Tag Archives: Yozakura Quartet

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode 85

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #85 is now online! In this podcast, I review the anime series Yozakura Quartet.

Josh's Anime Blog Podcast Episode 85This week’s Podcast Stats:
Time: 16:15
Download Size: 11.2 MB

Opening theme:
“Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi” by KOKIA
Opening theme to Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-

Ending theme:
“Shooting Star” by ROUND TABLE featuring Nino
Ending theme to Yozakura Quartet

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Directly: http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/JABPEpisode85.mp3

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Anime Review – Yozakura Quartet: 73.7%

The Essentials

Yozakura QuartetName: Yozakura Quartet
Genre: Action, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Released: October 2, 2008 – December 18, 2008
Based On: Yozakura Quartet manga by Suzuhito Yasuda
Director: Kou Matsuo
Produced By: Nomad
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Hime Yarisakura: Misato Fukuen
Akina Hiizumi: Yuuki Kaji
Kotoha Isone: Miyuki Sawashiro
Ao Nanami: Saki Fujita
Enjin Hiizumi: Tomokazu Seki
Kyousuke Kishi: Daisuke Ono
Eiji Shinozuka: Hideki Tasaka
Rin Azuma: Ai Matayoshi
Yuuhi Shinatsuhiko: Sachi Matsumoto
Mariabelle: Rie Tanaka

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 5/10 (x 4 = 20 pts)
Music: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 6/10 (x 5 = 30 pts)

Total: 140/190 (73.7%)

Review

Yozakura Quartet is about, surprisingly, a quartet of teenagers who use their power to protect the town of Sakurashin – the only town in the world where youkai and humans can live together – from anything that threatens it.  The quartet includes two youkai: Hime, who is the mayor of the town, and who has super human strength, and Ao, who can read minds; one half-human, half-youkai: Kotoha, who can make anything appear just by saying it’s name; and a human: Akina, who has the power to “tune” Youkai, which sends them pack to the youkai world, which has run through his family for generations.

One day, a youkai arrives in Sakurashin and starts making trouble.  However, Akina and Hime soon find out that it is a demon named Enjin who has possessed the body of one of their best friends, Gin.  Akina and Hime either have to find a way to separate Enjin from Gin’s body or send both back to the youkai world before Enjin destroys the town.

Overall, I thought that the story in Yozakura Quartet was rather needlessly drawn out.  The story about Enjin seemed more like a story arc that should have taken up about half the time that it did in the show, instead of drawing it out over the entirety of the 12 episode series.  As a result, it seemed like the story was spread a little thin.  I think the story in of itself was fine, at least in concept, it was just long and it made the series overall kind of boring, bland, and single-minded to me.

The same can’t necessarily be said about the animation quality and music, both of which I thought pretty good in this series.  The animation looks overall pretty well done, though one might expect that for a production company which handled such shows as Honey & Clover and Rozen Maiden.  The music was a mix of nicely done instrumentals and background-rock music which gave the show some much needed life.

Despite all this, unless you watch a show just for eye and ear candy – things which help boost the overall score of the show – I’m not sure what much else there is to watch, unless you don’t mind watching a story which probably should be told in 4 and maybe at most 6 episodes get drawn out over 12.

First Watched: October – December 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No

First Impressions – Yozakura Quartet

After watching the first two episodes, this series looks like it has some potential to be a pretty good series, as long as it doesn’t fall into the trap of a predictable “monster of the week” type series.

In this series, humans and youkai have long lived together on earth, though usually not all that peacefully.  As a result, the town of Sakurashin was established as a place where youkai and humans could live together harmoneously.

To keep the peace, the town has an organization called the Youkai Life Consultation Office which consists of 4 members: Hime, who some of the members call the “Mayor” (though I’m unsure whether she actually is the mayor of the town) and who is a powerful youkai, Kotoha, who is a youkai who can conjur up just about anything, Ao, a youkai who can read minds, and Akina, a human who is the only person in the town who can use “tuning” – a method through which bad or out of control youkai can be sent back to their dimension.

So far, it looks like some bad youkai dude is trying to cause problems with the Nana-gou trees around the town which are meant to keep bad things out, but what exactly his goal is, I’m not sure.

In any case, this series seems to have some interesting characters in it and the first two episodes look promising, so I’m hoping for the best with this series.

Blogging and Watching slate

I didn’t get around to doing a Fall preview post like usual just because I didn’t have the time, but I did want to go through the series I was going to blog and watching.

Blogging

  • CLANNAD: After Story
  • ef – a tale of melodies

I had forgotten about ef when I said I was only blog one series due to time.  Unfortunately, the one season when I wanted to only pick up 1 series is the season which has two must-blog series in the second seasons of CLANNAD and ef.  Damn them!

I don’t really think these series need much explanation.  If you need it, go look at the episode reviews for the first seasons.

Watching

  • Yozakura Shijuusou ~Yozakura Quartet~
  • To Aru Majutsu no Index
  • Toradora

So we have

To say that the top series I’m merely watching is the top series in that group because it looked “somewhat interesting” doesn’t say much about the series airing in this season.  Unfortunately, while there weren’t a lot of series I was drooling to watch, there were probably a half dozen series in the “somewhat interesting” category, so I still had to decide which ones to put on the list.

First, ones I didn’t put on it:  First up was Hyakko.  I almost put this on the list, really.  But it looks too much like Lucky Star/Azumanga Daioh/Hidimari Sketch and I’m both kind of worn out on random comedies with no plot, and I think my expectations for such series is so high that, if I had the choice, I’d rather pass on a series which has a good chance of disappointing me.

The next one I almost added but left off was Kannagi.  It looks interesting enough: tree girl turns into spirit.  But then again, the set up for this eries suggets a type of series which I’m also somewhat burned out on.  If this was the Spring 2009 season, maybe.  But I don’t feel like this one now.

Finally, it’s Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka.  Anime based on eroge is hit or miss.  I usually find that they’re either a) dramatic and good or b) lame.  Unforunately, after looking at the art and OP and ED, it appears like this one chose door #2.  Whenever people try to do a comedic eroge or a half-heartedly serious one, it doesn’t seem to work out all that well.

Next, the series I am watching, but not blogging.  The first is Yozakura Shijuusou ~Yozakura Quartet~.  I’m a little iffy about this series, but the supernatural/comedy premise plus the character art sold me on this one.

The second series I’m watching is To Aru Majutsu no Index, just because it reminds me of Shana.  That probably means I’ll go into the series with a set of expectations which totally aren’t met, but whatever.

Next: Toradora.  Yes, I know, everyone else is watching it too, but it does look interesting.

To be fair, most of the big hyped-up series are sequels, including the two I’m blogging, and most of which I haven’t even seen the first season.  It’s the original series which give me the yawns.

All of this is on top of the fact that I still has Two episodes of Maid Guy still not subbed, 2 episodes of Someday’s Dreamers, and 3 episodes of Nijuu Mensou left to go, not to mention Candy Boy and KimiNozo: Next Season which seem to get released whenever they’re ready.

I’m also catching up on some series I was only watching from past seasons, though at least those are easier to do (I can just sit down for a couple of nights and blow through those).

Update

I’m now just catching up on The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka.  Any series which pimps Shana so much is an instant win.

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