Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou

Three girls have been chosen by the great Shinju-sama to be heroes and fight against the destructive beings known as Vertexes—enemies that threaten the harmony and safety of the world.

Unsure of when they would be called to duty, Sumi Washio, Sonoko Nogi, and Gin Minowa spent their time idly. However, with the sudden appearance of a Vertex, they realize they have no idea how to fight together as magical girls when they are nearly bested. They manage to defeat their enemy by sheer determination, but in the aftermath of the battle, the three decide to fix their teamwork issues and improve their combat capabilities.

But as more enemies appear—and requiring even more power to defeat their nemeses—the girls may find themselves irreversibly changed by the use of their magic. What price will they have to pay to ensure victory, and is it one worth paying if humanity will be saved?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tougou, Mimori Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Nogi, Sonoko Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Minowa, Gin Main

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Yuuki, Yuuna Supporting

Terui, Haruka Japanese

Aki Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Kinoshita, Tetsuya Producer

Miyagi, Souji Producer

Kamiji, Tomoyo Producer

Reviews

Jan 3, 2022

Tref55

Recommended

Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero: Washio Sumi Chapter is what I think the first season of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero should have been more often. The tone of this season is better, the characters are more consistent and better written, and it gets to the point of everything much quicker than season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero.

The tone in this season is a lot better paced than season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero. In season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero it felt like it took a long time for set ups to be paid off. They didn't do ... this in a satisfying slow burn but instead it just felt like characters ignored what was going on way more than they should. In Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero: Washio Sumi Chapter however, it feels like things that are set up get paid off much quicker which prevents the show from becoming dull. Another thing tone wise that I think is improved is the contradiction between the fights and the slice of life moments. What I mean here is that not only is there a greater balance between when the fights happen and when the girls are being girls, but also that the bad things that happen in the fights feel like they impact the characters a lot sooner here than they do in season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero.

As far as character writing goes, I think the fact that only 3 characters needed to be focused on here (as opposed to 5 characters in season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero) makes the characters here feel more fleshed out and more consistent. When bad shit happens to these 3, I feel a lot more invested in it than I did with most of the characters in season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero. Also as stated in the last paragraph, their reactions to stuff that happens to them in the story feels a lot more natural than the reactions of the characters in season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero.

Overall, I think this show is a stronger whole than season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero despite being only half as long. And while I still enjoy season 1 of Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero, I remember not being as invested during my rewatch as I was the first time I watched it. I didn't suffer that same problem with this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 1, 2022

EntameWitchLulu

Mixed Feelings

I loved Yuki Yuna is a Hero, and it continues to be one of my favorite magical girl anime, and one of my favorite anime, of all time. Unfortunately, watching this prequel, I found myself questioning why I even liked the franchise. That's how disappointing this was.

I feel like there's an unfortunate trend in a lot of media, not just anime, in which people feel the need to explain everything. In this case, this anime felt the need to explain the details of Togo's backstory, which were otherwise hinted at well enough in the original main story. In essence, this story just felt unnecessary. We ... didn't NEED to know the details of Togo's backstory. We already knew what happened. We didn't really NEED to see it. It feels like it comes from this place where everything needs an origin story, or if you don't explain something, it's a plot hole. Togo's backstory was well defined through the clues that were given throughout the original story, and putting the entirety of it on screen I personally feel just takes some of the gravity away from the original show. It feels like they're milking it.

Aside from that, there were definitely a lot of other things that bugged me. The original Yuki Yuna had issues with its worldbuilding, in that it. Didn't do much of it. This chapter seems to attempt to make a bit more sense of the world and flesh it out, but it ends up just making things make less sense by trying to elucidate them. The Taisha makes less sense. The Shinju-sama makes less sense. This world makes less sense. I still don't know what the boundaries of this world the Shinju-sama makes is. Is it JUST covering Japan? Is the rest of the world inside too? Do they all worship the Shinju-sama? Are there other gates the Vertex come through? Is the world flat, and does this wall go all the way around it? Are there Heroes in other parts of the world?

Also, Sumi's extremely nationalistic leaning tendencies were put on full display here, and they become more and more uncomfortable each time. Is this a nationalist show or is Sumi just supposed to be weird? The queerbaityness of it has also increased from the original, with mulitple instances of girls liking girls being treated as weird and unusual.

Finally, my last major gripe is just how sexualized these characters are. Yuki Yuna had some of these problems, but not nearly as often and not nearly as blatant. There is an entire segment of the girls discussing boob sizes, and their transformation sequences have not only boob jiggles, but close up butt jiggles. It's one thing to do that with the clearly teenage original series characters (still weird, but it's one thing), it's another when these characters are *11*.

Overall, this is just not a great or needed addition to the Yuki Yuna franchise. If you're really into the franchise, you might want to watch it just for completion's sake, but as a fan of the original, this did very little to enhance my enjoyment of the franchise as a whole, and in some ways even damaged it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 26, 2017

Dark_Pride

Not Recommended

Rating: 4/10

Do note that I binged through the first season of this show last Fall 2014. Note that there will be spoilers for the show.

Maybe, it could be that I already know the conclusion of the first part of the sequel that I am not really that emotionally invested in the characters. And hey, the way the show is presented in the beginning there is no attempt to hide the fact that this part of the sequel will not end on a good note. Maybe my sensibilities changed through the years that I might have been tolerant of some of the anime tropes back then. ... But, oh boy, the writing in this anime really went down a few notches, especially the character development department.

Okay, the world building is nice. However, it didn't provide any additional insight to the world aside from the things that are already known in season 1. Yes, we saw Tougo's past as Washio Sumi, her life as elementary schooler. We also got to know Sonoko's life before we see her in Episode 8 of Season 1. We also got to know how the Hero System worked before they were given the spirits.

However, one of the biggest offender of the show is Episode 3, which is the "breather episode". Going into the show, the viewer already knows the "twist" of the show and the fact that one of the characters in the show will die along the way isn't really a surprise. That makes that breather episode crucial for the audience to be emotionally invested with the characters given that the suffering is bound to happen.

Unfortunately, the writers managed to make that episode so cringey that finishing the episode is a slog that I have to pause the episode then watch something crappier like a random PragerU video to even motivate me to finish the episode. Case in point, there is a part in the episode where Sonoko's dreams were shown in the anime. They even named the segment "Sonoko's Dreams". One of the dreams is Sonoko imagining Washio as an idol. Then they performed as an idol, rendered in CG. At this point, my brain literally screamed; "WHAT THE F***, STUDIO GOKUMI! WHY ARE YOU PUSHING THIS IDOL CANCER IN THIS SHOW?". Why even include those crap segments? Why did the writers shoehorn ambiguous yuri dialogue at the end of that episode? My god, that episode really dragged on whilst the last episode really crammed everything (introduction of the new system, showing how Sonoko and Tougo came to be at their situation now, how Sonoko realize the drawback of the "mankai" system and how she saw the actual reality of the world). Literally, everything happened during the last episode that somehow any emotional impact it has was not felt.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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