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

Overview (Spoilers Below:)

After having her secret sex life exposed to the school in last week’s episode, Kanna decides to transfer. But Takuya isn’t hearing it; he demands to know more about her. She tells him about how she hasn’t aged in 50 years, and how his father helped raise her after her own mother died.

But Hojo gets in the way on behalf of Ryuzoji, summoning Kanna to a park and threatening to hurt Takuya unless she throws him off the scent. Takuya is about to accept her decision, but after a pep talk from Mio he goes back to investigate. Luckily, he finds her and Hojo at the park, but it’s too late to prevent disaster. Kanna’s pendant breaks and she begins to die. However, she tells Takuya his father’s last words to him before she goes.

Our Take:

One thing I have to give this episode credit for – it definitely doesn’t take things slow. From Kanna’s history to her oncoming death, A Pale, Ephemeral View doesn’t pull any punches, hitting us viewers with plenty of plot development and, yes, exposition.

To be fair, there’s not a lot of great ways to go about showing us Kanna’s story without the overuse of boring exposition, but still. I can’t help but think there’s a better, more engaging way of doing things than just having Takuya sit in Kanna’s apartment while she talks at him. Her story is not only a little bit of a snoozefest, but it’s kind of unbelievable, too. Kanna claims to have been transferring to schools around Sakaimachi for over 50 years. But really? Are there enough schools in that one area to ensure she would never be called out or denied transfer? She’s not like Ryuzoji, who has mind control and many years of interdimensional knowledge on his side. It just struck me as being too far a stretch. I mean, time travel and multi-dimensional aliens I can accept, but that many school transfers? I call BS!

Essentially, the episode’s main dramatic thrust happens in the park where Kanna has gone to meet Hojo. After a bit of a verbal bashing from Mio about loyalty and perseverance, Takuya decides he has to return for Kanna despite her pleas to leave. He finds Hojo harassing her in the abandoned park, and quickly comes to her rescue. But he doesn’t count on Hojo destroying Kanna’s necklace, the very thing that gives her that unnaturally long lifespan. It’s made of Psychite, and the only place to get some is in Dela Granto, the other dimension where Kanna informs Takuya his father has gone to.

The dub this week is solid, with some nice performances by Eric Vale and Kristen McGuire. “I don’t wanna know about your past. I wanna know more about you.” Takuya actually can be decently thoughtful at times! “As long as you’re alive, there is hope.” Kanna’s mother figure seemed nice. No wonder she’s so withdrawn after losing her. “What are you doing here? And why are you dressed like that?” Kanna questioning Eriko-sensei’s sudden arrival and appearance are really funny to me.

This week’s episode of YU-NO wasn’t the most expertly executed affair, and it came with a lot of semi-boring exposition that slowed things down and threw the pacing off. But it managed to connect the dots between Kanna, Kodai, and the other dimension in a way that didn’t feel too easy or simple. Now that Takuya has all eight stones, he should theoretically be able to make it to Dela Granto… but will he survive that rainbow glow cave?