Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 夜桜四重奏～ハナノウタ～

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 6, 2013 to Dec 29, 2013

Premiered: Fall 2013

Broadcast: Sundays at 23:30 (JST)

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Tatsunoko Production

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Comedy, Supernatural

Theme: Super Power

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.46¹ (scored by 37,508 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2030²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1760

Members: 125,243

Favorites: 434

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Synopsis

Hundreds of years ago, the borders between the worlds of humans and youkai temporarily overlapped, resulting in many residents of both crossing over to the other side. In the years since this event, the city of Sakurashin has become a central hub for all inter-dimensional affairs—a result of both the sacred Seven Pillars around the city serving as a beacon for the youkai, and the efforts of the Hiizumi Life Counseling Office in keeping the townsfolk happy. This office is composed of Hime Yarizakura, the young mayor of the city; satori Ao Nanami, who can read people's minds; half-youkai Kotoha Isone, who can summon anything by speaking a word; oni siblings, Kyousuke and Touka Kishi; and the office director Akina Hiizumi, who inherited his family's ability to force youkai back to their world.

Besides volunteer and arbitration work, the Life Counseling Office also suppresses any Strikes: rare occurrences where humans are suddenly infused with youkai powers and go on a rampage. But the appearance of a sinister man signals trouble as Strikes become increasingly common, political rivals make their moves, and malicious individuals descend upon the city. As the self-appointed defenders of Sakurashin, it's up to the Life Counseling Office to protect the idyllic city they call home!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Episode 1 was previewed at a screening in Tokyo on September 28, 2013. Regular broadcasting began on October 6, 2013.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Yozakura Quartet
Alternative version:	Yozakura Quartet
Side story:	Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi
Sequel:	Yozakura Quartet: Tsuki ni Naku
Other:	Yoza-Quar!, Tsukiyomi

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nakamura, Shinichi

Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Tateishi, Kensuke

Producer

Yoshida, Kento

Producer

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Opening Theme

	1: "Sakura no Ato (all quartets lead to the ?) (桜のあと（all quartets lead to the?）)" by UNISON SQUARE GARDEN (eps 1-8, 10-13)
	2: "Kid, I like Quartet" by UNISON SQUARE GARDEN (eps 9)

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Ending Theme

"Tsukiyomi (ツキヨミ)" by phatmans after school

Reviews

Dec 30, 2013

Stark700

Recommended

The Yozakura Quartet franchise has been an odd ball in the mix. Some classifies it as a supernatural comedy while others sees it as a fun series with shounen battles featuring a diverse cast of characters. While the series itself doesn’t venture too far or drag like long term battle shounen series, it does take some patience to get used to. Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta is one prominent example of where it’ll take more than patience to get through the show. It’ll take endurance to get yourself familiar with the themes. Once you do, you might find a little charm in this show. As ... far as that goes, Yozakura Quartet still is like a stinger on a bee that might not always work out right.

Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta is a brand new anime series based off of the manga of the same name. The series stands out on its own so it’s not completely necessary to watch the previous seasons or OVAs. Tatsunoko Production adapts the season that has its long history of animation production tracing back to the 1960s. Their more recent works such as Gatchaman Crowds also adapts supernatural themes into a modern life setting where everything seems normal at first; that is until the extraordinary strikes into the core of the story.

Bizarre may be interpreted as an overrated word for a show like this but it never escapes as the way it describes its style.

The story begins exactly as such in a bizarre way involving fish tanks, pigeons, and something we might be more familiar with – youkai. The way it sets it up makes viewers confused at first. This is especially true for viewers coming completely fresh into the show without expectations. What follows later makes more sense as we see other characters jumping into the problem and resolving it in their own little ways. They even get their rewards too such as enjoying the Sakura Festival. Because hey, we all need a break to enjoy ourselves after a day of hard work.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Yozakura franchise, one key factor to consider would be the diversity of its characters. Among the center of its cast are four main characters by the names of Akina, Hime, Ao, and Kotoha. While they seem normal at first with their teenager like outlooks, all of them have supernatural abilities. Not only that but one of them, Hime Yarizakura, stands as the protector of their city Sakurashin. Because youkai co-exists with humans, one should expect danger at all times as nothing is considered ordinary. For Hime, she plays the role of a guardian/mayor and the anti-thesis of a frail girl. She charges into the face of danger and puts others before herself. In one instance, she even tries to escape the hospital despite being injured. In her mind, it’s her duty and responsibility to protect the people she loves.

It’s not a surprise that most of the main female characters defies the typical fragile girl trope either. It’s bizarre since most of them are teenagers and aren’t fully matured yet, or at least at the age of the adolescence stage. Even bystanders at some cases that gets indirectly involved with the youkai displays some of their tendencies to help others. It’s bizarre to see on various levels with the fact that youkai are a threat to its citizens of the city yet people are willing to risk their lives. Normally in supernatural series, you would see people rushing away from scenes of danger. In Yozakura, it’s the opposite way around. But as much as fun as the series goes with its whole supernatural themes, it still falls under the typical story involving teenagers obtaining powers in a generic setting. Antagonists are stereotypical with their own ideologies and causing menace to the city’s people. Their physical appearances also reflects their actions that speaks louder than words. Although it sparks some interest at first, they can become dull as the story goes on with limited exploration of their character backgrounds or origins. It also opens up the fact that their lack of personalities gives them a hollow part to the main story. The resolution to most conflicts literally turns a villain into an ally that becomes repetitive to comprehend. While it stands out as a justification for their actions, there’s limited amount of characterization afterwards. On other hand, Akina Hiizumi is perhaps one character that has some depth with his own conditional way of thinking such as concepts involving destiny. Unfortunately, the majority of the characters in the show still lacks dynamics. The male characters are also portrayed as jokes on various occasions such as Kyousuke Kishi thanks to his powers.

If you’re into the story, the series does go into depth with some of its concepts. In between are some episodes that may feel a bit repetitive or oddly paced. The series itself is also only 13 episodes (one cour) but surprisingly adapts quite a lot of material from the manga in the form of packages/arcs. Along with adaptation, it even manages to insert various comedy scenes too to raise attention. While it doesn’t overly express fan service, the series doesn’t avoid with the pool outdoors. On the other hand, it sticks to its themes fairly well with the supernatural features. Although the story is predictable on various occasions, it can still be surprisingly entertaining thanks to its fluid action scenes and energy. On a more technical scale however, the story sometimes lacks details in terms of explanation. It also neglects a serious atmosphere on most occasions despite the dangers of the youkai. Perhaps the amount of energy the show possesses is too much for the story to stands for itself. Hime is just one prominent example but other characters also pours their ebullience to reflect its atmosphere. A mixed bag is also the comedy – some of them oddly coordinated while others works out quite well to make its point. This usually involves the character interactions, dialogues, and in general the way they play their parts in the story. While some characters don’t stand out as much as the others, comic relief is a prevalence of the franchise and is executed decently. Get ready to grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the laughs.

Artwork is not a prominent factor but does play a key theme to reflect its style. It’s important for the show to depict its supernatural themes. Surprisingly enough, it did pull it off in that fashion. Youkai are designed not only with otherworldly features but also giving their malevolent appearances. None of them looks the same and offers a diversity of characteristics. The way the antagonists are designed also conveys their efforts well. On the other hand, fan service sometimes gets in the way as female characters are characterized with more sexuality than they should be. The background textures also seems average as nothing stands out as extraordinary or noticeable. Hime on the other hand has that noticeable scarf wrapped around her neck with a more definite meaning.

The soundtrack is solid for most parts. The OST performs well mostly during its action scenes but fades in the background during more of the calm scenes. There are some emotional scenarios in the series as well and the soundtrack reflects its mood consistently. However, it lacks the concept of originality with portraying shounen battle sequences. Cheesy dialogues are inserted in during fight scenes while the whole stereotypical laughs from the antagonists are echoed in the air. The OP song is quite catchy with its presentation and the memorable “lalalala” that once again reflects its comedic mood. And as I mentioned before, there is a diverse cast of characters so each of them should reflect a different sense of tone in their voice mannerisms. Most of the characters has their standards met. Hime in particular stands out with her tone as a girl with responsibility. Kotoha Isone is also a character to take notice of because of her ability that relies on words itself that are spoken. On most parts, the soundtrack and voices works out right but nothing earth shattering.

In the end, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta is one of those series that will strike out as bizarre yet appreciable. There’s that word again but it fits with the show right with its story, character, themes, and overall presentation. I won’t say this show is for everyone but shounen fans should definitely appreciate the style. The comedy can be appreciating with the drama and diversity of characters. On the other hand, some of the story itself feels blend or weak at various points. Its lack of character development sometimes makes the shows feels like it’s just another battle shounen on occasions. However, the energy will envelop and sucks you with its style in its Yozakurish way.

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Feb 1, 2014

SushiUnlimited

Mixed Feelings

This anime was a mixed bag for me. I haven't seen the original show, so my experience with this franchise is based entirely on the reboot. Yozakura Quartet had a good story set up going on, but that was it. I feel like this anime feel short, it didn't really go anywhere. There were all these clues leading to this big climax, but in the end it felt like nothing had really happened and nothing got accomplished. Yes, it think the story was good, I just would've liked to get more out of it. This series could probably have benefited from being slightly longer.

There characters, ...

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Feb 10, 2023

thonking-time

Not Recommended

I don't usually write reviews, but goodness gracious this show is abhorrently terrible. There are possibly some things for some people to like in this show, but it fails on pretty much every single level I can think of aside from the occasional bit of spicy sound design and the one good character.

The weird thing about this show is that absolutely nothing happens. Like, the plot is technically in a different place by the end, but it might as well not be. There's no progression or real resolution very often, and most of the time it's just characters doing menial tasks or sitting around. You ... can make a show like that fun, but this show's comedy is always incredibly out of touch and really childish aside from a couple special cases. Even when plot happens, it's surrounded by all this junk, and the plot itself is incredibly slow moving. That being said, if you like kind of childish/loud humour, then you might actually like the comedy in this show which is obviously one benefit.

My biggest issue is that the characters in this show never feel human. There are amazing shows where pretty much nothing happens plot wise, but they're still good because the characters are interesting. That being said, the characters of Quartet are ridiculously one note, and most importantly, they never naturally react to things. Things that should be big deals are shrugged off like nothing, but random conflicts born out of thin air are treated like the worst thing ever. Also, it's fine if a character yells emotionally to get a point across one time, but if it happens every single episode then it just starts to show how overly melodramatic the show is.

I'd also like to talk about the frequency of sexual assault in this show because I believe this is the single piece of media with most instances of sexual assault that I've ever seen, and I've watched a handful of Sion Sono movies so that's saying something. The Ecchi in this show isn't really fun, it's just disgusting. There's no enjoyment to it, but it's painted like it's meant to be just ok or fine or whatever. I adamantly defend Kill La Kill's Ecchi, and I don't necessarily have issue with Ecchi as a concept(I mean, it could be more gay tho), but the Ecchi in this show just makes me feel sick. Theoretically it's fine when compared to other shows, but it's all just so needlessly random and invasive, and it feels like a violation of every human right. Even though it's comparatively mild on paper, the specific way that it's done always makes me want to vomit.

The one benefit is that at the end of the day, no matter how much I dislike the show, Lila is actually still a pretty good character. She's really not around for that long, but she certainly steals the splotlight seeing as how she has at least some attempted character development, and most importantly, she's just fun to watch. She lights up any scene she's in, and it's a shame that her whole story is so rushed. If she were in a better show, she'd be a decent character; not a good one, but still pretty fun, and she's a nice escape from the mildness of the rest of it all.

Still, the two characters I hate the most are the villain and Yuuhi. The villain is terribly written, I genuinely have no clue what his motivations are or what side he's on, and he just tries so hard to be edgy yet fails on every single level. I can appreciate a really cringey edgy villain, I love B: The Beginning after all, but this just isn't it. Also, Yuuhi might be my least favourite character in anything ever because he too is really edgy to a stupid degree, but he also does about 90% of the sexual assault seen in the show. I want to remove Yuuhi from existence; torture would just prolong his time on this planet, what we all deserve is a quick and immediate removal of his presence from anything ever. I hate him with a burning passion, and he easily knocked down my rating by at least 1 point because I hate him that much. Goodness he sucks.

Also, yeah the main characters exist too, but I honestly could not ever get invested in them. Like, I get it's meant to be a quartet, but I don't even know who's in the quartet because it feels more like a quintet plus seventy other people. Luckily, every single character is quite bland so I don't have to get very invested anyway. I liked Hime's stuff, but aside from that, it's just pretty boring. I tried to remember who the characters were, but none of them leave an impression, and they're all just so forgettable.

This review probably won't help anyone, and if you like this show then I genuinely hope you're able to keep enjoying it. It's not offensively bad on most occasions, but it just really isn't for me or people who have similar taste. I also acknowledge that this review was written mostly out of blind hatred, but I really just wanted to get my feelings out there. This show has been a massive waste of the past few months of my life just because of how much I kept procrastinating on it, and I am incredibly glad that I finally finished it. Go spend your time watching Flip Flappers or something actually good as opposed to this, unless you like stuff like this, in which case have fun. I realise that I'm a bit isolated in my opinion here, but genuinely, this show is terrible and I have no idea how people like it.

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Oct 20, 2013 10:46 PM by Wind_Sr | Discuss (8 comments)

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Poll: Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tsubasalover - Dec 29, 2013	75 replies	by TeaBagCha »» Apr 5, 7:13 PM
Poll: Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Oct 13, 2013	65 replies	by Shrimp_Tail »» Feb 1, 7:37 PM
Poll: Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Episode 12 Discussion tsubasalover - Dec 22, 2013	44 replies	by deg »» Mar 5, 2023 11:36 AM
Poll: Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 15, 2013	40 replies	by deg »» Mar 3, 2023 11:36 AM
Poll: Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 8, 2013	43 replies	by deg »» Mar 2, 2023 12:08 PM

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Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

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Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

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