Otome Youkai Zakuro

Second Lieutenant Kei Agemaki, the son of a famous general, has hidden his extreme fear of paranormal beings all his life. However, when he and two others are reassigned to live and work with youkai in the Ministry of Spirit Affairs, he is brought face-to-face with his worst nightmare. Now with the help of the fox spirit Kushimatsu, he and his fellow officers must learn to work alongside youkai maidens—Zakuro, Susukihotaru, Hoozuki, and Bonbori—to solve paranormal cases.

Set in the midst of an alternate version of Japanese Westernization, Otome Youkai Zakuro explores the clashes and unions that can occur when east meets west, local meets foreign, and women meet men. The unusual alliance of the youkai maidens and human officers must learn to work together in a world that is changing around them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Zakuro Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Susukihotaru Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Agemaki, Kei Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Yoshinokazura, Riken Main

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Bonbori Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Hanakiri, Ganryuu Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Hoozuki Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Mamezou Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Hanadate, Takatoshi Supporting

Kondou, Takayuki Japanese

Sakura Supporting

Iguchi, Yuka Japanese

Miyake, Masanori Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Azuma, Fukashi Producer

Kon, Chiaki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 25, 2019

aislinnhanako27

Recommended

Underrated gem

Story 9
Half-spirit girls team up with military boys to solve supernatural mysteries and keep the peace between humans and spirits during Japan's modernization. What's not to love? The clash of characters is a hilarious comedy, with some sweet romance mixed in. The overarching plot is intense and exciting. My only complaint would be the pacing. The main mystery is introduced fairly early on, but ignored in favor of light episodes dealing with one-episode mysteries until the very end. I like variety but thought it was a little implausible that they would put off investigating such a serious issue. ...

Art 7
The art was good, though not spectacular.

Sound 10
The music is fantastic! The opening "Moon Signal" is a perfect fit for the anime. The three endings are representations of the three couples, and are truly amazing. "Hatsukoi wa Zakuro iro" captures the energy of Zakuro and Agemaki, "Futari Shizuka" is a sweet duet with Susukihotaru and Riken, and "Junjou Masquerade" is as upbeat and lively as Bonbori, Houzuki, and Ganryu. I can't say enough about how good the endings are.

Characters 9
The titular character, Zakuro is strong willed, rude, loving, fierce, and a truly entertaining character. She's a great protagonist, being both a formidable opponent and a lovable character. The other characters, while being stereotypes, are enjoyable as well.

Enjoyment 9
This series was fun to watch, and had some hilarious scenes! More than anything else, I think what makes this anime great is the colorful and quirky atmosphere, especially with the entertaining cast of spirits.

Overall 9
If you enjoy comedy, Japanese superstitions, and mystery, you'll like Otome Youkai Zakuro!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 12, 2020

okamikotori

Mixed Feelings

You know exactly what you are going to get out this anime; it is exactly what it seems like. Even so it really delivers a good performance. But despite executing everything well enough, I feel this show is just really forgettable and it just about misses the mark for being an interesting show.

STORY:

The story of Otome Youkai Zakuro is fairly cliché as far as supernatural shoujo goes. Even so, the pacing is really decent and it ends satisfying. It doesn't waste your time either; there's no misunderstandings, love triangles or other things that simply exist to delay the story.

It's a sweet simple story that's very ... predictable and nothing special, but enjoyable non the less. The pacing was good, satisfying ending, it's all that I want out of anime really.

Also this is one of those anime that takes place during the early westernization of Japan before WWII, which i have always found an interesting setting. The plot sometimes touches on this too, so you might want to watch this if you enjoy this type of setting, although it is not the main focus in this anime. (I don't know enough about Japanese history to tell you which period it is, sorry.)

One thing I do have to warn you about especially if you're sensitive for these topics, (slight spoiler?) is that the plot involves incestuous rape to some extent (not shown, but it is threatened with towards the characters) so avoid it if you are sensitive to such topics.

ART

The art is solid, the animation isn't really anything special, but it's solid enough. The action scenes are decent, the action isn't purely made up out of stills, but I wouldn't call it amazing, especially with todays standards.

The character designs are all cute and recognizable and I quite enjoy them, but not necessarily iconic or anything. The main guy sometimes reminded me of the art-style from rose of versailles; it's all super shoujo, big eyes and everything.

SOUND

The opening is pretty fun? IDK if I'll listen to it later on, but it was ok. The soundtrack did not stand out to me. Sound design wasn't distracting and voice acting was ok. I enjoyed their performances, nuff said.

CHARACTER

Possibly the weakest aspect? The characters are very cliche, but to their credit, they never take it too far either. The main girl is a tsundere, but she never gets violent or anything; considering her personality it's all pretty reasonable. Character growth is a thing and it's executed well enough, so that's good.

now for the romance uwu

The romance in this show is pretty cute. I like the dynamic the main two have, it's pretty cute. They are both respectful towards each other, which is good, good feelings all around. They really develop something too, it really is satisfying to watch.

I actually liked some of the other romances way more if I'm honest, like the bald guy and the black haired girl, they were VERY CUTE, but I think we spend enough time on them, more time spend with those characters would've felt unnatural.

ENJOYMENT

Yeah I enjoyed myself, but if you ask me about this anime a few months down the line, I probably won't have remembered much of it.

OVERALL

I can't decide whether I'm being too favorable or being too harsh, but I suppose that in the end this show really is just a really nice solid 6/10 for me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 17, 2015

Rohling

Not Recommended

K, my first review goes to this, because i think i'm SO against the other reviews i need to say why.

Art and sound i usually don't rate (so i give it a solid 7) unless it's so good (or so bad) that it deserves a higher/lower one.

Story:
I'm usually more to the lower-counts, when it goes to tell a story, but this was just shortend beyond imagination. A struggle between demons, halfdemons and humans in that aera sounds promising, even if it's in a romance enviroment. Not that i don't like such anime from time to time.

At start there comes a lighting-demon and you learn, they ... do not kill them, they put them to sleep and afterwards the demon is nice. Why did it become angry at all? No answer.

Then the episode with Kai's father. Ok, Kai is afraid of ghosts, we learn that is because he saw a ghost when he was little? And his Father says "don't be afraid of ghosts" and slaps him? Just normal, get over it after ~10 years maybe?

Background-stories for the background chars were ..let me say under any bridge, but more on that in the Char-section.

Chars: Ugh, were to start.
Kai: get's kicked over and over and don't even mans up a tiny bit untill the last 20 seconds of the show.
Zakuro: again ugh, to make tsundere is fun, but it needs to stop at one moment. I mean, she got the stick up her ***** out sometimes, not in the final.
Other girls and other boys: They get along from the very start, there is ABSOLUTELY no envolvment, you just know what is going together (not that it is explained).
Another "Fun": The "bad" guys.
Almost no backstory (ok, the brother wants to *bleep* his sister. Oh really?
The other one is the spider, who loves the brother but get's rejected and is starting a fight (the endfight)
Please, have i seen too many animes to see this?

Overall:
Story: Good intention perhaps, but very poor.
Chars: 1-dimensional, even the mains were just as in the intro.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Otome Youkai Zakuro Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Jinjos - Oct 11, 2010	74 replies	by DarkSageRK »» May 12, 4:17 PM
	It was only the perfect anime for the first two episodes until.... Kiryotsu - Jan 31	2 replies	by lifeandstories »» Feb 1, 1:54 PM
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