Shikizakura

Shikizakura is, at heart, a kind of cheesy and overall optimistic heroic action show. It wears its genre openly and proudly, and goes ahead and takes the cliches it thinks it can use.

All the same, this show is weirdly charming. Sometimes, when something is very much in its genre comfort zone, you get the feeling like it's lazy, or on autopilot. At least after the first couple episodes when you don't necessarily know what to expect from it, Shikizakura isn't like that. It's an extremely earnest show, in a sense, and there's a passion in it to capture the great feeling ... of heroic media, which ultimately means playing many of the conventions quite straight.

I do, in particular, have to give praise to the small moments. A lot of the broader strokes of the show are things you've seen before, so that once you identify which set of conventions you're looking at, you kind of know what to expect. But, in defiance of that, the characters are at least a bit nuanced. The leads (Kakeru and Oka) have good chemistry that's built up over time and through grace notes in a lot of scenes. The supporting cast have their own issues, and while they do talk about them as well, they also show what they're feeling through smaller cues, which is something that it takes skill above and beyond the call of schlock duty to accomplish.

That, in particular, makes Shikizakura more memorable and fills it with more personality than might be anticipated. It plays things safer and more standard than perhaps it could have, but the characters at least do have their own identities and... there's nothing wrong with being straightforward sometimes. It's, in a sense, something I think would make a good comfort food show, the kind of thing you watch when you've had it up to your ears with dark, depressing, and grim fare and just want a story where you can lose yourself in something that's brighter and more approachable without going so far as to be cloying or pandering. There's enough conflict and darkness in here that the show does have meat to it, even if the tone and feel tell you fairly clearly that you're not watching a tragedy this time.

It's not a masterpiece but it's got some good action, some good characters, and enough story and technical competence to hold it all together. If you can accept it for what it is, you'll probably have a good time with this show, and I find myself having rather warm thoughts for the whole thing despite its flaws.

You guys ever seen Kamen Rider recently? Felt like you want to catch up on the past 3 seasons but are unable to cram more than 3 years worth of content within a 6 hour view time? Well give Shikizakura a try! It has all three of the Kamen Rider seasons from the Reiwa era on a convenient 12 episode package.

It has the art direction of Zero-One, the story of Saber, and the premise of Revice. Though despite that, Shikizakura is an enjoyable show in and of itself. It's an homage to the transforming hero genre, and it's a title I can full heartedly recommend ... to any fan of tokusatsu media.

I give this my big ups.