Heartwarming / Yuki Yuna is a Hero

• In Episode 3, The Hero Club throws a birthday party for Karin at her place. She never even had a birthday party before. The way she tries to hide her enjoyment (and fails miserably) is enough to warm anyone's heart.
• In Episode 4, Itsuki was able to overcome her shyness and aced the music quiz thanks to the Hero Club's encouragement. When she announces the news, even Karin is all smiles (before catching herself at the last minute).
• In Episode 5, after Togo and Yuna manage to defeat the giant Vertex core in space, they hold hands as Togo encloses them in a flower and they fall to Earth, content to die if they're together. Itsuki manages to catch them using several layers of Mankai vines.
  • At the end of Episode 5, Karin cries Tears of Joy when she sees that the Hero Club survived the battle with the final Vertexes after all.
• In Episode 6, Yuna telling Karin that she still has a place at the Hero Club even with the Vertexes defeated, and convincing her to come back. Afterward, Karin asks the Taisha if she can stay at Sanshu Middle School as a regular student. They say yes.
• In Episode 9, Itsuki assuring Fu that even with the Sange taking her voice, she's still glad that her sister made the Hero Club in the middle of a Cooldown Hug that Fu desperately needed. The vocals of Itsuki's Image Song, Inori no Uta, kicking in at that precise moment really makes the one-two punch of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker hit home.
  • Inori no Uta itself, considering how it's about how grateful Itsuki is for everything that Fu has done for her.
• In Episode 11, Fu snapping out of her Heroic BSoD after realizing how much Itsuki has grown, and afterward telling her that she's proud to be her sister.
  "...Beside me? You're standing in front of me now."
• Also in Episode 11, Karin telling Yuna that she's no longer going to fight as a Hero of the Taisha, but rather as a member of the Hero Club.
  • The last thing Karin does before beginning to fight and going mankai is look at the photo taken on her birthday. She fondly calls the others idiots. Considering that she probably thinks that she's about to die, and the ending of the episode even makes it look like she's dying, the fact that she last thing she wants to see before she goes into her final battle was that photo was equal parts heartwarming and a tear jerker.
• Episode 12 is one of these after another, from Yuna telling Togo that being a Hero isn't hell because they have each other, to the entire cast (even Sonoko) recovering from their disabilities and finally being able to perform their skit for the Culture Festival.
• In Sonoko After, Sonoko joining the Hero Club after recovering from all of her Sange and instantly getting along with the other girls is great to see after everything she went through.
• The Yuki Yuna is a Hero Club Member 4koma is generally a mix of this and Funny Moments, but particularly heartwarming is Karin meeting a shy kindergartener who confides in her that she doesn't have a lot of self-esteem, but thinks that a cool and confident girl like Karin could help her.◊ Karin, remembering how she was The Unfavorite always trying to catch up as a child, agrees to train her (in her own Tsundere way).
  • Chapter 19 of the 4koma reveals that Karin has been training the girl, named Tomiko, ever since, even eating dinner with her family several times. Tomiko now wears matching ribbons and jackets with Karin, whom she happily calls "Master."◊ Chapter 19 also has Karin confessing that she had been absent the last few days because Tomiko's family had caught the flu and she had been taking care of them, as they had become like a family to her.
• The premise of the Hanayui no Kirameki mobile game, which gathers characters from across the entire franchise, means that we get to witness Heroes who were killed or implied to have died in canon be brought back and see them interact with Heroes of other eras, giving us a glimpse of what life could have been like if all of them weren't subject to the life-threatening aspects of being a Hero.
  • Present!Sonoko and Togou holding back tears when they see Gin summoned from the Wasuyu period is both this and a Tear Jerker as it hammers down the point that they still miss their old teammate but are nonetheless more than happy to be working alongside her at least one more time.
  • While also counting as funny, both versions of Sonoko instantly hitting it off and bonding over their similar thought processes and love for writing romance novels is this, once again due to how much the both of them have been through. They eventually gain a follower in the form of Anzu from the Nowayu era, an avid fan of romance novels herself, to the point where she respectfully addresses both of them as "Sonoko-sensei."
  • Similarly, Sumi develops a good amount of respect for Togou despite the two of them being the same person. Togou even occasionally gives her younger self pieces of life advice.
  • Gin and Tamako instantly bond over being the resident Tomboy of their respective groups and often partake in friendly competitions. It's just nice to see them acting as themselves and being in their element considering both of them are Killed Off for Real in their respective eras. Later, Gin plays some video games with Chikage, and though Gin keeps losing to her, she praises her skill and even calls her "cool", causing Chikage to blush and ask if Gin would like to play another game sometime.
  • During the swimsuit event, Fu goes to personally talk with Chikage after the latter refused to join everyone else to shop for swimsuits. After much pestering, Chikage reveals that her body is covered with scars and doesn't want to wear a swimsuit because she's afraid of showing them to others. Fu reassures her that everything will be alright and tells her not to worry about it, to which Chikage replies:
  Chikage: "The Hero Club can consider itself blessed to have a leader like you..."
  Fu: "What are you saying? You're also a member of the Hero Club now, aren't you?"
  Chikage: "...Thank you."

  • This moment in particular is a moment of heartwarming on Chikage's part as the biggest source of conflict between her and the other Heroes of her time is her feelings of jealousy and resentment towards their team leader Wakaba, feelings that would eventually lead to her death, so seeing Chikage willingly acknowledge the status of another leader indicates just how far she's come in regards to opening up to others.
  • Heck, Chikage being in this game as a whole is one big moment of heartwarming. In her time period, she was a quiet girl who secretly wanted to have friends and a place to belong to, but her insecurities that stemmed from her Dark and Troubled Past made her hesitant in trusting others. Here, she's immediately accepted by the other Heroes for who she is, thus giving Chikage more chances to reveal her true nature underneath her cold exterior.
  • In Chapter 4, Gin asks Togou about her gun and Togou replies that she named it "Shirogane."^note The name is a reference to Gin, as the kanji used (銀) is the same one used in Gin's name. Gin says that it's an awesome name, something Togou readily agrees with, but it's the line she says afterwards that really sells it.
  Togou: "I named it after the most awesome thing in the world to me."
  • This brief exchange between Karin and Chikage:
  Karin: "Chikage, you're a third year as well?"
  Chikage: "Well yeah...Though when compared to the rest, I'm somewhat prone to self loathing..."
  Karin: "Oh, who cares? You're yourself!"
  • A bonus event in Chapter 6 has the leaders of the various teams present (Fu, Past!Sonoko, Wakaba, and Utano) run a mock election among the other Heroes to see who should be the new president of the Hero Club. The election ends in a draw with four votes each across the board, resulting in everyone agreeing that it would be best to keep Fu as the leader, much to her joy. That's heartwarming in itself, but the real kicker comes from the individual votes, specifically the implications behind one vote in particular. Aside from the four leaders voting for themselves, Fu gets Yuna Yuki, Itsuki, and Karin; Past!Sonoko gets Sumi, Gin, and Togo; Wakaba gets Tamako, Anzu, and Yuna Takashima; and Utano gets Sekka, Natsume, and...Chikage. How is this significant? Unlike Togo, Chikage did not have a personal connection with another candidate that would convince her to take another side, which means that she would have no reason to vote for someone other than her own leader unless the thought interested her as she had claimed...or she deliberately voted for someone else so that the election would end in a draw, nobody would feel bad about losing, and Fu would be still be the leader at the end of the day by proxy of keeping the status quo. And judging from her voice at the end of the previous scenes, it is very much implied that this was the case. It just goes to show that even though she's aloof, Chikage really is a considerate girl deep down.
  • Any of the monthly birthday events celebrating the Heroes who were born in that month count as this if only for the sheer amount of love and care each person in the Hero Club gives to the person or people of the hour. To list some examples:
    • In Fuu's birthday event, Itsuki asks everyone to help get a cake from a nearby store for her sister's birthday. Unfortunately, the group runs into some Vertex along the way and the cake ends up being damaged. However, Fu, the ever-loving older sister that she is, still accepts the cake for what it is and thanks her little sister and everyone else for remembering her birthday.
    • Mito and Natsume's event starts off rocky at first, with Mito feeling that she isn't worthy of deserving a party due to not being a Hero and Natsume not liking noisy environments. Instead, the rest of the Hero Club opt to give the two birthday girls their favorite things, with Natsume getting her favorite food and Mito getting...Utano wrapped up in ribbons.
    • Tamako and Anzu's birthday event once again shows the bond between the two friends as both of them are willing to let go of their own wishes if it means the other person will be happier. They eventually settle on asking Present!Sonoko and Past!Sonoko to write a story starring both of them as the main characters, to which both Sonokos are more than happy to comply.
    • Gin's birthday event has Present!Sonoko and Togou working to fulfill Gin's dream of becoming a bride in the best way they can: taking pictures of her in a traditional wedding dress and then a Japanese dress. With Past!Sonoko and Sumi as the grooms. Eventually crosses into Tear Jerker territory when Gin wants to show the photos to her family back home and tells Past!Sonoko and Sumi to be there when she gets married for real, to which both Present!Sonoko and Togou start crying as they know that Gin will never get the chance to get married, much less see her family again before she dies.
    • Chikage's birthday event gives some well-deserved attention to a character who sorely needed it. From the moment Chikage says that she never celebrated a birthday before in her life, everyone in the Hero Club pulls out all the stops to make her first birthday party a memorable one, with the end result being an image of Chikage, all dressed up for the occasion by Anzu, showing a rare genuine smile◊.
  • An optional scene has Chikage bonding with Shizuku over their similar backgrounds regarding their families with the two of them promising to confide in each other should they need to in the future. Bonus points also go to the fact that it is Chikage who initiates the discussion, once again showing how much she's grown thanks to the positive influence of the other Heroes.
• A subtle one for Nogi Wakaba is a Hero can be found in the OP for Yuuki Yuuna: Hero Chapter. There's an image, clearly a historical representation, of the Nogi Wakaba era heroes. Four heroes. It seems at first like it should be a tear jerker: a sign that the Taisha carried out their intent to remove all traces of Chikage from history. However, if you look on the ground at the back of the group, in the place where a fifth person might stand if there were five instead of four, there is a shadow drawn on the ground in the shape of the letter "C." A shadowy C. A C-Shadow. A Chikage.^note "kage" in Japanese means "shadow" Hinata managed to do it after all. Despite the Taisha's oppressive attempts to control every bit of information, Hinata still managed to preserve the proof of her friend's existence right under their noses.
  • And, in the finale, Chikage's spirit can be seen alongside the other NoWaYu girls,◊ reunited with them after everything.
• In Hero Chapter, there are many quiet moments where Sonoko and Togo grieve for Gin - Sonoko brings food to her grave, and asks Karin to be careful and not run ahead of the rest of the group. In the final battle, Karin ends up fighting ahead of everyone, and falls into the same needle-storm attack that killed Gin - but this time, Sonoko is able to reach her and shield her in the nick of time.