I’m not going to talk about Haruka and Yuu this time, yes you read that right. As we all know they are the main focus of the show and we can always look forward to the ever so predictable kiss at the end of each story, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I feel like they should have a little break. In this episode we get two stories related to the schools cultural festival (with the girls’ play being in the second half) and I’m glad to say that this event is special in two ways: 1) Yuu gets to spend the day with her older sister, and 2) we get more focus on the other four girls. In order to maintain fairness I will bring up the main yuri couple when needed however this post will mainly be about Shizuku/Kotone and Iizuka/Ikeno, all of which are more interesting than Haruka and Yuu and should get more screen time (especially the former).
6-A: Cultural Fest-Sleepover Time
Okay let’s get this out of the way quickly; all six girls stay the night at the school so they can get everything ready for the cultural festival, they stay in the same unused room where Haruka and Yuu first kissed and the story ends with them being alone and kissing again. Now we can move on to the more interesting relationship between Kotone and Shizuku (who are actually related), which has been building up slowly within the past few episodes and leads to a pleasant yuri kiss.
Like the rest of the girls Shizuku is also excited for the festival, her enthusiasm in being the witch is combined with her can do attitude when she moves around all the desks in the unused classroom, creating more space for the girls to work and sleep in. Kotone calls her up to the roof and wants to know why she’s suddenly so interested in the festival, being so close to each other for so long Kotone says this is not how Shizuku would normally react and instead would say festivals are more of a pain. Of course she’s right on the money since Shizuku made up a lie about not staying the night during her middle schools festival, purposefully leaving because she was too shy to join a group.
The main reason for Shizukus’ excitement is to better understand why Kotone is always excited about these things, again it ties in with the school shutting down and what follows is a genuine connection showing how close the two girls are. Because we don’t see their relationship as much as Haruka and Yuu, every minute they are on screen adds more significance and meaning to the scene, further developing their emotions towards each other. I can say with confidence that I felt more meaning behind the two kisses Shizuku and Kotone have had out of all six episodes then Haruka and Yuus’ “kiss to end story” yuri, a good example of quality over quantity.
6-B: Culture Fest: Today’s the Day!
Yes indeed the festival has finally arrived for this closing down high school; all the stalls have been put up, the stages are set and the girls are ready for their speech only performance of Snow White. Unfortunately the play is shown at the beginning of this story and only last for a minute and twenty seconds, which is a shame because I would’ve liked to see more scenes acted out from Mitsukis’ Snow White and the Wicked Witch played by both Yuu and Shizuku.
After the play Yuu checks out the festival with Mitsuki and Haruka goes to the food stalls with Ikeno and Iizuka, there is a scene where Yuu forgot to tell Haruka where to meet her and the story ends with the pair kissing while a K-ON type band plays in the background.
With a small section in the first half dedicated to Shizuku and Kotone this second half decides to give Ikeno and Iizuka a small back story as to why they are so close. Ikeno has been the class rep every year since middle school and the reason for doing so has escaped Iizuka’s mind, this is a little odd as Iizuka knows more about Yuu then she does her own best friend. Ikeno gives us a narrated scene which shows the two girls at middle school together, without diving into spoilers the reason she is the class rep is quite selfless and shows a great quality of a true friend. I did feel the second half of this story was more telling and enough showing; the narration was good but it would have made the scene more meaningful if we could see the two girls interacting during that brief period in middle school, as it was the moment their friendship fully blossomed.
Actually while I’m here I should mention something about these two girls… They should NOT get together, we already have two yuri couples and having a third one is unnecessary. Throughout the show they have not given off any signs of physical attraction towards each other and adding them in now would be out of place, it would also ruin all previous scenes of them and get rid of the normal/balanced factor that keeps the show from getting too ridiculous. Their friendship is something that is pretty close to real life and it’s because of that naturalness the two are able to play off each other so well, with Ikeno making the most out of it every chance she gets.
Noteworthy scenes include Yuu and Shizuku both playing the witch at once, Iizukas’ super excitement when she finds the Yakisoba stand (nice reminder of the second story of the first episode) and a fantasy Haruka has about living together with Yuu, and what their child would look like. This episode, although having some nice moments, was pretty average. I do appreciate giving more screen time to the other four girls, but it still felt limited and they could have made each story just that little bit better, I’m sure they will develop things more in the next episode…
… or they will just have a filler episode containing blatant fan service, oh God I’m not looking forward to this.
Sakura Trick is animated by Studio Deen and is currently being streamed, by Crunchyroll. Don’t forget to check out our Anime Impressions page to see what shows the other Capsule Computers anime crew is watching this season.
Check out more Sakura Trick Impressions HERE.
