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Yotsunoha is a short romance OVA with a solid concept, but somewhat underwhelming execution. Beginning with the story, it follows a group of childhood friends who have returned to their former middle school for their time capsule, and how they have a sleepover there which facilitates a fraught navigation of complex feelings like love, friendship, and loneliness. It's a cute concept, and many of the moments in the show itself are well-executed, though there are a couple of problems which hold it back in the end. First, the protagonist, Makoto, acts and talks like no human man ever would. He feels stilted, awkward, oblivious, and makes bizarre, jarring attempts at conversation that really make it feel like there's genuinely something wrong with him. Outside of that he's just your typical self-insert, but his outlandish comments make even that a difficult feat. Second, Yotsunoha is way too short to fully explore the story and its themes. The story is a fairly engaging romance, with the unraveling of years-old issues and the unloading of immense emotional baggage. It manages to be somewhat compelling, but it all feels rushed with only two episodes. The random flashbacks interrupt the pacing, even for how necessary they are to comprehend the plot, which is a shame. Motivations are even glossed over entirely in order to get to the next part of the story, leaving some scenes and transitions feeling confused or undeveloped, when a full 12 episode run would have been more than enough to let this story come into full bloom.
The art is good, exhibiting a relatively high production value while maintaining its thoroughly mid-2000s aesthetic. Namely, the soft color palate comes off as graceful and somewhat immersive, and the character design is unique and compelling. Though, there are a couple of issues with the quality that betray a limited time frame, namely in how it handles depth, with objects in the foreground feeling almost laid on top of the scene after the fact.
The sound is solid, and the strongest aspect of this anime. The soundtrack is light and fun with room for dramatic sorrow, the sounds of life are detailed, and the voice work is distinctive and richly emotional.
The characters are all around fairly strong, with the exception of Makoto, and I feel the ending of this brief anime reached its conclusion in the best way it could have given the circumstances. Though, Nono does get more screentime than the other girls, and as such develops a little further. Overall, Yotsunoha is an anime with a lot of wasted potential due to a poor execution of a strong story- give it a shot if you like the unique concept, or find yourself fascinated by relatively obscure titles.
