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Sakura Wars: The Movie
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I looked upon the cover of Sakura Wars: The Movie, and lo, I
beheld a mecha-like machine and cute girls in flowery costumes.
Suddenly, I felt the presence of Yoda around me, and in my head, I heard
my old master’s voice- know you what kind of anime this is… this all
seen before, you have.
Sakura Wars is one of those series’ that I know nothing about,
beyond the fact that it exists, so I used one of the most powerful of
Jedi weapons- Google. I did know the series was popular- I did not
realize just how popular. Apparently, Sega has devoted an entire store,
including restaurant, to this thing. Games, OVAs, soundtracks, TV
series’, traveling stage shows, the list goes on. One might be led to
believe that it is actually good, I reasoned. On the other hand,
Japanese taste in popular culture can sometimes be described only as
“unique”. So it was, bearing all this in mind, that I popped the
Sakura Wars: The Movie UMD into my PSP.
It opens with a musical number. So far, I’m inclined to hate it.
Had I not been determined to give an honest good faith review, I may
well have stopped right there. Had I done so, I could rightly have been
labeled a colossal ass, because after the opening bit, the show gets
good. Really good.
Those of you like me, who ain’t hip to the whole Sakura Wars
thing, need to know this- it’s all about a theater performance troupe of
cute young ladies who double as demon fighters in an alternate history
Japan. In this Japan, all things are steam powered, and spirit power
powered, including their mecha battle suits.
I know it sounds odd, but stay with me.
Once you get beyond the obvious- dare I say cliché- elements, such as
the whole young girls driving mecha to fight demons things, you begin to
notice the finer points of the movie. Let’s start with dialog- it’s
great. It’s well written, it flows great, it’s easy to follow, and it
makes sense.
Next, the story. An evil American corporation is coming to Imperial
Japan in the guise of partnership, but they are in fact looking to take
over Tokyo. OK, not terribly original, but it is fun, and it moves along
at an intelligent clip that never bogs down or wanders away from the
point.
Cue the visuals. The artistic style on Sakura Wars is top notch.
1926 Japan, driven in large part by steam power, looks as one might
expect, and for the most part is very believable. The animation is just
as excellent, with bright colors and well animated characters. The mecha
look suitably old fashioned and high tech all at once, while the demon
creatures are drawn in a satisfyingly disturbing fashion. The box cover
gives a rating of 16 and up for this feature, due to language and
violence. There is exactly one curse word in the movie that I can
remember, and as for the violence, it’s not as in your face as, say,
Terminator 3, but that does not mean they lack action- just blood and
guts. However, the nightmarishly shaped demons could be enough to give
younglings bad dreams. Over all, I would say 13 and up is probably a
more reasonable rating.
For those who might be wondering, yes, there is a fairly liberal use of
CGI in the movie. I personally don’t have a problem with CG in anime,
and for the most part it looks good, although there are a few scenes in
which it was just flat overused. It would have been nice if the battle
sequences had featured more traditional animation as well. Obviously, I
haven’t seen the movie on DVD, so I can’t compare visuals between the
versions, but one of the nice things about the PSP’s excellent screen is
that it tends to be very forgiving; that is, it makes things look really
great that might just look OK or out of place on a television screen.
One of the things I found interesting was the direction of the battle
sequences, the first one in particular. As I watched it, I was reminded
very much of a turn based RPG game. The way the characters moved, the
way they attacked, the camera angles, all of reminded me of games like
Final Fantasy. If it sounds like that might be a boring thing to watch
in an anime feature, it isn’t. It actually works quite well. I don’t
know if the technique was intentional or not, though I would assume it
is, a way of paying homage to the movie’s video game roots. Whatever the
case, it was actually pretty cool, and only used really in the first
battle, so as not to be overdone.
As stated, the visual quality on the PSP is superb, and the audio works
well too. I didn’t listen to the dubbed soundtrack, so I don’t know if
the voice actors sucked or not- at this point, I just assume they do and
ignore them, although I do wonder, given the high quality of the other
aspects of the presentation. If I ever go back and listen to it, I’ll
post an update. Geneon did throw some previews on the little disc as
well, but they were all one’s I had seen on other discs, so that was a
bit of a downer. I always like checking out the previews first, looking
for something new I’ve not yet seen.
So, after all is said and done, the Yoda voice in my head was wrong.
Sakura Wars: The Movie is definitely worthy of your dollars, and
will be gaining permanent spot on my shelf, next to the ever increasing
collection of quality shows Geneon continues to release.
-Ed-
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Genre:
Adventure/mecha
Directed
by:
MitsuruI Hongo
Written
by:
MitsuruI Hongo, Hiroyuki Nishimura, Nobutoshi
Terado, & Ohji Hiroi
Based Upon the Game Series:
Sakura Taisen by Sega Japan
Original Japanese Title:
Sakura Taisen: Katsudou Shashin
Voice Cast:
Chisa Yokoyama (Sakura Shinguji)
Michie Tomizawa (Sumire Kanazaki)
Urara Takano (Maria Tachibana)
Kumiko Nishihara (Iris)
Ai Orikasa (Ayame Fujieda)
Akio Suyama (Captain Ichiro Ohgami)
Masaru Ikeda (Ikki Yoneda)
Yuriko Fuchizaki (Ri Kohran)
Mayumi Tanaka (Kanna Kirishima)
Takehito Koyasu (Yuichi Kayama)
Akiko Kuno (Lachette Altair)
Koichi Yamadera (Brent Furlong)
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UMD Features
16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
Previews
Japanese/English Language Tracks with English Subtitles
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