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

Takuya and Mio explore and escape from the underground palace.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Takuya wakes up from a dream about his birth mother to find himself still stuck with Mio, trapped inside the colossal labyrinth of Mount Senkaku. Getting a premonition of a hint from his dream, he finds a strange jewel hidden behind the waterfall.

Later on, they run into Mitsuki, who is still being controlled by Ryuzoji. She allows them to escape safely by shooting herself. The place is collapsing around them, but instead of using his magical machine, Takuya finds a natural way out along with Mio. However, this isn’t his intended place, and he disappears as the chaos is corrected.

Our Take:

This week marks the eleventh episode of YU-NO, and brings about the conclusion of the second main story arc in the series. While I still think I enjoyed this arc more than the first one, it definitely did not end without its fair share of downfalls. The episode comes to a close without really clearing anything up, or answering any big questions.

The overall plot of That Kiss, Once More isn’t awful. But it is pretty bland and rote. Takuya’s dream is probably the part of the episode that excited me the most. (Why is he seeing his mother? What is she trying to tell him?) After briefly touching on it, though, it isn’t mentioned again and doesn’t have an impact on the plot. The reappearance of Mitsuki isn’t too breathtaking, although I did not exactly expect that to play out the way it did. It seems like there’s always going to be a few deaths in every timeline, only for the slate to be wiped clean in the next arc.

Yuki has a minor role in this episode (nothing unusual there), but I do love the way he plays into the ending. In his mind, Mio and Takuya were going to come out alive because they just had to. They couldn’t die before hearing his amazingly heartfelt apology. Mio herself doesn’t add much of anything this time around. Basically, whenever Takuya is around, she’s relegated to a supporting role in her own plotline.

This week’s dub is a solid affair, with the typical good performances from Eric Vale as Takuya and Megan Shipman as Mio. Kylie Stewart also turns in a particular good episode as the mind-controlled Mitsuki. Takuya’s mother gives a nice dreamy reading of her line: “Don’t be afraid to help the one you love.” I’ve stopped enjoying Mio’s admonitions and have resigned myself to the fact that it’s all talk: “Even at a time like this, you are seriously the worst.” For his part, Takuya brings ‘stellar’ lines like this: “When a man and women love each other very much, the family jewels…” Yuki didn’t have a big role this time, but what time he did have was nice: “I need so many more details than you’re giving me!” “This place is for adults only, little girl.” Our favorite foreman is back. “There’s no way I’ll let myself die yet. Gotta apologize to Shimizu!” Yuki is such a pure boy.

The 11th episode of YU-NO is fine. Not great, not terrible. The plot was just interesting enough to keep me watching, but didn’t have any real tricks or clever surprises up its sleeves. I’m honestly sick of watching Takuya walk all over Mio without repercussions, and I hope he goes somewhere far away from her next week.