Sakura Wars: The Movie (DVD)

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"Sakura Wars" comes from a long line of video games. There are a few animated features in the line as well, most notably a TV series. However, the popularity and longevity of the series comes from the video game series, which began on the Sega Saturn and jumped to the Dreamcast for a total of 12 titles, plus an arcade game. A movie based on a well-loved series of video games could go one of three ways- the movie will be accessible to old time gamers and non-gamers alike, the movie will be filled with references to the video games and will consequently make no sense to non-gamers, or the movie will just be really bad (think "Street Fighter", "Super Mario Brothers", "Double Dragon", etc). "Sakura Wars: The Movie" easily dodges the last category, but falls somewhere closer to the second category than the first.

From the opening scene to the credits, this film impressed me with its beautiful artwork and style. The movie takes place in an alternative timeline, where it´s the early 1900s and everything in Japan is steam powered- cars, trains, buildings, robots, everything. In the beginning, we see the eight-woman Imperial Operetta Troup: Flower Division wrapping up one of their performances. The girl with the long black hair is Sakura. Two other girls are mentioned by name and get some focus over the movie, but the other five played marginal supporting roles, and frankly I can´t remember their names. A new blonde girl named Lachette Altair shows up to join their group, except that she´s joining the Imperial Fighting Troup: Flower Division. Why the same eight people put on plays and fight in robots, I don´t know.

The plot of the movie focuses around how the Imperial Fighting Troup: Flower Division has to destroy the demonic Kouma, whenever the Kouma attack the city. As an added twist, the girls may soon be down to acting only, as the government is testing out an unmanned robot that appears to be better at fighting. It´s a fairly simple plot, but with a run time of 85 minutes, the plot is good enough to keep the pace of the movie even.

I have never played any of the video games, which as far as I know were only released in Japan. Therefore, quite a bit of the movie does not make sense. What was the Star Division, and why was it disbanded? What are the Moon and Dream Divisions? In the middle of a large fight between the Flower Division plus Lachette and a group of Kouma, the mechanic of the group comments that their spirit energy is running high, after she looks at some glowing meters. I didn´t know that they fought with spirit energy, nor is that expanded on anywhere else. Also, the group´s commander, Lieutenant Oogami, is on a trip to Paris. Apparently Sakura has feelings for him, but that doesn´t get touched on much in this movie.

Which brings me to my next issue with this movie, Sakura. Considering that she´s the titular character, she has little screen time and does practically nothing to advance or focus the plot on her own. I´m pretty sure that the Flower Division´s mechanic had more screen time than Sakura. In general, nobody has any time to really grow or change over the movie, due to the rather short run time of the film and the multitudes of characters.