Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 6

Heroes are Useless

Finally, Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 6 has revealed the true meaning behind the series. I always thought it was odd that the heroes are given divine smartphones, but now it’s obvious that it’s all just a metaphor for technological dependence.

These girls believe that their smartphones will save them, but in reality, all they need to do is put their phones down and live in the moment. Further, this week’s episode highlighted the toxic nature of social media, with Chikage falling prey to online commenters.

If she can’t handle anonymous people online telling her that the heroes are useless, she’ll never make it as a popular anime reviewer. Imagine if I stopped writing every time someone (incorrectly) says my opinions on who the best girl is are wrong.

Okay, in reality, I don’t think Yuki Yuna is trying to have some deep message about technology dependence or the dangers of social media. But, I mean, that’s kind of what’s happening, isn’t it? Especially with Chikage.

I do think this episode is very topical, though, with the way in which the people of Japan react to the heroes. They think that because bad things are still happening, the heroes are useless. But they can’t see that things would be much worse (they’d be dead) without the heroes.

Obviously, I don’t condone Chikage’s actions. She’s a hero so she should be able to put aside her personal feelings and protect everyone. Of course, I say that knowing full well that while I wouldn’t personally harm those girls, I’d probably look the other way if they were getting attacked by a Vertex.

Gun-chan has a Gamer Moment

There’s clearly more going on with Chikage than just the fact that online hate comments are getting to her (weak). As Wakaba mentions to her, using their powers can result in both severe physical and psychological damage that needs to be assessed by medical professionals.

Since Chikage hasn’t undergone a mental evaluation as far as we know, she’s probably suffering from something related to her hero powers that’s compounding with her other stress. She could really use a good workers’ compensation lawyer — but I doubt the Taisha need to carry insurance for that.

Also, let’s not forget that she’s a middle school student who witnessed the deaths of two of her friends. Even if she wasn’t receiving hate comments or suffering from hero-related mental anguish, that’s going to mess her up.

But, as we all know, Chikage snapping actually has nothing to do with all the stress she’s been under both before and after she became a hero. The real reason she snapped is simply that, as Yuna said, she’s a gamer. Gamers can’t help themselves from having “gamer moments.” It’s not her fault.

That can’t be a coincidence, though, right? For the gamer character to be the one to snap and smash her computer monitors? If that wasn’t intentional, then that actually makes it even better because of how perfect it is.

Anyway, Chikage’s meltdown really didn’t interest me at all throughout the majority of the episode. She gets mad at anonymous people online, refuses to get help for her issues, and then distances herself from who friends while also blaming them for “not understanding” her. She’s just annoying.

But, at the end of the episode, once it was revealed that Chikage is going full-on villain, I suddenly became interested. What happens when a hero turns her back on the divine tree?

The Fall of Chikage

Unfortunately, we don’t actually know what spirit it was that Chikage invoked at the end of the episode when she attacked Wakaba. We know Yuna’s spirit is Shuten Douji, but Chikage doesn’t call out her spirit’s name in the same way. We do get to see the spirit, though.

My best guess is that Chikage’s spirit is some kind of death god. It could be the grim reaper since her weapon is a scythe. But, the spirits (there were multiple) that appeared behind her didn’t look like grim reapers. They had spikes going through their heads — I’m guessing they’re some kind of Japanese yokai.

Also, notice how not only were there multiple spirits shown behind Chikage, but the ability she used directly afterward made copies of herself. This seems to be the true ability of her spirit, which again goes against the grim reaper theory.

How do you expect the fight between Wakaba and Chikage to go next week? Since the diary the current heroes are reading was Wakaba’s, that seems like solid evidence for Chikage not killing Wakaba here.

After all, if Chikage killed Wakaba, then how would Wakaba be able to write about their battle? Checkmate. But, Chikage’s fate is up in the air. I don’t see her getting a full-on redemption arc. So either she’s going to be killed by Wakaba here, or she’s going to be taken out of the picture in another way.

She might regret what she did after she’s defeated and comes back to her senses. But I can’t really see her going back to being one of the heroes. Maybe Taisha will imprison her since we already know she was placed under house arrest for attacking the schoolgirls. Regardless of what happens to her, I think the public statement will be that she valiantly died in battle as a hero.

We can’t have people knowing that one of the heroes went berserk. That would look bad.

Conclusion

What do you think of Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 6? Do you think Chikage is justified in her hatred of the general population? Were you interested in her character arc? And how do you think her fight against Wakaba is going to end? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 7 is available now.