Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This post is over two months overdue, as the final manga-bundled OAD for Yozakura Quartet came out in early November, but I wanted to give a few quick impressions on this three-part series that goes all the way back to fall of 2010. It was lost in the year-end scramble with the Winter 2012 Preview and Best of Anime 2011 taking priority on my never-ending list of things to blog, and somewhat forgotten too because the second episode came many months ago back in April. I had even forgotten what these manga-based episodes were about at first, until this third episode replayed the cliffhanger with Zakuro’s seemingly possessed state. After that, it was pretty easy to remember what was going on, as Akina, Hime, and the others’ fight to rescue Rin went full-tilt for more or less the entire episode.
It helped that the story was somewhat sparse at this point, especially with Enjin not getting actively involved, so it was merely a matter of seeing how Hime was going to fulfill those mayor shoes of hers and protect her townspeople. To that end, it was pretty entertaining to see her break free of Zakuro’s control and give it to her, only to get depressed when she actually thought Rin hated them. What I found most surprising is that they actually redeemed Zakuro’s character by revealing that she wasn’t herself — something that wasn’t all that apparent to me even with the flashback last time. It showed the sudden change in her personality after a lightning strike, but did nothing in the way of explaining what caused the change, making it hard for me to sympathize with her character in any way. Here, it was really no different as she scoured the town for people to add to her “collection”, but with Rin not giving up on her — and everyone humorously taking the plunge with Rin — we finally got to see that Zakuro is worth saving.
In terms of action, Kotoha’s battle with Zakuro in the previous episode remains my favorite with her flurry of conjured attacks as she scaled gigantic corpse monster, but Hime’s exchange with her this time around was still a visual treat with blob-like animation. The fluidity of the battle sequences alone made these OADs fun to watch, but it actually wasn’t too jarring to make sense of the manga arc that they covered either (i.e. chapters 26-34). As a non-manga reader, I don’t doubt that there are some subtle implications that are going over my head, but for the most part, the story about Rin and Zakuro was fairly self-contained making this OAD pretty easy to follow. Granted, it helps that I’m already familiar with the main cast from the anime-original TV series, so for anyone who’s in the same boat, it’s worth taking a peek at these OADs. The “Hello Hello” ending theme by SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH — both the original and ballade version in this episode — makes it all the more worthwhile.
* Full-length images: 12, 17, 38.
ED2 Sequence
 |
 |
 |
ED2: 「Hello Hello Ballade Version」 by SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH
Watch the ED2!: Streaming ▼
Epilogue
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I’ve just got to say that I wish there was more content to this though.
Any plans to cover Mardock Scramble: the second combustion Divine?
Is it out already? I missed the 1st half when it was screeed at AFA 2011
Mardock Scramble : Second Combustion was shown during AFA 2011. What do you mean you missed the first half? Don’t tell me you came late for the movie screening?
Yep late
Didn’t see you there though, haha. Anyways the concert was great. Maybe I’ll go again this year.
main reastion was that i went ther for the KALAFINA CONCERT!
I’ve been meaning to watch the first movie and haven’t even gotten around to that, so I’d say it’s doubtful at this point.
The OAD was pretty nice to watch. It got me to watch the original series in order to get into the gist of things.
Oh and it feels like this show makes the nurse outfit excruciatingly criminal. Go Juiz!
And i cant help it that the kotadama user looks like mari makinami illustrious!
For extra lolz Rin looks like Mayushii or Merry Nightmare~ XD
off-topic but have you heard of the Stop Online Pirating Act(SOPA), Divine?
apparently its being passed around and if it does get accepted this will mean the end for several websites including anime blogs like yours. they will target any website that has anything related to piracy. the freedom of sharing in the internet is in danger.
even wikipedia is blocking their site to show their resistance and alert people about this. it will also shut down several social sites like FB and such.
maybe you can make a post about it here and help rally people to go against this. hopefully this will help prevent this from happening. reminds me of the tokyo bill…
It’s been going on for a long time now. Don’t tell me you just found out about it? Yeah it kinda sucks but the good thing is that most gaming companies are against it. However I don’t think the Japanese Animation Community cares about anything that happens outside of Japan though. Well for me I don’t like it as I was doing my project when suddenly Wikipedia decided to “close” for a while.
I’ll be at a loss if RC closes. How’d i get objective and unbiased anime reviews and discussions?
The scope of this bill is way more broad than the Tokyo Loli Ban, which To-Love-Ru doesn’t seem to be paying attention to anyway. Gaming sites, fan sites, even YouTube is at risk of getting shut down over this. It’s nice to see that Wikipedia’s finally becoming proactive about this, and as of two hours ago: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/01/18/anonymous-plans-major-attack-sony-backing-sopa/
So yes, Divine, you should have a post about this. World internet freedom is at stake!
Yes, I’m aware of it and all the protesting going on, but didn’t feel heavily opinionated about it — not enough to write a post or put up a notice about it anyway. I was just talking to verdant about it the other day.
Ya sure? Megaupload just got closed down, which I usually use to anime and stuff. It be a matter of time till torrents get taken down so anyone not living in Japan would have a hard time viewing subbed anime.
The character design. Damn. I don’t like it. The girls are a lot sexier with the original art style. Especially Kotoha. Kotohaaaaaaa! They do you no justice!
Erhem, that said, it’s ironic that the original anime series twisted the manga’s plot while retaining the original art style and that this OAD is faithful and yet has different character designs. I didn’t watch it, though, having already read the manga.
Hell no this animation is way better than the 12 episode anime way more sexier
Nah, not for me. I like the way the legs are drawn better in the original and the manga. Or maybe my memory of the original is hazy, but I really like the manga.
Yeah, I mentioned that in my post about the first OAD. The material is faithful but the style is not. I prefer the character designs in the TV series, but don’t really mind the ones in these OADs either. The actual animation is a lot better too.
You’ve got me there. I watched the first two episodes before, and the animation was indeed better. Pity it wasn’t that way from the start.
It’s also a completely studio. Nomad did the TV series, Tatsunoko this OAD. It seems like Tatsunoko went for arguably simpler character designs so that they can focus on more fluid animation, particularly for the battle sequences.
Pity it had to be a trade-off.
So the Zakuro arc is over. I hope they animate the Lila arc.
I love this series. Would be great if they made another season but I don’t think they have much source material left to animate.
Japanese anime companies do care about copying of their intelectual property outside of Japan as with DVDs and Blue-Ray everyone sees more revenue to be had from consumers. Twice in the last year I recieved e-mail warnings from Japananese anime companies because I downloaded anime from torrents. In both cases it was an older anime that is not currently airing in Japan.
I got them from using torrents to download The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 12 and Tamayura OVA 3.
There’s still quite a bit of material in the manga, actually, but to animate that would mean inconsistency with the plot established in the anime.
And really? I’ve never gotten cease-and-desists from anime companies. I have no idea if it’s because I was getting my old anime episodes from a private tracker, but well.
Yay I’ve been waiting for this Thanks Divine.
I hope they’ll animate more someday.