Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m hearing the rumble of storm clouds on the horizon, as the peaceful days of the Hero Club’s summer vacation are swiftly coming to an end. In spite of having defeated the twelve vertexes and sustained a variety of lingering injuries in the process, Yuna and her friends are being called to battle once more, facing both an uncertain threat and an increasingly suspicious alleged benefactor. Though their tour of duty was explicitly framed as a clear and finite quest, it seems a hero’s duties are never truly ended – or at least, that our Taisha is far less certain of this venture’s scope than Fuu and the others expected.
This is all great fun for me, of course, as wandering into uncertain structural territory means Yuki Yuna’s thematic intent is now certain to reveal itself. For the first half of this season, Yuki Yuna presented a reasonably executed but generally familiar narrative, focusing on the magical girl genre’s common themes of finding community and developing self-confidence through adolescence. However, the show was always seasoned with an uncommon dash of fatalism – a quiet implication that its heroes were less “destined warriors” than “conscripted soldiers,” forced into mortal peril yet considered expendable by their distant overseers. Fuu’s bargain to protect her family, Karin’s maniacal focus on combat, Tougou’s fear of being called a “traitor” – all of these lingering peculiarities seem to at last be resolving themselves, and I’m eager to see where the show ultimately lands. Let’s get to it!