Recap: As Akina, Hime, Kotoha and Ao go through a regular day in their wacky lives, we learn a bit more about humans, daemons and everything in between. And ramen. Lots of ramen.

Aqua‘s thoughts: I’m probably not the best person to blog this show and this show is probably not the best for me to blog, but it happens only very rarely that I bump into a show I unconditionally adore. For people who know the Yozakura Quartet universe and its characters, it is the best adaptation anyone could have ever wished for. Yet as you will see, for those who are still in the dark, Hana No Uta can get rather confusing. It is a curse rather inherent to the franchise, as manga readers might remember from the atrociously vague early chapters. The week-long wait between every couple of jigsaw puzzle pieces must be grating, and it might indicate that Hana No Uta bit off a bit more than it could chew, at least in this regard.

Nevertheless, I found this episode to be an exceptional primer on organically revealing some details about the world of Yozakura Quartet without relying on explicit exposition dumps. Hana No Uta makes the wise decision to pepper its adaptation of one of the first chapters of the manga with recent revelations that should have been explained earlier, such as the origin of Kotoha’s Powerspeak and the role of the Senate. Yozakura Quartet shies away from convenient narration and explication almost entirely, which certainly contributes to the feeling of community it so well conveys. Watching Hana No Uta is like being welcomed into a whole new world, where everyone seems to know each other, but where you’ll need to experience some of the daily grind in order to truly feel at home.

Aside from the strong acting and dialogue, the strongest contributing factor to this atmosphere are the countless adorable little details and visual gags hidden throughout the show. Highlights include Hime calling her notepad “Himemo”, Touka being dragged along by Hime’s lasso-scarf or Ao rearranging Kotoha’s failed Powerspeak letters to make meat appear out of nowhere, there’s always something happening on screen that gives the characters a little extra depth or charm. Sadly enough, this charm can also go in the other direction. While Yozakura Quartet has never been a stranger to fanservice, it is starting to cross a line when breast groping becomes the common greeting in Sakura Newtown. Luckily, it’s all quite true to the characters, but they deserve better than that.

Random observations

• Fun fact: In the manga, it’s Touka who kisses Kotoha, not Ao. I’d say this change is a more beneficial one for both.
• Compared to the twenty chapters it too the manga, the two minutes this episode needed to establish what the Senate is all about is also definitely an improvement.
• Speaking of improvements, Chtuko, the only sub group cool enough to handle this show, changed their translation of youkai from “beast” to “daemon”. We have changed our coverage accordingly.
• “The mayor’s in, feel free to ring” is a brilliant translation.

Zigg‘s thoughts: I still really like this, but I’m increasingly having trouble articulating why I do. I think it’s perhaps the charm and likability of the characters and the smart, dynamic way that the show is presented that keep it engaging, despite the fact that not a great deal happens in this episode. There’s some good world building work done in the background and while I probably would have preferred them to put some more meat on the bones of the character relationship straight away the light, airy tone they strike has some attraction to it too. At times this episode reached almost K-ON! levels of enjoyable airheadedness.

The counter to that is that even though little happens, we’re bombarded with characters before we’ve even had a chance to get to know our core cast. It would probably have been much wiser to focus tight for this episode and try and expand in subsequent ones, but as a result the number of faces popping up can be a little overwhelming. Not sure about the goofy sexual undertones which have suddenly reared their head either – Ao’s panty shot is almost endearing in an innocent way, the weird fascination with boob groping far less so. I remain super excited to see where they go, but they will have to actually get started on going there sharpish.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: I still don’t know who half these people are, but that’s okay for now. The other half are keeping my interest. On the one hand I like the way this series is going out of it’s way to explain by showing how they work and avoiding any infodumps. The subtle way they introduced the wrist straps was a good example of show and don’t tell, but I also wish I knew who these people were and what they can do. Am I actually asking for an infodump? Maybe I am.

All the latent sexuality feels kind of weird in this series. I’m not sure if it’s trying to be sexy or if being odd is the goal in and of itself. When Kotoha gets groped she is upset that she isn’t the one doing the groping and when the nun gets groped she turns into a loli? And lets not forget Ao’s signature panty shot. If they are going to keep that going they should at least change her underwear… A panty shot is fine too, but I’m already bored with this gag!