Ask John: Can You Explain the Sakura Wars Franchise?

Question:
What happened to the Sakura Wars TV series? Why were only 4 eps. made? Didn’t it have something to do with the Sega video game? If so, why didn’t they just continue with the series playing along with the story the game used? Are the other Sakura Wars series the same? Were they are an attachment to the game?

Answer:
Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) has quite a convoluted history if you’re not familiar with it. Sakura Taisen began as an adventure game for the Sega Saturn in 1996. The game incorporated isometric strategy mecha battles into a life-sim/dating simulation adventure game and became a big hit, spawning three sequel games, two puzzle games, several side-story and miscellaneous games, various ports of the games, two OAV series, a TV series, and a motion picture. In a not entirely unusual move, the first Sakura Taisen anime was created for Japanese fans that were already familiar with the Saturn games. The first game revolved around the Hanagumi team fighting to protect Japan and the world from the evil plot of Aoi Satan (not the Christian devil, but a demon/man that refers to himself by the name “Satan”). The second game continued the story from the first game, introducing a new, more powerful demon villain. The upcoming third game features Captain Ogami traveling to Paris to establish a new hanagumi team in France. The fourth game is scheduled for release on the Japanese Dreamcast this March.

The 4 episode OAV series currently available in America is actually a prequel to the first game. It could be said that there’s little action in this OAV series because most of the actual demons versus Hanagumi battles occurred in the first game, after the events seen in this OAV series. The second OAV series is set an an undetermined time seemingly after the events of the second game.

So while the two OAV series and the first three games make up one continuing story, the 25 episode Sakura Taisen TV series from 2000 is a new adaptation of the Sakura Taisen story. The TV series utilizes elements of both the first OAV series and the Saturn game, but tells a story somewhat different from either. The Sakura Taisen TV series introduces Sakura and Iris to the rest of the already formed hanagumi team, and concludes with the girls’ victory over Satan. Partially because the two OAV series are directly based on the video games, while the TV series is not, the TV series features some drastic changes from the original Sakura Taisen, mainly in its characterization of Iris, its emphasis on characterization and the changes to the established Sakura Taisen story. The Sakura Taisen TV series focuses on character development almost to the point to which it could be called dull. The action scenes, though, are very exciting and excellently choreographed. The Iris of the TV series, very much unlike the vivacious OAV and game version, is a very shy, introverted and quite girl who only fights alongside the rest of the girls two or three times in the entire series. The TV series also spends much more time detailing the background of the incidental characters and villains than the game story does.

AD Vision has licensed the second OAV series and the television series for domestic release, but this announcement far pre-dated the Japanese release of the theatrical movie last December, so I don’t know if there is currently an American distribution license in place for the movie. In terms of the games, Working Designs has mentioned some interest in possibly translating the upcoming Playstation 2 Sakura Taisen release for the American market. None of these aforementioned releases have even tentative release dates yet, though.