Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 Review

Legend of Resonance

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 is the final episode of the series. And, it was a pretty decent ending. However, I still have some questions that were never answered. For example, we still don’t know anything about Ruby being a fairy who can turn into a human.

I get that whatever’s going on with Ruby isn’t plot-relevant. But, considering she’s one of the main characters, I thought we’d get that information. Is she a fairy or a human? And since she’s Dia’s sister, can Dia change into a fairy form, as well?

That kind of stuff is probably my biggest complaint with how the series ended. Though, as I’ll get to later in this review, it’s not my only complaint. But, for now, let’s switch gears and discuss something I thought this episode did well. I loved how the legend of resonance was presented at the start.

Why didn’t we get this sort of stylized cinematic at the start of the series? If we did, sorry, I forgot. But, I’m pretty confident that we didn’t. This was the best part of the entire series, to me. And it would have been cool to open with it.

I guess one potential issue with doing that, though, is that it would have set the bar too high. If I had seen that at the start of the series, I would have been expecting a lot more than what we got. I would have been looking for a lot more lore.

At the end of the day, Yohane the Parhelion isn’t a fantasy adventure series. It’s set in a fantasy world. But, it’s slice of life. So, I can understand why there wasn’t that much lore, even if it’s what I wanted.

The Power of Friendship and Song

As I, and hopefully many of you, expected, the power of friendship and song saved the day. Since this series is a spin-off of Love Live! Sunshine!!, the final performance was always going to involve all the members of Aqours.

But, I was a little disappointed to see that Lailaps didn’t play a role here. Why couldn’t she have participated in the song? I know she’s not a member of Aqours. But, it would have been nice to include her in the end. Maybe she even could have taken on human form like Ruby does.

Anyway, it’s time to get to my next two real complaints with this episode. The first is actually one I don’t believe only applies to Episode 13. But, I’m including it here anyway. Why don’t we get subtitles for the songs in this series?

Yeah, they’re songs, not dialogue. But, it’s hard to imagine that the lyrics of this song weren’t relevant to what was going on in the series. So, why don’t Crunchyroll’s translators translate the songs, as well? Is it because they aren’t given the lyrics of the songs to translate?

I don’t know how anime translation works. So, if someone reading this does, please enlighten me. Do translators work off a script that’s in Japanese? Or, do they work off the episode itself? If it’s the latter, I see no reason why the songs wouldn’t be translated. And if it’s the former, I’d still like the lyrics to be in the translation.

The other complaint I have with the performance in this episode is with the sound effects. Why were loud, jarring sound effects played during the song? Go to 9:25 and tell me the sound effect of the water spouts isn’t terrible. I’ll wait.

Peace Returns to Numazu

Some interesting things happened at the end of Episode 13. For starters, Yohane’s friends decided that they want to continue singing with her. That’s not very surprising considering this is a Love Live! spin-off. But, it kind of makes Yohane a bit less special.

Remember, her goal was to find the one thing that only she could do and that was fun. All of her friends had something like this — except Ruby, arguably. But now, they all have their own stuff going on and they’re doing the same thing Yohane is.

We also saw that Lailaps doesn’t get her voice back. I was really expecting Lailaps to be able to speak again by the end of the episode. And I was expecting that everyone, not only Yohane, would be able to hear her. That wasn’t what happened.

Lailaps was able to say one last thing to Yohane in her dream. But, that doesn’t count for much. It’s a bit depressing to know that Yohane and Lailaps will never be able to talk to each other the same way again. Though, it appears that Lailaps can still understand her.

Finally, Mari Ohara revealed the cause of the calamity. The legend at the start of the episode did, too. But, Mari’s explanation was much clearer. Why did the calamity begin? Because the people of Numazu forgot about the magic of song. If they kept singing, the calamity would have never happened.

And, this is important because it explains why the calamity began after Yohane left for Tokai. Yohane was the last singer in Numazu. Without her, Numazu lost its songs. I guess, in a way, you could say that Yohane was responsible for the calamity. Or, you could think of her as Numazu’s protector.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of the final episode of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror? Do you think the legend of resonance should have been included at the start of the series? Would you like to see the lyrics of the songs included in the subtitles? And, what were you expecting to happen with Lailaps?

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