Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru

-Spoilers Ahead-

The brilliant minds behind Angel Beats and Akame ga Kill joined forces in an attempt to capitalize on their respective "talents" and made what some people call "one of the most underrated masterpieces of the season" without an ounce of irony. This series is pretty much everything wrong with modern anime, and there are plenty of reasons as to why. It's just so up its own ass pretending to be not a grimdark show in a vain attempt to fake out the audience for so long that it ends up boring, and when it actually gets to the grimdark it was leading up to, ... it does in the most hilariously incompetent way possible. Many of its other problems include the asinine pacing, lack of character interaction and development, and complete lack of subtlety, which all seem to go under the radar because apparently everyone is too busy crying over ham-fisted drama.

That being said, there are some positives about this show- Mainly the visuals. Despite some heavy usage of CG in some parts, it really doesn't look that bad at all in motion, and the colors do not make your eyes bleed like NGNL does. Character designs are pretty neat and I do appreciate how they don't look like something out of Precure. Not that Precure designs are necessarily bad, but the designs here make thematic sense and at least don't look generic by its genre standards- Instead they look like something out of Sword Art Online, not that it's a bad thing either. The music is pretty decent- There are two to three tracks that were actually memorable and were reminiscent of something out of Madoka and whatever Akiko Shikata makes, but the overuse of those tracks made them a bit stale.

Speaking of Madoka, there's a lot of people who compare this show to Madoka and even call it a rip-off. But honestly, it's hard to blame them- Shady magical girl contract with a supernatural being? Check. Enemies that appear in a strange world that do not actually offer actual character interaction due to lack of any dialogue whatsoever? Check. Main title character being over optimistic and the most underdeveloped character out of the main cast? Check. Mentor-like character that later goes nuts after reading the fine lines in the said shady contract? Check. The questionable magical girl system existing to prevent the end of the world? Check. This show's really got everything. But because this show shares so many similarities with Madoka, it also shares the flaws- And those flaws become more evident with poor direction and pacing.

Apparently when Takahiro was writing for this show, he thought he'd change it up from Akame ga Kill's pointless gorefest and decided to turn it into a pointless borefest. This wise decision turned the first half of this show incredibly painful to sit through. The main problem is the lack of characters- The villains and even the fairies are absolutely silent. Therefore, there is no character interaction whatsoever with the opposing side aside from fighting and more fighting. This wasn't a problem in Madoka due to the existence of Kyubey, who delivered some form of drama whenever necessary for conflicting character interaction, but that role is severely lacking here. Taishas do little more than send out phone messages whenever they aren't busy catering to the crippled, and the supernatural being that gives magical power is a poorly drawn magical tree always obscured in fog. This narrows down all character interaction whatsoever to the five main characters, and everyone else might as well be a cardboard in the background. This effectively turns the series into a Slice-of-Life type of show, which is actually in the description for this series. But then the problem comes from attempting to mix this element with grimdark setting, which was basically the gimmick with Akame ga Kill. But even then, mixing the two isn't the problem- It's the execution. There needs to be some form of consistent flow in the tone, and this series handles it very poorly by going from one scene to the other with incredibly sudden transition. Having a tea party? Suddenly phone call and everyone's warped to fight the giant floating monster thing. Then lots of yelling and chanting in the background, and suddenly they're in space. And when they're not doing that, they're busy being very angsty about something else introduced later in the series.

The first few episodes followed the aforementioned formula incredibly precisely, while occasionally increasing the number of enemies to mix it up a little although it didn't really hinder the protagonists in the slightest. After managing to kill twelve of these things, the protagonists conclude that their battles are over because the Taishas said so, which is an obvious fake-out halfway into the series. It's also odd that the protagonists didn't suspect anything strange about Taishas informing them that there were supposedly arbitrary number of these things, which would mean that the Taishas somehow did not manage to defeat any of them at all despite having a detailed sealing process to defeat one. That aside, this formulaic plot progression didn't really serve to develop any of the characters at all. Sure, there was some character interaction between the main cast, but character interaction doesn't necessarily lead to character development. These particular interactions were just wacky hijinx and comedy, so it did absolutely nothing.

After halfway into the series, our good director Seiji decides that he needs to start including actual plot, and the grimdark elements start being introduced. Whenever the girls use their magical powers, they occasionally enter this super mode known as Mankai. The show never explains whether these girls enter the state willingly or whether it's done automatically- And even the official website claims that it's half and half. Basically, it's whenever the plot fucking wants it to happen. Why? Because this is the aforementioned grimdark plot element. Whenever the girls enter this state, they lose a certain bodily function and gain a fairy in the process. The series attempts to fake the audience out by claiming it's temporary, and then it spends several episodes that arrive at a not-so shocking conclusion that it's permanent. Yuna loses her taste, Mimori loses hearing on one ear, Fuu goes blind in one eye, and Itsuki loses her voice. What does this all lead to? Forced drama. Apparently Itsuki entered a singing audition, which everyone knew nothing about, and suddenly the whole thing gets dumped at the audience's face in the most convenient way possible when Fuu is trying to deal with the whole permanent body function sacrifice thing. If that wasn't enough, Itsuki goes on a long speech in the recording about how she loves her friends so Fuu can go on a full guilt trip for getting her to tag along on the Hero Club before actually singing for the audition because the judges were too busy looking for their non-existent script, as with every other character in the show. A proper, subtle way to handle this scene would've been to establish the singing audition thing before this happened, and then flash back to it briefly after the realization hit home, instead of just being embarrassingly blatant about it. But I guess subtlety is lost art.

Meanwhile, Tougou decides to be dangerous and attempts to test her theory by playing sudoku with a blade, and comes to a horrifying realization that fairies are "forcibly" keeping them alive. Apparently it's supposed to be terrifying that these tiny things keep the girls alive while they're on a dangerous duty that they're not being forced to do. Obviously there are huge consequences for not doing magical girl things since it has been established in the first episode that Shinju-sama is protecting the world and these aliens who are for some reason named after zodiac signs are trying to destroy it, but the job itself is still technically optional. They're not being forced to do it at gunpoint or whatever, so the supposed horror factor they were going for is completely invalid. Furthermore, Tougou apparently attempted to play sudoku multiple times because once wasn't enough and goes on about all these different methods she tried to kill herself for almost no reason other than sounding edgy. But then I realized this was Takahiro's specialty- Hammering the exact same point and over and over to arouse some form of emotion. These two brilliant men's talents really do shine in this series.

Afterwards, Tougou gets warped into the cripple gold medalist's room, who was their predecessor and now has over twenty disabilities and the equal amount of fairies. Then the audience is informed during their second meeting about the shocking truth that everything outside Shinju's territory is red vomit with white aliens swarming about. It's been known that Shinju was protecting humanity from getting fucked up by something since the first episode, so what's the shock here? Why does it matter that the villains are aliens or gods who decided humanity sucked? Whatever it was, it drives Tougou insane and makes her come to an ingenious conclusion. Apparently the best way to protect her friends and stop their sacrifices altogether was to blow a hole in the barrier, get the tree killed, and then get everyone sacrificed as a result of her decision. Maybe her ability to form proper reason was taken during one of her Mankai sessions. Would've been better if she actually consulted with her friends first-hand, but clearly that sounded too uninteresting and sensible for the writers. Most of the conflicts in this series also seem self-made, so it's also incredibly difficult to actually relate to any of these characters especially when they make stupid decisions such as Fuu attempting to kill the Taishas after the aforementioned forced drama sequence.

When the evil tofus attack, suddenly Yuuna is incapable of transforming because of her distressed emotional state despite Fuu being completely capable of doing so during her rage. Then Karin suddenly wakes up from being unconscious and activates Mankai multiple times in a span of few seconds coupled with too much yelling in an attempt to win the "most crippled" award in the show. After that, Yuuna manages to punch some sense into Tougou, destroys the Final Boss Vertex, then decides to become Jesus by taking everyone's disabilities onto herself by becoming a vegetable. Then suddenly the audience is supposed to accept that the enemies just stopped attacking because either they are really gone for good or they just got bored trying to kill a tree.

It later turns out that every fairy represented a physical function the girls lost, so when the fairies disappear, they regain everything they lost and stop being heroes. This may be because Shinju figured that keeping emotionally unstable girls who almost got it killed as its guardians was a terrible idea. Yuuna stays a vegetable for a while because Takahiro figured he could cram in some more sad scenes near the end, but then she gets better through the power of friendship. As stupid as that sounded, the ending isn't the issue- Even if the ending resulted in everyone becoming a vegetable, this would've been still a very poorly written series.

The happy ending can at least be explained with how since all threatening Vertices are supposedly gone, assuming the sun-shaped Vertex was the last of its kind for a while, Shinju doesn't need to exert as much energy to keep the barrier up since there's nothing much left to keep out, so it just gave everything it took back. It would explain how nobody is giving a shit about that part of the barrier Tougou blew up earlier.

The point is, if there is no actual threat left and the Taishas aren't being lying dicks about it this time and Mr. Tree is actually a benevolent god that everyone claims it is, then there really should be no point for it to keep what it took unless it's a dick too, which is probably what most people were guessing. And it's not like it was ever established that it couldn't give back what it took, so all the more reason for it to do what it did. And to the show's credit, it did briefly mention through one SoL segment that it was "alright to eat the offerings if they were there for a while" so maybe either it was foreshadowing or maybe I'm giving the show way too much credit. I'm actually surprised Takahiro managed to learn how to make use of mundane segments instead of cramming them in for the sake of just having them as a contrast to his edgy grimdark parts.

There's a lot of hate for the ending of the show, but most of that hate seems to be misdirected since it mostly involves "It had a happy ending, so it sucked." While it's not that having some plot elements that lead to a depressing ending is inherently bad- It's that when it does happen, it needs to be well-paced and give the audience enough time to feel actually attached to the characters in question. But with the lack of actual villains to provide any form of conflicting character interaction, there's next to no character development, and everything just ends up being a snooze-fest because these characters are just hard to care for outside of them looking cute. Unfortunately, this particular writing style has become quite popular with modern anime (Attack on Titans, AgK, or even Kotoura-san, etc), and for some reason, everyone seems to eat it up. Here's a possibility: People are just so used to badly written happy endings that they'd rather have badly written sad endings, while deluding themselves that sad endings are apparently inherently better than happy endings because they think they are more mature. Something about teaching a moral lesson about heroes not always winning or some shit, I don't know. In that case, the preference is determined not by the actual quality of the writing, but just by the inherent difference of definition. It's like preferring black shit over brown shit. "They're both shit, but at least it's not brown." While this is no longer applicable for this show since it had a happy ending, it doesn't change the fact that it was the direction the series was leading people towards, and it's obviously the main reason behind people eating it up.

All in all, this show is just yet another attempt at the ever-popular modern formula which involves characters going through depression in one way or the other, whether or not the characters were likeable or the depression relatable and the plot behind it well-written. It was practically tailored to the type of people who ate up the likes of AgK and Attack on Titans, and it did just that right before the end. I guess at least their reactions were entertaining.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Horribly Boring Character. She's relatively one-dimensional, oblivious, airheaded, naive and childish in her ideals, which isn't inherently boring, but the world she lives in RESPECTS that allowing her simple and repetitive nature to prevail against any and all problems to the point where you begin to wonder if there's any point in growing up at all.

I, like many others, stumbled upon the show "Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero" after hearing it compared to the illustrious Madoka Magica and were drawn to it by people saying that it was "better than Madoka". As a massive fan of Madoka Magica, I was ... initially very excited: someone made a better version of one of my favorite shows of all time? I had even heard people saying that Madoka had been their favorite show until they watched Yuuki Yuuna, and since I realized that was pretty much where I was at I could not have been more thrilled to first learn of this show's existence. I pulled it up immediately, and went into it with high hopes and an open mind. I didn't expect the sort of poignant universal message that Madoka had given, but what I did expect was a damn good deconstruction of the magical girl genre. Compelling characters, enthralling twists, gut-wrenching moments of tragedy, and a genuinely enthralling story.

What I found, however, was nothing.

Nothing, Christopher? But that doesn't make sense. You watched 12 episodes of SOMETHING, right? There can't possibly have been NOTHING in those twelve episodes, right?

Technically, you're right. I did sit in front of a screen for a regrettable four and half hours of my life, and there were words and drawings on that screen, but if I had to really summarize Yuuki Yuuka I would redirect you once more to that word above: nothing.

You see, Yuuki Yuuna is kind of like a Frankenstein's monster that failed to come to life. It's stitched together from bits and pieces of other things but there's nothing about it that's really its own. There's no voice, no soul. It doesn't use those pieces to create something new, or stand on its own two feet, or say something for itself: essentially, Yuuki Yuuna just IS those pieces, tossed into a bucket together and just sort of sitting there touching each other. And since Yuuki Yuuna is essentially just pieces of other things that are loosely connected, I have no qualms in using the MAL rating system to talk about those pieces.

THE CHARACTERS
One could make the argument that the characters in Yuuki Yuuna aren't "bad characters". In a sense, you'd be right: they aren't horribly-written people and for the most part they have some semblance of continuity and we can understand where their actions are coming from (though this is not always the case, *ahem* Touga). The problem is, that's essentially ALL that they are: "not-bad characters". There's nothing in them. They're just archetypes grabbed from other places that are given mediocre scripts intended to invoke empathy in the audience. That's really all that's expected from them: they're not created to even BE human, their SOLE PURPOSE is to be "not bad" enough to the point where the audience cares about them. Not because they have any original ideas in them, not because they carry a piece of the creator, but because they're there, they're cute, and they're not "badly" written. There's the older blonde sister who's spunky and cares deeply about her friends, especially her younger sister. There's the younger blonde sister who's shy and cares deeply about her friends, especially her older sister. There's the tsundere girl. There's Yuuki Yuuna herself, who is pretty much the blockheaded hero-of-justice character in a world where the hero of justice never has to actually face the repercussions or naivety of her ideals. There's her best friend Touga who's really just a mess of a character and is used more as a poorly-motivated plot device than a person, but we won't focus on her.

The problem with all these characters, however, is that while they are adequately-written versions of the roles they are meant to fulfill there is an emptiness to them that cannot really be put into the words. No one who wrote these characters cares about them at all. They aren't trying to express anything with them. They're masks, and they're treated as if they were people, and that hollow shallowness prevented me from giving a single shit about what happened to them. When you create characters with the express purpose of making the audience sympathize with them so that you can give them "feelz" later on by making them suffer, you haven't really created characters at all. You've just grabbed pieces of people and stuck them together so that they look like a person. It may be cute, but it has no soul.

THE STORY
Here's the part where it was obvious that whoever was writing this was trying really hard to not be accused of plagiarism. While the literal elements of the story may be put together in a new, the structure by which it is built around is nothing that hasn't been seen a thousand times before, and the pieces themselves are unoriginal. Once again, the story feels mostly like pieces stacked together. Rather than have something constant and tight, it pretty much relies on the audience expecting twists and then delivering them often enough to maintain a level of interest. No section of the story can stand on its own as engaging: it RELIES on constant change, because the story possesses no substance of its own to fall back on. In a standstill the audience's eyes begin to adjust to the dull nature of the story, so the story has to be constantly adding new levels. It doesn't really feel like these levels stack cohesively though; it's more like we're just jumping from one platform to the next, and since the platforms are getting crazier the story must be advancing. None of these platforms are compelling in and of themselves though: they're mostly interesting because of the anticipation for the NEXT platform, which creates a bit of a cycle. All these platforms are as hollow as the rest of the show, being in and of themselves bland rehashes of been-done ideas, and the lack of any sort of central voice of the story means that the show fails to connect them in any meaningful way, so what we're left with is almost a pyramid scheme that eventually burns out because it can't create a bigger platform. Temporarily engaging perhaps, but inevitably all the more disappointing.

ART & SOUND
Q: "this looks like every other show coming out nowadays, what should we do?"
A: "we'll make the magic realm look like a unicorn shat on it, and people will think it's stylistic and original."
Q: "But didn't No Game No Life, Madoka, Shinsekai Yori and Penguindrum already do something like that...? Except with far more creativity, heart, and personal flair?"
A: "Shhhh!! These are anime fans, they have the memory of a goldfish. Don't worry about it."

The sound is pretty standard, I don't really have any complaints but once again it doesn't do anything to set the show apart from anything else. It kinda sounds like Fate/Zero's OST with more sugary J-pop crap mixed in.

All in all, not much to say.

ENJOYMENT
I had to literally drag myself through the last three episodes of this show. My expectations adjusted pretty consistently throughout. By the episode 5 I wasn't expecting too much, by episode 7 the show became a chore, and by episode 10 I wanted to drop it despite being so close to done, with the only reason I managed to finish it being that I enjoyed taking screenshots of moments that were either downright horrible or were pretty much excerpts from other shows, and because at that point I was actually HOPING it would end with a bullshit "FIST OF BRAVERY!!" moment because at least that would be hilariously awful. I wont say whether or not I got my wish though, cuz spoilers I guess. This wasn't funny-bad, it was bland, empty and soul-sucking.

OVERALL
If you're looking for a magical girl deconstruction, see Madoka or Princess Tutu. If you're looking for compelling cute girls doing cute things, see K-On. If you're looking for members of a high-school club having to take on serious issues like death and existentialism, see Angel Beats (it at least has ideas of its own and some passion from the creator). If you're looking for a hero of justice show watch Fate/Staynight, and if you're just looking for a show to watch for the love of god watch pretty much anything else. There is nothing here you can't find in other shows done better. Yuuki Yuuna is nothing: its emotionally-vacant (despite how emotional its characters get) its dry, it's hollow, and its inevitably meaningless. There's no heart from the creators in this piece, there's no passion for storytelling or love for the characters behind it. Yuuki Yuuna is a shameless reaction piece attempting to stitch together the successful elements of other shows in order to appeal to an audience, and as someone with a legitimate passion for writing and storytelling I find this show to be a little angering. Many shows are burdened with flaws, but poor pacing and plot contrivances and annoying characters don't bother me nearly as much as something that refuses to even try to be its own thing.

I'll say it one more time then.
Yuuki Yuuna is nothing.
Unless you want to watch four and a half hours of nothing, I advise you leave this shiny ambition-less rag buried in obscurity.

Good emotional payoff but not worth suffering through its mind-numbingly boring plotting.

★☆☆☆

Spoilers from here on, because this is less of a review and more analysis.

- SPOILERS -

I was told this show was going to be like Madoka Magica, and they were partially right. Except Madoka was great all 12 episodes, even the first three slow ones have replay value once you understand the full context. Madoka Magica is pitched as a magical girl show with dark tones and little cute girls suffering. Yuki Yuna attempts the same except I’m the one that’s suffering because it’s so boring. The emotional payoff—while fantastic—is NOT worth it.

Look, there’s ... only so much time and energy we all have. We work, we go home, and our free time is precious. I can work through my Steam library of 300 games, I can finish reading The Hunger Games, I can catch up on Breaking Bad, or I can watch some anime. Point is, there’s a million alternatives I can do which are far more satisfying.

The premise is that these girls are chosen to defend the world. They can transform to have magical powers, and they fight off monsters. Turns out there’s a cost. Who knew? I do not recommend this show to anyone. It drags on far too much, and it’s so boring you’re left numb. I was begging for something interesting to happen. The emotional payoff is good I’ll admit, but it’s not worth it. Furthermore, the girls can go into a second more powerful transformation to defeat the increasingly stronger monsters, but they suffer permanent damage to their bodies like going deaf, mute, blind or even losing limbs.

It’s this sacrifice that carries the dark undertone of the show, and it’s a fantastic story element. I’m sick of power ups with no cost. Oh, there’s a new stronger enemy? Lemme get in my hyperbolic time chamber and train and go Super Saiyan 4. This is how you get power creep. But the fact that the girls literally sacrifice life and limb for their powers makes the battles a lot more engaging. Unfortunately, there’s very little action until the end of the series.

These sacrifices are hidden from the girls until they find out which drives the emotional payoff. For example, one girl wants to be a singer but later (after using her secondary power up) she goes mute. Everyone thought their injuries would heal, but they soon realize that it's permanent. There’s a great scene where the older sister realizes this and breaks down. Before, there was a heartbreaking moment where the sisters were eating dinner in silence after earlier episodes showed them eating, talking, and laughing. It's a subtle but excellent scene with set up and payoff. One of my favorites from the show.

The character and enemy designs are so generic and bland. Not that Madoka’s character designs were much better, but they had enough style to make them distinct. Here the characters look like anyone else. The enemies aren’t threatening looking in the least. They’re masses of bland parts thrown together. Madoka’s witches had that surreal, nightmarish quality to them.

I didn't watch this constantly comparing it to Madoka Magica. The similarities are shallow at best. I let Yuki Yuna stand on it own. I WANTED to like this, but Yuki Yuna is just...

So. Fucking. Boring.

The characters themselves aren’t actually interesting at all. They’re just as boring as they look. The reason the emotional payoff near the end is so great is because of the story’s set up and not the actual characters. The elements and the plot details are there so when they click together it’s great.

For example, in the third episode there’s a new girl. She’s the tough, “I don’t need friends” kind of character. The other girls eventually throw a birthday party for her and she realizes the value of friendship. Shit like that. Later there’s a big battle in the middle of the show where she doesn’t use her secondary power up. This was before they realized the bodily costs of the second power up. This was early in the show and good set up.

Later, during final battle she goes all out and uses her second power up over and over. She fights the monsters while yelling about protecting her friends. After it’s done, she’s left blind and deaf. This was the payoff, and was very satisfying.

The pacing of the show is awful. It drags and drags. It doesn’t help the characters are boring, but the actual events in the show are dull slice-of-life. They eat udon, they hang out at karaoke, they go to the beach—it’s all so mundane. There’s nothing else happening. It’s all very linear. There are no subplots to keep it exciting. And this is most of the show. I constantly felt numb at how boring it was. I kept asking “When is this going to get better?” A good show should never make you feel numb.

I kept track of how each episode left me feeling and 7 out of the 12 episodes I’ve watched were terrible. Fucking seven. That’s 58% of the show that’s shit.

- Would you watch a movie where half of it was boring?
- Would you read a book where half of it was a chore?
- Would you watch a TV series where it doesn’t get good until halfway through the season?

Absolutely not. Worse, you can’t skip the episodes either because through the boredom they sprinkle in details as set up for the later payoff. The boring episodes develop the characters and sets everything up for later, but this doesn't mean the development itself was good. You still have to make the actual, minute-by-minute screen time of the characters exciting. Just showing them off and setting up by itself isn't interesting.

Now here's the worst part. After any investment you had in these boring characters, guess what? It's all ripped away by the final episode. All their sacrifices, all the damage to their bodies, the entire emotional drive of the show is made worthless. The mute girl talks again, the crippled girl can walk now, any blindness is gone—the emotional payoff that you waited for is given and taken away by a happy ending that wasn't earned.

So was there anything I liked about the show? Little details here and there. I liked the crippled girl in the wheelchair. She was my favorite because it was a novelty.

They use smartphones to transform so it makes it feel modern.

I was so bored I actually enjoyed the fan service, and I almost never do.

The animation is good enough. There's some nice jokes.

There’s actually a lot of subtle foreshadowing which I really appreciate.

There were moments that showed character emotions and intentions instead of using cheap monologue.

I don’t recommend this show at all. The emotional payoff is fantastic and satisfying, but it’s not worth it. I’d say because I was so bored that the payoff probably felt better than it should have. The show has hints of good writing when they set things up, but most of the plotting is so fucking boring and mundane you’re left feeling numb and exhausted. This should’ve been a movie instead.

I am assuming that you are here because someone somewhere told you this show is like Madoka Magica and you like that show. If this is the case you are unfortunately going to have a bad time with this show because it is NOT like Madoka Magica and you will be expecting it to be. While the show does offer some interesting parallels to serving in armed forces and PTSD it ultimately falls flat and neuters itself with a very bad ending. This review will have very generalized story descriptions with minimal spoilers. Still, if you would prefer to go into it with you eyes ... closed.... skip to the end of the review for an overall section.

So lets get to it: On the surface Yuuki Yuuna is a pretty standard magical girls show about middle school girls doing middle school things. The girls are part of the Hero club, and become magical girls that fight evil for the guardian spirit of the Earth. The show has a tremendously long wind up (for a 12 episoder) as episodes 1-6 are basic monster of the week/ cute girls doing cute things style of anime. Again if you watched Madoka Magica and someone told you to make sure to watch to episode 3, I guess in this show it would be watch to episode 7, more than halfway through the show.

Episode 7 is where "$hit gets real" and the real themes of the show come out. For what it's worth, episodes 7-10 are quite good and deal very interestingly with PTSD, regret, shell-shock, and survivor guilt. As the story unfold you learn about the less nice aspect of the girls' powers and the toll it takes on them. As with many anime, Yuuki Yuuna focuses heavily on the theme of indomitable fighting spirit and power of friendship, which begins to ring hollow.

The ending is where the story completely falls apart. Instead of sticking with a strong and poignant story that episodes 7 onward set up, the show throws up its arms, calls on the power of friendship and undoes all of the difficult decisions and character moments leading up to it. The ending is ABSURD especially considering what is said by one of the plot relevant characters as a part of the "oh shit" moments. But everyone loves a happy ending right? /s. The outcome of the ending is also inconsistent in terms of the world of the show.

The characters in the show range anywhere from MAIN CHARACTER WITH HEART to moderate chuunibyou to "I'm too good for this shit anyways" fighter character. While the character tropes are pretty standard, they're well fleshed out, each one filling a niche. Again here the comparison to armed forces service comes in very well. You have the guy who joined to serve his country, the guy who was in who recruited the others, the younger brother who follows his big bro in, the guy who thinks he can't hack it but does it for his comrades, the guy who's been training his whole life for this moment, etc.

The art in the show is quite good with beautiful visuals during fights, and solid animation otherwise. Each of the girls has a good design and a somewhat memorable look. The sound is solid with good music, a good dub and nice sound effects. During the end quarter of the show, theres a good bit more yelling, but it's done decently.

The overall enjoyment of the show is crippled by a very long lead-up before any interesting thing happens. For 6 episodes this show is the most mediocre magical girl show I can think of. For 3-4 episodes it is a fascimile of Madoka Magica. And for the last 1-2 episodes its Dragonball Z with the power of friendship, blissfully undoing any parts of Madoka Magica that may have been lingering around.

It was a chore to reach an interesting and watchable point in the show, and it was over too soon. The ending left a horrible taste in my mouth and I wouldn't recommend it. I would suggest reading a plot synopsis on a per episode basis to get some of the thematic elements if you're into that. Skip the ending altogether unless you enjoy hackneyed bullshit.

Time and time again, I have heard this anime compared to the amazing Madoka Magica. I wasn't expecting much from this anime, but even then I was disappointed. This is my first review, and it will be spoiler free!

STORY: 7/10. Good. Basically your average magical girl plot formula, so don't expect much there. The first 6 episodes are basically just filler, and nothing happens until the last few episodes, where the show decides it wants to be all grimdark like Madoka.

ART: 7/10. Good. The areas are colorful and the character designs are cute, but they don't stand out much.

SOUND: 6/10. Fine. There was one song ... that stuck out. The opening and ending are nothing special. The music, however, fits the show pretty well.

CHARACTER: 3/10. Poor. This is the area I was most disappointed. Before watching, I had heard that this show was character driven rather than plot driven, and I hoped that I would see great character development and growth. However, the characters are not only cliche and typical, but they are complete rip-offs of Madoka Magica characters, right down to the color scheme. Fu is obviously a rip-off of Mami, Togo is exactly like Homura, and Yuna is a carbon copy of Madoka. Even Karin took some inspiration from Kyouko. The only character that didn't feel like a PMMM clone was Itsuki, but she isn't anything special herself. The only saving grace are the decent interactions between the characters during the last few episodes, but they don't do the show much, because they are quite cheesy.

ENJOYMENT- 5/10. There is a beach and hot springs episode, and there is enough fanservice for those who are into that. Like I said earlier, half of the anime is filler so if you like that then you may like this anime.

OVERALL: 4/10. Sorry, but everything about this anime is average, even for a magical girl anime. Nothing really stands out, it's all been done before, and the entire time I watched this, I was plagued by the fact that it clearly rips off PMMM.

Guys, I tried.

I really, REALLY wanted to like this one, but it just wasn’t all that interesting to me. I heard it was like Madoka, which was why I gave it a shot, but it just left me feeling bored at the very end of it.

The pacing, the worldbuilding, the narrative; those were all over the place. I can’t really go into details because of spoilers, but they just didn’t work at all. Have of the time it’s trying to be a magical girl show, then it’s trying to be a slice of life, then it’s trying to be some kind of grimdark apocalypse. ... Shows can do this right, but this one just made it all over the place.

The story would jump around like a frog on caffeine. The vertex boss battles were so incoherently paced that I could barely even make sense of it all by the end. It tries to plant a red herring a few episodes in, but it feels so blatant that it makes me feel absolutely nothing.

Also, warning: the show pictures multiple suicide attempts later on, and the lack of respect for them was so jarring that I nearly felt sick to my stomach. It’s thrown in there, and the mental health of the character is never brought back up again, and everybody just ignores it. This was a huge problem that I had with KimiUso, but in here it’s just so BAD.

A majority of the characters were very bland and forgettable. Purple Girl (I won’t give out her name because Spoilers) was only there to give exposition, despite the fact that she had the potential to be very interesting. Yuna is one-dimensional as can be, while Fu is blander than Yuna’s sense of taste. Togo and Itsuki had moments of brilliance, but they spent a majority of the time doing pointless or idiotic things that barely mattered to the story.

The thing that I loved about Madoka is that we could see the world around them work, well, without them. Junko, Hitomi, Kyousuke, Kazuko; each one lived in the world, same as our main characters. Here it just feels like the main characters’ world, and everybody else just so happens to be props for them.

Keep in mind that I said the majority. I ADORED Karin. She was technically two-dimensional, but the way that I interpreted her behavior just made her be so fascinating. The only moment I cried in the show was about her, which seems pathetic but she was one of the few good things about the show. Too bad that this was the anime she had to appear in.

The show consistently tries to push shippings onto you, without caring about how shippings actually work. That’s about all I can say about the topic.

While the art was great (except for moments of random 3D), the music was pretty forgettable. It sounded nice, but that was pretty much it. I did like Dandelion, I guess.

I watched the series dubbed, and OH BOY DID THESE VAS DESERVE BETTER. Erica Mendez sounds very bland in this, which is very strange because she’s usually one of the better voice actors. I saw Xanthe Huynh in Anohana, and while I loved her as Menma, I just couldn’t stand her Yuna.

Brianna Knickerbocker was actually okay as Itsuki. Sure, the forced fake singing was atrocious, but she wasn’t all that bad. I saw Erika Harlacher in Violet Evergarden, and she sounds much better in this than she did in that, especially in her more emotional scenes.

Christine Marie Cabanos did alright, which is actually pretty good because she had one of the blander characters to work with. And, I REALLY liked Sarah Williams as Karin. Sure, it isn’t better than Sayaka, but she did amazingly on her own. I really did think that she fit the character.

Overall, I don’t recommend it, especially if you’re looking for a fill-in for Madoka. I’m going to be watching the second season just to see how terrible it is, so we you next review!

I was drawn to this anime after seeing Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, and the pretty Magical Girl outfits for these characters. I really wanted to like this anime but it was very much slice of life up to about episode 8. The girls spent a lot of time going about their daily lives and binging on sweets without gaining weight. If you dislike chirpy or bickering girls it's hard, boring, and despite their cute appearances, irritating to get through. I did shed some tears for Fu in episode 9, so I'll admit, it did give me some feels. It's great that the show included ... a disabled girl named Togo, but the "bondage" fanservice with her magical girl transformation made me cringe. The last few episodes intrigued me but I felt like I wasted my time overall.