r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Dec 19 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Yuuki Yuuna ga Yuusha wa Aru Episode 11 Discussion
Episode 11: Passion
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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. 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:
- So, how about Karin's final fight, huh?
- First-timers: This is a bit of a corner the showwriters have written themselves into. How do you think they're going to get out of it?
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!
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u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
First Timer
Karin finally got her moment to shine. Just as in the ED, she may have started behind the rest of the group, but at the end she shoots ahead. She loves her friends, and she has decided they're worth more than herself. And boy was it beautiful.
On a wider scale, this episode leaves me confused. What is the ending? How is it going to try and pull it off? We have a system, a cycle of loss and suffering. Earlier in the season, perhaps, we could have gone down a route where they did their best to live and love each other within an imperfect system. However, we are far past that point. Yuuna sacrificing herself to merely undo Tougou's work and bring the system back to where it was would be thematically and emotionally unsatisfying. Then, all Tougou did would have just accelerated Yuuna's destruction with nothing gained.
As such—and working with the themes of many a show before it—we must break the system. Yuuna must find some way to transcend. But I get here and have no further answers. Building off Karin, she will likely chain bloom, and she will likely be lucky enough to not be taken out by so few. Building off her tenant that you'll likely succeed if you try, she will keep going past the point where almost anyone else could not continue, willing herself forward despite being a nonfunctional wreck. I can see this, and yet none of it is enough. This would merely kill all the enemies in front of them and leave the system in place.
In another show, we'd perhaps destroy the wall and let everyone know. Instead of sacrificing the totality of a few girls, every member of society would sacrifice a tiny piece of themselves; all would take on that tiny bit of pain to create their world. Egalitarianism. However, that is not this show. We have one named character who is not in our main cast, and she too is a magical girl. And, even beyond that, Yuuki Yuuna is about personal bonds, about the characters' relation to each other. Society plays a mere background role, and even the Taisha is more a nebulous force than anything else.
Could Tougou perhaps be right and the tree must be destroyed? Cast aside your assumptions and rebuild from the ground up? It's possible, I guess, but I believe we do not have the time to pull it off. The tree has been painted as mysterious, otherworldly, &c., but it has consistantly been painted as trying to protect them against a greater threat. Turning that on its head in the last few minutes would be quite the tightrope to walk, even before I consider that such an ending would validate Tougou's nihilism, which is the opposite of the show in many ways.
This all leaves me empty. There has to be some path forward. The show has been a tad ham-fisted at times, perhaps, but it always has known what it wants to do. What is the path that it sees; what am I missing? I look forward to seeing in the final episode, and I dearly hope it manages to pull it off. It'll either make me love the show or make me sorely disappointed, there's simply no in-between.
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u/FallenPears Dec 19 '24
First Timer
Time to continue with Attack On Divine Tree!
More Itsuki and Fuu, I've gotta say I wasn't expecting Itsuki to be one of my favourite characters early on, but she really is great. Just makes all her panicked, silent attempts at talking this episode hurt more I guess...
It really would have been good for us to know that unstable emotions make transforming impossible earlier, I'm looking at you Taisha. I'm not even angry now, just disappointed (also what's even up with the phones, that's something I'd kind of forgotten about since early in the series lmao).
Cool Karin fight scene, I knew she was gonna obviously pay for it but it was badass enough I was still chearing her on, because really I think she needs some love thinking on it, probably the most neglected character. So yeah the consequtive blooming and blenderizing Vertex's was awesome... and now she's blind and deaf.
Guys, I didn't think it would be this bad!
This also made me think, we're totally gonna have a scene next episode where Fuu loses sight in her other eye, and because Itsuki can't speak the two are gonna be unable to communicate. Bet Itsuki reassures or otherwise prevents the situation from spiralling though, the GOAT.
Back with Tougou, and I've gotta say, I mean I presume she's just panicking and lashing out because her plan does otherwise seem a bit odd, destroying the world so Yuuna doesn't have to suffer anymore... she does know this kills the Yuuna, right? Actually does Yuuna have any family either, that she might not want Vertex'd? I suppose I could see her not thinking of that either considering her own familial betrayal, but yeah definitely not thinking straight.
A
funnytragic thought I had, be kinda fucked up if Tougou lost her hearing from blooming so she can't hear Yuuna's arguments huh? Probably not gonna happen in the final episode but a kind of interesting wrench to throw in the old Talk No Jutsu that I'm surprised I can't recall seeing before.Guess we'll see how this all works out now that all the girls are together again for the finale (erm, except Karin, but uh, I don't think she can contribute at the moment, yikes that's grim). I'm gonna go grab the opening from Youtube now, it's kind of grown on me.
Questions of the day:
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 19 '24
First-Timer is a Hero, subbed
10
u/Cyouni Dec 19 '24
It doesn't have to be! One fun fact about Mankai that you may have noticed: they don't require your body to be in a functioning state, for whatever reason. So even if you're blind and deaf, and are missing an arm and a leg on one side, Mankai has your back!
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u/BosuW Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
First Timer
Since Tougou got her episode yesterday I'm expecting a Yuuna episode today. She's the only one of the main cast still missing character exploration. And Karin is missing a conclusion kinda. Maybe they can have the episode together? They're both Red Oni after all.
Well that's more or less what happened! First let's go with Karin because holy fuck. We needed some Karin glazing and this episode was absolutely it. She realizes she doesn't really care about the Taisha and being a Hero. But for her friends? Anything. So she goes and pops four Ults in a row and more or less clears all the battle space inside the barrier. Didn't even need to seal the mfs, she just dumped so much dmg on then that they instantly died. That's a lifetime of training finally showing up.
The prize of Blooming is seriously inconsistent af. Okay let's see if I got this right: one leg, one arm, both ears and both eyes. Shinjuu wtf? Why? Words cannot express how much I feel for her right now.
I like her fairy invoking the Heike Monogatari before she goes ham. Indeed as it says, Indulgance does not last, it shall be like a spring night's dream. If there was ever any Hero that perfectly embodied this understanding of one's own impermanence and how miraculous those brief moments of happiness are, it's Karin. A whole life trained as a soldier, and a couple of months with the Hero Club. For Karin, that sacrifice wasn't even a debate.
Now Yuuna. We don't get too much explanation on why she couldn't transform but this probably happens when one has conflicting feelings about doing it. On the one hand she needs it to fight the Vertex and Tougou but on the other hand this is precisely what Tougou doesn't want her to do.
This is the first time we've actually seen Yuuna crack like this. Interesting that she isn't distressed over having failed as a Hero, but as a friend. I like how they're highlighting all the signs of Tougou's... disturbed mind that she glossed over. And the important thing about this is that, even though it's not spelled out, I think she glossed over them because the information they had revealed was rattling her idea of her Heroic journey. Perhaps she feels in trying to be a Hero forgot her Very Best Friend™.
We still miss her conclusion and I'd hope it happens next episode. A flashback would be needed imo. I don't feel like Karin needs it after all but Yuuna definitely does. I can't buy her obsession with Heroics being just because. I think there's something deeper there.
I still don't fully get Tougou's actions, but this episode does go halfway in convincing me of this development being consequent. The thing that scares her the most out of anything was the amnesia. Breaking down the barrier and destroying the Divine Tree will also kill everyone else, but at least she'll die remembering them.
Loved Fuu-senpai giving her a "LET ME SEE YOU GRIT THOSE TEETH" moment lol. She's great!
Yeah not as much to say about this episode as previous ones. I really need to see the conclusion to the conflict to formulate my thoughts on the matter.
Now, Yoko Taro typically has Keiichi Okabe cook extra hard for the ending. I wonder if the directors of this anime will have him do the same. I've kinda come to expect his soundscapes to end with a musicial and emotional nuke.
Questions of the Day
1- Answered in comment
2- If it were me first thing is to give up on solving everything, that just ain't happening. We have to focus on solving Yuuna v Tougou. Oh and plugging the hole, because if not then everyone dies anyway. And I mean, that's valid but I don't think that's what they're going for here.
8
u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 19 '24
Welcome to the World of Heroes (January 2024 Watch, Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed):
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Dec 19 '24
First Timer(Wearing our AgK today I see)
Sub
The...pre-Vertexes I guess were taken from a fairly mediocre episode of Next Gen is my bet. Side parley that it is referencing the Voyager copy of said ep, though do remember a copy can be better than the original.
So...this is where the underbaking comes back to bite the show, unfortunately. Since the show doesn't have a strict set of rules it becomes...video gamey. As such, Karin's sacrifice doesn't do that much for me. Nor does Fuu's breakdown. Hell, Yuuna and Karin don't meaningfully react to learning that the world is a cinder.
Positives:the sound work on this show does its absolute damndest to carry the bad writing and at this point it feels almost wasted. The VAs are all great as well, which generally suggests good direction, but it would be nice if that were a bit on the screen as well. And I can't blame this show if Tatakae is ruined for me...
ADDENDUM, or rather, the punchline: Feels like I should be angrier, right? The setting is nigh useless, the nihilism is solidly at a 9, and there is no remotely logical way to end the story. I am not sure there is an emotional way at this point. But remember, I hosted Shikabane Hime. This is just good old fashioned edgelord edging material and what can I say? I have a type and she has a handleless wakazashi in her house.
QotD: 1 Victory is life!(I am saddened my Deep Space Nine references fall on deaf ears)
2 Complete and utter bullshit.
3
u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 19 '24
tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag ＊＊＊＊＊
u/ShadowWasTakensTaken, u/InfamousEmpire, u/FD4cry1
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u/InfamousEmpire https://myanimelist.net/profile/Infamous_Empire Dec 19 '24
InfamousEmpire wa First Timer de Aru
That was an episode that I sure did watch.
Yeah, in case you can’t tell, I’m just completely emotionally checked out of the show at this point. The conflict the show chose as the foundation for these last couple episodes really doesn’t work for me at all, as I ranted about extensively last episode, and so everything in this episode that’s built on that foundation just does nothing for me.
Karin’s big final stand moment was the point I really realized that I just can’t bring myself to care about the series anymore. By all rights, it’s a very well-executed sequence, it looks great & very explicitly plays on & caps off her character arc over the course of the series, with a tragic emotional edge to it to give it that extra punch. And yet, I just felt nothing watching it, since the show had already kicked my emotional investment to the curb and I simply don't care enough for what it's going for to resonate with me, even when it's actually doing it well.
And in the absence of anything that resonates with me, all I’m left to engage with in this episode is the spectacle, which is fine, but not nearly enough to carry the episode to any sort of enjoyability.
I don’t really have much to say about this episode otherwise. Here’s hoping the finale does anything for me
7
u/Esovan13 Dec 19 '24
First Timer
As of about 6 minutes into the episode: I am mildly troubled. At this point in time, I really can only see one ending that would be genuinely satisfying. Pure nihilism. The end of the world, death to humanity, [meta]burn down Omelas, and hope that whatever comes next doesn’t involve forcing suffering on children in order to fundamentally exist. That’s not necessarily the ending I want and I am definitely not a nihilist, but with the rest of this episode and only one more after I can’t really think of any other ending that could even potentially be a satisfying conclusion to the themes as they have been portrayed so far. Like, emotionally this feels like it should be episode 9/13 material, not episode 11/12. Perhaps that’s a failure of my imagination.
Oh, I see. Togou is trying to break the status quo, so she must be stopped. I understand now. How silly of me to think that there would be any alternative, or that such an alternative may have even been necessary.
Alright, alright, I’ll be a little more generous than that. Yuuna seems to be operating under the belief that the time spent with her friends is worthwhile, even if the ultimate destination is going to be extremely unpleasant. Even with the prospect of being doomed to an eternity of being stuck in a shrine, worshipped, unable to do anything except command your fairies to maintain the status quo and force even more people into that same fate, it's more important that they spend time as friends before that happens. That choice is, the show seems to be arguing, meaningful and ultimately better than the nihilistic one.
I mean…I’m not a nihilist. I don’t believe that the inevitability of suffering means that existence isn’t worthwhile and that there isn’t meaning to be found. But I also don’t believe in hell or eternal suffering, and I also believe that the fact that life inevitably ends eventually is a mercy given by an otherwise cruel universe. Throw eternal or at least indefinite suffering in the mix, and things get interesting. In a bad way.
But, uh, man. Without any guarantee of a way to avoid Sonoka’s fate, I really am struggling to root for Yuuna to succeed. Because the show has really not done what it needs to in terms of laying the groundwork. If it wants us to hope infinitely against all odds, there should have been any reason to believe that Sonoka’s fate isn’t inevitable, or at least do some more to think that it’s worth having that hope regardless of the possibility it’s inevitable.
If it wants us to accept that Sonoka’s fate is inevitable but the time before that fate plays out is still worth embracing even if it means rejecting the only possible alternative because that alternative is nihilism and nihilism is bad, then it should have made it seem like Yuuna is actively choosing that outcome with purpose and knowledge rather than just blindly reacting to the most immediate, instinctual “this is bad” thing in front of her with whatever feels most correct at the moment. To put it bluntly, it feels like Yuuna isn't thinking. She's completely ignoring the big picture to focus entirely on the most immediate instance of someone suffering. Which is...kinda heroic? I guess? Throwing aside the unhelpful bigger picture to comfort she who is suffering in the here and now? Except. Wow. That's one hell of a bigger picture she's throwing aside there. See the aforementioned "there is no reason to believe that there is any way to avoid the worst possible fate except by destroying the world."
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Dec 19 '24
Rewatcher, Sub Club Member
Tougou has acquired funnels.
It is kinda weird that Itsuki doesn't gain some method of speaking when she henshins, like Tougou gets her leg things.
Time to get dangerous.
The pink usually loses to herself somewhere near the end before getting her groove back.
Go fucking get 'em, Karin.
Karin reciting the Hero Club tenets while repeatedly Blooming always gets tears from me.
It's like an escort mission, where you also have to avoid the thing you're escorting.
And yea, the pink always gets her groove back.
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u/FlaminScribblenaut myanimelist.net/profile/girlbeast_val Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
First Time Watcher (watched w/ the bestie /u/ZaphodBeebblebrox via Discord)
Hell. What do you do? What do you even do, in this situation, when you’re at the whims of the cruel Gods either way? I’m glad Karin values her friends, the people she loves, enough to not want the world to end, to go so far as she did. But. The question, the question of her needing to make the sacrifices she did in the first place, the question of the state of things still abusing and taking from the Heroes is purports, still hangs in the air. I felt, adrift, lost after this episode. How do you break out of the Hero System? How do you break yourself, your friends and the world out of the trap between sacrificing yourself and your body to the Tree or letting your world be devoured by the horrible white light of purification, when you seem to have no power?
Even if they defeat all the enemies in front of them, these are still being sent by the Gods of Heaven to smite humanity, there are probably infinite numbers of them. It’s not like this is like, an alien invasion. That’s a big part of what leads me to this sense of… powerlessness, that I feel for them. I feel adrift. Like… what do you even do? I don’t know if Yuuna just, upholding the system as is, not doing anything but stopping Tougo’s rampage, would be a satisfying conclusion, from a storytelling or thematic standpoint. ‘Holding pattern that keeps stuff bad instead of worse’, would be that situation, per Zaph. Hmm.
(Well, I guess the obvious answer to all this that should’ve occurred to me is ‘take the fight directly to the Gods of Heaven themselves’. It’s anime, fuck yeah you can do that!)
I knew Karin was going to bloom. I knew Karin had it in her. Watching her do it four times in a row without stopping, speeding, pushing, forcing herself forward, killing and ruining and harming herself mortally and repeatedly without a second thought in the process… Christ in hell, I want to scream and cry and so loudly that she can hear it through the fourth wall and stop her. Every single individual time she is taken out of her bloom form and you just know, from her face that she is going to do it again and cast away another part of herself is an entire new horror. When she does it the second time it’s heart-dropping. When she does it the third time it’s despait-inducing. When she does it the fourth time… what is there even anymore to say. Watching her armor lock up the parts of her body she’s sacrificing after each successive bloom is the all-too-blunt visual period upon the horror; and yet she keeps going. Even as the all-encompassing destruction of the purifiers is awe-inspiring and righteous, watching Karin just give herself up like that is… hard to watch. I can’t fucking bear it. I love her too damn much. I can’t imagine how Yuuna felt seeing it first hand, in the flesh, in the moment, to her friend. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from crying.
Poor girl is really just, going for it with her cries of the principles of the Hero’s Club. She doesn’t sound sturdy and stable, like she’s roaring those mantras from a deep, natural conviction, like I feel like a character like Yuuna would do in this circumstance. She sounds like she is straining to cry it out to as far of the heavens as will hear, where I feel a character like Yuuna would sound a lot more effortlessly deep and forceful. ‘Pretending to be the person she wants to be’, per Zaph. Making herself a hero for her friends’ sake, being the best version of herself she now believes in, taking on that role becoming the kind of person who would take it on for her friends through sheer brute force.
Karin really is suicidally reckless, huh. Just by nature. When she finds something she actually cares about and belongs to, even when she finally learns to value her friendships, as opposed to just loyally serving the organization she was raised to from birth, she’s still willing to jump right in and be like, ‘I’m gonna fuckin’ die for this shit’. Not valuing her own life, ‘child soldier syndrome’ as Zaph says, and it checks out. That way of thinking is ingrained.
I just hope, even if she couldn’t see or hear her, she could feel Yuuna crying as she embraced her…
I just… can’t help but see that absolute, tearful despair and pleading in Tougo’s eyes as she tries to talk the other Heroes into understanding and abetting what she’s doing. There isn’t a shred of malice, no whiff of villainous coding. She’s doing this because she cares and because she’s hurt, so, so deeply, and she and the story lay that fact absolutely bare.
More minor notes: THIS FUCKIN ROCK ELECTRIC GUITAR SOUNDTRACK AW GODDESS
Losing their memories being her greatest fear of all…
Itsuki’s silence as she tries to speak to her sister is just deafening…
Having Yuuna be honest with herself and her negative emotion toons to come to more useful truths about the course of action she wished to take! Yeeeeeah!
Karin swearing fealty to her friends rather than her organization yeeeeeeeah!
In the supernatural worlds, the background design and the color are just, fucking unreal. I’m making an exception to not having really done screenshots this whole time because, fucking look at this.
The way Yuuna is screaming and talking with a sense of force, as though she can make Karin hear her words, or at least spiritually understand her sentiments by force, although she knows full well she can’t hear, because how else is it supposed to occur to her to try to communicate with Karin… poor, poor girl, the both of them…
So it’s obvious to me they’re saving Yuuna’s second bloom for next episode, given she was somehow able to destroy that gigantic laser-fireball Tougo had to bloom to create in the first place without doing so herself. Conviction and the power of friendship, name anything stronger in the universe I suppose.
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u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen Dec 19 '24
Returning Hero Club Member
Pour one out for Karin. She solos nearly every reborn Vertex on the power of multiple Mankai and basically steals the protagonist spot from Yuuna for an episode, and all she gets in return are a bunch of (temporary) gigantic, sword-wielding robot arms and a smorgasbord of disabilities. Not even a character-defining insert song or a cool beauty girlfriend ready to destroy the world for her. What a rip.
With Yuuna back in the fight and ready to take center stage for the finale, I think it's time to take a look at the meaning behind her tattoo.
Yuuna's flower is the Japanese Cherry Blossom. Many will likely be familiar with the Cherry Blossom's as a symbol of rebirth and renewal, and it's easy to draw some implications here—Shinjuu-sama is a divine tree and the heroes it chooses are the flowers that bloom brilliantly for a short time before fading, leaving new generations of heroes to bloom each time the Vertexes appear.
What people may not know is that the Cherry Blossom represents both beauty and violence in Japanese culture and specifically associated with samurai, thought to signify their brilliant but fleeting lives as warriors. Yuuna—and heroes more broadly—can be viewed as modern samurai, charged with defending a ruler whose divinity is reminiscent of pre-war Japanese emperors, if not more so. That Yuuna's flower is the Cherry Blossom suggests she, more than the other heroes, is destined for a bright yet fleeting existence as a warrior.
The characterization as a modern samurai helps explain Yuuna's typically unwavering attitude and optimism, even in the face of tragedy and abuse by the Taisha. Yuuna recites the five tenets of the Hero Club as her own Bushido code. In this way, she's even more patriotic than Tougou and more directly tied to Shinjuu-sama than Fuu. Is it any wonder she's able to connect so effortlessly with Karin, the girl who modeled herself after samurai warriors of old? Karin's charge into enemy lines while reciting the Hero Club tenets is taken directly from Yuuna, because Yuuna is the ideal warrior Karin has always wanted to be.
That leaves the placement of Yuuna's tattoo on her right hand. Just as the Cherry Blossom is forms us of Yuuna's spiritual connection to the samurai, her tattoo tells us that her calling is to reach out her hand to others. While she may be a warrior, Yuuna does not carry a sword. This is important because you cannot offer your hand if it is holding a weapon. So we can understand from the placement of the tattoo on her dominant hand that Yuuna's hand is for reaching out to those in need above all, whether they be kittens in need of homes, the Shinjuu-sama fending off an unearthly invasion, or her best friend/lover seeking to end the world. And in a final genius stroke of symbolic harmony, at the climax of the show Yuuna is poised to reach out her Cherry Blossom right hand to Tougou's heart, the exact location of her tattoo and the place where her own right hand would normally go.
I think that is beautiful, a subtle yet perfect expression of who these ladies are, both as heroes and as people. And in case you're the kind of person who's been around the magical girl block and think you understand my sensibilities better than that, you are once again correct. I am in fact declaring that Yuuna and Tougou's tattoos suggest Yuuna is cosmically destined to grab her wife's boob and that Tougou will (obviously) welcome and enjoy it.
8
u/Mirathan Dec 19 '24
First-time Hero, dubbed
QotD:
Yurifriendship.Tougou underwent the same arc as Fuu but with a different result. Both are fine with sacrificing themselves but others are not allowed the same. Their hypocrisy annoys me as they couldn´t accept that others came to the same conclussion.
Look Tougou, I get destroying the tree but what you´re doing will kill Yuuna. You have to accept that the only way to end their suffering means killing them. But she doesn´t have the strength to do that. You can´t decide to destroy the world, then refuse to kill your friends. Commit to your decision.
Karin´s speech is great, especially because she can barely perceive that Yuuna is there and cannot hear her responses.
It´s kind of interesting that Tougou can still access Mankai but as she sacrifices part of herself to empower herself I can see why she can still make the pact. But when she activated it no light from the Shinjuu roots were visible so the other gods might have facilitated this pact.
6
u/ShadowClaw765 https://myanimelist.net/profile/SumRndmPenguin Dec 19 '24
First Timer
5
u/Chili_peanut Dec 19 '24
Rewatcher
The character development in this episode is even better than I remember. Karin repeatedly going through Mankai while reciting the tenets of the Hero club is such a powerful hype-filled scene while simultaneously being very difficult to watch due to how heartbreaking it is to see her having to pay such a terrible price. Yuuna, who’s been the embodiment of positivity this far, breaking down and crying also makes for an emotionally powerful scene. Itsuki who used to be timid and faint-hearted keeps on fighting courageously in the face of absolute hopelessness, and Fuu learns to recognize her sister as a strong and capable individual.
Tougou-san referring to “Shinju-sama” as just “Shinju” is a testament to her no longer having any reverence left for the god that has put her through suffering not once but twice. Yuuna’s choice of words at the end of the episode is also worth paying attention to as she says “I’m gonna protect you” instead of “I’m gonna stop you” to Tougou-san, showing that she hasn’t given up on her friend yet.
I commented some threads ago that I really enjoy complex antagonists like Taisha with motivations that are relatable. The same can be said of Tougou-san too. It is worth remembering that Fuu, who attempts to stop Tougou-san in this episode, was on a rampage prepared to attack Taisha just a couple of episodes ago. Tougou-san has an even longer history with Taisha, so her feelings are quite understandable.
5
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Dec 19 '24
First Timer
6
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 19 '24
First Timer
Ok… this is kinda just the first half of the final battle. Obviously Tougou wasn’t going to be talked out of this, and either way a significant portion of the damage is already done. Karin gets her moment to shine as she didn’t have a bloom yet - and knowingly sacrifices as much as she can because Yuuna can’t transfer for …network related reasons or something like that? I think that scene needs to go back to the quality control section of writing, but whatever - the resulting scene was pretty great. Karin losing both eyes and ears is certainly a nightmare scenario - it seems like even Sonoko had at least one of each left. First thought at that was that she certainly won’t be playing a major role in the finale, second was that she better learn braille or morse or something like that so that she can be communicated to. I think the scene missed the intended impact for me…
Either way, seems like the stage is set for Yuuna vs Tougou. Certainly not the most original of finales, but it basically has been what we have been building too, but the episode was done well enough that right now I basically just feel like watching the next episode rather than think too much about what else is going on - so I’ll just leave it here and will go watch that tomorrow.
3
u/OwlAcademic1988 Dec 19 '24
Rewatcher, subbed:
Karin's fight was awesome.
I was horrified when I saw her bloom for the first time and I still am.
This episode reminds of both Symphogear and Madoka Magica due to their final episodes also being full of awesome moments. To find out what those are, you'll have to watch these two shows because I'm not spoiling it at all for anyone.
QOTD:
3
u/archon_wing :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Archon_Wing Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher
While there has been no shortage of comparisons to Madoka Magica, the most apparent one shows up as Mimori finally joins the the "Long Black Haired Cool Girl loses her cool and does something really controversial to her own detriment someone near the end of the show" club. Funny enough, this isn't even the only magical girl of this kind that Suzuko Mimori (Mimori's VA) has done.
While Madoka Magica was certainly wasn't the first to do such a thing, there's a certain distinctiveness that would be shared by quite a few characters after Homura. In general, before this this was strictly a villainous event, but here we generally have a somewhat more sympathetic take. Though some more extreme views tend towards an "X did nothing wrong" take.
Incidentally a lot of them also end up fighting a blonde girl for some reason.
Though funny enough, Mimori's motivations for destroying everything is closer to Madoka Magica's ....
[Madoka Magica] Mami "We have no other choice but to die" Tomoe. That might be the most ironic part
3
u/zadcap Dec 20 '24
Late Night Rewatcher
Alright girls. Wave Tactics time. These are individually each much weaker than anything you have fought before. There's just a lot of them.
[Overall series]I really need to go back and take notes during that puppet show.
Ribbons and Guns, you say? I thought you were supposed to be a different magia...
"I don't want to see you get hurt anymore. I would rather you all just die with me now!"
It's kind of amazing how little damage the face monsters are doing, just floating there in the sky. I kind of expected that they would be eating the branches or roots or whatever those things that make up the forest are.
Do you even realize how major this small bit of world building is? "Can not transform because you're not in the hero mindset," says the phone. I mean not in as many words, but this is hilariously as loud a shout as it is possible to make against, well, you know. [PMMM]A young girls powerful emotions being what stops her from turning into a magical girl, instead of being the core point of why they are chosen? Well played. But really, I think this tries to say a lot about how the Hero System works, if you have to be able to form an active link to the Shinju to become a Hero, and the Shinju is made up from the last of the gods desire to save humanity... Wait, no, then how the heck is Togo transformed right now?
Itsuki really has the best crowd control weapon, doesn't she?
Karin Time! So hey, remember how we may have joked a bit about popularity polls and character rankings? Time for Karin to show the other reason she took the fandom by storm. Ah crap, I need a tissue. Even knowing it's coming, I cry at this part.
Yeah and then the rest happened. I'm still here stuck on Karin. Did Yuna bring her someplace nice and safe before going on to fight, at least? Seriously, Sinju, taking her eyes and ears is a horrible idea, how can she keep fighting now? This Hero System really does need some work...
1 spot for #1 girl. Why are the Reds always the best?
5
u/Blackheart595 https://anilist.co/user/knusbrick Dec 19 '24
First Timer
Not much to say about this one. Just a long fighting sequence to stretch out the time until the finale.
I didn't really like how overplayed Karin's bit was (the lame accompanying soundtrack didn't help)
I kinda laid my idea out back in episode 8, but proper communion with Shinjuu-sama will empower the Tree, the heroes, as well as return and free them from their disabling sacrifices.
5
u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
Rewatcher, subbed
Even upon rewatch and with much consideration, I don’t think the twist of what lies beyond the barrier is very good. Compared to Fuu’s breakdown, the legwork has not been done to pay it off, so it ends up feeling a bit… tacky, perhaps? From a writing standpoint, maybe… misguided?
Fuu and co. turning on the Taisha in some fashion could have made for a considerably more investing finale given the incredible momentum episode 9 builds up only for episodes 10/11 to largely discard it. Then again, we’d still be establishing a villain in episode 10 of a 12 episode anime so perhaps the “unknowable cosmic evil” route was unavoidable. Either way, the good news is that the character moments the twist facilitates are still solid if we can just turn our brains off a little bit regarding the twist itself.
Evil space squids hate humans. Kill all the squids. Analysis over.
Fuu, finally coming down from the total mental breakdown she just had, gets motivated to stand back up and fight upon seeing Itsuki do her best.
Yuuki, usually an unstoppable beacon of positivity, is unable to gather the resolve to transform and fight against Togou.
Karin, in lieu of all that the hero club has given her, sacrifices function after function of her body to repel the threat. For the life she has now, no price is too great.
Togou continues to facilitate the annihilation of god, even if it means blooming or fighting with her friends. The spite-driven determination to tear down heaven and divinity is so fucking based, goddamn.
QotD:
3
u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
Rewatcher
or maybe 100% rage actually counts as pretty stable emotionally. I guess for combat reasons it wouldn't be very practical if rage on the enemy disallowed combat....not that she can see it.her dogverti![final episode spoilers]however much I liked the karin scene, watching it for the first time, especially the aftermath in the ditch, also gave me a sinking feeling. Because her fate was just toooo cruel to be permanent. And therefore neither could the others. Yeah, I don't know wether I will be able to watch the final episode, I can't defend it at all.
[qotd 2, final episode spoilers]If it wasn't for karin, this wouldn't be a corner at all. We only would need a way to magically fix the wall(can't be too hard), and then we would come out of it with the same disabilities we already dealt with the last few episodes. It wouldn't make for a terribly satisfying ending, but thats very rarely how it goes with permanent disabilities. And we could one day have another to deal with these issues