Sakura Quest

Tired of her rural home, recent college graduate Yoshino Koharu is desperate to lead a more exciting life in Tokyo. After a fruitless job hunt, she finally receives a part-time offer as queen of the bizarre "Kingdom of Chupakabura," a rundown mini-attraction in the small agricultural town of Manoyama. However, Yoshino discovers upon her arrival in Manoyama that she was mistaken for a celebrity and the job offer was a mistake. Left with no other options, Yoshino reluctantly agrees to take on the role and aid the Board of Tourism in their efforts to revitalize Manoyama. Determined to bring excitement to the dying town with the help of local residents, the queen enacts a series of projects to highlight the beauty and charm of Manoyama's culture.

Sakura Quest delves into the story of a tight-knit community that is struggling to balance change while also maintaining the rich traditions and bonds which define their identity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koharu, Yoshino Main

Nanase, Ayaka Japanese

Shinomiya, Shiori Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Oribe, Ririko Main

Tanaka, Chiemi Japanese

Midorikawa, Maki Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Kouzuki, Sanae Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Celibidache, Alexandre Sena Davis Supporting

Murthy, Vinay Japanese

Suzuki, Erika Supporting

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Sawano, Moe Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Angelica Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Shinomiya, Sayuri Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Producer

Souma, Shouji Producer

Saitou, Masaya Producer

Reviews

May 22, 2024

NillyPC

Recommended

Sakura Quest is a great watch. It isn't something to be looked up upon as the greatest at what it does, but for what it's worth. It was an enjoyable experience that had emotion. Character interactions were fun and seeing Yoshino build this town up with the help of her friends was cute. Might not be up there with the likes of Hyouka or Violet Evergarden, but it's still something I love dearly.

Soundtrack is something calm for a show of this type. OP's and ED's are great as well. A good lil slice of life tale of friends helping out a small little town.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 16, 2023

RESOLVING_POWER

Mixed Feelings

I watched Sakura Quest. Here are my thoughts:

Sakura Quest is a 25-episode show that is mainly focused on the efforts of various civic employees working to promote commerce in a small rural-Japan town and restore its tourism industry. The show is fairly self-aware and is clearly meant to be a social commentary in some ways. Although it is genre tagged as a slice of life, it usually felt more like a drama to me, albeit a slow-paced and not overly emotional one.

I liked the main female characters in this. They were all relatable in various ways and felt like real human beings. Much of my ... enjoyment of this anime was derived from my appreciation of the characters. I empathized with multiple characters in various ways. The young-adult career search is a frequent theme in the show, which I'm sure many people will find relatable. This anime does a good job of depicting authentic female friendship, carefully built up through personal connections, instead of just superficial character interaction. If you're looking for an anime with female characters that feel like real human beings instead of tropey moeblobs, then Sakura Quest might be worth a try.

I have mixed feelings about the writing; although sometimes crude, in some ways it was one of the things I enjoyed most about this anime. There were aspects that I liked and disliked about the writing. Sometimes there are 'coincidences' in the story that are a little too convenient. These sorts of 'plot conveniences' are a symptom of lazy and poorly planned writing, in my opinion. The story demands a fair bit of suspension of disbelief. At times it felt like the plot was a little bit 'forced' and unnatural. These are subtle criticisms, the importance of which will likely vary significantly among different viewers.

I really liked the overall themes that were used in the writing, but the plot mechanics through which they were implemented were often very crude. In other words, from a very broad perspective I liked the writing, but the detailed specifics often seemed amateurish and careless. The author had good broad-view ideas, but they were poorly executed. I'm still able to appreciate the writing in some ways, but that requires that I look past the crude details. Providing examples would require spoilers, but I think someone watching the anime will understand my point here. The social and economic issues of rural Japan, and the ways those issues affect individual characters, are core themes in the writing.

I liked the writing themes, I liked the individual characters and their respective arcs, but the actual episode-by-episode plot was often boring and almost always crudely executed. Keep in mind that this is a 25-episode anime with minimal 'filler' content. Meaning, no fight scenes, singing scenes, slice-of-life silliness or unrelated comedy skits; the show is nearly always advancing some kind of plot (albeit, a usually mundane one). As a result, when the plot starts to drag it really craters the entire show. I wish that this anime focused more on the character arcs of the cast instead of the seemingly neverending sequence of mundane inconsequential events that took up most of the screentime.

In terms of direction, the show has an amateurish feel in this regard as well. Speaking as a very patient viewer, even for me the pacing was slow at times. As I've said in the past, I'm fine with slow pacing as long as screentime is being used effectively. The problem with Sakura Quest is that there is not much else of entertainment value. The viewer is forced to sit through the slow march of the mediocre plot without any other noteworthy potential sources of enjoyment.

There are some funny moments. At times, the humour is fairly intelligent as well. It got some chuckles out of me, but it's usually not really a laugh-out-loud kind of humour. Much of the humour is derived from the social commentary aspects of the show, so from a comedic perspective it feels more like watching an amusing parody.

Visually, this show is not particularly well animated, but a lot of attention and care is paid to body language and facial expressions. I appreciated this a lot. To me, this is far more important than highly fluid animation. However, unfortunately the art style is quite bland. The character designs are also fairly simplistic.

The voice acting is average overall. However, I liked the voice acting for the MC (Koharu); the VA fit her role well and was unique in subtle ways. The OST is unremarkable, although I liked the first ED song.


My overall rating: 6/10
This anime is amateurish but also charming in some ways. There are some good characters. The writing exhibits many good ideas, but they are poorly executed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 8, 2020

EarthPotato

Not Recommended

Frankly speaking this anime is not a good choice to watch on your free time.
When I was watching this anime all I keep seeing is the same pattern where trouble appears and the characters trying to solve it. It's pretty plain and boring to be honest. I don't know how to elaborate more on this anime since it doesn't leave me with a big impression or anything. The ending is super meh since it feels like one of those generic shounen end where "Our fight have just begun" kind of feel. For me it doesn't have a clear cut to it, just like in life ... I guess where things will continue till your death. The characters just keeps on going with their life wherever it takes them so yeah, their journey in a sense is still have just begun lold.

Usually I don't recommend an anime that I find it boring or not enjoyable, but lately I've watched Shirobako where they show the process of making an anime, so what all I can say for this anime is go watch it for yourself to decide. Give it a chance to be accepted/rejected in your life.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Sakura Quest Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 3, 2017	69 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 27, 2024 11:50 AM
	Poll: Sakura Quest Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 26, 2017	78 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 27, 2024 11:43 AM
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	Poll: Sakura Quest Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 12, 2017	97 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 26, 2024 11:25 PM
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