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At first, everything starts out subtle enough. The last volume introduced us to one of the driving forces behind all of the chaos that’s been occurring, but it gets temporarily stuck on the back burner as instead, we take a moment to focus back on the other side of the Imperial Flower Combat Troop, and that would be their performance. Sakura ends up in the lead, and it’s something that she’s not quite ready for, and it immediately leads to some rather bruised egos, mainly from Sumire. Entertainment aside though, things are about to heat up. Aoi Satan makes another appearance, in fact, that’s much of what the disc focuses on, and he’s out to make the odds swing in favor of the Black Sanctum Council. The girls once again are put in one after another training exercise, and even have a new formation that will allegedly help them out, but try as they might, they still seem as though they aren’t ready. Sakura even has an encounter with Satan himself, going under his real guise of her father’s one time colleague Shinnosuke Yamazaki, and it seems that when you’re a villain, wearing a nice suit and pulling your hair back in a pony tail is all that’s needed to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. While the disc doesn’t have too much action, most of what is here is an drastic advancement in the shows overall plot. I’ve never had much of a problem with Sakura Wars, and in fact have always enjoyed the series, but things are getting more than interesting, and you can expect to see some enemies that most of us had thought we’re long gone make a return appearance. Things aren’t looking good for the Imperial Flower Combat Troop, especially when Yonade takes it upon himself to put an end to Yamazaki with a powerful weapon known as the Makiji, something that he hopes will seal their foe away for good. On a brief side note, there’s a bathtub that Kohan introduces that has the name Goemon in it. Now, this isn’t a reference to the legendary mystical ninja, nor does it have anything to do with one of Lupin’s close associates, although they are all tied together in one way or another. From the pages of Japanese history, one of Japan’s most famous thieves was named Ishikawa Goemon, a man who was eventually caught and as punishment, was boiled to death in a cauldron of oil. It’s not exactly a grand way to go, but you see where the connection lies. There aren’t a lot of extras included on this particular volume, but the story was the real drawn here. There is a clean open and closing of course, and the usual production notes booklet, something that again, I really do love seeing included with the disc, especially with all of the side notes and occasional lengthy details that are included. Really, this is one time that I honestly didn’t expect too much extra, mainly because of the fact the series is drawing so close to an end. It’s really gong to be interesting to see exactly how things play out in the final episodes of the series. While I had half expected to see characters from the OVA’s, namely Reni and Soletta come into the series, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the final episodes. That’s too bad, but then again, you can only fit in so many characters and so much story from the video game into a television show, and who knows, there’s always a chance in the future that the girls will make a return appearance on the small screen, especially since their popularity in Japan continues to be steady. Overall, this is a fairly solid collection of episodes with very little deviation from the main core of the story, and certainly isn’t to be missed. Episode 18 – Cinderella Sakura has the lead in the group’s latest stage performance, Cinderella, but she doesn’t quite think that she’s ready for it, and neither does Sumire. It seems though that it’s more than her acting ability that her superiors are trying to get honed in, and it’s her spiritual power as well that they are looking at, but a bad case of stage fright may ruin the entire performance. Episode 19 – The Formation to Destroy Evil The Imperial Flower Combat Troop continues its training, and there’s a new formation devised that hopefully will turn the tides of war in their favor. It’s going to take more than VR training however to assist them when Aoi Satan returns again, and it seems that he’s finally found the seals that he’s looking for that may very well start the Demon War once again. Episode 20 – The Darkness Steals Closer Sakura’s popularity on stage continues to grow, and she’s beginning to attract quite a fan following, and that included Aoi Satan, who happens to run into her on the street, presenting himself as her father’s friend Yamazaki. He has a gift to give to her that he claims a gift from her father and would like to return it to the family, but it has an evil power surrounding it, and Sakura quickly falls under its evil spell. Episode 21 – One More Battle The ability of the Imperial Flower Combat Troop are called into question, and even Yoneda is beginning to wonder if he made the right decision forming the group. While on the outside he appears as carefree and easy going as ever, it seems that he’s cooked up a plan that he hopes will finally put an end to the threat of Aoi Satan and the Black Sanctum Council. -mike-
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