I noticed this show because Yuuki Aoi is voicing a character (Sunako). But the bit of manga I read seems good, and has lots of atmosphere. Slow at first, but building.
I don't see blaming Amino Tetsurou for
Yoakena just because he did a storyboard for one episode of it. His most recent directoral work seem to be
Silk Road Kids and a Lupin movie, neither of which I have seen. And he directed
Macross7 and other shows many moons ago.
The writer, Sugihara Kenji, is doing series composition for the first time, and previously did script work on shows like
sola, Minami-ke, and
SA, none of which give much clue as to how well he might do with this.
The real problem with
Yoakena was animation, and particularly consistency of animation, but the animation director of this show was not involved in that one. Ochi Shinji did a recent Lupin special, and was animation director of
Tona-gura. Not that that's a great recommendation, lol.
I'm a big believer in being able to predict how good a show might be from its director and writer (e.g.,
Baka to Test). But as Westlo says, source material and budget have a big effect on a show, too, and you can't definitely predict on the basis of studio or staff alone.
In Yuuki Aoi's blog today, she posted a less than perfect photo of some of the cast, from just before an event at TAF:
(l-r) Tomatsu Haruka, Yuuki Aoi, Uchiyama Kouki, Ohkawa Tohru, Okitsu Kazuyuki.
It's as if they are living in four different worlds and just got thrown together in a bomb shelter, lol. Ao-chan tends to dress well-covered and a bit loligoth. Tomatsu is in idol mode.
Ao-chan rushed from event to event at TA, appearing in three of them. Fans on 2channel who saw her were understandably excited. "Short" and "cute" were the words. No mention of Tomatsu in Ao-chan's thread, lol.