Anime: Sakura Taisen

This was one of the titles I looked forward to for a long time now. My first encounter with Sakura Taisen occured in 2002 when I watched the opening sequence. The Song was captivating and the quality of the animation was just awesome. But somehow I never managed to get my hands on the series, so I had to put up with just knowing it was out there waiting for me to watch. Call it fate, I did so just now. Let me tell you how it was...

Animation
First the Opening. Even for todays standards the opening sequence, produced in 2000, is still high-level. Smooth animation, mouths matching the vocals of the song and an explosion of color make this worth watching it by itself over and over again.
But of course you can't keep that up. So the story part is drawn good but not as smooth as the opening. Some scenes are being reused, but it doesn't occure that often. The drawing of the characters is consistent, meaning you recognize them easily in every scene. The motion is above avarage compared to other series from 2000 and can compare to titles from today.
There are two endings. The first just featuring still pictures of the main characters ending with Sakura and her mech under a cherry tree. The second resembles an okinawa folk dance and of course features Kanna as SD character for most of the time. The animation of both is average and there's nothing special to write about.

Sound
I said it before, and I will do so again and again: I love the opening song. ... hashiree kousoku nooo tei koooku kageki dannn ... Nothing more to say about it, just go and listen to it yourself, maybe you become as addicted to it as I did.
The background music mostly matched the mood of the scenes but wasn't any special. In fact most of the time you aren't aware of it because it fits in quite good and supports the story.
As there are two different endings I will write about them seperately. The first one, where you see pictures of the main characters and eventually Sakura and her mech below a cherry tree has a nice and slow song. It is not really the kind of song to raise your interest, but it isn't awful either.
The second ending is of a different quality though. You see Kanna dancing in a folk dance fashion, I suspect as she is an Okinawa native the dance also would originate from there, and singing the lyrics from the opening in a quite... well different way. Just watch it once to know why you don't want to watch it a second time. In fact the last few episodes feature the first ending. My guess is that even the Japanese couldn't stand it and protested against it.
The voice acting is quite good. Most characters are believable. Well, I couldn't get myself to like Iris. Her voice acting isn't that bad, but I was just not convinced of her being a little girl. Also Kouran is quite strange. She talks in what I believe is the kind of dialect used in Osaka. Thing is, as is shown in the Ouka Kenran OVA, that she comes from China where I think that kind of language is seldom used.
To not only mention the bad aspects here's a good one: Quite early in the series you can see Maria rehearses Sakura. Sakura has to say one sentence over and over again to match different situations. Here you can hear for yourself what her voice actress is capable of.

Story
It is your brave-maidens-fight-the-evil-dark-side story known from many other productions (like Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach and so on). The evil characters are bad just for the sake of being bad and the flaws of the good ones are forgiveable. Thus the story kind of lacks originality when it comes to character evolution. Somehow everything turns out good even though you don't see the difference that made the victory when minutes before the girls failed so miserably at the same task.
The Koubu, a kind of steam mecha from the early 19th century are a very different but nevertheless unbelievable kind of robot. Driven mostly by the psychic powers of their pilots it is mostly shown that combat and general steering is done by pulling levers. This makes the swift, individual but accurate movements of the Koubu seem like a bad joke. (The only other mechs I know who were that flexible are the Evangelion, but they were alive themselves and were steered mostly by willpower.)

Character
Shinguji Sakura is your stereotypical native japanese girl with kimono, katana and matching manners. She seeks harmony with everyone, always acts diligent and even though she sometimes suffers a set-back she recovers quickly and does it right on the next try. Sometimes she appears to be the female lead, but it isn't really clear.
Kanzaki Sumire is a high and mighty princess, the star of the show and quite self centered. She suffers a blow when Sakura is appointed the female lead for the next production of their theatre group which affects her control over her Koubo for a short time. But she somehow recovers (even though you don't really see why). In combat she wields a naginata.
Maria Tachibana, as she introduces herself is stiff, calm but easily distracted when confronted with her past. She likes to shoot her enemies. I don't know what makes her weapons that special that the whole military couldn't bring one monster down when she defeats it with a few shots.
Ri (Lee?) Kouran is a mech maniac. She even eats and sleeps together with her beloved Koubu. That in itself is quite stereotypical, but I guess you need this kind of character to form a harem...
Kirishima Kanna is a native person from Okinawa. Dark tan, outgoing personality and brute strength set her apart from the other girls. She is the descendant of an old family that teaches karate as a kind of family tradition.
Iris the child-like character is actually a child. She has foreboding visions of the enemy striking and can produce a kind of force field to repel enemy attacks. At first she is very shy and opposes to pilot a Koubu of her own but then becomes attracted to Sakura and begins to warm up.
Oogami Ichiro is appointed the leader of the Hanagumi very early in the series. He is the only male in an all woman theatre (besides the commander who sits in his office most of the time or is out) and tries to get the hanagumi girls to fight along each other. He uses two swords in combat.
The bad ones. Leader of the bad ones is a man who calls himself Aoi Satan. I kind of dislike that name because it makes no sense. He isn't blue (or green) anywhere and the Satan part fails to make him scarier. His female sidekick, Miroku, looks like a geisha and sounds like psycho. She laughs in the sickening stereotypical way of a villain who happens to have nothing better to do. Besides that she is very unnerving because she is resurrected several times. (Why can't she just stay dead??) Same goes for Setsuna, a deranged ten-year-old and his tank-like brute-force appendage Ratetsu.
All in all most of the characters are quite boring.

Value
I watched the whole series simply because after waiting so long to get it and constantly thinking of that superb opening I believed that it had to get better. Well, it didn't. Even the end of it all is foreseeable, the last fight is again stereotypical (as if it would change the outcome when the mecha constantly swap places while charging, I beg you...). So it was kind of a let down. But then again, maybe my expectations where just too high after all that time.

Enjoyment
The only things I did really enjoy where the plays the female characters participated in and their practice for them. Those were a welcome change to the ever similar battles against uniform enemies.
It is, as most things, more than just the sum of its parts but even then I must say: I've seen better series than

Many people have heard of the popular Japanese video game series Sakura Wars, though never really checked it out.

The series began on the Sega Saturn about 5 or 6 years ago, and since then, no less than 4 sequels have been made. The games themselves are a combination of text-based dialogue games (you walk around a certain area talking to the people you live with, answering their questions and getting various responses) and strategy-mecha (in combat, you control your mecha to battle the bad guys ala Super Robot Wars or any other tactics-RPG). But, the game throws in a twist- if you don't play nice during the text-based mode, your characters don't get any more powerful. They grow in strength according to whether you get them to like you or not. It may sound cheesy, but I for one am addicted.

The story is this: In 1920s Japan, (around the birth of steam, electricity, and the fading of the old empire) an evil force of darkness is moving in. The Capital needs defenders, known as Teikoku Kagekidan (Imperial Defense Force if I'm not mistaken) - Hanagumi. The Hanagumi are a group of young ladies who pilot their mecha-type steam powered machines using, oddly enough, their spirit. In order to keep these ... 'individuals' in line, the leader of the Hanagumi recruits a male for the role of the chief, and bam- 1 guy amongst 4 to 6 girls. May the humor and drama commence (at least in the games).

The TV show is based on the first game, it begins with Sakura (a samurai girl from the country) who just joins the Hanagumi. The current members don't get along too well, and thats where Oogami Ichirou comes in- your main character in the games.

Needless to say, after about another 20 episodes, they vanquish the dark forces and all is well (unless you play Sakura Taisen 2).

The animation, although everybody says it is poor, I quite like it. The actual character animation is a bit choppy, but the drawing is top-notch, and the special effects / CG make for an enjoyable action experience.
As for the characters, there's something for everybody- the tough one, the 'normal' one, the arrogant one, the young one, and the cute one. Oogami is there as a catalyst to keep them all in line, and needless to say some of the girls get a little something for him.

Overall, I have to say this is one of my favorite series (anime, movie, and games combined) and I reccommend it to anybody. I hope this review has been helpful in suggesting to watch and/or play Sakura Taisen. :)