Should I be surprised, or shouldn’t I? There was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that we would get a happy ending, even though events such as the end of the world being on the line, making any way for a happy ending to be almost impossible. Yet it happened, and I’m not too sure how it did.
Call me a fool but I feel we’re missing some context here. As some of the girls fight off against the Vertex, some of them such as Fuu and Togo go off to find Yuuna. Togo does and Yuuna admits that she’s scared and doesn’t want to be separated and as they try to touch hands, a barrier forms between them. Togo mutters to herself that she wants to fight as humans and…, I hate saying this, but again we get a deus ex machina ending where the past heroes give Yuuna their power? Or Shinjyu gave his power to her so she could fight back against the God above, letting the humans decide their own future. I’m still unsure on that scene, whether it was the past heroes of Shinjyu himself that helped Yuuna. At first I thought it was the past heroes because they all came together with Togo to share their power, but then in the end we learn that Shinjyu is gone, either because he gave the last of his powers to Yuuna, helping her. Or, he just died in the last second. I’m not sure. Also, the crow appeared again, this time before Togo. Someone in comments told me that it was an ancestor, but that still leaves no explanation. In fact it just makes me more confused and curious why that crow and that particular ancestor is so significant and if that scene in the finale, and the one where it led Yuuna out of her coma, hold a certain meaning. I don’t know who this person is, I don’t even remember their name, but the fact that they’ve appeared twice must mean something. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it means. For fans that have read that particular novel must have understood it much better, but to people like me that have only seen the anime, I’m completely clueless.
Also, why did it only have to be Yuuna to fight against the God? Maybe it’s not that big of a deal, but it would have been nice for them all to fight off against the God since it didn’t just affect Yuuna, it affected all of the heroes that they were being taken advantage of. Maybe because it was Shinjyu that gave his power, and since Yuuna was about to sacrifice herself, she handled the final fight? Hm.
In the end, the world is saved. No one died. However, the humans have absolutely no protection now and I think the girls lost their powers, correct? The Taisha are gone, Shinjyu is gone, and now humanity has entered what is now more of a post-apocalyptic world where they have to make do with their limited resources. I’m not saying Yuuna dying would have been great, but I wonder if this really was the best decision? Because now they’re going to struggle a lot, chaos might ensue, and the world might get even worse. And who knows what’ll happen now that the humans don’t have any protection. They could get attacked and the girls won’t be able to do a thing because they’re not Heroes anymore. It’s actually pretty scary to think about. But it also leaves for an interesting hook for a sequel.
But, if we’re going to get another story of the series, I think we should get the pre-prequel (NoWaYu, I think?). I think there are explanations to what we got here, and also there’s ancestors so that’s cool in itself. I want to see how the Hero System worked in an earlier time. Now, as for what I thought of this sequel…
It was good. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. I really think it would have benefited if it had been a 12-episode show instead of only half. The beginning started off rocky and was rushed with some strange direction, but it picked up immediately when the story focused on Yuuna. The emotions were strong, giving some of the most powerful scenes we’ve gotten in the YuYuYu franchise. But, again, the ending was unsatisfactory for me (I’m seeing a pattern here). But we also had problems when it came to the characters, because even though we had six of them, the anime mainly focused on Yuuna and Togo. Even though Sonoko joined the group, she didn’t exactly contribute all that much and when she did, it was behind the scenes. Fuu, Itsuki, and Karin were just there. We didn’t really have much character development at all, and if this had been 12 episodes, the story could have been stretched out more and we could have focused on the girls a lot more. Animation and music were still solid, though. But I think of the three stories we’ve gotten, this is the weakest one.
This chapter had its problems, but I still enjoyed it. And even though I’m not a fan of this deus ex machina ending again, I can’t deny that I’m happy our Hero Club is happy and sweet little Yuuna is still alive. :’) 7/10
