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Feb 19, 2024
The term hidden gem gets thrown out a lot in media, but I would absolutely call this anime a hidden gem. Without an official English name listed here the show roughly translated to "starting today I am..." is a mix up of a fun, slapstick, comedy with a delinquent drama where high school kids are all in some kind of gang constantly getting into fights with each other. The mix in tone of serious and parody works surprisingly well here though the majority of the time. I actually prefer the name "Self proclaimed Bad boy" which is used as a title card in the first
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episode.
A really fun main cast make this mash up of gimmicks work starting with the duo main protagonists. The dirty fighting Mitsuhashi is usually the center of attention, and his mix of clever and goofy cheating balances out well with when he gets serious. To Itou who is almost too honorable to be a delinquent really. A very positive masculinity character trope who is a bit bone headed, but very good hearted. Then there is Imai who I think is the best character in the show, and just brings this unique goofiness to the mix on top of his over the top bravado. Also the show does a decent job with the female characters who surprisingly are not used for fanservice bait. For this time that is pretty rare. It features a little bit of romance as well. The visuals are pretty good with a lot of nice hand painted backgrounds. I watched a 1080 version which I could not tell you if it was a Blu-ray version, or some kind of upscale but it looked great. You will have to sail the high sees to find this show though unfortunately. The music is good throughout with a very catchy and fun ending song.
There are a few negatives with only one of them not really being personal opinion based. The show does not have a real conclusion, and kind of just ends. Being an OVA series I assume the tapes just stopped selling well so they kind of just stopped after finishing a 2 episode story arc. The manga that this is based on covers a lot more than the anime does. Now something that is very opinion based is some of the story lines feel repetitive with many of the villains feeling very one note. Also I think Imai could have not been the butt of the joke 2 or 3 more times to make him look cool more often. Sometimes the show forces Mitsuhashi to be the hero a few times too many when Itou or Imai could have been a better option.
8/10 Give the first episode a shot if a delinquent dramedy, or even just a different type of school anime with some delinquent fights thrown into the mix sounds appealing. If you are a fan of GTO this is 100% worth giving a shot. If you don't like the first episode then I would say this show is not for you. The hour long episode 1 does a good job showing off what makes the show good, and introduces you to most of the main cast. I have been on a retro anime kick recently, and I am glad that I gave this series a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 18, 2024
Patlabor is a really cool idea for an anime, in theory. One of the worst things a movie or show can do is have "tell don't show" story telling for most of what it tries to convey to the audience. Patlabor in general has this problem, but this movie is rampant with dull moments of characters just rambling on instead of actually doing anything interesting. A lot of exposition dumping where the scene is not dynamic in anyway with either people just sitting in a room or shifting between stale backgrounds. This movie's story is more philosophical strain of thought than anything interesting. Which is
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rambling is definitely something Oshii does occasionally. This movie was around 110 minutes, and it easily could have been 80-90. Just a lot of slow scenes that could have been better organized, or flat out cut. Almost as if they needed to make the movie a certain length.
The story here is framed as a political drama, but the way it is told is just so dull with too much being left vague to the audience. It is hard to care about what is going on when we never even see the human element of how this is affecting normal people in Tokyo. The OVAs and first movie rely heavy on the main cast of characters, and a fair bit of comedy to keep it fun. Here most of the main cast is barely even in the movie. Noa is on screen for maybe 5 minutes. Clancy is not in the movie at all, and she is probably the most fun character. Which that highlights the biggest issue with this movie compared to what came before it. This just is not fun. That includes the barely built up villain who is just a repeat of a story line from the OVA. Except it was probably better in the OVA. The ending is also super anti-climactic, but let me move on.
I have not watched the main show yet, and I wonder if it somehow explains better how we ended up here. Because this movie feels 5-10 years after the first movie. Visually it has it's moments for sure, but I feel like the colors are washed out or something compared to the earlier works. Maybe something was up with my version though. Visually it was not good enough to make up for it's shortcomings. There is a change in art style and character design in this movie that I think is a downgrade to how the series has looked before.
Once again we have Patlabor which is a mech anime with very little mech action. Except this time it is really low for how long the movie was. It is very strange to me that this is the highest rated Patlabor thing on MAL that people seem to claim is the best from the franchise. This movie does not even feel like a Patlabor story, and probably would have been better off not using the characters or this world. It easily could have just been any futuristic Japan setting while still being almost the exact same movie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 9, 2023
An unexpected takeaway I had from this is that hour long episodes are too long for an anime. This show's pacing dragged multiple times during the 8 hour run.
Pluto is a story about the dangers of making AI too human except the story is mostly told from different robots' point of view. I am sorry, but I don't care about the life and death of these robots especially when the show makes it clear who is going to die with bright red death flags. They waste a lot of time trying to make you have empathy for these machines too which makes the show a
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chore to watch after a certain point. The lack of important human characters was a huge problem, and especially so with how rarely Dr. Tenma is in the series. This whole thing is really his fault anyway, and he does not really seem to process that or care. At least not that we see. The Jurassic Park quote comes to mind "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." That question why were these hyper advanced AI's even made is never really answered because of the poor world building. I don't mean the top 7 I mean all of the robots are needlessly advanced with some level of emotions that just is not necessary. There are seemingly a large amount of them that live just like people for some reason. That could just be because the original Astro Boy is form the 50s and people's perception of what the future would be like is amusingly wrong often times. There are a few sloppy and unfinished plot threads like the war that happened before the start as well as a few things at the end so the finale just feels meh at best. A few character motivations feel unclear as well as if Pluto knows what was really going on. The last episode felt rushed in a show with a lot of slow tell don't show story telling that fact is more disappointing because they had a lot of time to reallot to the finale which felt underwhelming while also wrapping up too quickly. The show probably could have been cut to 6-7 hours as opposed to 8, and told the story just as well.
There was some good in the show early on, but overall it was mediocre. The episode 1 storyline between North 2 and the composer was honestly the best thing in the show, and we never see the composer again. Which felt like a mistake to me. Honestly I cared more about the old man than any of the robots. The action scenes were a disappointment being barely there. Either covering up fights to hide Pluto, or simply because they didn't have the budget, time, or talent to make them any good. The CG cars don't look good per usual. The show looks very modern in the most unimpressive way. Very glossy with not very much actual movement going on. The art is fine, but the actual animation is just average. Some backgrounds do look pretty good though, but what I am rambling about is that visually it can't save the story.
This series has a niche audience which is apparently people who love the mangaka. I went into this with no knowledge of what it was aside from a very different Astro Boy story. It is unique how rarely Atom is in this, but this was clearly by design. If you haven't already read the manga for this, or are a fan of Astro Boy this show does not stand on it's own well at all. There is a huge failure in world building to catch you up on why things work the way they do in their world's society.
Pluto's high score is because of how few people have seen it to leave a review, and the mangaka's fanbase have ranked it undeservedly highly. Genuinely I wonder how much/if the score will drop when more people rank it than the almost 16,000 it has now. Don't be fooled the show is not actually good, and is not worth the 8 hour run time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 1, 2023
I really hope this gets a season 2. This is one of the better slice of life school high school anime that I have seen. In a genre that has a very large catalogue at this point you kind of need a gimmick or just defining uniqueness to stand out. Skip and Loafer's gimmick is well written characters that feel like people instead of tropes. Which is more rare than it should be. In a lot of ways Skip and Loafer is not too flashy. Mitsumi is also such an extremely fun protagonist. The most important piece in a series like this is the characters,
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and Skip and Loafer has fantastic characters to carry a fairly realistic and simple story about a mostly realistic high school life. The character writing is the huge strength in this show, and it needs to be for another series about a realistic high school setting with a slow love story happening to be worth the watch. Although calling this a rom-com almost seems to be selling it short.
A similar line that I have seen a lot of people say about this show is how human the characters are written. As well as just being likable people. I agree completely, but find it a bit difficult to describe what this means. Mitsumi is so optimistic, but she is not blinded by her positivity. Actually she tends to fail quite a few times from over thinking things. Which does make her pretty relatable. Moving to a big city like Tokyo after being raised in a much more rural setting is causing her to learn a lot of new things, but the show still makes sure to show that she cares about where she is from by keeping in contact with Fumi back home. Mitsumi's goal of going into government to help her hometown as well as the depopulated town situation in the very real world Japan is admirable. I love that she has a positive life goal like that. Also it really explains why she wanted to go to a Tokyo High School to eventually get into government. Many of the characters have their reasons why they went to this school specifically.
The supporting cast also has a lot of moments where they are just very considerate as well as caring about each other showing how their friendship has grown since the first episode where they were strangers trying to feel each other out. They have a lot of moments where they just talk to each other about how they are feeling instead of internally being upset. The show does a great job of bringing people together who are not very similar and turning them into a pretty tight nit friend group. Yuzu actually points out that most people would not think the four girls would be friends on account of how different they are. With Mitsumi's goofiness and positivity it all worked out early on though. Everyone was almost playing a character they thought they should be, and then overtime they grew and are becoming more of themselves. Self discovery is a reoccurring theme in the story. I actually prefer the dynamic of the other characters without the romance plot between Mitsumi and Shima. It feels inevitable that the story has to lead to that even if a lot of the time the show is more about friendship than romance. Personal growth as well as moving forward are the most present themes in the story. This is a coming of age story for many of the characters here. Not just the main two characters. Mika comes off nasty at first, but by the end of the season she was my second favorite character. Showing and explaining why people act the way they way they do when they all first meet over time. Mika's further role in the story is very intriguing as well. The story does a great job of using just sweet and cute moments between friends as well as some lighter drama moments to keep the viewer into the story and what is going on with everyone.
The music from the opening and ending are very good, and do a great job fitting the mood of the show with positive energy. The OST is pretty good as well, but it does not stand out too much in a way that you would almost expect from this kind of a show. The visuals are pretty good with some pretty nice backgrounds. Nothing too crazy happening in terms of animation though outside of Mitsumi's occasional day dream sequences.
If I had to list a weakness if would actually be Shima the male love interest. He does have a backstory that is not finished being told after the first season with a few questions left unanswered, or simply not fully explored enough coming off a bit strange at times. Not bad per se I just think his storyline is the weakest thing the show has going on with a lot of focus on him towards the end of the season. The 4 main girls interacting as well as the student council president situation was just more interesting and fun for me. Shima's portrayal as the generic "perfect" guy without trying is kind of boring. He is more complicated than that, and the story does absolutely have room for him to grow though as well as explain a few more things about his childhood. Also the other 2 guys Kento and Mukai could use more development at some point, but that also could happen later on. I appreciate that the series does not really have fanservice or other creatively cheap things like that.
9/10 I really hope this gets a season 2 because I want to spend more time with these characters , and see them just live their lives more. As someone who does not really read manga I am considering picking this up because it has 53 chapters now with the anime adapting the first 23 of them. If you decide to give the show a try I would highly recommend using the 3 episode rule. Partly because it takes some time for everyone to come together, but also because episode 3 is very good in a way that highlights what the show is going to be about. If you like slice of life, or romance anime this is absolutely worth checking out. My very early anime of the year for 2023.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 12, 2023
I like Bocchi the Rock, but this is one of the many instances where everyone else seems to like something more than I do. The biggest make or break for new viewers of this series is how funny do you find Bocchi's overactive imagination, and how relatable do you find her as a character. For me I found her delusions amusing for a while, but at some point they would go on for too long or go too far as the season went on. The joke did not always hit for me. I also don't find her very relatable. I related more to Ryou
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who is a loner by choice as opposed to Bocchi, but Ryou is the least present member of the band really. Outside of those 2 things it is an enjoyable slice of life about a band, but make no mistake this is absolutely Bocchi's show more than being about the whole band.
The characters' absolutely do drive the show, and almost everyone alongside Bocchi is mostly enjoyable if a little tropey. After Kita's introduction she really does become the second main character which is good because of how opposite to Bocchi she is. I don't like yuri so I wish the series would have left out the part where Kita has a crush on Ryou, but besides that she is pretty good. Nijika and Ryou are fun as well with Nijika being much more important for different plot purposes. Like getting Bocchi involved with the band to begin with. Bocchi's family are supportive, and kind of fun in their own right, but they don't really do much. The only character I really have a problem with is the drunk girl. A person or character whose defining trait is alcoholic is never fun, and I don't know why this is popping up more in slice of life series lately. Still it is uncommon. Kikuri has potential to be fixed though because a story line where she finally gets her life together after helping Bocchi get over her own fears would genuinely be really good. Kind of the help someone else to help yourself story. I am not sure how likely that really is because they seem to just use her for the bad look at the drunk girl being drunk joke... so funny. I hope they actually do something with her instead of just leave her as a bad joke by the end because there is a lot more mileage on the series. They seem to set something up so it is possible.
The music is what is really is going to stick with me the most. The VAs sing the openings and endings which is always fun. The backgrounds of the show also do look very pretty with a lot of detail, and they provide an interesting normalcy compared to what Bocchi is seeing in her head while freaking out. This show has a lot of multiple moments that seem almost made to be clips shared online which I have seen some people try to use as a detriment of the series. Sometimes the animation will go very wonky, or it will switch to cheap 3D to show Bocchi's meltdown phases. Like I said earlier how much you like this show will depend a lot on how much you like this gimmick. The more creative animation does make the show stand out though.
I really do like the show even though I am only giving it a 7. The first season only covers a third of the manga though so there is potentially a season 2 on the way especially with how popular this season was. More slice of life is never a bad thing, and this one is definitely unique.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 4, 2023
I really liked the idea of Do It Yourself being a Slice of Life anime about girls in a DIY club, but the actual execution of the show did not do much for me. The show wastes a lot of time on yuri bait material which would have been much better off left out. Miku and Serufu's relationship is a big part of the show, and I could not have cared less about it. Now I don't like yuri at all, but Miku's overly tsundere personality was difficult to watch at times, and kind of cringey.
The characters make or break this kind of a
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show, and I would call this cast mediocre. Serufu is basically Yui Hirasawa your generic overly energetic protagonist except her gimmick is that she is extremely clumsy. While handling power tools so that is a dangerous mix. She is not that bad, but she is very forgettable despite being the main character. Miku when she is not being an annoying tsundere is okay. Her and Jobko's anti-DIY feelings always seemed strange to me, but Miku does represent this strange antithesis to what the club is about. Juliet/Jobko is okay and is probably the most I have heard an anime character speak English before in a show. Her VA clearly is not fluent, but she is doing her best and is easy to understand at least. Sometimes she will tell others things that Miku told her was a secret so she has really is not a great friend, and is kind of annoying at the start. She gets better though later on. The other 3 are complete after thoughts sadly, and easily should have more done for each of them outside of their introduction episodes. As the show went on they were just there to fill out the numbers, and be a little unique from one another during conversations. The show was also lacking in comedy unless you found Miku's antics amusing. Which I did not. I am not saying the jokes were bad just that there was not much of that. I think the animals and robot jelly fish were actually more amusing than the human characters.
Now I want to talk about the highlight of the show which was the visuals. The backgrounds are pretty and detailed with this almost picture book type feel to them. Also they draw a lot of detail on those power tools as well. The animation is pretty smooth through out the series. The character designs are pretty good as well with everyone standing out compared to each other. Some people may find them unimpressive though. The story is fine, but the simplified version is something that you have seen before. The club needs to get more members, but they attempt to do this by actually making things to gain some attention from other students.
I really wanted to like this show, but by the end I was just ready for it to be over with because I did not feel like dropping it. I gave it a 5 out of 10. Anything less would be too low, and some people may find the yuri antics more amusing than me. It is a decent idea for a slice of life anime, but the show left a lot to be desired. Rather the show should have focused on other things than it did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 26, 2022
Some of the more die hard Mob fans will disagree, but season 3 is a huge step down from season 2's quality in every way. Also it probably needed to be at least 13 episodes. I have seen some people say the alien stuff should have been an OVA, and I kind of agree that would have fixed the pacing issues to some degree. The season feels rushed at times, but also like they are wasting time to fill up the episode length other times. Episode 5 probably could have been cut in half because they are just killing time to make the bad joke
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about Mob's monkey shirt. The anime team also probably needed to add more context to certain story aspects that the source content is lacking in. Specifically Dimple.
The first half of the season is dominated by the Dimple storyline where he finally turns on Mob. That was really the biggest unanswered question from season 2. Not what is going on with Mob's powers, and absolutely not anything to do with Tsubomi. Dimple is really the 3rd main character, and him finally making his big play was built up well... only for them to get to the confrontation, and realize that Dimple does not really have any motivation for what he is doing. Who was Dimple when he was alive? Was he ever a human, or just a spirit of something else? This is never answered, and instead we get a half baked talk it out no jutsu scene where Dimple says that he just wanted a friend to do it with. Except he wanted to be worshipped before he ever met Mob. This had been his goal for a long time, and when he finally had it seemingly he did not really want anything from it. He did not want to change the world, or get anything done with having so many followers. It was just a blind ambition that could have been explained by telling us who he really is. The original writer was just lazy with this story though. Dimple deserved better.
The first arc sort of soured the mood on the rest of the season. The alien stuff was kind of fun, but also the animation was all over the place. Episode 8 had the characters off model a majority of the time, and was a strange quality drop. Tsubomi is in the show so rarely that I forgot Mob's original goal was to impress her by improving himself, and by the end she still really is not a character. More of an object for his affection. Rather his other personalities affection. One of the main ways that Mob Psycho and One Punch man stand out is their almost anti-shonen set up. Mob is so overpowered that he wins most fights without much effort, but this becomes a problem when the show goes on for too long. Also when the other characters are not really doing anything interesting. Everyone vs Shimazaki was very impressive visually from season 2. It also allowed the show to highlight the other psychics who are much lower than Mob on the power scale. Mob walking over all of the other psychics was boring at the end, and highlighted the series' biggest weakness that had been mostly kept contained except in the conclusion of season 1. Mob is too strong for the fights to be engaging 95% of the time, and the show has to rely on impressive animation to get it done. The final arc starting with Mob being another of the hundreds of anime characters to get hit by a car was lazy and uncreative writing, and what follows was just meh for the most part. Redoing the Teru loses joke was bad, and why is Dimple back now? Who cares time to end the episode. Mob deserved better than this.
Season 1 is mostly good. Season 2 is great, and is really why Mob is considered one of the better anime series of the last decade. This is going to sound dramatic, but as an anime only viewer the story ending after season 2 would genuinely have been better for the show's overall quality. Compared to most other anime season 3 is good, but compared to Mob Psycho 100 season 3 was disappointing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 6, 2022
THE ANIME ENDING IS NOT THE ENDING! WATCH THE END OF THE COMPILATION MOVIE!
I felt I needed to get that out of the way first because the anime ends basically on a troll cliffhanger. The movie is on Crunchyroll, and after you finish the show you could just skip to an hour and 58 minutes in to see where the ending continues. I don't know why it was done like this, but I think everyone who wants to watch this should be told that first.
The show is really a crime drama with a lot of moving parts that build up it's story. Some more
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related to the main plot then others. It takes a while to really get going, but once it does there are maybe 4 main story lines going on at once that all intertwine. To an extent you have to suspend your disbelief that all of these people somehow know each other in different ways in Tokyo. I don't want to call it convoluted, but it can be difficult to follow at times, and some of the explanations for things are questionable. You have to really watch it to watch it if you get what I mean.
I really enjoyed the art and animation of the show. Maybe it is not impressive from an animation perspective, but from an art perspective the backgrounds are nice and the character designs are fun. The opening is really good, and the OST does not stand out too much, but it is good.
I am a bit conflicted about somethings in the ending. Like the cliff hanger addressed at the start, but also something huge that impacted the whole show up to that point. I can't say anything without spoiling it though so I won't. Many people may find the revelation at the end interesting, but for me it made the show a little bit less fun. Definitely an interesting and unique show that I would recommend despite tagging my review with mixed feelings. 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 6, 2022
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is one of my favorite anime, and I finally decided to give the manga a shot. Because we are never getting a season 2... which still is sad. As of writing this I am in volume 5 so my perspective may change as I get fully caught up. I do enjoy the manga, but what surprises me the most is how much the anime added that was not in the source content. Also what they decided to cut out. Nozaki's brother is not even in the anime, and I actually agree with the decision to leave him out. For the 13 episodes
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randomly dropping him towards the end of the season would feel weird. Especially when he does not even have a romantic interest. He is just a different out of the main story comedy character. I don't dislike him, but he does not really do much of note either.
However one thing the anime does that I really agree with is to cut out Nozaki's former editor to barely even being present. If I remember correctly he is only present in flash backs for the anime, but in the manga he gets a pretty focused chapter every volume at least. Honestly I do hate his character since his gimmick is simply that he is annoying. He just drags down any chapter that he is in. For some reason the author seems to find him amusing though. I pretty much skip any chapter he is heavily featured in now. The anime's decision to give him very little presence was the right call. Outside of him everyone else is pretty good.
This series is carried by it's very eclectic cast of characters. Nozaki's job as a shojo Mangaka is constantly used well to set up different situations for our characters to get into. Nozaki's research into how high school romance works by observing and occasionally testing things out on his friends is pretty amusing. However this is a series where the romance is not at the fore front but instead comedy. Chiyo who often feels like the main character instead of Nozaki in the anime does not seem like she will ever make any real progress. We have a few different odd couples to root for, but I am not sure if the author has any real plan on how to get any of our couples together. I hope I am wrong, but I am not fully caught up yet. If you are looking for a romance series with a definite conclusion this may not be it. However Nozaki-kun is a very enjoyable 4 panel series that can bring a lot of enjoyment to the reader. I only hope that we get a satisfying ending. Also a season 2 of the anime of course
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 4, 2022
I did watch this show when it was initially airing, and have rewatched it recently after buying the blu-ray. It was a favorite of mine, and I think it does have very high rewatch value after the past five years. It was maybe more enjoyable for me on the second watch. I was actually surprised how much of the show I remembered. This one stuck with me more than many slice of life series. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a more realistic, and relaxed slice of life series to enjoy.
I was immediately sold on the initial premise of this show after
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the first episode. Japan does have an issue with many small towns in the country dying because the young people are moving to Tokyo and other larger cities. This abandonment of the countryside is happening all over the world, but is very prevalent in Japan. I follow some youtubers and vloggers who talk about this kind of thing often so it was a topic that I am already familiar with and am somewhat interested in. The first episode does a good job selling you on Yoshino as a character, and why she would decide to stay in Manoyama despite being from a small town herself and resenting it. Most of the first half of the series is focused on fleshing out the main five girls, and why they are here. The other 4 main characters: Sanae, Shiori, Maki, and Ririko all are pretty different from each other and have different strengths and reasons for joining Yoshino as her ministers of tourism.
The Kingdom of Chupakabura idea seems random, but Japan actually did a lot of wild things around the 80s and 90s because the country just had a lot of money and spent it on random things. Later Japan’s economic bubble would burst, and many expensive tourist attractions would be abandoned. There are a number of abandoned theme parks, love hotels, and other random buildings in Japan’s countryside. Japan has a lot of domestic tourism, meaning Japanese people travel around Japan a lot. So Manoyama’s unique set up actually does make sense for them to have made, but when we begin the show it is very apparent that it is outdated. Japan has an obsession with Tokyo, and most young people think that is where this is supposed to be. Sakura Quest’s goal of showing that you can find happiness somewhere else is nice to see because of how different it is from what most anime or how people in real life feel about the subject. The simple kind of happiness is the hardest to achieve.
Sakura Quest takes a very optimistic approach for dealing with the problems they face trying to boost local tourism as well as interest in Manoyama to outsiders, and the actual residents of the town. The series is positive, but not unrealistically so. The tourism board does not always win, and it takes a while for Yoshino to really decide what she wants the goal to be for herself and her ministers in Manoyama. They initially just try to do anything that will make an impact, and increase the tourism in the town. Also they do a few random things to help the people that currently live there. Their metrics of success are hard to measure, but this leads to some unique storylines during the show. The vague goal of the tourism board is something that the show does address.
The characters are probably the greatest strength this show has. Our five main heroines all have a lot of character growth from where we meet them in the first 2 episodes. A big theme in this show is finding your purpose in life, and all of these young women are still trying to find that themselves. I found Yoshino, and Sanae to be very relatable myself, and I think Maki may have been the most well developed by the end. Some of the girls receive a little less focus then the others. The show never does tell you why Sanae decided to go to Manoyama which seems really important. Most of the story arcs tend to focus on one character specifically to tell their story in better detail. The supporting cast also does have some memorable characters who are very important to the story and the setting of Manoyama as a whole. Sandal is a personal favorite, and he provides a lot of unexpectedly comical moments as well as having a very interesting back story himself.
It is unfortunate that this series is not more popular, but I guess it is not very surprising. The workplace comedy genre is kind of small, and the average anime fan is pretty young still. Sakura Quest fits this kind of weird spot where it is not a healing/Iyashikei anime, but is a slice of life that is not a romance either. Now the show does have a lot of comical moments, but overall the sense of humor is more amusing then what you may call a comedy anime. Also there is some conflict that the characters’ deal with. The show does not have much fanservice thankfully, but there is this weird ongoing theme of people harassing Sanae specifically. This was not funny, and distracts from what the show really is and kind of undermines the message of that particular story arc in episode 17. It would have been better if these scenes were not in the show at all, but thankfully these moments only really happen twice. Outside of those moments Sakura Quest is mature in a different way that many anime fans probably won’t be ready for until they are adults trying to figure out what to do with their lives. If I had to describe it with one word it would be either motivational or uplifting. Sakura Quest is a very positive series overall that makes sure to show that it is okay to fail. Over the last five years I wish we had more shows like this, and less garbage isekai anime that are competing for who can have the silliest name. More importantly though it is a shame that this show may not be getting a follow up movie. The other 2 workplace shows that P.A. works made before Sakura Quest both did receive a movie.
Sakura Quest is very meaningful to me and holds a special place because it originally aired when I was in my last semester of college, and ended when I was at my first real job. The optimistic message about work legitimately helped me for some of the early months of that job which did not go well. A lot of the messages and quotes stuck with me, and with rewatching the show it was good to see some things I forgot. Being an adult is hard, and things don’t always go the way we planned when we were younger. The ending of the series is also beautiful. “Whatever your job is you can find inspiration in it” is something I want to feel myself one day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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