Customer Reviews

Sakura Diaries OVA Collection - Secrets & Lies (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll review this two ways: Maturely and then how I really feel.

First, The Sakura Diaries is a refreshing take on the trials and tribulations of teenage love. In fact, it is a refreshing take on love, regardless of age, race, country of origin or even animated vs. live action. The struggles of the characters will ring true with you wether you are a man or a woman. The story is griping and despite big laughs throughout the episodes, spiked with pain, humiliation and embarrasment for characters and viewers alike.

It's a definite must-see for people who love a good disaster unfolding.

Now the second review:
...I avoided this series because I was afraid it would be exactly what it turned out to be: A romantic nightmare with overly-gratuitous nudity.

However, what I wasn't prepared for was a grown man who couldn't stop watching [nearly the] WORST and most dysfunctional love triangle ever put to video.

Urara (which in Japanese translatest to Oo-La-La), is like, 16 and in love with her 18 or 19 year old cousin, Tounma.
Tounma, doesn't know this chick from Adam and she bursts into his life at the absolute WORST time. If you know anything about Japanese culture, college entrance exams cause dozens of suicides every year.

Not only does she do it at the wrong time, she teases the poor [guy] with sexual advances and then constantly freaks out when his poor, virgin, male brain snaps and tries to go for it.
(You never do figure out if she is crazy, a tease, or just plain STUPID) And poor Tounma tries to do the right thing, but who can hold out when the hottest chick this side of lolitta is running around the house naked all the time?

About the 3rd volume, one character describes her as mentally ill, not realizing that she is probably DEAD ON.

And the lies, oh, the lies, EVERYONE is lying except the biggest liar of them all, a rich jerk who is king of the campus.

I dare you to watch one episode and not the rest of the series.
Prepare for MUCHO nakedness, masturbation, INCESTOUS feelings, and not ONE likeable character for a HOST of reasons.

Not at all predictable. For a non-horror movie I sure watched through my fingers a bunch. Lot's of "OH-MY-GOD" as well.

The Sakura Diaries Anime was based mostly upon the manga made by "U-Jin," a pseudonym for the creator of this very mature title. Although somewhat different from the manga, the anime still keeps some of the character bases and plot developments static. In an attempt to reach a more cultured audience the creator veered from his usual pure perversion and made the title a very deep and engrossing show. Any sex scenes that are in this title are important for plot development and characterization. This is a great title for adults who want to experience a more "mature" cartoon, but keep the kids away from it.

Sakura Diaries is pretty much your typical high-school romance anime. Alot like Ranma 1/2 or Hana Yori Dango, only with alot more fan service. The plot is a familiar one, but with a few twists. Boy is trying to get into a prestigious Tokyo school and meets a girl who goes there. He falls in love with her, but she will only go out with him if he is a student at the school, which is proving difficult for him to do. Meanwhile, an old childhood love shows up and the three get caught up in a love triangle. It is a very entertaining and humorous series, with interesting characters and good animation. It is however, a bit risque and if you prefer a more "clean" romance series this may not be for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the series, but was somewhat let down with the job that ADV did. I own a fan-subbed version of it on VHS, and when I bought the DVD version I was very disappointed to find that they had done alot of unnecessary editing, and even cut out some scenes. It does not hurt the plot at all, but I was just upset that they had edited alot of stuff. Aside from that, the series itself it very good.

If I could choose one word to describe this anime, it would be "meh".
Sakura Diaries tries really hard to be sweet, dramatic, ect... and I wont say it's not, to a certain extent, cute. However, there are too many downfalls for me to give it the benefit of the doubt.
The main female character, Urara, is painfuly cute, sweet, and loving, to the extent that one wants to throttle her. She happens to be in love with her cousin, Touma, who is in love with this preppy chick named Meiko. Meiko vows she'll only date a boy from Keio University. Touma, (who seems to have the collective intelligence of a ping-pong ball) decides that the best choice would be to lie to Meiko, and say he attends Keio.. when really, he's stuck in cram school.
I suppose that this would have been a much better anime if only Urara hadn't been so insanely inept and tedious, and they'd left out a good bit of the fan-service.
This anime has it's share of ecchi-ness.. more so than it needs, in fact. If they'd left out some of it, I would have given this a higher rating. It's not that I'm against some ecchi-ness in anime, once and awhile, but the fanservice here was simply there for the sake of having fan-service; not to enhance the plot or characters. I mean, there's the lovely scene where Urara decides to prance around the apartment, wearing nothing but an apron and some underware.. When she sees herself in the mirror, she proceeds to say "So that's what Touma was so nervous about!" (or something to that effect). Now, I'm not sure if that was a "Gee, I'm really hot!" sort of comment, or a "Gee, I'm naked!" revelation.. Either way, it was pointless and dumb. For a character portrayed as innocent and childish, she sure loves to make herself into a peice of meat for men to stare at. (...)
All in all, if you're looking for a sweet, soap opera-like anime that Sakura Diaries tries so hard to be, I'd try To Heart, or Love Hina.. Sakura Diaries most certainly isn't the pick of the litter.

Touma Inaba isn't the brightest light bulb in the universe, if you know what I mean. I didn't want to have to say dumb, it's more like he has a problem focusing on his studies. He's arrived in Tokyo to take his college entrance exams so he's staying at a hotel. He's from the country so the big city seems a little daunting to him. He might have passed his tests if he had went to bed about then, but his world is about to be rocked when what he thinks is a prostitute shows up knocking on his door. This cute high school girl tries every method she can to get him into bed, but she fails. Little does Touma know that this "call girl" is really his cousin, Urara, that he met years ago when they both were kids. She fell in love with Touma back then and she's there to "cheer him up" before his exams. Touma has no idea who this girl is, so he kicks her out! Not suprisingly, Touma fails his entrance test, but while he was there he met a beautiful young thing named Mieko. The problem is that she will only date a guy that is attending the most prestigious college in Tokyo. Touma of course lies to her and tells her that he goes there, but he really is enrolled in a year of cram school to prep for retaking the test. He moves into his uncle's house and finds out the truth about Urara and the romantic hijinks begin. Touma of course is so blinded by Mieko that he fails to see the love Urara is dying to give to him!

Volume 1 of Sakura Diaries contains six episodes and is quite risque for mainstream anime. It's meant more for an older audience, since it contains a lot of sexual situations and conversations. Not that this is a bad thing. The problem with Urara and Touma is that since they are both virgins, when it comes to sex and love, they don't really have a clue as to what fire they're playing with, and they also confuse the two. Urara, for example, cooks for Touma and when she serves the food, she is wearing an apron and nothing else under it! But when Touma attempts to force himself on her later in the DVD, she's shocked! These are in reality juveniles playing at being adults, and screwing each other's minds in the process. Sakura Diaries is a sex comedy-drama with a sugar coated heart at center and it will be interesting to see which relationships work out...if any!

For a similar theme and treatment I would recommend the manga Flowers & Bees.

By the cover, you would think this is adults only material. But after watching all four DVDs, I think that this is probably the most realistic love story I've seen. And sex is maybe one fifth of the whole content. Yes, it is a bit racy, but in my opinion, the raciest thing is the cover of the tape. I would say that this is a really good anime for someone who is looking for a down-to-earth coming-of-age story. Probably PG13.

I highly recommend it. I'm usually a romantic, but this story displayed love as it is. At least, the ending does.

In 1997, an anime adapted from the popular UJIN manga series, Sakura Diaries was released as an 12-episode OAV (also heavily edited for television) series which focused on the life of 18-year-old virgin, Touma who is trying to get into college by trying to pass the exams.

His parents want him to run the family's INN but Touma really wants to get into a prestigious college in Tokyo.

One day, a girl named Urara comes to his room and starts taking off his clothes.

Unfortunately, this has become a distraction for Touma and he fails getting into two of the three colleges.

During his third and final try, he meets the beautiful Mieko who he starts to become attracted to but he fails getting into the third college and lies to Mieko that he passes. So, he pretends to be a student of the college and tries to get close to Mieko.

As for Urara, Touma doesn't want anything to do with her because he thinks she is a stalker responsible for taking his focus away from the entrance exams.

What he doesn't know (or remember) is that Urara, is a distant cousin who happens to have feelings for him.

The original Sakura Diaries DVD was released in 2001 in America with three episodes (a total 12 episodes in all) but the new 2005 release features six episodes.

The DVD video quality is typical of the quality of anime TV series from the 90's. And for an older anime, I enjoyed the animation.

The audio quality is 5.1 in English and Japanese 2.0. I watched both languages and I was pleased with the English dub.

The special features included an unused closing theme, liner notes and clean opening and closing themes.

Sakura Diaries is actually a very fun and enjoyable anime. It does fall in the category of typical anime featuring the plot of girl likes guy, girl is from guy's past but guy is totally oblivious of what's going on.

But of coure being adapted from a UJIN manga, it's a musthave for a UJIN manga and anime to have perverted comedy, loads of fan service and nudity.

So, If you are in the mood for a fun, yet perverted anime, definitely check out Sakura Diaries.

This DVD is not as fluffy as it may at first seem. And, once you get involved in the story, you have to watch the rest of the series.

The premise is simple. A young boy goes to Tokyo to take his College entrance exams. He expects to do well, but flunks completely. During the exams he falls for a beautiful red-head, and lies to her by saying that he passed his exams and is going to attend school with her. At the same time he moves in with his female cousin Urara (thinking that her father will be home at any time) who knows the truth about his exam scores and has been secretly in love with him for years. There are the common sexual hijinks that you expect from anime, but there is also a very strong and involved story line that draws you in. Overall it is a very nice series. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys anime.

It's a story every teenager knows. Once you pass that certain age and your attention turns to the opposite sex, all sorts of troubles can happen. No one knows this better than Touma, one of the main characters in this series.

After finding what he believes to be his true love, a future college girl, and failing his entrance exam, Touma begins a string of lies to work his way into Meiko's heart. This would probably much easier for him without the intervention of his cousin, Urara. She has the doe-eyes for Touma and doesn't give up too easily. Despite her obvious affections for him, Touma seems blinded by his love for Meiko. A recipe for disaster.

The sexual inuendo's are high in this Anime series, with some breif scenes of nudity and Touma's obvious libido. Despite this, it is far from over the top. The characters are always thinking about the right and wrong sides of their actions, making this a very emotional tale. This first volume introduces the characters and sets the scene for things to come. Once you've watched it, you'll be rushing to get the second.

This is a quirky addition to anyones anime collection. Though I wouldn't recommend this for kids, a mature audience will find this humorous and addictive. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because it would have been nice to have more episodes in one volume and the picture quality is average. But if your looking for a comedic( animated) romance, this is a good place to start.