Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on another long walk off a short pier, as we commence the third season of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, the aptly named “Hero Chapter.” Once again, a squadron of compassionate, idealistic young girls will be thrown into relentless battle, fighting and dying so that a dispassionate divine entity can continue its war against the forces of entropy. There is no victory in this battle; the only certainty is a continuous escalation of conflict, to the point where our heroes will eventually sacrifice themselves willingly to give humanity one more day, one more hour of peace under the boughs of the Divine Tree.
Yeah, it’s a pretty brutal franchise on the whole, made all the more so because it’s so effective at illustrating the poignant bonds between its leads, and how their civic-minded decency could do so much within their own communities, if they weren’t being consigned to such an arbitrary, anonymous fate. Though it could easily come off as exploitative, its genuine celebration of all that is good about its protagonists makes it feel far more angry, angry that they are forced to live in such a world, that just like in our own, the light of human kindness can be so grossly exploited by social convention, patriotism, and religion. Battered and beaten as we are, we still work to make the load lighter for each other, still practice charity in the face of oblivion. Let’s return to the fight!