Now, I doubt people can use words such as "innovative", "daring" and "ahead of its time" for J.C Staff because if J.C Staff is a "staff" it would be a faithful maintenance mechanic whose job is to make sure everything runs as intended. Sometime though, its intention is not noble, and J.C Staff has no choice but to push because they have like 4 projects running at the same time. I hated J.C Staff for it because they ruined many shows that with amazing potential to become hits like Tsukihime, Melody of Oblivion, Joshiraku, Hentai Ouji, Golden Time, Little Busters! Their understanding of the source material is abysmal, unadventurous, making their work hanging around "watchable" or below. This is one is unfortunately not an exception.
J.C Staff and drama seems hardly familiar. I have not watched a serious drama from them before this one and after reading the manga I didn't expect much as well. Their newer works are not as good as their older ones because the newer ones have nonsensical pacing and average art. Sakurasou surprisingly manages to solve the latter but not the former.
The story is about a group of misfits living in a lodging home called Sakura (sou is something like dorm) and each of them has a different personality, struggle, personal goal and desire. They react differently to things like real people, yet remaining very colourful and vibrant instead of falling into the territory of cynicism. In this aspect, they should be thankful to the excellent source material, as the novel it was based on was pretty good. I would give the director points for being able to pull off the show drama well albeit some hiccups along the way. A notable detractor is pacing. The transition between drama and comedy often feels like a slap in the face because it happens abruptly. Characters react in a snap, and sometime a little too fast to catch. Though, they should be praise for some long exposition shots that add into the tension, creating a tense atmosphere, very uncomfortable to watch but in a positive way. However, I feel they over-dramatize many parts, making them a little too tense which was jarring consider the fact that the comedic is slotted in between, perhaps contributed to the mood whiplash I mentioned earlier. I remember to be really invested in the drama the first time through that I forgot many details and generally only watch for the "feel" of it which unfortunately cumulated into disappointment. The rain scene was the most dramatic while completely lacking in poignancy in the entire show. Characters grieves are not well expressed and often leads to long dialogues about their pain and suffering and while those are laid out well due to the source material, the directing and pacing makes them feel for a lack of a better word, lacklustre. The trap for adaption from book is always the classic: show don’t tell. Books have no other method of expression save for telling but dare I say it, more advance medium like movies or TV show with sight and sound should use them to maximum effect, recreating the scene in the book without having to spend as long ranting about emotion and what not. I expected more. Perhaps the rain scene could have been directed better with a better build up, more focus on expression rather than dialogues, taking a little more time for the emotion to be eased in rather than immediately switching to other seasoning. This has always been the case for J.C Staff case in which its other victim was Golden Time, one of my absolute story which the comic had shown how to adapt it and the TV show completely ruined. The show is at time too fast and not enough slow moment for the audience to reflect and absorb the emotion but. I think I know what this adaption, or any adaptions by J.C. Staff after its golden mid 2000s period lacked, some might have used the word “soul”, and I have nothing to add.
The art is colorful and beautiful but I won't call it detailed. I would prefer to use the word "sufficient" to describe it. Not artistically impression nor technically impressive. It's above average and every time I think about it, it hurts me to think the creators of Honey and Clover are now average, artistically, yet, this is the best they have shipped in years.
The music is quite decent, with some good tune and overall a nice effort from the composer whose name I tried to google but to no avail.
I would recommend to all those who has not seen a lot of drama, you might like this one as much as I did. It slipped in romantic comedy in between drama, adding in some slice of life (frankly I find the word a little, dirty) and even though it's not the smoothest one out this is one of the better J.C Staff works in recent years, and I’m afraid, for many years to come.
Beyond the show
Really JC Staff have developed into one of my most hated studio due to the way they do things recently. Taking the safe route and spend little effort on understanding the source material that leads to all over the place pacing. I remember the soft sound of Moon River in Honey and Clover adaption. That one has the best art adaption and really set the standard for art adaption. Though there is always an underlying problem when it comes to J.C Staff. They are always overwhelmed by their source material. Honey and Clover, Melody of Oblivion. Nodame are all such great works that making their talent shine through them is rather difficult. Their art ability really shown in Shana fortunately when their style set a standard for that entire generation of show, a feat of strength they have yet been able to reproduce and now having to do a catching up game to others rather than leading the race. The pacing though used to be quite good but as time goes by stuffs like Little Busters! really bursted my trust for them. Whenever a good material ends up in their hands, I let out a long disapproving sigh rather than an exciting gasp like Shaft of old. I got to admit many of their rivals have been making great stride recently and that might explain my disappointment. What they need to do now is to break out of their safe cookie cutter pacing and art shell and do something whacky and adventurous for once. Not at the level of Gainax but something different would be sufficient. Perhaps a good role model could be, Kyoto Animation after trying their hand with 3 successful Key adaption they make Lucky Star (which is before Clannad I think but who cares) and K-On. We can even see the evolution in their art through that 3 shows. J.C Staff latest adaption of Yuzuki N Dash comic is still not quite there yet with the experimentation of pacing and its content is still not whacky and out of style enough for them. They still fall back to sticking to the original source material and adding nothing of their own to it. Not seeing any of their line up for the upcoming fall giving me hope that they are preparing something huge that would revitalize their name again. I look forward to that.
Update: After watching almost finishing CloverWorks Seishun Buta adaption from the same author as Sakurasou, I revisited my review to add into my critics of J.C. Staff. After Sakurasou, they proceeded to ruin Heavy Object, Saiki, Amanchu (Kozue might never receive an adaption from P.A. Works, what a shame) and UQ Holder. High Score Girl might have revitalized my hope for the studio but perhaps the source material is amazing that not even J.C. Staff could have ruined it, but I digress. CloverWorks did an admirable job on Seishun Buta, they are seemingly a young studio, but is formed out of members from A1 which like J.C. Staff also had many hits and misses with an insane number of projects all running at once. Seishun Buta adaption managed to blend the author humour and drama competently, very unlike Sakurasou which really show how disappointing Sakurasou was. Its art had managed to age well but the frantic pacing still let it down and the almost nonchalant screen writing failed to deliver the gut punch. Seishun Buta handling of drama shows a level of adequate handling of drama and comedy by downplay comedy quite a bit with shorter jokes and very importantly no funky music for jokes to maintain the tone. To be fair to J.C. Staff, while Sakurasou had to build the relationship between dormmate with funky everyday life antics, Seishun Buta has much clearer character arcs to place the focus on drama, maintaining focus and therefore able to slide in some jokes to qualify it as a “rom com”. That doesn’t excuse J.C. Staff from handling the material poorly while adapting LESS THAN HALF OF ITS SOURCE MATERIAL. If you want to experience what an albeit not amazing but better adaption of Hajime work, watch that one.
