Sakura Tsuushin (Sakura Diaries)

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Alternative Titles

English: Sakura Diaries

Synonyms: Sakura Mail

Japanese: 桜通信

Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: May 21, 1997 to Oct 22, 1997

Producers: Kitty Films, Studio Tulip

Licensors: ADV Films

Studios: Shaft

Source: Manga

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 6.20¹ (scored by 4,526 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #7362²

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

Popularity: #4671

Members: 11,457

Favorites: 21

6.20

Ranked #7362Popularity #4671Members 11,457

OVAShaft

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

A Keio University (one of the top three colleges in Japan) exam candidate, Touma Inaba, is interupted when a cute young girl, Urara Kasuga, arrives at his hotel room door. She later turns out to be his cousin who he barely remembers from his childhood. Urara, who had felt something special for him (an other-than-cousinly-love), invites Touma to live with her since he has no place to stay other than the hotel room. Before taking the test, Touma meets Meiko Yotsuba, a beautiful, sophisticated woman also trying to get into Keio. Meiko gets into Keio but Touma does not, due to a cold Urara had given him shortly before. Although he did not make it, he pretends he does to earn the respect of Meiko. Touma is caught up in a love triangle with Urara and Meiko, while struggling to keep Meiko believing he's really a Keio student and still be there for Urara at the same time.

(Source: ANN)

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Sakura Tsuushin

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Characters & Voice Actors

Kasuga, Urara

Main

Hikami, Kyouko
Japanese

Inaba, Touma

Main

Madono, Mitsuaki
Japanese

Yotsuba, Mieko

Supporting

Hyoudou, Mako
Japanese

Akimoto, Kouji

Supporting

Tatsuta, Naoki
Japanese

Natsuki, Koumi

Supporting

Kasahara, Rumi
Japanese

Mashuu, Tatsuhiko

Supporting

Yasui, Kunihiko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Campbell, Charles

Producer, ADR Director

Okajima, Kunitoshi

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Suzuki, Toshimasa

Episode Director, Storyboard

Komura, Toshiaki

Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

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Opening Theme

"Kimi no Mado Kara (From Your Window)" by Takako Kuwata

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Ending Theme

"Koi wa Kaze ni Notte (恋は風に乗って)" by Takako Kuwata

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Reviews

Jul 14, 2008

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Ranivus (All reviews)

76 people found this review helpful

::QUICK REVIEW::
Story: 6 (Lots of taboo but its a good love story)
Art: 5 (90's Cel Art isn't my thing, looks better than DBZ)
Sound: 5 (Old school sound effects, overemphasize things with sound)
Character: 7 (Relate w/ main character very well, minus the sis-con)
Enjoyment: 8 (Lotta fanservice... she's not my cousin ^_^)
Overall: 30/50 = 6.0 (Balancing two girls and a double life can be hard)

::FULL REVIEW::
Sakura diaries is an ecchi drama comedy centered around your typical character failure named Touma Inaba. His problems start right off the bat in episode one when an unknown call girl barges in his hotel room and hinders his test performance. But read more

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Jan 7, 2019

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Atetotion (All reviews)

6 people found this review helpful

Sakura Diaries, created by the prolific adult-manga artist, U-Jin, surpassed every one of my expectations and delivered one of the most heartfelt themes about independence, pride, and responsibility.

Sakura Diaries focuses on our protagonist, Touma Inaba, a slacker whose ambitions are those of a selfish nature and whose desires are those of a lustful encounter. Touma isn't interested in going to one of the top colleges in Japan, Keio University, and merely wants to take the entrance exam as a souvenir token. His intentions is suddenly turned on its head when he bumps into Meiko Yotsuba, a remarkably attractive woman that Touma quickly develops feelings for soon after their brief confrontation. Along the way, Touma meets up with his cousin, Urara Kasuga, who is deeply in love with Touma and tries to reconcile with him after years of separation. Touma, however, wants to steal Meiko's heart and enrolls in a cram school, hoping that he will make it to Keio University. This love triangle between Touma, Urara, and Meiko is the main focus that drives the plot throughout the show.

Touma is the worst romantic protagonist, but for all the right reasons. Throughout the show, he is always making mistakes and finds himself constantly lying. Whether it's to get closer to Meiko, or to protect Urara's feelings, it becomes apparent that he is the only character in this show that is emotionally hurting other characters. Touma is, by definition, his own antagonist and it is his selfish endeavors that keep him from making any progress in the relationships between his friends and lovers. Adding in the fact that he wants to lose his virginity and his disinterest in his studies are also vices that plague Touma's life. What makes Touma stand out is his countless efforts of self-reflection. He is aware of the dire consequences of his actions and tries to remedy it, only to find out that he doesn't the skills or courage enough to set everything straight. When Touma learns that he is being deceived, he doesn't curse at the deception but instead promises himself to improve himself by becoming a better person. This level of introspection and self-improvement is what Touma brings to the show, that he's able to grow and mature even if it hurts him the most.

Urara, Touma's cousin, wants nothing more than to be by Touma's side and desperately wants to get his attention, despite how much he dislikes the idea. Urara's character might sound simple, and the fact that she never changes as much as Touma perhaps proves that point. Perhaps it isn't too silly for me to say that she represents the rom-com character as the ditzy but supportive (and sexually promiscuous) female lead. It wouldn't come off as a big surprise when I also think that Urara is a product of society. Her only friend wants to have sex, and her naughty and crude discussion only fuels her loose behavior around Touma. She is also surrounded by popular culture (television, magazines, etc.) that promotes sex positivity and beautification. Urara doesn't change, but she allows others like Touma and Meiko to change themselves for the better.

Speaking of Meiko, Meiko is a unique character that will only describe her as the most mature individual in the show. When we are first introduced to Meiko, she is remarkably beautiful and her friendly nature compels Touma to follow her in hopes of making her his wife. Her true intentions are never clear until she herself breaks the news to Touma. I can't give out much away about her character, but her revelations and her overall character arc does keep me interested without making me feel disgust or enraged.

So with all of that said, Sakura Diaries is a character-driven show, and with such realistic characters on its roster helps it to stand out from its predecessors of the genre and show that it can move on from its tropes and cliches without feeling compelled to satisfy those traditions of the past. Sakura Dairies, on the surface, seems to be just your average rom-com where everything done and said is insignificant, but within it lies the heart and spirit of what makes characters fill with passion and vigor.

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Jun 9, 2012

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Romie-chan (All reviews)

10 people found this review helpful

Sakura Diaries really pulls at the love strings the entire way through.
It really is an amazing story touching on taboos, reality and the difficulties of life in general.

The art style is your typical 80's and 90's look.
What grabbed my attention was how the artists paid so much attention to detail. The backgrounds were fully drawn, the frequently visited environments did not change at all detail-wise. It's as if they had a fully drawn out environment for every scene.
There is frequent nudity in this show, although you don't ever get to see anything "too" revealing or inappropriate.
This show is a very impressive work of art.

The sounds were great. The English dub is surprisingly good for this show. The music was great and sometimes I felt that the voice-actors understood the emotions the characters were feeling. There isn't a lot of extra unnecessary dialogue and there isn't paragraphs and paragraphs of explanations, it makes things feel realistic.

The story is outstanding. Tonma goes to Tokyo trying to get into any college or university that he can. But the night before his important entrance exam, he is interrupted by his cousin Urara. She acts like a call girl (because he didn't remember her), getting Tonma both excited and upset, making him get sick with a cold. He fails his exam and runs into a beautiful woman named Meiko who is also taking the entrance exam. But he doesn't want her to know that he failed, so he lies and tries to go out with her anyway.
Along his journey's he will fail in virtually everything from obvious everyday things to big romance and important events. Disappointment after disappointment, it makes me wonder if he'll ever find love or find what he needs the most.

The main character Urara seemed to get the most character depth in the show. Although she is a high school girl, she is apparently very deep and her love for Tonma is also just as deep. Meiko has a surprising background to her and she turns to not be as bad as I thought she was. The other supporting characters get very little depth. But surprisingly enough, Tonma the main character this show is about, doesn't get as much depth to him as I wanted. Even until the very end, he seemed like a shallow-shell of a person.

I really enjoyed this show. The love strings were constantly being pulled and making me want to watch the entire show in one sitting.
I literally lost sleep over this.

Overall, a great show, something I wish was longer than just 12 episodes. But what I didn't enjoy was the ending. It left me confused and wanting more. The show ended with me having so many questions and so many things unresolved. I want more! More! More! More! More!

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May 12, 2014

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

bloody_Venus55 (All reviews)

8 people found this review helpful

I'm very Very Very Very Very2x Mad to the creators of this anime. 'cause yesterday while finishing episode 12 and i keep on telling to myself that i can't w8 to watch the next episode and then when i notice that i've only download 12 episode 'cause maybe i just missed the other one and i rush and check it to the list of episode in the net and then when i saw it I started to scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it has only 12 episode what the F*** they just cut to black. If you gonna start something at least try to finish it. read more

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	Poll: Sakura Diaries Episode 12 Discussion rebwaters - May 18, 2010	9 replies	by FMmatron »» Dec 11, 2020 6:36 AM
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Sakura Tsuushin

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