Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 9

The Final Mission

We learned about the “final mission” both the Heroes and Sentinels are going to take part in for the first time in Episode 8. But in Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 9, we’re given more details regarding this so-called final mission.

Yuna is set to be married off to the Divine Tree, which already doesn’t make much sense. But, apparently, this will allow what remains of humanity to also become one with the Divine Tree. So from what I’m gathering, this is basically an Infinite Tsukuyomi situation from Naruto: Shippūden.

If you don’t know what I mean by that, it’s simply that rather than improving the world, the Taisha has decided to effectively kill everyone so they can know peace. I mean, being dead must be better than living in the small piece of Japan that’s left, right?

Of course, the main problem with this plan is that we know not everyone agrees with the Taisha’s choice here. There are surely plenty of people who don’t want to die just because the Taisha have decided that’s the preferable option.

And, I guess the idea here is that it’s better to have everyone die via this ceremony than to have them die via the Vertex. But also aren’t the Vertex literally sent by the gods the Taisha are trying to unite everyone with? Seems like this plan hasn’t been thoroughly researched.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the Taisha has used this whole “final mission” phrasing before. When they sacrificed a bunch of Miko 300 years ago, that too was supposed to be the “final mission” that would save everyone.

But, hey, I guess the Taisha wouldn’t be a good religious organization if it wasn’t able to continuously trick people for hundreds of years.

Karin’s Curse

Obviously, Karin doesn’t have a physical curse in the same way that Yuna does. But, I’d argue that she is cursed in that she knows of Yuna’s curse and yet can’t do anything to help her friend. She might not feel the physical pain from Yuna’s curse, but it still affects her.

In fact, it appears that Karin is more affected by Yuna’s curse than even Yuna is. Yuna’s definitely concerned about her curse. We know this because she says as much and even writes about it in her diary. But she also seems to have accepted her fate.

For Karin, the curse is much more difficult to accept. This makes a lot of sense to me, though. Generally, when something affects ourselves, it’s much easier to move on and make the most of the situation. When something affects someone we care about, we tend to spend more time worrying about it.

If Karin wasn’t one of the protagonists who’s been around since the first season of the series, I’d say that she’s going to meet a terrible fate by the end of this season. But, that’s not really the kind of series Yuki Yuna is.

And that’s also part of the reason why I don’t think Yuki Yuna is all that great. It has the same problem that a lot of shonen anime do, which is that I know nothing bad is going to happen to the protagonists. For example, I know none of the Straw Hats are going to die in One Piece.

Just look at Madoka Magica, which I’ve often said Yuki Yuna is just a “lite” version of, if you want an example of a similar series that doesn’t play it safe. Both series end up in the same place, but the path Madoka takes to get there is far better.

Karin the Hero

It was mentioned a few times in this episode that Karin was the one who stopped the Fire Offering the Taisha was going to perform. I don’t recall this ever happening. All I remember is that we got a scene before it happened and another scene after it happened, which was odd.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Togo agree to be sacrificed as part of the Fire Offering? And when she did, she erased herself from reality or something. But then her friends noticed she was missing and saved her, thus preventing the sacrifice from taking place and rewriting reality.

That seems to be what’s being referred to in this episode. The problem is that I don’t believe we saw what actually took place to prevent the sacrifice from occurring. We just cut to a scene of Togo in a hospital bed surrounded by the other Heroes.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see what exactly Karin did to stop the sacrifice from being performed (unless we did and I’m just forgetting it). But, considering it wasn’t shown in this episode when it was being talked about, I get the feeling we won’t.

The fight between Karin and Mebu, which was great, by the way, would have been the perfect time to show a short flashback of whatever it was Karin did. Since we didn’t get that, I guess it’s not important enough to show us.

After all, exactly what Karin did isn’t important, even though it probably should be. What’s important, at least for now, is that Karin has a reputation for being a strong hero but wasn’t acting the part when she ran into Mebu.

As a Hero, Karin can’t show weakness like that in front of the Sentinels.

Conclusion

What do you think of Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Great Mankai Chapter Episode 9? Do you remember what it was Karin did to stop the sacrifice from happening? Or were you waiting for it to be shown to us in a flashback as I was? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 10 is available now.