Thinking About This Season For A LONG Time

I am not lying when I say that. I watched the Great Mankai chapter at the beginning of the year and I really don’t know. I tried thinking about how to approach. Why? It is such a strange little season created out of new content and then combined with the Hero Chapter from season 2. How do you talk about that easily? You can’t. The Great Mankai is such a chapter that splits up literally everything in ways that do and do not make sense. It is wonderful and yet really annoying at the same time. Yeah, one of those things.

The most amusing fact being the Great Mankai chapter is how it splits the fanbase. I don’t mean that in a controversial way, though it’s possible. I mean that there are people who have watched the Great Mankai chapter and those who haven’t. If a person hasn’t, then they don’t know definitive things about the universe of Yuki Yuna with truths that were only hinted at and never confirmed. The Great Mankai chapter is literally an Earth shattering event, a finale, a prequel, and an ending to everything. People who haven’t seen it only see this straightforward narrative when the truth is anything but. Fun times for sure.

Starting Normally….Then…

With a bit of energy like the Washio Sumi chapter in that it’s like a prequel story. It is a little bit of Karin’s backstory, but not from her side. There were tryouts for Karin’s position, but we are seeing it from a lot of magical girls fighting each other for the role. A lot of pressure as we see our focus character, Mebuki Kusunoki, being the Vegeta to Karin. As in, she lost, but she gave Karin a run for her money. It was time for Mebuki to go home for a while. Except two years later, she is the leader of a special background called the sentinels. A group of scouts that do the leadership’s dirty work without any recognition at all.

There was a small bit of slice of life action before this with the Hero Club doing ridiculous things and stunts like forming a band or playing paint ball, but then it gets fully ridiculous later on to what I mentioned before. It really is a season that is all over the place.

 Then the anime gets a little strange by showing the past of magical girls. All of which took place from when the hero club: Karin, Yuki, Karin, Sonoko, Wakaba, Fuu, and Itsuki. All of them as they just sit down and hear the flashback of girls from the past from hundreds or maybe thousands of years ago.. A past that looks strangely like the present and one of our main characters is another Yuuna. We see the fall of the heroes as they start dying and yet try to maintain hope. A hope that is only held together by the heroes as the world turns against them for failing. All they have is the press on as hard as they can and man, it hurts.

Combining Everything Together

After all that, everything is combined in the ending. Yeah, it’s the end of The Hero Chapter, but the sentinels are involved. Karin gets focused on a bit more, we see Yuna talk to the other Yuna about the current curse, but generally it’s all the same with a slightly different focus. A lot more focus on the generations and Yuna accepting her face and not letting anyone take the pain. This time because she wouldn’t allow the other Yuna take the burden either. So that all connects the hero punch that is the same punch so it lacks something particularly special compared to what we saw. Just a repeat of all of it too. Couldn’t change anything I guess.

The difference for the show this time? There is an actual ending. It isn’t left ambiguous like what the hero chapter did. It truly reveals what the world is like and the world that was being held back by the system that was put into place. Also, it’s a pretty happy ending too. Mostly. Surprise right? Yeah, especially for Yuki Yuna that wouldn’t let people go until now. What a fascinating thing to do. Also it is great to see all the characters maybe not get what they want in the end, but find a balance and just enjoy each other’s company like usual. The hero club is forever.

The Problem of Doing Too Much At Once

I really wish for a lot of things when it comes to this particular anime. That it could have been combined with The Hero Chapter into one piece. Or that everything could have been given a lot more time to go this route other than just four episodes for each arc. Otherwise, the whole thing is just a huge mess even if everything is executed so well. I mean, the visuals of Great Mankai were on point. This was produced by a production staff that loved the Yuki Yuna material and had the time and attention to make it all look amazing. Plus solid direction, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that it’s just so weird.

Once again, there is so much going on in so many directions that it’s hard for me to choose what to say about this show. That is why my post is short. Just some plot summaries and then “WTF is this” because honestly, WTF was that? I am glad that everyone had their happy ending after all the work and sacrifices. I also didn’t mind watching this show either because that bit of twist of mysteries and other ideas being thrown into this were very good on their own. So yeah, this is ok on my scale. Not a waste of time, but a fascinating watch for perhaps not the right reasons.