Anime has always had its overused genres or genre clusters. Right now the cluster you hear the most complaints about is the Isekai-Videogame sort of space, consisting of Isekai animes (whether or not they actually use video game interfaces for their powers) and fantasies whether high or urban (and whether isekai or not) that use video game conceits like stats and level as the core of their fantastical system. But, that hasn’t always been the fad. In days gone by, supernatural battlers were king. As attested by 2021’s Kemono Jihen, the genre isn’t dead and will probably never truly die, but no matter what the future holds it’s easy to say that at least a heyday for these kind of things is in the past.
I’ve addressed plenty of these battlers before such as 2013’s Beyond the Boundary, 2005’s Shakugan no Shana with its sequels in 2007 and 2011, and 2008’s Ga-Rei Zero. Well, the very same season as Ga-Rei Zero, in Fall ’08, there was yet another of these Urban Fantasy battle shows. Actually, there were a few of them, including A Certain Magical Index and the target of today’s review, Yozakura Quartet.
Read More…Read More…