Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Hidamari – Special

OP Sequence

OP: 「ホシトハナ」 (Hoshi to Hana) by Terui Haruka, Mimori Suzuko, Uchida Yumi, Kurosawa Tomoyo, Nagatsuma Juri

「ひだまり」 (Hidamari)
“A Sunny Place”

A recap of the original season, in under 30 minutes.

This post is going to be short, because what is there to say? It’s a full recap of the original series, which, if you watched the original but it’s been the better part of three years since that viewing, will provide a fairly good recap. If you didn’t watch the original but watched this, holy heck why did you do that!? You probably just ruined all the fun of the original, even more so than Washio Sumi no Shou did (by necessity). It works fine if you remembered liking those characters but are fuzzy on a few details, most specifically when Sonoko showed up, and whether Wasshi/Tougo got her memories back (she did). Oh, and Gin remains dead. No surprises all around.

What it mostly does, though, is leave five episode for Yuusha no Shou proper. Maybe? Presumbly they could still take the full six episode, in which case I’ll still be thinking “Why not use seven for the sequel?”, but if the pacing ends up good, then bygones and all that. What matters is what this means in the context of the sequel, because as a recap it was fine, and probably helpful for viewers of the original run. (Don’t I feel silly for rewatching ep12 right before rewatching the recap. I didn’t know~!)

Oh, and needless to say, if you’ve seen the original season recently or remember everything, no point in this. It doesn’t add anything new, other’n forcing the viewer to connect the dots via Tougo’s lost memories, what Sonoko says (she’s a much larger part of this recap than she was of the series), and how Gin remains dead. All of which you’ll be able to do just fine if you’ve watched recently. See you next week for the (real) first episode of the sequel!

Random thoughts:

• One new-ish thing I noticed due to this recap: Team Sonoko and Team Fuu fought the same vertex, didn’t they? The vertex don’t redesign themselves, they just throw the same variations at the heroes each time. Which means if they kept some damn institutional knowledge around instead of serving their heroes up as sacrificies, they’d increase their safety 10-fold! Urgh. These kinds of stories really don’t do better with extra explanation. Often it reveals how needlessly cruel and/or stupid the world or characters are. Less is more, in this as well.

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ED Sequence

ED: 「Aurora Days」 by Mimori Suzuko