As I open the first episode, the almost provocatively thoughtful dialogue and beautiful animation draw me in completely. I decide that I am going to love this show. As Sakurako finds a new corpse, exquisite animal skeletons parade about her and an aura of mystery builds. It is all very sinister, and yet so beautiful.
But then I rate it a 7- what happened?
The story's biggest turnoff is that it is a clueless mystery with a Sherlock Holmes air to it. Sakurako's trite declaration before she unravels a mystery quickly becomes repetitive. As the show begins to hint romances, I become further wary. The story takes on an episodic format which ties poorly with its short length. Despite my disinterest in episodic mystery, I hold on to my expectations because of a line in the opening theme: something like 'The two sides of a coin come together as pieces of the same puzzle', and this little message, 'Dedicated to Those Stuck in the Past' (which sounds pretty deep) hinting that there's more to the story than seems. And so I wait, and try to catch every little detail because there's presumably going to be final grand arc where all the mysteries come together. I'm left waiting.. (Although I cannot satisfactorily explain why, or even why it might have be okay to have been left waiting without possibly revealing spoilers.)
Sakurako, the character, is an unlikely combination of unconventional and cliche. While characters with dark, peculiar obsessions are not uncommon in anime, such a character is rarely portrayed in positive light, or even non-maniacally, let alone as relatable. Sakurako achieves this. I learn that it is no social obligation to become queasy at the sight of a corpse and grow to see death in new light as Sakurako harps with fascination the bounty of life a body is transformed into after death. I feel myself grow darker. Then I tire of Sakurako's inexplicable deductions with the sad excuse of 'this much is just speculation'- and yet, eventually, I am forced to accept Sakurako as a woman of logic. Even so, the hackneyed combination of beauty and brains seemed at best, unnecessary.
Shoutarou, on the other hand, is generic in every possible way. There is very little to identify him as a unique character, beyond a smarter than average happy high school student at least as yet- so I will describe him no further.
The art in Sakurako-san is not elaborate, but it's pleasant and beautiful and the kind of animation that makes your eyes happy. From the cherry blossoms of late spring, through Beautiful Bones' erranous season shifts, even through depictions of corpses and skeletons, the art seems sublime. Sakurako-san probably has the best art I've seen in any anime.
In the end, Sakurako has left me disappointed. When I started watching this show, I wanted and expected to like it far more. I wanted to rate it a 9 or a 10, but now, its inconclusitivity makes a 7 feel like an allowance. The show feels devoid of a real message, which it foreplayed too much for its pathetic bathos. Is this show really even over?
Sakurako-san is a good mystery show, but not very much more. It will appeal to two kinds of viewers:
A. People looking for a good episodic mystery
B. People looking for thoughtful dialogue (Although this isn't what the show focuses on, there's a reasonable amount of it happening)
Pick this show up if you’re one of the two. Beautiful Bones might not become your favourite show but it will still have been worth watching.
