P.A Works is at it again with their working girls...working this time for the tourism industry and looking at the lives of 5 girls, one a "queen" and 4 ministers to rejuvenate an almost abandoned town.
Those 5 girls are the queen Yoshino Koharu wanting something special and failing to get a job in Tokyo accidentally gets hired for a one year contract to Manoyama. Sanae Kouzuki voiced by Mikako Komatsu who is a fellow Tokyonite and is efficient in IT-related works, Maki Midorikawa voiced by Chika Anzai, an actress with broken ambitions and had many part time jobs, Ririko Oribe voiced by Chiemi Tanaka, a shy hikkomori with a fascination towards the occult, finally Shiori Shinomiya voiced by Reina Ueda a staff member of the Manoyama Town Tourism Bureau who helps Yoshino with her endeavors to rejuvenate the town.
Throughout the anime and many situations they develop not only these 5 girls that also reflect on the state of Manoyama but as well as the many side characters such as Ushimatsu Kadota voiced by Atsushi Ono who is the leader of the Manoyama Town Tourism Bureau who screwed up with the chupacabra scthick even before Koharu arrived in Manoyama, Chitose Oribe voiced by Maki Izawa who severely dislikes Kadota's tourism antics, Erika Suzuki voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa a bratty teenager who's sick of the countryside town to Kindaichi voiced by Masashi Nogawa who wants a girlfriend and Alexandre Cena Davis Celibidache or Sandal-san voiced by Vinay Murthy who wanders Manoyama in search for something he's usually with the 5 girl's antics at times.
Sanae's development is really what happens when your stalling for your future will fade from memory and be what she was before she got recruited by Koharu. Sanae was and by the most part LA's favourite character because of her revelation because LA could relate to her ALOT, looking more to the past than looking to the future thus stifling her place in the world and even after her "arc", she still got some witty comments and was still important in certain differing arcs like the outer-town elderly village where they tried to "connect" elderly to technology in which even that mini arc tells alot of cross generational gap when it comes to technology and bringing light to the elderly in a growing town.
Maki's development is although LA thinks this is a smart tongue in cheek in P.A Work's part but it has reflections of Chika Anzai's career, mainly because Maki was in a theatre troupe much like Chika Anzai before she got picked up by an acting agency. Maki faces her fears to go all the way as it were in trying to be an actress and her arc works towards the Dragon Song and gives us some world building and backstory to Manoyama's cultural history which reflects to Manoyama's isolated mentality it had to the Dragon Song in opening up to outsiders (aka. Koharu is STRONGLY suggested to reflect the Dragon Song.) Maki's main contribution to the anime is more to Manoyama's history through the Dragon Song.
Ririko Oribe development is essentially her finding a purpose in life and wanting to see the rest of the world however with her grandmother Chitose keeping her in check so she can take over her traditional snack store instead. Ririko does have a link to Maki as she helped her become a singer and actor but ultimately her purpose to the anime was an audience proxy to those who have lived in the countryside for the majority of their life but wanting to see more but is barred by family and planned out their lives for them.
Shiori Shinomiya development is like Koharu's goal to rejuvenate Manoyama, however she also faces issues when dealing with living in an almost abandoned towns. She and her family has been in Manoyama and she is happy in Manoyama and wants to see Manoyama grow for the better but she clashes in beliefs with Erika, as Shori sees all the good things in an abandoned town as her family lives here and is mostly positive about the situation in comparison to Erika's more cynical look at living at an abandoned town when most teenagers at her age would look to the city to survive and see a more active environment.
Finally we have Koharu who is the entire catalyst in shaping and reconstructing Manoyama into a great tourism spot. As LA aforementioned that Koharu is portrayed in the Dragon Song, she does have wacky ideas in trying to get exposure to Manoyama however her development does focus on her "normalness" but also how Manoyama's exposure can used in a good or horrible light. Such as the case of the TV exposure Manoyama gets (and you KNOW what happens when the main characters don't have full control of their TV program) and with a concert trampling on the culture Manoyama had for a rock concert turns into mindless exposure. Whereas reviving the culture of Manoyama through a real cultural experience of a local defunct festival (which ties back to Kadota and Chitose's past) does for exposure done right.
If you just haven't noticed but LA just loves the character development to Sakura Quest as not only does each of the character arcs ties to other characters, but they also bring in Manoyama cultural lore as well as some "generations gap" messages and the capitalization of cities that causes these abandoned towns to become more rampant that become very profound and makes you resonate with these characters and you want them succeed so the culture of towns and their people will live on.
P.A Works did a fantastic job in animation, from the exotically detailed characters designs in which even their character wardrobes changes alot, to their typically great backgrounding, the animation was overall above average to amazing and bets of all consistent. Sure in later episodes, there are dips in quality though rare but nonetheless LA still saw the animation to be outstanding.
Voice acting wise, LA loved the majority of voice actors with some surprises like Tomoyo Kurosawa as a bratty snarky character role when she was Kumiko Oumae, some adorable ones from Reina Ueda (as usual) and some typical ones like Mikako Komatsu but even with the great voice cast, LA just loved Ayaka Nanase who voiced Koharu, LA can't pinpoint why LA loves her voice but there's a certain cadence to her that makes her vocal range to be diverse and wider ranging all wrapped up as Koharu. Ohh and Vinay Murthy who voiced Sandal-san, he did a great job as him with great Japanese and English accenting and all round some witty lines he gets.
As for the finale, LA was nearly in tears by the end of it god damn it Kadota you got LA to shed some tears and seriously a rare few animes actually did that to LA. *ahem* emotional things aside, LA did accept Koharu's and heck even the 4 other ministers' future plans and it definitely worked in their development as well as showing some resolution to the rest of the cast. As much of an emotional finale it took, it's definitely one that ended it in a most graceful and concluding manner.
Sakura Quest maybe an anime about 5 girls trying to rejuvenate a nearly abandoned town and yes it does it that as a base, but it's also about a society's culture and how it's affected by capitalization, it's about the generation gap and how it can both mend and hurt families or people, it's about looking to the future. P.A Works did an amazing job with this anime original, from their memorable characters, thoughtful character development, Manoyama historical lore, current real life worries to a capitalizing mindset, amazing animation and voice acting and a great finale. Sakura Quest is by far LA's favourite anime for Spring 2017 and a strong contender for best anime for 2017.
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