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Zetsuen no Tempest has an amazing musical score which accompanies the story and the characters extremely well. The art is really good quality, supporting an interesting, although too action-filled story.

The first part brings you in a world full of questions, and while action-filled, the mysteries and development between the characters and the protagonists and antagonists make it thriller-like. The Aika flashbacks add an hint of psychological effect which really help not only the narrative and the character development, but also the anime as a whole, making it much more interesting.

The second part is however disappointing as far as the story goes. Hakaze is ... added to the love triangle between Aika, Yoshino and Mahiro and it doesn't seem fitting at all. In fact, it seems forced. While it was well played considering the context, Hakaze nevertheless appears to start "loving" Yoshino out of nowhere. For much of Part 1 she was more interested in Mahiro and rightfully so, only thinking of Yoshino as a sidekick, but since Yoshino provoked a change of the end result (indirectly saved Hakaze's life) at the end of Part 1, it was for some reason the catalyst for her love to bloom. The initial love triangle was much more well thought and laid out and would've been good enough by itself.

The next 10 episodes, 40% of the anime, then focus on destroying the Tree of Genesis and Hakaze going into the past to find out what happened to Aika, in a slower paced environment compared to Part 1. The plot twist of her suicide was Shakespeare-esque, the relationship between the characters too. However, here lies the problem with the story: the first episodes lead the viewers to believe that Mahiro and Yoshino are the important duo, but it really turns out to be Yoshino (most important in Part 1) and Hakaze (most important in Part 2); the story completely shifts to their relationship up to the very last scene. We're also on two general quests, the first and seemingly more important to the "important duo" is to find who killed Aika, while the second is to fight the divine trees. These two quests, although eventually ending up being the same, keep pushing the viewers around, wondering which is more important, or maybe that is the point. As such, while in Part 1, the focus was on stopping Samon in order to save Hakaze (and the world, as second motivation) so she could then help out in figuring out who killed Aika. But then, once Part 2 came in, the focus was on destroying the Tree of Genesis, and suddenly everyone was on the same side. It seemed like a rushed turning point and development.

Overall, interesting characters, development, decent story, good art and music. I give it an 8.6, rounded to 9.