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Sakura Taisen OVA 2
Episodes Reviewed: 1-6, DVD (but didn't watch the dubbed version yet)
Overall Grade: A-
Not quite as fun as the first OVA, but it still ranks up high on my scale.
Storyline:???
Captain Ohgami is leaving!! As he packs his stuff, he is reminded of the great times he had with the troupe... five hilarious, dramatic, and/or touching stories about the team's girls are told. Mood varies.
Type: Unknown
I don't think it fits in with any one genre that I can think of, since each episode varies substantially with the others, the OVA as a whole has little continuity aside from the characters.
Ch. Development: 10
With six episodes this time, there's plenty of character development packed in each episode, which would break my scale had it not been reinforced. This series literally screams character development. Especially the last two eps.
Sexuality: Close to none
Romance: Also close to none
Having not played the games, I don't know much about the characters, so I can't judge them correctly.
Drama: 10
There may be some action, but that isn't necessary; most of the drama unfolds within the characters (see ch. development), and this seems to be an era after the demon wars, so everything is about the characters. It's the rare, actionless drama you may have heard about.
Action: 4
There are about two episodes that have fight scenes; one has a short scene that includes Maria, an unnaturally skillful Sakura, and the mafia; the other has a more comedic action scene with my favorite gal Koran as the main attraction.
Comedy: 6
There are plenty of gags and conversations that'll at the very least attempt to have you laugh, but it's greatly toned down from the first OVA (with the exception of about two episodes and small parts in two others).
Dub: F
Dub Voices: 2
Many of the voices were just plain wrong. No big surprise, the only ones that had a normal voice were Sakura and Ohgami. Everyone else either stunk big time or were incredibly out of character. The horrible, HORRIBLE accents didn't help much either. Although Koran's voice was I'd say about third worst, since she's my favorite character I noticed her more than others and it seemed like it was the worst to me. It's nice that they decided to take their cultural background into consideration, but there are better ways of going about it... the accents could be slightly noticeable, but not this noticeable! Worse than DBZ.
Dub Music: N/A
THANK GOD!!
Dub Lines: 4
Words cannot express my anger with what has to be the worst dub job in the history of anime... to my experience. When it comes to dub lines, this is only rivaled by DBZ, which is much, much worse. Many jokes were taken out or changed so that they had zero comedic effect, making this anime much less enjoyable. Great anime, horrible dub job. I hereby swear i shall never turn the English audio on for ADV-voiced anime, unless I have to (such as in order to do another dub review).
If you recall, I absolutely loved the first Sakura Taisen OVA, because of its amazing combination of comedy and action with cool powers, and incredibly catchy theme song. However, OVA 2 has absolutely no demons and no kubo fights, with the only exceptions being in flashbacks... though they were pretty cool flashbacks. Thus, the opening sequence is greatly misleading. Still, the stuff you get for your money amounts to some great entertainment and a deep look into the characters of Sakura Taisen. There is one problem though, and that is the new characters, Reni and Ohirime. They were not in the first OVA, though they were in the second game. Unfortunately, the second (and the first, for that matter) game was not yet released here in the U.S., and the only plans I've heard about it are rumors. (PLEASE release it here, PLEASE, Sega!!!) Because they are not properly introduced, you may find yourself lost. It's worse for me, because I can't fully understand some of the serious scenes (like, you know it's odd for that girl to be saying something like that, but you're not too sure why). Of course, I couldn't bring myself to give the series a bad grade because of that, so I'm giving it the grade it probably would deserve, had I played the games.
That and the music! Gotta love the music and songs!!
That's my Story and I'm Sticking to it!
