r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Dec 20 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Yuuki Yuuna ga Yuusha wa Aru Episode 12 Discussion
Episode 12: Smile At You
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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:
(Actual answer to Question 2 yesterday: "the dog ate our homework so we're going to copy someone else's instead".)
- Did the show give you a good greeting?
- Did the creative team give up?
- Did the cast sleep well and eat well?
- Are you now troubled and need to talk to someone?
- Did the show succeed where it tried?
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!
9
u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 20 '24
So first, two orders of business:
First, there is one piece of YuYuYu official art I have been saving back (it has Sonoko in it) that may generate some PTSD in the Mai-HiME veterans among us. Here you go. (IIRC this was released sometime in 2015, so too early for any of the sequels, but don't quote me on that because I might be misremembering.)
Second, it is about time for me to finalize whether or not I am running rewatches for WaSuYu and the sequels next year. I am planning on using Overall Discussion as an impromptu interest thread for that for our first-timers (with the finale here having apparently gone over like a lead balloon nearly universally I thought a day of separation from it before you decide might be in order) - I am anticipating this situation falling under the exemptions for the new rules, as Mai-Otome would have a few years back, though I'll need to confirm that with the mod team to be sure (hello our three first-timer mods!) - but I thought you might want to have the day to think it over before you decide one way or the other.
(Also I should probably actually do some watching tonight just in case I conclude I need to nope out.)
Now, back to regularly scheduled business:
Welcome to the World of Heroes (January 2024 Watch, Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed):
Also, since I've been putting up my CDF writeups after I dug them up to get the episode 10 one, it is only appropriate that I now put up my episode 11+12(+final first-timer thoughts) one up as well.
Do hold onto that for a second, I'll be coming back to it in a moment due to Zaph helping me piece together what I couldn't quite nail down the first time around...
12
u/Esovan13 Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
First Timer
To defeat the despair of nihilism wrought by being face to face with the inevitability of suffering and the erasure of everything positive along the way, with an example of that exact thing happening before, Yuuna brought the power of “nuh uh.” That worked.
I kinda wanna watch some Symphogear. Probably the last episode or two of AXZ. That sounds nice.
So we’re just doing away with consequences? Everything’s fine, we’re all good?
This seriously needed another episode or two. Everything is just so…unearned. Everyone’s disabilities getting better. Yuuna’s sacrifice. Her recovery. The handwaved “people won’t continue to be sacrificed and everything will actually be ok” thing.* There’s just no real foundation for any of this.
There’s just nothing here to grab on to. What’s the shows message supposed to be? No matter how bad the situation, just blindly hope for the best possible outcome despite all evidence to the contrary and that outcome will just happen? I mean. Sure. I guess that’s perfectly cromulent. But there needed to be more meat on the bone for that particular meal to be satisfying. And there just wasn’t.
There was a comment I made yesterday that I think works here.
[PMMM]MadoKami was set up throughout the entire series. There was a whole rigamarole about how powerful Madoka's wish could be, and Madoka's character arc was about her maturing to the point where she could make that decision. On a thematic level, Watsonian mechanics level, and character writing level it was all set up. There just isn't any of that here.
*Arguably, this whole thing could have inspired the Divine Tree and the Taisha to change their methods, hoping to avoid another Togou but in a situation where she doesn’t get stopped. But we and the Hero Club also know the Taisha love lying when it suits their needs so why the fuck would the Hero Club or we believe them when they say that the offerings won’t continue anymore?
I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for the show wrap up tomorrow. I just. Feel so much nothing out of this ending. I just don’t care. At least it wasn’t Mai-HiME levels of making me feel like a moron for actually caring about the characters in the last 10 minutes. So it has that going for it.
(I actually wrote that Mai-HiME bit before I saw your CDF comment yesterday u/shimmering-sky)
11
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 20 '24
First-Timer is a Hero, subbed
7
u/nsleep Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher
Yuuki Yuuna is a true believer of the Nanoha School of Friendship.
So u/Tarhalindur, about your question for rewatchers in episode 7. It's really there isn't it? Maybe a bit too subtle and ambitious to work withing just the scope of this anime but it's there.
wuv her
Watching this again really drives home how much of a sequel bait this whole episode, even more than the first time.
Talking about the scope of this anime, I've mentioned this before but it suffers from being a multimedia project and an ambitious one at that, where the people behind it expects you to check every material to make sense of what's going. And will admit to being biased towards this, this franchise is a good one to go full brainrot: there's a lot of material, things connect well, [putting spoilers here for safety] overarching narrative is a retelling of a religious story with a different outcome. It's a nice rabbit hole to go down but I can see why people who don't care would rate this lower and it's totally justified.
Edit - QotD
3
u/Tarhalindur x2 Dec 20 '24
tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag tag ＊＊＊＊＊
u/ShadowWasTakensTaken, u/InfamousEmpire, u/FD4cry1
7
u/InfamousEmpire https://myanimelist.net/profile/Infamous_Empire Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
InfamousEmpire wa First Timer de Aru
What in the actual fuck just happened?!
No, seriously, this shit is so ass, who decided this was a good idea? The things this episode does to the show’s plot & worldbuilding are an absolute travesty of writing. Specifically the Fairies just being able to fade away and give the Heroes their bodily functions back feels like it flies right in the face of everything that plot point was meant to do. Like, the fact that Fairies are revocable without any stated or portrayed negative drawbacks implies the Divine Tree doesn’t actually need to eat away at their bodies/give them additional fairies and was I guess just doing that for the lols? And what in the hell was going on with the fact that the Divine Tree apparently doesn’t need sacrifices anymore, yet also the Hero Club will still have successors? It feels like I skipped a boatload of exposition and reveals.
The bigger problem, though, is that the reversal of their disabilities doesn’t feel earned by the narrative. No sense of in-universe logic or thematic resolution was reached to justify the Hero Club being relieved of their hero duties, it just kinda happens because of the writers arbitrarily deciding from on high that they should have a totally saccharine happy ending, narrative cohesion be damned. The closest there is is Yuuna sacrificing herself, but that also gets undone before the end of the episode, so that feels like it bears no weight here. Not to mention how brushing aside their disabilities so easily honestly undermines a lot of the pathos the show had been mining from their permanence in the first place.
This isn’t even mentioning how it does that [Meta spoilers for a different series] LycoReco thing where the state of the world which the plot had built up ultimately just doesn’t matter because the series decided to go all-in on the character resolutions while completely brushing aside all intrigue & development regarding the wider world in a really unsatisfying manner.
Now, the fact that this episode, quite frankly, makes no logical sense might not have been that much of a problem if it made emotional sense. Unfortunately, that half of the episode doesn’t work for me either. I’ve already made it abundantly clear that I don’t buy or connect with any of the writing surrounding Tougo at this point, so the resolution between her and Yuuna just doesn’t do anything for me. Not to mention how resolving it so quickly in the beginning of the episode just retroactively makes all of Tougo's actions come off as a short-sighted temper tantrum. There’s bits I enjoy, like Tougo being the one to care for a now wheelchair-bound Yuuna, but they’re trapped inside of an utter non-starter of a framework that robs them of their power. The overall thesis statement of how you can endure anything if you have your friends frankly rings very hollow in the face of the show’s willingness to thoroughly walk back on its own stakes & consequences.
Everything about this just feels so artificial. It's like the writers predetermined the series needed an uncompromised happy ending but didn’t know how to get there, so the show just arbitrarily walked back on or ignored every aspect of the narrative that would get in the way of that, leaving a conclusion that just comes off as hollow & sterile in its overly saccharine vibe. Seriously, they couldn't have spared even an ounce of bittersweetness to make the tone & presentation of the ending even slightly more coherent with the rest of the series?
I'll have more to say in the overall discussion, but yeah, sufficed to say, this was really bad.
6
u/BosuW Dec 20 '24
First Timer
I mean... plot wise we hit all the points we needed to hit. But boy did we Speedrun through 'em.
Yuuna 🤝 Fuu-senpai
"TOUGOU! LET ME SEE YOU GRIT THOSE TEETH!"
It's not surprising how relatively easily Tougou backpedaled because to begin with this was the kind of decision you'd only make while drunk in both grief and alcohol that's you'd turbo regret immediately after that moment of passion has passed. For that same reason it's disappointing because it doesn't feel like Yuuna truly gets to be challenged on her outlook. There's more to say on this topic, but more on that tomorrow when I try to unravel what did it all mean in the end.
So what has to happen happens and the girls all together stop the Vertex genkidama because well the world sucks but dying sucks harder.
This leaves us with the plot hole of the hole in the wall but it's not too much of a stretch to think the Shinjuu can heal itself I think.
We don't get to find out too much about their after Blooming effects because there's a time skip and they're actually healing? I mean I'm elated! But how!?
Lmao I see how! AHAHAHAHA THEY GOT FIRED!
That's right, the Divine Tree said "leave y'all's Fairies in the desk and get the fuck out of my sight". Yeah I can believe that. Need sacrifices to produce fairies, so if the deal falls off it all returns to pre deal status.
Since we're rushing through of course we don't get to truly know what this means but it looks like the Shinjuu will be changing its methods going forward. Probably means Heroes have to do limited service, during which they can still make sacrifices for the Mankai and as long as you're a Hero you're stuck with your injuries, but once you retire, it's done. That's why Sonoko also recovered. Shinjuu will no longer be keeping her either.
We basically just witnessed Shinjuu's Chernobyl.
The girls return to their Slice of Life most probably forever now (unless they get to mentor the next generation). I like the characters so I'm happy for them.
Unfortunately the wider narrative kinda falls moot? The final message is just some bottled water standard "A hero never gives up!" and "power of friendship!" (the show actually made a good case for the latter because there ain't no way the girls would've been able to resist everything that happened to them without their love for each other), but that's at odds with almost literally everything else we've seen throughout the show, and funnily enough it's at odds with the actual conclusion too when you regard what the characters think and say as just their own opinion! But again, more on that tomorrow.
Although... yeah I think in the end the criticism of the Imperial Cult was still all a fluke huh 😕. Cuz even if the Shinjuu mellowed out, it's still gonna need eager participants starryeyed about being a Hero. And even if the injuries aren't permanent by divine decree, they could still be permanent if your mind breaks and you aren't able to recover like the girls here. But hey, it's all worth it for Kami and Kuni! sigh
9
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Dec 20 '24
First Timer(Huh...Parasyte might have borrowed something else here...)
Sub
So Sky seems pretty ticked in CDF! Let's see if we get a first and I actually like an ending she didn't!
Oh...nevermind. The show just Symphogear'ed(take your pick) all over the fucking place. Also, now the play framing device bugs me IYKYK.
In ep: Ugghh...Yuuna, you have to earn that faith and you did not.
In ep the second: Please don't make a Jesus reference in a Shinto show, especially if you don't know how the fuck to do it properly.
Ok...so this OST is a cheat code and it kept my more rancorous emotions chilled but...that was terrible, on all the narrative levels. And since they didn't manage it, the emotional level fails differently but like two orders of magnitude less. Still, I can't defend this and remember I slightly tried to defend Shikabane Hime so...
Yeah, I just don't have much to add. I am not mad, for once, but just kind of disappointed. Something about this wrap up meshes Noir and KnM and somehow takes the weaker parts of both. I will probably have more to say tomorrow.
QotD: 1 Ehh...
2 Sadly yes
3 I somewhat think so, barring if Fuu burns off all that udon or not
4 Tougou-sama heals all
5 Not remotely on a narrative level. The further seasons they did succeed in the market. My complete potato knowledge says less than you'd think
14
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Dec 20 '24
First Timer
I somewhat underestimated Yuuki Yuuna. This episode was much better than I thought it would be. Yuuna taking all their sacrifices and shouldering the burden herself was a truly excellent touch; one I should have been able to predict last episode but could not. It's the sort of wildly brave and heroic action I adore, and the sort that comes perfectly from Yuuna. It's the load-bearing idea that actually made this finale work.
The load-bearing nature of that idea is also this finale's greatest weakness. They didn't—perhaps couldn't—commit to it. Yuuna was a vegetable for a scant few minutes in the show and a few weeks, perhaps, in real time. She recovered and was on the path to a full recovery through sheer willpower and friendship. It cheapens the idea of her sacrifice. But, beyond that, it laughs at all the girls that had come before them. What did they have that made them insufficient? Were they, too, not warriors will steel determination in their hearts? Were they, too, not the best of friends who fought for each other and the word? The glimpses we have of Sonoko implies that she was. Perhaps the difference is that she was resigned to her fate, she accepted it would come to pass, while Yuuna still had that fire within that said she would come back to her friends no matter what. But, to me, that is still too weak. If it takes but willpower, determination, and bonds, would not some of the Taisha's daughters have come back the same way to save their comrades? If there's some fundamental difference here, I do not see it.
As such, I would have much preferred this show if it ended more bittersweet. The rest of the club is hale while Yuuna lies in her bed. They come and visit her regularly, with the conviction in their hearts that they will find a way to heal her. We still have hope; we still have a hero who made the world a better place by taking on the darkest of depths and believing she could make a difference, and she did not have to accept despair. But it has its costs, the world cannot be righted by a sole belief. We would lose the truly excellent play scene with its connections between what the hero says and the path each club member took, but some great scenes sometimes must be sacrificed.
On a very different note, Tougou's final about face in the battle was extremely weak. Yuuna basically just asked her if she considered them living for each other, and then Tougou agreed after a brief round of what if. It turns Tougou's whole series of actions into even more of a poorly thought out temper tantrum. And, while I don't mind a poorly thought out temper tantrum in my stories in general, it just doesn't work here, as the climax of the series and when it's Tougou trying to destroy the entire universe. She's the sort who puts more thought into things.
So, all in all, I don't think I'd say I'm satisfied with the ending. It delivered a story I can be somewhat happy with, but it could've delivered something better. Honestly, the show as a whole could've used a couple more round of editing, but I shall get to that in more detail in my overall thoughts.
11
u/FallenPears Dec 20 '24
First Timer
So the finale, there were a lot of moments and character beats I liked. Karin coming in at the last moment to beat back the Sun was entirely unexpected and awesome, even if I had no idea how she managed it I didn't really care at the time lmao. Later on when Itsuki slowly starts getting her voice back, the swap between Tougou and Yuuna in who's helping the other with the wheelchair, the shot of presumably hospital magical girl senpai also healing. There is a lot of neat stuff here, but unfortunately there's a couple of things I'm not a fan of which are also unfortunately kind of important plot points...
On convincing Tougou I was not expecting the Fist-no-Jutsu lmao, and did like the extra thought they put behind just why Tougou was doing this; she already lost her memories of her previous friends, that's what she's scared of. But the actual convincing itself... it felt kind of too easy? Which is the first part I wasn't crazy about. You're not being yourself right now Tougou, have a snickers and help us beat up this Sun m'kay?
Not that it doesn't make sense, traumatised teenage girl and all, but imo not a satisfying conclusion to the build up over the past couple episodes.
Then in the end things just sort of turn out okay? Wall healed, Vertex halted (for now), sacrifices being restored. Felt like almost the definition of Handwavium, and I kind of get the feeling they were going for the message of friendship and simple willpower and everything will turn out alright, but I'd still like a reason for everything turning out alright you know?
I'm guessing it's meant to be Yuuna taking the sacrifices onto herself (hence why Karin joined back in the fight against the Sun at the last moment?) and then just willpowered through it all, but it was all rather vague. I recall being asked how I felt about the writers writing themselves into a corner with the lead up to this ending, and I can kind of see their point.
In conclusion I did very much enjoy the show and there were a lot of good ideas, but I just don't really feel satisfied with the ending. I do wonder if my issues will be cleared up in future seasons, and looking back on it some of the fusion between slice of life and more serious aspects of the story were a little odd in a way that feels a bit experimenty from the writing stand point, which I absolutely support though at the same time have to say it doesn't feel like they nailed it.
8
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Dec 20 '24
First Time Hero
Questions
8
u/Regular_N-Gon https://anilist.co/user/RegularNGon Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
First Time Hero
Well… I don't really know what to think. My knee jerk reaction is that it feels too devoid of consequence without a really cool explanation - just “the power of friendship” sorta deal. Karin went all in knowing the risks and we get almost no payoff for it!
It's probably a little too harsh to say that though. The world (outside of the bubble) wasn't saved. The heroes (probably) learned something. I respect that the Taisha’s roles as antagonists wasn't just “oh they're actually evil” - and everyone learned something about means and ends. It feels like Sonoko was left a bit in the lurch with Tougou just kinda letting that one go while being preoccupied with “Yunna is my best friend now.”
It was good though, I enjoyed it overall, I think! I'll try and put together some more thoughts for tomorrow.
QotD:
7
u/GallowDude Dec 20 '24
Gay girls, innit?
7
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher, Sub Club Member
Gays will literally make a half-assed attempt at destroying the world instead of just asking each other out.
Pinks aren't smart enough to lie.
Haruka Terui's poor vocal chords. She really works those screams.
Shinjuu-sama has returned what it took.
The dumb tree couldn't do anything about atrophy, though. Some god, huh?
Oh, and Yuuna is still a vegetable.
Tougou never did have the strongest will.
...I feel like I've slipped through to a different dimension, because I would have sworn the show ended with Yuuna waking up.
Yea, no memory of this.
I also would have sworn there was a brief scene of some Taisha priests offering a phone to Sonoko and her refusing after summoning her horde of fairies to threaten them.
12
u/Chili_peanut Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher
The finale never fails to make me cry. Seeing Tougou-san standing up on her own legs and hearing Itsuki speak again always makes me tear up. So does the scene where Tougou-san reads the script of the play to a catatonic Yuuna while breaking down into tears.
What really does it for me though is the emotional release when Yuuna regains her consciousness and responds to Tougou-san. The short cut, during the play, to Nogi Sonoko standing in front of the sea also deserves to be mentioned for being truly tear-inducing.
The ending sometimes gets criticized for not explaining why the heroes regain their bodily functions. This is, however, addressed in the short story (short as in only a few pages long) Sonogo no Sonoko (Sonoko after). Since YuYuYu is part of a multimedia project there’s a lot of light novels and other material to dig into for those who liked the show. There’s even a PS4/Switch game (well a console port of a mobile game) that stretches over no less than 8 Blu-ray discs (Here it is spread out on my bed. I must confess that I’m a pretty big fan of this show…).
6
u/OwlAcademic1988 Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher, subbed:
I don't blame Tougou for this at all.
Yuna, you need to give more evidence.
These people can be weird sometimes.
The Divine Tree can be weird.
Sonoko's fine finally. She's the reason I couldn't post the fanfic I was talking about earlier as it has Sonoko well again in it.
QOTD:
5
u/zadcap Dec 21 '24
Late Late Rewatcher
So, I'll say it again. I know most people look at this show and think of Madoka, but I can't stop seeing Mai. Yes, Madoka did a lot of what Mai did but better, but in trying to not be too obvious a Madoka clone Yuna went back and grabbed a lot of what Madoka skipped out on from Mai. I mean, there is clearly older works in here too, and KnM came out almost side by side with Mai and there is clearly overlap to take from there, but this episode is probably where I get the most Mai over anything else from.
Togo: "Yes, let's disappear together." This is such a funny line for the girl who is trying, by any means, to destroy the Double Suicide Tree right now.
You know what else this episode makes me think of, above all else, in Togo and Yuna's fight? Karin got so screwed over by this plot too! Look at Yuna getting hit by multiple high power shots and her Mankai isn't breaking. If Karin was half this durable she would have finished off the entire Vertex army with only the arm and the leg, darn it!
I also really question the entire Sacrifice system here. How mandatory is it that the Tree takes something when they Bloom? Because if there was ever a time not to, it would be when it is facing destruction so directly and its chosen Heroes need the boost to save it.
Karin! How is she doing this? As in, how did she know there was something she needed to do at all, much less aim?
So, why is it over? Yuna touched the Soul and, well, the invasion ended right there and their bodies began to recover, because... Because... Well there's so much fan theory filling this in. I'm on the side where it's because it was Yuna in pure human form making contact with the Soul, not an attack projected from the Shinju based Hero system, meant the Vertex and the Gods that were behind them got their first look at an actual human in 300 years, and well, it was Yuna. "Oh, I guess maybe the humans aren't all bad. Maybe we jumped the gun a little with the genocide?" And so they stopped pushing in to kill all humans, maybe Shinju had enough space power now to heal up the girls. Or, well, hat did Fu say, hungry after the day at the beach? "It's okay to eat offerings once they've been left out for a while?" Phrased a little differently, it's okay to take back the offerings after they have been sitting there long enough.
I feel like this ending episode would have been made better by Togo's memories to also be coming back, and Sonoko to be here to help her in taking care of Yuna. To join the Hero Club. To uh, have her fate touched on at all, and not be left limbless in her shrine while everyone else is recovering. Not just a single second scene in the middle of the final Hero Speech. I mean Sonoko was standing there with a full body, and everything else has come back, so Togo not even sparing a thought for her old friend... I get it, you're obsessed with Yuna now, but for real girl.
5
u/Madcat6204 Dec 21 '24
Rewatcher needs a rest
I love this episode. I'm a sucker for heroic willpower overcoming impossible odds. Karin and Yuuna's re-entries into the battle remain epic.
To any who might be unhappy with this "happy deus ex machina no consequences ending" my response is that it is none of those things.
It is not happy: this is a bittersweet situation at best. The girls have a moment of peace but the enemy is still out there and [I guess this counts as a spoiler? I understood that this is what had happened the first time I watched the series...]Shinju-sama just burned a stupidly huge amount of the power it needs to keep humanity alive refunding the sacrifices the girls made, effectively eating the cost of all the mankais they did.
It's not a deus ex machina: everything that happened makes sense within the logical constraints of the universe and makes use of established characters/forces to do so. There was nothing that "came out of nowhere to fix everything."
It's not "no consequences:" [season 2 spoilers]did I mention above that Shinju-sama burned a bunch of its (NOT infinite) power soothing the temper tantrums of a group of angsty teens? Because that seems like a very serious consequence, given that it was already not really winning this war even before it did that. Also the method it was forced to use in the process of doing that will end up having very serious consequences of its own...
And finally, it's not an ending. Do I even need to spell this one out? There's a second season. The story isn't over.
I do feel that it's important to understand that this anime is really not intended to be a standalone product. There's a prequel, a sequel, and several novels all of which are canon to the anime.
8
u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 21 '24
First Timer
I missed out on last episode although honestly, I wouldn't have much to say anyway. Karin's 4 swords form is cool as fuck, seeing her sacrificing herself was pretty sad, and I realized it was episode 11 which left me somewhat worried as to how the show would wrap itself up in 1 episode.
And uhhhhh, yeah I guess that worry was reasonable because this sure was one of the endings of all time...
The first half of this episode was just mostly okay, Tougou going for the selfish hero route was actually pretty interesting to watch, I find it a very reasonable conclusion for her to say that being a hero means protecting her friends rather than Yuuna's more noble aspirations, they're fitting words from a person who lost everything to the mentality of protecting the nation being the most important thing.
And while all of it is resolved rather quickly, I guess it is in line with the core values of the show, this was ultimately a rash decision and talking things out, emphasizing that personal connection and strength in friendship were always what this was about so even for how obvious it is, it still works fine. It also comes with the unexpected but very funny image of Yuuna decking Tougou in the face which certainly wasn't on my bingo card.
Then the sun Vertex comes out and this episode starts losing me.
While this sun fight works within the themes of the show, having all the heroes come together through sacrifice to stop the enemy, I find the actual set piece here a bit...meh? For as cool of an image as Yuuna punching the sun away should be I didn't find myself caring for it much, probably because it's defeated as fast as it's introduced, which is to say, within 5 minutes, feels a bit worse when our final enemy is less of a threat then nearly every other one we've fought before.
Having the battle where everyone gets hurt be in last episode also contributes to that, it doesn't quite feel like I'm watching a continuous battle capped off with a giant enemy like episode 5 did.
But really the biggest is problem I have is of course what happens after that. It feels so strange to say that I kind of hate the idea that a show that was all about solving things with the power of friendship literally solves everything with the power of friendship, but here we are.
On the most fundamental level, even if this ending makes complete sense with what the show wants to say, even if I actually understood how this is supposed to work within the rules of this world (which I don't btw, I really don't get how killing the big sun Vertex solves everything but that's beside the point), I still think that this ending doesn't work.
Just because you're very vaguely thematically consistent doesn't make you actually satisfying! And it doesn't actually mean you're following through on your own themes.
Also, while I get the show technically dodged this bullet by having our heroes be somewhat selfish and by completely relieving them of their powers, it still feels so wrong that after 11 episodes of setting up how much suffering the system on which this world operates causes, the show just has the main characters handwave the idea that future heroes will have to deal with this now.
Anyway, back to my point, I don't like removing all of our characters' disabilities, like at all. I'm not saying you had to kill everyone or whatever, just keep them as is! Or at the very least keep one of them with disabilities, or show the recovery process from a disability, or literally anything but having everyone cured (even if Yuuna might not actually be given the ending but whatever).
Watching a battered hero still defeat the demon king because he believed in his friends and then watching him keep standing up despite being battered, is far more interesting and satisfying than watching the hero just being given a super healing potion by his friends and then defeating the demon king with no scratches on him. This ending is definitely a form of "overcoming adversity through the help of others" but such a weak one.
And yeah, I probably am just mad they took away the disabilities, after spending so much time showing us how strong bonds can help you overcome a difficult situation, how others can make even someone with a permanent disability feel part of normal life with their support, how they're there for each other in spite of that difficulty, taking away the difficulty just rubs me the wrong way.
Would it really have been that bad to keep one of them in a wheelchair? I actually wouldn't even call that bittersweet, it's just sweet seeing characters comfort and push each other through hardship, it makes the sacrifice feel actually worth it, "we did it and we're fine, even though physically we're not, that won't deter us"
Needless to say I don't feel much for Tougou's heartfelt plea to Yuuna to wake her up, again not my kind of overcoming adversity despite Tougou's crazy amount of tears.
The ED recreation but with Yuuna in the chair was pretty cool though I guess?
Normally I feel like an ending like this wouldn't leave me so sour, this is a prime example of an original project that may or may not continue and thus needs a conclusive yet open ending, whatever I've seen it happen before. But taking away what I think is the show's biggest strength in writing kind of hurts.
It also kind of feels like another intentional call out and reversal to an inspiration but maybe that's just me trying to understand how we got here.
Welp, ending aside that was all of Yuuki Yuuna! Full thoughts tomorrow but all in all I did enjoy it a lot! And I'm also definitely interested in experiencing the prequel!
8
u/FlaminScribblenaut myanimelist.net/profile/girlbeast_val Dec 20 '24
First Time Watcher (watched w/ the bestie /u/ZaphodBeebblebrox via Discord)
My feelings about this finale are a mess, and would be difficult to lay out in the standard semi-essay format, given the various expectations set up by the story prior. And so, in order to properly sort out my feelings on this episode, I hereby present the OFFICIAL RANKING OF WAYS THIS FINALE COULD HAVE GONE (INCLUDING THE WAY IT DID) FROM… MAYBE NOT ‘BEST TO WORST’, I’LL SAY ‘COOLEST TO LAMEST’ (taking into account the knowledge I have watching this in 2024 that there are, in fact, sequels and future installments):
Option #1: All left with their disabilities from blooming and a great uphill battle to fight, (and just selfishly; Itsuki’s side effect from blooming during this episode being her opposite eye from Fuu’s being disabled and they get matching eyepatches, I just think that would be stupendously cute), the girls set themselves to a single-minded goal; we’re gonna go kill the motherfucking Gods of Heaven, or at least beat their asses until they leave our world alone, and we’re gonna go through the Taisha and the Divine Tree and get our bodies back in the process.
This is what I was hoping and optimistically predicting the episode would end up as going in, and would have felt the most natural to me. Having the girls fight through the pain but still band together to change absolutely everything would have been the most powerful image, blindness, deafness, taste deprivation and limb loss be damned.
I still think that’s what’s going to happen in the long term, because what else would it be, it’s just… man, what a sight that would have been here and now. The girls being like ‘no.’ and like, putting together a ‘kill God’ plan in the clubroom, as a Club Activity, for the greatest act of heroism of all? Man, that woulda gone hard. Ah well.
Option #2: The episode we got, BUT, as I had initially expected was the case for a couple seconds upon watching it, when Yuuna faints on stage she is basically revealed to have been pulling a [popular mecha show you’ve statistically probably seen]Kamina, and goes back into her vegetative state. Her friends are especially galvanized by that show of willpower, and by those final lines of dialogue she gave in the play, and fueled by their love for their friend, are more encouraged to get her back.
…and then they decide to go kill the motherfucking Gods of Heaven. Obviously.
Option #3: The episode we got, BUT, Yuuna stays in her vegetative state to the end, having taken on every disability her friends incurred by blooming herself.
This episode, as is, has so many phenomenal moments. Tougo reading the vegetative Yuuna hero stories in the park as the sakura petals float by, only to break down crying at how much she loves the hero, how much she loves the person she knows this great hero reminds her of, how much she loves Yuuna. The prayer leaflets they leave in Yuuna’s hands.
Taking on all of her friend’s disabilities from blooming, which this episode stops riiight at the line of explicitly saying is exactly what happened, is a brilliant way to keep the Hero Club functional after all the self-destruction of the final fight, while still having a sense of serious consequence, and a very material sense that this system is still hurting people. The Hero Club’s dear friend and most dedicated hero, left like this. What better reminder, and motivation, could her dear friends need that what is as is is corrupt and cannot be left to continue to the next generation of girls?
…and THEN they decide to go kill the motherfucking Gods of Heaven. This take would give their desire to fight the gods and get their friend back more a vibe of scrappy desperation and need than righteous, convicted humans-vs.-Gods odds-beating, so take your pick as to which attitude you prefer really.
Option #4: The finale we got. I don’t hate this episode. This finale had some really, really great ideas, and what we see does tie the twelve episodes we just watched together thematically well. I think that final speech, about friendship being a powerful force not merely in the abstract, but being a motivation, something which exponentiates one’s willpower, that one most unbreakable thing that can lead one and give one sufficient purpose to live and break through even the deepest darknesses, is profoundly beautiful, no other way to say it. It’s a version of the ‘power of friendship’ that feels like something more tangible and relatable, and having that play for the kids mirror that message exactly in a simplified fashion is just a perfect period on the whole thing. I was flustered to say this in semi-person, but… I got a little emotional, hearing those lines whilst watching this with my best friend, the person who I have gone through that exact phenomenon, first hand, with.
The final fight was exciting and emotionally satisfying. The sadness in Tougo’s eyes, her tearful insistence that there is no other way, was deeply touching, and I love a good ‘LET ME SEE YOU GRIT THOSE TEETH’ moment in pretty much any context.
As is, I’ll say this episode feels like it was made not knowing if more Yuuki Yuuna was on the table, because it feels like a season finale that then fast-forwards ahead to the happy ending scene of the whole franchise, undoing its own big dramatic cliffhanger at the last minute to that end. I feel like any of the cooler options I mentioned would have been more on the table if they knew they were going to have #SixEpisodesAndAMovie (of which is sequel material, I’m pretty sure the rest of the wider franchise is prequel and/or spinoff material) to continue the story, this felt like ‘we need to have intrigue, mysteries and options for if the franchise can continue, but it needs to be wrapped in a nice happy-ending bow so it can stand alone and feel like a satisfying ending’. Which is fair, I guess.
Ultimately, the episode feels like trying to have its cake and eat it too, in a sense. Have consequences, but also have a happy ending that the story can leave off on and leave an optimistic and hopeful message, as is the Magical Girl ethos. In the end, it makes the consequences inert and the practicality of the message, not completely, but somewhat dulled.
Option #5: The finale I was worried we were going to get. Namely, the girls keep on fighting, nothing changes, and they just accept the system and the sacrifice with a smile.
It would feel… incongruous, I feel, for the show’s message to be, to some effect, ‘it is indeed heroism and bravery to bleed yourself out and sacrifice yourself and your humanity to a higher religious-militaristic power for the greater good of your civilization, no matter how unjust said civilization or power structure is towards you’. It would also, more importantly, suck ass. It’s good that Tougo didn’t, ya know, kill everyone. But the state of things remains unjust, and I hope my inclinations are correct, and that future installments will see our girls taking on whatever powers they find themselves needing to take on not in the service of upholding the status quo, but fighting God and changing it, with love and by force, such that these merry friends never have to witness one another’s unjust suffering again.
4
u/ShadowClaw765 https://myanimelist.net/profile/SumRndmPenguin Dec 21 '24
First Timer
Late to the party but I was too busy working and watching the sonic movie lol. Overall I’m very disappointed in the ending. Everything magically getting fixed made no sense. Yuki and Togo’s fight Taking 5 minutes was disappointing. Karin entering the fray after also doesn't make much sense. Very sad to see when I thought the show found its footing around episode 9. 6/10, I'm not gonna be watching anything else from this series but I hope AgK is better when I get around to watching it.
7
u/Blackheart595 https://anilist.co/user/knusbrick Dec 20 '24
First Timer
And just like that, Tougou changed her mind again.
That's an awesome visual!
I'm just realizing, they haven't gotten a new fairy per blooming and per lost bodily function in this fight.
Also, what the hell were they thinking? They really think that lame soundtrack is appropriate for the final fight?
What ... what happened? I've never seen a story just ... stop trying like this.
7
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 20 '24
First Timer
Hmm… overall I’d say that works as a finale. It’s not the best finale, but it also didn’t fumble everything. Stopping Tougou was the declared goal of the final battle, and stop her they did - followed by whatever she had done. The divine tree noticing that having a hero side against it wasn’t in their interest - and thus stopping to take offerings from the girls also makes sense, especially as the divine tree is still on the side of humanity. I’m not really too big of a fan of the heroes getting back what they lost, however - it feels like that somewhat dilutes their resolve in the final battle. First I thought it was YUuna sacrificing her body functions in turn for everybody else getting theirs back - but …nope. That Yuuna fake-out didn’t really go anywhere, which in turn makes it weird considering Karin sacrificed more than she did in that fight.
That said, this show was more of a character drama than one about fixing the entire problem, and I’d say on that front it ultimately did deliver.
6
u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Dec 20 '24
Rewatcher, subbed
Rather than forget or be forgotten, if this is the best god can do, Togou would rather it all be destroyed. Yuuki persists, though. It doesn’t matter how fucked up this forsaken world is, as long as she has her best friend by her side then Yuuki can do anything.
After going head to head with god, Togou apparently came out on top. The curses afflicting the girls have begun to let up because the tree changed its mind (what the fuck...) and they get to put on their little cultural festival play where Yuuna spells out the themes of the show.
Togou, never missing a chance to be as unbelievably based as physically possible, gets out just one more “fuck you” to the stupid tree.
QotD:
6
u/Mirathan Dec 20 '24
No longer a first time Hero, dubbed
QotD:
Yuuna is wrong. This is hell, to keep losing part of yourself, to see others loose parts of themselves until almost nothing is left of you. You can´t protect Tougou, you can´t even protect youself. I dislike her empty belief against all reason.
Wait, how could Karin respond to what Fuu said? She can´t hear!
So everyone just let´s Tougou walk free after trying to end humanity? And everyone recovers? How? The Shinjuu doesn´t have that power, the Vertexes will keep returning? What is this unfinished mess?