Sakurasou no Pet chronicles the life of our male lead Sorata as he tries to find his place in the world. To his misfortune, he ends up in this "residence hall" where its inhabitants are "weird" people. We have Misaki, a girl with a wild imagination, Ryuunoske, a computer whiz with a charming maid AI, and Jin, a promising script writer who is very good with the ladies. The place only gets even weirder when Shiina moves in with them. At that moment, the story takes off.
The story is fairly engaging. At times, I felt warm and fuzzy inside (the Sakurasou traditional hot pot dinner), and at other times, I would feel that I was hit by a train of emotions. The story is definitely a roller-coaster ride.
I really enjoyed how most of the challenges the characters face are ones that we all face in real life: finding our niche, finding a place where we are accepted. Although the story does have romantic elements, they are not as central as the ideas of the struggles in life and our place in society. The comedic elements arise from Shiina's awkwardness. She needs help getting dressed everyday and she has trouble interacting with others. I laughed whenever I saw Shiina and Sorata getting into awkward situations. My only complaint about the story was the romance. At times, I felt that the romance was an extraneous element. I'm going to go a little into the romance below so if you don't want to read into it, skip down to the END SPOILER mark.
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I am on #TeamAoyama and rooted for Sorata and Aoyama to get together at the end. Although it is pretty clear that Sorata had his eyes on Shiina since the first day she set foot in town, they are not a match made in heaven. All Sorata reveres in Shiina is her determination and her ability to draw stunning manga. The story did not support their love with any scenes where I felt that they had great chemistry together. Further, I was really frustrated when Aoyama was unable to confess her feelings to Sorata. Whenever she avoided the question, I found myself yelling at Aoyama to express her feelings! So definitely, the romance could have been much better.
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I really enjoyed the artwork in this anime. It had really bright and warm colours and the characters were drawn in a very charming manner. I felt that the artwork of the anime was best showcased when they showed Shiina's drawings. I felt it was like I was in a museum looking at the actual painting. One of Sakurasou's strong points is definitely its artwork.
The opening and ending music were spectacular. You will definitely find your head bobbing to the rhythm of the second ending. What made the opening great was that it captured the cheerful aspects in the anime. By the end of the opening, I was pumped up and ready to experience the daily life in Sakurasou.
Each character was easily distinguishable as each one had their own "quirkiness." When they combine all of their quirkiness, the whole show just comes to life. If you were to remove even one of them, the party would feel incomplete. The character that spoke to me the most was Sorata. He's trying to find his place in the world and at times, he finds the world is unfair. In terms of his aspirations, Sorata was well-developed. The only downside to him is his love life. Let's just say that at times, you will find yourself either scratching your head or simply frustrated by his actions.
Sakurasou definitely lived up to its hype. By the end, you may not find yourself crying but you will definitely feel touched. I assure you that you will definitely find a character that you can relate to and root for during the entire show.
Final thoughts: If you are looking for a romance-driven story, you may be very disappointed. But if you don't mind the romance playing second wheel, you will definitely enjoy the journey that our friends at Sakurasou will take you.
All in all, definitely give Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo a try!
Thank you for reading my review!
