The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

"Everyday was the same. Deep down, I felt bored. I wanted to blame someone for my being bored." - Kanda Sorata The very first line in the anime coming from the protagonist himself. Frankly, I felt exactly the same after watching the first dozen episodes of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. J.C. Staff, a studio which animated numerous titles such as Toradora, Zero no Tsukaima, Toaru Majutsu no Index, now it's Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo or in English, 'The Pet Girl of Sakurasou'. Story? Kanda Sorata was told to move to a place called Sakurasou, a dorm where the problem students dwell in. One day, ShiinaMashiro, a genius, moves to the Dorm. And so, Sorata's dorm mates given him the task to take care of Mashiro. So there ya go. You can probably predict the outcome of the show before you even watched it. Sakurasou is a somewhat-more-than-generic romance/comedy anime. So, what are the common features of rom coms? Generic protagonist lives alone, story set in high school, extraordinary female protagonists, transfer students, probability of the transfer student living next door, childhood friends, imoutos having brother complex, beach episodes, protagonist is a chick magnet and lots of other distinctive features. It's those shows where you watch simply because you're too bored. Sakurasou is no exception. However, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo is slightly more different than the usual. While it does have most of the features mentioned, but this time the protagonist lives in a dorm, filled with problem students and Sakurasou have a slightly better plot...and I guess that's pretty much it. Since it's a romance/comedy anime then you're expecting some humor. Regrettably, the "comedy" part is appalling. Sakurasou provides the viewer with lots of humor throughout the series, but none of them were hilarious. All in all, Sakurasou fails to be entertaining in terms of humor. In most cases, ecchi scenes and fanservice in these kind of anime are tolerable, as long as there are few but if too many, it affects the quality of the show. Indeed, I knew there were going to be ecchi in the series, but Sakurasou has more than expected. Finally, it's the story. Sakurasou starts off as boring, tiresome, especially the beginning and it may also be the biggest flaw of the anime. Brace yourselves, because boredom strikes very early. The starting episodes may give a bad first impression to the viewer and some may even stop watching the series solely because of that. Sakurasou is one of the few anime I've watched that left a terrible first impression. However, once you've covered the dull early episodes, at one point Sakurasou eventually starts becoming more intriguing later on(if it ever does for you). Personal point of view: I might have enjoyed Sakurasou more if it only had 12 or 13 episodes, not with 24 episodes. Why? for me, it starts becoming more interesting roughly at episode twelve. Some of the characters' past were interesting to watch such as Shiina Mashiro's however the enjoyment only lasted for couple of minutes. Sakurasou did have some memorable moments; both happy and sorrowful, but most of them were in the middle or near the end of the series. Luckily, the ending was pretty decent. Not the best ending I've seen, but still it's ok. Character? I'll show you in a list. These are the characters who dwell in Sakurasou Dorm. Scores are out of 5. Lowest(1) being Hated. Highest(5) being Loved. Kanda Sorata:(1/5) Boring male protagonist; essential in most rom coms. Now, only more irritating. Shiina Mashiro*:(3/5) Female protagonist. Neutral. Aoyama Nanami:(3/5) The common tsundere type. I feel sorry for her at the end of the series. Mitaki Jin:(3/5) Looks like he lost his virginity years ago. Kamiigusa Misaki:(2/5) Energetic, noisy type. Akasaka Ryuunosuke:(3/5) A Hikikomori. Chihiro Sengoku:(3/5) Dorm teacher of Sakurasou. A couple of supporting characters. Kanda Yuuko:(1/5) She has brother complex. I'm not surprised. Most of the imoutos nowadays have brother complex anyway. Rita Ainsworth:(3/5) Kawashima Ami...is that you? From the list above, any scores below 3 means they're disliked. None of the characters were interesting. Of course, all of the scores above are just my opinion. Though, it's nice to see character development going on. *In some of the scenes, Shiina Mashiro really reminded me of Akemi Homura, a character which I really love in Madoka Magica. Perhaps the last two episodes of Madoka Magica are simply too memorable... Art/Visuals? Overall, it's great. Colors are bright and artstyle is gorgeous. Backgrounds are nice and Shiina Mashiro's artwork are incredible. Sound? Voice acting is pretty good(Sorata yelling almost every time is rather aggravating). OP and ED are all J-Pop themed songs and I've only bothered to listen to them once. I do like J-pop songs, but only selected ones. There's some very beautiful background music being played during the sad scenes. Conclusion? Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo isn't the worst rom com I've watched and its far from being the best. To sum up, it's pretty average, despite the number of flaws it has. Unfortunately, Sakurasou just didn't live up to my expectations. Not even close.

"Over the last three years here at Sui High, I've made many dear friends. And what allowed me to meet them... was a student dorm called Sakurasou." - Misaki The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. When I first read the little summary of it on MAL I got the horrible feeling in my stomach it would be very sexually forward with a lot of fan service and very little plot/char. development. I thank God today that I'm terrible at guessing plots to anime, and I will take this second to simply say "I apologize" to the writer for having low expectations. Because I could not have possiblybeen more wrong. This story is about a group of what I can only describe as misfit geniuses. These are the rejects of the school, and at the same time some of the most artistically gifted students at Sui High. For various reasons, be it financial or social, they each have ended up in the cheapest and fairly rundown Co-Ed dorm at the school, Sakurasou. Kouhai (The main male protagonist) was forced to move into the dorm after he tried to take care of a stray cat he found, however dorm regulations forbid him to keep it unless he moved. So of course, he decided to move until he could "find another owner for it". However, by the time the show opens up on the present at the start of out story, rather than him making any progress, he has actually taken in like... 10 more cats. As I said, so at the open of the show Chihiro sensei (runs the dorm) asks Kouhai to go pick up a transfer student who will be moving into Sakurasou. That transfer student is none other than the beautiful, quiet, legendary artist Mashiro. He comes to find out she is essentially incapable of taking care of herself on her own, so in the same nature as his cats, he takes on the responsibility of being on "Mashiro duty". The misfits have many little adventures and antics and overcome many trials during their time at Sakurasou. As time passes friendships form and grow, bonds grow stronger, fights, love, tears, all come into play among the six friends of Sakurasou. Now Ill do that thing where you separate it into sections Art Actually, even though I'm not big on being able to tell huge differences and intricate details between different anime, this show's art really stood out. It felt smooth, clean, and beautiful. I daresay it was made to look so as to reflect the fact that they are all artistic students in their various fields, to match the level of beauty they themselves can create. The only other anime I know of with animation better than this would be Nagi no Asakura. So that's pretty darn good. I appreciated the high quality. Music, Sound Not a pro on music, I can basically tell you whether I 1. Liked the OP and ED. (I really did) and 2. thought the music distracted me from the show or helped to amplify it. (It blended well and I liked it just fine. Nothing to report back negative on. Story Quality/ Why I Enjoyed It This has to be one of the best stories of friendship and love I've ever seen. Now when I say love I mean it in a universal way. Not JUST romantic love, although there is plenty of that. I mean also the love between friends. Best friends. Think of a friend of yours who is the absolute most important friend you don't want to have to be without. Now take six of y'all and go live in a dorm together. That's in essence what you have here. The plot was paced very well, nothing happened too quick or too slow. The pain and struggles each character went through had me feeling like I was right there struggling with them. Is that not a powerful thing? When a story can draw you in so much that when something big happens, whatever it may be, it has the power to make you FEEL emotion. And no I'm not talking about "man I'm so pissed the plot went in this direction". No... I'm talking about when you see a character get their heart broken, you feel for them, you cry with them. It's really not easy for an anime to do that. But for me, this did. I'm telling you, Misaki's graduation speech TORE ME UP (that means it made me cry). Closing Thoughts I highly recommend this show to anyone who loves a good story about the bond between friends. And young love. This show is as funny as it is sad, as it is heartwarming as it is beautiful. Hats off to Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo.

Once in a while, it's nice to be pleasantly surprised. Going into something with a synopsis like Sakurasou, I honestly wasn't expecting much, but the end result was nice way to finish such a great series like this. Keep in mind this is my first review. I'm not going to dive into why I picked numbers for each category because I find it pretty repetitive, but more strictly my enjoyment and impressions I have towards this anime. So by all means, I'm no expert in anime, I just watch what seems enjoyable for me. One of Sakuraou’s most redeeming factors is the atmosphere from the characters/ setting.Sakurasou is not a typical setting like your group of friends or a school club. Our setting is that of Sakurasou, a rather different dorm that is home to individuals that are quite “unique” yet extremely talented. However, it’s in this sense that Sakurasou offers a large and diverse, and while rather cliché, cast that provides a lot of depth and humor. Most noteworthy is our oblivious and rather emotionless female lead Mashiro, who brings the concept of a girl who has for all her life painted pictures and has no clue how to take care of herself. Her character overall works well with the over exaggerated actions of the male lead in charge of her, Sorata, and provides a humorous dynamic that many slice of lifes lack. The many other residents also play a vital role in this series, ranging from the tsundere friend who also likes Sorata, Nanami, to the random, jubilant, and talented animator Misaki. All of these characters complement the duo rather well, and are accompanied with their own meaningful back stories. So by reading this far, it seems all this anime would have a rather shallow plot with the normal cliché characters. That’s where I was largely surprised by this anime. I was fearful of this anime just in the sense that it had 24 episodes, which always suffers from pointless fillers that deters viewers from watching it. However, this anime is unique in the sense that it juggles many different ideas and maintains it well. Although the first three episodes were quite slow and lacked much plot movement, episode four was one of these first indicators that showed that even a show like this can have depth, and displayed drama and development that some series take 12 episodes/finales to reach. The introduction of Sorata’s ambitions at the start to be a game maker contrasts beautifully with Mashiro’s brilliance. While Sorata faces the hardships and realities of being a newbie game maker, Mashiro eases her way to the top as new manga artist. And Sorata experiences those feelings of when somebody is better than you. Jealously. Hatred. Frustration. I found it to be quite relatable and understandable. Does one give up if they can’t be successful at something? Or is there something beyond failure? Many of the characters of this series meet this question and ask themselves the same thing. Sakurasou’s pacing is pretty solid, allowing it to nail its melodrama while also maintaining its comedic feeling. While I’m not a huge fan for melodrama because it’s always overdone and cheesy, I felt a lot of drama in Sakurasou was on-level and believable. The balance of comedy and drama, switching from serious moments to ones full of sexual innuendos and jokes, really helped the pacing out. The comedy is revolved around the character’s personalities, so if you have a liking towards all the characters, you’ll enjoy the sexual and awkward moments of Sorata and Mashiro or the embarrassing outburst of Nanami. As you would expect, you’re going to have your moments of fan service and perhaps overdramatic moments to the point where it’s silly, but I don’t think it really deters the series as a whole. Yes, sometimes the fan service is a bit silly and unneeded, but as long as we’re not getting panty shots every 5 minutes, it doesn't affect the series as a whole. As the series progresses into a more serious mood, the quite attractive scenes of Mashiro fade out (sorry if you enjoy them). And yes, Mashiro is a love and hate character. If you hate her, you probably won’t like this series. End result? Something that catches you off guard. A romance comedy with a unique feel that truly hits home. Great atmosphere of characters and cast, and solid pacing that intertwines comedy and drama. If you’re a romance comedy fan, by all means watch this if you want something with a change of pace. Sakurasou no pet na Kanojo was quite the ride and I’ll sincerely miss this series. Even though it won’t happen, I’d love a season 2. Thanks for reading my block of text, and if you survived this far, please leave any comments or criticism on my profile so I can improve my future reviews.

"This area feels weird, it's been throbbing hard since that time." -Mashiro Shiina, Episode 12 My god, everyone seems to have a total hard-on for this show. Why? Nearly every previous review for this shit has been a 10. Is there something I missed while watching this? Seriously, what's so amazing about it? So characters: you got your generic numbnuts male protagonist who's usually too fuckin' scared to say what he really means, a schizophrenic or something, a generic tsundere, the generic sex-crazed pervert character, and some other annoying chick. Sounds great already! The setting: 1700's France? No, fuck you, it's a school. What did you expect? Ok, to befair, it's more of like a special arts school or something, but it's still, nonetheless, a school. So what is this show about? I dunno, friendship? The wonders of growing up? Fuck, if I know. All I know is that this did NOT need to be made into 24 episodes. What was the point of it all? The main plot can be easily summarized quickly: >guy lives with crazy people >girl comes to live with crazy people and becomes the guy's friend >fanservice >another girl notices and gets upset >she comes and lives with them >occasional bullshit argument >cousin or whoever comes to take first girl away >doesn't >happy ending? Did that really need to go on for 24 episodes? Does everyone who enjoy this actually think this is a good plot? Am I really missing something? (No, fuck your useless bullshit subplots) Maybe I wouldn't be so pissed about this if it wasn't so long and everyone would shut up about it. So many times, people have this on their top 10 romance anime lists and I just don't believe it. What's to like about this? Two more notable things that pissed me off: 1. At times, this shit really felt like a harem and I personally despise harems. 2. The main protagonists announce their love at the very end. It's misery. You watched the show for an accumulated 12 hours, and all you get in return is some sappy bullshit. It's not worth it. It's never worth it. They say the journey is better than the destination, but not if the journey is equally bullshit. This was a waste of time, a forgettable experience, and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm upset to have seen this..