loma41 - 2013-11-18 16:30:50

I watched Yozakura Quartet with the idea that later I'll watch the new series Hana no Uta later on. Needless to say, now I definitely will stay clear of this franchise.

The plot was rather average - there's an evil mastermind with no legitimate purpose who just wants to watch the world burn. Our four (or six depending on your point of view) heroes must stop him with the help of friendship, glowing objects, shiny hands and 'dadadadadada'. However instead of using all 12 episodes for plot reasons, about a third of episodes go to pure filler full of slapping dogs and bouncing soccer balls, all played for drama. Nobody in this city knows of the word 'logic'. Characters were doing dumb things all the time, however, I wasn't even mad. I considered them braindead. The good thing about them was the struggle, and that was real. Their feelings felt real, even though they always went the most stupid way about them. Another good thing about this anime was the music - it was surprisingly good. Yeah, it was repetitive, but I'd rather have three good tracks repeating themselves than twenty horrible ones. One track deserves a special mention - at the most dramatic times, it ended with 'I don't have the answer' which mostly fit perfectly with the situations on screen. The animation though was crap. It even made me google the anime made in 2008 so I would know if this quality was standard, and I found that Toradora, Kannagi and Soul Eater all came out that year and all were much better animation-wise than Yozakura Quartet.

In the end I found that I slowed down on the last 7 episodes and last 3 ones were an especial pain in the ass. I did not enjoy myself much through this anime, and I do not recommend this to you.

For similar feeling, plot and pacing watch Strike the Blood or A Certain Magical Index, for similar setting and idea - Kyousougiga. There is also the newer version Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta, which is supposedly the same with different plot, but I have not and will not watch it, so take that with a grain of salt.

thayes - 2013-10-08 04:17:56

Yozakura Quartet is an interesting anime about a group of friends who are in charge of protecting/running this very unique town where youkais and humans can coexist.

This anime is very good at creating unique and distinct characters that aren’t stereotypical and are well fleshed out. They each have individual problems that they must face that may be shunned upon by the rest of the group. There is this turmoil between these characters, they aren’t this well and go lucky group but a group of real people who have insecurities.

The world created is the thing that really brings life to this anime as the main characters try to preserve and save this town no matter what the price. There are two kinds of people in this world youkai and humans (also half youkai and half human but those are rare). Youkais have superhuman attributes and this causes them to be hated by the human race who views them as threatening and this town is the one place where they can coexist so this town is the only chance they have of living normally and so it’s very important to the characters.

The only thing that I wish the anime had done better was to maybe flesh out center story arcs a bit more and to add more romance (but I ALWAYS want more romance so)

This anime isn’t perfect by far but it’s really interesting and I would recommend you watch it if the plot intrigues you.