The Infinite Zenith

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In Which The Merits of YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World’s Visual Novel Are Introduced- Part I of A Collaborative Discussion with Dewbond

5 Comments Posted by infinitezenith on October 20, 2020

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” –Napoleon Bonaparte

It’s actually quite surprising that I finished YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World‘s anime adaptation only a few weeks ago – owing to how chaotic things have been, it’s felt like a year instead. Curiously enough, YU-NO‘s anime adaptation did, in fact, wrap up a year earlier: I’d been alerted to the series’ presence thanks to the tightly-knit community that I’m a part of, and had been curious to pick YU-NO up. With a bit of encouragement after my last collaborative post with Dewbond of Shallow Dives in Anime, I pushed my way into the series and came out the other side wondering, why on earth had I not watched this last year? YU-NO is, after all, an elegantly designed amalgamation of science-fiction, mystery and fantasy. The series delves into science, history and romance and has something for everyone. YU-NO was so influential that it’s easy to see its impact on visual novels that came after it, and even now, the sheer boldness of the work is impressive. However, my month-long journey to reach the ending turns out to be only the beginning: the anime, after all, is condensing out about fifty hours’ worth of narrative into ten hours. Inevitably, that means some elements in the story are lost should one take the all-anime route. Fortunately, Dewbond is on station to lend an extra set of eyes: we link up for our latest collaboration that will see what precisely happens in the visual novel, how those events differ or augment the anime adaptation, and in the end, what folks stand to gain by stepping into the visual novel, which received a shiny new remaster in 2017 the same way 2004’s Halo 2 received a beautiful remaster in the form of Halo 2 Anniversary in 2014, bringing new visuals to the table while retaining gameplay and mechanics that have stood well against the test of time.

The first order of business is to welcome Dewbond back for this collaboration, which I believe is our third of the year! Before continuing, it’s time for a bit of a shameless plug; I’ve decided to spin up a new category in the sidebar so these are easier to find, and I will remark to readers that I am open for collaborative projects of this nature. They’re immensely fun and informative, as well as allow folks to see new perspectives that have certainly helped me to appreciate anime in new and different ways. YU-NO is a particularly vast series, and while I got my feet wet with the anime adaptation, the visual novel itself is said to be, like CLANNAD, where the real party lies. I’ve heard it’s a deep and detailed experience, so with Dewbond here, we can explore the most noteworthy facets of the visual novel to our heart’s content this time around!

Thanks for having me back here again Zen. If readers have visited my blog, they’ll know that I’ve carried a torch for YU-NO for a long time. I believe it to be a masterpiece, a part of Visual Novel history that has touched ever subsequent work ever since. We don’t have Steins;Gate, Higurashi, or even Fate/Stay Night if YU-NO didn’t set the stage first. The visual novel pioneered many of the things we take for granted now, such as multiple endings and different routes.

The anime adaptation, which came out last year, is on reflection, a good adaptation, but upon reading the VN, which I did almost the moment the anime was done, I found that some things were done better, and some things were done worse. I am sure we will discuss these things as we go through the entire story, and there is plenty to get through. Where shall we start?

It makes sense to start at the beginning: I’m positive that there’s a story behind how you came to know of YU-NO. To start things off, I’d actually been interested in checking the series out since a fellow member of our community posted more ecchi-driven aspects of YU-NO when the anime was airing last year, and I subsequently wanted to see the context behind those moments. However, my tendency to procrastinate meant that I didn’t get around to it until you encouraged me to pick it up. Your enthusiasm was a major motivator, and I’m now superbly glad to have finished the adaptation. It’s clear that YU-NO is a game-changer of sorts for the visual novel medium, but before we continue, I’m curious to know of how you came across YU-NO; how did you get your foot in the door for this work?

It’s not really that interesting. I was looking at the anime for that season and for some reason that poster pulled me in. It was honestly just a random chance, but I’ll tell you, I am so glad it happened. Once I started that show, it never let me go, and honestly it still hasn’t. I devoured the VN over a couple weeks, and made the anime something I watched moment it came out.

You often don’t get an anime series that pulls you in as much as that, but YU-NO was one of them, and it happened totally by chance.

Chance is how we often find some of our favourite series: we go in without any knowledge ahead of time, and then are pleasantly surprised at how things progress. YU-NO is, quite bluntly, full of surprises, and coming in, aside from Kodai’s foreword on what constitues time and history, I had little idea of what was going to unfold in the series. Every revelation, every discovery became a surprise, and this continued building up as the series went on. With this being said, YU-NO does start out a bit more slowly, and I found that for someone new to the work, this is to YU-NO‘s advantage. Things open out with Ayumi’s arc, and you’ve previously remarked that Ayumi was your favourite of the stories: I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Ayumi’s arc is absolutely my favorite. When I was watching the anime, the moment the series hooked me in for real, was the revelation of her suicide. It just completely threw me back in my chair and made me go “Oh I am IN!” Further still, when I read it in the VN, I was hopelessly pulled into her story and the relationship with Takuya.

Ayumi is of course, the step-mom, and we should preface this by saying that YU-NO doesn’t shy away from sexy, taboo, or sexy taboo stories. Takuya Arima, our nominal lead comes from an era where Visual Novels were mostly seen as eroge, and despite the great science fiction story, YU-NO is also an eroge. That means where is sex and plenty of it.

Ayumi’s story is frankly, the strongest front to back of all the routes. The sexual tension between the two leads, the clear attraction Takuya has to Ayumi, and vice versa is clear from all the quiet moments they share. Ayumi herself comes off as a young woman who was suddenly and cruelly robbed of her future, of the intimacy and marital bliss she clearly craved. Coupled with being made out to be the scapegoat for the public’s disapproval with GeoTechnics, it pushes her to the edges of despair. Which only makes it easy for Totoyomi, the sleezeball that he is, to make his move.

A move again, I found extremely effective in the anime, which shows far more than the VN actually does. There is a clear indication that the two had sex, where it is just implied in the VN. That is one of the few things I will say the anime did better. On the other hand though, Ayumi and Takuya surrendering to their passions is actually shown in the VN, and intimacy displayed between them is damn effective, even when they fade to black.

I could gush about this forever, but what did you think Zen?

It sounds like I missed out on the raw emotional piece between Takuya and Ayumi, then: YU-NO‘s visual novel goes in a direction that likely would’ve shown how Takuya is able to sense what’s going on around him and act in the best manner to help someone out. It just so happens that bedding someone is the solution that works here, and there is a level of trust that the act implies. Since the anime only shows Takuya and Ayumi talking out their problems, a part of the original YU-NO story becomes lost in the process; showing that Takuya and Ayumi do go physical means showing a central piece of his character earlier on, easing the visual novel’s players into how he does things.

The anime absolutely held my attention by the time the stresses from Ayumi’s work began taking its toll on her: it really emphasised what she and Takuya were up against when it came to Mount Sankaku and the GeoTech project surrounding the Psychite. However, even before Ayumi’s first shown committing suicide, I was intrigued with Takuya’s use of the Reflector Device to save Ayumi from the shady men accosting her in the warehouse. While Takuya is physically outmatched by the two hooligans, he begins exploring the Reflector Device’s powers here to try and affect a different outcome. This segues nicely into his use of the device in his efforts to save Ayumi – seeing the different ways she commits suicide ended up being simultaneously heart-breaking, but Takuya’s attendant efforts in trying to save her were also encouraging. It feels like the latter is the anime’s way of expressing the extent to which Takuya cares about Ayumi, and in the absence of getting it on, I found that it looks to have succeeded in this regard.

The other aspect about Ayumi’s arc I enjoyed was the initial grounding of Mount Sankaku and its mysteries in a more corporate, scientific basis. The unusual rock formations and a corporation’s interest in it really sets up the feeling that Mount Sankaku is more than it appears, and to have Ayumi so closely related to the project means that Takuya’s entanglement becomes far more plausible than if he were only tangentially connected. On its own, Ayumi’s arc serves as a solid opener, setting the stage for the series. However, in YU-NO‘s anime, time constraints meant that Kaori was present to a much larger extent during Ayumi’s arc. I found her to be a bit mysterious, but once her working relationship with Toyotomi was revealed, I rather enjoyed how Takuya was able to turn the tables and use that knowledge to save Ayumi. The visual novel has its own arc for Kaori: where does it diverge from the anime, and what are folks missing from the visual novel here?

I’ll note that Takuya’s repeated attempts to save Ayumi, ending with a different way of death each time is anime only, but it is also really effective. The scene of her with the bag on her head, her nails broken was fucking unsettling. The anime I think did better in delivering the raw shock value of Ayumi’s bad ending, but really missed out by removing much of the underlying sexual tension.

The anime version of the Kaori arc and the VN arc are different. Mostly in the sense that Kaori’s arc is stapled onto Ayumi’s in an attempt (that it didn’t need) to give the arc more weight. In the visual novel, it is wholly its own story, and more linked to Kanna’s overall plot than Ayumi’s. I’ll get into that later. You would be remiss to even see Kaori as a character if you didn’t read the VN.

In terms of the Visual Novel though, Kaori’s arc, while the weakest in my opinion (thought not my least favorite), is still compelling. Even among the series many mysterious women, Kaori is the most mysterious of them all. Is she a newscaster? A corporate spy? A two-timing bitch? Or a girl with a heart of gold? Even after all I’ve read and watched, I can’t really nail down who exactly Kaori is, and that makes her so intriguing. Her role in Ayumi’s good ending removes much of her sinister ways, and a lot of what you see in the anime is actually the ending of her own route.

So the visual novel has a more Yosuga no Sora quality to it! That alone is a compelling justification to look into things, although I fully appreciate that the visual novel’s main draw is that it has so much more space to flesh things out. Kaori looks like one of those examples where the constraints in the anime might’ve been a disadvantage. In the anime, I found Kaori to be a secondary character: the adaptation presented her as someone secondary to things, and nowhere was this more apparent than when Takuya dismisses her advances in the hotel room; his mind was clearly on the intel that she had, which was key to saving Ayumi.

I appreciate that YU-NO‘s anime adaptation was trying to condense everything down so it’d fit neatly into twenty-six episodes – the story did flow reasonably well from what I recall, although Kaori definitely did come across as a rogue element. On some occasions, she was an ally, knocking Toyotomi out as he tried to escape, while in others, she was an unknown actor conspiring with Toyotomi to sell out GeoTech’s (and Ayumi’s) secrets. I think that as far as a supporting character goes within the context of the anime, Kaori was someone who could be said to represent the stochastic nature of the different timelines; depending on which universe Takuya is in, the same people can be friends or enemies, which forces Takuya to be careful about how he goes about his next move. Beyond this, it looks like a journey into the visual novel would definitely be a necessity to flesh out her role in YU-NO. I am guessing, however, that in the visual novel, Takuya also has a chance to get physical with Kaori.

They do get physical in the VN, twice I believe. One in Ayumi’s bad ending (he seeks her comfort after Ayumi rejects him) and once in her own route. She is absolutely one of the lesser characters in terms of importance, but her role is enjoyable, and like I said, she is a woman of mystery in a series full of them.

It is what I like about the multiple story routes of YU-NO, each of them are connected, but they are all also wholly unique, and deal with different ideas, feelings and struggles. Ayumi’s is different from Kaori’s, who is different from Kanna’s, who is different from Mio and Mitsuki. But before we talk about any else, I think it is important we take a minute to discuss our lead of the series. Takuya. What is your take on him Zen, especially in this first half?

Takuya’s biggest strength in the first half of YU-NO is his tenacity, which firmly establishes his character as someone who very much knows what his goals are. Takuya’s use of the Reflector Device speaks volumes to the lengths to which he will go to set things right, and how strong his conviction once he sets his mind to something. For newcomers who are uncertain of what will unfold in YU-NO, then, this serves to create confidence in Takuya – while he might be experimenting and trying to work out some sort of global optima in some timelines, the knowledge gained, even in failure, leaves him better prepared to handle what’s coming. It’s reassuring to have a character take charge of things and do what they can, even when the nature of his situation is unknown; the Reflector Device is a literal game-changer for Takuya and his characterisation. In any other series, I would count him as impulsive, but being assured a safety net of sorts allows Takuya to explore more freely.

The other facet of Takuya’s character I particularly enjoyed is how lecherous he is: throughout the anime, he makes no effort to conceal his interest in women, especially the thought of pursuing a physical relationship with them. Given what you’ve said about the visual novel, Dewbond, I believe that Takuya’s animated incarnation acts this way for two reasons; firstly, it is to remind viewers of the fact that Takuya does in fact bed many of the female characters, and second, to create light-hearted humour in a series brimming with mystery. While Takuya begins pursing the truth behind Mount Senkaku, this world begins unravelling around him as conspiracies make themselves known to the viewers. Having humour punctuate these otherwise serious moments really helped me to take a step back and re-examine recent events. However, this is for the anime: how does Takuya differ in the visual novels?

Takuya’s perverted nature is played on more in the anime than the visual novel. I think this is because since the anime pulled out all of the sex scenes, they had to compensate some way. They are still present, but the fact that Takuya does end up sleeping with almost every girl helps balances it out.

And that I think is something very important to his character. In both the VN and the Anime, it is clear that Takuya is not a virgin, and that does wonders to ground his character. Instead of a teenager desperate to stick it in something, Takuya is calm, mature, and playful. He doesn’t have anything to prove (in that regard), and is able let the plot carry him where it needs to go. Watching both versions, I saw Takuya as a man who felt at peace with himself, even when he is thrown through the grinder of the parallel worlds. I always thought he was in control of his emotions, as much as he could be, and his quippy nature and laid back attitude really help set him apart from other harem leads.

That said though, this is a VN from the early 90s. Takuya isn’t going to win any awards for most in depth character. But YU-NO is able to make him extremely compelling and likeable when the risk of turning into a sleazebag was very possible. Again I credit the story for having him have had sex before everything started. Which I think is a good segue into our next route, and another of my favorites. Zen, what do you think of the Mitsuki/Eriko route?

I enjoyed the Mitsuki and Eriko routes immensely, because they really established what Takuya was squaring off against. For starters, since Mitsuki and Takuya had already slept together, it indicates that the two have a strong bond and trust one another; to see Mitsuki unexpectedly participate in actions that work against Takuya indicated that something was off. It was here that it became apparent: Takuya is entangled in something of an unimaginable scale, facing off against a foe of immense power. Early on, I dismissed Kōzō Ryūzoji’s actions: he did draw a pistol on Takuya, but I reasoned that it must’ve been one of many timelines, so whether or not that was indeed what the “real” Kōzō would do could still be explored. By the time Kōzō puts Mitsuki under hypnosis and has her attempt to relieve Takuya of the Reflector Device, YU-NO indicated to viewers that there are far greater forces at work in the world.

This is where Eriko’s story comes in: once her backstory is revealed, and her position as an inter-dimensional law enforcement officer is shown, the pieces begin falling into place. Kōzō was actually an immortal, inter-dimensional being of sorts, and after causing the death of Eriko’s lover, she’d vowed to bring this being to justice, whatever it took. Looks are definitely deceiving, and Takuya’s seemingly eccentric teacher suddenly becomes a key player in the situation that Takuya is now involved with. The gap between Eriko forcing herself into a small locker and exciting Takuya while trying to remain hidden from Mitsuki, and Eriko explaining her story is immense – I was surprised at first, but given the unusual research GeoTech had been doing, and the powers conferred by the Reflector Device, in retrospect, it was not unreasonable for YU-NO to step in this direction. The anime arcs definitely succeed in raising the stakes: Dewbond, I’m going to turn things over to you for the parallels and differences between the anime, and the visual novel.

The Mitsuki route is probably my second favorite of the VN routes. Unlike Ayumi’s personal struggles, or Kaori’s mysteriousness nature, Mitsuki’s is more about the greater plot itself. We learn a little bit about Ryuzoji, and realize that he isn’t of this world, or this reality, and we see that Mitsuki is a woman doomed to her fate. No matter what happens, no matter what Takuya does, the woman is fated to die. The VN makes this a bit more powerful, mostly because since the Anime moves at such a faster pace, it can make Mitsuki look like a loony tunes villain sometimes. In the VN, after you spend at least 6-8 hours per route, you almost forget that Mitsuki is doomed to her fate.

I’d also say that Mitsuki’s relationship with Takuya is one of the series best, and the fact that they were lovers before, like I said previously, really helps ground Takuya. Mitsuki clearly is trying to put on a brave front, but deep down she’s torn apart that she’s lost Takuya, and clearly deeply in love with him. The VN has them making love in the forest, and the tender moment afterwards shows that there is still a high degree of affection between them. This only makes Mitsuki’s fall into insanity even more tragic, something we see further in Mio’s route.

As for Eriko, she remains the one girl, both in the VN and Anime who actually doesn’t sleep with Takuya, though the VN does expand on their locker room moment with more than a little petting. Eriko herself really takes the role of mentor to Takuya, shepherding him along, and trying to keep him on the right path. One of the biggest changes from the VN is that her history with her lover is vastly expanded. None of that stuff about the future is shown at all, just implied heavily. I thought it was an ok addition, and it did help me understand Eriko as I moved into the VN, but honestly the story doesn’t really need it.

Still, Eriko is one of the series better characters. Tough and resourceful, but also playful and just a little bit adorkable. She and Takuya have a good master/mentor relationship, and she is probably one of the only girls who can go toe to toe with Takuya’s quips and perverted nature. Sexy as all hell too, and the VN lets her strut herself, with plenty of panty shots, every chance it gets. I just wish she didn’t have to share a route with Mitsuki.

With your remarks on Eriko, I’m beginning to be swayed to check out the visual novel myself! I agree that the extended length seen in the visual novel works in Mitsuki’s favour: giving her a bit more exposition would’ve augmented the emotional impact of her ultimate fate, especially with the knowledge of having seen just how close she and Takuya were. On the topic of Mio, I’ve alluded to seeing fanservice screenshots of her as being one of the main reasons why I started YU-NO to begin with. Her arc, I found, was a bit of a precursor to Mitsuki’s in the anime, introducing the tapestry that illustrate Mount Sankaku as housing an ancient weapon of sorts, hinting at Kōzō’s mysterious background with his ability to hypnotise others, and also showing what sort of relationship Takuya had with Mitsuki, given the latter’s strong reaction to Takuya growing closer to Mio. However, I recall that you found Mio’s relationship with Takuya to be weaker, and would be curious to learn more about this.

Mio is my least favorite of the heroines for sure. While she has some of the best chemistry with Takuya in terms of friendly banter and quips, it is only really that: friendship. While Mio has a clear interest in Takuya, him not being the virgin sort of changes their relationship. Takuya really doesn’t pine after her, and instead seems almost completely at peace with just being friends. Sure, the VN doesn’t go that way, but I always felt that Takuya decides to bed Mio almost out of pity, as if giving her what SHE wants, instead of what he wants.

Takuya just comes off as a guy with nothing to really prove anymore, and because he’s had sex, he doesn’t view Mio as the object of affection he does with the other characters, even when he isn’t a virgin. It makes Mio come off as immature and like a kid. You can see that contrasted with how Yuki behaves, ratting out Mio and getting all clingy to her. That would have been Takuya had he not gotten laid.

I have a bit more to say on Mio herself, but I want your take on her relationship to Takuya. What did you think?

As far as characterisation goes within the anime, Mio fills the role of the classic tsundere, which creates the most familiar back-and-forth between herself and Takuya. It’s clear that beneath her constant chastising him for his slights, Mio does care about him, but is too proud (or perhaps embarrassed) to admit it. In this way, Mio’s relationship with Takuya is the closes to the classic “high school students trying to work out their feelings” approach numerous anime take, although as you’ve mentioned, YU-NO has Takuya coming in with experience and therefore, unruffled by the comings and goings of a relationship.

From a story perspective, then, this means that her pursuit of Takuya feels the most clumsy and forced: Mio’s evidently trying a little too hard, and YU-NO does a fine job of expressing this to the viewers. With this being said, this is quite understandable, and outside of her feelings for Takuya, Mio otherwise comes across as a rather interesting character, whose love for history and family background both serve to drive the story forwards. Mio’s devotion to learning the truth shows viewers how she is when she has a goal in mind; I think that her pursuit of Mount Sankaku and its secrets was probably the better side of her character.

Yes, when it comes to Mio’s other half, her love of history and wanting to uncover the mystery of Mount Sankaku, that is where her character really stands out. Mio is absolutely the most driven of the original 5 heroines. and is the one who has the most independence and life outside of Takuya’s world. She has dreams and aspirations, so much so that in the anime, she decides to leave and go seek them out, with or without Takuya.

That is really what makes Mio stand out, but I do think her arc is the weakest of the five, at least in terms of character. Her teenage love works, but feels out of place when Takuya has nothing to prove. That being said though, I would not want to change it, because I think it’s addition really helps Takuya stand out from other visual novel leads, and Mio just looks cute as a button.

The mystery itself is probably the biggest hint of the twists yet to come, and the reveal of the lightning tower, the girl at the lake, and the hints of something bigger is what makes YU-NO be more than just a usual eroge Visual novel. Knowing the entire story, it is actually really cool to see how each of the five routes deals with a different aspect of it. They all aren’t chasing the same normal thread. Mio deals with the tower, Ayumi and Kaori with the stone, Mitsuki and Erikio with Ryuzoji, and then Kanna with the people. When looking back, it make the massive paradigm shift a bit more easier to see, as the series is slowly building up to it.

We have one more route in the first half though Zen, and I think we saved the most interesting one for last. What did you think about Kanna?

Kanna always came across as an enigma wrapped inside a mystery, so I was immensely glad to reach her arc. Until now, all we knew of Kanna was that she had knowledge of Mount Sankaku, that she opposed GeoTech and she suffered from an illness of a mysterious nature. This acted as a bit of a hook, and I knew I had to be patient to finish everything else first. Once we do reach Kanna, Takuya’s kindness takes over, and sensing that she’s lonely, he does his best to befriend her. In this way, Kanna slowly begins to open up somewhat, and this is most evident when she agrees to go on a beach outing with Takuya, Mio and Masakatsu. That single episode is perhaps the most mundane of any, but it shows one more bit of normalcy in a world that had been anything but normal.

While Takuya attempts to make Kanna feel more welcome, he begins unearthing the final elements to the enigmas surrounding Mount Sankaku. Kanna’s arc thus sets the table for what’s to come, and the intrigues from learning of her story really compelled me to watch. It was in Kanna’s arc where I became so enthralled by YU-NO that I began watching the episodes in pairs: Kanna’s mysterious lack of aging, the unscrupulous fellow following Kanna around and her dealings with Kodai before he died, all contributed to this great desire to press on forwards and see what was going on. The anime did a fantastic job here of setting the stage for what’s to come, as it became increasingly apparent that between the Psychite, Reflector Device and Kanna’s unusual longevity, coupled with Takuya’s remarks that Kanna felt like family, all hinted that something massive was going to happen. The anime held me spellbound here; so Dewbond, I’d like to hear what you felt about how the visual novel handled things.

Well the episode with the beach and much of Kanna’s backstory with Kodai is again, anime only and expanding on things that are just touched about in the novel. Frankly I found the beach episode to be quite boring and detracted away from the mysterious nature of Kanna’s story.

I mean, when Kanna first goes into that man’s room, and you realize that she’s basically a teenage prostitute, it threw me back in my chair. I just had to know more, I had to know where it went. What we see is a story about a girl who is desperate, DESPERATE for a connection and uses her body to fulfill that need. The VN really goes into this, and shows that Kanna is at heart, a woman who needs the physical intimacy that a lover can bring, but also someone who understands her. Takuya very much does that, and putting aside the connection they do have (which we will get into later I’m sure) it is clear in the VN that they are kindred spirits in a way.

Going on what you said about setting the stage for the later half. Again, the entire quest of Takuya getting the new Pyschite stone is anime only. In the VN he actually takes the stone from Kaori’s route and uses it for Kanna, culminating in their love scene and Kanna tells him about the clock in Kodai’s room. The destination is the same, but the push to get Takuya there is quite different. I mean, in terms of the anime it does wrap everything together in a nice little bow, but the way it does it in the VN really helps lay out how the multiple routes work.

Either way, Kanna’s story is again, something that pushes buttons and takes some chances. What did you think about her behavior regarding sex and the idea that she was whoring herself out?

My initial impressions of the mysterious man was of revulsion, and even in the anime adaptation, it was straightforward to put two and two together. Given what I saw, I thought Kanna was doing what it took to survive – here was someone who had been seeking a purpose in the world after her mother had died, but was trapped in a difficult spot. That Kanna resorts to prostitution to support herself, given her situation, paints her as a character we could be sympathetic to. Behind her cautionary words from the earlier arcs, then, lies someone who knows more of the truth, and shares a very unique connection to YU-NO‘s second half.

The main qualm I had with Kanna’s arc in the anime was the relationship she had with Kodai and Keiko. We only ever got to see them briefly, and the most I understood was that Kodai was supporting Kanna financially. Beyond this, not much is explored, so I am left a little in the dark here. What the anime did show does not impede the viewer as we enter YU-NO‘s second half, but it did feel a little incomplete to me, especially as Takuya finally collects all six of the gems needed to kick off the second half. Before we get there, I would very much like to know how the visual novel differs from the anime here – specifically, whether or not players are treated to a more satisfactory bit of exploration behind Kanna’s relationship with Kodai and Keiko.

Much of it is actually left vague, we get the idea that Kodai is supporting Kanna financially, but that’s about it. All the scenes with a young Takuya and Keiko are anime only, and from what I remember are only really hinted at. Much of the Visual novel focus on Kanna herself, and the effects the Pyschite has on her, and showing that Takuya is a man of honor, despite the clear attraction the two have to each other. I personally liked that, because the anime at that point felt it was dragging things out a bit near the end of this first half. In the VN, Kaori and Kanna’s routes are the same for about 45% until they spilt off into two separate stories. Perhaps that was because they ran out of time, but it works well here.

With that, we have reached the end of the first half of YU-NO. Now before we even touch the second half, which changes everything, what is your overall thoughts on these 5 stories? How would you rank them, and who is your best girl?

Dewbond, allow me to express how glad I am you’ve given me the option to choose the best story separately from the best girl. As far as the best story for me, I’m going with Mio’s: this was the point where it really became apparent that the mysteries contained within Mount Sankaku were of an unimaginable scale, and where Takuya really began to appreciate that what Kodai had found in his studies. At the same time, the mysterious constructs within Mount Sankaku and Mitsuki’s drive to seize the Reflector Device start to be explored. Altogether, the sense of intrigue set in motion by the story beginning to kick into high gear, acted as the magic moment for me. I’m always fond of the point where a story gains enough momentum to really capture my interest, and it was in Mio’s arc (within the anime) that I found this magic moment. As for favourite girl, that one is a bit trickier. When it comes down to it, Mitsuki comes across as being my favourite of the girls, because she’s very honest about how she feels about Takuya, and even after the two are no longer together, the two are still on amicable terms. This is something I respect greatly. Before we can wrap this up, Dewbond, you should also share your favourite of the arcs, as well as who your favourite girl is!

My favorite girl and arc are the same: Ayumi. For a story, it is remarkable solid, with great characters and a tender story of two people seeking comfort after a great loss. In terms of characters, Ayumi has a lot going for her, she is a woman out of her depths, robbed away of a life she was promised and maybe even dreamed of. When she and Takuya finally give into the feelings it is a feeling of catharsis not only for them, but for the reader as well. It’s just a damn good arc and character through and through.

If I had to pick someone else though. It would be Kanna for best arc, and probably Mitsuki for best girl, for all the reasons you said.

I think that YU-NO‘s first half has been off to a very solid start: part science fiction thriller, part philosophical mystery, it’s been a captivating ride thus far. We’ve now presented perspectives from two dramatically different backgrounds and entries into YU-NO, and I imagine that with our combined thoughts, Dewbond and I have covered quite a bit of turf, setting the stage for YU-NO‘s second half. The anime and visual novel both have a surprise for the viewer, and it is a dramatic one. Given the size of this talk, one could only imagine how massive our post would be had we chosen to go for broke and do one massive talk. Instead, we’ve opted to break it down into two parts to make sure it’s more manageable for you, the reader. I love massively long posts as much as the next reader, but it makes sense to take a brief break. We’ll take a short intermission here while I catch my breath. I will be continuing with my regular programming, as Strike Witches: Road to Berlin airs tomorrow, and once that settles, we’ll gear up to continue onto YU-NO‘s second half. Until then, folks can check out the other YU-NO posts between the two of us; Dewbond has a very impressive collection of thoughts and perspectives exceeding what we’ve got here, and all of them are worth reading. I’ve elected to share only the posts leading up to the end of the first half of YU-NO, and then I’ll share the remainder once we’ve finished covering off the whole of YU-NO!

Dewbond’s YU-NO Posts