#yuusa yumeno

[leafbladie]

Thanks to bigscarythings for making this for me based on a dumb joke I made. I love it!

[abyranss]

Smile!

In Magia Record's re-run of the Nagisa's Wish event, Yuu has at long last been given a canon design, and she's adorable.

In the past, I drew a design for her myself (here, and here) based on the old silhouette they used and I talked a bit then about the similarities I saw between her and Nagisa's appearances. Have a look at those for context if you'd like, because I'm going to revisit that again here with her new look. Below the cut ↓

To start with, some of the things I pointed out on Yuu's silhouette as being shared with Nagisa's magical girl outfit did not survive to her final appearance, such as the fuzz around the edge of her neck frill, the shorts she wears, and the bows along her tails and across her frill.

Though the tails themselves which I compared to the pompoms hanging from Nagisa's hat did survive, that alone isn't enough to draw a connection.

So it seems unlikely that when Nagisa made her wish, her appearance was influenced by Yuu being the first and only magical girl she'd met up to that point.

We can scrap that idea.

However, the parts of Yuu that I noted as resembling Nagisa's witch form, Charlotte... those do still hold up. When you look closely at Yuu, she has rings in her eyes which aren't present when she isn't transformed, and we now know that she uses her horn as her weapon.

Charlotte has a pure white face and a split open mouth, like Nagisa's mother described her killer. This is the strongest piece of evidence which the rest of it is built upon.

Charlotte attacks with her face as well.

And admittedly, perhaps reaching a little here, Charlotte as a worm has a cone-shaped pointy nose that might resemble Yuu's horn.

They also just both have clown energy.

Huh. Looking at these pictures I'm now wondering if I could draw a comparison between Charlotte's head wings and the bundles of cloth hanging from either side of Yuu's head.

...

Yuu was instrumental in Nagisa's transformation over the course of the story, from someone accepting of the abuse she experienced every day into a person seeking to cut ties with her family and create her own freedom, and then Yuu played the part of the person who mistakenly took Nagisa's agency away from her at the end which is what tipped Nagisa over the edge, so I like the idea a lot that Nagisa's grief made manifest from that event took a form that recognises the significance of the Sleepwalking Ghost.

[muffinrecord]

I don't have Yuu but I've been dying to know what she looks like in live2d. Vivi posted these images in the discord last night but I wanted to see her for myself in motion. Luckily she does indeed appear in the event, so

I think it's interesting that unlike every other magical girl so far, she has this crooked neck. Even more interesting, it's present also outside of her magical girl form.

There's something a little off about it. I know this gal is like, 2edgy4me but I genuinely really like a lot of the design decisions made for her. She just comes across as otherwordly, from her witch-like magical girl design to how she stands differently from other magical girls, to her blank eyes and hidden mouth. I just really like it.

If any girl deserves to be void: it's her. I can genuinely believe she snapped when she made her wish and that whatever we're seeing now is someone very different from the person she was before. It's almost like she's an animated doll walking around, a body that doesn't know it's dead yet. I'm fascinated.

[ashleytaylormemoria]

Ashley Meets Yuu

Art by kashi_neco

[crystalkokoro]

Here's some screenshots from Yuu's transformation video

[cafeaubandage]

None of you will understand how much this line means to me the raw energy of this line now that we KNOW what Yuu looks like...

the fucking ETHOS. Do you see that smile, next to Nagisas dull eyes, you can clearly tell, Yuu has no idea what she has done is wrong, in fact she things throught the entire rerun that she is in the RIGHT. It feels so different now that Yuu has...a face? You can almost feel her cheerfulness, her joy sharing that she will lways support nagisa, always being by her side, Despite us knowing this only makes Nagisa witch out Nagisa says before, she wants her mom to die, because she didn't wish her illness away, And Yuu took that, Without realizing what she did, Only to say shes by her side Its pain staking to see! But thats what i love about Yuu! The cheerful pain, because we know what happens next, It makes me think of beachside bonds too, Yuu saying she will be by Nagisa side, only for Nagisa to witch out... making Yus statement false. How many times has this happened? How many times has Yu unknowingly said this lie?

[m00nb04rd5]

can you please do a mood board of Yuu ( Magia record ) ?

Yuu/Yusa Yumeno (Magia Record)

[wyfy-meltdown]

My favourite part of Nagisa's sidestory is when Nagisa, Yuu, and Inui had a lovely tea party with Nagisa's homemade cheesecake and emotional support for Inui to break up with her shitty boyfriend and emotional support for Nagisa dealing with her shitty mom's death and nothing bad happened!

[concrete-3ater]

Forgot to post this

my girly Yuu! She’s very fun to draw so I did a bunch of doodles of her while I was in Germany

not very proud of how these look but they’re a few months old so they get a pass

[kiwisandpearls]

while I think yu is a breath of fresh air i do worry that the magireco might lean into being too dark with her. Like with the placement of her soul gem. It probably fits thematically with her story and the event story but also like…it gives me the same feeling as magical girl anime that are pure shock value with no substance. And it’s probably completely unjustified but I’ve been feeling that way about everything yu, from her list, to how she takes organs. Like it’s not horrible but it’s just on that cusp of being dark with no substance for me.

[muffinrecord]

Feedback: I think it'd be nice if you listed who lost as well as who won, that way we don't need to check the blog for each entry.

As for Yuu--

She's been a really surprising breakout character among the fandom. I run a youtube channel that collects transformations, doppels, etc, and Yuu has recently beat out Madoka Kaname's scene zero transformation in views. In one month. Compared to Madoka's seven.

Yuu's release coincided with a lot of renewed interest in the game. I can tell this from increased numbers on the youtube channel and my blog, and the amount of new reblogs the rayshift app post I made gets. It's starting to die down again, but she's had an impact. She's pretty popular.

Why is this? I don't think it can be put down to one thing but a bunch of them converging for lightning in a bottle:

Yuu has a very unusual design, not just for this game but for the magical girl genre in general. I've seen people reblog her card art with admiration for her design despite knowing absolutely nothing about her. I think that her design benefits from being strange without also having negatives of a lot of "edgy" magical girl content, aka it's not that sexualized or "showy" in comparison to a new character like Mabayu (not trying to start discourse, just an observation). It's different and it feels fresh and exciting.

Yuu has been known to the community for a long time from the Beachside Bonds event and has had fanmade designs along with speculation as to what was going on with her. She also made an impact in the Nagisa's Wish event, where she showed up and then disappeared and we didn't hear about her for years after. People who remember Yuu will see her and go "oh shit I remember her, so this is what she looks like?" They've got a pre-established bond with her.

She has a very different tone from anyone else we've seen in the game before-- even other serial killers like Kirika or Suzune aren't quite like her.

I think there is also a hunger for darker content in the game which Yuu (and Shii) help satisfy.

Even if you don't like edgy shit, you still might like Yuu. You can ignore the serial killer/organ seller thing and just focus on her behavior. Her memory issues, friendliness, and belief that she's just not good are surprisingly relatable.

I think also a lot of people really like Madoka Magica for the witches, even more than the girls sometimes, and Yuu is sort of like a witch already with her design and behavior.

Lastly, she has some fantastic voice direction and her voice actress also voiced Usagi Tsukino, which is kind of incredible?

Edit: Almost forgot, and I think that this is the most important thing lmao. We haven't had a new character in a long long time, since Mabayu. But...

The bottom row, up to Mabayu, are all from 2023. Look at Yuu and Shii-- They're the only new girls we've gotten from 2024 and it's almost June. Everyone else is some sort of variant or dual unit.

I think this is key in understanding why people like Yuu and Shii so much; they're a bit of life added to the game which has felt stagnant story-wise and character-wise for a bit.

Round 2 Has Finished!

Hey, no tiebreakers this time!

Not much to say this time. Most of the results were what I expected but I do have some questions about others (please feel free to answer said questions).

If you would like to see the percentages and some commentary, continue reading. If not, I will see you soon for round 3.

Ayame Mikuri (51.9%)

Tsubasa Hanekawa (75.2%) - I know nothing about Divine Gate, but I do think Pia's outfit is quite cute. A little sad she lost.

Madoka Kaname (84.3%)

Livia Medeiros (50.7%) - ... Really? Alright then.

Sana Futaba (78.3%)

Kaede Akino (56.8%)

Mikoto Sena (51.7%)

Mikage Yakumo (82.6%)

Amaryllis (81.1%) - This was a much larger gap than I expected. Is her story that good or do people mostly just like the design better?

Ren Isuzu (76.3%)

Nanaka Tokiwa (70.9%)

Alina Gray (85.7%)

Yu (76.9%) - Please, I am begging someone to tell me why Yu. Why is she so popular? It can't be because she's a serial killer, other serial killer magical girls have lost this already.

Himena Aika (62.5%)

Ashley Taylor (70.7%)

Mel Anna (77.1%)

Eternal Sakura (71.2%)

Mayu Kozue (53.4%)

Kanoko Yachiyo (64.8%) - Aw man, the resident chuunibyou lost...

Juri Oba (57.3%)

Kyoko Sakura (88.8%)

Riz Hawkwood (75.4%)

Mito Aino (59.2%)

Tsuruno Yui (70.4%)

Mitama Yakumo (77.6%)

Yuna Kureha (66.2%)

Ayaka Mariko (74.6%)

Ui Tamaki (52.1%) - This was a little closer than I expected.

Ao Kasane (52.7%) - For a while, I really thought Suruga was going to win this.

Homura Akemi (85.2%)

Nagisa Momoe (74.3%)

Yachiyo (62%) - It feels early to have two major characters face off, but the RNG willed it. And it wasn't that close.

Nayuta Satomi (52.6%)

Karin Misono (56.7%)

Konoha Shizumi (68.9%)

Oriko Mikuni (76.9%)

Mifuyu Azusa (59.5%)

Mami Tomoe (72.2%) - Even against another major side character like Felicia, Mami has dominated. All hail Mami.

Sayaka Miki (66.3%)

Ikumi Makino (69.5%)

Kirika Kure (63%)

[leafbladie]

Yuu is so fucking tall! Thank you based Doro Inu!

[abyranss]

"Nagisa? Nagisa?" "Are you there? It's so dark I can't see." "Call the doctor... I was stabbed by a scary monster..." "It looked human... but it was all white, and its mouth was split open."

I find it so fascinating that when responsibility for her mother's death was taken from her, Nagisa ended up changing to match the description given of the killer

That way it's almost like she can pretend to be responsible for it.

I want to see Yu and Nagisa meet again.

[muffinrecord]

CGs of Yuu from the latest update

[ashleytaylormemoria]

Thinking about it, Ash would probably love Yuu's Magical Girl outfit.

[crystalkokoro]

The latest Magia☆Report features Ren, Nagisa, Yuu and Rika!