Yozakura Quartet - Quartet of cherry blossoms in the night

[mandarb916]

Considering this was animated, I'm a little surprised that there's no topic on this series..



Serialized in Monthly Shonen Sirius in 2006 and still on-going; currently on vol 6 (as of 1/30/2009).
Picked up by Del Ray for localization and currently on vol 3. I believe
Authored by Yasuda Suzuhito who is also the character designer for the recently released NDS Game, Shin Megami Ibunroku - Devil Survivor.

Heartful action supernatural slice of life comedy centered around a physically strong town mayor (Hime), a half human/half supernatural who's words can be manifested into items (Kotoha), a spiritual telepath (Ao), and a human who runs a help desk for supernaturals (Akina) in a town where both beings thrive alongside each other.

While the plots are relatively simple and straightforward, the daily lives of the 4 above and other characters are really enjoyably written with the comic relief antics interspersed with great timing throughout the entire story. Even during some of the more serious scenes, Yasuda manages to include bits of comedy without overdoing it. While there aren't many scenes which will make you clutch your stomach while crying in laughter, there's a constant stream of chuckles to be had all throughout every volume. Also, there's content to the very last or second to last page of every volume as well as on the back cover...no ads for other series releases and what not so you can literally enjoy it to the very end

Manga extras
Each volume also has 2 additional short comic sections at the end in the JPN version; unknown if it's in the localized version:

Yozakaru - (short for Yozakura Quarter) a small "what if" segment of what the series would be like if various changes were made.

Afterword from the Author - a short segment from the author describing the various publishing aspects related to the series; how the anime came to be, when certain characters were designed, what to expect for the next volume, etc.

Volume 6 - The limited edition came with a drama CD based around the Town Song (aka Tsundere song). The Tsundere song is on a separate track

Volume 7 - Yasuda mentioned on his site that volume 7 will most likely also feature a limited edition extra. No mention of what it will be, yet.

Tidbit
The instruments on the manga covers and "Quartet" in the music terminology sense have absolutely nothing to do with the series. Yasuda just likes instruments.

[yongshun]

Del Rey tries to translate the whole Tankoban only fan letter they dont translate at lest from the volumes that I have on hand.

[Jiji]

Originally Posted by mandarb916

The instruments on the manga covers and "Quartet" in the music terminology sense have absolutely nothing to do with the series. Yasuda just likes instruments.

He was saying in his "author's afterword" in one of the volumes that originally, this was going to be a manga about a band and I find it kind of cute that he kept that idea when making the cover art. Also, about the only thing that I liked about the anime was that they used a lot of music in it -- more than your usual anime. This was surely an hommage to the author.

I hear there's to be a 'reboot' sort of OVA that ignores the previous anime's story, and is more for the fans of the manga and thank the 8 million gods. I found the anime to be pretty awful. Love the manga, though.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Jiji

I hear there's to be a 'reboot' sort of OVA that ignores the previous anime's story, and is more for the fans of the manga and thank the 8 million gods. I found the anime to be pretty awful. Love the manga, though.

Here's the thread for said OVA.

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=93325

[Kunagisa]

I should really try to catch up again reading this because I fell in love with it before groups started scanlating 'em in English. Still wish the anime didn't fail so much though.

[willyvereb]

Technically Volume 10 was out with the second ONA. Anyone read these?
We're stuck at Ch 51 in scanlations for more than a month.

[Shadow5YA]

It's hard to discuss the manga when we haven't had any scans on it for a while.

[willyvereb]

Indeed. It has been 2 months without any new scans.
Worse, I can't get any raws to read. The plot is just barely in the midway of resolution. I hoe we can get more scans sooner or later.

[Kurosu]

Originally Posted by willyvereb

Indeed. It has been 2 months without any new scans.
Worse, I can't get any raws to read. The plot is just barely in the midway of resolution. I hoe we can get more scans sooner or later.

Lack of raws has been a reason, magazine raws are kinda goofy, because the tankobon releases seem to differ from the magazine from time to time (rearrangement of chapters addition of scenes, etc). I believe the latest volume should be out soon (or already is out) and it's caught up to where the latest releases are. Shouldn't be too long (hopefully)

[willyvereb]

Glad to hear. To be honest I suspected something like that in the background.
By the way, does anyone has the Instrument pic of V9? Or was it the Yae image?

Anyways, I wish to see Zakuro or Lily with their music instrument soon.

[Exether]

I watched the anime and then started reading the manga.

The manga starts in a kind of confusing way but you get the idea of what's going on after a while.

The manga story is way better that the anime although the author tends to leave the readers wondering about some things from time to time, the story is so good that I wish they decided to do a new anime series of this instead of OVAs.

Unfortunately, this manga shares the luck of Princess Resurrection, another manga I like, not widely known in the west an with stories that albeith interesting, don't manage to make a big fanbase.

[Kurosu]

Originally Posted by Exether

Unfortunately, this manga shares the luck of Princess Resurrection, another manga I like, not widely known in the west an with stories that albeith interesting, don't manage to make a big fanbase.

Ironically both run in the same magazine and share the majority of the popularity on it.

[Exether]

Originally Posted by Kurosu

Ironically both run in the same magazine and share the majority of the popularity on it.

They must definitely be popular in Japan considering the fact that they are spawning OVAs but I was refering to their overseas popularity...

I wish I could read japanese

[Duo Maxwell]

Did the manga stop? There hasn't been any update, and mangatraders lists its as "On going - Volume 9" in Japan, which has been released a very long time ago. Does anyone know its status in Japan?

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Did the manga stop? There hasn't been any update, and mangatraders lists its as "On going - Volume 9" in Japan, which has been released a very long time ago. Does anyone know its status in Japan?

Scans are up to chapter 51, that includes all of volume nine; maybe it's that CXC prefers to wait for raws from the tankobon.

[Duo Maxwell]

The scanlation is picking up. Glad to see all the delicious legs and thighs have returned .

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

The scanlation is picking up. Glad to see all the delicious legs and thighs have returned .

We can both agree that a certain panel was the best part of chapter 52.

[Bonta Kun]

lol good to see the delicious legs return after ch 51


Zakuro has totally grown on me, I didn't hate or dislike her or anything, she was just one of them characters that didn't initally interest me but damn she will eventually win you over if she doesn't at first.

Need moar Lila and Kotoha and Ao and Yae and well all the girls of the series

[Duo Maxwell]

The plot doesn't move much, but it's cool that we got a back story of town's people. At least it kinda change my initial impression with the senates.

[Shiroth]

I quite like the theme of old people in the latest chapter. Quite touching, especially the last few pages.