Sakura Trick

Basically, yuri taken up to the extremes, with no brakes into the corners of character conventions, and no detours into hetero consideration. Everyone's open about their affections, no holds barred. That, on top of lots of joke worthy situations.

-The main duo has lots of room for mutual snarkiness. A refreshing change from usual yuri pairings

-The other duo isn't that forward about it, but they have more of a friendship dynamic paved.

-The pair doing the preview is what seems to be the conventional give and take pair. I hope there's a twist.

Discuss.

edited 10th Jan '14 6:04:30 AM by Culminus

This work feels a bit different from the usual Manga Time Kirara stuff, probably because each chapter takes 12 instead of 6 pages. I guess this is also why it gets animated 1.5 years into serialization.

• As noted by stardf29, the anime's director was the director for Hidamari Sketch X Hosshimitsu, so expect a lot of Hidamari cues.
• The part about Misato West is going to be closed in as the cast leave... is that a plot point?
• Are you are every high school student needs to be taught about vectors? (See 05:28)
• I see no reason to explain why Haruka was without friends in the beginning...
• Probably yuri doesn't need to talk about seme and uke as much as yaoi, as that is anatomically not needed... Well, I see Haruka the taller girl has slightly more "girly girl" features than Yuu does.
• The Big Damn Kisses! This is clearly the main draw of the show, and even it gives a WAFF for this heterosexual, married, non-yuri fan troper.

I must not confuse Yuu for Haruka... (Not that they look too similar, but more of Names The Same.)

Can't say I care much about the humor and the romance, but the visuals are damn nice.

A surprisingly faithful adaptation of the manga, covering chapters 0, 1, and 2. The major changes aren't to events but the style: The visual style is (unsurprisingly) new to the anime, and there's more emphasis on the romantic and erotic sides of things

...All changes I approve of, more of less. Particularly since I'd been worried they'd downplay the yuri side of things to make it more palatable to the average moe fan, but they went the opposite direction instead

Well that was pretty nice episode, a SOL yuri... no yuri goggles for this one, it was about time.

My comment for the episode was, "Well that escalated quickly." That said, kisses in the first episode, and no dancing around the yuri. What subtext? This is all text, right here.

I found it odd that they danced around the fact that their school is closing, but eh, comedy 4koma.

Oh I'm so gonna enjoy this. Yes~!

"I found it odd that they danced around the fact that their school is closing, but eh, comedy 4koma. "

The "school is closing" thing comes up a bit later, because that means school activities must be on a shoestring.

After re-watching it, I started to wonder—up to this point, is Yuu Haruka's Only Friend, or really close to it? I know about the group photo thing, but the I'm actually wonder if that is the reason why Haruka is so clingy.

"I'll protect you, Haruka!" As I mentioned above, one year ago I heard it come out from a guy. Now I heard it came out from a girl.

edited 10th Jan '14 10:51:50 PM by SamCurt

The rest of Manga Time Kirara's artists draw pics to celebrate the airing of Sakura Trick◊. I'll start with the most obvious one, which is Aoki Ume, on the upper left.

My reaction to the entire episode

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN GOOD JOB

For once, you guys done something right, I give you that, DEEN.

Nah, just In Style Of. Note the names are Bland-Name Product.

I would like to see a yuri with important male characters who just don't get involved in the romance. Will my dream never come to pass?

Opening animation is nice.

Yuzu is totally going to be best character. Just because she is best dancer.

I'm not going to remember all these characters for some time...

I did like that animation thing with just the little cartoon mouth pouting.

Yuu is right. Schools is for learning.

That's, uh, some first kiss.

Yeah, Yuzu is cool.

That is a really nice veranda.

Yep. A really nice veranda.

Yuzu is also an orange with pigtails.

Haruka really is the lewdest one though.

Amazing feats of acrobatics, but seriously somebody could have gotten hurt.

Yakisoba fail.

p.s. I prefer series with no outwardly-declared couples anyway. I don't think obvious crushes and mutual girls love with no kissing are "dancing around the yuri," and a lot of them last year alone really did not require yuri goggles at all. So...I was content as someone who just likes mild, cutesy girls love.

I have to say, this show is a real breath of fresh air. No bait-and-switch, no 'girls shouldn't do that', just cute and fluffy shoujo-ai.

Maybe not in anime, but it's not too uncommon in the more serious manga. Off the top of my head, there's Fragments of Love

After reading the first chapter, it's not my cup of tea but at least they're out there...

And has there really been a surplus of bait-and-switch lately? I know there was that Love Lab thing, and Shin Sekai Yori could count too but on the other hand just last year we had Vividred Operation, Kiniro Mosaic, Yuyushiki, Genei Wo Kakeru Taiyou and (even if it wasn't that good) and Non Non Biyori which only had romance between girls, often requited, which all went beyond Les Yay by making it very clear how the characters felt. Before then notable examples were in Yuru Yuri and Madoka Magica...which I guess both did the "girls can't love girls!" thing exactly once but as a gag more than anything. Isn't the only issue that there haven't been many actual F x F romance genre anime lately? Or are my yuri goggles really on that tightly to not see the big deal? (Oh god they probably are.)

Vividred kept insisting it was about friendship, Yuyushiki flip-flopped between heavy Les Yay and acting like there wasn't any at all, and Hotaru's crush was a minor part of Non Non Biyori

Speaking of Madoka, with Rebellion released fairly recently, you could make a case that this is only the second yuri anime recently, given some of the events in it

What's interesting to note his how Sakura Trick is set in a co-ed school, which means that there are options out there aside from going full-yuri (unlike other schoolgirl series, who just go with an all-girls school setting), and yet the characters stick with girls anyway. That's impressive. Makes me remember of Sasameki Koto in that sense...

In fact, class 1-A has more boys than girls. The implication: the proportion of lesbian girls in this class is just shy of 50% (6/14).

Also notice the three couples are all adjacent in Gojuuon order. Except Yuu and Haruka, they sit next to each other.

edited 11th Jan '14 6:56:43 PM by SamCurt

Yuzu and Kaede aren't exactly a couple, though

Those are some very unlucky boys. Poor bastards.

And thus the shonen-ai spinoff was born.

It's name shall be Sakura Treat.

edited 11th Jan '14 9:45:37 PM by Diamite

Manga chapter 5 is translated. I'm not going to spoil more than what I've troped, since it'd be animated in Ep 3.

, I can dig it.

In this week's share of HYPER YURI GENRE ICEBREAKER 3000 Sakura Trick:

We learn that the 'couples' can hit off conversations and humor with equal finesse.

Kotone is a tease, and someone doesn't take it well. That someone also happens to make everyone suspicious in a hilarious fashion.

Yuu doesn't want Haruka to chime in on a certain dynamic in relations.

"Yuu-chan to gyuu.... Yuu-chan to gyuu...." ... whoa, now that's a 'get off of my girl' mode right there!

"This is the real deal!"

The rest is too much. This anime is PACKED with memorable moments.

edited 17th Jan '14 2:54:52 AM by Culminus