Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru – Washio Sumi no Shou Episode 4: Soul

The three of us are friends forever.

According to the materials from the _ calendar times, which was _ of years ago… when you wanted to be friends forever, apparently people used to say, “BFF.” I liked it because it was kind of an interesting word. The three of us are friends forever. Even now, I feel like they’re close by.

It wasn’t like I wasn’t expecting something bad to happen. I knew it was but I had no idea how brutal it was going to be. I didn’t know it would be this painful and depressing. It shocked me in many ways.

The episode starts off as innocent as the other episodes were. The girls are finishing their cleaning duties and excitedly talk about their upcoming school trip. Washi, as usual, is super into it and made giant guides for the both of them and the girls laugh it off. Back in Gin’s house as she’s getting prepared she shares a sweet moment with one of her younger brothers, promising to bring him souvenirs. The girls go off to their trip and have fun completing athletic course there. Gin is showing off her popularity as she easily completes each course in her naturally showy way, garnering the popularity and attention from her peers. However there was a strange moment where she fell off the ropes in shock, Washio reminding her not to go too crazy. More death flags later, the girls have a barbecue and eat and joke around and are cute and they’re all happy, just like we’re used to seeing them. They promise the following Sunday to teach Sonoko how to cook and they’re all looking forward to it. They all had talked about whether or not the Vertex would show up during their trip but luckily for them that never happened.

Instead, it showed up after their trip. Not one, not two, but three.

The third Vertex didn’t show up until much later, but the two Vertex immediately immobilized Washio and Sonoko, leaving Gin to handle them on her own. Out of all the girls, Gin was definitely the strongest. She had a lot of strength and agility and was always athletic and spunky. At first she started off as an impulsive girl and just swung at everything, but through her training she really matured. However in this situation, the impulsiveness came back as she tried her hardest to fight back against the three beings. The thoughts of her town, of the Shinjyu, of her friends, of her classmates, of the people that looked up to her, and of her family filled her thoughts as she fought to the very end. She fought against the pain as more arrows and needles stabbed her. And in the end, she defeated the enemies and saved everyone…except herself.

The entire scene was incredibly bloody and very brutal, I think the bloodiest Yuuki Yuuna has ever gotten. But the biggest reason I was so shocked was that Gin actually died. In the original show, we learned that the girls could not die. No matter how many times Mimori/Washio tried to commit suicide in multiple ways, their little fairy partners would never allow them to die in combat or suicide. I even forgot until this moment that the girls didn’t have their own fairy partner thing, if I had noticed that earlier then I would have guessed that death would have been a factor. What I had imagined was Gin unlocking the special ability from the original anime and she would have lost something vital like maybe her eyesight or the use of her legs. I think I was too shocked to react to her death and it didn’t hit me until Washio and Sonoko limped over to her lifeless corpse, sobbing at the loss of their dearest friend. But knowing that Washio loses the use of her legs brings me to believe the special ability (I forgot the name of it) might come up soon. I’m going to guess that the Shinjyu-sama is going to intervene once learning of Gin’s death and is going to implement this. I don’t know if the Shinjyu is going to implement it right after Gin’s death, or dare I say…Sonoko’s death. And the thought of losing another one of these sweet girls pains me badly.

Gin was an admirable girl, the cutest little thing. She cared about others enough, was selfless, loved her friends, her family, was a little boisterous but she was a very good girl. Even though Sonoko was the leader of the group, Gin was definitely like the big sister of the group, patting their heads and making them feel happy. Shinjyu-sama, why must you always pick the innocent girls?