Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta (TV Anime Remake)

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

The opposite is true for Madoka, again having his very distinctive visual style, but because there was no original, most viewers have the impression that it is an Urobuchi show.

And it is an Urobuchi show. Even Shinbo defers to him as the ultimate authority on it.


Not that I disagree with your overall point.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

And it is an Urobuchi show. Even Shinbo defers to him as the ultimate authority on it.

And Ano says that Eva is random and pointless... afterall authors have no better comprehension of their works than their critics... but let's not get into that in this thread

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Not that I disagree with your overall point.

[Haak]

Episode 2

That was a nice episode and it's good to see how quirky and loveable the characters are, except I was a little weirded out by the fact that Kotoha and the others weren't too bothered about the fact that they nearly threatened the entire town. Kotoha in particular recovered remarkably quickly. And the constant fanservice is just really weighing this show down for me.

[Kanon]

Are there any limitations to Kotoha's power? It seems pretty goddamn hax. She can even summon complex objects like tanks and missiles. Its only weakness as far as I can see is that she has to speak, so if you can prevent her from doing that, you win.

[Sageblink]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Are there any limitations to Kotoha's power? It seems pretty goddamn hax. She can even summon complex objects like tanks and missiles. Its only weakness as far as I can see is that she has to speak, so if you can prevent her from doing that, you win.

If she uses it too much, she loses her voice for some time.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Are there any limitations to Kotoha's power? It seems pretty goddamn hax. She can even summon complex objects like tanks and missiles. Its only weakness as far as I can see is that she has to speak, so if you can prevent her from doing that, you win.

It certainly seems to be a pretty damn hax ability. Pretty handy to have on your side of course . Seems to just need to have some sort of mental visualization of what she's trying to make. And like with the poi from the first episode might need to mentally construct the object. Probably can't create some random thing that she only knows the word for but doesn't necessarily know what it is. Still one hell of a hax ability.

Goes to show that town has a lot going on to have so many people with so many strange powers to keep an eye on.

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Are there any limitations to Kotoha's power? It seems pretty goddamn hax. She can even summon complex objects like tanks and missiles. Its only weakness as far as I can see is that she has to speak, so if you can prevent her from doing that, you win.

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

It certainly seems to be a pretty damn hax ability. Pretty handy to have on your side of course . Seems to just need to have some sort of mental visualization of what she's trying to make. And like with the poi from the first episode might need to mentally construct the object. Probably can't create some random thing that she only knows the word for but doesn't necessarily know what it is. Still one hell of a hax ability.

Goes to show that town has a lot going on to have so many people with so many strange powers to keep an eye on.

Pretty much. Her kotodama basically works in two ways. The normal method requires her to verbally describe whatever she has in mind with as much detail as possible in order to summon it, the other is her 'shortcuts' where she registers the object and autosaves it into a key word. She did that in episode one with the goldfish scoop. IIRC tasting is the fastest way for her to learn/memorise an object.

Overusing her power is equivalent to a normal person screaming their head off for a long period of time: Your voice will eventually give way and you'll need to rest.

[HandofFate]

started watching episode 1.

the 'tsundere' song the kids were singing in the beginning seemed random

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

started watching episode 1.

the 'tsundere' song the kids were singing in the beginning seemed random

That's the town anthem. It's random because Hime wrote it.

[Warm Mist]

The manga looks bland and wooden, buy some eyes people :S

Even if you like it, or even if you prefer it, the anime artstyle is perfectly appealing on its own. It's expressive, gives room for loose, nice animation and it's not overdone. If you think it's ugly, all I can tell you is to adjust your glasses.

Not to mention it looks better than any other adaptation of the guy's artwork to animation. The original Yozakura TV show was terrible, for example.

[dark998]

I think this series biggest strength is that everyone is likable and carries the whole thing just fine. In my case, I got interest in Hoshi no Umi and later this thanks to Ao but I enjoy the scenes with the other characters too.

Episode 2 sheds more light about the setting and the job of the main cast. Visual quality remains consistent and fanservice was increased a bit as well (that Hime classmate...wow, she is healthy). And to complement, a bit of action with that quick Hime vs Kotoha match.

[FlareKnight]

Yeah the series is doing a nice job of slowly giving insights to the cast and the town itself. Not some super happy place, there are some tensions between the human and youkai sides of it.

Certainly seems like Kotoha's power has some serious potential for devastating if misused or not controlled properly. Makes you wonder what happened when she was a kid.

Also I'll just have to ask, was Ao's "method" of stopping Kotoha at all related to her satori powers or just using the power of yuri to stop her ?

[Dawnstorm]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

started watching episode 1.

the 'tsundere' song the kids were singing in the beginning seemed random

Originally Posted by Kakkou

That's the town anthem. It's random because Hime wrote it.

Town Song - on Youtube

[kyouray]

I don't know if it's thanks to Hiromi Taniguchi as animation director but Juri & Yae looked sexier than usual It seems Taniguchi will come back for episode 7 according to her twitter.
The fight was nice (Yuki Hayashi is uncredited?) and funny with Ao protecting herself during the fight and playing. This episode hasn't much action except that little fight but I love how this episode depicted the characters.
The direction is also good and creative like Kyousuke getting angry or the reflection of schoolgirls on the traffic mirror.
With this amount of fanservice I didn't expect ED showing only male characters but why not.

[NinjaRealist]

Episode 2:

Man, how can this show do so many things right and so many things wrong at the same time? The visuals and direction are still mostly great IMO but the fanservice is just absolutely terrible. Like that yuri kiss almost made me laugh out loud at how stupid it was, but, otherwise, that whole scene was really well-done from a visual direction and sound standpoint (even the throwaway joke at the end with Yae slicing the lightning in half and then waking up confused was one of the best jokes of the show). Some of the comedy was actually pretty good but other jokes, mostly the ecchi ones, were pretty awful.

This show would be so much better without all the fanservice crap. Ecchi isn't inherently bad and I think that Kill la Kill is a great example of how ecchi can be done in a really hilarious way that makes sense in the context of the overall show. However, the ecchi/fanservice stuff in Yozakura Quartet just doesn't serve any purpose besides exploiting the female characters for shameless sex appeal which detracts from the overall feeling of the show.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

Like that yuri kiss almost made me laugh out loud at how stupid it was

I think it makes a lot of sense. Kotoha's a canon lesbian, if I remember correctly, so getting a kiss by a girl strikes me as a pretty effective way to stop her from going on a rampage.

On the rest of the fanservice I do agree with you though. It doesn't make the series any favor.

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I think it makes a lot of sense. Kotoha's a canon lesbian, if I remember correctly, so getting a kiss by a girl strikes me as a pretty effective way to stop her from going on a rampage.

I don't know how much of the manga it's ok to talk about but she is definitely not a canon lesbian. There are some scenes that suggest she is, but there are also scenes that suggest she's a heterosexual.

[Haak]

Does it have to be one or the other? Is it not possible that she's bisexual?

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

Episode 2:

Man, how can this show do so many things right and so many things wrong at the same time? The visuals and direction are still mostly great IMO but the fanservice is just absolutely terrible. Like that yuri kiss almost made me laugh out loud at how stupid it was, but, otherwise, that whole scene was really well-done from a visual direction and sound standpoint (even the throwaway joke at the end with Yae slicing the lightning in half and then waking up confused was one of the best jokes of the show). Some of the comedy was actually pretty good but other jokes, mostly the ecchi ones, were pretty awful.

This show would be so much better without all the fanservice crap. Ecchi isn't inherently bad and I think that Kill la Kill is a great example of how ecchi can be done in a really hilarious way that makes sense in the context of the overall show. However, the ecchi/fanservice stuff in Yozakura Quartet just doesn't serve any purpose besides exploiting the female characters for shameless sex appeal which detracts from the overall feeling of the show.

If what you refer to as fanservice and ecchi is bothering you, maybe you should try something else, because should they stick to the manga plot and characters, you will be unable to follow the anime... for example Ao didn't kiss Kotoha in order for yuri fanboys to get excited, but to stop her from using her power... now why it was a kiss and not something else, it has to do with their relationship. This is the case for the rest of the scenes too. Should you discard them as unnecessary, you will miss a lot of the story.

Now about the episode, the narrating structure was brilliant, and the SFX extremely powerful and well-placed.

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

I don't know how much of the manga it's ok to talk about but she is definitely not a canon lesbian. There are some scenes that suggest she is, but there are also scenes that suggest she's a heterosexual.

I don't want to go into the manga too much but she does claim to like girls. She's definitely lesbian despite a certain chapter much later into the story (and speaking in general terms even if she showed hetero tendencies it still doesn't mean her general preference can't still be girls) but talking about this further would be dangerously off topic for this thread so I'll leave it at that.

As for the kiss well, the main purpose was an impromptu way of shutting her up. The shock factor helps too compared to simply putting her hands on her mouth.

Also she isn't the only lesbian the series *cough*.