Think of it this way. In reference to the title, a “quartet” can only pull off a beautiful performance when all four musicians play in sync with each other, complementing each other’s melodies to create the perfect harmony. It is not about one musician playing exceptionally better than the rest. Everyone has to make compromises and work together to get the perfect sound. The same idea holds true for anime as well, in that it doesn’t matter how beautiful the art is, how profound the story is, or how interesting the characters are; if these components do not mesh well together you risk getting a bland mishmash of an anime that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. And that is exactly how I feel about Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta.
Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta struggles to figure out its identity
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The show struggled mightily to find the perfect balance between all the different genres it tried to be: at times it tried to be a serious fighting anime, other times a shoujo romance anime, and sometimes a lighthearted slice-of-life anime. Not to mention, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta was only a 1-cour, so the director didn’t have a lot of space to work with. As a result, I was questioning the identity of the show throughout because the show just felt like an awkward mix of genres that the director was trying to force to come together.
The starkly different pacing between shounen and slice-of-life anime not only messed up the pacing of the plot progression, but also messed with the “rhythm” of the show, especially towards the later episodes. Even in the midst of the fast-paced action during fighting scenes, slow-paced dialogues and tension-breaking humor would completely ruin my immersion to the whole scene. For example, for every little bit of fighting that went on there would be some sort of flashback about the villain or character in question. When the fight could have been over in about five minutes or so, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta managed to draw the fight out to almost a full episode or two instead, showing long flashbacks that didn’t really add anything new to the characters or the villains. Yozakura no Quartet: Hana no Uta pulled no such miracles in terms of striking the perfect balance between several genres, and the inconsistent pacing that came about as a result broke my immersion to the show.
There is a severe mismatch between the amount of fighting and the villain’s purpose
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The show also had trouble trying to match its flashy action to a meaningful purpose. Every single villain that appeared in this show, except the main villain, had laughably trivial goals. The main villain was the only typical villain that wanted to achieve some form of “world domination”; the rest of the villains pursued explicitly personal interests that were as minor as wanting to reunite with a long lost sibling. And simply because of the fact that these personal interests involved our main protagonists in some way, there would be an “epic” showdown between the protagonists and the villains. As a result, there was a severe mismatch between the excessive amount of action and the triviality of the villain’s goals. The villains rightfully seemed menacing and intimidating when they were first introduced. However, once their goals were revealed, I skipped almost the entire arc and all of its beautifully animated fighting sequences because the end result was painfully obvious.
There is hardly any time for character development
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With the story rushing right along and the fight sequences taking up the majority of the show’s screen time, there is hardly any space left for character development. With a relatively large cast of characters, I was expecting a more character-driven plot with developments primarily focused on our main protagonists. Instead, the priority of the show goes mostly into fighting and exploring the backstory of the villains more so than the protagonists. Additionally, for each arc the focus of the character developments are on the secondary characters rather than the main protagonists, so there can be a loss of immersion because most viewers want to learn about the protagonists they always see on screen more so than secondary characters that appear in just a couple of episodes.
What also hurt the character developments was the rather lukewarm development of romantic relationships between certain characters. Especially in a 1-cour anime with barely enough room to fit in a bunch of fighting scenes and character developments, the romance felt pretty random and unnecessary (even if it was just staying faithful to the original work).
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Now, after having said so many harsh things about the show, would I still recommend Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta? Absolutely. I was not at all being sarcastic when I said that this show had everything. The art style is modern, young, flowery, and captivating; the premise is something we have already seen before but with a slightly different and interesting take; the fighting animations were exciting to look at, despite the large amount of fight sequences throughout the season and both OVAs; and finally, the humor was spot on for most of the show and the panty shots (and other forms of fanservice) were not too “in-your-face” about it.
However, my main complaint was that even with all these individually promising components, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta had a difficult time combining said components in a way that works. Just like how it is difficult to mess up a dish with Grade A ingredients, the director took great components of this show and just failed to add the right amount of spices. Regardless, the show deserves some attention for being one of the better reboots to a series and deserves credit for all of its positive aspects.
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Story: 7/10
Character: 7/10
Art: 10/10
Sound: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
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Overall: 7.4/10
