I really like anime romcoms. Not as much as I used to, mind you, but still a great deal. Toradora, Momokuri, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, I even enjoy some harems such as Meiji Tokyo Renka, 5-toubun no Hanayome, you get the point, I like this genre a lot. So a while ago, I was browsing /r/anime_irl, and I came across a funny post, checked the comments and saw that the source was a show called "Sakura-sou no pet na Kanojo". I've been watching a lot of older shows from the 70's, so I thought It'd be a good idea to check it out. After all, I hadn't watched a romcom in a while, so it coudn't hurt, right? Well... not really. Because you see, I don't really dislike this show, it's more just... really mediocre with a few worse than average moments.
So, synopsis time. The show is just Maison Ikkoku in high school. The main character is a directionless guy named Sorata who doesn't really know what to do yet, and he lives in a school dorm where everyone except him is extremely eccentric. One day though, a new person moves named Mashiro moves in. Misunderstandings, failed confessions, comedy and cleavege ensue.
And I really mean it with my Maison Ikkoku comparison, Sakura-sou is kind of just a watered down version. The stakes aren't as high, the characters aren't as entertaining and they're more exagerated. In Maison Ikkoku, there's a character named Akemi, who has very little shame. She drinks a lot, doesn't really care to cover herself up, and often just walks into Godai's (the main character in Maison Ikkoku) room, as do most of the characters, as they use his room as a sort of base for drinking, much to his dismay. Minus the alchohol, this is exactly the same as Misaki in Sakura-sou. The main caracterin Sakura-sou also complains about there being too many people in his room, and all the same character archetypes show up. This is a lot like how Kimetsu no Yaiba is just watered down Claymore. And, at least Maison Ikkoku actually had an ending, even if it was released seperatly from the TV series. With Sakura-sou, you watch 24 episodes, and barely anything has actually happened in terms of progress between the main characters relationship.
Another thing that really annoys me about Sakura-sou is that the characters have zero personality, except for barebones representations of recycled character archetypes. There's a hikkikomori who never leaves his room, yet somehow he looks perfectly representable and doesn't really have any problems communicating with others, except for the fact that he just... doesn't like it for some reason. It isn't explained beyond that, he doesn't have difficulties with it, he just... doesn't like it. Mashiro also has no personality, apart from being kind of autistic, I guess? She talks in a very low voice, doesn't really get very basic social norms which she should by all means know, and is cute. That's all there is to her. In the first episode, Mashiro and Sorata enter a grocery store, and Mashiro has to be informed that she can't just take stuff from the shelves for free. What. Look, if you want to do a series about a character who doesn't get social norms, then by all means do, it's perfectly resonable. If you want to do a series about a 17 year old who doesn't know that you have to pay for things, then that walked straight over the border of nonsenical and went into fantasy. The story tries to be down to earth and relatable, but the actual things that happenare so beyond what's resonable that it's just dumb. The hikkikomori has managed to program an AI chatbot that can respond to messages for him when he's not available, which sounds like a cool idea, except for the fact that its literally just a human conciousness with its own thoughts and ideas.
Mashiro herself, is also a problem. You see the thing is, anime is a visual medium, and Mashiro is an artists, so she paints and stuff. If the story tells me "Mashiro is a genius painter", then I can say: sure, sounds good. But when you show me her paintings, and they aren't as amazing as they've been purported to be, then it would have been better if you just never showed it in the first place. This was obviously a problem that the original light novel didn't have to deal with, but if you just had the characters reacting to her art, instead of actually showing it, that would have been way better.
Okay, last complaint. This show has my least favorite trope in media. "Standing up to the bigger guy, and then you get the majority on your side, so the bigger guy can only stand and watch while being embarrased" trope, which I hate with a passion for how extremely cringeworthy it is, and it is no less cringy in this show. Its this weird power fantasy of standing up for yourself all while humiliating your opponent, and it always just comes across as lame and stupid. I'm not exactly sure why I dislike it so much, but I think it's the feeling of grandure that it tries to convey, but utterly fails simply because the stakes are so low, and the setting is wrong.
Overall, I didn't necessarily dislike Sakura-sou, but I didn't exactly enjoy my time with it either. It was a 5/10, and definetely one I won't be revisiting any time soon. I'd rather just watch Maison Ikkoku, or any other romcom with misunderstandings for that matter.
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