Sakura no Ame

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Note: This review only covers the first volume of the trilogy, as there seems to be no official and fan translation of the second and the third volume in English nor Thai language available.

Sakura no Ame (1st Volume) short review
Language read: Thai (official translation, licensed by DEXpress; original Japanese publisher: PHP Institute, Inc.)

‘Out of all the countless schools
The miracle is that we met each other
No matter how many years pass
Those tender smiles will never change.'
- Sakura no Ame, bridge part
...
Based on the hit Vocaloid (voice synthesizer software) song of the same name by Halyosy, 'Sakura no Ame' follows a one-year journey of Otohama High School’s choir club and features multiple Vocaloid characters (Miku, Rin, Len, Luka, MEIKO, etc.) as club members and teachers. Each chapter focuses on each main character and on each season from one spring to the next.

One main selling point of the novel is in its extensive cast of characters. Given how flexible Vocaloid characters can be (i.e., the songwriter/producer gives them their own personalities and stories), it is interesting to see how they are portrayed in a high school club environment: Miku is the kind, naive senpai; Rin and Len are childhood friends who always butt heads; MEIKO is the strict club advisor with a cool appearance, and so on. Each character feels unique and bounce off each other very well. I also find the way the author approaches character drama for some of the main characters (Miku especially) to be quite nice in that it doesn't get too overly melodramatic.

Another aspect of the book I particularly enjoyed is how it absolutely succeeds in conveying the major theme of the original song: cherishing all the fleeting encounters and farewells that come with high school life. It does this by showing the budding friendships (and romance) between the club members of varying years as they engage in shenanigans and go through hardships together until the day the seniors have to graduate (this latter part is, without getting into spoilers, is done incredibly well). In a way, it is reminiscent of Ayano Takeda’s Hibike! Euphonium novel series. The episodic structure of the plot of tying each chapter to a particular season of the year also enhances the feeling of fleetingness that is present on the original song. The final chapter especially (which I read while listening to the original song) had me shed quite some tears.

When it comes to criticism, while the focusing of each chapter on a certain character and season makes for a more varied storytelling (and fits the song’s theme more), it comes at the cost of making some characters feel underdeveloped compared to others due to word/time constraints with each chapter. Certain interesting characters such as Luka or Yuki could have been even better if they were allocated more space to further flesh out their stories.

Overall, for fans of the original Vocaloid song (and Vocaloid in general), ‘Sakura no Ame’ novelization does the song justice in my opinion, at least when it comes to the first volume. For those not familiar with the song (I do recommend giving it or its covers sung by human singers a shot), the novel is still a nice school slice-of-life read with a large cast of characters that poignantly highlights the relationships we made in high school and the day we said farewell.

Final score: 7.8/10.

P.S.: There is a 2015 live-action movie based off this novelization of the song. If I get around to watching it, I will write a comparison/review with the novel in my anime list in the Notes section of the Sakura no Ame entry.