2020 Reflection: Yuki Yuna is a Hero

 

Yuki Yuna is a Hero was written in October 2014 by Makoto Uezu and Takahiro. The series takes place in a world under the protection of the guidance of the Divine Tree, the Shinju. Monsters called Vertexes appear to attack the roots of the Shinju, and to protect itself the Shinju gives a small group of schoolgirls the ability to turn into a group of magical girls called "Heroes" to protect the world. In the boon of "dark" magical girl series that came in the wake of Madoka, Yuki Yuna is a Hero was arguably the most succesful and definitely the one I liked most. The series is oddly controversial, like if you go look at MAL reviews what you see is 9, 2, 10, 4, 9, 3... so why do I personally love it

3 Reasons I love it:

1: The thing that I think Yuki Yuna did to stand out from the dark magical girl crowd is that it's relatively idealistic for one. Yuki Yuna is a more traditional magical girl anime-y form of the "dark" magical girl serieses with happy endings, idealistic heroes with power of friendship, clear good guys and bad guys etc. The idealistic and cynical interplay is one of the core appeals of Yuki Yuna in my opinion, the fact that the series has a goofy gag episode that perfectly fits my style of comedy right before a dramatic sad episode where one of them commits a heroic sacrifice, or the fact that there's dark setting but the characters are still trying to be traditional idealistic magical girls and don't just outright fail. There's some idealism that the series allows despite it's dark setting which makes it feel more "fair."

2: Yuki Yuna is a hero is a good series with ambition to be amazing. While most of the series is enjoyable enough for me, there are parts of the series that are absolutely amazing. While the series visuals aren't as trippy as I think the people making it wanted it to seem, they serve the point of creating a sense of alien-ness, especially combined with the sound track that imbues everything with a sense of otherworldy importance, especially the battle music. There are moments in Yuki Yuna that I think are absolutely amazing, better then I would expect from the series' average.

3: The characters of Yuki Yuna is a Hero are a lot more human then a lot of characters in the genre. There's a lot of magical girls that are basically just their archetype and the enjoyment comes from watching their archetype act in response to things however Yuki Yuna really wants you to enjoy just spending time with the main cast so their personalities are toned down a bit, made less archetypal so they can feel more realistic.

3 Flaws:

A lot of people really don't like the ending of season 1. I personally am ok with it, for the same reason that I'm ok with the ending of season 1 of the 90s Sailor Moon anime, it's a thing that by itself seems to invalidate what we just watched but is rectified immediatly after. For SM this was because the characters all got their memories back within the next 2 episodes outside Mamoru who gets it back in like a dozen episodes, and for Yuki Yuna this is because the consquences are actually addressed in season 2. With that said, I do completely if you don't like season 1's ending because of it but I'm not using it as a point. 

1: The series is rather slow at the beginning, in particular the first half dozen episodes of season 1 are slice of life-ish stories with smaller emotional stakes. While these are fine they don't generally rise to the greatest the series can be when it wants too. I get that Yuki Yuna is using the slow start to build it's character, but as a result it takes a while to get into. This is why the series wanted you to be so comfortable with just enjoying the main cast because there's an entire episode of just slice of life with them and many more scenes besides. 

2: The series does not really have "villains." The series has obstacles and set pieces that the series pretends are villains. But the "other gods" that sent that vertexes have nothing said about them whatsoever and the vertex seem basically personality-less and even lack very interesting powers; they're just big scary thing that needs to be sealed away. 

3: On a related note, Yuki Yuna feels kind of simple. It's conflict and it's application of themes are quite direct and to the point almost all the time. The moral conflict of the series at the end of both seasons is not super deep, and the big moral question that hands over the series, whether it's right for young girls to become Heroes and basically throw their lives away to save everyone, is never addressed. The villains are basically non-characters and almost there's also almost no character outside the main cast. Just as the world of Yuki Yuna is reduced to an island protected by Shinju, the main cast exists in an island where the other people are just there to namelessly cause a ripple that they have to deal with. 

My Favorite Part:

I really adore the part near the end of season 1 where Karin goes Mankai numerous times over and over to stop the vertex swarm. It's a moment that is at the same time horrifically tearjerking, awesome, and heartwarming; especially how she yells out the Hero Club Tenets as she does it. A childish mundane code like that is what she yells as she purposefully cripples her body to stop the enemy, reflecting how this world of childish ideals is what allows us to face the horrific things of the world. I don't think any scene really captures emotionally the central drive of the series to me like this one does.