A Brief Look at the World Building of Yuki Yuna is a Hero

I was trying to come up with a good intro to this one that would give a little more incite to my personality and tastes but I can’t think of anything witty or smooth enough.  Instead I’ll just outright say it:  The world and character building in Yuki Yuna is a Hero is absolutely phenomenal and I want to talk about how specifically the first season does it so well.

Spoilers ahead.



Unfortunately, I won’t be able to talk about my favorite character, Karin, as much as I’d like due to time problems and will be primarily focusing on the first two episodes.

The beautiful thing about this story is that at no point does anyone directly say anything about the world they live in, save for when Fu or Karin give information that only they’re privy to.  This forces us to draw our own conclusions as the staff shows us very important things in a nonchalant way.  At no point are we explicitly told what Shinju-sama nor The Taisha are, but we understand that Shinju-sama is some form of divine being and that The Taisha are in complete control of the country.

They accomplish this very quickly during the end of class in the first episode when Yuna is leading the class closing.  Most of us that know the standard rise, bow, dismissed formula of the Japanese school system quickly caught on to the extra step, “And now to the Shinju-sama” when they turn to the window and bow, which was proceeded by a close-up shot, emphasizing the small altar, presumably for the Shinju-sama hung at the front of the classroom. It is later confirmed that altar was to Shinju-sama in the same episode when the girls wind up in the parallel dimension, the jukai, and see Shinju-sama on the horizon.  I would also be willing to bet that the schools are all built so the classrooms are facing Shinju-sama, though this is never confirmed at any point in the series.  However, it is a testament to the staff that this theory is worth speculating about because it feels completely within the realm of possibility.  The only thing we don’t know about this god is how it came to be and why it is worshipped so.  Through some well-placed lectures from their teacher, we find that Shinju-sama cut Japan off from the rest of the dying world and made Japan a flourishing paradise within its barrier.

So, at this point we’ve been shown that the Shinju-sama is the god of this new form of Japan, which we know it is Japan thanks to our loveable dork, Togo, and that the Taisha is the people in charge of the religion.  The reverence that people give the Taisha are all we need to confirm that they have control over everything that’s going on.  The teacher mentions that the Hero Club is working for the Taisha and the class just accepts it.  Karin is transferred in under the orders of the Taisha and again, everyone simply accepts it.  We have a firm understanding of the hierarchy without any explicit exposition telling us this, and we also understand that the Taisha is willing to put young girls out to fight giant space kaiju, making it more believable when we find out later that the girls are up against an impossible, never-ending task.  A never-ending task that slowly takes away pieces of the girls until completely in a vegetative state, at which point the Taisha simply replaces them with the next generation.

One of the important tenets to world and character building is to create a world or character that acts in a way that is believable to the situation and what has already been defined about them.  That’s why we aren’t surprised that the Taisha has these dark secrets buried.  We are surprised to find out the truth, but not at the cruelty they hold nor at how the Taisha reach cult status when they begin to worship the girls who have reached the previously mentioned vegetative state.  This is also why Karin using her mankai over, and over, and over, and over again at the end is so heart breaking.  Because we’ve had enough time with this great, twin-tailed tsundere to completely believe that this was something that lined up entirely with her morals and beliefs.

I’ve spent this entire time discussing the world building of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, now I’m going to talk about something that’s arguably even more important than how they tell us about the governing body:  the building of the characters.

Immediately we are given a solid idea of each personality to each of the girls, Itsuki, Fu, Togo and Yuna from the puppet show.  We see how nervous yet resourceful Itsuki is; we see how quick thinking and patriotic Togo is; we see how Fu can be a good leader while also getting far into things; we see how overly excited and bumbling Yuna is when she knocks over the stage.  We know immediately how good natured these girls are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how well they get along and function as a group.  This all lays the ground work for how they will function in a battle scenario.

Itsuki is portrayed most closely as the lost puppy.  At the core of her character, she’s the simplest, which is by no means a bad thing.  Oftentimes the most simple and easily explained is the best solution.  She’s a moe imouto who adores her older sister and acts as the grounding force to that sister.  As the show progresses and she grows and develops more of her own personality, she definitely becomes much more interesting.  We get a good idea of the sisters’ relationship while they’re walking home together after class and Fuu receives the message from the Taisha stating all the girls in the club qualify for something.  Up until this point, we’ve seen Fu as only a goofball but then she suddenly gets serious and asks what Itsuki would do if she had a secret.  Downcast, she asks what Itsuki would do if she had to tell her army to keep fighting despite no reinforcements coming.  To which Itsuki tells her that she would fight for her sister no matter what, since she’s her only family.  Several birds with a single exchange.  Now we know how heavy this currently unknown thing is weighing on Fu, we know Fu and Itsuki’s parents are out of the picture, and we know how devoted to Fu Itsuki is.

Togo gets far more complex in that she’s portrayed as a very capable, quick witted girl but with some clear complexes regarding her paralyzed legs and amnesia.  During the puppet show we get a fun, really fast shot of a super close up on her eyes to emphasize how quickly she came up with the idea to get the children to cheer for the hero.  It’s also a subtle hint to her undying love for her nation, which is not so subtly shown after the show is over and she’s waving small flags of the rising sun.  However, she seems to be melancholic during the first episode.  It’s reasonable to assume the issues stem from her awareness that she’s a burden on Yuna, despite how Yuna clearly doesn’t mind in the slightest.  The point where it shows just how acutely aware of this is in the jukai.  The first thing she does is look at her legs, which take up the lower third of the screen while the rest of the space is taken up by the unnatural, wheelchair inaccessible terrain.  Following that Togo begs Yuna to leave her, as there’s no way that Yuna can defend her.

Fortunately for all involved, audience included, Yuna won’t have any of that.  To gloss over what we know about her at this point, she’s the head strong girl that only ever sees the good in people.  Upon entering the jukai, she’s utterly terrified.  Yuna sees the way Togo is looking at her legs, and Yuna feigns confidence.  We see Yuna’s shaking fist and Togo in the background as Yuna tries to reassure her dear friend.

The battle begins and eventually Togo begins to beg Yuna to run away.  Yuna, though, isn’t the type of person to simply run and leave her friends in need behind.  She sees how hard Fu and Itsuki are struggling and is very aware that something awful could happen to Togo here.  We get a shot replicating the previous one with Yuna’s shaking fist in the foreground and Togo in the background, except this time Yuna clenches her fist and it’s solid as a rock, no shaking.  The feigned confidence is gone, replaced with a truly resolute tone.  What follows that is probably the best magical girl transformation sequence in the history of ever.

I’m going ahead and cutting it off right there.  There’s so much more I could go into for how the narrative sets up themes with camera work (such as focusing on important things like the altars, the club commandments, the phones, etc), I could go more in depth with each of the characters, in particular my favorite, Karin, but for now I think I’ll save that for another entry down the line.

Thank you for reading!  Yuki Yuna is a Hero is an absolutely stand out show, definitely my second favorite magical girl anime and one I’ll definitely return to later since there’s just so much.  I’m considering a couple options for the next post, leaning very heavily on one about exposition and info dumps.  The Yorimoi (A Place Further than the Universe) one I mentioned is still a possibility, but it’s doubtful so I’ll stop mentioning it for the time being.  Other ideas are on Made in Abyss, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Princess Principal.