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Sakura Wars TV Series Complete Collection (ThinPak)
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In a majority of anime that have giant robots in them, what do you
usually find? A male in the cockpit, and nine out of ten times, it's
going to be some whiny little baby that doesn't want to take control
of it. They don't want to save the world; they have no interesting
in controlling something with the capability to devastate a city
block or two in a matter of seconds. Boys don't get to have all the
fun though, and while you may find a girl or two in some of your
favorite anime series', Sakura Wars puts the ladies in
charge.
Sakura Wars, or Sakura Taisen as many know it, is one
of those rarities in anime. As many fans already know, the series is
actually based on a video game. The role playing game is extremely
popular in Japan, and although any of the titles have yet to see the
light of day in the United States, fans were rewarded first with an
OVA, then a television series, then a movie, and most recently, more
OVA's. There is even a musical production of Sakura Taisen that is
done in Japan. ADV managed to secure the rights on the television
series, but these days you'd be hard pressed to find copies at your
local retailer, but there's no need to fret, they've done with
Sakura Wars what they have with many other great series; they've
re-released it in a ThinPak collection.
If you've already seen the original OVA series for Sakura Wars,
the television series retells the tale of Sakura Shinguji's entry
into the Imperial Flower Combat Troop. The name might sound a bit
peculiar, but the ladies have a very important job. Japan has
recently finished a war with the forces of darkness and the capital
needs to be protected. The Troop has been designed for just such an
emergency, but this is to remain secret. The group also performs at
the Grand Imperial Theater as a performing troupe, much to the
delight of their numerous fans. The forces of darkness however are
plotting once again to threaten Tokyo, but the Imperial Flower
Combat Troop is ready with their steam driven, pastel mecha's (or
koubu) to drive them back into the shadows.
ADV has chosen a very simple, yet effective design for this
collection. On either side of the main faces of the box, you'll find
an image of part of Sakura's mecha, it's the pink one (yes, that's
right, it's pink) done with a nice shadow effect. The logo is what
is really striking though and is done in a red foil with a very
elaborate font. There are also cherry blossoms falling through the
image, a very vital element to the series. The spine has a very cute
image of Sakura herself and on the top; you'll again find the red
foil logo with a super-deformed version of Sakura. The background
theme that is used is black, much better than the pink that was used
for the original collector's box.
Like a number of their other ThniPak editions, you'll find that the
amount of volumes has been reduced. Originally, Sakura Wars
was a six DVD release, but this has been condensed into five
volumes. This decrease however comes with a price, and that is the
extra material. In this case, it's not much of a sacrifice as the
DVD's only had clean versions of the opening and closing animations
and production sketches. You might miss out on the production
booklets that were included, and these contained a good deal of
information on the series, but Sakura Wars can easily be
enjoyed without these. While I have seen a few ThinPak collections
where the missing extras felt detrimental to the series, this
certainly isn't one of them.
We might not know the joy of playing the Sakura Wars games
here in the United States, but we certainly can know the pleasure of
watching the anime. Sakura Wars is a fantastic and addictive
piece of anime filled with tension, excitement, and even some
heart-felt moments that will make it a series worth watching time
and time again. It's also important to note that is uses that "steampunk"
style that has been seen in Steam Detective in a few other series,
but Sakura Wars takes the sub-genre in a new direction and is
one of the better anime that uses the characters from the video game
perfectly. This is yet another complete collection that has to be a
part of your anime collection.
- mike -
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