Yozakura Quartet

There are few times when an avid anime fan goes into something expecting so much and gets so little in return. Yozakura Quartet happens to be one such example. Based on a much more highly acclaimed manga, the first episode starts off with all one could expect from a show that could deliver. Interesting, well-drawn characters centered around at least a moderately unique plotline. The music and sound quality are top notch and there are even early introductions to romance possibilities. However, as some stories tend to do, that’s when the train leaves the tracks. Yozakura Quartet is about a group of young people (there are5 of them actually, and originally 6 so the title really makes no sense) who protect a town that harbors both humans and Youkai. An evil Youkai, who has possessed the body of the best friend of two of the members, is out to seek the destruction of the town and bring about an era of all-Youkai rule, essentially snuffing out humans. The first few episodes start slowly and then immediately we’re introduced to Enjin, the protagonist, who it turns out is far stronger than they. There’s no real room for development or explanation of how they’re related and it seemed to me that maybe this should have been a 24 episode series. But for some inexplicable reason, the story decides to stick with random fights throughout the rest of the series, leading to mindless, repetitious dialogue that we could have seen coming using “fill-in-the-blanks.” The heroes never grow in strength as the finale comes either, so the ending is an extreme example of dues ex machina, which is like a death warrant for any anime anyway. There are too many characters to fill the time slots, the relationships between the characters don’t grow an inch and several of the plot lines are never resolved. There were some good things. As said before, the music was excellent and the ladies were very nice to look at – they were anything but bland or clichéd. The villain and his sidekick were diabolical and deserved a better defeat. And the art really was stunning in several points of the anime. All in all, though, this was an anime that was a disappointment far greater than a regular bad show, because it had potential and went nowhere.

I'm writing this review, in part, to respond to the other reviews. I felt strongly that the number ratings given do not correspond with what was said, and that they were unnecessarily gentle. This series is 4(Decent) at best. As to the story, it had a lot of potential, but none of that was realized. It ended up jumping around to random battles and poorly scripted conversations that seemed to have something to do with a general movement of plot, but in actuality did not. Lots of things happen in the plot, but the plot parts are so disjointed that no real story emerges, atleast no story that can stand up beyond a vague general description of the overall arc. Very poor, indeed. The art is nothing special, and it is not at all bad. The battles scenes are very average, with fighters swinging around weapons and throwing colored light balls, but the actual feel of legitimate combat is lacking. The character designs are, for the most part, interesting. If there had been actual character development, it would have been nice. The most abysmal part of the show was the opening. From an artistic perspective, it sucked quite badly. It didn't match anything in the show, thematic, stylistically, and was overall incongruous and lacking in substance. Whoever made it definitely has a fetish for strangely colored shapes and Adobe Aftereffects. It's unfortunately that the opening was so bad, as the song chosen for it was not. Furthermore, the sound design for the rest was very good. Nothing ground breaking, but the Foley was well done enough to give the situations occurring some sense of depth, and the background music supported well without intruding on the story. That said, the music did not elevate the viewer/listener at all, as it can sometimes in masterpieces(Gai Rei Zero being an excellent example), but it didn't do anything wrong, which was good enough. As you can probably tell, I hated watching this show. The first three episodes were fine, and offered the possibility of great potential in the future. However, things went downhill from there, until they fell off a bloody cliff into the bottomless chasm (i.e. episode 8) of being a waste of time. By 10, I was watching it on fast foreword, just to finish. I think, however, the most frustrating thing about the show was that the story made no apologies or real consequences for stupid decisions on the part of the protagonists. I mean, literally handing the bad guys the chance at world destruction is a mistake in my book. Hopefully that's not too much of a spoiler, but since this is such a bad show anyway, I doubt it will ruin your lack of enjoyment anymore than just watching can. So yea, there were a few good aspects, but that like pointing out that the figure head is nice on a ship with no rudder and giant gaping holes in the hull. If the car is a rust bucket, you don't rate it average just because the windshield was recently cleaned. So yeah, I agree with a lot of what the other reviewers said, but I disagree strongly with their number ratings.

Yozakura Quartet was only a twelve episode series. That's not a lot of episodes to go wrong with. A basic plot and story can easily be done in twelve episodes. Characters can be fleshed out in twelves episodes. Yozakura Quartet did not manage to do any of that. Story - 3 The first few episodes showed how much potential Yozakura Quartet had. They were interesting and hooked me instantly. The rest of the show continued to mock me as if saying I was a fool for having any hope in the plot. The characters made stupid decisions and many plot points never made sense or were poorlyexplained. Do not be tricked by the strong beginning. Animation - 8 The animation was pretty good. The character designs were wonderfully done, and all the fight scenes were fun to watch, if taken out of context. The plot seriously hindered my enjoyment of the fights, unfortunately. Sound - 7 The OP/ED themes were okay, the actual score was nothing special. I really didn't pay much attention to the score, which means at least it didn't bother me. The seiyū's on the other hand were too good for this show. The seiyū's for Chiaki Shinichi (Nodame Cantabile), Shinku (Rozen Maiden), Suigintou (Rozen Maiden), Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji), Nagi (Kannagi), Yin (Darker than BLACK), and many more were wasted voicing dull, irritating characters. Character - 5 The characters started out okay, but slowly a serious case of bad characterization appeared. By the end of the show, I could only stand to watch around two or three characters. The rest made multiple stupid decisions and contradicted their behaviour from before. Enjoyment - 3 Pretty animation and nice sound will go nowhere if the story fails and you want to strangle to the main leads. The story was a giant letdown, but every week I hoped it would get better. But it didn't. Overall - 5 So much potential, so little results. Yozakura Quartet was mediocre to core. I didn't exactly hate it - I was disappointed by it. Please, don't waste your time with this anime when there are plenty of others (Kamisama Kazoku, for example, is by the same author and is so much better) that aren't such a letdown.

Hmmm...Where to begin? Well, Yozakura Quartet, I could say, falls to the so - so level for me.It's not very bad, but not very good neither. If you have free time, then try watching it, but if you're kinda busy and only goes for the must - type then, it's okay to skip it. You could live your life to the fullest even without seeing this. Well, I don't mean to bash the anime. I had some little pretty moments actually. hmm..little moments...hehe...I don't know. I like its concept of 'youkai', it always remind me of my Claymore days and Claire -chan..hehe..but anyways, it's kindacheesy. However, I don't think the story has been rushed. It actually has a nice flow for the 12 - episode type. Although I might say, great heroism and character improvement plus coolness factor are lacking in this one. For me, the characters are blah, although they are actually very likable. For example, the main charac, Akina, I am so rooting for him. I want to him to be the sole savior of the Sakurashin Town, and wishing him to be a super "saiyan" (read: super powers) later in the series, but apparently, he is just a typical human being who is just gifted with a curse which runs in his family,and can only do one thing...tantananannnnn...cleanse youkai. He was overshadowed by the next not-even-cool-but-I-like-her character.. .. Hime. She so reminds of Yomi-onee-san from Ga Rei Zero. They are both long hair and beautiful. They are both skilled warriors. The thing that differentiates them is the oozing coolness factor of my greatest onee-san! Yeah boy!!Hime doesn't even have the slightest of it, well, I am so horrible bec. I am comparing the two which should not be the case since they are not of same situation..Well, whatever, don't mind me... Hime has the greatest role in saving her city but I didn't feel much of it that's why even though I like her, she won't make it to the cut. With the other characters, let's say..hmmmm...passing marks for them. With the OP & ED, passing also..but they do not make a recall to my ears..except for that particular BGM,,the one with the english lyrics? Hmm..I'm not sure..hehe.. Overall, I think this anime would only be on my passing level although I do not regret seeing this. I believe, we have different tastes to choose the good and the bad. So it's for you, readers, to decide! (Hmmm...I would be so touched if anyone would just read this..hehe...) From someone-who-already-moved on-to-a-new-anime-series, Me ^_^