Anime Review No. 93 (Sakura Wars)

“With Fiery Passion!”

Sakura Wars TV (2000)

Director: Ryutaro Nakamura

Writers: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Kunihiro Okajima, Yoshimi Narita, Katsuhiko Takayama, Kenichi Kanemiki, Gou Tamai, Sachiko Doi, Takao Yoshioka, Tatsuya Suzuki, Ken Abe, Kazuharu Sato, Takao Yoshimoto

Studio: Madhouse

Ok, so now we are at another important title, at least in my development of being an anime fan. Around 2009, I had come across this on the shelf at Best Buy when I was at college in Virginia. This was actually one of the early complete collection sets I gotten, the first one being Evangelion Platinum Edition back around 2006. That show being, as you expect, is Sakura Wars. Please note that I am only really talking about the TV series here. Yes I am aware of the games, manga, OVAs and the movie but my focus will rest with the 25 episode TV series that aired in 2000. So what’s it all about?

Well Sakura Wars (Sakura Taisen in Japanese) is the story of Sakura Shinguji, a country girl who ventures to Tokyo to become part of the Imperial Combat Troupe-Flower Division, a part of the defense force defending the capital from the denizens of evil. Although at first, she is a bit out of her depths when dealing with the other team members, both during and outside of combat and training. Of course, in the process she becomes part of the team both on the battlefield and on the stage. All set with a backdrop of alternative historical 1920s, steampunk-esque Tokyo where advanced mecha technology converges with dark mystical power.

The story of this series rests on the hands of three men: Ohji Hiroi who developed the original manga and acted as creator/producer for the franchise, Satoru Akahori.the head of the writing team (series composition) and finally Kosuke Fujishima who along with Hidenori Matsubara handled the character designs which you tell as the character designs closely resemble those from the contemporaneous Ah My Goddess the Movie. And they managed to succeed in forging a franchise that persists for several years. Sakura Wars is a brilliant meld of Super Sentai, Japanese historical fiction and nice character driven storytelling.

Of course, the series itself is drawn back from being truly great and that is for two BIG reasons. The first reason is that the story takes a very ‘long game’ approach to the storytelling. Which means for one thing it takes time for the show to get really great, like in halfway through I would say. But once it does it becomes easily one of the most interesting and entertaining anime ever. A colleague of mine once told me that he tried watching Sakura Wars but couldn’t get past episode 7 or 8 and I can understand in that leads to my other reason: The cast starts off very unlikeable or very shallowly developed, with a few that come across very stand-offish or straight up loathing. But thanks to the ‘long game approach they do get appropriate development as they are shaped by the events that occur and their interactions with each other and others is really compelling for the last few episodes.

The animation is well, alright and functional. Granted this was done by Madhouse before they were particularly well-known for the quality work that they are known for nowadays. It also falls in that same category of previously reviewed anime like Nadesico and Silent Mobius where the meld of traditional cel animation and digitally painted cel animation/CG. This does make the anime look a bit rough around the edges but by the final few episodes the production look a bit more even. What works great in the show’s favor is the soundtrack, with music done by the legendary Kohei Tanaka. The OP as I have mentioned before is one of the best OPs I have heard-an all time favorite.

Now for the english dub. Oh boy, what an uneven jumble. Of course, this dub is brought by the now long defunct Monster Island Studios, the secondary studio in Austin that ADV ran from 1998 to 2005. This is the same group that dubbed stuff like My Dear Marie (my favorite and only recommendable dub from this group), Eden’s Bowy, Zaion and heck Wedding Peach. What hurts the dub is several things. For one thing, it starts off not really good, sort of directionless with either too much hammy overacting or too little effort put into the vocal performances. Most of the supporting cast sound alright, but the main cast aren’t all that good starting off, no surprise that aside from a few (Larissa Walcott and Samantha Inoue-Harte), this was the one and only project that they were involved with. Worse still most of them employ rather obviously fake accents. Though to be fair, they do grow into the roles by the end, though its too little too late.

So overall Sakura Wars is an example of a rather interesting premise that gets fudged up by production troubles but its still impressive given the effort and work that went into it. I would add that the TV show serves as a good primer for the whole franchise. My opinion of it might have soured against it recently, but the series hold some significance to me regardless.

Speaking of significance, the next series I am reviewing is also another real important show for me…..

Til next time, dear readers

Anime Review No. 49-Sakura Wars Ecole de Paris

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Title: Sakura Taisen-Ecole de Paris

2003 OVA, 3 episodes

Produced by Red Entertainment/SEGA

Licensed and Distributed by Funimation in USA

Genres: Adventure, Action, Mecha

So, this series of reviews on anime sequels ends on this: Sakura Taisen-Ecole de Paris. Sakura Taisen, also known as Sakura Wars, is a franchise that has been around since the mid-90s. It has a manga, a TV series, movie, and several OVAs, all based on a series of video games. Its creators are Ohji Hiroi (Virgin Fleet), Kosuke Fujishima (Ah My Goddess and You're Under Arrest) and Satoru Akahori (KO Beast, Maze OVA, Sorceror Hunters). It tells the adventures of the Imperial Floral Assault Team, a group of female mecha pilots, who protect 1920s Tokyo from evil hordes. The 26 episode TV series is actually very good, with the right balance of action, drama, character development and comedy I've seen in a mecha series. It's on my list of 10 Favorite Anime series I posted over a year ago and included its opening song in my list of Favorite Anime Opening Songs a few months ago.

Enough of that, for today I am talking about one of the spinoffs. See, the popularity of the game series prompted SEGA/Red Entertainment to go out and make a few spinoffs of this series. This one is set in Paris during the mid 1920s, and there is also another spinoff set in 1920s New York City. Anyway, this 3 episode OVA, made back in 2003, concerns the formation and initial adventures of the Flower Division in Paris. It actually serves as a prologue to the third game of the Sakura Taisen series, which makes some sense.

Episode 1: Flowers at Daybreak

January 1926 starts us off. It starts off....in French? A bit odd, but well done by the English dub cast.

A Flower Division is formed in Paris during the heights of the Roaring Twenties. I love the attention to detail to make this so. The first character we are introduced to is Erika, the readhead who is a bit of a sleepyhead (reminds me a bit of Sakura from the TV series). She acts a bit like a Catholic nun, always doing a prayer and talking about devotion and such. She comes across as being naive and not too smart but good-hearted and kind, much like Sakura in the TV series. The music is very 1920s Francophone with accordion and jazzy/serenading instrumentals.

Of course, Erika runs into Glycine Bluemer, the rich bitch, though not as bitchy as Sumire in the TV series, but certainly comes close. She is stern, aristocratic, a tad snobby and somewhat annoyed at Erika's sillier antics. Some another characters are introduced: Lobelia, a femme fatale thief whose the only one with a proper accent; Hanabi, a young woman with a dead lover and finally Coclequit, a younger girl who works at a circus as an acrobat.

So, the basic plot and premise is established with this first episode. The Flower Division is starting to come together. And, to add to this, Ohgami (the only dude in this series) is coming to Paris to help train this new group. Hurrah! Let's continue!

Episode 2: The Black Cat and the Bad Girl

Here, the focus is on Lobelia, the mysterious glasses, white-haired thief. She is a femme fatale and resident 'bad girl'. By this time, The Flower Division has 4 members: Erika, Gycline and Coclequit (little circus girl) and Ohgami. Just as in Sakura Wars TV, Ohgami is still the most bland and uninteresting character in contrast to the female characters. Thankfully his time in the OVA has been small, for now.

Meanwhile, a mysterious adversary, named Jester who looks like a female Pierrot Harlequin character. Apparently, this is the bad guy. Ok, cool, as this keeps in line with how the rest of the show. Strange occurrences happen which may or may not be linked to Jester.

Something of note:

Each of the girls have specific 'spirit powers' which are more latent here than in the TV series. There, all that meant was that they pilot the Kubos, but here they can do a bit more with their powers, like in the case of Lobelia who can literally bend fire to her will which she uses to outsmart the Flower Division's attempts to catch her.

After a rather lengthy but very good action sequence, Lobelia is finally caught and recruited into the Flower Division. This is a very good episode with plenty of action and excitement to be enjoyed. Let's see how this all ends up!

Episode 3: The City of Love

It has been three months since Ohgami has been in Paris, getting a rude awakening from Erika one morning which I chuckled at I'll admit. The episode goes through a sequence of Ohgami interacting with each of the girls one at a time.

First, Gycline is doing some sword training with Ohgami. She's extremely prideful but reliable with what "The honor of the aristocraticy" bit she keeps going on about.

Next, he's hanging out with Colcequit, who is the little circus acrobat girl. It is a very nice and soft conversational moment. There is a lingering inner sadness to her character, but sadly it isn't fully explored here.

Next, Ohgami is watching Hanabi perform on stage. Hanabi doesn't have much screen time, but the bit of time she is portrayed as a quiet and demure girl who is still moving on from her dead lover.

Finally, he is playing cards with Lobelia. She is expanded upon here, being reckless, morally ambiguous and stubborn. "Last thing I want is a peaceful Paris" very succinctly sums up her character.

Now, to cap off this part of the episode, we get a scene of the four girls in round-table conversation. This is quite entertaining, reminding me of group dynamic displayed in the TV series. I'll admit I smirked at this bit.

Now, we go from that to some government stiffs talking about remote controlled submarines. The Jester takes one and mucks around with it. It then goes about Paris starts causing some havoc.

This prompts Erika and Ohgami to go out in their Kubo units and fight. This is admittedly the best part of the OVA, where the production pulls off all the stops. This action scene which feel and looks like a video game (not surprising), with a nice blending of CGI and cel animation (even for the time it was made).

But, it all ends on a slightly unresolved note. A shame, as this is really good. Best part of this, you can watch this and not lose much aside from Ohgami but that's fine. Overall, this is very well done in terms of whole production (animation, sound, etc). Funimation does a good job with the English dub. Bummer that they couldn't spring enough money to get the second OVA of this, but whatever. As a final note, I highly recommend this.

Next Review: His and Her Circumstances (Valentine's Day Special) to be released February 16^th.