Autumn 2013: First Impressions – Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~ & Gundam Build Fighters

Next we have new estallments of franchises – Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~ and Gundam Build Fighters.

Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~

Okay so this has some of the best animation of the season, but I just couldn’t get into it at all.  I’ve watched all the previous incarnations of Yozakura Quartet because it just feels like this show should work a hell of a lot better than it actually does.  I don’t know what it is, but it just doesn’t gel right – all the elements are there, varied cast of characters, interesting abilities, wonderful setting and great stylish animation, but I just can’t connect with the show in anyway.  This is a reboot, as it suffers from the usual problem of whizzing though material much too fast and tries too introduce the huge cast all at once – as a result the episode felt poorly paced with way too much crammed into it.

It does look fantastic though – a step back from the kinetic animation of the OVA’s, but it keeps that sense of fluid movement while trimming back the budget for TV.  It really is all about movement in this show though, and there is some fantastic attention to detail with the background characters all moving about too – the only issue is that some of the characters look a bit off once they’re stationary.  However I watched the previous series of Yozakura Quartet on the strength of its visual style and I’m not really willing to do that again.  Definitely a pretty decent show, but I’m sort of burned out on it at this stage so won’t be keeping it on.

Gundam Build Fighters

Well this was fun.  If you’re a Gundam fan of any degree there will be something in this show to make you happy – it’s pure fan pandering and a long glorified commercial for Gunpla.  Which is fine, Gundam Build Fighters has never pretended to be anything else – it even has commercials built into the show!  Still there is an effort put forward to craft a believable world where kids and adults alike battle it out with Gunpla models in high-tech holo-fields akin to something you’d see in Angelic Layer or Yu-Gi-Oh.  It’s kids stuff, but it’s fun and I enjoyed all the Gundam references, so I’ll happily keep this on until I get bored.