Well my friends Sakura Trick is over, twelve episodes have gone by and they were very interesting to say the least. Although the series has ended I am 4 impression posts behind so now it’s time to play catch up.
9-A: Year-end Debut S.B.J.K
It’s New Year’s Eve and Haruka is on the phone with Yuu, both of them are watching Yuus’ favourite artist on TV and Haruka is singing the lyrics of the song. The dilemma of this story begins when Yuu is called down so she can eat with her family, however Haruka doesn’t want to hang up as she wants to be the first person to say Happy New Year to her, this selfish and also jealous reason is what earns her the title of S.B.J.K or Shitto-Bukai Joshi Kousei (Jealous high school girl). When Mitsuki walks in and tells Yuu to come down and have dinner Haruka suggests talking to her whilst Yuu goes down to eat, Yuu would rather eat with her family (as it is tradition) however Mitsuki comes up with a lie so that she can have some alone time talking to Haruka.
The conversation starts out awkward as Mitsuki suddenly becomes sceptical about what she can say to Haruka; she starts off with the usual good evening, but then messes up one of her questions (which Haruka interprets as a joke). It’s not long before their talk turns into a regular conversation that contains a brief mention about a senior graduation, this little bit of info is a small teaser to the events that will occur in the next three episodes. At the end of the talk Yuu barges in with anger on her face as she found out her older sister lied to her, we then get a shot of the hungry Sonada parents as they wait for their daughters in order to start eating. The yuri kiss at the end is actually done through the phone this time, as the two girls give their final good byes they hang up on the greeting that they both wanted to say to each other from the start… “Happy New Year.”
Although I didn’t like the abbreviation title, it was great seeing Yuu making the most out of it to fully torment Haruka, her reasons being so were pretty justifiable too as it does sum Haruka up in a nut shell. The phone conversation with Mitsuki was the least enjoyable part of the story, however the awkwardness didn’t linger on and there was a genuine connection shown between the two of them (which Mitsuki will get the wrong idea about in the second third of this episode)
9-B A Sour Plan?! Take Two
Whilst walking to school in the chilly weather Mitsuki begins to wonder why Haruka wanted to talk to her the previous night; we then get one of Mistukis’ “oh so enjoyable” fantasies about Haruka which Is followed by a sliver of jealousy shown when she sees Yuu linking arms with her. When Ikeno and Iizuka catch up to Mitsuki she grabs ahold of Iizuka and links arms with her, this brings about no effect to Mitsuki and a lot of confusion and irritation to Iizuka. When Ikeno mentions Yuua and Haruka took a different pathway to school they begin to tail them in order for “Mitsuki to link arms with Yuu.”
The pathway leads to a children’s playground and Ikeno is the first to spot the two girls inside a large dome; yes they took that path so they could kiss each other, but once caught Haruka quickly makes up a story about planning a surprise event for Mitsukis’ graduation.
This cover up story was not only good, but it also didn’t feel like it was pulled out of thin air. Haruka was genuinely planning a surprise party for Mitsuki and you can see her disappointment when she overheard, a nice and quick response yet at the same time a ruined surprise for a friend. When Mituski begins to walk back she trips over a (small) stone, quick to respond Haruka manages to catch her and also receive an accidental kiss on the forehead, as you can imagine Mitsuki is read with embarrassment and runs off at road runner speed. This third ends with Ikeno questioning why Yuu and Haruka had to discuss the surprise party all alone, rather than inside the classroom and thus the suspicion begins…
You may have noticed (and I hope you did) that instead of writing halves, I mentioned this episode being in thirds. That’s right folks, we have special extra that is both longer and more entertaining than the
Yuzu-Chan Becomes One With The Wind!
Iizuka just got her license and finds joy in riding her new scooter and almost runs her instructor over, Ikenos’ maths notebook is destroyed after a rather interesting game of house with her younger siblings and Haruka gets the daylights scared out of her from one of Ikenos’ practical jokes. This has got to be my favourite extra of them all; all three stories are short, sweet and focus around the two funniest characters in the show. The interactions between Ikeno and Iizuka are wonderful and really highlight their personalities; it also offers a nice break from the main storyline and succeeds in delivering good laughs in such a short time period.
With the introduction of Ikenos’ suspicions plus the mention of a graduation ceremony, the last three episodes focus mainly on those topics and no doubt affect Haruka and Yuus’ secret being exposed; the two main stories in this episode set a good enough foundation for things to develop and in episode ten, you can bet that they do.
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.
