LogFAQs > #969383419

Time for 2000 words about Yuki Yuna.

33. Yuki Yuna is a Hero
https://myanimelist.net/anime/25519/Yuuki_Yuuna_wa_Yuusha_de_Aru
Fall 2014 (12 episodes), Fall 2017 (6 episodes), Fall 2017 (6 episodes), Fall 2021 (12 episodes)
My Score: 8/10, MAL Score: 7.37/10 S1, 7.67/10 S2a, 7.65/10 S2b, 7.28/10 S3
Best Characters: Yuki Yuna, Togo Mimori, Inubouzaki Itsuki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUodItQWx8

My Yuki figure: https://imgur.com/aNtarC3

Premise: Yuki Yuna and her friends are part of their schools Hero Club, doing things like volunteer work. When a mysterious force threatens the world, however, they must become heroes in a much more literal sense by transforming into magical girls.

The Good: Yuki Yuna is a Hero is a dark magical girl show. That genre was popularized by the beloved Madoka anime. If you ask me, though, Yuki Yuna is the genres peak. I attribute a lot of that to the characters. There are three in my top 100 and I still feel bad for leaving out Karin, Fu, Sonoko, Gin everyone in this is amazing. Theyre regular middle school girls in a lot of ways. Being part of their schools Hero Club shows that they all have big hearts and enjoy helping others. Then sometimes theyre thrown into a strange world where they need to transform and protect the divine tree from mysterious things called Vertexes. The sacrifices demanded of them weigh on the girls differently, and I found it really compelling watching their development.

The first season of YYiaH was good. I enjoyed the plot a lot, but the action scenes were merely passable. The second season is divided between a prequel and a sequel series, and they were both a huge improvement in every way. The prequel had amazing action scenes where the girls used their abilities creatively and worked together. The sequel series also had one of the best stories Ive ever seen in anime. The setting can get confusing at times, which Ill talk about more in the bad section. However, I was able to accept the things I didnt quite understand and focus more on the characters. Their reactions and arcs always resonated with me.

The Bad: Even after rewatching this, the setting doesnt quite make sense to me. I always had a lot of questions, like the actual extent of the world, how they get resources to maintain society, and so on. It felt like they mimicked modern Japan so they could make things seem normal before the trademark dark magical girl twist. Realistically, though, society should be different after hundreds of years under siege by weird monsters. Id have loved this so much more if their society reflected that. While watching this, I felt like I had to turn off the logical part of my brain and just accept things as they happened. I was eventually able to do that, but Im not sure everyone could.

I also didnt like the third season. This would be a high 9/10 if not for it. The first, followed by the prequel and the sequel, told a wonderful and complete story. Then the third season came along and said, actually there were a bunch of holes in that story! Then it tried to fill them in, but it did such a rushed and crappy job of it. The result is that suddenly there are holes in what used to be a complete story. It didnt ruin the show, but it definitely dragged it down a bit for me.

Overall: As much as I love Yuki Yuna is a Hero, I feel like this write-up isnt the most glowing recommendation! The setting never made much sense to me, and that made certain plot points difficult to follow. The third season is also pointless at best, damaging at worst. I acknowledge all of that. However, this is still easily my favorite dark magical girl anime. Discounting the third season (which can easily be skipped or ignored), this would be one of my favorite anime of all time. After all, theres a reason why this is the only anime with three characters in my top 100! Each of them is amazing in a different way, and Ill talk about three of them more below. Yuki Yuna herself is also my number two! Even if I didnt always understand what was going on, I was always able to follow how the characters reacted and appreciate the plot from that angle.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/9/AABz_zAAD3-J.jpg

CHARACTER: Inubouzaki Itsuki (Yuki Yuna is a Hero)
https://myanimelist.net/character/112075/Itsuki_Inubouzaki
Voiced by: Nagatsuma Juri
TOP 100 RANK: 92nd

SPOILERS FOR YUKI YUNA IS A HERO

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bjxQMWXsRE
(This is a long video, but its a great sequence for a bunch of different characters)

Itsuki might seem like a strange number three in a series with so many other amazing characters. I just really love the emotions she brought out of everyone in the first season. Itsuki starts out in the shadow of her big sister Fu. Where Fu is a bombastic leader, Itsuki is quiet and aspires to be nothing more than a follower. As the season progresses, though, Itsuki finds a dream. She wants to be a singer, and she secretly sends out an audition. When everyone loses something (eyesight, sense of taste, etc) after a big battle that pushed them all to their limit, Itsuki loses her voice. Shes concerned of course, but they all believe theyll return to normal before too long.

Fu eventually realizes the truth of their situation, however. Their sacrifices are permanent. All of them were lied to. As if that wasnt bad enough, Fu learns about Itsukis singing dream shortly after. The video I linked covers that, along with what follows. Fu rushes off to destroy the organization that deceived them, only to be stopped by Karin and Yuna. Then she breaks down and reveals that most of her anger is directed at herself. Fu was the one who got them all to join the Hero Club, after all. Because of her, her little sister will never realize her dream.

Thankfully, Itsuki shows up then to set things straight. Yes, she lost her voice, and that means shell never get to be a singer. Still, Itsuki also never would have had that dream in the first place if not for everyone in the Hero Club inspiring and encouraging her. She doesnt regret what she did, not even a little bit. Itsukis arc in the first season really got to me. Her self-sacrificing nature, second only to Yuna herself, proved that shes a good person and a true hero. She was good during the rest of the series too, but this first season arc is why shes one of my favorites.