Over the H scene with Kaori, Takuya does not ramble the typical cheesy erotica but recounts information the player already knows about Kaori as though we have forgotten what is going on (as Takuya is wont to do). Takuya concludes his clinical narration with the amazing, “Such were the thoughts going through my head as I blew my load deep into Kaori Asakura…”
Aside from, say, accidentally walking in his stepmom while she is in lingerie, Takuya undertakes pervy actions that derail the story, including sexually harassing random background characters. A notable one is the scene with Eriko on the wall, mentioned above. Strangely, one of the rare occasions a character is shaken with Takuya’s behavior is Eriko in another scene of Takuya sexually humiliating her: “to think you would overstep ethical boundaries like that…” Damn, Eriko, wait till you hear what this guy gets up to later. Kanno writes these moments as comedic, particularly horrific when, on the Ayumi route, Takuya attacks, misgenders, and uses a slur against a random trans woman. (I can confirm the equivalent lines are milder in the Mages translation. Whether the Japanese text was altered I have no idea.)
How can I take Takuya and Eriko’s dynamic seriously when apparently Takuya sexually assaulting her does not matter? Why do Takuya and Eriko seem not to care that Ryuuzouji is raping Mitsuki—why do they masturbate over it? Why does Takuya never face any reckoning for attacking random people?
Particularly as regards Yu-no herself, the sexual fantasies presented in pure pornography are another matter, a point I elaborate on in the “Conclusion” below. But in what alleges to be telling a serious story, the whole story must be taken seriously. Brushing off Takuya’s sex crimes guts the integrity of the narrative and the game world. These artistic decisions, the unending “eroticism” regardless of context, indicate that the sci-fi melodrama is less of a priority than the player’s boner. YU-NO is not, as people like Sorlie seem to believe, a beautiful story that incidentally features graphic but tasteful sexual content. It is just a lackluster (and long) story glued to some porn.
Kurt Kalata has written that the reason YU-NO is beloved “has nothing to do with those elements,” i.e. what he deems “sleaziness,” but this “sleaziness” is YU-NO’s very soul. It is every other element of YU-NO that is surface-level. This is why a large quantity of the sexual content remains intact in the Mages remake, nude scenes simply adjusted such that the camera cuts off the forbidden body parts (I have heard whispers of the “nipple” only in legend). The gross conclusion reveals what I should have seen much sooner, that, worse than distracting or character-derailing, the nasty and sexist aspects of the presentation are not incidental but central to YU-NO because this is Fuck Your Daughter Quest. All of these quibbles are nonmaterial beside this core, overwhelming problem.