Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuushabu Shozoku

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuushabu Shozoku is basically the Omake version of the great series Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. There are three eight minute films and I’ll be looking at all of them as a collective rather than individually.

Story:

We open with Yuuna giving her lunch to a pair of fighting cats. I hope it has lots of meat since cats can’t survive on a vegetarian diet. Afterwards she meets up with the hero club to go help different people in whacky ways.

The biggest problem with the films is that they overdo it with some of the jokes. Yuuna spends way too much time in the first one with her stomach growling as a joke, for example. The films are also a little odd in terms of tone given how dark the series proper can be.

That being said, they are fairly entertaining and they do deliver a decent amount of fun. And even if some of the jokes go on a bit too long or are kind of weak, most of them work well enough.

Characters:

The characters don’t have the level of depth that they do in the series proper. Rather, they’re simplified and their more comedic traits are amplified. Which makes sense given the aesthetic they’re going for but it is a bit weird seeing these characters taken in a comedic direction given what I remember from the series.

Art:

The art direction is a simplistic, chibified style. It looks fine for what it is but it’s not exactly a style I would consider particularly appealing. The backgrounds are very minimal and the characters look a bit like bobble headed versions.

Sound:

The actors do a good job. Terui Haruka, Mimori Suzuka, Nagatsuma Juri, Uchiyama Yumi & Kurosawa Tomoyo are all strong actors. Their performances aren’t as good in this as they were in the series proper on account of the simplified characterisation but they’re still strong. The music is okay.

Ho-yay:

There’s still a bit. Yuuna and Tougou are still implied to have a mutual attraction. Yuuna also flirts a bit with both Karin & Itsuki.

Areas of Improvement:

1. More rapid fire humour would probably work better for this type of thing. I think they do drag their “big” jokes out a bit too much and they’d benefit from faster set up, quick payoff and moving on to the next joke.
2. These could use some dark humour. In my personal opinion, the darker elements of the series itself could have been used for some great morbid jokes.
3. They could have gone closer to the art style of the regular series and come out with something that looks much better.

Final Thoughts:

These are okay. They aren’t brilliant and the comedy isn’t among the best I’ve ever seen, but if you really liked the main series, you might enjoy them well enough. My final rating for Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuushabu Shozoku # 1-3 is going to be a 6/10.