English Dub Review: YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World “A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Ryuzoji has been captured inside the sphere, but Ayumi is in there with him, and he doesn’t plan on staying restrained for long. When Takuya doesn’t take him up on his offer to spare Ayumi if he releases him, the space spirit uses Niarb to take control of a nearby rebel’s mind and make him destroy the machines holding him hostage.

Luckily, Eriko is awakened by Abel’s spirit just in time, and manages to make it to the surface in time to shoot him with her fancy phazer gun. Along with Abel’s help, they’re able to banish Ryuzoji from the world of the living for good. But even with Yu-No’s sacrifice, Dela Granto still collides into Earth and gets destroyed. Takuya awakens back in his home timeline and saves Kanna with the physchite. Then he goes to find Yu-No, who is about to be sucked into time itself. He decides to join her, where they will (presumably) spend the rest of eternity together.

Our Take:

Poor Yu-No. She really got the rough end of this show. Separated from her parents, forced to give up her heart, and given the choice to sacrifice herself for the survival of her homeworld that didn’t even end up surviving. And to top it all off, now she’s stuck with her creepy father forever in the rifts of time. I kid a little, but still, this gal has lived a hard life. The final episode of YU-NO does a good job bringing things around full circle, even if it rushes things a bit at the end.

The business with Ryuzoji is one of the things that felt a little anticlimactic. His true form gets revealed finally, but it’s honestly pretty disappointing. With a character description that’s just ‘Class A Dimensional Criminal’, there are so many possibilities for how weird and wild his real self could present. But basically, the real Ryuzoji turns out to be nothing more than an over-sized skeleton with messy hair and an eye-killing color palette. The events that lead to his ‘death’ are a little more interesting. Abel is one of the spirits set loose when Ryuzoji opened the portal, and he goes to find Eriko, who is still passed out underground. He wakes her and together they defeat Ryuzoji, with Abel holding him still while she pulls the trigger. (To be fair, Takuya helps her a lot, too. Eriko never really came into her own as an inter-dimensional police member. She’s too indecisive and slow! But at least her fashion game takes risks?)

The thing I did enjoy about this episode was just how much it brought everything around full circle. In a show that’s as metaphorical and philosophical about time travel and multi-dimensions as this one is, you’ve gotta walk the walk on top of talking the talk. YU-NO does, for the most part, connecting the dots in interesting ways. Kanna gets rescued and the woman who raised her seems to be Amanda or a relative of Amanda. Yu-No herself is the nude girl who appeared way back at the beginning of the show. She and Takuya being joined together in time without clothes are weird, for sure, but at this point, that’s just something we’ve come to expect. Even Yuki and Mio get a little cameo, although I’m not too fond of their interaction. I’m glad Yuki is standing up for what he wants, but Mio’s laughing response came across as a little insensitive.

The dub finishes off on a strong note, with one of Eric Vale’s best performances as Takuya in the whole show. He doesn’t often get a chance to show off his deeper side, but it came through nicely here. “Thank you for being with me on my last night here.” Amanda just had to bring that up again. “You always have been a sleepyhead, haven’t you?” Abel and Eriko play a big part in the finale, but it comes across as a bit rushed since we didn’t get much about him before. “I won’t let my life be ruled by such ridiculous crap!” Takuya is fed up with this show! “We’ll do it again, just wait and see.” Takuya’s response to Yu-No asking if he remembered when they all slept in the same bed together is, uh, somewhat troubling. “You will be there. And Sayless, too.” The way Takuya says his wife’s name almost like an afterthought is hilarious.

A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World takes a well-rounded approach to a finale, giving us some action, some deeper feelings, and a nice wrap up to most of the cliffhangers that were brought up in past episodes. While I’m not sure how it places in the grand scheme of the show, it was a better final episode than what could’ve been. This show had some real baddies during its run, but I’m happy to say it went out on top – even if only by a little bit.