Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Spoilers!)

[ringwraith10]

Who's watched this anime? I just finished it and I have a bunch of discussion questions! I'll preface this with some of my opinions: I did enjoy the show, I really did. But. When the show started, I thought it was sort of just a generic Magical Girl cookie-cutter story. By the end, I thought it was a copy-cat of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but with a strangely happy ending.

So, because I was wondering about the show's origins, I looked up Yuki Yuna and then I looked up Madoka. According to the Wikipedia page on Madoka, "During the pre-writing planning phase, Iwakami simply requested that Urobuchi make the storyline "heavy".[3] Furthermore, Shinbo specified that it should contain copious amounts of blood and violence, elements that were unusual to the magical girl genre." While Yuki Yuna isn't as violent as Madoka, it definitely looks like it's trying to make the "Dark Magical Girl" genre a bigger thing than just one show.

So, thoughts on this? Even though I knew that there wasn't anything particularly new about the storyline, I still found myself crying along with the characters and loving Yuna's adorableness. And even though it was part of the plotline, I always love seeing disabled representation among heroes in media! I just wish the series had been longer so they could do more character and plot development.

How did you like the show?

[Violet CLM]

While Yuki Yuna isn't as violent as Madoka, it definitely looks like it's trying to make the "Dark Magical Girl" genre a bigger thing than just one show.

So I clicked on this thread at random and know nothing about the show in question (but it sounds interesting), but there's also My-HiME (sometimes spelled Mai instead of My) in that genre, which I described (elsewhere on the internet) a few months back as follows:

Finished watching "My-HiME" and enjoyed it more than I'd expected. It's definitely less polished than Madoka, its so-to-speak successor, and part of that is it has twice as many episodes and like five times as many characters. The antagonistic forces also feel a lot less clearly defined than in Madoka, though, and the ending is just weird. But where I think I might prefer My-HiME is the protagonists, who seem to make decisions more based on their characters and less based on what the plot requires. There's still some idiocy, but it feels less pronounced. So it's not as good a story--enough of a mess at points that I can't honestly recommend watching it--but the people in it are more believable I guess. There are also some random lingering shots of the main character's breasts, but they're limited to her and her alone... no one else seems to get sexualized at all (except in the stupid underwear episode) and everyone is remarkably chaste. So that's... not a passing grade, but not terrible.

SLIGHTLY more specifically, though still not trying to go into too much detail because I don't want to give away either one, the other thing I thought My-HiME does really well is portraying everything going to hell. The effects of stuff happening in Madoka are all very localized, but My-HiME isn't shy about messing everything up for everyone (though especially the main character). Kudos.

[kaoskat]

I haven't heard of it but it does sound interesting.

[Princess Lala]

I LOVE Yuki Yuna! x3 I need a figure of Yuki sooo bad! There is a nendoroid and a huge figure of her at an anime store nearby that I love to just go up there and stare at, someday I will buy the adorable nendoroid. I have only seen the anime and not read the manga, but I was thinking it was going to be fun like Smile Precure when I started watching it, but im glad it had that twist. I like the darker magical girl series because running around transforming in cute outfits should come with a hefty price IMO.

[TogoMimori]

I think by my screen name/tumblr blogs that I am IN LOVE with this anime. I'm not on my computer so I can't rant about it but 

[Lore-Lei]

As long as they aren't bait 'n switch, I'm fine with them. I'm getting tired of cheap manouvers like that, the only anime that pulled it off right was Gakkou Gurashi.

[ringwraith10]

Violet CLM -- I think I've heard of My-HiME, but I haven't seen it. I'll definitely have to check it out -- it sounds like it's right up my alley! Honestly, the darkest animes are usually the ones I most like, so the magical girl genre is usually out of my area of interest, but now that magical girls ARE dark, I'm starting to be more interested.

Princess Lala -- that nendoroid is just adding to the giant list of nendoroids that I want but totally can't afford! If I didn't spend so much money on video games all the time maybe I could afford more dolls and figures. But you're right about there needing to be a price for being a magical girl -- I don't think I can watch any magical girl series again without thinking, "Yeah, but magic always comes with a price!"

[Princess Lala]

There is a sculpted scale figure of her up at this anime store I go to! I posted it a while on my IG, you have probably seen it  I am just in LOVE with it! I don't  range and I'm just in awe drooling over the thought of it, man its about $90 ahhhh so worth it! xD

In my opinion having majokko powers always come with some kind of dark catch and sometimes I wish they were even darker, I like things that are seemily innocent and mess with your head like Madoka. People think being a magical girl would be so fun and cute, but those powers need to come with a some kind of equal cost! Even in the happy animes something very meaningful to the character is given up for the sake of that outfit and cute accessory. Heck even though Ichigo from Mew Mew (a happy anime) beat the biggest bad guy in order to make her powers go away to be a nornal girl she had little control over turning into a cat and her relationship was effected from being a majokko. Saving the world and being a hero isn't free and will always be weighed down with some kind of cruel pricetag, and I honestly love it that way because those are my favorite stories and that's how it would work if magical girls were real. In fact if your life is happy to where you have someone you can loose, never wish to be a magical girl. The price of having cute wands and adorable dresses, whether they wish to have those powers or not would be scary if it was real. I think Madoka, Yuki Yuna, and Uta-Kana are good eye-openers how things would work if that stuff was real. I wish there was an even darker magical girl series, one so dark I can't even finish more than an episode in one day lol.

Another good one if you havnt seen it yet is Princess Tutu, sort of magical girl themed. First half was alright and halfway into it it feels a little like Madoka, I was crying at certain points. Someone mentioned My-HiME I heard that one is also really good bit I haven't seen it yet! Uta-Kata was really cool, very actiony and there are things in it like child abuse and mental decay to where the characters hate and distrust others but that's what comes if you decide to keep a cell phone charm that can make you a pretty magical girl! Kamichama Karin isn't really that dark, but the main character is an orphan who becomes a magical girl and fails in school, I can relate to her a LOT having lost my parents growing into adulthood without them as well so I got teary over that. But because the parents died, her parents ring could turn her into a goddess-like being (once again, another cruel price in order to have magical girl powers). I did get teary forwards the end because of her cat. Its not very dark, in fact it kind of funny when her future husband drinks and gets pervy  xD

Funny thing...when we have these anime nights my friends will always talk about wanting to be a magical girls and I'm always asking them logically "Do you know what that would cost you physically and emotionally? You really want that kind of life? xD What if a bad guy appears while you are asleep, you wake up and your favorite store is destroyed because you didn't want to get up outta bed and yell something like "moon prism power make up" with a plastic wand." *ROFL*

[ringwraith10]

Princess Tutu has been on my list to look into -- I might have to bump that up. I haven't watched/read many magical girl stories, so thanks for all of the suggestions! I'll look into all of the ones you mentioned. And yeah, the magical girl stories that are most interesting are obviously the dark ones. I really like how Yuki Yuna starts out seeming completely innocent and turns into a dark story about halfway through the series. I think I need to re-watch it now that I know how it ends so I can see if the beginning of the story gives any hints.

[Mermaid]

I just finished this series too!! Albeit a little dark, but I thought madoka magica was darker! Overall a nice series though! I love Karin!!!

I too would love an incredibly dark story magical girls anime! Something that sends shivers down my spine like attack on Titan, and makes me cry like sailor moon, has strong friendship ties like madoka magica, and a little comedy like tenchi!

I really liked princess tutu! Those of you who are looking to view it, totally should!

[Princess Lala]

Definetly check out princess tutu yes yes! I find myself thinking randomly especially today just HOW beautiful that story is (yes, my mind found it breathtakingly beautiful) and how I wish the story was was made into a real book. There are a lot of storybook fairytale references and every episode is worth watching (unlike some series like precure and sailor moon where you can skip episodes ahead and know what's going on...) and I LOOOOOVE all the Swan Lake elements. Seriously my most recondmended majokko anime. I'm also biased since I've done ballet since early teenhood, but its still lovely even if you don't like ballet. You can see the characters struggle, even on pointe the animate the shakiness so well (pointe hurts btw, even after a decade of pointe foot muscle buildup) which I loved.

[ringwraith10]

Definetly check out princess tutu yes yes! I find myself thinking randomly especially today just HOW beautiful that story is (yes, my mind found it breathtakingly beautiful) and how I wish the story was was made into a real book. There are a lot of storybook fairytale references and every episode is worth watching (unlike some series like precure and sailor moon where you can skip episodes ahead and know what's going on...) and I LOOOOOVE all the Swan Lake elements. Seriously my most recondmended majokko anime. I'm also biased since I've done ballet since early teenhood, but its still lovely even if you don't like ballet. You can see the characters struggle, even on pointe the animate the shakiness so well (pointe hurts btw, even after a decade of pointe foot muscle buildup) which I loved.

Ooh, this makes me want to watch it even more! Do you still do ballet? I did for a while, but my illness caught up to me and I quit.