English Dub Review: Sakura Quest “The Gathering of the Five Champions”

Wow, this tourism board needs to get with the times! No Instagram or Facebook… not even a website?

Spoilers Below

Courtesy: Funimation

Ushimatsu is glad that Yoshino hasn’t left. Her first job is already waiting for her. He’s ordered a ton of locally-source manju (a sweet, red bean paste bun). Each is printed with the chupacabra. Her job is to sell all of them. Two problems. One, there isn’t enough tourists to buy the things. Two, his assistants ordered ten times as many boxes by accident. Oh, and they expire in a week. He cuts her a deal, if she can sell all that manju by its sell-by date, he will let her out of her one-year contract. Time to get selling! After a bit of wandering about town, and a bit of brainstorming with a local NEET, they decide that what they need is a website from which to sell them. They track down Sanae Kozuki, an internet entrepreneur, and blogger who moved to the town. She gives them a website with a new plan: Make the manju an exclusive thing that you can only get at the town, but advertise it still. That makes it exclusive, so people will want it.

Courtesy: Funimation

Trouble is, they don’t. Several attempts to change the marketing, and they still aren’t selling very well. That’s when they turn to the other girl living in the dorm. Maki Midorikawa is an actress who had a minor role in a minor movie, but that’s enough to make her a pseudo-celebrity in the town. Though she’s been reluctant and negative through most of this process, she has an idea: Make a video! They call up their NEET friend from before, one Ririko Oribe, and ask for her help. She has a professional camera and knows how to use it. Despite the fact that her mother has a long time feud with Ushimatsu, she agrees to help them put this advertisement video together. The ad gets some attention from the locals, but only one box more sells. Time is up, and the five gathered champions have failed. Yoshino must stay for the entire year. But, at least she has friends.

I was not as taken with this episode as I was with the first. The animation is still excellent, and tons of attention is being placed on the little details of these girls talking… which is most of this show, let’s be honest. The voice acting is still great, and Tia Ballard as Shiori is as expressive as ever. From a technical standpoint, this anime set itself a standard in the first episode and stuck to it.

However, the plot of this episode didn’t really do much. It was really built as an introduction, to bring the rest of the main characters out into view, but I felt like it was a bit slow. I honestly feel like this could be an anime-analog of Parks and Rec if they pull out a bit funnier. It just ends up being… whatever. I do appreciate, however, that they don’t go with a cliched ending that could have been here. They could have just as easily had the gang sell all the manju with their powers combined, but have Yoshino choose to stay to be with her new friends. Instead, the writers chose to continue the story through failure. I like that. It’s more real. If there is anything that this anime does right, is that it captures the feeling of a real life story in a tiny town with a ton of heart. I would just like for it to have a bit more plot or humor to it. If so, I could really rate this anime higher, and I want to. Until then, I give it seven scary manju out of ten.

SCORE
7.0/10