About a week ago I wrote about Sakurako-san, in particular how excited I was for it. I was still a little apprehensive, TROYCA has only done Ald.Noah Zero, which was pretty terrible. But I was excited nonetheless. It’s a mystery show! Those don’t come around often, the trailer made it look like a mix between Hyouka and Sherlock.
Boy what a perfect description that is. I was looking for a few things from this show, a duo consisting of a ‘straight man’ and a quirky character, a focus on mysteries, and gorgeous visuals. Sakurako-san delivered in spades.
The show was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It might not have the technical prowess found in One Punch Man, but it had a level of polish akin to something from KyoAni. The colors were vibrant, the backgrounds were detailed, and the CG was well utilized.
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The music was pretty standard, nothing too special, though a bit of jazz poked through in one particular scene. We didn’t have a chance to hear the opening, but the ending seemed decent, if a little generic.
The characters were fun. Sakurako was the most entertaining, of course, but Bo- I mean Shoutaro played the ‘Watson’ role pretty well. It’s also nice to see how these two characters have affected one another. It’s clear that due to his time spent with Sakurako, Shoutaro is far more comfortable among the deceased than most, and Sakurako seems to act more ‘herself’ around Shoutaro.
We even get the analysis scene, a staple of this genre, the close-ups to relevant information, with a cut to character reactions. These scenes are probably my favorite aspect of these shows, something that’s been sorely lacking in my entertainment line-up.
The star of this show though are the bones. Lovingly detailed and quite beautiful, it’s easy to see why Sakurako would proclaim the beauty of such objects.
It’s also refreshing to see that, in spite of our main character being high-school, that doesn’t seem to be a big focus. Instead the episode preferred to focus on Sakurako and her adult adventures. Even though not even two episodes in and we’ve already had our beach episode…
