Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re continuing with the journey of Togo, or “Washii” to her new friends, as she and her companions fight bravely in defense of the Divine Tree. Having defeated their first Vertex with only moderate difficulty, the trio have since bonded over some delicious mall gelato, where Nogi assigned Togo her fateful nickname. Thus our long march off a short pier continues, our only assurance being that things will soon get much, much worse.
I’m already steeling myself for that blow, but in the meantime, I’m also quite enjoying this season’s distinct conception of the relationship between heroes and the Divine Tree. Rather than the oblivious Yuki and her friends, Togo’s group have been fully briefed on their responsibilities, and are seen as heroes by their fellow students. Given what’s coming down the line, I could imagine that their fates actually resulted in the dismantling of this hero preparatory academy system; after all, if their classmates can directly connect the deterioration of their friends’ bodies to their work as heroes, it seems far less likely they’d be similarly inclined to sacrifice themselves for a faceless god. Let’s see if that prediction bears fruit as we return to Washi Sumi Chapter!
Episode 2
We again begin with a letter written by Togo, as if she is addressing her future self. Perhaps at some point she realizes her memory will be erased, and thus these letters are her way of ensuring her adventures and bond with her first two partners never truly disappear
Oh jeez, not wasting any time here! Togo simply announces that “half a month after our first battle, the second enemy appeared,” and then we jump right into combat
Interesting design for this second monster. It’s essentially constructed like a weathervane with bells hanging from its side bars, evoking religious charms while emphasizing its ability to conjure wind
Its gusts of wind are so powerful that the girls can’t even approach it
They’re doing a solid job evoking the wind’s distortion with this visual blur effect
Togo attempts a Breath of the Wild-style falling bowshot, but is unsuccessful
After the battle, their teacher scolds them for their recklessness and inability to come up with proper countermeasures. In every way, this system of heroes continues to offer a dramatic contrast with the first season of Yuki Yuna. Heroes in this classroom are clearly considered high-value assets, and provided with every piece of information and support that might ensure victory with minimal sacrifice. Of course, as the first season made clear, none of this is because they are actually valued as individuals; they are simply tools that have been financially invested in, and it is foolish to squander such valuable instruments
The teacher suggests they defer to a leader, and though Togo immediately assumes she’ll be chosen, the teacher actually elects Nogi, the least assertive of the three of them
“The Nogi family have great power over the amnesty. She’s from a lineage that should be chosen as the leader in a situation like this.” Togo comforts herself by reflecting on Nogi’s distinguished family name, demonstrating how faith in power structures like this has carried through both her stories. But class and patriotism are merely tools of control and subjugation, not intellectually coherent methods of dictating value – as such, it seems clear that the Divine Tree values maintaining its kingdom of supplicants more than it values winning any individual battle
Togo smiles and agrees with the teacher, even as she mentally accepts that she’ll have to be the actual leader in practice
The teacher announces a training camp to improve their coordination
“Welcome back. Please, don’t ever leave me again.” The OP lyrics emphasize longing for a lost era of hope and innocence, a song primed for increasingly painful resonance as the season continues
Togo waits impatiently for the tardy Gin on the bus to their training camp. Diligent as ever, and more prickly now without Yuna at her side
“Don’t worry about your family or school, and do your best.” This all-encompassing approach to heroism certainly has its benefits. Their entire society is working to make these heroes the strongest they can be
“The rules are simple. You must safely get Minowa-san to that bus.” Interesting how their unique weapons so clearly dictate their combat strategy. With Nogi possessing a big shield and Gin two close range swords, their strategy is generally “protect Gin until she can get close enough for a killing blow.” I suppose after the general, undirected combat of season one, it became important to vary things up by more clearly defining their tactics (to say nothing of how that also fits their more professional approach to heroism). Of course, this show has always been pretty good about defining combat as a series of distinctive puzzles to solve, rather than just a waiting game until the standard special attacks inevitably save the day
Ah, to enjoy a lush seafood dinner spread after a long day at training camp. Another extraordinarily specific concept whose anime ubiquity has me nostalgic for someone else’s adolescence
Gin roaring, getting beaned with a volleyball, and then just face planting in the sand is good television
At last, they succeed in their dodgeball practice! Any volleyballs lurking out in the wilderness better watch their step
“Won’t there be an event where we learn a super killer move?” Gin out here asking the important questions
She then asks the exact wrong question, foolishly expressing curiosity about one of Togo’s beloved historical battleships
Nogi has a chicken-themed pajama set and a cat-headed pillow. Truly living the life
Lots of solid character-sketching banter between them on their last night of training, furnishing their individual personalities while also solidifying their interpersonal bonds. It’s hard to create this sort of texture in a half-season frame, but the show is doing its best to make them seem like genuine friends, rather than just sacrifices for the narrative
Upon their return to school, Togo reflects that Gin’s perpetual tardiness must have some larger explanation. She thus elects to drag Nogi over to Gin’s house and investigate
They discover Gin hard at work, taking care of errands while also managing her baby brother
Furthermore, she basically can’t help but be a natural good samaritan, helping everyone she comes across with their various daily ordeals. She embodies the spirit of heroism as it was defined by the first season’s Hero Club, not fighting giant monsters, but pitching in and making a positive difference in your local community. I imagine Yuki reminded Togo of Gin on some unconscious level
They eventually stop her for lunch, whereupon Gin cuts her chicken cutlet with scissors. I am flabbergasted
Just then, the bells begin to chime. Another challenger approaches!
Their new foe is a massive construction with four horn-like dangling appendages, and it swiftly lands on the divine tree, using its central pillar as a sort of ground-pounding device to disrupt its opponents’ movements
Togo begins to get in her own head regarding her prior failures in battle, but Gin reassuringly grabs her shoulder. Through their unity as a team, she can overcome her need to do everything perfectly herself
In spite of her dedication to the cause, it’s actually Togo who hesitates when Gin is in danger, while Nogi swiftly establishes a plan for countering their enemy. She was apparently well-chosen as the group leader
Quite like this mournful chanting melody as they commence their counterattack. Feels almost like a Nier track, in fact
“You said you could hold it back for one minute. So I knew it would work out if we had that much time.” After the battle, Nogi demonstrates another of her natural leadership abilities: her trust in the strength of her allies
And Togo recognizes this, realizing she was actually the weak link in the team
She thus at last embraces her teammates’ methods, addressing them by their nicknames as true friends
And Done
Thus our trio of heroes at last overcome their differences, and truly unite both as allies and as personal friends. A great victory for the team in terms of personal growth and combat synergy, which will of course only make it all the more tragic when they’re inevitably torn apart. It’s an odd experience, watching these halcyon early days while knowing precisely how this adventure ends; they’re a very charming trio, but I’m well aware that the more I come to appreciate their bond, the harder the hammer will fall when their story ends. Nonetheless, this was an effective episode for cruelly tricking us audience members into believing in their friendship, and I’m enjoying seeing the ways in which Togo’s personality has both changed and remained stable through her adventures. Here’s hoping we get another pleasant adventure or two before things start falling apart!
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The Vertex that appeared in the previous episode, Aquarius, was one of the types that merged into the Leo Star Cluster in episode 5 of the first season. You may remember that Fu was hit by a larger version of its waterball attack right before she bloomed. The first Vertex in this episode, Libra, was another of the ones that merged into the Leo Star Cluster. The second Vertex in this episode, Capricorn, was the type that Karin dispatched at the start of episode 3, so efficiently that we didn’t even get to see its primary abilities then, only its “soul” defence mechanism.
In these two episodes we’ve seen many ways that this generation of heroes differs from their successors: their social class, their relationship to the Taisha (Amnesty), and the way their powers work. From the first episode, we saw that their victory condition is different from the later heroes’: rather than using a “sealing ritual” to expose the Vertex’s “soul” which they then attack and destroy, they are expected to simply beat on the Vertex until it is weakened sufficiently that the wards on the bridge can expel it back to the outside world. As Sonoko said in episode 8 of the first season and Fu hinted at in episode 2, at this point the heroes are only capable of temporarily driving the Vertexes away, not destroying them completely.
This episode highlights another difference between these heroes’ powers and their successors’. Between the bandages the girls sport during their debriefing after the first battle, their bruised bodies in the onsen at their training camp, and the blood soaking into their clothes in the final scene, this episode repeatedly and painfully hammers home how much more physically vulnerable this generation of heroes is.
The creators of YuYuYu apparently chose MONACA to create the series’ soundtrack specifically because of Nier and the contribution that its music made to its atmosphere. Everyone seems to agree that “Geranium”, the track that plays at the climax of this episode’s second Vertex battle, is the single most strikingly Nier-esque BGM in the series.