Rating: 
Summary: Get the Saturn games!
Review: Sakura Taisen video/DVD is based on the hugely popular Japanese games by the same title (Sakura Taisen and Sakura Taisen 2) for Sega Saturn. DVD is pretty good (excellent character design, "steam punk" is so cool!), but you'll get the most out of it by playing the Saturn games. I first watched the DVD version and it left me feeling like there were major gaps in the story that I missed. I then played the first game, and it all made a lot of sense and dramatically increased my love of Sakura Wars world.I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I think the DVD was created as a "prequel" to fill in the gaps that the games had left off. Because Sakura Wars games were extremely popular in Japan, maybe the producers assumed that most viewers had played the games. So, if you want to get the maximum enjoyment out of the Sakura Wars DVD, you should think about getting/playing the Saturn games. All you need is a Saturn (you can get one cheap at auction sites), some type of converter to be able to play import games, and the games themselves which can be purchased from NCS, Tronix and other import game sources. If you can't read Japanese, Ming's Sakura Wars web page at http://pei.physics.sunysb.edu/~ming/anime/sakura.html will be a godsend; it contains translations of game manual and episodes.
Rating:
Summary: This is a really good anime video.
Review: Sakura Wars 2 is a very good anime. It is funny, it has a great story, wonderful music and dubbing. It isn't as good as Sakura Wars 1, but it is still worth your money. Great anime.
Rating: 
Summary: Characters Nationalilties
Review: Sakura Wars is I find it quite funny in the story but also has brief storyline. I like how the characters all have their own nationalities (Japaneses, Americans, Chinese, Russians,French just to name some)and each character has it own ability of battling because of where they were brought up from and then they use their technic in a mecha. I think it's a good anime in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Sakura Wars!
Review: Sakura Wars was a great, clean anime that should be enjoyed by most fans of the Japanese culture. The story takes place in 1919, Japan. Young girls from Japan, Russia, France, and China are called over to join a secret workforce, which works to defend the world from invading demons. An excellent animation with beautiful characters who's personalities are just as complex as their beautiful costumes (character designs by Kosuke Fujishima, by the way). Sakura Wars is a masterpiece!
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing special here
Review: Sakura Wars, based on a series of Japanese games, is entirely uninspired--which is not to say it's bad. It just is somewhat bland. It's a steampunk story--high-technology created with steam engines. There is also supernatural powers and demons thrown in. The story is a little opaque; it may make more sense to someone who has played the games. Essentially, there was a big war between demons and humans (in place of WW I in our world); the demons were beaten back, but now they are returning. Tokyo is (as it is in so many anime) the key to everything, and the humans create these ESP- and steam-powered robots to defeat them. The pilots are a bunch of girls who also perform plays in a theater which serves as their base. It's perhaps a little less odd than that sounds, but some parts of it are never explained and a viewer (such as me) who knows nothing going in is rather left hanging. There is also no conclusion to the story in this disc; whether or not there is a second disc coming I do not know. The disc itself looks fine, if not gorgeous. The character designs are actually pretty nice, but the characters themselves are rather generic: the cutesy little girl, the tough martial artist, the clutzy scientist, etc. The English dub is what you expect from ADV: nothing wonderful, some liberties taken with the script, but nothing terrible. That sums up Sakura Wars itself: it's not bad, but it's not something you're likely to return to again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Sakura Wars....
Review: Sakura Wars... a great anime, a great game. But... only 4 freaking episodes? The ending to the thing was horribly abrupt. But, that's the only backfire. So otherwise... enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Another case of Style over Substance
Review: Short review: Sakura Wars has some of the most beautiful animation that I've seen in an anime series. I was really struck by the use of color and detail in this anime. Unfortunately, that's where my enjoyment of this anime ended. I found the story to be very tired, and the characters about as interesting as drying paint. Too fluffy for my taste. If you like "You're Under Arrest" then this might be along your line of anime (...but maybe not). If you like Eva, Lain, and Bebop; then you probably wouldn't get much our of Sakura Wars. I recommend renting it before committing your hard earned cash.
Rating:
Summary: Another case of Style over Substance
Review: Short review: Sakura Wars has some of the most beautiful animation that I've seen in an anime series. I was really struck by the use of color and detail in this anime. Unfortunately, that's where my enjoyment of this anime ended. I found the story to be very tired, and the characters about as interesting as drying paint. Too fluffy for my taste. If you like "You're Under Arrest" then this might be along your line of anime (...but maybe not). If you like Eva, Lain, and Bebop; then you probably wouldn't get much our of Sakura Wars. I recommend renting it before committing your hard earned cash.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable if stilted
Review: Sprightly, well-directed but ultimately disjointed and confusing fantasy about a steam-powered Japan at the turn of the century under siege by a robot army -- or demons -- or maybe both. (A lot of things are not made very clear.) To combat this menace, a group of psychically active young girls are trained to fight them with specially-created body armor. The spectacular look-and-feel of the universe and the lively characters doesn't completely make up for the flawed story, though -- people are pulled into and removed from the story with cavalier abandon; plot elements are brought up and discarded; many things are never properly explained. Is it fun? No question about it. Just don't think you're alone if at the end you're stuck scratching your head.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful animation, not enough storyline
Review: The anime, Sakura Wars, is based off a game for sega saturn (I think, I could be wrong). I've never actually played the game before I bought the anime, so I'm not sure how true the anime stays to the plot of the game. With that out of the way, I might as well start listing the pros and cons of this anime. Pros: beautiful animation, bright colors, cute characters, light humor sprinkled throughout the 4 episodes. The humor in this anime is not hentai, and there are no hentai scenes whatsoever in this, so if you are a hentai fan, stay away! Cons: IT'S NOT LONG ENOUGH! Four episodes aren't nearly enough for this story. The first two episodes start out slowly, which isn't bad because the information given provides a base for the rest of the episodes. However, right when the enemy of the story is revealed (during the fourth episode), the episodes end! It's a disappointment.... it leaves the viewer craving for more. Other information to mention: This is an action anime with a cast of mainly girls. If you prefer an anime with guys as the main characters... well, at least give this a chance. There are a few main guy characters, after all, and the Sakura Wars cast is a wonderful mix... the characters grow on you. I gave this anime 3 stars only because the story is compressed into four episodes. Although the animation is lovely, this could have been so much better than it is.
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