Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru – 08

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru 08 finally spells out just how screwed the girls of Hero Club are going to be by introducing them to a bits-and-pieces mess of barely living parts that used-to-be-a-Hero Nogi Sonoko, who now resides in some sort of parallel dimension and is forced to watch the same vista for an unendable eternity.

The tone is somber, it gives us the high stakes I’ve wanted for several episodes now and it lays out the “will they/won’t they escape fate” framework facing the girls from here on out.

And it definitely delivers real, raw, and powerful emotions from Togo and Yuna. It’s a tear jerker, and the relative quiet of their conversation with Nogi makes it all the more brutal.

So why am I dropping YYwYdA? Simply put, this was the dullest, talkiest reveal you can imagine. Little mystery is left to our imagination and the whole ‘snagged on the way back from fighting’ context for Yuna and Togo’s conversation with the fallen hero felt arbitrary. Graceless.

Worse, while I’ve moderately enjoyed the show until now, I can’t help but feel YYwYdA‘s slow pace is a product of not having much to do with the series or having an interesting mystery to reveal, rather than a thoughtful process of lulling us into false security.

I mean, the girls have had their injuries for several episodes now. We already knew those injuries weren’t going away and that they were the direct result of using Mankai.

Spelling that fact out to us, even with the added context that young girls are still being used like the virgin sacrifices of old, doesn’t make it any more compelling.

Sad panda. Sad panda indeed.