Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru

Episode 6

So what does a team of magical girls do after the battle is won and their task as Heroes done? Convalesce.

Not the answer you were expecting, was it? While episodes focusing on heroes recovering after a difficult battle are not too unusual in shonen action series, they are practically unheard-of in magical girl series, either because the protagonists never get hurt that badly or because they have magical ways to heal. Not so apparently in this setting, as all of the girls have a hospital stay in the wake of their climactic battle against the seven Vertexes (Vertices?), with Mimori's being a few days longer than the rest. What's more, each of the four girls who achieved her Mankai form has come away with a physical side effect: one loses sight in one eye, another loses hearing in one ear, a third loses her voice, and the fourth loses her sense of taste. Only Karin was spared, so the loss is presumed to have been because of how much stress they put on themselves in Hero form and thus only a temporary effect, though Fu and Mimori both privately and separately have their concerns, especially after Fu hears from the Taisha that they don't know what to make of the side effects, either. Karin, meanwhile, feels out of place now that her raison d'etre is complete, but she once again underestimates the amicability of the other Hero Club members, that they might actually want her and not just her ability to fight.

So after the epic battles of the previous episode the series resumes calmer fare as it gives its girls time to recover, relax, and chill. The handicaps that the girls take on lend a faintly troubled undertone to the proceedings, as we are left to wonder if these really are just random side effects from overexertion or if there is something more meaningful to them, something which bodes ill for the future. That the side effects are unprecedented and don't seem to be going away after several days suggest the latter; after all, the series is (presumably) only half-done, and burning the remaining episodes in pure slice-of-life mode seems improbable given what has happened so far. Whatever the series is up to, though, it is not giving any obvious “tells” at this point – not even ominous musical cues! – and that makes the possibilities all the more intriguing.

The Hero Club members and their interactions are plenty good enough to sustain the series through some down time, though. The series has established such a uniformly likable (even adorable) cast that not liking any of them would take some effort. Nothing about the way they interact feels forced or calculated, and yet they mesh so well that their silly antics are both fun and heartwarming to watch; seeing Karin break down and request of her overseer that she be allowed to stay at the school is enough to give a warm fuzzy. In other words, the creators prove just as adroit at handling their characters as they do at delivering action spectacles.

A series doesn't always have to do something fancy in order to be special. It just has to do what it does really, really well. That is where Yuki Yuna Is a Hero stands now.

Rating: A-

Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.