Anime Playlist – Yuuki Yuuna franchise


Should be working on X or Y, but my brain wants to work on Z – an anime playlist post. Specifically, on the Yuuki Yuuna franchise. Fine, fine, it’s one I’ve been especially meaning to get to sooner rather than later… So, hit the jump and let’s get it going!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading and participating in Xenodude’s excellent episode-by-episode reviews of the Yuuki Yuuna franchise. That’s prompted me to add two songs to my playlist collection.

Just because it makes the most sense to me, I’m going to tackle them in chronological order rather than airing order.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: The Washio Sumi Chapter
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou

(Chronological order, 1st. Airing order: 2nd)

Sakiwafu Hana (サキワフハナ “Auspicious Flower”)
Suzuko Mimori (VA: Washio Sumi/Togo Mimori)

 

Finding the OP to the Washio Sumi chapter was… not easy. Every website lists Sakiwafu Hana, which isn’t the actual OP. It appears to be Minowa Gin’s character song. Maybe it was a one-off? I don’t actually recall.

Egao no Kimi e (エガオノキミヘ “To The Smiling You”) 
Suzuko Mimori (VA: Washio Sumi/Togo Mimori)

Lyrics (English, Kanji Romanji)

OP Version

The OP I recall, the one for the episodes I checked, is actually Egao no Kimi e.

Egao no Kimi e hadn’t previously been in my playlist, but rewatching it over the last few weeks and having it pop up in our weekly Anime Music Quiz game has lead me to change my mind. Maybe it never really sunk in before because I only watched The Washio Sumi Chapter once and so I only heard it six times.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru

(Chronological order, 2nd. Airing order: 1st)

Hoshi to Hana (ホシトハナ “Stars and Flowers”)
Terui Haruka (VA: Yuuki Yuuna), Mimori Suzuko (VA Togo Mimori), Uchiyama Yumi (VA Inubozaki Fu, and Kurosawa Tomoyo (VA Inubozaki Itsuki).

Lyrics (English, Kanji Romanji)

OP Version (High quality)

OP version, subtitled (low graphics quality)

In terms of sheer beauty… Hoshi to Hana is probably second only to Spice and Wolf’s first OP – the incomparable Tabi no Tochuu. When I set out to create my anime playlist, this was one of the first songs I sought out.

YouTube also has versions sung by each of the main voice actresses:
Terui Haruka (VA: Yuuki Yuuna)
Mimori Suzuko (VA Togo Mimori)
Uchiyama Yumi (VA Inubozaki Fu)
Kurosawa Tomoyo (VA Inubozaki Itsuki)
Juri Nagatsuma (VA: Miyoshi Karin)

Yuuki Yuuna is also unusual in that it’s OP evolved over several episodes… This was done deliberately to avoid putting spoilers into the OP.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: The Washio Sumi Chapter
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou

(Chronological order, 3rd.  Airing order: 3rd)

Hana Kotoba (ハナコトバ “Flower Language“)
Terui Haruka (VA: Yuuki Yuuna), Mimori Suzuko (VA Togo Mimori), Uchiyama Yumi (VA Inubozaki Fu, and Kurosawa Tomoyo (VA Inubozaki Itsuki), Juri Nagatsuma (VA: Miyoshi Karin), Kana Hanazawa (VA:Nogi Sonoko).

Lyrics (English, Kanji Romanji)

OP Version

Full length version, subtitled.

As with Egao no Kimi e, I’m surprised I didn’t add this long ago. Thanks to iTunes, as of a couple of hours ago, this error has been corrected.

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Visit the Anime Playlist Index  (an ongoing work-in-progress) to see the entire series and my whole playlist.

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Be sure and check out the most recent posts in the Anime Playlist series:

Sword Art Online (franchise)
NANA
Laid Back Camp (franchise)
Shirobako
Yuuki Yuuna (franchise)

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Another series down, many, many more to go! I hope you enjoyed this installment, and once again you should be reading Xenodude’s episode-by-episode coverage of the franchise linked up at the top of the post.

You can find my posts on the franchise here.

Question or comments, drop a comment below and let’s chat!

For my part, time to take a break from blogging and tackle the kitchen. (At least it’s not laundry day – that’s an all day task.) Time to set up my Bluetooth speaker… Three guesses what I’ll be listening to, and the first two don’t count!

4 thoughts on “Anime Playlist – Yuuki Yuuna franchise”

  1. As always, thanks for the shout out. :)

    Been listening to “Hoshi to Hana” and “Egao no Kimi e” a lot actually. “Hanakotoba” is also stuck in my head now that I’m watching the Hero Chapter.

    From my understanding, “Sakiwafu Hana” is the OP for the theatrical versions of WaSuYu and it’s sung by Suzuko Mimori as Washio.

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    1. Not a problem. It’s good stuff, and YuYuYu is a series that deserves much more attention than it gets.

      “Hana Kotoba” is, IMO, the better of the two and the one I originally set out to buy… It has the same vibes as “Hoshi to Hana”.

      That makes sense for “Sakiwafu Hana”, I can easily see that being a source of confusion.

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