Forum - View topicHow Yuki Yuna is a Hero Challenges Madoka Magica's Legacy
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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I felt the same way, but ended up giving the 2nd season a chance when I learned spoiler[that the first half was about Tougou's previous life as a sacrifice/hero]. By necessity, it wouldn't be able to pull the same thing. And it was quite good too. One thing I particularly disliked about season 1 was the strong sense of disconnect between the audience and the actual setting since the story was singularly focused on the Hero Club to the point of not having any real side characters. The second season gave me a better idea of the world these girls occupy in a single episode then the entirety of the 1st bothered to do. |
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Razor/Edge
Posts: 607 |
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I guess this article intentionally didn't do too in depth into the currently airing sequel season because of trying to avoid spoilers for it and not knowing how things are going to be resolved.
I really feel like this season has set Yuki Yuna apart from Madoka. There is still plenty of suffering and sacrifice, but it's in a completely different way than the first season. With this season being much, MUCH less action-focus and more character-driven, I am enjoying this season even more than I did the first one. Everyone that didn't like how the first season ended really should at least the sequel season a shot. It's only 6 episodes and, without getting too into details, the ending of the first season was not all what it appeared to be. The latest episode explains what happened and it's not nearly the cop out it appeared to be at the time. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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YuYuYu is not a Madoka clone. Madoka did not invent the "dark magical girl" anime. They've existed for decades. Most western fans' exposure to these sensibilities were just with Madoka. Sure, plenty of anime that followed definitely took inspiration from and mimicked Madoka's stylings to middling results, but again, YuYuYu is not one of them.
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Yuki Yuna is... weird. I liked it, in many ways, but it has some issues that kept it from ever feeling comparable to something like Madoka.
I read somewhere that Madoka is story-centric while Yuki Yuna is character-centric. This is true in the sense that the character drama of Yuki Yuna works, and the story just sort of exists to bring about the character drama; they're not intertwined. In and of itself, the story feels almost completely arbitrary. Cruel ironic undeserved punishments are doled out arbitrarily, either by an entity we're never led to believe is evil, or just because the writers wanted it to happen. The ending spoiler[undoes all the bad stuff just as arbitrarily. Although it was, like Madoka, building up to some sort of rebirth where things would get better, it gave no adequate justification for it. Madoka straight-up told us the title character would become a god long before it happened, the magic-driven-by-despair concept explains how it was possible, and even then it didn't just fix everything with no consequences. Although, Yuki Yuna's ending doesn't fix everything, either--it fixes everything for the heroes, and does absolutely nothing about the threat of rampaging gods destroying the last remnants of humanity. Kind of par for the course, really.] The problem with Yuki Yuna isn't that it copies Madoka--after all, Madoka is heavily influenced by a number of things (Princess Tutu, Bokurano, Evangelion, Faust...). But, as they say, amateurs borrow, experts steal. Yuki Yuna doesn't steal enough. It does a good job creating its own Madoka-esque tragic characters, but pays too little attention to making the tragic circumstances logically and emotionally believable. Madoka used a self-destructive magic system as a metaphor for fighting depression; the villain is (probably) an allegory for the uncaring and manipulative nature of modern society. Yuki Yuna didn't have to do those exact things, but it would have been much better and more cohesive if it had some sort of underpinning for why the bad, and good, things happen. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Madoka was a masterpiece that made people whisper it was to unseat Evangelion for awhile. Which is didn't. It is otherwise still excellent!
YYY...is okay. With dark themes. And then the end of season 1 pulled a Mai Hime on the ending. They purport really high stakes only to completely backpeddle on it at the last moment. While I intend to delve into the extra material and season 2 once this xmas season is over, I doubt there is to be all that much new. "Make characters suffer" should not be the primary theme in the genre of hope. |
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rinrinsama
 Posts: 24 |
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come to read all animeonlies casuals post complaining about S1 end
was not disappointed. spoiler[Read KoJiKi] |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2266 |
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This is a purely personal nitpick, but I'm always bothered by people recommending things, and then never giving out the full name. How is a curious reader supposed to find these things if Kojiki is a common name for a collection of Japanese myths? Anyways, I take umbrage at the idea that YYY's first ending was permissible because of the existence of a sequel season; I certainly had no idea such a sequel was in the works when season 1 aired, so just leaving it with all the actual interesting bits of world-building unexplored was a big letdown for me. And the "We'll be back" teaser definitely didn't leave me wanting more considering how soured I was on the finale. But I can also admit that YYY just didn't jive with me, the same way Madoka just didn't jive with others on this forum. I found the characters tropey and bland, and so I never really connected with them. The one moment I did feel something, it was reset in the very next episode, which logically I feel I should let slide, because both Madoka and YYY feature a kind of deus ex machina in their finales, but YYY's execution just left me cold. I am, however, curious enough to eventually watch the entirety of season 2 to see if I feel any warmer to it. TLDR; YYY never clicked with me on a character level, and I never felt like the girls earned their happy ending so much as it was just sort of given to them. :/ |
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Alexandre Martins
Posts: 14 |
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My thoughts exactly. The ending of the first season is not THE ENDING. It 's explained in the second season, and not as a good thing (typical YuYuYu). The major problem is the show relies on fans going after all the supplemental material (that's the Wakaba and Washi Light Novels, the visuals novels, the extra anime, etc. etc. etc., some of which haven't even been translated into English - not that the Japanese care). Lots of things that seem cop outs (like the ending of S1) or make no sense are actually detailed either in the supplemental material or explained in the currently-airing season... which will require yet another season if the story is ever to get any sort of closure. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3018 |
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Wow, thanks for clarifying things, I'll steer clear of this one from now on! |
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Alexandre Martins
Posts: 14 |
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You're welcome. But don't, it's a good show. You can enjoy it without the supplemental material (I haven't touched them yet, though I've downloaded everything fans have translated - it's hard to buy them here in Brazil), but yes, things will be left handing to dry waiting for a new season or the ending of the current one will be very rushed, which would be terrible and out of character! Ps.: I'm one of those that cries every time something bad happens to the girls on the show, however, so don't rely on my opinion alone for the show's quality. 
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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I felt that Madoka was trying too hard to be edgy and grimdark: hey, look at these cute girls. Oh, they can do magic! Isn't that cool! And they're so cute! Oh, and oops, the Universe is designed to operate in such a way as to bring unavoidable horror and suffering to these CUTE GIRLS!
Can't say I liked it much. Some interesting visuals, but overall I have no intention of watching it again. But that's still more than I can say for YuYuYu. Not only will I not watch it again, I didn't even get past the 3rd or 4th episode. It was just so... bland. The characters were band. The setting was bland. The plot was bland. Even though I tried to like it, I failed to do so. The girls were "heroes" of a saccharine world of a kind I loathe. And if we're talking about dark magic girl shows, I liked the Magic Girl Rising Project *far* more than either Madoka or YuYuYu. It may not have been a *great* show, but it did seem to have an internal consistency and the Universe didn't seem set up solely to make girls suffer. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18353 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Having seen MGRP through to its end, I'm amazed that anyone can actually say that about it. There is not an ounce less of "setting designed to make the magical girls suffer" in MGRP than there is in either Madoka Magica or Yuki Yuna. The rest of your statement I won't comment on, as I recognize it as a pure difference in personal opinion. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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The MGRP itself was spoiler[the result of one person and one familiar going off the rails and doing things their own way.] The system itself was not required to be that way, and wasn't that way until the spoiler part happened. When I said "setting designed to make the magic girls suffer" I was mainly talking about the Universe itself, in that setting, demanding that, not simply spoiler[one psychopathic woman and an entirely amoral magical familiar]. it might seem like splitting hairs where it's the story's plot that Girl's Suffer as opposed to the conditions of the created Universe that requires them to do so, but it doesn't seem like splitting hairs to me. |
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rinrinsama
Posts: 24 |
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aside that my post had only a shitpost purpose, now talking seriuosly, there are a few points to remark: the first is of course, the multimedia franchise stuff, people can have their own taste and is free to say what didn't like, but trying to make an objective opinion or review without the complement material is like give a opinion of a movie just watching 5 minutes or the trailer, a good reviewber must finish the show/book/movie/video game to give an objective opinion actually, I didn't become a yuyuyu fan with anime, the first time I didn't finish the first episode, but whe I saw spoilers from the LN, that hooked me and I rushed anime and novels, same happens with hack//sign, by itself is not a big thing, but playing the ps2 games and others materials is how someone can taste all the juice of the story. its pretty sad how westerns are not into multimedia franchices, they are missing a lot of things the second point is about japanese culture, YUYUYU can't be fully understand without knowing some basic Shinto mitology, even more, someone who dont know anything of shinto probably dont even know who are the enemies in YUYUYU, thats doesnt mean that you must know all of japanese culture to enjoy anime, actually is the other way, yuyuyu makes me get interest of reading about shinto and other stuff. the last thing is about comparing madoka/yuyuyu and others dark mahou shoujos shows, yuyuyu fans who dismiss what madoka is are stupids, people who thinks that madoka is the opus magnum and others shows are shit are the same way idiots too. same way goes with MGRP. people who can't difference between 2 or more shows of the same genre dont have enought IQ to understand art, those who talk about being a cheap copy or Plagiarism just dont know a shit about art this, of course. is different from having an opinion or taste about a show |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5909 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I liked Yuki Yuna is a Hero, but the ending ruined it. It turned the characters we loved into machines or Vulcans. Season two may retcon or try to correct what went wrong at the end of season one, but that still won't erase the sour taste season one gave.
I don't agree the show is a clone of Madoka Magica, and I did enjoy it until the final episode. For me the end of the show's message was that of LOVE conquers all, including murder and genocide. I kinda of disagree with that extreme message. Love is strong and all, but there are somethings beyond the pale that shouldn't be covered by that. |
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