SAKURA WARS TV

Most non Japanese people first discovered Sakura wars from this anime series back in 2003. I didn’t start with the animated series.I was a big fan of playing Japanese import games for quite a few years at that time, and went through the trouble of getting a copy of the game for my Saturn and attempting to play it shortly after its release. A bunch of friends eventually created a text translation of the dialogue and choices, which was distributed free online to others to print out and use. Ah, the good old days before fan patched Rom’s and ISO’s or emulation.So when I discovered the animated Sakura Wars episodes for rent at Blockbuster Video ($2.99 per night!) I jumped on it. I think there were only four episodes per volume (possibly two) but It was amazing.The story is different from the game, and throws out the romance dating game elements in favor of characterization and storytelling. It succeeded quite well. The transfer by Sentai filmworks appears to be the master copies of the SD releases by ADV video, collected and transferred to blu ray without any extra remastering or upscaling. This is not a problem as the video quality loooks like it did from back in the day without jaggies on the subtitles or image break up. Sentai Filmworks has the rights to the TV series, Funimation has the rights to the movie, and its unknown who or if anyone holds the distribution rights to any of the other series or ova’s outside of Japan.Prior to this series there were two OVA series that are not currently available, even in Japan. The first tells the origin story, and the second tells a side story from in between the first two games. Those are followed by the regular series collected in this box.FYI, The OVA series are not needed to watch this collection. Nor is anything that follows. The TV series In this complete set was very self contained with a satisfying beginning, middle and ending. But I feel it’s important to let people know there is more out there and the reason why we can’t see it.After the TV series there is Sakura Wars the movie available from Funimation) and three more OVA’s. (Currently unavailable) This is followed (I think) by a single season series featuring the characters from Sakura Wars V, but I am not quite sure.The 2019 Sakura Wars reboot game was then followed by another anime series, currently available for streaming on Funimation.Although I like the other series and wish the whole thing was available. Sadly it is not. Every company that fails like ADV has their distribution rights and assets sold to the highest bidder. So many classic series like this are tied up in the legal red tape caused by the repeated buying and selling of distribution and ownership rights.The good news is some of that is starting to finally get straightened out, but don’t get your hopes up that something like Macross 7 or Frontier, for example, will ever be legally available outside of Asia.Back to Sakura Wars the TV series. This may look a bit strange to modern viewers. The art style is very different from anime today, and it’s a style nobody uses anymore, but was popular in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s.I have not watched the English dub, assuming it is the original bad acting Sailor Moon and Dragon ball type English voices, and not a modern redub. On the other hand, the original Japanese audio sounds clean and perfect, with accurate subtitles included.I highly recommend Sakura Wars to anyone remotely interested in classic anime. The franchise is a 20+ year ongoing phenomenon in Japan, and is as eternally popular as Gundam is over there.

I love that this Blu Ray set has the whole show only on two discs.It's so much better and convenient than the complete series DVD set (where all the discs are on top of each other in one slot).

Most interesting is the time period that the series takes place, but I don't really get a feel for it. There are moments in situation and dialog, but for the most part this could have happened at any time. The mech designs and enemy are ok. The enemies dying are especially cool. The story focuses on talk. It mostly revolves on apologies and complaining, with the usual messages of working hard, working together, etc. The subtitles are good; I have no idea of the dub. Oddly, the clarity of the art and animation become clearer as the series goes, losing the softer, drab look it starts with. It has a habit of not quite explaining anything, like the battle squad has to be actors - but never quite selling the point, even if they spend a lot of time on it. I wouldn't call them jump cuts, but the series will lurch from where one episode leaves off to a complete tonal and location shift. Perhaps I'm just used to anime that stretches events across episodes, but I found this jarring, as I tend to watch a series from start to finish in one sitting. No idea who the evil lieutenants are. They show up, fight, and-oddly enough, die. But they come back. Motivators, back story? No idea. The slow reveal of the main enemy, the arcs of the main characters, and the ending are all good. There's nothing offensive about this series, even if nothing deep is revealed. There are significant looks and beats here and there. It an older anime that wants to tell its story its own way. It didn't strike strong cords for me. 3 stars.

Exactly as described and came in a few days earlier, I'll be making more purchases from this seller in the future.

Very entertaining!!

Horrible quality of video and main menu looks like a pirate dvd, dont pay more than 15$ for this.

vhj,

Sakura Wars es una gran serie, especialmente el apartado auditivo; y creo que esta serie vale mucho la pena.* La serie es de los años 90 (Nostálgicos reúnanse); por lo tanto la calidad que se ve en este recopilatorio es igual al de los clásicos cassettes (no está nada mal, pero no esperes total claridad y nitidez)* La serie tiene un total de 26 capítulos reunidos en 04 discos, y la caja viene con portada doble. ¡Gran detalle!* Solo viene con audio en inglés y japonés, ademas de subtítulos en ingles. (al fin las clases de inglés van a valer la pena)¡ADVERTENCIA!La razón por la que lo califico con solo 03 estrellas...En lo personal yo lo calificaría con las 05 estrellas, más sin embargo la COMPATIBILIDAD se llevó 02.A los compradores latinoamericanos les advierto que esta serie claramente es importada de EUA, pues son discos REGIÓN 01 (EUA y Canada), lo cual significa que NO TODOS los reproductores van a reproducirlo.- No funcionó en mi XBOX One, Reproductor Blu-Ray marca LG ni en el repductor de Windows Media.+ SI funcionó al ponerlo en mi viejo Reproductor DVD Sony, PlayStation 03 y en la computadora con el VLC Player (La opción mas barata)En resumen: Vale cada centavo, pero no funciona en todas partes me temo.

何でアメリカだかで激安で売られててそれを逆輸入して買わなきゃいけないんだ。ちなみに普通の日本のDVDを買うと10倍以上高い。他のアニメも同じです。日本人には安く提供してあげて外国人には高く売ればいいのに逆じゃないですか?　著作権とやらはどうなってるですか、政治がろくに出来ない国だからこうなるんでしょうか。願わくばせめて収益は製作者や声優さんなどに還元してあげて欲しいです。内容は良いアニメで面白いですサクラ対戦を完璧に見れます。

Very enjoyable, must see.

Fine

画質はあまりよくないですが、英語音声のサクラ大戦は新鮮です。