English Dub Review: Sakura Quest “The Kingdom of Cherry Blossoms”

The Festival goes off without a hitch until…

Overview (Spoilers)

Kadota heads off shortly before the big play, where he has a massive part, in order to pick up Mayor Naumann. If he can get the guy back to Sakura Pond for some schmoozing, he may make Manoyama a sister town to his town. If that happens, the town would be save from getting absorbed into the big city nearby. At first, however, he gets pulled into the nearby police box for disturbing the peace. He was wandering around in his Chupacabra Mask as a way of being recognized by Naumann. Then, on his way back with the mayor, he runs out of gas! Yoshino hops on board the charter bus to hurry over and pick him up before the play goes on. They manage to get him to the town on time, and he’s so caught up, the mayor volunteers to carry the parade float! As they are about to go on stage, Ririko tells her grandmother she has something important to ask her if the song goes well (hint: It does). After the wrap party, the girls take a moment to talk about their plans. Sanae is going to stay in Manoyama, opening a regional web consulting service in the shopping district. Maki is going to make many more plays focused around Manoyaman lore. Ririko is going travelling to see the world before she returns to take up her grandmother’s shop. We already know Shiori ain’t going nowhere. But Yoshino has finally figured out her path. As she abdicates her throne, Kadota announces that he will be disbanding the Kingdom of Chupakabura. Manoyaman culture doesn’t need it anymore, as Yoshino has sparked the loved of their culture in their hearts, and it will always live on. Yoshino heads off to her next small town, hoping to revitalize it as a promoter as she did Manoyama. As her train leaves the small town, everyone runs out to say their goodbyes. Kadota is the last she sees, holding up a banner with her name (misspelled) on it. She’ll always have a home in Manoyama.

Our Take

To lead off, I spent this entire episode with a smile on my face. The first half of the episode was filled with a joy that I just couldn’t put a finger on. The second half was melancholy, but had a sweetness to it. While so much of this was the voice acting, there is definitely some in the writing as well. Mayor Naumann may have been partly responsible. This guy is filled with so much love for the cherry blossoms and the culture of Manoyama, he acts like a total dork from the moment he shows up. He’s an obvious pastiche of Japanophiles, which just makes him more fun. The show doesn’t make fun of him but instead takes time to show how interested he is in the culture, and how much he loves interacting with it. I would like to see a bit more of how people react to his enthusiasm, but his presence in the episode further underpins the moral of the Mizuchi Festival. Accepting outsiders, learning from them, and passing on what you have to them. We have had twenty-five episodes getting close to these characters and Manoyama itself, and the episode plays on that. We get to see all of the townsfolk, and several other characters besides, multiple times throughout the episode: first as a part of the festival, then hearing Ririko’s song, then again at the abdication, and finally, as Yoshino leaves. They have gone from being disparate people spread out across episodes and a village to being a united group of people. They are a culture once more, brought together not only by the festival but by their common heritage that this outsider brought to life again by sheer force of will. Seeing them together sparks memories of their stories, even without a flashback, and it feels more like they are intertwined now. It adds to this bittersweet feeling of the series ending.

Finally, we get to hear the Dragon Song in its entirety. Ririko’s performance was not only great to the townspeople in the show, but it sounded absolutely beautiful to me. Brina Palencia, you lovely woman, never stop voice acting. You’ve made Ririko a joy to listen to throughout the series. Easily, this character could have been just another monotone boring girl. However, Brina read the script and pulled out tiny, subtle cues to her acting. Tipsy Ri-chan was so adorable, and I can hear a strength in her voice as she talks to people that I don’t think was present at the beginning of the series. In addition, your singing set the tone for the rest of the episode. There was sadness, but determination in it as well, which was what the rest of the episode needed to convey. From that point on, the series began to wrap up and all the characters started going their separate ways. The Dragon Song functioned as an emotional transition from the kooky fun of the festival to the somber abdication and departure.

I’m going to go out on a limb and theorize that the scene of all the girls talking about the future had its audio recorded with them together at the same time. They play off each other’s energies well. It doesn’t sound like people reading lines or reciting a script. They sound like they’re just friends having a discussion. In general, I feel like the voice acting team did an admirable job in keeping this episode genuine. Perhaps they drew off their own feelings about the show as the curtain fell on it?

This episode was the last chance for them to pull off some fun shots and show off their animation chops. P.A. Works definitely has the capability to do brilliant animation, as we’ve seen in the past. Unfortunately, as the series has gone on, the “gosh-wow” factor has shown up less often. Here, we see a pretty standard level of animation, with few to no complicated shots. What we do get is “genuine”. The characters move smoothly enough, and if there were errors, I couldn’t see them. However, as we got to the end of the episode, you would typically expect some big scene as she left that would have tons of effort in the visuals to make it go out with a bang. Instead, we get a heartfelt goodbye that was lovingly rendered. Yoshino’s tears had a real volume to them, and her expression spoke volumes while still preserving her youthful energy. The animation throughout the episode works hard to maintain each character’s personality and individual way of moving. After all, this is the last time we’ll see these girls.