Sakurasou – “It’s Original If We Add Nudity”

Assuming one has their sunglasses ready for another blinding episode of Sakurasou, they’ll get to see the repetitive oppai and pantsu of last episode for a second time once more – which is essentially all there is to see.

Picking up back in the dorms of the misfit children, we have the rather forgettable cast deciding what to do with the evidently helpless heroine – who, for sake of moe service, is a total mental patient. As if she were an animal unable to comprehend speech, they continue to discuss how to “handle” her – a significant problem as she’s socially awkward, lacking common sense, and struggles at basic motor skills, all as seen within the first episode. Our pushover protagonist is once again left with the burden of “Mashiro Duty”.

After the opening sequence, the male lead is seen preparing breakfast – sighing in discontent as he’s too much of an incompetent fool to face his problems, thus he merely engages in petty gestures instead.

He explains to the busty and eccentric friend of his that he cannot be on “Mashiro Duty”, as his plans for leaving the Sakurasou will negate that plan. Not even five minutes into the episode, and the eyes of viewers everywhere are once again blessed with the scantily clad antics of Shiina, who walks downstairs wearing nothing but a white button up – which ironically is not very “buttoned up” whatsoever. The excuse for this early showing is that Shiina was told that “he would like it”, something we’ve definitely never heard before in any of the other generic romance series.

Leaving in a rush, the duo head out to purchase a meal instead – only to his dismay, the broke hero opens his empty wallet to count the yen that he doesn’t have, and finds our lack of sense Shiina to already be opening packages of snacks and eating them at will like some kind of uncivilized creature.

As it turns out, the store where the heroine was munching conveniently has a friend of the protagonist pair employed – and the situation subsides in what one would call “big waste of time” fashion.

Now of course, slice of life wouldn’t be complete without obvious lack of adequate communication between characters – and from a list of common phrases as well. According to the expendable eyecandy heroine, Sorata was her “first boy” – and she’s apparently glad that Sorata was her “first”. Shortly afterwards, a mess of yelling and more misconstruction – till finally, the brunette store employee, part-time friend, runs off claiming she has something to do.

Confusion carries onward from there, into the social lives of the many other side-character students who actually have nothing to do with the matter in the slightest – although gossip and slander is apparently something everyone can enjoy.

Shiina visits the food mart once more on her way home, this time by herself, and explains to the brunette what she actually meant by Sorata being her first – even though it was never any of her rightful concern to begin with, and entirely her own fault for making assumptions. Almost instantaneously, brown-haired girl denies everything – which is rather disrespectful seeing as the heroine just took time out of her day to explain a vain truth, yet either way, all continues back to normal from here.

This antic would have been cute had it not been found in every other slice of life comedy romance.

Fading forward, Sorata arrives home – and another useless fact is made known strictly for the use of female exposure.

We learn that it’s the dweeb’s birthday, and that the eccentric one has a surprise awaiting him. He flashes back to when she covered herself with whipcream and strawberries for no coherent cause – and now, she has littered the hallway and his room with cabbages, perhaps an effort at expressing her retardation without words. She then pops out of a wrapped box in the middle of his room, covering herself with nothing but ribbons.

This whole sequence of the episode is completely pointless – absent of humor, deviating from main plot, and succeeding in doing nothing meaningful whatsoever aside from furthering the level of dislike one will have for the characters and series alike.

If there’s any scene even more so painful to watch, it is when Shiina asks Sorata to strip – backed by the drivel reasoning that it is for artistic purpose. She asks him to remove his clothes so she can draw something with “impact”. To his embarrassment, she offers to strip as well in order to establish some sort of equilibrium of nudity.

In a very forced dramatic scene, she mounts him while he is on her bed, feeling his body with her fingers as to paint a picture in her head like she’s suddenly became blind in addition to retarded. She even goes as far as to ask if he has ever engaged in sexual intercourse for who knows what reason, and then verbal diarrhea occurs regarding the loser protagonist’s physical shape and ambitions – after which, the heroine just now starts her sketch.

As if it wasn’t already blatantly clear, Sorata finds out that Shiina is a renowned artist known worldwide for her paintings, going so far as to search her name online, find her in art books, and see many of her works in competitions and galleries. It’s likely that the grander point of this moment was not to reveal the heroine’s fame – but to show that the protagonist is equally as mentally deficient in his own way.

There are rare instances where the episode shows real thought provoking ideals. For instance, while in school, the seemingly useless protagonist goes to find that the crazy duo that he is living with have actual talent in animation, and then of course Shiina is a child prodigy in art. He then questions what his talents are, and if he will ever make something of himself – although apparently beyond a stereotypical protagonist, he never will. This is all stuff straight out of the landfill – reprocessed for usage in low-end product.

Aside from that however, this series is frankly at the junction of “bad” and “horrible” – with all the faults listed, it’s hard to find a reason to like Sakurasou other than the visuals, as eye harming as they may be.

• 
  “Sakurasou” Only Consistent With Service
• 
  Sakurasou – Oppai & Pantsu Made Artistic
• 
  Sakurasou – “It’s Only Missing Pantsu!”
• 
  Sakurasou – Nopan, No Story, Just Oppai