I found out about Yuki Yuna is a Hero when someone mentioned it was like SAO, so I gave it a shot and here are my thoughts.
If you're familiar with Sailor Moon or other animes like it, then you know what to expect. A team of girls are chosen by some sort of religion or something - over in Japan they call it the Shinju. The girls are put in some sort of forest or parallel world; they must protect the Divine Tree from creatures that are trying to destroy it.
But whatever happens there can have a major effect on our own world.
This show has some emotional moments that are depressing ... what the characters have to go through, the suffering, things they find out about the Shinju, and some other scenes that are emotional.
The characters are interesting, but I did have at least one issue with two characters: Yuki and Karin. For the other characters, we got some of their backstory as the show played along, but for these two, not so much. They did mention Karin's reason/motivation, but didn't go into detail about her history.
As for the story, well, it was pretty good. However, I will say that with female characters, anime always likes to show off women's bodies, and this show did that a few times, but not as much as a show like High School of the Dead. Many people might not like the story due to some weird stuff like the place they go and fight, the monsters they face, and the parallel world.
I was curious how the ending would play out; sometimes when I look at an anime I wonder if it will end tragic or sad. This show had me thinking the entire time, wondering if it would end with a bad or sad conclusion. Luckily, most of it didn't end that way, but it left you with at least one thing that was never explained.
Many people, for some weird reason, say bad things about dubs, but this show had some good voice acting. They did a good job of bringing these characters to life. Some people might say they don't sound as young as in the Japanese version, but who cares about that? Teens can sometimes sound like adults, and I think the voices fit these characters.
The animation and art style is beautiful.
As for music..yeah...dunno, maybe not memorable.
My final thoughts: This show may not be for everyone. When I first watched it I thought it was kinda ..eh.. like I didn't know if it would be good, but I did get hooked after watching it for a while. The characters made me want to come back. I thought the story and the dub were good, the animation and art style was beautiful, and the characters were interesting. This show might not be for everyone though. As for me, I don't like seeing emotional or tragic things, but this one isn't as bad as I thought. If you like Sailor Moon and any other anime that is like that one, then go for it. If you don't like those types, then move along. I personally thought this show was pretty good.
