~ By Jordan

From what started out as a hit videogame for the sega saturn, turned into an anime series in Japan. And then ADV was gracious enough to bring it to us. The one question i have is did they bring it all?

I guess the story for sakura wars is a plus. It follows the exact same format of the games envolving a group of girls with special fighting powers that pilot mechs to fight a group of demons. It's pretty basic but it works out well. Oviously someone thought that the story of this was going to be special because it took the whole F'N first video to develope it! The bigest flaw in the story is that the ending doesn't end anything, or answer any questions. It seems like it ends without meaning! DAMN YOU!!!

SW's main highlight is its amazing character design, and beautiful settings, and landscapes. They were so good, there are some still frames from the two movies that are stuck in my head. The one is the end of the 3rd episode where Sakura, and Oogami meet, and the moment just freezes. (I thought that was so Kawai! ^_^ ) The mech suits are allright, but I never really thought much of their cutesy designs. Battles take advantage of this great animation, because each of the characters have cool elemental attacks that they use during fights that look stellar.

The characters of SW's are my favorite part of the movie. Sakura has to be one of my favorite anime girls. Not only is she cool looking, but even though she is timid, and quiet, she is unmatched during fights. (when she wants to be.) The big flaw with Sakura is that for the entire first video, she is by herself and does not interact with the rest of the group. As for the rest of the group ... they are cool too. The only thing that saves the first video, (although sepretly, and slowly,) the characters are developed very well. In the second video Oogami is introduced, and this turns the series more or less into a love story. Now why does the series end right after this episode? CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN!?!?

SW has probably one of the catchiest and bouncy theme songs of all time. Bill find's it amusing that by just humming the first couple notes of it, I find the song completely stuck in my head for hours. The sound effects are pretty good, but nothing really noteworthy. And finnaly, the voice acting is very good. I would have to say that the little french girl Iris has the funniest voice, especially when she's yelling. Just hearing her yell is reason enough to buy this movie. (well, maybe if your drunk and have a spare 20 bucks. ^_^ )

As for entertainment value goes, you will probably not be too entertained by the whole first video, unless you are familiar with the game. The entire thing is story, and not even very good story. Wait a minute, I take that back, there is a 3 minute fight scene not envolving the mech suits at the end of the first episode. The second video contains a lot more action, which sadly still really isn't enough, and just more of the same old boring first plot. The series gets at it's peak of entertainment during the second episode of the second video when Oogami arrives. But then the entire series just ends, with no explinations, and me craving a lot more. I guess you could say I'm just not satisfied.

Story
A decent story, with no true ending!
6
Animation
Freekin' amazing character animation. The best part of this series is this damn good animation.
10
Characters
Great characters, but why couldn't Oogami be envolved for more than one episode??
9
Music
Good voice acting, allright sound effects, and the most catchy theme song you will ever encounter in an anime.
9
Entertainment
First video = bad, second video = better, but doesn't seemed finished.
6
Final Thought
I expected so much more from this series, but it just wasn't anything I expected it to be for the reasons used above.
7
OVERALL SCORE 7

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