Since I think this post covers some detailed aspects I'm writing this in the form of a post instead of a review. I'm not good at English and besides I don't want to use rhetorics to show how deep my knowledge is, I'll make everything straightforward here.
This post is NOT meant to insult any other viewers.
And attention, spoilers!
Why do I write this post? Because Sakura Trick is the first yuri anime I've watched, and the anime that made me start to watch and enjoy yuri shows.
So what do I think about the anime?
I've posted somewhere else in MAL saying I enjoy this anime, and actually a lot. But rationally, I don't give this anime a good rating.
A rational look of the anime:
As we know, Sakura Trick is a slice of life that is unique for nothing other than the girls' lesbian relationships. Plain slice of life shows can be good, but they must depict something interesting out of the boring everyday routine. And there we go: the kissings.
Undeniably, for any couple, kissing is a very common behaviour. However, acceptable for everyday life !=(does not equal) acceptable for a script.
Kissing is emotions combined with sex appeals, so usually kisses (not used as jokes) are seen when a couple already has strong feelings for the other, and after confessing each other's feelings. However many of the kisses in Sakura Trick are not as such, and can only be interpreted as 10% emotions + 90% sex appeals.
By now some people may say 'Sakura Trick is not only unique for its yuri kisses, you're missing the point of the anime'. So what about other aspects?
Comedy-wise: Sakura Trick is quite comedic, but quite a few jokes are based on kissing or other events related to sex appeals, and besides even jokes get boring later. YuruYuri is much more comedic than this.
Fanservice: Everyone would come to the fact that there are a great bunch of fanservice here. But there is one extra thing to note: in Ep11, the focus has been shifted from lips to boobs and this means the producers start to create fanservice out of nonsensical events. I can't imagine 2 girls who are merely friends would (even not that secretly) rub each other's oppai.
Drama: Though one may say this show doesn't focus on drama, it is one important aspect to discuss.
How do the main couple(Haruka x Yuu) develop their feelings toward each other? Let's do an analysis:
Ep01: A big damn kiss plus 3 other kisses. In Ep02, one kiss driven by 2 other lesbians, and more kisses simply to make Yuu study.
Ep03-A: This is the SINGLE moment throughout the anime where the kiss is a result of proper development.
Ep04--Ep11: Nothing new.
Ep12: The two start to realize they like each other. But... how is their relationship special? Till this point, if we take the main couple's behaviour MINUS all kisses and a few flirting, you will realize they look like normal friends who are rather close to each other, but far from being special.
'What if the proper love development events are simply not depicted?' There is no reason to leave those events out, period.
About Mitsuki, I'll talk about her later. Kotone x Shizuku shows more proper love development, but alas, they are not the main couple.
Story arrangement strategy:
The anime is fairly close to the order/contents of the Vol.1-Vol.3 manga, but that is not an excuse.
We can easily tell that Sakura Trick's main strategy is to use kissing to attract male gaze. But fanservice gets boring, so other elements are added to the script... and are they good?
The ratings are in: Personal objective rating of part A and B[Subjective rating of part A and B], out of 10.
Ep01: 5,4[9,8] A big damn kiss as a successful start of creating fanservice. About the Contra jump: that's OK for laughs, I don't think that's really improper.
Ep02: 4,4[9,8] Nothing new.
Ep03: 6,5[9,9] Yep, I said proper development. Service-wise, nice pool episode.
Ep04: 4,4[9,8] Nothing really new...
Ep05-Ep06: 4,3[7,7] Nothing new. OK, this Snow White thing is only about the last life-saving kiss. Compared to YuruYuri S2 Ep12 which is hilarious...
Ep07: 3,3[4,7] One serious problem with 7-A: If it's a fanservice ep, THROW IN THE DAMN FANSERVICE AND DON'T ADD SOME SAD AND SERIOUS DRAMA TO IT, or the fanservice gets nullified. We need drama, but not at this time.
Ep08: 7,6[10,9] The best ep of the season. Better comedy and quite heartwarming.
Ep09: 2,2[5,5] So they took the service away...
Ep10: 5,4[7,6] OK quality.
Ep11: 2,3[2,5] Mitsuki's worst behaved ep plus the nonsensical oppai rubbing.
Ep12: 5,5[7,8] Ending is OK.
And another problem: The hottest kisses are placed in the earlier episodes. So even if one likes such kisses, what shall he/she watch in the later eps?
About Mitsuki:
From what I observed...
Chinese sites: 'Mitsuki is cute!'
MAL: There are quite a lot of Mitsuki supporters but I clearly see comments about Mitsuki's bitchiness.
So my opinions, and why her?
1: Besides her jealousy and any other characteristics related to jealousy(e.g. possessiveness), characteristics of Mitsuki are adorable. The problem is, her jealousy occupies a real great portion of the anime and this nearly made her my 'disliked' character of the anime. She's the real SBJK.
2: In fact Mitsuki is a contradiction. The answer to 'why her'.
3: Is Mitsuki unrequired? You can always write a new script, so we can't say one is required only because the Earth still orbits without her. In this sense, Mitsuki is not unrequired--imagine a couple who kisses for dozens of times but doesn't even know what love is. However, it would indeed be better had Mitsuki's role been a caring sister and also the two girls' guide, that is, her role in the anime minus the love triangle stuff.
Now, why is Mitsuki a contradiction? 2 reasons:
1: Evidence are rather inadequate about this but it's OK to deduce. In fact Mitsuki likes and cares about Yuu(although that seems to be before she gets to like Haruka). I doubt if jealousy can coexist with it.
2: The stronger argument: Around Ep08, Mitsuki's SBJK characteristic already starts to grow. And yet in Ep08-B Mitsuki starts to support Haruka x Yuu--even because she wants Haruka and Yuu to 'make it up with each other'.
The explanation (not an explanation of the contradiction) is that the author probably wanted to make Mitsuki less bossy and as a result put these events in. Well, settings are settings and should be accepted. (Right, Phoenix Wright?)
So anyway, if Mitsuki can really get over the jealousy stuff later, I guess she would be way nicer than the way she behaves in the anime.
Not all such posts really need a summary but here goes:
Overall, Sakura Trick is one yuri anime suitable for recommendation (especially for males), since it can make a viewer get to like yuri. However one should know that the Sakura Trick plot shouldn't be tried at home(well, you can kiss like wild, but you can't do nothing but kiss like wild). If two girls really behave like the main couple, then their relationship doesn't stand a blow.
