First Impressions / Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru

「秘めた意志」 (Himeta Ishi)
“Unspoken Intentions”

I have no idea how they win this one. I’m not sure they can.

Yuuki Yuuna no Yuusha de Aru’s greatest strength: mixing adorable, warm, friend-filled slice-of-life moments with plotlines of absolute despair, to make the punches hurt all the more for the love we’ve given to these characters. This episode is the most stark distillation of the concept, for not only are the early slice-of-life scenes delightful, but the emotional flurry of gut punches later on, just one (she won’t make it to spring) after another (stuck in a tunnel) after another (she threw it all up) after another (nauseous) after another (so much pain she wasn’t making sense) after another (likes hearing “mata ashita”) after another (scared to sleep with the lights off) after another (there’s nothing she can do)—

Look. When I’m blogging a show, I don’t react to it like I would if I were just watching it. I can’t. My writing brain is in the forefront, and I’m constantly pausing to take screencaps or write down thoughts. That means I don’t experience the emotions as deeply as I would normally. I can still recognize them—if a scene is a 7 on the cry-o-meter, I’ll still be able to tell—but I’ll only experience it as a 4. So when a show I’m blogging can make me tear up, and when I have to pause not to write something down, but to say aloud, “…fuck.” Well. It knows what it’s doing, and it’s doing it well. Damn them for it. I respect them for it.

This series has always been suffused by hope, and even here, in the darkest of hours, it remains. Her friends love her, they are willing to risk taking the curse upon themselves to help her, and Tougou is still determined to save her. As long as the world of flames exists, there is no chance that Yuuna’s body will heal—and I could believe that Mimori, Fuu, Itsuki, Karin, and Sonoko will destroy that entire world, will extinguish the infinite flames to save their friend. Or at least, I can believe they’ll try.

For, despite the hope that remains, it’s but a small hope in the face of a problem with no clear solution, one I have no idea how they’ll solve. Or if they will. I’m glad they’re directly confronting what happened at the end of the original series, because finishing the story that was left undone was always the number one goal of this sequel. That’s the only reason it should exist, so revealing how Yuuna came back, and why she fell to her knees during that stage performance, is priority number fuckin’ one. And we’re getting that, which is excellent. This is absolutely the right path to take.

As long as they can stick the landing. And I have no idea how they’ll do that. With the original season of YuYuYu, they wrote themselves into a corner that required a deus ex machina ending—seemingly. Or it was that in the context of the original series alone. This is trying to get us to that ending we needed, and I have no idea if they be able to make it there. What I do know is that I hope Yuuna is saved—or not—through the actions of the other Yuusha-bu girls, instead of a literal act of God. Though apparently Yuuna is getting married next episode? Jeez. Way to make us come back for another dose of punishment. Well played.

Random thoughts:

  • Fuu-sempai is a weepy drunk while Itsuki gets all giggly? Eh, I still say Fuu-sempai best girl, but way to leap up those rankings, Itsuki!
  • S-shipping Karin x Fuu? Yeah, I’ma do it. Shipping furiously!! \o/
  • Did Sancho speak with Nakata Jouji’s voice? If so, swiftly approved.
  • I like how the spirits are totally on their sides now. In a plotline that’s so bleak (though not as bleak as the prequel, for at least here there’s still hope), at least their spirit buddies aren’t betraying them this time. Probably. Probably.
  • Tougou hit her oppai on the screen door. Heh heh heh.

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Full-length images: 29.

 

Preview

20 Comments

    1. I didn’t miss it. I just left it out. The screencaps aren’t meant to chronicle the entire episode, just the important bits + anything that looks really cool. I didn’t recognize the flower, and the picture wasn’t that great, so I left it out.

      Stilts
      Reply

      2. I mean, sure, probably? But I haven’t read the prequel novels, so I had no way of knowing that, and if they’re required to understand the story… Well. That’s an issue.

        Fortunately it wasn’t. The episode flowed quite well, even if that scene read more as a combination of Tougou’s love for her friend + something vaguely mystical rather than whatever it was actually apparently supposed to represent.

        Stilts
        Reply

  4. Honestly, I have no idea what will happen. But at the same time, I didn’t know how they could possibly solve their problem in the first season. They seemed utterly doomed and trapped. To the degree that I couldn’t really blame Togo for just saying “screw it, this ends now!”

    The question honestly is whether the story pulls a solution out of nowhere again. And we won’t really know that until we get to the end. Fingers crossed since it plain sucks to see what these characters have been through.

    FlareKnight
    Reply

    1. Naw man, the question is whether they have a solution that doesn’t require them to pull it out of nowhere (see: asses, theirs). I’m hoping that they actually had this all planned out before (or had an inkling of it), because there was enough legit foreshadowing to make me believe that. Which might mean they have a good plan. Hopefully it’s rooted in things we already know the girls can do, or logical/consistent extensions thereof.

      Stilts
      Reply

  6. I would not try to “kill the World of Flames” to help here. Then kill it is not the same as killing her? So i would go there an try to tame the flames into being so little or not life threaten, that she can handle the flames without flames eating her up

    something like:
    You know its poison, deadly poison if you use to much. so low the doses that the Poison become a cure

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

    1. Perhaps the others are now bounded to calm down the Flames. They become some sort of Firefighters, but without ending their task. Their Task is to keep the flames “cold” or so little that the Host can life with it.. But this requires an lifelong duty from them.. Are they up to this task? The Flames has no “turn off” switch without consequences

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

  7. HEY! WHO LET THE GIRLS DRINK! I’m just joking but seriously it’s good to see the inubouzaki sisters enjoying a sip now and again; they earned it.

    https://randomc.net/image/Yuuki%20Yuuna%20wa%20Yuusha%20de%20Aru/Yuuki%20Yuuna%20wa%20Yuusha%20de%20Aru%20Yuusha%20no%20Shou%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2005.jpg

    …The spirits are pilfering the girls pantry and eating the snacks again–Stilts! Or Someone! Get me a can of Spirit away.

    https://randomc.net/image/Yuuki%20Yuuna%20wa%20Yuusha%20de%20Aru/Yuuki%20Yuuna%20wa%20Yuusha%20de%20Aru%20Yuusha%20no%20Shou%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2013.jpg

    Setting up someone like Yuuna to be sacrificed, just leaves me depressed…Why must Yuuna or any of the girls be sacrificed? I love the story and the girls I can’t bare to watch them go through what they went through in the first season. Even if Yuuna and her group of misfits grew emotionally and as characters I don’t want them to add to their suffering. (Yes misfits, I am starting to think Yuuna is the only adult in this league of friends.) I seriously think this show can survive on comedy alone at least I do feel there is enough material to create a short episode series.

    Mimori mentioned that Yuuna is suffering from God’s anger personally I don’t think it was really necessary to add this affliction into an already complicated storyline. and on Yuuna, setting a punishment where she isn’t allowed to speak a word about her torment. A greater predicament has already been established unless Yuuna dies by fire the world will burn, so cursing Yuuna is a bit pointless she’s already damned. Adding to the pointlessness the troops are given the ultimatum if they confront Yuuna they will be punished like Fuu because they read Yuuna’s log which was detailed, very detailed. Yuuna is being sacrificed what can it hurt letting the girls tell Yuuna they read her diary—because it’s a secret girls diary reading is a no, no. What I can already see happening to the upcoming episodes ether or:

    1st – the story is being setup in a way for a major resolution, maybe a revolution will happen that will better the livelihood of future heroes to be.

    2nd – Yuuna lives out her short life with the girls, dies and they move on.

    On this note it’s a good thing the writers plugged in a crow that lead Yuuna out of…uuuh–purga-tory (There’s nothing there in that dimension quick someone decorate.)

    renasayers
    Reply

    1. These girls must suffer so we can experience it, and hopefully be better able to endure the grief in our own lives. That’s what fiction is for. Teaching us to be human, and preparing us for its trials.

      And sometimes to watch people get hit in the groin with a baseball, because that’s just funny.

      Stilts
      Reply

  8. Dammit, I think I’m allergic to Yuuki Yuuna. Every time I watch it my eyes start leaking. I really want to see where it takes us, but I may need to super-extra-giga strength Benadryl before that point.

    murialita
    Reply

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