Sakura Tsuushin

I rather enjoy anime romantic-comedies (Maison Ikkoku, Ai Yori Aoshi). I rather enjoy seeing the happless rounin tyring to pass the entrance exams while dealing with love issues (Love Hina, Chobits). Sadly, this title falls far short of the marks set by other titles in the genre.

The first problem here are the characters. Tounma's character doesn't have the likability of a Keitaro, Tenchi, Keiichi, or the like. Urara's entrance as a high school call girl doesn't make her a likable character. It makes her a simple sex object and nothing more. Further, she's Tounma's 1st-cousin and her obsession over a meeting when they were children doesn't work here. Meiko-san, as the rich ojousama who uses Tounma a few times for her own purpose, also doesn't come off as likeable -- more like a rich girl who is nice, but not someone you'd want to fall in love with.

The writers desperately try to follow formulas of successful romantic comedy series but continue to fail. So it wasn't funny nor fun to see Tounma lying to Meiko-san about his getting accepted to the same university as her. We already know where this will end up which leaves us with the ride there. However, the ride there was just as boring. We also know where the ride with Tounma and Urara will go too. So as a romantic-triangle, it doesn't work. In fact none of the so-called romance in this anime works. No ammount of forcing on the part of the writers can make it work as it was laid out.

Could this have worked in the hands of a non-hentai creator like U-Jin? Maybe. Certainly there are realistic elements of unrequited love and lust which in the hands of a better writer (not intent on ecchi content) could have been sculpted into a more interesting story. However, that did not happen.

The ecchi content here is annoying. I tollerate a lot of ecchi content if the story and characters are likable (Ai Yori Aoshi) but we don't have that here. So now we are left with are desperate attempts to keep your interest with fanservice and other ecchi content. Sorry, but if that's all you have for sale, you don't have anything.

Additional: I took some time to track down some of the original manga. No wonder this doesn't work -- the original manga has even greater ecchi content and becomes hentai at times with a lot more going on that just the Tounma-Urara-Meiko triangle. While there is the "romance," everything is much more sexually situated and Urara's actions in the anime (naked apron, call girl) are thus explained better. It might work as a hentai title with a story, but it doesn't work as a romantic comedy or a romance story, which this anime tries to make it.

Bottom line: It is no wonder ADV is hurting financially when they license stuff like this. Ecchi content and a marketing scheme to try to sucker fools into buying something for erotic content may work initially, but it will burn you in the end. Thus ADV is burned and rather than have you suffer in the fire, watch one of the other titles I reference in this review instead.

Last updated Sunday, April 09 2006.

Every now and then I see a page here at Mikomi dedicated to a show I enjoyed, and which got fairly good ratings from expert critics, yet seems to be virtually despised by everybody at this website. This, I fear, may have the effect of turning away anime fans who know nothing about the particular show, and are unaware of the positive reviews it got elsewhere. Sakura Diaries is one of these shows. It has gotten an undeserved reputation as a sort of poor man's (or perverted man's) Maison Ikkoku. And though it certainly doesn't live up to the standards of that classic, I daresay I liked it. Yes, there's plenty of fanservice, which can get on one's nerves since this is a relatively realistic, slice-of-life sort of show, but those who turn to Sakura Diaries for the cheap thrills alone are liable to be disappointed. I think one of the factors which has soured people's opinions of this show is ADV's emphasizing (and exaggerating) the ecchi aspect in their advertising ("In this school, every class is sex education!"), and a general contempt for fanservice here in America, whereas the Japanese take a more relaxed attitude towards sexuality (another show which has suffered unfairly here at Mikomi would be Cutey Honey). But just give Sakura Diaries a chance and I think you may be surprised how well it comes off. If you don't believe me, take a look at these snippets from other anime websites:

"Sakura Diaries isn't a completely original show, but it does strive to be a few steps ahead of the pack... Most of Sakura Diaries is a perfectly harmless little shounen romance that sports excellent animation and music" --Zac Bertschy, SciFi (Rating: 83%)

"...it manages to be funny, rather racy, and definitely erotic, without being either too silly or too dirty to marginalize itself. More surprisingly, it also ends up being a rather realistic romance and much more emotionally affecting than you'd expect." --Marc Marshall, Akemi's Anime World (Rating: 3.5 stars)

"While I found Sakura Diaries to possess an intrinsic charm, I realise this show is not for everyone... That said, I still think it's worth watching an episode or two, at least to see if Sakura Diaries will hook you the way it hooked me" ---Pete Harcoff, The Anime Critic (rating: 4 stars)

"Man, there's a lot to like about this show... It's really nice to see a title of such good quality that isn't about the typical swords n' guns n' robots fare." --Mike Toole, Anime Jump! (Rating: Dub, B+; Sub, A-)

"Sakura Diaries is a wonderful show... It's also hilarious. There are so many situations and so many great lines that it's hard not to laugh so much with the characters. It has it's serious moments as well, but in the end it produced nothing but smiles from us as we watched it." --Chris Beveridge, Anime on DVD

Within Sakura Diaries there is a well done romantic triangle, more complex and interesting than anything in say, Love Hina, for sure. In fact, the sophisticated plot, with intriguing, well-paced developments that left me eager to see what would happen next, did indeed remind me of Maison Ikkoku. I found all of the characters (except Mashu, that is) to be likeable, even Meiko eventually (I think Komi is my favorite). Some critics find Touma's sometimes selfish, often foolish personality to be intolerable, while I agree with those who find him an all too realistic character which you can't help sympathizing with. This story doesn't categorize characters as good guys and bad guys--instead, they're portrayed as *real people*. I watched the dubbed version, and though I had nothing to compare them to, the voices seemed fairly well performed (some people can't stand Urara's dubbed voice, but I didn't mind it). The more reviews I read, the more convinced I become that what I watched must in fact be a second-rate edition, with a dub that is inferior to the original voice actors, a significantly altered plot, and based on a censored Japanese TV edition to boot. But if I like a show with so many flaws as much as I do in this case, the original must have been damn near superb! Funny thing is, I originally got my tapes largely because they could be gotten cheap. Well, in this case I lucked out. Sakura Diaries is an overlooked gem which hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves. If you're an open-minded person who doesn't expect anime to conform to Western standards of what's right and wrong (why should it?) I recommend you give it a try. Look for the "Collector's Edition", but if the best you can get is the same version as I watched, it will still be worth it. Anyway, for a remarkably thorough analysis of the series, (including the concept of "chiralism") and the reasons why it amounts to more than you'd expect, read the review by Marc Marshall at Akemi's Anime World.
My favorite line: "But don't you see? Touma spent an entire day tortured by his guilt and inadequacies, and it was all because of me!" --Urara (feeling delighted with herself)