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 16th.
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