History Manga / SakuraGari

* YaoiGenre: The story focuses on Masataka and Souma's deepening relationship, and unlike Watase's previous works, this is her first one that features an explicit romance between two men.

* YaoiGenre

''Sakura Gari'' ("The Hunt for Cherry Blossoms") is a Taishou Era romantic story by Creator/YuuWatase, ten years in the making. Its chapters were published in the ''Rinka'' magazine from 2007 to 2010, then compiled into three volumes.

It follows 16-year-old Masataka Tagami, the eldest son of a library owner from a small village, as he goes to Tokyo trying to find his place in life. While getting ready to take the entrance exams for the then-''Teikoku daigaku'' or "Imperial University" (now the ''UsefulNotes/TokyoUniversity aka [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tokyo Toudai]]''), he encounters Souma Saiki, the 25-year-old son of the distinguished Saiki Koushyaku family, and becomes part of the Saiki household as a mix of boarding student and servant. The Saiki household and Souma himself, however, are hiding some very dark secrets, and Masataka unwittingly starts getting involved... and it's even worse when Masataka starts finding out about ''Souma's'' own dark and troubled mindset.

* AnythingThatMoves: Souma.

* {{Bishonen}}: Souma and Masataka.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: It's hard not to cheer at least a little for Souma when he [[spoiler: murders Katsuragi.]]

It follows 16 year old Masataka Tagami, the eldest son of a library owner from a small village, as he goes to Tokyo to try finding his place in life. While getting ready to take the entrance exams for the then-''Teikoku daigaku'' or "Imperial University" (now the ''UsefulNotes/TokyoUniversity aka [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tokyo Toudai]]''), he encounters Souma Saiki, the 25-year-old son of the distinguished Saiki Koushyaku family, and becomes part of the Saiki household as a mix of boarding student and servant. The Saiki household and Souma himself, however, are hiding some very dark secrets, and Masataka unwittingly starts getting involved... and it's even worse when Masataka starts finding out about ''Souma's'' own dark and troubled mindset.

* AloneInACrowd: Souma is constantly in a FriendlessBackground, especially his childhood where he was trapped in a living hell to the extend it almost drove him into GoMadFromTheIsolation territory. That said, Masataka gets his fair share of this as well.

* AndIMustScream: Souma's childhood is... there's actually not a word to describe how horrible and torturous his childhood was. It was just... [[spoiler: being molested, raped, and tortured daily, isolated, lonely and ostracised, with all the adults turning a blind eye to how horrifically he is being treated.]] He has a ''very'' good FreudianExcuse for his behaviour (though it does NOT double as an justification for the shit he pulls - and Souma acknowledges that as well, [[DracoInLeatherPants though the fandom does NOT]]). In fact, considering what happened to him, it's actually surprising that he is able to function as well as he does. This extends beyond BreakTheCutie and through the TraumaCongaLine; each new hit keeps breaking him.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Most of the nobles and aristocrats are shown being very snooty and insufferable. Even Souma and his family, although not shown being snooty, are certainly very messed up.
* ArrangedMarriage: Kanako's father wants to engage her to Souma as soon as she graduates from her women's college. Souma refuses at first, saying he's too troubled to get married, but later he accepts as Viscount Kawamori says he actually wants Souma to marry Kanako so he can be his succesor, rather than for the Saiki's money and prestige. [[spoiler: Nothing happens in the end, though, as he's stabbed by Katou in the last pages of the manga and it's not clear if he makes it or not.]]

* BrokenAce: Souma. He's handome, affable, rich, intelligent, a skilled businessman. . . and horrifyingly screwed up.
* BrokenBird: Katsuragi's wife Asayo, utterly broken for his abuse. [[spoiler: She ends up killing him.]]

* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Or better said ''Brooding Adult Man, Gentle Teenage Boy'', since Souma and Masataka can easily pass as a [[HoYay male/male]] version. Souma may not look like a brooder, but in truth he's got MASSIVE issues due to his horrifying DarkAndTroubledPast, and one of the biggest reasons why he's attracted to Masataka is his gentle, frank approach to him, offering a contrast with how everyone else is obsessively possessive of Souma himself. [[FromBadToWorse And then, shit starts going down for both of them]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: Zig-zagged interestingly through the story. First we see that [[spoiler: Souma and Sakurako]] are the Half-siblings version, with the latter being ''very'' obsessed with the first. Then we see that [[spoiler:Sakurako happens to be Youya, his ''brother'', who became a CreepyCrossdresser to cope with the trauma of his mother's death]]. And THEN it's further subverted when we find out that [[spoiler: Youya is in fact the product of Kato and the wife of Souma's father (the one he left Souma's mother for), and hence Souma and Youya are actually not related at ALL.]]

* CelibateHero: Masataka for the majority of the beginning, claiming that he has no interest in things like love, and that love is simply for people's self-satisfaction. (In fact, once he has a wet dream and goes take a cold bath in the nearest well, extremely ashamed). Which also brings him a bunch of internal conflict when he starts feeling attracted to Sakurako and [[spoiler:Souma]].

* ChainsOfLove: More like Ropes Of Love. There's a ''lot'' of centerfold pictures of Masataka and Souma tied up together.
* CherryBlossoms: A constant theme in the manga. I.e., [[spoiler: Sakurako was locked away because of her behavior in a cherry blossom watching party among other things]], [[spoiler: Mitsugu makes many paper cherry blossoms as charms to wish Masataka good luck in his studies]], and later [[spoiler: Katou snaps and stabs Souma, who then collapses under the blossoming cherries]].

** Also, what [[spoiler: Sakurako]] does to almost every single lover that [[spoiler: Souma]] has among the household staff, and takes pictures of each abuse session. The most notorious cases are: [[spoiler: Masataka (tied up, force fed a meal with glass shards hidden inside, threatened)]], [[spoiler: Terashima (crushes his drawing hand, throws him down a flight of stairs, causes him to end up as a ManOnFire)]], and an unnamed maid ([[spoiler: BoundAndGagged, savagely beaten up -- causing her to lose Souma's baby that she was pregnant with.)]] In the culprit's own words:

* DealWithTheDevil: Metaphorical. [[spoiler: Souma, after passing over the DespairEventHorizon the first time when he [[BreakTheCutie is broken]] by his stepmother's physical and sexual abuse, and completely isolated and alone because all the adults turn a blind eye to it, turns to Katsuragi for support. He tells him half-heartedly that if Katsuragi kills Sakurako, he'll let him have him.]] Wasn't the most wise decision.

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Subverted Souma forces Masataka out of the house and bars him from ever returning or seeing him again, in hopes to have him live his own life freely. Masataka is depressed, but decides to follow his advice and leave so he will fulfill such a wish. After Katou confessing that he is Youya's father, and that Youya wouldn't want his brother, Souma, to be harmed, he then goes and stabs him. The conversation implies that he consider all bad thing happened in the mansion was his fault in the first place, and going to take responsibility for all death in story before the police. The stab wound is not quite deadly, but the author definitely PlayedWith the trope.]]
* DepravedBisexual: A big reason why Souma is depicted as being messed up and depraved is because he sleeps with women ''and'' men (ignoring later implications that he causes their death).

* {{Determinator}}: Despite all of the trauma he goes through, when Masataka pulls himself together, he can come up with impressive bravery. Like when [[spoiler: he throws the boiling tea on Katsuragi's face so he can escape his torture]] or [[spoiler: saves himself and a pretty much suicidal Souma from dying in a fire.]]

** Also subverted. Many outsiders believe that [[spoiler: Sakurako's mother killed herself by wrist cutting, but Katsuragi killed her by poison and then forced Souma help him make it look like a suicide]]. This further leads to [[spoiler: the start of Souma becoming a suicidal EmptyShell from both guilt and the heavy trauma he experiences when Katsuragi rapes him the night after this event and continues to sexually abuse him for the remainder of his childhood]]. Wait, wait, wait, we're not finished yet. Then things go FromBadtoWorse. [[SerialEscalation No, really.]] Truth is... [[spoiler: Katsuragi claims that Souma entered [[DealWithTheDevil into a deal with him]], when Souma, desperate and already broken from being abused, off-handedly says that he'll let Katsuragi have him if he kills Sakurako. Unfortunately, Katsuragi takes him at his word, and holds this over Souma's head for years, continuously reinforcing the idea that they killed her together, and driving him further ''beyond'' the DespairEventHorizon into true suicidal territory and making it impossible for him to ever return to a state even resembling psychological stability.]]

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: The very first pages show the Saiki family in chaos when they find out the matriarch of the family is dead...naked in a bloody bath tub, with her breasts in full view. And the children see it. This pretty much sets the tone for the entire manga.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Souma. Souma. Souma. Souma. Seriously, this trope ''is'' Souma.

* FatalAttractor: Every one of Souma's lovers are shown to have horrible endings. He even notices and mentions it himself. Of course, [[{{Jerkass}} this doesn't stop him from continuing to take lovers]].

* ForbiddenFruit: The one person Souma finds himself truly falling in love with is the ''only'' person who has absolutely no romantic interest in him. As a matter of fact, it's addressed that the main reason he fell in love with Masataka was because Masataka was "different from the others." And Souma, of course, unaccustomed to not getting sex from someone he wants, proceeds to [[spoiler: tie Masataka up and rape him repeatedly]].

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Masataka]] has a HUGE one when he learns that [[spoiler: Takafumi was dead in a police raid and Souma kept it from him]]. And we're not counting counting the one the morning after [[spoiler: Souma raped him]].

* {{High Class Call G|irl}}uy: Souma will let anyone fuck him as long as there is something for him to gain from them in return. One of the detectives even remarks on it, saying that even back when they were investigating his step-mother's suicide, he had the eyes of a prostitute.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: [[spoiler: Abigail, and Souma until he's aknowledged by Lord Saiki and appointed heir.]]
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: How Souma sees Masataka. What is interesting is that originally Masataka is seen as pure because he's inexperienced and "untouched", however, conversely [[BreakTheCutie the more horrible things he goes through]], the more and more he approaches AllLovingHero, gaining a compassion and ability to forgive love that is almost supra-human, so much so that by the end this becomes his default personality. One interpretation of this is that in the end he swaps one kind of superficial purity for a deeper psychological one. [[note]]It's worth noting that this is one of those cases where this trope is cultivated and deconstructed gradually over the entire series, and isn't used to invoke a PuritySue as Masataka is very pure, but also very flawed (His self-esteem issues are really, really serious).[[/note]]

* IWishedYouWereDead: Masataka tells this to Souma in the middle of his HeroicBSOD. [[spoiler: Souma tries to commits suicide.]]
** Souma wishes this on his step-mother, [[spoiler: and then Katsuragi steps in to replace her in the abuse-and-daily-rape detail after forcing Souma to be complicit]]. Let's just say, Souma does ''not'' have a good history with this trope.

* LoveTriangle: There is initially a love triangle between Souma, Masataka, and Sakurako. With Souma pining after Masataka, who is attracted to Sakurako, who [[spoiler: is a {{Yandere}} for [[BrotherSisterIncest her brother Souma]]]]. The attraction pretty much ends when she starts force-feeding him glass, though.

* MadwomanInTheAttic: [[spoiler: Sakurako, who has been locked in an old warehouse near the Saiki mansion for nine years after her mother died. Everyone else outside the household believes that she died of illness few after Lady Saiki died. After Terashima's "fiery" death, though, she's allowed to return to the main house.]]

* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Rumours are everywhere, everyone calls him the "Angel of Death" or the "Western Doll", or say that he's cursed, but Souma is really a kind person. ... [[GoMadFromTheIsolation As long as you don't push him off the edge of what little psychological stability he has]].

** It's worse than that - [[spoiler: because Sakurako was daily abusing and raping Souma, one day he got fed up and casually mentioned to Katsuragi that if he killed Sakurako, he'd let him "have" him. Cue Katsuragi killing her with poison, and then pulling a shocked and horrified young Souma into the room to slit her wrists to make it look like a suicide. Of course, that night Katsuragi starts raping and abusing Souma.]] You have to wonder which was worse: [[spoiler: Katsuragi or Sakurako?]]

* PostRapeTaunt: After Masataka is forced to give oral sex to Souma, he tries to wash off at the well. He unfortunately meets Sakurako at the well, who after pointing the stains on his clothes pours buckets of water on him and calls him {{d|efiledForever}}irty

** [[spoiler: Souma, too. His MissingMom was an ImpoverishedPatrician and his PrincessInRags maternal grandma made him work in the streets. Then he was found by the Saikis and, since he was the most qualified to be the prospect heir (Youya was much younger ''and'' from an unhappy marriage), they took him in...]]

** Manages to ''just'' scrape through on a subversion in that [[spoiler: Masataka ''was'' turned on when Souma hit on him in the library back in the very first chapter, indicating at least some kind of attraction before that point]], but it still swerves close enough to this trope played straight to be a little {{un|fortunateImplications}}comfortable. The fact that their relationship before this point was rather more pure and platonic with serious HoYay subtext could also be seen as another way this trope was subverted. It's still not a nice outcome for the poor boy, though.

* SleepingWithTheBoss: Happened many times before the series starts. Souma is the handsome leader of the rich Saiki family, and he often takes loves among the younger maids and boarding students/butlers [[note]](highschool/college-aged young men who work as servants in {{Big Fancy House}}s during the Taishou Era, in exchange for academic/economic help from the main families)[[/note]]; all of them meet rather screwed up ends [[spoiler: after being harassed, tortured and, in one case at least, ''murdered'' by Souma's sibling Sakurako]]. This also makes the plot of the series itself, as the protagonist of the series is a boy named Masataka who is employed at the Saiki house, and later Souma starts to make passes at him...

* TapOnTheHead: Takafumi receives a hard smack on the head during his police interogation, [[spoiler: he dies the next day]]

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Zigzagged all over the way. Souma is ''very'' good in bed and often gets pretty good "action" from his sexual partners in return ([[{{Fanservice}} with Watase offering all kinds of details]]), but while not outright evil, the man has VERY serious issues. And said partners either have their own issues or get hit with misfortune.
** Not to mention, the very kind Masataka [[spoiler: ''never'' really gets "good sex" since he's raped by both Souma and Katsuragi]].

* BastardBoyfriend: Souma Saiki may count as one of the most emotionally and psychologicallty complex examples of the Type 2 aka Conflicted Type.

* IllBoy - Masataka's younger brother, Mitsugu. First, he has a weak heart. Then he gets Spanish influenza (the same one that killed ''thousands'' of people in that same decade) and barely survives. Finally, he catches pneumonia. [[ButtMonkey Yikes.]]
** Also, the reason why Souma leads the Saiki clan is because of his father's very frail health.

* AndIMustScream: Souma's childhood is... there's actually not a word to describe how horrible and torturous his childhood was. It was just... [[spoiler: being molested, raped, and tortured daily, isolated, lonely and ostracised, with all the adults turning a blind eye to how horrifically he is being treated. RapeAsBackstory UpToEleven.]] He has a ''very'' good FreudianExcuse for his behaviour (though it does NOT double as an justification for the shit he pulls - and Souma acknowledges that as well, [[DracoInLeatherPants though the fandom does NOT]]). In fact, considering what happened to him, it's actually surprising that he is able to function as well as he does. This extends beyond BreakTheCutie and through the TraumaCongaLine; each new hit keeps breaking him.

* DysfunctionJunction: Between Souma's childhood, [[spoiler: being raped and tortured DAILY, silently and lonely while everyone pretends it doesn't happen]], Masataka's childhood [[spoiler: as a lonely and psychologically abused ChildByRape]], and the ''entire'' situation with [[spoiler: Youya, and Souma's stepmother]], you have UpToEleven extremes that just keep on climbing.

''Sakura Gari'' (''The Hunt for Cherry Blossoms'') is a Taishou Era romantic story by Creator/YuuWatase, ten years in the making. Its nine chapters were published in the ''Rinka'' magazine from 2007 to 2008, then recopilated in three volumes.