Yozakura Quartet - Episode 2

I marked out the opening episode of Yozakura Quartet as having some potential, which is usually the kind of proclamation that sends a series into a nosedive faster than you can say "and at the end they all take up knitting". Thankfully, this series saw fit not to take that nosedive in quality quite yet.

Overall, the episode continues to focus on Rin, the new demon in town, who gets away with only a small handful of restrictions to her freedom after the incident last time around, but still finds it incredibly hard to come to terms with the fact that she has to share her surroundings with humans. We get some flashbacks to see exactly why this is the case (which really wasn't surprising at all), but unfrotunately that really doesn't help poor old Akina, the resident human and demon tuner... or demon murderer, as Rin prefers to look at it (and she isn't the only one).


In the meantime, we finally get a proper introduction to the baddie of the piece, a demon fox (demon foxes always get the blame) with a penchant for lightning bolts... In fact, the whole series seems to have a penchant for lightning bolts, so I suppose I shouldn't really single him out. Anyway, numerous demons are finding that their powers are suddenly going out of control and causing damage, which it seems it most likely related to Br'er Fox, and of course when Rin is caught up in these goings-on who is on hand to save her? That's right... Akina. Thus, Rin no longer hates humans and all is well with the world again. Until the next episode, no doubt.

While the overall content of this episode from a storyline point of view was really quite predictable, and almost seemed to be ticking off boxes as far as giving us glimpses of some of the major character's histories was concerned, it still somehow managed to remain pretty watchable throughout. Last episode I couldn't quite put my finger on why I felt the series had potential, and largely speaking I feel the same with episode two - I should be shrugging my shoulders and writing it off as a piece of mediocrity, yet somehow I still rather liked it. Whether those feelings will last for the full twelve episodes I have no idea, but while Yozakura Quartet is hardly pushing the boat out as a must-see show this season, it's looking set to be worthy of a look if you have some time to burn.