Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru (Yuki Yuna is a Hero) is one of those series you’ve likely heard about or seen glimpses of, even if you’ve never actually watched it. The magical girl deconstruction spans several different formats. Video games and visual novels, three anime series, novels, and a manga. The anime came to an end not too long ago, and the manga adaptation is up next. According to Kadokawa’s Dengeki G’s Comic magazine, the manga ends in the next issue on August 30th. The series launched in 2014, but took about a one-year hiatus from late 2015 to early 2017, due to the author’s health.
This isn’t surprising, in the grand scheme of things. The series has, more or less concluded. The anime series, for example, came to its conclusion this past Winter. It first aired 2014, running for twelve episodes. The six-episode series, released in October of 2017, was actually a recut of the anime films chronicling the origins of one of the main characters. The next six episodes, known as Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru: Yusha no Sho (Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Hero Chapter), ended in January.
The interesting thing is that its popularity likely isn’t entirely its own doing. Yuki Yuna came out relatively close to when Madoka Magica’s popularity surged. But the similarity between the two series stops at tone, really. That and genre. The two stories couldn’t be more different, at their core. However, Yuki Yuna long had a reputation for being a “rip-off,” to the less observant. Really, it’s fascinating how easily the point is missed. Either way, with the anime series concluded, it was only a matter of time before the manga also came to its end. However, the first season of the anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll. Meanwhile, the season and third seasons are on Amazon Prime Video.