Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta (TV Anime Remake)

[HandofFate]

I don't think her small form being the true form makes sense since the brother is punishing her by making her smaller and tying her up.

The brother is the stronger, and he's just in that shape because he likes it or he's never serious or cares.

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by Renchan

I wonder if he's been influenced by Ryohgo Narita, Yasuda has been illustrating his works for almost 10 years

I didn't want to say it at first but that's exactly what I suspect.

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by MCAL

@NinjaRealist
I wouldn't really call Kill la kill an example of good fan service. In fact, it's even more crass then Yozakura.

I'm not going to discuss the fan service of Kill la Kill in this thread. I will say that I thought a lot of the ecchi scenes in Yozakura Quartet were poorly handled and pointless. I mean, don't get me wrong, I thought there were a few funny ecchi scenes.

My favorite was the scene where Yuhi was ogling Ao and she threw the ramen box at him. That was funny and well-executed.

However, there were also scenes that I felt were totally unfunny and contributed nothing (and even felt out of place). For example this scene with Ao:

Spoiler:

And this scene with Yae and Kotoha:

Spoiler:

I still liked the episode a lot and am liking the series in general, but I also feel like it would be better without these unnecessary fan-service scenes.

Originally Posted by -Sho-

Guy is serious when asking why the yuri kiss...

I felt like it was an important scene to critique and I felt like Malkuth explained it quite well.

[bastek66]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

However, there were also scenes that I felt were totally unfunny and contributed nothing (and even felt out of place).
I still liked the episode a lot and am liking the series in general, but I also feel like it would be better without these unnecessary fan-service scenes.

They conributed nice animation.

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by bastek66

They conributed nice animation.

That scene would've looked just as good without the panty shot.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

That scene would've looked just as good without the panty shot.

What I don't understand is how a pantyshot can detract anything from the scene

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

What I don't understand is how a pantyshot can detract anything from the scene

It cheapens the scene by adding an element of shameless sexual exploitation. Would that panty shot have been there if it was a male character? Some of the other fanservice scenes just feel stupid to me and detract because they make the show seem sillier than it actually is.

[Malkuth]

V juri F explains herself what people call erroneously limit fanservice into by breaking the fourth wall in the beginning episode two

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

It cheapens the scene by adding an element of shameless sexual exploitation.

That's an epiphenomenon of the viewers feeling ashamed about their sexuality. And modern societies that strive to get over sexual oppression, it will definitely get exploited by advertisers. But usually the objective of the creator is not sexual exploitation, otherwise they wouldn't draw a pantyshot, but a hentai without even the token plot.

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

Would that panty shot have been there if it was a male character?

It depends on the audience. Female-oriented anime are a lot more "aggressive" and one reason for it is that they don't have to defend themselves about sexually exploiting guys. Personally, I wouldn't care if it was a guy's or a girl's underwear, as long as it was well drawn, but in most cases concerning this anime relevant to the characters' personality and consistent with their character designs.

What would be very annoying is to censor it and even worse to be inconsistent in order to appear "decent".

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

Some of the other fanservice scenes just feel stupid to me and detract because they make the show seem sillier than it actually is.

Indeed, for two maybe three cuts, I don't get for what purpose the camera perspective is chosen to be so revealing. But also more then two dozen scenes seem unnecessary too, even without exposing female undergarments. So unless one wants to find an excuse to complain, I don't see why focus on ecchi fanservice over unnecessary animation, scenery porn and the rest of fanservice that is hypocritically OK, since it does not touch controversial subjects, despite effectively being the subject to the same criticism.

[Horse]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

It cheapens the scene by adding an element of shameless sexual exploitation. Would that panty shot have been there if it was a male character? Some of the other fanservice scenes just feel stupid to me and detract because they make the show seem sillier than it actually is.

Uh. So two things.
1. THAT pantyshot wouldn't be there because men rarely wear skirts. *selfapplause*
2. Shido's ass definitely drew my attention with the way it was drawn when he was picking up the girls in Ep1.

I can understand you not liking fanservice but... this show is not really uber serious. It shouldn't hurt anybody and if it's hurting you then maybe you should stop watching (Tsuki ni Naku ep1 anyone?).

PS. I'm gay.

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

V juri F explains herself what people call erroneously limit fanservice into by breaking the fourth wall in the beginning episode two

The scene with Juri and Kyousuke I thought was just poorly written dialogue. It wasn't the fan service that offended me so much as the quality of the dialogue but this is a minor criticism and most of the dialogue in this show has really been quite good.

Originally Posted by Malkuth

That's an epiphenomenon of the viewers feeling ashamed about their sexuality. And modern societies that strive to get over sexual oppression, it will definitely get exploited by advertisers. But usually the objective of the creator is not sexual exploitation, otherwise they wouldn't draw a pantyshot, but a hentai without even the token plot.

Leaving aside my ideological concerns about the broader implications of the hypersexualization of society, my main concern, insofar as this thread is concerned, is much simpler.

Frankly, I think that the prevalence of overly sexualized material is holding the medium back. What is the main thing holding back the mainstream popularization of anime? In my opinion, it's the widely held notion that anime primarily exists to titillate lonely males.

Is this perception true and could Yozakura Quartet~Hana no Uta~ really be considered primarily sexually exploitative? No and no. But it's kind of annoying when I'm trying to get my female friends to watch one of the best shows of the season and I have to add to my recommendation, "Oh and be warned that there are lots of gratuitous panty shots"

Originally Posted by Malkuth

It depends on the audience. Female-oriented anime are a lot more "aggressive" and one reason for it is that they don't have to defend themselves about sexually exploiting guys. Personally, I wouldn't care if it was a guy's or a girl's underwear, as long as it was well drawn, but in most cases concerning this anime relevant to the characters' personality and consistent with their character designs.

What would be very annoying is to censor it and even worse to be inconsistent in order to appear "decent".

Again it's not about "decency" so much as medium perception i.e. taste. Anime would have more respect if the general public didn't think it was material for people to fantasize about even if many people do actually fantasize about anime (which I'm not judging in any way).

I would compare this issue to the overuse of profanity and extremely violent/sexual language in hip-hop. There are some great hip-hop songs that I can just never play in certain settings because they have so much offensive language in them. It's the same way with overly sexualized anime. Yozakura Quartet is far from the worst offender but there are a lot of people I would like to show this series to that would never tolerate some of the ecchi scenes.

Originally Posted by Malkuth

Indeed, for two maybe three cuts, I don't get for what purpose the camera perspective is chosen to be so revealing. But also more then two dozen scenes seem unnecessary too, even without exposing female undergarments. So unless one wants to find an excuse to complain, I don't see why focus on ecchi fanservice over unnecessary animation, scenery porn and the rest of fanservice that is hypocritically OK, since it does not touch controversial subjects, despite effectively being the subject to the same criticism.

Well yeah, the controversy is the entire point. I laid out why above.

As for your comment about scenery porn I would also say that you can't really compare fanservice/ecchi with scenery shots for the simple reason that if done well (and the scenery shots are done extremely well in this show IMO) they help to provide exposition and flesh out the setting.

The only thing that the panty shots flesh out are Hime and Ao's crotch.

Originally Posted by Horse

Uh. So two things.
1. THAT pantyshot wouldn't be there because men rarely wear skirts. *selfapplause*
2. Shido's ass definitely drew my attention with the way it was drawn when he was picking up the girls in Ep1.

I can understand you not liking fanservice but... this show is not really uber serious. It shouldn't hurt anybody and if it's hurting you then maybe you should stop watching (Tsuki ni Naku ep1 anyone?).

PS. I'm gay.

Look, I'm still watching because, overall, I really like this show. If I didn't like it so much I wouldn't care enough to criticize it in such great detail.

[Horse]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

Is this perception true and could Yozakura Quartet~Hana no Uta~ really be considered primarily sexually exploitative? No and no. But it's kind of annoying when I'm trying to get my female friends to watch one of the best shows of the season and I have to add to my recommendation, "Oh and be warned that there are lots of gratuitous panty shots"

Tell her there's some nicely defined male arse as well. Problem solved.

[Kakkou]

^Episode 3 focuses on Akina and Kyousuke so if the staff are generous enough we might get some ass from them too. Also had episode 1 followed chapter 1 we would've gotten a few seconds of Akina in swim shorts but alas, win some lose some.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

That scene would've looked just as good without the panty shot.

I had to watch that scene several times before remembering there even was one. I don't see how it had any impact on the scene. A giant goldfish gets belted into the stratosphere and the up-skirt shot was the thing that stood out ?

[bastek66]

What about this?

Does lack of panty shop make you appreciate animation or her butt distracts anyway?

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I had to watch that scene several times before remembering there even was one. I don't see how it had any impact on the scene. A giant goldfish gets belted into the stratosphere and the up-skirt shot was the thing that stood out ?

It stood out because it was an awesome scene of a giant goldfish getting belted into the stratosphere. It's like, "here's the climactic action shot and then let's just throw in a panty shot on the recoil". Like, really guys?

Originally Posted by bastek66

What about this?

Does lack of panty shop make you appreciate animation or her butt distracts anyway?

I thought that shot was pretty tasteful, especially because the focus was more on the hair than on her butt. I'm also impressed that they didn't take this opportunity for what would usually be an obvious cleavage shot. Either way, a little butt fanservice makes a lot more sense during a scene like this with Ao just playing with crayons at the office than, say, the above mentioned action scene.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

I thought that shot was pretty tasteful, especially because the focus was more on the hair than on her butt. I'm also impressed that they didn't take this opportunity for what would usually be an obvious cleavage shot. Either way, a little butt fanservice makes a lot more sense during a scene like this with Ao just playing with crayons at the office than, say, the above mentioned action scene.

The rest of the guys already covered my opinion, but I am surprised that having Ao suggestively waiving her butt is less provocative and distractive than Hime flashing her underwear for milliseconds during a fight scene. And I wonder would it be offensive if the camera filmed Ao front behind? As for a cleavage shot... what cleavage

[NinjaRealist]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

The rest of the guys already covered my opinion, but I am surprised that having Ao suggestively waiving her butt is less provocative and distractive than Hime flashing her underwear for milliseconds during a fight scene. And I wonder would it be offensive if the camera filmed Ao front behind?

Yeah, the angle definitely makes a difference. Imagine how that shot would have looked from behind.

Also, I wouldn't say she was waving her butt provocatively. It was more like she was fidgeting around while playing with some crayons and her butt was moving like that as a result. The Ao in this adaptation is definitely on the ditzy side but I really don't think she seems that different from the manga character.

Originally Posted by Malkuth

As for a cleavage shot... what cleavage

Rude . Small is beautiful too.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

The rest of the guys already covered my opinion, but I am surprised that having Ao suggestively waiving her butt is less provocative and distractive than Hime flashing her underwear for milliseconds during a fight scene. And I wonder would it be offensive if the camera filmed Ao front behind? As for a cleavage shot... what cleavage

I guess it was less of a problem because of the full body motion....yeah that actually didn't sound right either .

Really only a few things threw me off enough to pay much attention to them. And who knows how much that kind of thing will keep going as the series continues. Will say I appreciate the graphical style they are going with a bit more now since it does let them be more flexible with all the movement and action.

[velvet nightmare]

the hell did i just watch in episode 2

felt like 30 seconds of plot and the rest slice of life.

i know they're trying to build up the plot and all, but seriously. get to the point, i don't remember it being this bad in the last series or the manga.

[Gohan78]

Originally Posted by NinjaRealist

It stood out because it was an awesome scene of a giant goldfish getting belted into the stratosphere. It's like, "here's the climactic action shot and then let's just throw in a panty shot on the recoil". Like, really guys?

I think that Hime's pantyshot is acceptable because she is doing complex martial arts moves in a miniskirt. I much prefer this choice rather than the gravity-defying skirts employed by some other studios.
OTOH scenes like Yae groping Kotoha's boobs or Hime's classmate removing her bra are gratuitous fanservice.

As for the character designs, I love the manga art. IMHO Akina looks particularly bad in the anime due to his receding hairline. The animation is gorgeous though.