Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18166 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Apologies for replying almost a week late on this; somehow this post slipped by me.
I won't dispute at all that there was a definite fan service aspect to the transformation scenes, but that's been commonplace for more than a decade now in magical girl and magical girl-like series which aren't exclusively aimed at younger audiences. I didn't see it as anything out of the ordinary, hence the reason why I didn't bother to discuss it in the initial review And this is definitely not SW/Vividred-level fan service, so don't go exaggerating. In both of those two the fan service aspects were vastly more glaring and pervasive, whereas here there's basically none outside of those transformation scenes. |
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ChibiKangaroo
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It's not only the transformation scenes though. I agree with you that it is not as pervasive here as it was in SW/Vividred, but it pops up elsewhere too. The two scenes that come most easily to mind are the one where the female lead stuffs her mascot character into her shirt to make it look like she has big (strange-looking) boobs, and the swimming pool scene where the girls were all wearing skin tight swimwear and the camera seemed to linger quite a bit on shiny wet buttshots. Like I said, I do understand this show isn't all about fan-service, but I was saying that that was the intended audience. That's what makes it hard for me to call it truly groundbreaking, because the audience is so narrow by design. Madoka was able to broaden its audience by limiting the pandering aspects for the vast majority of the main run. (Yea, the yuri pandering was there, but it wasn't particularly in your face.) I watched this show because I really have been hoping to see another good magical girl show. Since Madoka, the only one I've really enjoyed a lot was Day Break Illusion, but that also had its flaws. I'm certainly ready for a groundbreaking magical girl show, but I think this is just too narrow focused to be such a show. Also, thus far there doesn't seem to be much weight/stakes to the story. That was one of the awesome things with Day Break Illusion. It had a weighty side-story running parallel to the main story (something involving the main girl's personal struggle) which culminated strongly in the final episode. I don't know if this show will bring that kind of emotional weight. I will probably watch a few more episodes at least though, the mascots are very cute. |
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Nyarlathotep94
Posts: 10 |
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Because you personally don't like the series doesn't mean that it's terrible. -- I hope the series doesn't go into a dark route and instead stays lighthearted, I preferably wouldn't want to see any of them die, I really like the slice of life we've been shown so far. |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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So... what you're saying is that any and all fan-service will cause the quality of a show to degrade? Or are there any exceptions to the rule? Even if the fan-service is meant to pander to a specific audience, what's wrong about it? One can even say that all shows pander to a specific audience by the very nature that they can be segregated by genre and tropes. How can one even identify pandering? Is that just a low angle shot or is that a shot that deliberately panders to the otaku by focusing on the thighs of the female characters? Sometimes, over-analysis can make everything seem like a devious and deliberate attempt at disenfranchising a fictional character for the pleasure of others. Can one not delineate the fan-service from the rest of the show and focus on the aspects of it they like? Those who enjoy the pandering enjoy the pandering whilst everyone else can appreciate the character interactions, story, fights, etc... For me? I just sit back and enjoy it all. (^o^) |
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Selipse
Posts: 216 |
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You consider that fanservice? Are you serious? It was a joke. Jesus Christ. I know the line may be a bit blurred sometimes, but people need to start thinking about the differences between something meant to be titillating and just jokes. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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It was a joke yes, but a very strange joke that seemed bizarrely out of place. Any time I see strange jokes like that involving something sexual, especially when it involves lolis, it does come across as fan-service to me. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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As an avid fan of Madoka and hater of fanservice, I feel I should point out that there was significantly more blatant fanservice in Madoka than in this show... mainly in the OP, and in a certain scene near the end. Many of the transformations do the "brief flash of airbrushed nudity" thing, which does not occur in Yuki Yuna.
Neither of those shows live up to Vividred "standards." Go watch episode 1 of Vividred. There is a lingering closeup shot of a teenage girl's butt, which is only technically clothed, at the 25-second mark. At 56 seconds, the protagonist is introduced via skeevy hotpants buttshot #2. That's par for the course, at best, for the rest of the series. There's a little bit of fanservice in Yuki Yuna, but the worst thing I've seen so far is the boob focus when Togo transforms. The transformations are remarkably tame in general--not even any barbie-doll nudity. They showed someone's swimsuit-clad butt for less than a second... that might not even be intentional, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here. That "lol look I made my mascot pig look like boobs!" joke was, you know, a joke, in-universe; and if you think teenage girls never make lewd jokes, I can only wonder what bizarre dimension you live in. I know some Americans have a zero-tolerance policy for anything remotely sexual in anything other than porn, but come on. The fanservice isn't nearly extreme enough to be worth fussing about. I'm more than willing to put up with it given that the other 99.9% of the show is a far better and more original obviously-inspired-by-Madoka creation than Day Break Illusion was. |
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srlracing
 Posts: 87 |
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I'm so glad they tricked me into thinking they were going to kill (a) character(s) off and did not, at least not yet. I'm not a big fan of having characters I'm supposed to be fond of dying.
I am really enthralled with this show. Of particular note is the insane production values and the lovely soundtrack that seems to be a mix of Persona and Ghost in the Shell. I just hope it stays upbeat. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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I don't have a "zero-tolerance" policy for sexual content. I was merely stating what I believe to be an obvious truth - this show is not going to be a groundbreaking show that reaches to an audience outside of otaku, unlike Madoka which did accomplish that. I suppose there are other reasons for that as well - the story here is very nebulous and the character drama is relatively bland. Right now its essentially a slice-of-life type "cute girls doing cute things" show that's masquerading as a dark magical girl show. That could change, but it's not overwhelming stuff right now. In both Madoka and Day Break Illusion there were real stakes. People died gruesome deaths. The girls' lives were really on the line. The main protagonists both were suffering in significant emotional and psychological trauma for much of the series (moreso in Day Break Illusion). Like I said, there was real weight to those stories. I haven't felt that weight here as of yet. This show is relatively fun in a "cute girls with cute mascots" kind of way, and I like that, but I just don't feel like I'm entering a brave new world by watching this. The loli pandering stuff is really just a signal for me. As I said, I agree it is not as pervasive as Vividred/SW, but it is in-your-face enough when it does show up that it's just signalling further that this is being squarely targeted at otaku. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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"Anyone could die" isn't an automatic boost to quality. I don't know why everyone seems to think that these days. Yes, it creates tension, but there's a time and place for that type of tension, just like anything else.
I tend to see Day Break Illusion as the "cop show" edition of Madoka, in which most of the drama is somewhat manufactured by tossing a new temporary character or two into mortal peril each week (and reading their minds so you can hear all the angst). As for the protagonists, if I remember this right, spoiler[the only one who actually died arbitrarily came back to life in the end. So, not sure about them being in genuine danger, at all...] Yuki Yuna is an entirely different beast. It's not masquerading as a dark magical girl show, but people insist on seeing it that way because of Madoka, and it plays around with that spoiler[(by not killing anyone off, not even the surrogate Mami, among other things)]. I'm still not sure where this show is going, but it's clear by now that it's influenced by Madoka (and Evangelion, apparently) while not trying to imitate Madoka (as Day Break Illusion did), which is more than enough to keep it interesting. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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As much as I do find this show to be somewhat entertaining, I think it's ridiculous to say that it is even close to as good of a magical girl show as Day Break Illusion was. The threat here is so minimal. It almost feels like I've been watching a rosy colored video game when it comes to the battles against the Vertexes. And as for Day Break Illusion, yea only one of the main cast spoiler["died," but killing off the main cast] was never the point of the show and it wasn't necessary to create the great tension that the show had. The atmospherics of intense danger were created via other means - principally, the show opens by having the main girl essentially murder her cousin, who is like a sister to her. That intense scene traumatizes her for the entire rest of the show, as she constantly tries to understand why she killed her "sister" and whether she could have saved her. She second guesses herself again and again. She tries to find some way to atone for it. Closure escapes her. It defines her entire character arc. She is a killer, and she has to deal with it. That was powerful stuff. I've never seen a magical girl show make the lead girl into a killer before. Not only did she kill her "sis," but the magical girl authorities then spoiler[force her to keep killing innocent people who were taken over by the dark forces.] She doesn't get to fight evil bad guys or wave a magic wand like most magical girls to turn the corrupted people back to good. spoiler[She has to cut them down, and see their blood on her hands. When she refuses, the magical girl authorities throw her in prison until she keeps killing again.] That was some heavy, heavy stuff. I've never seen anything like it before. If Day Break Illusion had had some better writing with some of the side characters I think it could have been just as good as Madoka. People like yourself are just so obsessed with calling things "Madoka clones" that you can't see past that impulse. Like I said before, I agree with Theron that this show had some potential. Maybe it still does, but I haven't seen anything that wows me at this point. Togo is a unique character. However, the show has really (I think) let us down by not giving us a deep, deep look at her character and her relationship with the lead girl. That could have taken us into some really great, philosophical stuff and really showcased her character as the achievement I think Theron was looking for. Instead, though, this show has been playing it safe. We've had 6 episodes of sugary sweet cute girls being friends and winning battles against nameless, faceless monsters who don't seem to be particularly dangerous (despite their seemingly destructive capabilities). The bright spots for Yuki Yuna are (1) Togo, and (2) very cute mascots, especially the cow fairy one. That was a great design. However, aside from those two things (and again, Togo is not developed nearly as powerfully as she could be), this show is a safe, sweet moe-ish mixture of slice of life and magical girl. It's fun, but it's not taking things in a new, special direction. |
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DLH112
Posts: 115 |
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I love this show so far but one thing bothered me a bit in episode 6. Togo's supposedly deaf in her left ear (assuming completely) but doesn't act like it at all. Yuna sit's completely on her left side when visiting her and they converse without an issue.
Also, when Togo is discharged, Yuna is directly behind her (pushing her wheelchair) and she turns her deaf ear towards Yuna to listen to what she's saying. When Fu speaks toward the end it's forgiveable because she's just trying to face whose speaking. I didn't pay attention if there was anything on Fu's left side enough to be called a goof. It seems like it'd be harder to have something definitive enough to be a mistake. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Honestly, ChibiKangaroo, most of what you said boils down to "Day Break Illusion was a better show because it was darker and grittier." It certainly was darker and grittier, I'll give you that. Even more than Madoka was, in many ways. And had it used that more elegantly, then maybe it would have been better, but...
The reason it reminds me of police dramas is because the melodrama is laid on so thickly and so arbitrarily that it loses its impact. For me, it wasn't quite ridiculous enough to make the whole thing feel like a sick joke (like, say, portions of AoT), but it very often felt like drama for drama's sake, tossed in to grab your attention and create the, ah, illusion of depth. Take out the supernatural stuff--which was largely unnecessary--and the show would become "Law and Order: Japanese Teenagers Unit." It's undeniably an attempt to be like Madoka. That's not the problem. A well-done Madoka imitator would be great! The problem is that it does only a half-decent job of it, and doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Yuki Yuna is, if anything, even more of a Madoka imitator, but it does so in its own way instead of assuming that dark angst plus magical girls equals good show. It plays with expectations (including the ones you have because you're expecting Madoka-isms) and subverts conventional plotlines (series-ending battle in episode 5?), as Madoka did, except differently. This is what a copycat show should be like. Instead of frantically trying to replicate the atmosphere, it takes the foundational concepts and builds its own thing on them. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Was anyone besides me reminded of Lubbock in Akane ga Kill? Particularly with her finishing clenched-fist move. Anybody thinking this anime is intended to be marketed as a fan service anime is just nuts. Or dirty minded beyond all reason. And that includes the beach episode which was about as sexy as a half melted fudgesicle. |
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vladthetransilvanian
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The original creator of this show is Takahiro, the author of the Akame ga Kill manga. That's also the main reason why I'm worried that some of these girls ar going to die(and in a gruesome way, to boot). Last edited by vladthetransilvanian on Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
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