well then, as many of you may know yozakura's adaptation is manga written by Yasuda, Suzuhito and still on going. before the series started broadcasting in 2013, it already had 3 OAD featuring one of the events that occured in the middle of the story -Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi-. i wouldn't call it a prequel nor a sequel, but as an advice watching those 3 OAD after episode 8 and then going back to the remaining 9-13 episode would be a perfect way to avoid confusion and progress in a good pace. now going back to the story, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta has quite the familiar plot. humans and youkai living at a town that provide them with what other places doesn't, you probably heard about this kind of setting somewhere -touhou project as an example-. however unlike many of those shows, here human and youkai are co-existing with each other, expecting some bad people who are against this way of life to appear is meaningless. this town is protected by hime the mayor and her group who most of them are 16 years old or less, but we can always turn a blind eye to this matter..at least I could. now, here is something i couldn't let it pass: in the middle of watching the first episode i started doubting wether if it's really the first or just renamed as 01. in other words the story started in a blurry way, that initial narration description that shows what's going on in the series doesn't exist in yozakura, so as result the characters, the stats of the town, all of it is presented throughout the flow of events. and to do that, they made use of the cast by making them ask some blunt basique question they're already supposed to know its aswer represting by that the doubts and uncertainties of the viewer. to be honest i find it to be annoying, i mean sure the confusion of the viewer should be cleared however isn't ther any other way to clear it?
alright, if i was asked what is the main aspect that i liked about yozakura story my answer would be its half-seriousness. the fact that after every huge battle things end up in a good way, the following day everything gets back as if nothing happened. the fact that every antagonist instantlly bacomes one of the supporting cast after he's defeated. or even those punch-lines inside of a battle that should be serious, this kind of aspect makes the best out of the show, everything is joyfull, no one dies...all in all nothing of tragedic happenes. while for some other people that may look as a down side, for me i say this kind of things is not bad every once in a while...if considered as change of pace.
as for the cast of characters, stating that they're unique or first of thier kind would be an exaggeration. at least they're various, the mayor of the town: a 16 years old high school girl and a glutton, her way of wearing a long scarf makes you mistook her as a ninja while she's actually a spear using youkai. there is two glasses bishounens, hiizumi akina the head of the hiizumi family whose hair grow up in a mysterious way when using his tuning power, and of course Ao the cat eared loli with the ability to read minds - one can not simply hate her-. one of the upsides of the characters is their cloths, especially eiji and enjin's. the style of these two is what you'd call badass looking. yozakura also brings another warm theme with it, it is the teamwork/friendship wich personally i didn't stumble upon it for a while until now, those exiting moments where the whole group decides to kick someone's ass and then they proceed to execute an unknown plan that demands time for the viewer to figure out, yet doesn't clear out until the end, - it kinda reminds me of some one piece arcs tbh-
i stated earlier something about half seriousness, getting back to this subject i find it to focus mainly on characters. no matter how much of a bad person someone looks in the end he ends up being an ally of the protagonist casts even if it's only temporary. the same applies with enjin, at the end he decides to stop his series of troubles after helping akina to avoid death, even if it was in an indirect way. another matter that felt out of place again is the way Yuhi Shinatsuhiko is acting, trying to look cool with that pattern of talking and the cigarette in his mouth...sure he is the god of that land but that way of talking duud it's unsupportable! the background of hime, akina and juli were well explained and didn't feel like those blunt questions i mentioned earlier and guess what kyousuke's voice was the same as shizuo from durarara, actually the whole person was similar to him -lifting heavy stuff per example- coincidence? probably that's not the case.
from a visual yozakura did a decent job at in the animation, it's the only aspect i cloud declare as unique. i doubt you will find another series featuring the same animation as this one. there's that one scene where enjin got beaten up by everyone, it had a great view, many effects were used to show how bad he got rekt before disappearing again. the show also had plenty of panty shots....perfectly timed panty shots! especially ao, it was enjoyable to grasp her striped panties every once in while.*cough* i shouldn't be talking about that right? well asides from that all what remains is the lightning effects from behind, they're a little bit rare however they make the scene looks more serious and decent.
the OP and END surprisingly were great, they got the joyful feeling in them. the voice actors were pretty much spot on form most of the characters got nothing to say about that. some of the sound effects like the lightning, or that mysterious blue atmosphere that frequently appear makes you feel a chill running down your spin, calling it an achievement wouldn't be wrong.
humu, in the end thinking of yozakura as a serious magic/supernatural show will only deceive your expectation. however thinking of it a comedy/superpower show where youkai and humans faces conflicts and try to solve them together, so that the following day they would pretend as if nothing happened...i guess that will work. personally i find yozakura to be one of the best shows out of it's kind there's a tiny romance subplot going on with the every day adventure of the team. there's a warm feeling of friendship going on between the characters, everything ends up in good way, no need to struggle that much to figure out some uncertainties, no tragedy no drama, it's the best way to take it easy while watching an adventure show. highly recommended for fellow slice of life lovers.
tsun tsun dere tsun dere tsun tsun.......(you will understand what i mean by that later)
