I take back on what I said in a comment last week. I said I would gladly accept death in order to get a well-paced 12 episode season of Yuuki Yuuna but I completely take it back because I can’t take this anymore. This had to be one of the hardest episodes of YuYuYu not because it was bad, but because of how heartbreaking it was to watch. It was 20+ minutes of absolute despair and I can honestly say that I was losing my mind. I love this series, but I have to admit that I always feel a bit down after watching an episode. Thank god I can cleanse my palate with something warm and happy with Love Live Sunshine the next day.
It’s confirmed that at the end of the first season while Yuuna was in her coma, she was floating inside the black hole world where Togo was. At the end of the big fight, she pushed herself too far and completely damaged her body. When touching the soul of the Vertex, her own soul was consumed and ended up in the empty world and she wasn’t able to leave it until a crow (Togo?) led her the way out, and she woke from her coma. We learn that the Shinjyu created new bodies for the girls, Yuuna especially, as she is now known as a Wasugata. Because she took the most damage, her body took longer to return to normal but she’s now taken on the Curse of the Gods. Even if she hadn’t saved Togo, she still would have suffered the same fate. And now we all learn that Yuuna only has until the spring. We’ve seen multiple times the Tree of Life (I think it’s called?) slowly dying, and until now I had no idea what it meant. It’s getting consumed by the flames, pretty much like Yuuna is. The only reason the girls were able to find this out was because Sonoko investigated, and also Togo snuck into Yuuna’s room and grabbed her Hero Records where she’s been keeping a journal as assigned by the Taisha.
Again, I have to give it to the studio for directing this part so well. Listening to Yuuna’s voice reading her journal entries while watching the fun slice of life scenes in a new light absolutely destroyed me. Of course I knew things were off in the beginning, with Yuuna’s lack of enthusiasm as Togo was able to notice, and with her being out of it. But of course I hadn’t known how bad it was, with her vomiting her little bit of sweet sake she drank, how her chest hurts, how the little marking she started off is now taking over her body completely. How she’s terrified of sleeping in the dark. How she’s so paranoid of spreading the Curse she doesn’t even talk much anymore. How this poor girl is keeping it all to herself, suffering all by herself because she doesn’t have a choice. And yet, even through all her pain and fear she still looks forward to her days, spending time with her friends. While at home she suffers, at school with her friends in the club, she feels warm and happy. How saying something simple like “See you tomorrow!” means so much now, making her believe that “Yeah, maybe I can see them tomorrow.” To make her friends happy and to live life as much as she can with the people she loves, she suffers on her own. It wasn’t that Yuuna was my least favorite of the group, but she wasn’t totally up there for me. But watching her fight this makes me proud of her because of how hard she’s fighting and how strong willed she is. Like Gin, she’ll do anything to make her friends happy, and since she can’t tell them what’s happening, she’s shouldering it on her own, and in a way it’s incredibly admirable of her, and I just love her so much. And…that scene with Karin. Killed me. Fuck.
I don’t want her to fight on her own anymore! But even I know what a tough situation this is, and just like Togo and the others, it’s frustrating to know that they have no idea how to help her. Togo in the end says she wants to save her, but how? Take her place again? It just can’t be that easy.
I said in the beginning that I feared that this sequel would be predictable and I’m glad I’m wrong, because I’m at a loss. Just…a complete loss. If something bad happens to Yuuna I am absolutely going to lose my fucking mind. This and last week’s episodes were very painful and I don’t know how much more I can take.
The crow belongs to one of the original Heroes “Nogi Wakaba” from the Origin LN NoWaYu 😉
An ancestor! :O
That sounds huge but I don’t know what that means!
I’m not sure we do either. There’s a bonus chapter of Nogi Wakaba is a Hero where she works with her friend who is a miko to arrange for a recording of herself to be planted into the hero system to encourage heroes who are in their darkest hour to keep on living… but Yuuna’s experience feels like something a lot more active. It seems entirely possible to me that it was actually Wakaba’s spirit.
FYI, the crow isn’t Tougou, but Nogi Wakaba.
but how wakaba turned into a crow spirit like. hinata said it is not possible in the bonus chapter of nowayu