You probably heard of animation studios overworking their staff (cough MAPPA) but sometimes, you get to watch something that looks like there aren't any compromises made during its making. Hana no Uta is one such case, where there's practically nothing to complain about its visuals. In fact, there are many details in visuals that add a lot to the experience. Whether the story is laid back or intense, the visuals do a great job at keeping things engaging.
#####Look at the refracted hand at the fish tank. They don't need to go through that effort but still did it.The characters and plot are all half baked. The moment it feels like the story or a character arc is going somewhere, it gets sidelined as the next thing pop ups. So the anime struggles a lot to keep a proper tone. The characters would be in a life or death battle, then there would be a sudden gag that completely destroys the seriousness of the situation the story built up until the point. And then there's fan service... Look, there are moments where I liked and disliked fan service, and this goes into the later section. Reasons are similar as mentioned in the other review, Misplaced fan service. There's also this problem where the anime doesn't make a few points clear, so you might get lost in the earlier episodes.
The characters aren't fleshed out either. The anime does care enough to give screen time for emotional investment, but it ultimately falls flat because the characters are ultimately a bunch of soulless ideas roaming without a clear purpose. One's that do have (Juri and Lila) are introduced very late into the show and their character arcs aren't well paced.
The manga "Yozakura Quartet" has been in serialization since 2006, and so far it has 2 anime adaptations (one 2008 & a reboot in 2013) and two 3 episodes OVAs. I haven't watched 08 adaptation yet, but it seems the 2008 has same art style as manga but not faithful to story, and 2013 one has different art style but more faithful to the manga's story, though some changes were made.
Anyway, here's the watch order, apparently:
Hana no Uta EP 1-8 (2013) -> Hoshi no Umi 1-3 (OVA) -> Hana no Uta EP 9-13 -> Tsuki ni Naku 1-3 (OVA)
I personally found it enjoyable, the art style and characters are cute, the abilities were interestingly used, the characters are all fun (I particularly liked Lila), but it can ultimately be disappointing once you figure out the manga itself is incomplete, and the anime might not get a S2.
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