Sakurada Reset

Hey, do you know that show called Monogatari? If you do, try to remember what Monogatari is like for a second. It's a show which is full of dialogues. It's a show which has most of its big moments resolved through dialogues. It's a show that was able to focus both on telling and showing at the same time, proving to many that "show don't tell" really isn't the be all end all for visual media like anime. Now take every person from the staff that worked on it, anyone that had any creative input in it, and give it to people who can't comprehend ... how to make it interesting at all. Oh, and don't forget to also get Takayama Katsuhiko to do the series composition. You know, the guy who wrote the script for Boku No Pico, and whose last big project was Big Order.
I have no legitimate idea who thought that this is the team that can be creative enough, to turn a light novel story, that's really heavy on exposition, slow and hard to consume on its own for sure, into a story inside of a visual medium, but let me tell you, they were wrong in all the worst ways imaginable.
Ladies, gentlemen, I present this review which I humbly wrote about a series, that I'm pretty sure had less passion while being developed, than I had while writing this analysis.

*Spoilers past this section*

Superpowers aren't a new idea, neither is one of them being controlled by the government, but there are titles coming out each year that are able to do some good with such topics. My Hero Academia, Captain America: Winter Soldier and the X-Men comics are just a few that immediately come to my mind. All of them have found a way to create worlds around such ideas and adapt their plot to play to its strengths. Sakurada Reset attempts to do it, but it fumbles at every point and every corner, creating a huge jumble of ultimate nothingness.

The story takes place in Sakurada, that has been a place where all sorts of powers have sprouted out of nowhere and have been taking the place by storm. The things have been calmed down and controlled by the Administration Bureau, that has been controlling and ministering over the area. Thanks to that, Sakurada is able to continue with its everyday flow and the abilities become a common thing, a part of everyday life. However, the trick is, the abilities do not spread, they're contained within Sakurada and everyone who walks outside of its boundary immediately loses all memories of them even existing.
One day, a boy by the name Asai Kei enters Sakurada, and it turns out that his ability is ultimate memory, which allows him to remember everything no matter how his memories are altered. Years pass, and one day, during school, he meets a girl - Haruki Misora - that can reset the world to the state at the time when she has last "saved". Combined, they are able to do great things, as Kei is able to plan out and fix problems that arise due to his perfect memory. Their story leads them to a lot of pain, a death of a friend, a fight against those who despise powers, but also the joy that they see through helping the community and the happiness they find in each other.

This show's problems are somewhat weird, especially pacing-wise. It begins two years before the actual events, when Kei, Haruki, and Sumire Souma meet and solve their first case together, which later one becomes a basis for them helping other people out. The pacing in those first episodes is extremely fast and unapologetic, it doesn't care if you didn't catch something, you're just supposed to have understood everything in between the stupidly fast transitions. Considering that those beginning moments of the show are supposed to introduce you to the concept of powers and set up the entire drama later on, I don't think I need to say much more about why that is a bad thing.
But to add salt to the injury, every problem that the show struggles with in general is present this early on as well, which is both weird and sort of funny at the same time.

That's because despite the fast transitions and scenes generally passing by like flies, the show is surprisingly slow in the delivery of each line. You can spot awkward pauses everywhere, there are those empty, 5-10 seconds breaks during dialogues. They really become apparent in the third and fourth arc, but they're there from the beginning, and they're quite hurtful to the flow of the conversation and the general pace of the anime. It feels like they're there to sort of fill out the time instead of doing something meaningful. You might ask "How is it possible that the early scenes go by so fast if the scenes themselves are so slow?". It's simple, the scenes are slow, but they're just short early on, and it's only later that it becomes a serious issue, as they start becoming longer. And what makes it worse, there's a distinct lack of anything interesting going on with the show's visuals.

At the very beginning of this review, I mentioned Monogatari, and I did that for the purpose of making you, the reader of this review understand something. If you've watched Monogatari you've obviously noticed its style, its distinct way with visuals and how it enhances dialogue that would normally feel dreadful and boring. There are tons of visual gags, characters screw around in the background, the art style changes on a lot of occasions, most metaphors are visualized and generally, the show is just interesting to look at, even though most of the information you get is through the characters talking. Despite the silliness, however, it's still able to maintain the seriousness and groundedness that Sakurada tries so hard to achieve with its "serious conversations" or the "focused visuals". Do you know why that is? Because its writing is good enough so that it's able to create those serious scenes whenever it wants to. Sakurada Reset feels like it doesn't believe in its writing or characterization enough for the viewer to continue following them through if there's something else going on on the screen. That wouldn't even be that bad, but the show looks horrendous. Everything is plain, the designs are boring and have absolutely nothing to them, the background art is often nonexistent or cut out due to the camera placement. The animation for what I'd say is over 60% of the show consists of still shots and characters with their moving mouths.

If the show's so boring to look at, my question is: why is it an anime? Why did this story have to be recreated in this medium? If the director has no inspiration to add any personality, humanity or individuality to the show, if the background artists are doing only what's necessary, if the show doesn't have anything special going for it visually, then what's the point of LOOKING at the show? Hell, this adaptation goes even further, as it HURTS the plot with the previously mentioned awkward, soundless pauses, the lack of emotions on character's faces, and the mostly uninspired designs of everything you look at. It just throws you off from the start and never draws you in again.

But those are technical things, those don't matter, right? Let's talk about...

NO!

People! Stop undervaluing the influence of the things you look at in anime. If the thing you're looking at does nothing to even attempt to adapt to the medium that IT CHOSE, then why should you, as a viewer, adapt to the way it's presented to even digest it? Goddamn Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979, freaking Serial Experiments Lain from 1998, name any other show from god knows how long ago, and all of them, despite looking like they're drawn in Microsoft Paint at times, are able to create style, atmosphere, and designs that integrate into the experience, creating a distinct feeling to them. Sakurada Reset is content with being the most limited and basic version of itself imaginable. It's fine with the bare minimum if it just means it can tell a story. Where's the passion? Where's the love for the project that you're working on? This show feels like it was more of a chore to make rather than something that anyone wanted to work on. It's disgusting, repulsive even. While watching, you can basically feel as if nobody wanted this project to work out. Well, maybe there's someone...

I'd argue that if someone feels like they tried it's the original creator. This is light novel writing through and through, and every amateur mistake is there. The lazy exposition where Kei or others go out of their character to explain things to the viewer; the lack of proper explanation of the powers, that leaves up countless possibilities, which end up feeling like conveniences; and the clear struggles of the author as he tries to get from point A to point B, desperately setting things so his vision can finally take place. He clearly had ideas and did some research, but he's just not a good writer. He lacks subtlety and understanding of the people he's catering to. He believes that if he didn't understand something before writing about it, then we also won't, so he forces explanation into the plot, be that either some storytelling term or a psychological one. He doesn't use those dialogues to contextualize the world or the characters, the most you'll get is that Kei reads philosophy, apparently. The author also ends up making the characters, especially the side cast, feel like devices to fit the finale rather than the fully realized ones. He gives them those mini-arcs that, he thinks, are enough to justify the characters' existence, but that's not true. It's hard to say if it's a case of lackluster experience, lack of time, or anything else, but even though the plot is a mess, you can't say it lacks ideas or creativity in what it ended up being. It's just the execution that sucks. Nobody thought about working out those issues.

Let me go back a little bit and talk about the way this show uses its characters. What I mentioned is unfortunately true to the core. Characters end up feeling like they exist just so that their power can be in the story, and the writer gave them interactions and moments so they won't be considered as plot devices. Bad news: they are still plot devices.
Despite quite a few characters that the show attempts to get through something, there are pretty much no implications for them before, during, or after they're done with the things they need to do. Their shown only when they're absolutely needed, in situations where it's necessary for them or their powers to exist. When Haruka needs to express emotions that she can't show to Kei, she talks with the cat girl that she met before. She never really seems to have any internalized monologues, none of the characters do, they have to express it out unless it's something that has to be explained to the viewer. Most lack stances on the world, they lack personalities and reasons to exist, it's impossible to see them actually live inside that world, outside of the events that the show presents. They're puppets, moving when they are picked up and put down when another puppet has to step in. Can you tell me what life does Ukawa lead? Can you tell me what personality does she showcase in conversations? What about Murase? Oka Eri? You can't. As I said, they are puppets, they're not characters, but the show pushes in this bullshit narrative and character arcs for each of them as if they were meant to be. They exist so that their powers can be used in the finale, that's it.

I said that the characters don't feel like they couldn't fit in casual situations, but are there situations like that in this show? To be honest, not at all, but the show tries to hide that fact. The problem is, it does it really poorly. I'd compare it to someone who's really fat trying to hide behind a pole. There's obviously a large part of his body sticking out. same goes for those "casual" conversations in Sakurada. They try to showcase those dialogues between Kei and Haruka, but all they or anyone for that matter talk about are psychological scenarios and terms. Let me show you two supposedly laid-back conversations from this show:

"Hey, what are you thinking about"
"Have you heard of the Swampman?"
"No, what is that?"
Proceeds to explain the entire idea of the Swampman

"Your notebook was new today"
"Yeah"
"It's almost like as if a new world was born today"
"You mean like the Five-minute Hypothesis?"
"Yes. It's a thought experiment...."

Both of them are clear and lazy attempts at explaining the viewer a concept that will appear or has already appeared in the story, NOT casual conversations that those two characters would have. I heard so many times that this show is good at foreshadowing or that it requires lots of thought to understand, but I can't fathom anyone thinking that this is well written in. The main character explains everything before you can even think, like that time when a monster appeared representing some character, and the MC just, straight up, explained his design. That design was probably the most creative thing that happened in this show ever since they introduced the concept of powers, but nope, you don't get to understand it, the show understands it for you. It's aggravating to me as the viewer, the show doesn't have to implement those explanations into the narrative, nobody needs to hear about what they're called unless the characters can develop perspectives on them, which in turn can lead to several narrative uses or make for interesting character studies. Of course, this show doesn't use them that way. Ever.

So if the casual conversations are ruined, and you can't enjoy thinking about the show since it's done for you, can you at least follow the mystery properly? No. The powers haven't been explored or given enough room for that to be available. Can you at least look at the things as they uncover, since the plot has some heart? Well, seems like you forgot that looking at it isn't fun at all too. Well, I think I can say this show is worthless now.

I said all that I needed to about Sakurada Reset in the last paragraph alone, there's very little that I can add to it. If something, I guess I have to commend it that it capitalizes off of the characters and lets them grow with the story, but again, that's only noticeable because the show decides "Oh well, they're different people now", not because it's something that comes naturally, that you can see for yourself through their choices and interactions. There's nothing in their behavior or thought process that changes, even though they underwent this "big" change. The same tone, the same facial expressions, the same mannerisms, the same thinking process, all remains just as it was. It's just that now, they apparently have a different opinion on something.

Overall this show lacks any sort of real value, both as an experience and as a piece of art.

And I'm done.

As always this is purely my opinion, but I can't encourage you to develop your own. Watch at your own risk.

Every season has its crop of shows that just simply aren't up to snuff, and Spring 2017 is no different. Sakurada Reset, however, manages to blow all the other bad shows out of the water with just how awful it is. It attempts to lure you in with a fairly interesting gimmick about time travel and super powers, but once you actually start watching it's all downhill from there.

Episode 1: Right away you can tell that something is wrong with this show. For one, the characters do not feel like actual people. You can count the amount of time that the MC blinks on a ... single hand, and all camera shots are static without any feeling or depth to them. The way the characters robotically say their lines as if reading off of a script provides no entertainment for the viewer. The episode drags on endlessly due to its slow pacing and massive amounts of just dialogue. However, the first episode is just the tip of the iceberg.

Episode 2: Reset was fairly mediocre during its first episode, with the concept of different abilities carrying the show quite heavily. But even an interesting concept can't carry the show through the absolute garbage it's about to slog through. The previous problems of the first episode only intensify, and often there are moments where absolutely nothing happens and the two characters are just staring at each other in silence. Two new characters are brought in whose powers are extremely plot convenient and lazy. Logic that no human would ever think of is used to solve the episode's problems, all while the main characters stare blankly into space with no hint of emotion. The convoluted plot progression is extremely hard to follow and makes for a confusing watch. Not to mention that the episode is horribly paced and drags on like the previous episode.

Does Reset have the potential to pick itself back up? Honestly at this point it's extremely hard to tell. Even as someone who has begrudgingly followed the show for the past four weeks, I still don't know what exactly this show is and what it wants to do.

At some points you will start laughing not because of what's happening in the show, but rather the absurdity of the character's decisions and the irregularity of the show's art and animation. As such, I'd only advise watching this show if you're extremely starved for a series about time-travel and/or you're a masochist who likes watching bad shows. If my thoughts on this show change in the coming weeks I'll come back and revise my opinion, but that possibility is extremely unlikely.

Episode 6 edit: Hasn't been as garbage as the first two episodes, but still has not improved enough to change my opinion.

After the first 3 episodes of this show, I was ready to pick apart every single flaw and problem that this show had. I was so enraged at the lack of quality that had made up the first three episodes. This was going to be my magnum opus review where I shredded apart this show and exposed it bare for the lack of quality that it was.

But then something happened. It suddenly stopped sucking. Maybe it was Amazon treating the subs better or maybe it was the show having a clearer idea of what it was doing. Either way it got better. Not good, ... but better.

And then came the last arc in which finally Sakurada Reset finally knew what it was doing and turned itself into an enjoyable and actually good show.

For one arc.

The sad fact is, besides the one arc the show is still overall sub par. Even in its best arc the direction is still lacking and the art is so bland and featureless that it adds nothing to the show. Often times it looks like they aren't even trying as there are no real directing cues, or moments with more than bland featureless art. It's all the same dull looking and unexpressive views that don't add anything over and over again. The voice acting as well as too monotone and while it does lead to a certain atmosphere, it also hinders the emotional impact of the work, and also conflicts with one of the shows biggest problems: Convolution.

Sakurada Reset is a fan of Convolution. It likes to make nothing simple. If there ever where a simple answer, Sakurada Reset would find some way to go around it. There is one lady whom one has to phone 5 times just to get her to pick up and talk. Why is this done? Convolution. They talk in metaphors and in psychology more than they talk one on one. And while that can be interesting at times. When done too much it gets overdosed and ends up saturating the show with too much of that. It makes the connection between the characters feel less human and feel less realistic. It makes the characters themselves feel less realistic They don't feel like humans anymore rather like machines or some other entity. It makes the show fall apart.

Added to that is a script that is awful at best. The line "If you ask me, I'd say I'm on the talkative side, and I'm pretty expressive. My name is Kei Asai." sums up its problems very well. First off that's a lie. He's not expressive, and if the show thinks he is then they've failed at expressing that. Second off, no one talks like that. The formatting is all wrong and doesn't make much sense. Third off he's telling this to one of his best friends (whom promptly matters very little afterwards) not a stranger. It comes off as a poor attempt to explain the characters to us even though it makes no sense in context. Characters are best built by actions not poor explanations like this. The worst of the lot was when a character said, "I'm not sad. You're the one who's sad., I'm crying because you're sad." after an event that was very impactful on their own life. It was so completely out of left field and unnatural that it was hard to take the show seriously after that. If someone is really going to play that card after the serious event that happened, then that person is lacking in humanity.

And because of these traits the characters don't really develop until the end. Even then the development is quite confusing. The characters are so convoluted themselves that it's hard to take anything at face value. Sometimes I feel like simplicity is underrated. One can get across clear strong messages easily by going for something simple, clear, and definitive. But since Sakurada doesn't like any of that. It makes a game of trying to figure out everything from the statements that are made and the ways that the characters talk to each other. Not to mention a lot of what actually is there isn't anything that interesting. Most of it ends up in characters that love the MC, which isn't really well written. One character is defined by her love for the MC and basically does everything for him and because of him. It's shallow characterization and it's annoying to see a one-dimensional character devoid of development even throughout 24 episodes. While it does actually get put in depth later and does have some merit, for most of the show it's shallow and boring.

Even with all of the information that Sakurada Reset gives and among all its conversations, it's very boring and hard to follow due to those convolutions, a lack of directness and a lack of expression in the art, direction, and sound. It takes a lot of effort to watch for no real reward and overall it just isn't any good. The worst of which is episode 11 which has to be one of the worst episodes I've ever watched, due to how boring and frustrating it was.

However, that last arc does work well. The script did get a bit better over time, and as soon as it shifted into mindgame time the show actually worked. It was still confusing but at least there was a pay off for its confusing moments. There was a reason to follow their lines of logic and there was a reason for the characters to code their messages more. While there were mindgames before none were as direct as they were in the last arc and they never worked as well as in the last arc.

While the last arc worked well, sadly a final arc can't save a show. For the most of it's run it wasn't any good and was a pain to watch. Just because the last 5 episodes are decent doesn't make the first episodes worth it anymore. Even though I did like those last episodes I still wouldn't recommend it to others because to get to them one would have to wade through a lot of crap. And frankly, it's not worth it. If you like overly convoluted and dialogue heavy works you might like this. However if you can't stand boring visuals or can't put up with trying to decode everything including the mangled thing they called a script, it's not worth your time and you're best off not watching it.

"I like hearing wind chimes when I least expected it. Like finding a rainbow." Sakurada Reset; episode 3

"Please, Tomoki. It's like a ritual...like exchanging rings becasue you pledge your everlasting love to God." Sakurada Reset; episode 16

"Thank you, I wouldn't want the ice cream to melt." Sakurada Reset; episode 18

"Grab her by the p*ssy" Sakurada Reset; episode 25

Sakurada Reset is an anime that grabbed my attention months before it started airing. The story's main gimmick- the reset ability- is an interesting concept that has been explored well in literature and other anime but with this anime promising a young duo using clever tactics and wit ... in conjunction with the reset ability, it looked to be a good addition to the string of bad thriller anime that have been pervading the last few years. It was very unfortunate, then that I carelessly ignored checking up on the staff on this anime. And I payed for it.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME

Sakurada Reset is a flat, shallow, farcical anime that whole-heartedly thinks its a serious show. It's a tragic example of a good idea done completely wrong. Sakurada Reset's problems go way beyond simple bad writing and bad direction- it's a mix of so many terribly done aspects that it's actually possible they have no connection to each other. In other words, everything is individually bad and not becasue one part of the anime affects the other. It's an additively, not multipely, bad anime. This makes it more annoying than normal bad anime since those at least have things tied together to the point one bad thing affects everything.

Fist off, the characters. All the characters are boringly written with very little to actually develop them. Their dialogue is bad (more on that in a latter paragraph) and all of them except the main characters merely exist as plot conveniences whenever the main character needs a handy ability around. The main character himself- Asai Kei- is an omniscient and omnipotent God who simply cannot lose because he's always right. Not my words, mind you, the other characters all treat him like he's the Messiah coming down from heaven in a wave of majesty. He's incomprehensible. His entire backstory is incomprehensible. The other characters are just bland as heck. Most of them are introduced in small arcs in the 2nd act (eps 3-12) of the anime and all of them suck. The arc has them play as minor villains who, in the end, become allies for the main character in the final arc of the show. Damn this anime make them incomprehensible. I'll try and explain the main arcs in order.

The first arc had the character- Murase Youka- have a terrible excuse in that she wanted to save a cat and you can clearly see the anime pad out the runtime with pointless dialogue and events that make no sense. But its climax was where she literally tried to kill Kei. She has literally zero reason to kill him but the anime was written to have her be crazy and stupid enough to do so. Not one character talked any sense during this confrontation or even before. In the end, she just pisses off until she is needed again by the show. Next arc we have Oka Eri as our Scooby Doo villain of the week. She's a character who for some reason holds antagonistic feelings towards our hero and wants to "beat" him. That would be great if the anime actually showed us any motivation for her. It's offhandedly explained in some throwaway dialogue but this girl has no reason to be as bitchy as she is. The arc also has her do F*CKING NOTHING at all. Seriously, she just shows up, bitches about things, and pisses off to wait until the anime needs her again. Also in this arc there's something about a Witch and shit which I'm sure is important but was so boringly done I forgot most of it. Oh yes we are also introduced to some bloke who can transfer abilities from one to another through touch. He'll be a super important bland character later. Oh yeah, we also have WhatsApp guy. I mean Tomoki. He's a friend. I think. The anime doesn't exactly show him unless it needs him. Funny...I'm seeing a trend here...

Anyways, the main problem with all these characters is that they're just so boring. The main characters (Kei and Misora) have the exact personality of an unpainted brick wall. I don't get how anyone can get behind their relationship because, unique as it is in anime, it's a very poorly handled relationship. There's a fair bit of emotional scenes in this anime and all of them fail due to the fact that these are badly written characters. Much of the development is rushed (ironically in such a slow show) and ham-fisted and the emotional scenes get in the way of much of the show instead of weaving itself closely. This is done much better in the final act of the show where I could see the anime sort of trying to give proper development but its let down by bad pacing and direction.

The only character I was even half impressed with was Souma Sumire- the only character to carry this show from "unrelentingly horrendous" to simply being "really terrible". She's a walking plot device. Not kidding, she even describes herself as such. She is, however, the only character with even half-reasonable motivations and explanations for what she does. She has an actual interesting character arc and sees more development than all other characters combined. She's also the only character we see being subtle in her methods and you can see faint threads throughout the story that she leaves behind- meaning she has a genuine presence within the show (for example, setting up the McGuffin so that Kei can meet up with Youko. I think that was one of the reasons. Though it still doesn't give any reason for Youko to be so bitchy about things). Helped A LOT that she was voiced by a top form Aoi Yuuki who puts everyone else to shame (not too difficult though since they're all as engaging and relatable as sandpaper). All other characters in this show do not matter. They're all plot conveniences used by the main character to look smart and show his omniscience.

Then finally, we have our villain- introduced in the second half of the show and wants to erase all abilities from Sakurada town. He's a villain so bad he puts the villains from ERASED, Chaos;Head and Guilty Crown to shame. I literally know nothing about him. The anime does such a poor job of building him up as a character and thinks flashbacks and sinister smiles are enough to make him imposing in any way. The anime tries so hard to tell you he's a smart guy with an excellent plan that they fail to actually show him being smart and doing excellent things. All he really does is get driven around in a badly rendered CG car, writing notes and talking about how angsty his childhood was. The anime does a sloppy job giving him any motivation to why he wants to erase abilities from Sakurada. This creates a problem in the main conflict of the show. There's supposed to be this grand conflict of ideologies in this show about how Kei wants to keep abilities (also very poorly shown) and direclty opposes bad guy's desire to erase abilities. For all the anime trying to sound smart it doesn't give us anything tangible as to why we should support any of these characters. The themes that run through the arcs are poorly carried over and lost in the bad dialogue near the end of the show. This anime has very little to offer in challenging the viewer's views as it can't even present the opposing viewpoints of the characters very well. Also, the 2 side goons of the main villain have no personality at all. But that's not surprising.

The story is about as incomprehensible as the characters. It's mostly all over the place with numerous plot holes that pop up whenever a character opens their mouth to explain something (which is frequent).The show also tries to do these really "clever" twist showing Kei's intelligence but these twist are shown in such an infuriating way its impossible to take seriously. The anime gives us so little information up until the twist that when it does come we're just left standing confused at what is going on. This mostly happens near the end of the show when they're wrapping things up but a good example would be in the penultimate episode with the bad guy in the car talking with Kei (btw episode 23 is one of the worse episodes of the show which says something). It's revealed that KEI ACTUALLY HAD A TALK WITH THIS GUY IN THE OTHER TIMELINE WHEN THERE WERE NO ABILITIES. What a cop-out. We got shown none of this nor was anything done to allude to the possibility that this happened, Kei just kind of says "Yeah. So I got you to talk in that timeline. Now I know everything because I'm the main character.". Not all the twist are as badly done as that but it definitely contributes to the overall incomprehensibility of the story. If you want more details of plot holes from Sakurada Reset pm me and I'll find some (its such a bad anime I have to research into why it is so bad). For the most part the story is only about as bad as the characters get though due to much of it being people sitting around talking about stuff.

Now we go on to the crux of this show's problem. Every problem this show has traces back to one thing- the dialogue. The dialogue in this anime would make M Night Shayamalan proud. Its terrible. I can't begin to describe how badly written the dialogue is. It's like it was written by a robot who doesn't know how normal human interactions are like. This makes the writing feel mechanical. Too flowing. Too unnatural. The show is pervaded by this kind of dialogue. Every character, with no exception, speaks in parables, Aesops, thought experiments or metaphors. I thought it was only the 2 main characters but no its everyone. There's so many examples I could show you but I'll take one from near the end of the show. Kei goes back to where he was born and raised and meets his mother who has had her memories rewritten so Kei can stay in Sakurada. A simple dialogue between a mother and her son whom she has forgotten about should be an emotional gripper with subtlety. But no. They speak like robots. The dialogue is so unfitting of the real emotional music played around it its jarring. This is an extreme example of where the dialogue messes up but this ENTIRE SHOW has dialogue like it. The quotes in the beginning of this review are mere dabs of taste of what this show actually does. I watched it subbed like everyone but I know a fair bit of Japanese so I can safely say the subs are actually less silly than what the poor voice actors had to say at some parts. It ruins every interaction, makes everyone bland and shows how little the main characters develop (even in the personal monologue scenes.). It's dialogue that doesn't make them sound anything human. I know the point of the show is to show how detached many of the characters are but when everyone speaks like Shakespeare all the time its unnerving. It boggles my mind to think how anyone could approve of this sort of writing. The director and writer must have both agreed to have dialogue like this to be in the anime. You honestly have to watch the show to hear some of the dialogue that is being said. Its the main reason the story and characters are incomprehensible. They cannot express themselves naturally. The show has obviously done this to sound more mature but it only serves to disengage and confuse the viewer. I stress with no small experience that Sakurada Reset has the absolute worse dialogue I have ever seen in anime. Some of it is self-destructive to the story. Much of it is pointless. And all of it is brain-melting. I repeat THE DIALOGUE SUCKS.

The last thing in this review is something that is not as bad as the dialogue but much more annoying- the direction and art and animation. The director isn't particularly well known but has directed stuff like Non non boyori and Kokoro Connect. Sakurada Reset has a slow pacing with many stills like those anime but its so...boring. Nothing of interest happens in the shots, the lighting is undramatic for much of the show, the shot composition and angles are bland and uninspired and there is no subtle changes in things like character expressions or body language. It really is just people standing around and talking to a flat, level, mid-shot camera position. Its one of the most boring directed anime I've watched. Art direction is also flat with the aforementioned lighting but also has crappy colour design, bland backgrounds, unexpressive character designs (except Souma Sumire and maybe even Chiruchiru), REALLY BAD CGI and a general blandness in the settings. There's such and overuse of white and light colours in the show that SJWs might protest it. So many scenes could have been directed better and therefore made better. There's a scene in episode 16 where the show has very real potential to build up on a romantic relationship between Kei and Misora where Kei ask Misora in a message to meet him on the roof. The scene was directed blandly with unnecessary cuts of Misora WALKING to the roof. It would be far more effective to simply focus on Misora herself with some slight change in expression and body language to just display some of her thoughts and inner turmoil (its episode 16, she should be at least somewhat developed by now) and have the camera linger on her from a high angle show framing her in the bottom right or left. But no. I guess walking is more important to show.

Other problems I have with this show...They almost ruined KanaHana's and Ishikawa Kaito's careers by forcing them to do bland deliveries of bad dialogue. The anime has terrible sense of time and location. In one instance a month had passed from the beginning of an episode but it really felt like a few days at most. The Bureau is a rubbish organisation on par with the Orbital Knights from Aldnoah Zero and Daath from Guilty Crown. The other characters I didn't mention like Ukawa and the teacher being completely stupid and changing motivations on a dime for reasons I fail to understand. The abilities being poorly explained or shown in general with few exceptions and the fact that the only actual abilities being shown are only shown to become tools for the main character to use (Except for the ghost girl thing. That was entire pointless and will take a team of scientist at least 5 years to understand why the writers even included it). The anime looks rubbish even though its the same studio that made Jojo. Things I liked? Ehhhhhh the music was pretty?

Sakurada Reset is an anime that had suckers falling for it with its supposed intelligence. What it really is is Kami sama no memochou except that it sucks. The characters are so badly written and bland its difficult to see any meaningful development. They're so unexpressive it makes me cry. If you want to see a show that is actually smart with clever dialogue and narrative twist as well as being well directed and beautiful to look at, watch Kino's Journey. If you want a show that does a mystery thriller better, Gosick is your answer. The Raildex series are infinitely superiour in terms of a place with abilities and using abilities to save people (as well as being a much better in-depth character piece). All in all, avoid watching this show and if you have watched it for fun and not for academics like me, I feel so bad for you since there's just so much better stuff out there.

This anime is absolutely terrible beyond anything I've ever seen. Not only is it more boring than watching paint dry, it is trying to become a new level of trash, and each episode just keeps one-upping the previous in doing so. Every single character in the show is extremely boring, lifeless and robotic, has absolutely no human emotions, and makes illogical decisions for no reason. The characters have had zero character development over the last 13 episodes I have seen, even less than Sword Art Online, which as far as I'm concerned, takes a mastermind to pull off. The plot is inconsistent, makes no sense, ... and many important things are not explained properly. The forced melancholy mood on top of everything just serves to make the show more painful to get through.

1/10

This is probably one of the most boring anime I have ever sat through.

The plot is almost completely told through dialogue, with characters doing little but sitting and conversing, making me wonder what the point is of even having animation. The plot jumps all over the place, making it hard to follow as well. The characters are flat and unrealistic and respond to things that would be shocking with almost no feeling at all. The art style is not bad, but a majority of the animation includes little to no movement or action. Overall, this anime is very slow and I would recommend it ... to people with a patience for lengthy and sluggish storytelling.

All the resets Misora does can't stop from LA disliking this anime...

Sakurada Reset is an exercise in patience and pointlessness in LA's eyes.

LA has ALOT to unpack so let's start with it's...

Flaws which it has alot of. Sakurada Reset PRIDES itself on giving us static images and bland deadpan monotoned characters through it's 24 episode screentime, what's worse it that these two elements makes this anime much longer than it's suppose to and sure LA isn't expecting EVERY anime to be shounen-esque especially from a premise like a town filled with superpowered humans and the Bureau governing and suppressing their inhabitants powers but keeping this ... atmosphere 24/7 won't help the experience of having dead air and slow traction in plotlines to occur and be dealt without as much as a sense of urgency. IT'S AN ANIME ABOUT SUPERPOWERED HUMANS AND A GOVERNING BODY SUPPRESSING THEM, HOW IS THIS NOT FUN???.

The deadpanned monotoness of this anime are easily manifested in the majority of the cast but especially in the form of our main characters Kei Asai voiced by Kaito Ishikawa who has the power of remembering everything and Misora Haruki voiced by Kana Hanazawa who has the resetting powers (before people starts, LA GETS why they are monotoned considering their situation the both of them are in, the fact that both characters have a strong sense of justice and doesn't want people to be hurt and protect them but at the expense of themselves not to mention the Bureau looming around them, but just because LA "gets it" doesn't justify why these MAIN characters are extremely dull on ALL fronts as a result) and it's even worse when this comes into the romance angle of this anime and it is damn forced how they play this out. The fact that these two characters really don't display much to any emotion is one thing, but as LA watched Sakurada Reset, LA just found the romance between these two to be not only forced but plot-driven in Kei's part to the point LA only saw Kei using Misora as nothing but a plot device and nothing more, his ulterior motives in using Misora came into the romantic angle and failed miserably (not only because both characters display no emotion and are pretty static, both in relationship but also the anime's atmosphere outright kills any notion of a romance angle for LA).

Aside from the romantic angle, Kei also has some other plot-driven problems about him, mainly because of his beliefs of not hurting people at any cost but at the expense of his own sacrifice which becomes annoying as that is one of his defining traits and one of the reasons why people think he's a saint or a hero and it's compounded by the fact that due to Misora's resetting powers and Kei's own powers, he resolves ALL problems rather quickly, sure you can defend this by saying well duhh because of the Misora's powers, but Kei's finds some rather TOO convenient ways to resolve things and quickly LA mind you.

Let's see what else, ohh how about the fact that many of the static imagery this anime does display actually hurts it's rare action scenes it has, due to how subdued and lacking in the animation department Sakurada Reset is, even the animation especially the action falters to a slow crawl of heavy action. This also affects the superpowered humans and their abilities as well making their abilities rather dull as interesting as they are at times.

Voice acting also gets crippled by the atmosphere of this anime thus the majority of the characters are either deadpanned or rarely way to excitable. The biggest victim of this anime being Kana Hanazawa due to her robotic way of talking sounds like Kana isn't even caring how she sounds and just doing her basic deadpan Kanade Tachibana vocals only without the effort, it's not Kana Hanazawa's fault it's her character's traits but nonetheless.

So was there ANYTHING LA found enjoyable in Sakurada Reset?, well LA did found for the most part the superpowers element at the very least interesting, even better when Kei found ways to mix other powers together to do something out of this world but this only goes so far but that a bit later. Sumire Soma is LA's ray of hope for this anime, why?...because she's one of the ONLY characters to actually emote in this anime and be different from the majority of the cast, she also shakes things up and allows some of the plotlines to have a modicum of interest and hell Sumire's voice actor Aoi Yuuki is LA's favourite voice actor in this anime hands down, but alas...there's also some problems with Sumire but that also a bit later. Lastly is that the final arc did try to do something Kei giving him a bit of character development and showing us what his true goal is but ummm yeah the finale also has some problems...let's start addressing them shall we?

First the superpowers were interesting and LA quite liked it when they "stacked" with one another making for some interesting results, what LA didn't like towards all this is that Kei manipulates and uses them without a second thought because of his plot-driven nature, it made the entire superpowers albeit interesting lose steam extremely quickly by being extremely convenient to Kei as a whole and nothing more than that (not to mention Sakurada Reset DOES NOT throw us bone when we have to remember what EVERY side characters or one off characters' powers were), also this leads into the Bureau as they do a pretty horrible job at managing powers even in secret by NOT doing anything or using blatantly abuse of power and even allowing a highschool kid to do most of the work for them and expect him to abide by their rules, because of this, it cripples the basic premise of Sakurada Reset to be even interesting.

Second is that Sumire Soma is in this dumb love triangle and SHE'S the one goading Kei and Misora to be together when it's clearly obvious that Sumire likes Kei and LA sees this, supernatural politics aside, Sumire's character is downplayed because of this albeit she's one of the most unpredictable character in this anime and reasonings are reasonably justified in some situations but still LA utterly hated the stilted dumb love triangle Sumire got herself into.

Thirdly is the final arc that LA made LA question this anime's point in pointlessness when it came to the "big" dilemma in this anime and the villain of this anime in question. LA is going into spoilers but LA doesn't care because the villains reasoning was pathetically annoying, but yeah, his plan was to remove every ability in Sakurada because his father wanted to, thus the villain wanted to make his father's wish come true. The pointlessness of this entire ordeal comes from the fact that "so what if people loses their abilities?", why does Kei even care about it?...for his romance with Misora, that's a laugh, as for having abilities or not has a grey morality to it's proceedings as to how they are used but Kei ALWAYS tries to be on the "right side" even if the villain he faces ALSO wants the same thing just using differing methods. So again...does it matter if Sakurada has no abilities anymore or not?...Kei seems to think so, but LA doesn't. Pointless really. (Also you can defend that this is around the time that Kei gains a bit of character development thus is NOT pointless but no...he stays pretty static just with his sense of justice cranked up to an eleven and that he "loves" Misora which again is a moot point for LA).

LASTLY, yes there's more, the dialogue in this anime is utterly pretentious as LA came to realize, with every character spurting out that Kei is a saint or a hero in the most blunt way possible or wondering what this feeling is like to the morality of having abilities or not or even the act of existing comes up. So yeah compounding the dead air atmosphere and deadpanned characters, the lack of action and superpowers glanced over to many of the problems EASILY being resolve by our all mighty janitor Kei...can YOU SEE how boring this anime gets and at 24 episodes at that.

Ohh one more thing this anime review has been sponsored by KitKat, Have a Break, have a Ki- WHAT DOES KITKAT HAVE TO DO WITH RESETTING AND A TOWN FILLED WITH SUPERPOWERED HUMANS. Ohh and yes Kei even says the slogan of KitKat and even shows a KitKat without any change to it's name or product. Can you TELL KitKat sponsored this anime somehow. Think this KitKat tangent came outta nowhere, well the anime does it in the same manner and expect you to NOT break immersion, it does.

What the hell is Sakurada Reset?...

Sakurada Reset is probably one thee worst anime of Spring 2017 for LA and as much as LA has seen some pretty horrible animes but this anime is "intentionally boring" at best and being intentionally boring is hardly a compliment. Being boring is a typical anime cardinal sin, but an anime INTENTIONALLY doing this is another thing altogether, as in this felt like David Productions wanted a break from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and this was a perfect way to put in as little effort as possible. Sakurada Reset also has the honor of the anime of wasting LA's time for being pointless, not since Trickster: Edogawa Ranpo "Shounen Tanteidan" yori has done this to LA.

Sakurada Reset is boring, it's pointless, it's pretentious and is a waste of your time, time Misora can't reset for the life of her.

Story 5: Really generic story about people with Special Powers living in a city. At first it sounds interesting but they do nothing exciting with these powers.

Art 3: Very Bland not to eye popping. Pretty Generic.

Sound 6: The ending is one of the best of the season. The BGM is okay but nothing too spectacular.

Characters 1: My god what a bunch of emotionless Androids. For the love of God give me some kind of sympathy or joy from one of these characters please. The only time I ever witnessed someone screaming was the end of episode four or five. Those who watched the anime know ... what happened.

Enjoyment 4: I really am trying to like this anime but the more it goes on the less I am enjoying it.

Overall View:
This anime had a Mayoiga (The Lost Village) feel to me before it started. A Town where people have crazy powers but basically lose those powers when they leave town. There really hasn't been much to this series besides solving cases pretty easy with little to no explanation. At least in The Lost Village I got something, with Sakurada Reset you're honestly getting nothing. Some people see it as a more Psychological Anime, where I just see it as utter non-sense.

An anime does not need to hijack your computer and send hoax emails about your untimely death to your loved ones, nor discolor the screen you're watching it on to be considered completely, utterly worthless. The key is in the word itself; worthless - meaning an absence of worth. Are there animations within the medium, albeit mostly of the mouths of characters plastered onto static backgrounds? Yes, there is. Is the voice acting competent in that it maintains a consistent tone of voice for its characters, and there's no flub takes being snuck into the final product? Also, yes. Is there a narrative that builds ... toward some sort of conclusion? I cannot say no. Neither of these things can be justifications that I in good faith can recommend another person to endeavor this joyless experience.

Kei Asai is the main character, and you love him because he has blue hair, sits in the back of the classroom next to the window, goes to the rooftop for lunch, and believes in justice real hard. He wants to wipe the tears of every crying child. He wants to lead lost puppies back to their homes and set out milk bowls for all the starving cats. Happiness is not just a word, it's a permanent reality you can achieve if you accept Kei Asai into your heart and allow him to do what he feels is best for you. To quote one of his sycophants, "Those who wish to save the world know what's right for the world to be saved" - the ends justify the means, and if you'll leave both of those up to Kei, he'll lead you to the Promised Land. Parallels to Jesus Christ are unavoidable, with the glaring omission that Kei does not end up nailed to a cross in the final act to give some sort of catharsis to the viewer.

It's not just that he's self-righteous, infallible, unflappable, egoless and always right. It's that there's nothing else. Women fall in love with him, not because of his charms, but because he's Kei Asai. Former antagonists rally up behind him because he's Kei Asai. His motives or reasoning never needs to be questioned; people follow him because he's Kei Asai. There's no character development, no flaws, mistakes that trigger self-reflection, earthly desires that compete with his superego. He's flatter than flatbread on the back of a flatbed truck.

It's not just a case of "bad main character, bad anime". Anime can have reprehensible protagonists while being grossly entertaining (albeit controversial, School Days would be an example of this for me, your mileage may vary). But there are no other characters in the show, they are mere extensions of Kei Asai's will. They might be initially opposed to him, but soon enough they'll see the error of their ways and subject themselves to becoming another screwdriver or hammer in his tool belt. Apart from the main "bad guy", their motivations rank from "I want Kei Asai to succeed" to "I love Kei Asai and its troublesome that other people do the same". Cult leaders and totalitarian dictators wish they had subjects as subservient as the supporting cast in this anime.

Maybe the plot is great? No, as prior described, characters lack motivations, never does Kei Asai's righteous decisions backfire, the stakes are not properly established and whenever our hero is in a pickle the anime can wring some use case out of the abilities to have him come up smelling of roses every time. The arc format doesn't help matters as it's just another fair maiden in a tower needing to be saved and the main plot is underdeveloped because of it. Dialogue is unnatural, trite, no one has a unique tone of voice, and they try too hard to appear smart by ham-fistedly shoehorning in philosophical concepts in-between the exposition too many times.

I don't fault anyone for finding enjoyment in this anime, you might see qualities I am blind to and I'm happy you liked it. For me, this was an utterly joyless ordeal, but I at least watched it with people I love, so once the ugly head was reared, we could make fun of how bad it is, but even then, there are way better anime for that purpose. Don't watch this.