But, if you don't finish it, a shitty game will remain a shitty game.
-Keima Katsuragi
My first impression of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, just based on episode 1, 2 and 3, was a simple "oh this is just another love comedy".
It wasn't.
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, or just Sakurasou, as I will use it in this review, follows the lives of not one, not two, but five residents of Sakurasou, a place where problem children go. The story starts with the "main character's" meeting of a girl who had spent her life doing nothing but drawing, therefore not having a very good common sense.
Lovely theme for a love comedy.
However, this was way more than just a love comedy.
Story: 8
The best thing Sakurasou the anime did was how real the circumstances and the results were of the endeavors of the main characters. Instead of giving children hope of "all is fulfilled in hard work", the producers of this anime coldly spats to the viewers, "Reality doesn't work that way."
And, as much as we all hate it, it is true. Reality does not work that way. No matter how much we struggle to achieve something, there is always a small alteration that screws up everything that we had planned for months and possibly years.
The anime features five characters of the Sakurasou in which the anime Sakurasou focuses on the most--a normal everyday boy who has a passion for making games, a girl who tries her absolute best at everything, and three geniuses. The story does not focus on the normal everyday boy unlike other animeographies. This anime, instead, splits up the views and entangles all the problems together, making the conflicts more dramatic. By showing how all the characters, not just the normal endeavoring ones, but all five of the residents, suffer in their own way, the anime creates a balance in the story region.
However, in the end, the anime started to wrap up things a little too quickly. The sum-ups of the story is a bit too quick for the timeline it sums up, especially the last episode. If the anime simply pushed the "afterwords" into the next season, or an OVA, it would have been marvelous and the story spectrum would have easily gotten a nine, and possibly a ten, but because of this, it was not easy to give the story a nine and much less a ten.
Then again, it still does a wonderful job of balancing out. There were not too much conflicts as to make the viewers feel less pressured while watching the anime, there were not too much love comedic scenes as to keep the viewers feel satisfied of the story, and the main characters' viewpoints were nicely balanced, not focusing on one character too much, although it is true that the normal boy's standpoint was focused the most.
Story is balanced and great.
Art: 9
The animation was not outstanding, and the characters' details weren't too specified, but still, J.C.Staff did a wonderful job of animating this for one primary reason: the art itself.
The anime takes place in Suisei School of Arts, and it's natural that there needs to be more than the usual amounts of focus on this anime than on anime with different settings. The drawings of the "genius artist", Shiina Mashiro, is breathtaking and quite a scene to see. The artworks were as if done by a professional artist, and as if the producers hired an artist just for Shiina's drawings. Whatever was the choice of the producers, it was the right choice because the drawings and some of the animations of another genius girl, Kamiigusa Misaki, were outstanding and therefore were able to deliver the points that the producers wanted to get across the viewers.
The only problem with the animation--hence the nine--is the second ending, in which the six residents--including the teacher--of Sakurasou simply shake their heads sideways for most of the ending. While it is understandable that it links to the filial bonds of the dorm and reacting to the rhythmic tone of the song, it was too awkward to watch, and decreased the quality of the ending itself. So, it was not easy to give a full ten for the art.
Sound: 10
While I am quite skeptic about sounds, Sakurasou the animation's theme songs and insert songs did their job wonderfully that I could not find any flaw at all. The openings was catchy and done well, and so were the endings. The insert songs created a dramatic mood for the animation at times, created a sad and dull mood at times, and created a heightened mood at times, especially when the anime spat on the viewers and revealed a cruel enemy called "reality".
However, most of all, the best part of the sound was the final song. It was very related to the situation and was not only happy but also sad, creating the air that was needed to be created at the scene. The songs deserve a ten.
Another excellent job the producers did was with the voice actors. Kayano Ai and Yoshitsugu are experienced and excellent voice actors, and so with the rest of the team, but my focus is in Aoyama Nanami's voice actor, Mariko Nakatsu.
According to MAL, Mariko is a new voice actor who was not given that much voice acting jobs. And, very similarly, Aoyama Nanami is a student at Sui High who wants to be a voice actor. The producers actually managed to find a voice actor who was used not that frequently and was excellent. Aoyama Nanami's voice was perfect for her character and not to mention difficult, considering how Aoyama used Kyoto dialect when she was upset.
The voice acting choice was superb.
Character: 10
And now we're at the interesting part.
The characters, as said before, are balanced in their usage, but there is a drawback to this sort of balancing. The viewers can either hate all of the characters or love all of the characters. Thankfully, in this case, it was the latter.
The characters were all lovely but not just that. They were the best a character in anime could hope to be--real.
Of course, the situation and the theme was very unrealistic, but their character and their response to the problem were very down-to-earth and quite factual. The geniuses weren't cold bastards or tsunderes who would be only nice to the main character. They were proper geniuses, and they had problems too. Their area of expertise was so excelled that they weren't able to cope up with the society and the other expertise needed in our world today, and this is how it is in real life. Most of the real-life geniuses have difficulty finding jobs because they don't understand how normal people think. For example, Einstein dropped out of school not because he was dumb, but because he couldn't cope up with his teachers and the school system.
However, this is not all that the anime does great in the character spectrum.
Besides the geniuses, the other kind character that exists is the endeavoring people or the "ordinary ones". These people do not look up to geniuses for no reason and just keep praising them. They don't envy them continuously and wish to kill them in their sleep. They come in between. They envy the geniuses yet still admire them, creating a sense of psycho-conflict, a battle of self. While one side keeps ranting about how the reality is cruel, the other side is siding with the geniuses and telling the other side to be a "nice person". This continuous clash of self was a wonderful job for the script writers and almost made me wonder if this was a real-life experience.
Bottom line, the characters were so real that they gave me goosebumps.
Enjoyment: 8
The prime reason for giving an eight after ranting on and on about how great the anime is on how hurt I was after watching the anime.
The anime pierced me every time the reality struck. I was hurt to see the characters burn their heart to crisp and feel utterly crushed. I felt so hurt because the characters were so real. I was hurt even more because of the excellent sound. I was hurt even further because of the amazing voice actors.
Then again, the anime did end on a happy note, and it was soothing. It had all four elements of a story: fun, sad, touched, angry. It was another balance. This time, however, the balance was a little too leaned on the "real world doesn't work that way" theme, and therefore I gave it an eight.
Still, people can ignore this. Some people might have gone on with life, found a goal in their life, achieved that goal and maybe satisfied with what they've got. For them, this anime must be a 10. Still, I know and we all know that...well, real life doesn't work that way. So, unlike one of my past reviews, I will include this score to the overall score.
Overall: 9
Probably the most "real" anime of all time.
Go watch it.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will "really" cry, and...you will laugh again.
If you have already seen it, go watch it again. It's worth it, right?
Then, as always, happy anime-ing.
