Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO

I'm an admittedly biased reviewer of this story considering I've read the original YU-NO visual novel from 1996. However, I don't believe this disqualifies me from giving an accurate review of the anime.

YU-NO is unique in that as the 'grandfather of the modern visual novel', its story is much of a prototype of some of the most popular time-travel/sci-fi stories today. It has influenced numerous highly regarded works such as Steins;Gate, Island, and even Clannad. This review, however, is about how I personally feel about the story of YU-NO being told in this anime adaption and why.

Story (6/10)
This story starts out as a slow burner, ... which does pay off later when the development somewhat is on point. The positive parts of the story are the many shots of foreshadowing - dropping hints on things that could become very important pieces of the puzzle as we progress further into the story. Through the first arc, we see hints and glimpses towards what the protagonist is getting himself into and what he'll be trying to achieve. We are given parts and fragments throughout the beginning few arcs that seemingly are unrelated but ultimately tie together later on. The first arc I feel was a great way of introducing the characters, the setting, and a general idea of the mysteries. Through discovering the suffering and pain Takuya's stemother Ayumi has been through, Takuya is able to not only help her resist the urge to succumb from the pain, but grow closer to her and by doing so, stumble upon information regarding GeoTechnics, their research, his father's life, what his father's goal may have been, and above all, how and why his father has given him a device that he can use to travel in the past to different worldlines.

The story itself isn't one for the faint-hearted. It's dark, brutally realistic, and deals with mature concepts and themes in a respectful manner that most other anime tend to completely avoid. The foreshadowing pays dividends, as many of the things that have seemed confusing in previous episodes now make sense in context with information that is later revealed.

If I had to describe the story with one word, it would be "complex". The two "halves" of the story are very isolated from one another, yet at the end combine back together into one to make a complete package.

Unfortunately the script-writing really falls flat with the atmosphere and tone. Scenes that were truly haunting and bone chilling, filling you with a sense of dread in the visual novel, have lost much of their impact and it really shows because many of the big plot reveals are "so what, why should we care?" moments, and it sucks because the story is so much better than how it was adapted. Furthermore, some of the changes to the plot resulted in some very glaring plot-holes that didn't exist in the original story, and were never actually addressed leaving you wondering what the script-writers were thinking.

What frustrated me the most is how senselessly some of the scenes were adapted. It's almost as if they completely changed the tone, trying to add comedy when really they overdid it and it came off as stupid and tone-deaf. The comedy when done well was fine, they just inserted it too much into some of the more serious scenes, which wasn't a problem in the visual novel because it was more "dry humor" than "idiotic humor".

Ultimately, for YU-NO to be properly adapted, it would have required most likely a) a different studio and b) more episodes in order to truly flesh out the plot and give impact to the many thrilling scenes that were in the visual novel.

In the end, the changing of the plot to fit anime format wasn't done terribly, and this is one of the better adapted visual novel stories I've seen. It simply falls flat in areas that, if had been done with much thought and expertise, could have really elevated the plot to the level that it was in the visual novel. The script-writing dropped the ball, honestly. It's a shame because a 10/10 story and plot was reduced to at best a 6/10.

Characters (7/10)
If there's one pretty positive part of YU-NO, in my opinion it would be the diverse character cast. Unlike most anime with a high school protagonist and a cast of all high schoolers, YU-NO actually surrounds the protagonist with more adult characters than high school-aged characters. Because the characters surrounding Takuya are professionals with real-world life experience, this gives more credibility to scenarios where Takuya finds himself in danger or encounters obstacles a high schooler usually wouldn't.

Takuya himself is quite possibly the furthest thing from a self-insert protagonist that you could encounter in anime. His personality is defined: nonchalant, almost in a way that makes him seem like a huge jerk, as he's constantly making wisecracks to the dismay of others. It might seem as though he doesn't care about the people in his life with his flippant remarks and the way he's constantly having people do things for him (mainly Yuuki), but his carefree attitude in a way is almost an advantage for him because when he gets serious, people almost immediately notice it and take him seriously. Also, by acting like a complete buffoon, he's also able to play off some more inquisitive questions as a joke without others suspecting that he's trying to search for answers.

All of the other characters are well-built and each have their own motives for their actions. The one drawback, however, is that the characters are mainly used as plot devices to advance the story - Takuya learns valuable pieces of information about the world and mysteries surrounding him through interacting with each character during their individual arcs, and the arcs focus on the story more than developing the characters, which causes some of them to fall flat.

And because the story moves so fast, there's barely enough time to develop much attachment at all to the wide cast, leaving you to wonder why you should even care about them at all, and making them feel disposable. The sadder character moments in the visual novel actually had impact because the characters were more fleshed-out and the plot wasn't advancing at break-neck speed. Here, however, again, the sadder moments just felt gruesome and unnecessary and had little to no impact.

Sound (4/10)
Ohhhh boy, here we go. The first few episodes were very dry and barren of music, negatively impacting my experience of the story. Even when the sountrack expanded later throughout the show, it was repetitive and lacking. I expected way more from Evan Call, the composer of the Violet Evergarden OST.

The OST from the visual novel is one of my most favorite OSTs ever. They used exactly THREE TRACKS from it, and instead opted for an anime-original soundtrack for the rest. That really upset me. Even without comparing the anime OST to the VN OST, the anime OST clearly is not good enough.

Music is a valuable tool for emotional impact, and the OST in my opinion didn't cut it at all whatsoever.

The voice acting is absolutely fantastic. Specifically Kaori Nazuka, as Ayumi Arima, has portrayed incredible emotion and is acting with a lot of passiont. Nothing bad to say about the rest of the cast. Maaya Uchida is great as always and Rie Kugimiya, the tsundere queen, has returned - albeit not with many appearances, but she's back nonetheless! In the second half of the series with characters that I won't mention, the voice acting was truly incredible. Very passionately done all across the board.

The sound effects...have had some wonky moments. I'll leave it at that.

OP/EDs are all fantastic. Konomi Suzuki in particular has done an incredible job with the ED1 and OP2. The second ending is probably my favorite of the four themes!

Art (5/10)
The art itself is a 7/10. Love the detailed backgrounds and general drawings. The character model changes weren't that great because they're much more generic than they were before, removing the "gritty" feeling that they once had. The animation, however, is a 3/10. This adaptation is basically a slideshow, the animation is that non-existent. The story deserved so much better.


Enjoyment (7/10)
For a fan of the original visual novel, I can say that while this adaptation dropped the ball, it was at least an enjoyable watch. I would recommend it to people who like mysteries with a lot of plot twists, but not to anyone that wants an entirely coherent story. Although it is not a true 1:1 adaptation, changing and reordering quite a bit of scenes, the way they adapted the story - showcasing all the important information - only cut out some unnecessary scenes.


This wasn't what I was hoping for out of this adaptation, but it was average! If you want the optimal experience, I do highly recommend reading either the original PC-98 port or the remake that's been released on Steam. The story will actually blow your mind.

Honestly,

From what I have seen so far i'm very disappointed. I have had a very hard time getting myself invested into the plot. I find myself going on my phone in the middle of the episode or just plain watching something else. I think later in the series it could get better though, because it has been a little bit more enjoyable.

If I had to look at characters, as you would guess, my favorite would be Kanna. She has this mysterious presence that makes you wonder who she really is. The foreshadowing they use on her is a really great character development tool. We know ... that she is involved but we don't know how much. She adds a really nice touch to the series.

Welp. What else cam I say because this series is just bland. Characters are a generic looking style. They force the erotica style of the shows past a little too much (If you know, you know). If it wasn't for the intriguing plot I probably would have dropped it by now.

This probably wasn't helpful but that's all I have to say for now. For all I know the series could completely turn around. When it does, I will update this crappy review.

in all of the episodes that I've seen so far i had a mix feelings in whether i should keep watching this or just forget about it .

the Anime has a great concept that i'm sure of from watching these 6 Episodes so far it just the Execution is very low regarding certain elements in the main script .

i kept seeing myself between stop caring for where this is going to kind of interested for where this will lead like i said above i had a mixed opinions about it .

the story aside from the original concept isn't something special really like it is in ... my opinion isn't something i haven't seen before but it is like more of the same to me but it does have interesting events that actually might keep you wondering so there's that .

the animation and the artwork here is standard here nothing to complain about it and nothing wow about it too .

overall it can be a good thing to watch over the weekends and if you like Sci-Fi Animes then this might interest you .

i give it a 5 / 10 rating from what I've seen so far .

There are the bones of an interesting tale here, and when the show focuses on the story elements, it's at it's best, but there are some identity and pacing issues. There are also often unnecessary fan service that break the tone of this show quite a bit. Everything else about it is completely average.

So the tale surrounds a high school boy who inherits an ancient device that allows him to manipulate time and travel across dimensions. Imagine kind of Stein's Gate plus isekai elements. If that sounds interesting, it really is. Unfortunately there is a bit of a pacing issue, which admittedly, is pretty ... common in early episodes of visual novel adaptations. There is a chance this can be rectified as the show progresses. That is if this show can pick an identity and stick with it. Is it a sci-fi time travel tale, or a mystery, or a fantasy show, or an ecchi? When a show tries to be too many things, it ends up doing none of them well.

When art and sound are done well, it can draw the viewer in with ease. When art and sound are done poorly, it can push the viewer away. When art and sound are done just fine, then they end up doing nothing for the show. None of the character designs, backgrounds or music in this anime are in any way memorable. They're not bad, they're just kind of there.

And now I must address the fan service. I'm all for fan service if it is appropriate for the anime you're making. However, it's really misplaced for this particular show, but they throw it in there way more than this story really needs. Half the suggestive scenes in this show do literally nothing to advance the plot. If they were more scarce I wouldn't care, but every episode expect a pg-13 scene in there and most of them feel forced.

There's enough of a story to keep my somewhat interested, so I'm not dropping the show just yet, but it's barely hanging on to my view list.

What a huge cluster fuck. I am writing this at 6am in the morning and I am now compelled to write this review after watching that ending. That conclusion, wasn't really a conclusion. That's is what happens when you make an anime out of a game, nothing is clear and there's multiple paths and endings. The anime has a couple twists and turns which I definitely didn't see coming but other parts were truly predictable to the point where I thought I was clever, but not really. I just found out that kana(sick blue haired girl) is also the daughter of takuya(mc). Thats kind of ... mind-blowing so thats cool. The problem is there's tons of plot holes, bad decisions, cringe ( especially at the start) and it's a gigantic mess of an anime.

Let's start with plot holes, I have them written down on a note pad as I was watching kono yo hate, so here it is:

Kono yo hate plot holes and questions!

Why is the priestess the only one that can be sacrificed?
If takuyas birth mother became the priestess, how did his wife become the prestress?
Why did takuyas mother let Takuya suffer in prison and get people killed in the quarries?

How did Erico and riyazoji go to delagranto? I understand there was a machine but there was only one and it wasn't meant to be used to travel between dimensions

How did takuyas mother get zapped and go to delgranto if that was from a parallel universe?

How did Erico give takuya back his memories if that was also from a parallel universe?

Why did sailas (takuya wife) kill herself?

Why did takuyas mom trap her self inside the barrier with ryozoji? Any one could predict that she would just used as a hostage.

This isn't like a traditional review, it's just there to point out what's good and what's bad. That's about it. Theres about 10 different animes all merged into one even though is was from a novel from the 90s, So you will notice some clichés.

Ok, so a version of 'YUNO" from 1996 was basically revived using the same character, but studio "Feel" decided to not follow the hentai version, and made this remake a more wholesome thing, even though the ecchi were toned downed.

So

Story

Pros: It was still the usual time travel sci-fi themed anime, where character gets transported into different timeline in order to make corrections, but this one was more half half, cu'z half of it would be the MC making changes in time in order to save the ones he love, but half of it , well that when it becomes an isekai thing, where the ... MC now goes to an alternate world and gets stuck there for a while, but then again:

Cons: It would have been better if they from studio "Feel" would still follow as to how the hentai version ended, not including the hentai scene.

Verdict 5/10

Art

Pros: Expect to see some fanservices around here.

Cons: But the the hentai version of fanservices.

Verdict 7/10


Sound

Pros: It was kinda good that most of the seiyyus who did adult voices did it properly, given that they don't have to voice a Joshikausei.

Cons: The ones who voices Yuno, Mio and Kanna were a big too old to voice such young character.

Verdict 7/10

Character

Pros: Ok so we have this danshi guy who was the MC around here, yes you could say that he's the hero here since he has to be this one who has to travel from different timeline in order to save the one he cares, but..............

Cons: I really don't like that he has this attitude of being a bad ass yankee, cu'z at one point he's a hero, but there were some instances where he acts like a sex offender.

Verdict 3/10

Enjoyment

Pros: It was fairly enjoyable , when I have to see some fanservice around here. Also, it was nice to see something like this have a clean ending.

Cons: I just don't like the way it ended.

Verdict 6/10

Overall

Verdict 6/10

Like I've said it was nice that this has a clean ending, but I really don't like the way it ended, I would have preferred the hentai version's ending.

Meant to write this ages ago and I accidentally wrote it in the comments section of my personal rating.

I struggle with my rating for this because the first half or so of the series had a really good thing going. It was very suspenseful and kept me on edge. Then about halfway through it brought in some new plot elements which added a different sub-genre to the series. About 2/3 of the way through the series it shifted genres completely and at that point it didn't really even feel like the same series. The final episode left many plot holes and unanswered questions, although it ... is hard to seamlessly wrap up stories involving time paradoxes. This show overly complicates things by employing both the grandfather paradox and causal loops. The protagonist must repeat the past several times over until they have taken the course of action which will alter the future. Yet we find out they are continuously stuck in the same casual loop despite this. There is a lot of fancy talk about causality, but not real explanation or conclusion on the subject. The one thing I will compliment them on is at least they took out the incest which apparently is abundant in the original visual novel.

As someone who has read the Visual Novel (both 1996 and 2019), i can tell you that this adaption feels somewhat rushed and very much could have had greater potential. The result of this was mainly due to the number of episodes.

What essentially made YU-NO was the ideas and concepts behind the meaning of the plot which was thinned down a ton and even some were never mentioned. This somewhat made it easier to understand, but those ideologies were the key to its success in its era of time.

The plot felt very weak, I see where they were trying to go with it but ... in actual fact, it harmed the protagonist in the way in which does not compare to how he acts in the VN. His personality doesn't feel interesting overall especially where it mattered most. And the suspense was very much weaker in this adaptation. I would personally say that some scenes were executed nicely but don't outweigh the negatives.

There's nothing special about the art, it's your usual clean modern generic style but doesn't give that same mature vibe as the original, they definitely could have gone with a better art style than this. The same goes for the OST, they did use some amazing tracks but not all.

I personally wouldn't recommend this to anyone and I'd say invest time to play the game instead before watching the anime (Game is around 30 hours anime is 10 hours).

Short Summary

Please keep in mind that i have played the visual novel and watched the anime. I liked the visual novel very much, it got its fame for the reason. But anime could not justice with the story and characters for the reason of length. They did manage to complete the skeleton of the human body, but the same body lacks muscles, skin and features.


Story

I will rate it 6/10 for the following reasons

Positive Points:
...
1. It gives the viewers near realistic concept of time travel. At least, attempts so
2. There is practically no filler in the story, the viewer may find a piece of the story boring or interesting however, comparing with the game, attempt had been made to nullify the fillers to near zero
3. Addressed minor problems in VN well.

Negative Points:
The story did not spend enough time to convince the viewers about its concept and plots, the viewer can easily feel it as another "Sakai" genera based anime, In fact, I opine, it assumes the viewers might have either watched "Stiens' Gate" or played the visual novel of this anime or "Stiens Gate

It feels unpolished, there are problems with "how the story flows". The original visual novel needed some polishing back then, "Stiens Gate" did that job well, however, it feels the directors must have forgotten to polish the story of the original visual novel.


Art (8/10)

The anime attempted to look characters as realistic as possible. I liked it, no problems at all. But, i leave the last 2 points for pure subjective judgement. So, i just don't feel like giving it a 10 score.

Sound (7/10)

Well, It was good. Not good enough to make me search the same on the you tube. However, it matches with art fair enough.

Characters (4/10)

Now, this is something, that is really messed up. For example, if you have just watched the anime. You dont know Yu no at all, the main character of the show. a straight 4 points deduction out of ten.

However, they designed Sayless well, same goes with royal guards and amanda and her faction well,

I deducted 2 points for the anime not being able to well in terms of inter-character relations

Enjoyment (7/10)

I just wanted to see something that a visual novel can not do, "animation", which anime did well, so i enjoyed it.

Overall (6/10)

in view of the above, it can be safely said that the company did not have enough time/budget to cover up the visual novel better. The anime would be a lot better, if it

1. Had 35-40 episodes
2. Would able to convince viewers about plot (which in my opinion is the most important aspect in the anime)

Then, i would have rated the anime an 8 score.

It's my review till episode 7 which is 5/10.
I just felt the urge to write a review at episode 7. I'll update the review later after watching the whole story.
Well I guess I'm pretty disappointed with this story
Art isn't good as it looks and feels average like a low budget films/dramas/anime etcetera etcetera.

The only good thing about this anime is that it's plot is good but Execution of this plot I mean storyline is pretty bad. It has air of mystery but it doesn't have the magnitude to attract viewers complete 100% attention to it. There isn't much story ... material in this anime so they filled it with fillers like 4/5sec wasted on by only showing setting sun/rising sun, ocean waves and so on.

Characters don't show much expressions like confused, angry, mysterious, happy. It feels like characters are slow on uptake like they are brain dead or something.
Makers tried to give it's characters very adult like mysterious air but failed miserably. When some obvious things happen in front of us, we try to make some conjectures but here in this anime characters ignore thos situations like they can't see what's happening in front of them. It feels like all the characters lack human emotions.

It isn't that great.
Story-
The theme and idea is interesting but the way its presented is bad. I felt the storytelling is incoherent. It's very rushed so you will have to watch it again to understand it properly. The relationships of a few characters is explained later on so until then you will be confused. I got the impression that they were trying to reveal their relationships as a plot twist but it does't work well. There are also many disgusting and perverted dialog. This makes this anime very hard to watch. Such dialog isn't bad but it's too much.
This anime was adapted from an ... adult visual novel. Maybe it's only me but there was this underlying sexual and romantic tension between the MC and all the other female characters(even his step-mom). It's very subtle but it's there. This isn't bad but every female liking MC(or very likely to) for no reason is kinda weird.
Art-
I thought it was good. The art in opening and ending was very good.
Sound-
The VA is good. The opening and ending themes are pretty cool.
Characters-
The MC is perverted but he lacks Issei's charisma. This is important because you will hear a lot of perverted dialog. He also comes off as boring and bland. He doesn't show much emotions. The rest of the characters are alright but not that memorable. Their personalities and looks match each other and there is no depth.

Conclusion-
Overall the anime has pretty cool concepts and ideas but it's a led down in terms of execution. It's definitely watchable(and I will watch it) but the journey is very rough.

Note-
I read that this anime is based on a visual novel and it laid the foundation of various anime like Steins;Gate. After watching such anime I felt the original will also start to feel like an impostor. Had I not known this fact I would have thought of it as an imitation of Steins;gate not its inspiration. This obviously does't affect the review but I felt that this is similar to various bad isekai anime we get every year.

If there are any changes I will be sure to update it.
Thanks for reading my review.

(READ IF YOU WANT THE EXPLANATION OF THIS ANIME)

Note: The anime did not explain where is Takuya's father and mother (there could be other theories but the one that truly knows is the creators of course), it does not explain also what happens to the other Takuya's if they left their own parallel worlds, it also did not explain how humans manage to survive when Dela Grante crushed on earth.

This anime talks about time, parallel worlds, and about different dimensions. According to it, whatever our MC is doing in the anime is not changing the past, what he is doing is entering into another parallel ... world and reliving his life over there again, for example Takuya saw Ayumi died, then he use the reflector device, all that happens is that he traveled to another parallel world to save the Ayumi that is currently still alive (this is the save function of the reflector device that brings him to another parallel world where he pressed the savepoint), sadly, the Ayumi that died in the world he came from is still dead, and also the Ayumi Takuya saved will eventually die, and this is what the anime keeps pointing out which is FATE. THIS IS EXPLANATION OF WHAT WAS GOING ON TO KNOW MORE CONTINUE READING....

Now it could be confusing, whatever that is happening in the anime it is as if history kept on repeating itself, so to prevent confusion we have to remember that this anime had added the theory of parallel worlds. We might as well just look at the whole thing as memory from Takuya and Yuno, who both of them eventually end up in that space rift. Parallel world theory, explains that the thing that I am doing now may not be the thing that the other me is currently doing, but eventually the me in the another world will also do the same thing. So all the Takuya and Yuno from all the parallel world will end up in that space rift. And that from all the parallel worlds the Dela Grante is meant to crush with earth. This does not conflict with what I said because, from the anime we can see that things does not happen similarly and yes it does not, this explains that routing thingy, for example Takuya went back to change what happens, now this will create another routing in another parallel world but it does not mean he changed the past, it just means he changed something that is meant to happen to happen in a different way (just like the Ayumis death).

PERSONALLY, I do not like this anime, its so painful to watch, its explanation and the way it portray time element, and its plot is all absurd and mess up. It is not fun, at the same time really really painful, you will always feel pain in each route the MC takes, there will always be death of his beloved. And watching them die again and again just hurts me. I do not want a season 2, I want the creators to rethink what they show their viewers, I believe that making something that touches other people, that grants hope, that grants peace is really important, it may be hard but that is why there are fans and supporters to help them create stories and animes and mangas. Anyways enjoy and have fun.

Apparently, this anime is an adaptation based on a video game.

That shouldn’t matter though, as I’m only reviewing the anime based on its own merits, without any link to the video game, which I think should be how all anime are reviewed.

Good points:
Male MC is not a “shrimp” like Meliodas in Nanatsu no Taizai.
First episode was real good with lots of libido and inuendo, continued throughout the anime.
There were panty shots not of students but mainly of the teacher.
Female characters were nicely-drawn.
There were a few catching romances by the MC but don't think this is a harem.
...
Not so good points:
After a good first episode, the series sort of became a plodding often-disorganized storyline.
Yu-No, who was the main character in the anime title, only appeared in the last 1/4 or 1/3 of the anime, which coincidentally was the best part of the story.

In my opinion, this 26-episode anime should have been compacted to half that to maybe 13-episodes only to present a better storyline flow. Perhaps, it was a business or related decision back then, but it makes me scratch my head when other more deserving source material only get one 12-episode season only, in comparison.