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

“That sounds like one terrible anime.”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As the sixth episode of YU-NO begins, Takuya cuts summer school yet again when he’s called into the front office. The strange green-haired reporter, Kaori, is waiting for him. Kaori enlists Takuya to assist her in breaking into GeoTech, telling him that it will somehow help prove his mother’s innocence.

And because he’s an idiot, he agrees to help. They break into the building easily enough, but Takuya soon learns that Kaori has been playing him – she’s working with Toyotomi. Luckily, by using his dimension powers, Takuya is able to reverse the situation and play it to his advantage, letting every guard in the building hear the truth from Toyotomi himself in real time.

Our Take:

I don’t know what I was expecting when Kaori teamed up with Takuya, but it certainly wasn’t this. In hindsight, I guess I should’ve seen it coming. Toyotomi and Kaori are both creeps who have attempted to commit sexual assault. Kaori might be even worse than her co-conspirator. She’s not only an awful journalist, but she’s actively preying on a minor dumb enough to believe that breaking in and stealing GeoTech property will somehow clear his stepmother’s name from the suspect list.

Takuya remains as obtuse as ever. Even when he’s trying to take down the ‘bad guys’, it’s hard to root for a dude who compares his homeroom teacher’s chest to the “grand canyon” in a cringely out of place metaphor. I think it would be easier for me to like Takuya if he were portrayed as just a bit more clueless or silly. (Sure, being a decent human being who treats women like equals might help, too.) Then I could at least laugh at his exploits. I love his betrayed shout of “Son of a bitch!” When he discovers Kaori has been working against him… he’s such a blockhead.

The big reveal about GeoTech being a front to investigate special crystals doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. There had to be some reason they were so set on continuing with their ‘construction’ even with all the reports of strange occurrences at the beach. The fact that Ayumi seems to be a lot more knowledgeable about the true secret than she was letting on is kinda neat. In fact, the whole reason she’s doing this is because of the request of her husband, perhaps? And the only reason he’s doing it is to try and bring back his first wife, Takuya’s original mother, or something? Whatever they’re doing with the crystals, it’s crazy!

The dub this week had a few great (and by great, I mean so bad they’re great) moments. My favorite was definitely Takuya’s exclamation as he gets the upper hand on the two freaks: “Game over, bitch.” Such a funny, teenage dude thing to say to show off how badass you are. Earlier in the episode, he’s trying to point out a certain building to Kaori, and says it’s the one that’s “like a booby”. Ugh. I have to agree with Mio’s chastisement of Yuki: “He doesn’t need your help becoming anymore of a gross myscognist than he already is.” 

We’ve made it through six episodes of YU-NO, and I’m glad it seems like this might be a turning point for the show. Not in terms of characters or tone, I’m sure, but at least it looks like this particular arc is wrapping up. The ending promises some sort of shake up coming next week, and I’m just hoping it will send us into a parallel universe where this show is a lot better.