Yotsunoha

Synopsis:

Characters:

• Amachi, Matsuri (Main) - Voice Actors: Gotou, Mai
• Iori, Yuzuki (Main) - Voice Actors: Gotou, Yuuko
• Nekomiya, Nono (Main) - Voice Actors: Sakakibara, Yui
• Yuuki, Makoto (Main) - Voice Actors: Tasaka, Hideki, Kim, Seung jun
• Ru (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Iguchi, Yuka
• Shiba, Daisuke (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Miyashita, Eiji
• Yuki, Arisa (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yahagi, Sayuri

Staff:

• Kananiwa, Kozue (Producer)
• Nakashima, Shinji (Producer)
• Ogura, Mitsutoshi (Producer)
• Nishikiori, Hiroshi (Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard)
• Tsuruoka, Youta (Sound Director)
• Chata (Theme Song Performance)
• Sakakibara, Yui (Theme Song Performance)
• Ditama, Bow (Original Character Design)
• Hashimoto, Kazunori (2nd Key Animation, In-Between Animation)
• Hayashi, Kanako (Color Design)
• I've sound (Music)
• Iijima, Hisaharu (Art Director)
• Itou, Manami (2nd Key Animation)
• Itou, Katsunobu (Key Animation)
• Kadowaki, Satoshi (Key Animation)
• Kasukabe, Akira (Original Character Design)
• Kawakami, Nobuhiko (Key Animation)
• Kawamura, Akihiro (Planning)
• Kimura, Toshiya (Director of Photography)
• Kinoshita, Sumie (Animation Director)
• Morikawa, Eiko (Sound Effects)
• Motomura, Kouichi (Character Design, Animation Director)
• Nantou, Toshiyuki (2nd Key Animation)
• Nishiyama, Shigeru (Editing)
• Saitou, Yukihiro (Background Art)
• Sakamoto, Shunta (2nd Key Animation)
• Satou, Akiko (2nd Key Animation)
• Suzuki, Daisuke (Background Art)
• Tafu, Naohiro (Planning)
• Tanaka, Hidemitsu (Sound Effects)
• Ueda, Hitoshi (Background Art)

Reviews:

• User Desian (Score: 9/10):
  Story: 8/10 the story is about childhood friends reuniting after a space of years. nothing we havent seen before but not overplayed enough to curb our interest. the cast is smaller than most harems but in being reasonably sized to be more realistic. the harem element isnt much played upon regardless of the fact that the game was a harem based eroge(H-game). there is crude(but entertaining) comedy lightly sprinkled in this OVA but this is first and foremost, a romance. it uses a series of flashbacks that help the series along and pulls this otherwise cliche story tool off quite nicely. Art:10/10 nthe animation quality of yotsunoha is above that of the average anime. its streamlined and i couldnt find any particularly noticable flaws when i first watched it(i saw only a few the second time as i was intentionally looking for them). the characters are consistently drawn well and the whole series uses a varied color palette ranging from bright(daylight) and dark(twilight and nighttime) utilising both but not enough of either to change the mood of the story.nnSound: 9/10nthe sound quality of yotsunoha was consistent and of good quality and well synched. the voices fit the characters and brought that crucial element of emotion into the story. both the OP and ED themes where catchy and are sung by the seiyu who voices Nekomiya Nono who has quite a beautiful singing voice.nnCharacter: 9/10nconsidering that this series only has 2 episodes to develope 4 characters they pulled this off quite nicely. the character developement for this series is predominantly focused on 2 characters. the other characters recieve only a sparing amount of the character developement spotlight but oddly it does not take away from the story as these characters arent very important to the plot to begin with. nevertheless the characters do get developed but it cannot be described how without spoiling it for those who havent watched yet(with two episodes total theres not much i can say without ruining it).nnEnjoyment: 10/10ni was greatly entertained by yotsunoha as i enjoy a good story, something short to pass the time between lunch and dinner where i have an hour and a half to spare. i am particularly happy with the ending and seeing a romance that didnt go horribly wrong towards the end(*cough*schooldays*cough*). i love a good romance.nnOverall:9/10ni recomend this anime to anyone who is a fan of romance, has an hour and a half to burn, or needs a nice heartwarming anime to help them shake off a sour mood or bad ending from another anime. whether this review convinces you to dedicate your time to this series or not, try not to judge a book by its cover and always take the time to read the first few pages of any story before throwing it aside.
• User Nezon (Score: 6/10):
  At first Yotsunoha did look quite promising and interesting. The story was something we all seen before - Childhood friends reuniting after years of separation. Yotsunoha is about a couple of childhood friends returning back to their abandon school where the group re-kindles their relationship. Elements of romance is present in the anime and a couple of jokes are pulled into play as well. However the anime proves to be something quite dull and boring. Story: The anime is only 2 episodes long, each explains their past relationship with each other. The story is quite simple and unoriginal, however the viewer won't be looking forwardas how the story will unfold but rather which character the protagonist will choose. Though the story is simple, one part was different from the ordinary. The teacher hid the 'time capsule' that was filled with the characters past memories and the characters must find clues to find where it was hidden. It may sound interesting to you, but the process of collecting clues just wasn't there, the viewer won't feel enticed by any of the problem solving. nnSummary: You will find yourself bored with the uneventful storyline. There is no drama, despite the tags, comedy wasn't a strong point either. The story had a series of flashbacks which reveal the character's past which then leads to who the protagonist will choose. nnAnimation: The animation was good better than the average anime, however that would be because there was only two episodes to cover. All the characters look nice and the background shines with colour. There weren’t any flaws in the animation and that was probably the best part of the anime. nnSound: The music isn't really noticeable and the OP and ED don't appeal to the watcher. The character's voices were fine, expect for one. Nono's. Her voice just didn't fit with the whole anime, I personally found her voice annoying and sometimes wanted her to not talk. However the music wasn't bad, it just wasn't outstanding either. nnCharacter: The anime only focuses two characters, the rest where just there to look pretty. However the other female characters do add to the excitement level by putting the viewer in clueless state to which the protagonist will choose. All the characters you see in this OVA, will be characters you have already seen in previous animes. No character really gave a good appeal to me, except for the lolicon like Nono. She was a little different from the average anime, however her presence made the anime worst not better. nnEnjoyment: There was no drama, no twists, no excitement or climax. This anime was boring, not much was revealed through the two episodes. The comedy was hardly there, however there was a particular scene near the end that did make me smile a bit, but that was it. Even the harem was hardly visible. nnOverall: I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, however the story gives a relaxing feel. nDrama? NonTwists? NonSchool days? NonSo if you are looking…
• User SgtSalamander (Score: 5/10):
  Yotsunoha is a short romance OVA with a solid concept, but somewhat underwhelming execution. Beginning with the story, it follows a group of childhood friends who have returned to their former middle school for their time capsule, and how they have a sleepover there which facilitates a fraught navigation of complex feelings like love, friendship, and loneliness. It's a cute concept, and many of the moments in the show itself are well-executed, though there are a couple of problems which hold it back in the end. First, the protagonist, Makoto, acts and talks like no human man ever would. Hefeels stilted, awkward, oblivious, and makes bizarre, jarring attempts at conversation that really make it feel like there's genuinely something wrong with him. Outside of that he's just your typical self-insert, but his outlandish comments make even that a difficult feat. Second, Yotsunoha is way too short to fully explore the story and its themes. The story is a fairly engaging romance, with the unraveling of years-old issues and the unloading of immense emotional baggage. It manages to be somewhat compelling, but it all feels rushed with only two episodes. The random flashbacks interrupt the pacing, even for how necessary they are to comprehend the plot, which is a shame. Motivations are even glossed over entirely in order to get to the next part of the story, leaving some scenes and transitions feeling confused or undeveloped, when a full 12 episode run would have been more than enough to let this story come into full bloom. nn The art is good, exhibiting a relatively high production value while maintaining its thoroughly mid-2000s aesthetic. Namely, the soft color palate comes off as graceful and somewhat immersive, and the character design is unique and compelling. Though, there are a couple of issues with the quality that betray a limited time frame, namely in how it handles depth, with objects in the foreground feeling almost laid on top of the scene after the fact. nn The sound is solid, and the strongest aspect of this anime. The soundtrack is light and fun with room for dramatic sorrow, the sounds of life are detailed, and the voice work is distinctive and richly emotional. nn The characters are all around fairly strong, with the exception of Makoto, and I feel the ending of this brief anime reached its conclusion in the best way it could have given the circumstances. Though, Nono does get more screentime than the other girls, and as such develops a little further. Overall, Yotsunoha is an anime with a lot of wasted potential due to a poor execution of a strong story- give it a shot if you like the unique concept, or find yourself fascinated by relatively obscure titles.

Forum Topics:

• Yotsunoha Episode 1 Discussion
• Visual Novel
• Yotsunoha Episode 2 Discussion
• What do you expect?

External Links:

• Official Site
• AniDB
• ANN

Related Anime/Manga:

• Yotsunoha (manga - Adaptation)