Anime Review: Yozakura Quartet (Hana no Uta, Hoshi no Umi, and Tsuki ni Naku)

Anime review time, y’all! And a doozy at that: a fanservice-y, action-moe-comedy adventure, that is Yozakura Quartet (the later episodes, not the original series)!

I decided to review these three arcs together, since they are meant to be part of the same continuity (the original series deviates a bit compared to these ones, which is why we’ll be ignoring it for now).

Here is a brief synopsis from MAL (this one’s hard for me to explain for some reason):

The world of Yozakura Quartet is actually not one, but two worlds: one of humans, and one of youkai. Despite appearing mostly human, youkai may have animal like physical traits, along with a number of special abilities. Normally youkai are confined to their world, but some have found their way into the realm of humanity. As a symbol of peace, and a bridge between the two realms, a city was constructed within the protective barrier of seven magical trees, otherwise known as the Seven Pillars. This city of Sakurashin is home to both humans and youkai, with the peace between them maintained by the Hizumi Life Counseling Office.

The director of this office is Akina Hiizumi, a teenager with the inherited family ability to perform “tuning,” which can send harmful youkai back to their world permanently. He is aided by a group of girls, including the town’s 16 year old youkai mayor, Hime Yarizakura, their town’s announcer and resident telepath, Ao Nanami, and Kotoha Isone, a half-youkai who can summon objects just by stating the object’s name.

As new residents enter and mysterious events begin to take place, this quartet of protectors and their closest friends must continue to guard the city of Sakurashin, and maintain the fragile balance of peace between humans and youkai.

This show is one of my favorites, though as I rewatched this particular series, I realized it may be a bit… much for people just getting into anime.  Some of the fanservice and jokes may not have aged well, also.

So take everything I say with a grain of salt, and as always, spoilers ahead!

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Anime Review: Vivy ~Fluorite Eye’s Song~

Good morrow!

Today, we will be taking a look at a show that tackles a specific future: AI and the destruction of humanity.  Did you guess right? It’s “Vivy ~Fluorite Eye’s Song~, a series that has one hell of an opening scene, and even more hell of a story!

A little look at the plot synopsis, created from my own mind:

The story follows the beginning of artificial intelligence’s rise to commonplace, as AI begins to grow in both popularity and usefulness.  Specifically, a musical-type AI named “Diva” struggles to gain an audience, though she is “encouraged” by a human child to aim for the big stage.  Her coding is suddenly intruded on by another AI named “Matsumoto”, that tells her she is the key to preventing an AI apocalypse.  As she tries to ignore him / get rid of him, she becomes more aware of how true his mission is – for better and for worse.

And for once, I will ACTUALLY be spoiling some major points, so SPOILERS AHEAD!

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Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (March 19th, 2025)

Hello, everyone!  A quick update on how the development of my story is coming!

Current Chapter: 10 (Truths and Lies)

Pages: 112

Total Word Count: 53,591

We’re so close to releasing the first two chapters, I can almost taste it!  I’m running into some issues with pacing, but we’re slowly working our way to the end of the chapter.

I am still trying to schedule writing time around life events and review material, and I will do my damndest to keep with what I said in my last post; at least two reviews before the end of April.  Spoilers: one’s an Isekai and one’s about AI.  Can you guess what they are?

For now, please look forward to the release of the Prelude and Chapter One of Hell/Dolls!

I didn’t forget!

Hello, all!  I promise I didn’t forget to do my updates, and the Hell/Dolls progress update will still be provided before the 20th!

To be honest, I have a couple of reviews that I want to release, I just need to buckle down and finish them.  There were a couple series that I ended up watching that deserve some attention, and I want to release at least two of them before the end of next month.

Life has been a little busier than I was expecting it to be these past 30 days – I won’t go into too much detail, but I’m dealing with a bigger workload than usual currently.  I hope to be able to explain this more clearly soon.

In other news, Monster Hunter Wilds released, and I’m enjoying it more than I expected… maybe a little too much.  I’ve managed to stay at about four hours per week for this game so it doesn’t impact my other duties (the blog, reviewing material, work, and my regularly-scheduled events), but I can’t express how much I want to play it more.

Maybe I’ll do a Game Review on it after I beat the story.  Maybe I’ll let players enjoy it on their own.  We’ll see.

For now, keep your heads up, and do your best!  I believe in you!

-Marcosias

Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (February 18, 2025)

A rather late update for the shortest month, but better late than never, as they always say!

Current Chapter: 9

Pages: 111

Total Word Count: 52,591

Before anyone goes crazy, I can explain.

Yes, I have added over 5,000 words since the last update.  5000-8000 words seems to be my range of chapter lengths, and based on that last update, I should either be nearing the end of Chapter 9 or starting on Chapter 10.  And if I hadn’t made a certain change, I would be on Chapter 10.

I ended up merging two chapters, since both were relatively short, and they seemed to flow into each other well enough with just a page break.  The chapters are now collectively Chapter 7, and Chapter 9 is currently in progress.  This may happen again if I feel the chapters are too short, but I’ll do my best to NOT make it a habit.

I don’t have much else to say at this point, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget to do my monthly update.

Thanks for getting ready to read!

-Marcosias