Sakura Wars Movie [UMD for PSP]

Having played all the games, I have to say I really enjoyed this movie. The animation is a little different from the games (the characters look a bit smaller-eyed), but is absolutely lovely. You can almost understand why the Ecole De Paris OVA and the TV series' animation was so mediocre after watching this, because this is expensive high-quality stuff. They must have spent all their money on it ^^; The backgrounds are especially notable, and the Imperial Theater seems to have gotten a revamp. It's very pretty ^_^

As always, the voice acting is top notch. I can't comment on the english dub because I haven't watched it, but the original will bring back every cast member from Sakura right down to the Baragumi. Lachette's actress is also very good, but even though I have heard she is some sort of professional, I can't stand her singing voice. During the "Subete wa Umi e" song performance it's very grating and drowns Sakura's voice out completely.

The story isn't anything special, but it isn't bad. It follows the usual fare... A man named Brent Furlong has brought in a new type of robots, the Jakphiels, that will make the Koubu obsolete, but his real plans are an economic takeover with some city-destroying evilness thrown in. He has a minion named Patrick, blah blah blah... The formula will seem familiar. It is. Also, an original character, Lachette, is introduced, but there are already eight members of the Hanagumi, and the large focus on her seems silly.

The other characters all have their moments, and there's a lot more character development for Reni than usual, which is nice. Also, Kanna's lines don't consist of only fighting with Sumire. This brings up another point, which is that the characters are actually in-character. The anime endeavors for this game have a tendency to take the most stereotypical trait of a character and just run it into the ground... Over and over again. This movie is a really refreshing change from that. Thank goodness...

The music is by Tanaka Kohei, as usual, and is mainly themes from the game that have been redone. He did a really good job and everything seems very polished, especially the new version of Kiseki no Kane, which has to be 200% better than the original. There is a rewritten version of "Subete wa Umi e" sung by Lachette and Sakura instead of Maria and Sakura, but the lyrics are poor compared to the original and Lachette sounds absolutely horrible... Please, someone bring Maria back... She did a much better job ;_;

In conclusion, because this review has gotten really long (sorry ^^;), if you have played the games you will probably enjoy this movie. If you've only seen the OAV or TV series, or have no knowledge of Sakura Taisen at all, you probably won't like it. This is a total fan movie, and it doesn't really aspire to be more than that.