Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars)

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Alternative Titles

English: Sakura Wars

Japanese: サクラ大戦

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 25

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 8, 2000 to Sep 23, 2000

Premiered: Spring 2000

Broadcast: Saturdays at 17:30 (JST)

Producers: TBS, Sega

Licensors: ADV Films, Sentai Filmworks

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Game

Genres: Adventure, Mecha, Sci-Fi, Shounen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.91¹ (scored by 5,495 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3961²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3600

Members: 17,361

Favorites: 45

6.91

Ranked #3961Popularity #3600Members 17,361

Spring 2000TVMadhouse

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Episodes: /25

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Synopsis

Sakura travels to the capital with aspirations of defending the city from the demonic forces of the Black Sanctum Council like her father before her. However, things are not as she imagined as in addition to using her great spiritual energy to pilot a mech called a Kobu, she must also perform on stage as an actor as The Imperial Flower Division's cover is an art theater. Making a fool of herself and ruining a production gets her on everyone's bad side and somehow she must learn to work with them as well as prevent the enemy from destroying several shrines which protect the city.

(Source: ANN)

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Sakura Taisen
Alternative version:	Sakura Taisen: Ouka Kenran
Spin-off:	Sakura Taisen: Kanadegumi
Sequel:	Shin Sakura Taisen the Animation

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Shinguji, Sakura

Main

Yokoyama, Chisa
Japanese

Tachibana, Maria

Main

Takano, Urara
Japanese

Kohran, Ri

Main

Fuchizaki, Yuriko
Japanese

Kirishima, Kanna

Main

Tanaka, Mayumi
Japanese

Kanzaki, Sumire

Main

Tomizawa, Michie
Japanese

Chateaubriand, Iris

Main

Nishihara, Kumiko
Japanese

Ogami, Ichiro

Main

Suyama, Akio
Japanese

Takamura, Tsubaki

Supporting

Hikami, Kyouko
Japanese

Fujieda, Ayame

Supporting

Orikasa, Ai
Japanese

Fujii, Kasumi

Supporting

Okamura, Akemi
Japanese

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Staff

Nakamura, Ryuutarou

Director

Tsuruoka, Youta

Sound Director

Kawasaki, Itsurou

Episode Director

Kawasaki, Hiroyuki

Script

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"Geki Teikoku Kagekidan" by Chisa Yokoyama & The Teikoku Kagekidan

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#01: "Yume Mite Iyou" by Chisa Yokoyama & The Teikoku Kagekidan (eps 1-12)
#02: "Gekitei Ondo" by Mayumi Tanaka (eps 13-20)
#03: "Yume Mite Iyou" by Chisa Yokoyama & The Teikoku Kagekidan (eps 21-25)

More reviewsReviews

Feb 23, 2010

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Archaeon (All reviews)

106 people found this review helpful

One of the problems with visual media like anime, TV and movies, is that they are all extremely competitive businesses, with numerous production companies and studios all vying for a share of the viewing audience. The upshot of this is that more and more often the audience is subjected to a remake, a formulaic cash cow, or an adaptation of a successful game. That's not to say there isn't anything original in anime from one season to the next, however the fact that anime is a business means that the shows that are more likely to be produced will be of the type that are read more

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Aug 4, 2013

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

ggultra2764 (All reviews)

5 people found this review helpful

Apparently based on a popular video game franchise in Japan, Sakura Wars focuses on six girls from different nations teaming together to combat demonic threats using their spiritual abilities to pilot mecha. It appears part of the anime's influence comes from a popular all-girl theatrical group in Japan called the Takarazuka Revue, considering the girls occasionally perform drama performances in theatrical plays as a means to hone their spiritual powers. The series offers enough depth on all the girls to explore their personalities and backgrounds, devoting episodes to focus on aspects of each character. While their characters are somewhat cliched, they are still a likeable bunch and undergo differing degrees of growth throughout the show's run such as Sakura learning to gain confidence in her skills, Sumire learning to value Sakura as a teammate and Iris learning to trust use of piloting the mecha.

However, the battle with Aoisatan and his group are too cliched and shallow to get attached to and is the major weakness I found with the series as a whole. The whole thing plays out as a traditional "good vs evil" battle with Aoisatan desiring the destruction of Tokyo for rather shallow reasons when more of his past is revealed and his allies don't get much in the way of fleshing out as their only roles are to serve as obstacles in Sakura and her group's efforts. The series plays out the typical cliches you can expect of this storytelling approach where the team get random power-ups and get conveniently saved in the nick of time in situations where the odds seem dire in their efforts.

In terms of presentation, Sakura Wars is somewhat standard for a early 2000s TV anime, but has its high points. It sports beautifully drawn scenery shots of 1920s Tokyo with character designs looking well designed and pleasing on the eyes with subdued color tones. The series employs a steampunk-like style in depicting the technology and mecha used by Sakura's group which work well with the anime and is a unique style that sticks out from many anime titles of the mecha genre. Animation is a bit subpar with some use of CG animation that is poorly rendered and sticks out like a sore thumb, with action sequences not being too engaging since the choreography plays out in a typical style and occasionally employ shortcuts.

The soundtrack to this series certainly sticks out enough, consisting of musical-style lyrical tracks and traditional insert music playing along to the time period of the series. It works nicely with the historical setting of the series and the theatrical theme that gets employed in some episodes, but there were no particular tracks that stuck out for me to make the series memorable.

Overall, my reception to Sakura Wars is rather mixed. While having some nice fleshing out of characters and the Takarazuka-like premise being a rather unique one for an anime title, it still sticks to conventional territory to a good extent with the mecha anime approach it takes and the good vs evil approach it does with its storytelling. I think I would have liked this anime more if it was more focused on the Takarazuka-like performances and character developments/ bonding than trying to mix it up with the mecha genre.

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Jun 9, 2017

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

RayaTheImmortal (All reviews)

2 people found this review helpful

One of the oldest anime I have ever watched and I also consider the anime art style back then. I accidentally found this anime when I was playing the game called Project X Zone. This was the first time I was introduced to these characters and I did some research. I didn't really quite expect for the characters to be fighting inside a robot, honest. Ironically enough, the main character of this anime is Sakura and Oogami (which he was for the games).

I understand why Sakura is the mc here because of her inheritance of the sword and of course how huge her spiritual powers read more

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	Poll: Sakura Taisen Episode 12 Discussion Genoard - Feb 27	1 replies	by Leirza »» Mar 24, 6:56 AM
	Poll: Sakura Taisen Episode 25 Discussion Genoard - Mar 3	0 replies	by Genoard »» Mar 3, 12:50 PM

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