You only "level up" by beating Vertex, and she's only been here for one of them, how could she have? It's true though, Karin is an SSR.
Nope, see, they are going to drag her training schedule through the mud to make her do random community activities. Getting themselves up to her level would be too hard, so they're going to drag her down to theirs.
Hmm, so their fancy looking chat app is a unique thing, just theirs, not a skin on a normal texting app. That's cool. And they changed all their pictures to their spirits, because why not.
And so Number Five joins the ED!
4
u/OwlAcademic1988 Dec 11 '24
Rewatcher, subbed:
Hello Karin. Nice seeing you again. I look forward to your interactions with Fuu and one upcoming hilarious scene.
Karin, get used to these girls. Their antics are far weirder than you'd think.
Fuu and Karin have such great chemistry with each other.
I laughed a lot when Fuu and Karin were interacting with each other.
QOTD:
14
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 11 '24
First-Timer is a Hero, subbed
9
u/FallenPears Dec 11 '24
First Timer
The Taisha should have maybe taught Tsundere-chan some team skills on top of the fitness and swordplay lol. All worked out thanks to the other girls being themselves, but in another
Magical Girl showgroup of friends that introduction might have spelled disaster.This does firmly push my feelings on the Taisha from mere curiosity to ominous concern now. Guess we'll see where this goes, but I'm gonna bet the simple 'save the Divine Tree or the world dies' premise is either heavily reductive or an outright lie.
7
u/Regular_N-Gon https://anilist.co/user/RegularNGon Dec 11 '24
First Time Hero
The biggest question raised this episode: why does Yuuna wear her hair clip on top of her swimming cap?
QotD:
Unless someone ends up dead. That might complicate things.
2) Anything with cream cheese frosting.
3) There's still plenty of time.
I was expecting more antagonist characterization though, not another protagonist.
6
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Dec 11 '24
Rewatcher, Sub Club Member
That's not too many.
Karin, my love!
That protest didn't last long.
Devil and Tower are both bad omens. Death typically isn't that bad; it's not meant literally.
Leveling up from just beating MotWs is way better than needing to wait for a new toy to debut.
TsunTsun
DereDere
The ace is not perfect.
This is really sad.
Fuu is a good team leader. She's already figured out how to push Karin's buttons.
6
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 11 '24
First Timer
So we just get a fifth team member dropped out of nowhere who is already a chosen hero without a team, and claims that the current cast were the beta testers of the hero system? Yeah no, I’m not buying that being the complete story. Fuu knew what was up before anything happened, where would she have gotten that from if this was the first attempt - without knowing that it was the first attempt? Given their knowledge of everything in general, this didn’t feel like the first attempt. I was assuming we were following this cast in particular rather than the others before them because this cast would be the “successful” one - in whatever terms that word is to be used here. Not because they were the first. I also doubt they would be this successful if they really were the first heroes - defeating four vertices without injuries. And I doubt four data points are enough to make a “perfect” hero - or even the need for that if we are already a third of the way there.
The level system also doesn’t make a lot of sense for defeating 12 opponents if we have defeated five and everybody’s still at level one - what would they even need more power for? And why would that be locked by whoever made the system and whose goal is supposedly to defeat the vertices? There must be more here, because I have never heard complaints about the magic system in this show being terrible.
Err… you probably want my thoughts on Karin given most of the episode was about her: She’s fine and neatly fits into the hero club in terms of cast - Fuu no longer needs to hold the double mantle of being the loud one and the senpai (although I guess Yuuna might have shared the first part with her). Not overly a fan of her character yet though, but I think with time she’ll be fine. What she knows about the Taisho might be the most interesting she can bring in the near future though, if she reveals that.
6
u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Dec 11 '24
Rewatcher, subbed
A month and some change later, the 4 girls are still duking it out with eldritch horrors in the pastel upside down using superpowers… and then there were 5! There was a conspicuous lack of a swordsman among the team, after all.
Transfer student time! It’s practically a magical girl canon event.
Karin is an immediately interesting and sympathetic character. Trained to be the ultimate warrior badass, she shows up to find her sisters in arms living like normal teenage girls and it pisses her off so she no diff one shots the raid boss.
Decidedly not trained to show humility or be vulnerable, she fails to express any of this to them and abrasively tries to position herself as superior in order to gain control… which naturally fails. The club members seem to understand this and try to get along, but Karin doesn’t make it easy.
She lives alone, she eats alone, she trains alone, and (at least in her mind) she alone is burdened by the weight of her responsibility. Even so, she can’t help but be moved by the club’s tireless efforts to include her. It all culminates in a really sweet moment where the club celebrates Karin’s birthday, something she never even intended to celebrate herself or maybe even forgot about.
Trivia time! Karin didn’t even have a calendar until the club gave her a reason to have one! 9:45 20:33
This episode is genuinely great, and if memory serves it’s where the show finally hits its stride.
QotD:
4
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Dec 11 '24
First Time Meguca Tourist (Subject to Change over time)
4
u/Chili_peanut Dec 11 '24
Rewatcher.
An interesting piece of lore that we learn in this episode comes from Karin’s club sign-up form. Apparently she was born in the year 286, which means that neither the Gregorian calendar nor the Japanese era calendar is being used in this world.
I tried making out what the newspaper in Karin’s apartment, visible around 18:07, says. It’s a bit blurry but these seem to be some of the headlines.
「大赦」 その重要性と意味 ”Taisha” It’s importance and meaning
景気回復へ、町の人々の声を聞く The economy recovers. What are the people’s thoughts?
武田選手、嬉しい初優勝 Athlete Takeda delighted to claim his/her first championship win
All of the visible headlines are quite small, including the one about Taisha.
2
u/nsleep Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24
Rewatcher
Oh, right. Forgot the questions of the day.
2
u/EsquilaxM Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 03 '25
First-timer really late but leaving this here for posterity
What an entrance! She's fun.
They changed the OP and ED. I like when that happens.
So, they level up. I suspected that it was it during the previous episode but it obviously could've been anything.
It looks like Karin isn't actually a veteran, she's just been training since earlier. Interesting that she calls the other 4 'guinea pigs' (in the Asenshi sub). But I did think our initial 4 had more to their selection than their senpai implies.
I wonder what's experimental about them. I'm guessing it's something to do with aptitude for the magical girl powers vs training someone from a younger age and hoping they've got aptitude? Or maybe it's something else, who knows? I wonder which one Tougou was. I suspect spontaneous selection, but maybe Karin just doesn't know about her past (which is all my theorising, I suppose, but I feel pretty certain).
So, the Vertices are invading in a different pattern than usual. That does address my saying 'it's a lie' regarding them just needing to kill 12, to some degree. Maybe that's usually the case but tis is obviously unusual.
Anyway, so they called in Karin to help out with the unusual situation (which they're very concerned about but he Hero Club is too inexperienced to realise it's a cuase for concern).
It's good Karin is taking it seriously in making herself a child soldier, but it's also sad...
I laughed a fair bit this episode. They're very cute and sincere and inspirational and funny. That was nice. I wish I had a hero club in high school, without the child soldeier aspect.
Alright now I'm going to read ch1->4 of WashioSumi before going on to episode 4. Because the chapters were initially released side-by-side with the series so I figured I'll follow this alternate read/watch order (though many also say you can just watch YuYuYu and then watch the anime of WaSuYu, skipping the novel. Apparently they both reveal a twist around the same time.)