I'm going to cover the first three episodes, because the typical movie I cover is 90 minutes.
Episode One: A Maiden's True Heart starts with a puppet show about a Hero who goes to the Demon King's house and learns that the Demon King only started to be evil after the villagers treated him as evil.
The Hero wants to reform the Demon King by talking. He reforms the demon king by fighting him (?)
So violence is the answer?
This is all a puppet show, and a convenient way to introduce the characters.
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| Fu |
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| Itsuki, Fu's little sister |
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| Togo, the one in a wheelchair |
Togo-san, the one in the wheelchair. She just moved into town last year.
Also, they are all in middle school
At the middle school, we learn that Yuki Yuna is the popular girl who is part of the Hero Club. This is relatable to the peple who watch anime.
The Hero Club is not a contradictory sandwich, but a club that helps people. I have no idea how the popular girl in school is in this club.
Or how she is friends with the disabled girl.
Just being realistic here.
They go into the Domestic Sciences Prep Room/Hero Club room.
I'm not sure whether they are the same room or the door leads to separate rooms. This middle school lets a group of students take over a room in the school and even puts in a plaque.
Also, a poster with Tenets:
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| The final two lines are dialogue |
They could probably combine Tenet 2 and Tenet 5.
So, what does the Hero Club do?
Odd.
They also have to clean up the coast. And improve their website. How is Yuki the popular girl?
My prediction is that the writer of Yuki Yuna is a Hero is a 35-40 year old male.
I've never been to a Japanese middle school, but I doubt that they are this lenient with the students.
The other girls express surprise that Togo finished upgrading the website so quickly.
They go eat some udon and the girls express surprise that Fu finished her bowl so quickly.
I'm surprised that Togo transferred from her wheelchair to a chair instead of moving the chair out of the way.
And the argument "maybe the table was too high" doesn't make sense because all these characters have the exact, same poportions.
They have to choose something to do for the cultural center. Fu asks everyone to to think of one thing and then orders another bowl.
Fu eats a lot and Togo can design website. These skills better come back in the final battle.
Itsuki and Fu have a sentimental walk and promise to be loyal to each other. Fu gets a message that the team is at a high level
I don't understand either.
This is some heavy world-building.
At school, Yuki doodles on her notebook. Then her phone rings. So does Togo's.
Then time stops.
Well, this series took a hard left turn. I wonder if they'll ever get around to cleaning up the coast.
The other people who are immune to the time stopping in the school are the four members of the Hero Club.
Oh, so that's the perk of joining.
Then this giant colorful vortex engulfs the world.
The moral is to keep your phone on in class.
They wake up in some surreal plane of existence that is somehow still accessible.
Just Togo and Yuki are together. They are taking this well. They take out their phones
I love how that's the indicator that something is wrong.
Fu and Itsuki find Togo and Yuki. Itsuki reveals that they all had apps on their phones.
Boy, it's a good thing none of them had a low battery.
Itsuki reveals that she was dispatched from Taishi, a place devoted to Shinju-sama. She created the Sanshu Middle School Hero Club to recruit people to fight enemies.
Okay, but are they ever going to find homes for the kittens?
How come the Sinju-sama needs four middle-school girls to fight?
And why didn't she even tell her sister?
This is a Vertex, intent on killing the world. If it reaches this world's bounty, the Shinju-sama, the world will die.
When you make a fictional multi-world universe, it is extremely confusing to fluctuate between "this world" and "the world"
They all got the highest scores on the middle school aptitude test, which is why they were chosen to fight.
...assuming that there was some sort of physical component to the test, how did Togo get the highest score?
Good thing none of them has a low battery.
The Vertex goes after them.
Togo says she can't fight. Fu tells Yuki to take Togo away. Then Fu and Itsuki use the app to transform.
Remember when heroes had to prove something or go through trials to gain power? Now they can just use apps.
Fu transforms and gets a sword.
Itsuki transforms and gets....disappointed.
Itsuki and Fu fly through the air and get some fairies from the Shinju-sami to assist them.
You know, if Itsuki went through all the trouble to recruit three middle-schoolers to save
Yuki calls Fu mid-fight. Fu apologizes for not telling them she was secretly recruiting them. Yuri claims that this is in line with the tenets of the Hero club.
Which one?
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If you're troubled, talk to someone?
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The Vertex shoots a fireball and hits Itsuki and Fu. Their powers disappear.
Wow. You go to another world, infiltrate a middle-school, training three girls to save the world, and you get hit in the first fight immediately.
The Vertex looks towards Yuki and Togo. Togo tells Yuki to run, but Yuki punches through a fireball
Then she jumps up and does a huge punch to the Vertex. destroying it.
Honestly, she should just leave the other three girls behind. That would be a message.
Hey, that's the title!
That's the end of Yuki Yuna is a Hero Episode One: A Maiden's True Heart.
Yuki Yuna is a Hero Episode 2: Noble Thoughts starts with the Vertex healing itself. Fu informs the other two fighting members of the Hero Club that Vertex's regenerate. In order to defeat them, one needs to perform the Sealing Ritual.
How long did you have to explain all of these in the school and shouldn't you have done that instead of trying to find homes for kittens?
And are they every going to find homes for those kittens?
Thus leads to Togo's first character trial: Will she press the button on the app?
The steps for sealing the enemy:
1. Surround them
2. Say the prayer to suppress the enemies
I love how the entire premise of this series is "look at your phone"
That's pretty funny but I don't know if it was an intentional joke.
The Vertex's soul comes out, and Yuna jumps to destroy it.
Itsuki mentions that some numbers on the Sealing Ritual field are going down. Fu informs her that those numbers are their team's remaining power and the Vertext will escape if it reaches zero
Fu switches with Yuki to destroy the soul with her sword.
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The field, called the Juki, starts to wilt.
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| Of course |
Togo prays but still doesn't press the app.
Yuna jumps and punches the soul. She has flashbacks to the school day to encourage her, which means a flower on her arm flashes.
I don't get it either, but she defeat the Vertex and it turns to sand.
At this point, I think they are just making up rules.
Togo says she is relieved that they won and the Shinju-sama transports them all back to the school roof. Good, now they can find homes for the kittens.
Nobody else knows what happpened because time was frozen. Fu says she will get the Taishi to excuse them from class.
...but everyone in their classroom saw them suddenly disappear, right? They won't explain that, will they?
Itsuki cries to Fu because she is upset. Togo is sad because she didn't fight
Two students talk about a car accident in the next town. Togo and Yuki overhear. Is this what the people in this world saw?
Yuki still has her cow faery from the other world. Gyuki. And "faery" is the correct spelling according to the subtitles.
Hey, a cannibalism joke.
Fu explains what happened yesterday. They know from the Shinju-sama's prophecy that twelve Vertexes will come from the other side.
And twelve Vertexes shalt come from the other side to fill out the ordered twelve episode anime series.
The Sunju-sama devised a system in which people borrow their powers to become Heroes.
Thats the title!
Also, if the Jukai is damaged, there will be an equal disaster in the real world. This explains the car accident.
The "real world"? I thought this was one of those infinite world universes. Oh well.
The Sanju-sama sent Fu into this region to find the team of Heros. And I guess her sister came along?
Not to stereotype people, but doesn't this just tell people who watch amime not to be social, in case they accidentally join a club that recruits them to fight against otherworldly demons?
Togo is upset that Fu didn't tell them about this whole thing and leaves. Yuki follows.
So...have they forgotten about finding homes for the kittens?
Togo is frustrated that she didn't transform yesterday. She also realizes that Fu didn't really want to be friends, but wanted to recruit under orders from the state and the Taisha.
Then there's a joke about Yuki's breasts. I looked it up on the wiki and Yuki is 14.
Keep it classy, Yuki Yuna is a Hero.
Togo reveals to the audiences that she lost movement in her legs in a car accident before middle school. She also lost her memory.
Translation: "I'm connected to the other world in some way and lost movement in my legs. Then I got amnesia and was told i got into a car accident. This will be revealed in a few episodes."
Itsuki asks her tarot cards how Fu and Togo will make up. She turns over four cards and the fourth one freezes before it falls. Then the phones ring. So more Vertexes are coming.
She doesn't even bother finishing telling the fortune.
Three Vertexes come. The twelve episodes for twelve Vertexes didn't work out.
Yuki transforms.
Yuki is 14. Keep it classy, Yuki Yuna is a Hero.
Togo offers to help her, but has flashbacks to the fist episode.
They want to do the Sealing Ritual on the two closest Vertices, but the furthest one shoots fire. Then this snake-like Vertex CRUSHES YUKI TO DEATH
The End.
Togo has a flashback to the first time she met Yuki Yuna,
Turns out Yuki Yuna didn't die.
Togo yells and the Vertex attacks her. but the egg thing creates a force fields.
Togo presses the button on her app and...
Um....
I kind of thought this would be a "safe" thing to review but, um...
Keep in mind that Togo is 14.
Keep it classy, Yuki Yuna is a Hero.
Let's move on.
Also, I learned from the wiki that I was right about the car accident not actually being a car accident.
This shows cleverly avoids the trope of super powers curing a disability. Togo's legs are still paralyzed but she gets four ribbons on her outfit that prop her up and that she can control. Of course she does.
Also she gets two guns.
Fu and Itsuki joke about not liking the popular guys.
Togo can jump incredibly far with her...ribbons. There's a power struggle in which Fu realizes that Itsuki and Yuki respond better to Togo's commands than to hers.
If my paralyzed friend suddenly started using ribbons to walk, I would listen to whatever she said.
Togo shoots the Vertices and their souls fall out.
Mary-Sue is an overused term that people use whenever a character they dislike is good at something.
Yuki try to destroy a soul, but it dodges her attack. Fu destroys it with an area attack. The other soul multiplies, but Itsuki snags it with some attack.
Togo aims for the final Vertex and...calls Fu to apologize. She shoots the Vertex while talking
The Vertex's soul spins around the Vertex quickly enough for Itsuki to comment that it is movie quickly.
Togo shoots it twice to destroy it.
Back to the school. Togo is in her wheelchair. They agree to work for National Defense.
We end on a joke about getting homework done for the next day.
So I guess the moral of the episode is "When people say they want media to portray disabled people as sexual, they don't mean 14 year-old disabled people."
Moving on to Yuki Yuna is a Hero Episode 3: Moral Poise.
Episode Three starts with some exposition. It's been a month and a half since the first episode. They have to defeat the twelve Vertexes before the end of the show.
They're in the other world and facing off against the fifth Vertex. Togo aims her gun because Togo is overpowered. Why do the other three members exist?
But someone else shoots the Vertex. Isn't the third episode a little early to introduce a new protagonist?
This character can kill and seal the Vertex by herself. She is Karin and she tells the members of the Hero Club that their work is done and she can take care of the remaining Vertexes.
...seems like a good deal to me.
Seriously, if this girl is that powerful, what's the problem with letting her destroy the Vertexes? Then the Hero Club can focus on finding homes for the kitten.
Her name is Karin. She is a transfer student in the middle school.
Okay, my theory is that the whole thing with the Vertexes is all in the imaginations of the members of the Hero club. They use the other world to cope with the real world.
Karin joins the Hero Club...
...what happens if a random student wants to join the Hero club? Who isn't a Hero?
Karin claims that the Taishi used the four current members of the Hero Club as advance troops. They collected data to train her to perfection. She also says she will supervise the other members of the Club.
Then she yells because Gyuki is biting her faery. The other Heroes explain that they can't bring their faeries out because Gyuki bites,
Togo has three faeries. Do disabled Heroes get more faeries?
Itsuki reads Karin's fortune with tarot cards and finds out that she is going to die.
Those are two of the same tarot cards at the end of The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger.
Remember when they never made a Dark Tower movie?
Itsuki insists that the Death card is ominous.
Karin argues that she has higher authority than the club president. Fu argues that that they have to pretend to be normal middle-school student and thus Karin has to listen to her seniors.
Yuki Yuna invites Karin to eat Udon with them, but Karin insists she doesn't need to eat. So I'm guessing that Karin is an android that the Taishi created to fight the Vertexes.
Karin returns home and messages the Taishi that she arrived at the Middle School fine, but the current Heroes don't understand the gravity of the situation.
That's what you get when you put the fate of all the worlds in the hands of middle school students.
Karin eats and takes vitamin pills. So the android theory is false.
The Heroes go to a swimming pool. Karin does a lap quickly and pauses as she climbs up for a gratuitous shot of her behind. Yuki fawns over her. Karin insists that a Hero's need basic fitness
That's why Fu recruited random middle-school students.
I'm impressed that they didn't put these 14 year-olds in bikinis. That's more restraint than I expected from Yuki Yuna is a Hero.
At the Hero Club Meeting, Karin puts everyone on a diet of dried sardines for nutritional purposes. Yuki Yuna is a Hero was sponsored by a dried sardine company.
Karin explains the Vertexes' attack pattern. At least one per episode.
Also, as they gain battle experience, they can level up, which is called Mankai.
The members of the Hero Club argue about how early they should wake up in the morning to train. Yuki Yuna points to the five tenants.
Come on, you are likely to succeed if you try.
Now that they have covered saving the world, it's time to focus on the important thing: the children's festival.
Okay, but how about finding owners for those kittens?
Karin reluctantly agrees to go to the children's festival. She goes home and sends another message to the Taishi complaining about the current heroes.
Is that her secret skill? Why is she only on Vol. 2?
Karin enters the Hero's Club room but nobody is there. At 10:30, she looks at the schedule and realizes that they were supposed to meet at the location of the festival. At that exact moment, Yuki Yuna calls.
Karin decides she doesn't need middle-school friends because she was trained to fight the Vertexes
Karin trains with swords and runs on her treadmill when the doorbell rings. She opens with a sword in hand.
Castle Doctrine?
The Hero Club is worried and enters without asking. They start touching everything.
Then they bring out a birthday cake. They know it's her birthday because she put it on the form. Karin forgot it was her birthday. Then Yuki Yuna starts circling Hero Club activities n Karin's calendar.
So, the four members of the Hero Club are the worst kind of people ever.
They even tell her that she is going to be in a skit. I hope that a Vertex attacks it and they learn not to force people to do things.
Also, Karin is embarrassed by her origami.
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How is she going to explain not training to the Taishi?
Karin joins a messaging app and connects with the rest of the Hero Club.
So those were the first three episodes of Yuki Yuna is a Hero. It's a decent show if you can get over the sexualization of 14 year-olds and that you have to watch 12 episodes to discover whether they ever find homes for those kittens.
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