Sakura Wars-The Movie
(Pioneer Region One DVD)
(1985)
review by Head Cheeze

For the most part Sakura Wars: the Movie manages to maintain the
balance. Though, be warned, those not familiar with the series will
HAVE to take a lot of the plot on faith.

Sakura Wars: the Movie follows an adventure featuring the girls of the Imperial Flower Division as they defend Tokyo from hordes of Descending Demons. Since the universe of this Imperial Japan is before their industrial revolution the girls defend inside steam and spirit energy powered mecha. When a new member arrives to join the Imperial Flower Division the girls are much less than welcoming. However, there isn’t much time for bickering as an American corporation challenges the position of the Imperial Flower Division with new mysterious mecha named Yafkeels.

Seems the head of this coroporation is in league with the demons, and once the Imperial Flower Division are taken out of service Tokyo will be undefended. Since the girls also double as performers in the
Imperial Flower Theater and with the guard disbanded they also lose
their position as entertainers.

The whole films plays like, and is structured like, a kabuki play and
in some respects also mirrors the play within the film.

Okay, so this may sound moderately confusing, Sakura Wars is really, really forumalic for mecha friendly anime. What separates it is the technology, but even that isn’t all that different from atomic mecha, or solar mecha, or any other mecha anime. And like so many other giant fighting robot anime the machines mirror the characteristics their pilots. Sadly, unless you know the Sakura Wars back story the characters are broad brush archetypes. One is a kid, another agile and knife throwing, another is an inventor, another tall and amazon strong... you get the idea.

The animation alternates between traditional 2D drawn and 3D CGI. The CGI sequences are fantasticly fluid, vibrant, and kinetic. The 2D
sequences are better than most series anime, lesser than some of the better OVAs I’ve seen. So it’s a mixed bag.

The plot is okay, the execution of that plot though isn’t so good. The
film holds on pretty well for about fifty minutes then things start to
go bad as the continuity collapses. For example, the fim establishes
that the lead demon can’t be killed by bullets. The person who makes this discovery is “killed”. Meanwhile the inventor character describes a special bullet she’s created that contains “spirit powder” and this bullet will kill the lead demon.

When the killed character reappears she HAS this bullet, but hasn’t
interacted at all with any of the other characters since her “death”,
and all the other characters are out fighting the demons in the street.

I know, it sounds nit picky, but it pissed me off. In fact, the whole
end of the film is a mess. The Yafkeels show abilities that were never mentioned in the preceding minutes, the president of the Douglas Steward Corporation (that’s the American company who replaced the Imperial Flower Division) changes character completely.

The guy in the government who was working with the Douglas Stewart Corporation vanishes from the film for no apparent reason... and once the battle ends the girls torture us with about twenty minutes of their play that is neither interesting, or coherent.

It’s a shame because I really wanted to like this one more.

Still, it’s not all bad, but it’s enough bad.

Pioneer releases Sakura Wars: the Movie with both Japaneses and English tracks in 5.1 Dolby, English subs, widescreen, and chapter stops. It also contains two movie trailers, three TV spots, and a short video of the premier at a Tokyo theater. Finally it includes an character and mecha gallery but no supporting information so, sure they are pretty pictures, but they serve no purpose at all.