At first glance I was not interested at all in Utakoi but it popped up under romance so I put it in my queue and thought I would give it a chance. Plus it was about the hundred poets and that was in Chihiya Furu which I enjoyed thoroughly so I gave this series a try. I was so very glad that I did, it has a beautiful style of animation and wonderful music, and the stories are so beautifully tragic and excellently told. To learn about the poets and the struggle of love and status brought me to tears more than once! I give this story a 5 out 5 and a definite recommendation and if you can buy this! I just wish it was longer

Quality- I love the animation style in which it is drawn. I have always been told a heavy outline ruins the realistic properties of art but it is used very well in this anime.

4.5/5

Sound- Great voice actors and excellent use of music I greatly enjoyed the opening theme.

5/5

Story- Each story through out the 13 episodes tie into one another beautifully and never counterdict each other. The history taught through this anime though imaginitive provides great insight into the past and gives us what may have happened. Though many are heart breaking tales I find they balance out nicely and greatly enjoyed the series.

5/5

This is how you bring poetry, culture, and romance into an anime. It was so beautifully moving and the poetry from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu felt so fresh yet timeless in this interpretation. I loved the intentional artwork and stylistic design of the series. The characters were all great although I have to admit that I did have a hard time keeping up with some of them because they had multiple names and some even looked similar in their character design and many of the characters wove in an out of each episode like a beautiful tapestry. Nonetheless, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the series. The show really hit me in the heart like no other anime and am sad that it was such a short series.

The series is a departure from recent anime trends and a wonderful complementary watch to Chihaya Furu.

Merging an unusual art style with beautiful poetry and modern quirk, the series guides the audience through many of the stories behind several famous Japanese poems, giving insight into culture and society and how emotions were poured into paper within those norms.

Very unique music adds extra spice to this wonderful series.

This was a great anime to watch based on the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, the anthology of waka poems on which karuta (hello Chihayafuru fans!) is based on.

Focusing on the love poems of the anthology we have different stories based on the poets. There are moments of irreverence and comedy, though, for example when you have your narrator, Fujiwara no Teika, in various costumes and situations that would not be the first to come to mind when thinking of Heian-era Japan.

Speaking of which, there isn't many anime focusing on this historical period, so it was nice to see this as someone who didn't study this time of Japanese history. Things like screens, fans, and the hats were interesting to learn a bit about, as well as watching characters make ink to compose their letters.

Do you like Romeo and Juliet? How about seeing true love being ripped asunder by class separation, familial duty, work and/or death? How about having your heart ripped out in the most beautifully tragic ways? If so, then this, you dear romantic masochist, is for you! Seriously though, this anime is gorgeous in so many ways and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes romance.

Sound/Animation
Utakoi actually has one of my favorite opening songs of all time - its very catchy and feminine. The voice actors also do a great job of putting emotion into their lines. But the animation is particularly good - it is creative and colorful, with dynamic compositions and pretty details. If you have ever seen Mononke, its a bit like that. One example of this is Utakoi's depiction of rain. Instead of drawing lines, concentric circles fall across the screen like drops of water on a pond, and it moves to the background when a character is out of the rain. It is a perfect analogy for poetry through drawing. In other words, this anime has a great sense of gestalt - everything fits together perfectly and the anime is improved by its coherency of theme.

Plot
The plot of the show is a little hard to describe...but essentially, it is an anthology of poems composed during the Heian period of Japanese history, expressed through romances involving the real-life composers and their peers. To say that each episode focuses on a different couple isn't entirely accurate...but rather, couples are introduced throughout the anime, and while most episodes focus on a specific romance, characters make return appearances and you find out more about their lives. Some episodes are less romantic, and more about following up on what happened to the person afterwards. Additionally, they aren't exactly chronological, which can be a smidge confusing (like when someone dies but magically is still alive an episode later). So, as you can probably tell, it is very different. It's neither episodic nor straightforward. This is probably the only weak point of the anime however, any attempts to avoid it may have produced disappointing results. The last episode does tie up the anime in a nice way though, so I give them major points for the clever way they approached it.

Feels
Whoo.....I went in thinking this was going to be a cute "This is the happy couple and look at their sultry romance" kind of thing...I WAS WRONG. Maybe two of the couples have happy endings. MAYBE TWO. For the rest, life happens and its just plain tragic. But it is so beautiful at the same time! Utakoi does a magnificent job of making you fall in love with characters, and then tearing your heart apart. Additionally, they cover some very mature topics such as "choosing between being with the one you love and making a decision that is better for them" and "dealing with losing relevancy as you age and the pain of past regrets". It is every bit of Josei as opposed to Shoujo (adult and womanly vs. dreamy and girly). One last note is that they do actually have some occasional humor in nearly every episode, but its just enough to get by until the next train of emotion hits.

Summary
It's friggin' lovely and it hurts. I nearly cried on the last couple of episodes. It's got romance, poetry, history and pretty imagery. Utakoi is a fantastically rendered, and it represents the higher levels of artistry, both literary and visual, that our day and the Heian period have to offer. It is very, very good.