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.
