Ask John: What’s the Status of Sakura Wars?

Question:
I heard a rumor that there was going to be a second Sakura Wars OAV series and a movie or TV series. I can’t remember which. Since then I haven’t heard anything about it. Is the series still in production? Or has it just not made its way over here yet?

Answer:
Currently four of the six planned episodes of the second Sakura Wars OAV series are available in Japan. OAV 5 is scheduled for release in Japan on the 25th, the same day as the home video release of the first volume of the TV series. I haven’t seen anything more than TV commercials for the second OAV series, so I can’t tell you much about it beside the fact that it seems to be set chronologically between the first and second video games. (The first OAV series was set before the events of the first video game.) The Sakura Wars television series just concluded its broadcast on Japanese TV with episode 25. The TV series was a totally new, self contained adaptation of the first Sakura Wars video game featuring a heavy emphasis on character development and story rather than the romance and action that the OAVs and games focus on. The TV series spent a great deal of time tracing Sakura’s maturation and induction into the hanagumi fighting team and went into great detail illustrating the background of the hanagumi and Ayame and General Yoneda’s relationship to each other and to “Satan.” Most notably, Iris’ characterization is significantly different in the television series than it is in any other incarnation. In the television series, especially in the first half of the show, before Iris becomes comfortable being around the other girls, she is extremely shy, soft-spoken and introverted, her teddy bear being her genuine only friend. This is a tremendous change from the cheerful, pouty Iris presented in the video games and OAVs. (Forgive my digression. You can tell how much I’ve enjoyed the television series.)

2000 is the year of the “Sakura Project 2000,” a multi-media marketing blitz in Japan to promote Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) and all of its new releases. The Dreamcast premier of Sakura Wars 3 has been delayed until early next year, but the Sakura Wars juggernaut in Japan is still going strong with recent live-action Sakura Wars stage musical productions and the recent release of Sakura Wars for the Color Gameboy and the Pocket Sakura game/toy. There’s been little word on the status of the Sakura Wars movie lately, but I suspect that sometime next year we’ll see more information on the theatrical Sakura Taisen feature come to light.