Ah yes its not a new chapter of sakura trick until people make comments about haruka and yuu's relationship not being 100% together

Eh I didn't comment much on this before because I was mostly OK with it, just got bored with this more than anything honestly.
And that comment reflects it.

Awwww they kissed in Public :3 Yuu and Haruka and Shizuko and Kotone are such a cute couple :)

why is there no volume 2?

why is there no volume 2?

the anime covers it pretty faithfully so why bother with old content when new is what people want

Yuu tends to put up a facade at times, that Haruka was able to tell what was bothering Yuu is a sign of growth from initially, when she would always doubt herself and seemed uncertain of Yuu's feelings. Tachi really puts effort into characterization but I feel it tends to get overlooked because it lacks of drama and monologue.

Sakura Trick always leaves me happy, but this bonus chapter in particular was glorious.

i wish each chapter could have its own comment section, it'd make it so much easier to find and read all the comments.

That being said, on one of the earlier chapters when sumisumi is using the what i assume to be archaic verbal tic and is translated to "indeed". I can't figure out what the actual word is being used, but I can't find anything in the comments if its been asked yet or not. Many thanks if anyone could help out.

@Freya

She ends her sentences with のじゃ (NOJYA), you can hear it in the anime.

last edited at Sep 3, 2015 8:29AM

A couple of points regarding this post. Firstly, I will comment solely on the anime, which I have just finished watching. As for the manga, I still have not come around to reading it. Secondly, all of this is just my personal opinion. I do not hold it to be an objective criticism (if such a thing exists even), or anything of the sort, and I have no intention of trying to convince those that disagree with me of the 'rightness' of my view, or 'wrongness' of theirs. That being said, for convenience's sake I will write this post in the 'it is wrong', rather than 'I personally think it is wrong' form.

Now then, the anime. Well, to put it simply, I bloody hated it.
The start looked promising enough. I actually quite enjoyed it, first six episodes, at least. It had an absolutely adorable opening sequence (the bit with Yuzu dancing was my personal favourite), open, non-subtext yuri as its central motive, and likable, fun characters (except for Mitsuki, but even she became less annoying as the series progressed). At first it seemed like there was room for serious relationship development, although I knew going in that it was mostly a simple fluff comedy. And sure enough, the chances for such a development quickly died out, but that did not prevent me from enjoying the series. A fluffy yuri comedy, without much seriousness, but still fun to watch.

Then came episode 7. So, Kotone apparently defied her parents, successfully, and went to live with Shizuku. All right. Then, suddenly, her younger sister appears. Now, this sister is pure annoyance incarnate, and she has a downright malicious personality. Unlike Mitsuki, who is annoying mostly because of her role in the story (mainly that of an obstacle in the path of the main couple), and actually has a rather nice personality (case in point, when she thought that Haruka and Yuu were fighting, so she tries to get them to make up), this character is simply annoying because she behaves like a complete and utter bastard. But what was aggravating about this episode was not the younger sister, but rather Shizuku, and especially Kotone. So, the younger sister barges in, declares that Kotone is making their parents angry, and concludes that her sister is now staying at home, whether she wishes it or not, by force if necessary. And then displays said force by taking hold of Kotone's hand and proceeds to drag her out of the room. And what is Kotone's response? Or Shizuku's, for that matter? Nothing. Not a word of protest. Not a single attempt on Kotone's part to defend Shizuku from the verbal attack and insults that her sister flings at Shizuku. She is actually letting herself be dragged out. By a kid three years younger, and half her size. Now, if this were her parents, then such a situation could very well unfold in the way it did. But it is not her parents. It is not even her sister speaking in accordance with their parents' instructions, it is just her sister declaring 'mama and papa are angry, therefore, I have decided that you shall not leave this house'. I mean, if it were my sister, I would have flung her into the pool merely for being annoying, and then I would have dunked her at least half a dozen times for insulting Shizuku. But no. Kotone? Not. A. Word. Of. Protest. And what ultimately saves her? A ridiculous pool race. And I do not mean ridiculous as in 'actually pretty funny', although the author was obviously going for that. I honestly, sincerely, would have preferred for Shizuku to lose that race, so that Kotone could be forcefully separated from her. By a little kid.
Oh, and let us not forget the fiancee. With whom Kotone obviously does not wish to be, but will not attempt to actually escape her predicament. I mean, all the way to the end of the series there will not be a single hint that hers and Shizuku's relationship will be anything more than high school romance, limited in duration from the very beginning. And I do not believe that Kotone will find the strength to fight for herself and Shizuku in the future. I mean, a little kid could effectively bully her into submission. So much for that couple.

Episode 8. Firstly, let me say that the wedding bit was simply adorable. But what came after... So, Haruka and Yuu have been kissing and generally being all lovey-dovey for what must be months by now. But now, suddenly, without any reason (because they did not do anything they have not already previously done, on multiple occasions), they are suddenly so embarrassed that they can not even look at each other, and start to actively avoid one another? All right. Pointless drama much?

By episode 9, it was all starting to get a little bit annoying in general for me. The high pitched screaming, which made pretty much every other sentence by this point, the complete lack of either relationship, or character development, even the constant kissing, mostly because it was starting to look less and less romantic, and more like "Hmm.... what to do now.... Oh, I know! We could kiss a little! We can even kiss through our mobile phones! (What a twist that was.)". If only I was forewarned about the ending, but alas...
Still, that bit with Kaede and Yuzu at the end of the episode redeemed the whole thing, at least for me. They are my absolute favourite characters, which, combining the reason why the series piqued my interest (yuri) with the fact that they are the only ones out of the main cast who are not in a relationship, and seem to be completely straight, really says something about this particular work. But, in all seriousness, the two of them are absolutely adorable.

By this point, most of it was still relatively enjoyable (part of the aforementioned annoyance had likely come from the fact that I have watched the entire anime in one go, rather than episode-per-day). But then came episode 11. So, Mitsuki, who was by this point pretty much established as a 'love-triangle-cliche-stock-character', suddenly decides that she would rather go back to her apparent original role of 'you-are-both-girls-cliche-homophobe-stock-character'. All right. I know some might interpret her actions as that of a person in love who is still not aware of her own feelings, so she is actually doing this out of jealousy, but, her actions are still homophobic no mater the way you look at them. But again, nobody stands up to this character. Haruka and Yuu comply without so much as a protest. And Kaede decides that it is all right to spy on her friends on Mitsuki's behalf. With friends such as these... And then there is Kotone's advice. "...and they said, 'You can't do that, stop it,' what would you do?" "I wouldn't listen." And I am thinking 'Whoa, is this coming from our resident invertebrate?'. And sure enough, she explains it more thoroughly: "It was a secret, so if we make it a secret again, there's no problem!". Of course, Haruka agrees: "As long as they don't find out, right?". sigh...
And, at the end of the episode Mitsuki goes from two-girls=forbidden to I-am-in-love-with-her. Honestly now...

And then... the grand finale! Now, all of the previous flukes could still mostly be written off (with the exception of episode 7), but the ending... the ending... It effectively killed this series for me. Why? It broke my suspension of disbelief. More than broke, it positively annihilated it. To the point that in the span of roughly 10 seconds I came to hate this entire series with a passion.
So. I was not that displeased with the episode in the beginning. Yuu even managed to stand up against Mitsuki. In that moment I was rather satisfied with how the events were unfolding. Sure, the entire confrontation part was somewhat botched in that it tried to be something between drama and comedy, and because of poor execution failed miserably at both points, but still, it could pass. And then came the tennis court (ominous sign to begin with) scene. Which basically went like this:

Mitsuki: Dating.
Haruka: Dating? (looks at Mitsuki like she just asked her to go giraffe-hunting, in Swahili)

And later, Yuu proves to be just as ignorant.

Haruka: Who knows what Mitsuki was thinking?
Yuu: WE SHALL FIGURE IT OUT!!! One day! Possibly. Maybe...

Just to be clear, neither of them is ignorant of their own feelings, or the fact that those feelings are reciprocated. That would just make them (incredibly) dense characters (although, I hate those as well). No, they are ignorant of the fact that there even is such a thing as 'dating'. Not 'dating each other', but 'dating in general'. As a concept. Which is strange, considering that they are familiar with the concept of 'marriage'. This coming from soon-to-be-second-year high-school students. Kids half their age know these concepts. They would have to been living under a rock, which would have to be located somewhere in Antarctica, for them to be so naive. Which means that their relationship will never progress past friendship, simply because they are completely unaware that there even is such an option. And voila, there goes my suspension of disbelief. It is possible that the author imagined this as heartwarming, or something to that effect, slightly-dense-innocent-and-naive-young-love, or some such nonsense, but honestly, the only way I can realistically imagine these characters is if they both suffered some sort of light-to-medium brain damage in early childhood. Oxygen deprivation and the sort.

And if anyone thinks that I am being harsh, picture this: I come out of the operating room, after performing 5 hour long proctocolectomy, and some of my colleagues commend me for being such a successful surgeon, and I ask them "What is a 'surgeon'?".

And on top of that, I am beginning to seriously wonder if they even were in love to begin with.

Candy Apple

It's very easy to see why people think Sakura Tricks yuri is cheap, and that's because it is. The characters make out at the drop of a hat with no emotional build up. The story telling is beyond week and the only real relationship development is done with MacGuffins, e.g. Yuu's sister. She plays almost no roll in the story but if the diving force that make Haruka and Yuu progress their relationship. That is not good. Other than that the relationship holds the status quo. Haruka and Yuu are basically friends that make out because the kissing itself adds nothing to actually story or relationship. They go from just be normal friends to pseudo loves drastically fast with no clear cut reason past "the author wrote it that way."

All and all Sakura Trick is good for yuri if you're looking for nothing else. Of course it's probably pointless to say this here seeing as how this is raved as god greatest creation since sliced bread.

"The characters make out at the drop of a hat with no emotional build up. Other than that the relationship holds the status quo."

And then I realised, when I went into this, I was so enthusiastic about a new yuri anime, that I simply disregarded this aspect. Yes, the romance came pretty much out of nowhere, I saw that, but I had no problem with it, until the ending, that is. And now... I wonder if there even was any romance. I have re-watched the first episode, and the way I read it now is more I-want-us-to-remain-best-friends-but-I-am-anxious-about-other-people-coming-between-us-so-let-us-have-some-special-custom-that-will-make-our-friendship-distinct-from-others. They could have just as easily decided to meet every Wednesday in that abandoned classroom to simply play chess. Instead, they went with kissing. In that light, combined with the fact that both of them are complete morons, that idiotic ending actually makes a lot of sense. They love each other deeply, yes. That they are in love? Well, they might be, but I am increasingly convinced that that is not actually the case. And as a consequence, they do not interpret their relationship as dating.
The fact that they do not know what dating is, though, still breaks my suspension of disbelief into tiny pieces.

last edited at Sep 19, 2015 11:31PM

^ That was a good read. Thank you. I agree.

Perhaps if Mitsuki explained the concept of dating a little better than hand holding + kissing (the sheer lewdness of uncensored hand holding notwithstanding), and actually bothered to use the word 'sex'. Although, it is quite possible that Haruka's and Yuu's brains would have simply imploded at that point, because if 'dating'=???, then 'sex'=auto-destruct-sequence-initiated.

Well I didn't go in much detail with Kotone x Shizuku since they actually know what they doing, but I pretty much said the same thing about Haruka and Yuu "relationship".

h3x

^ That was a good read. Thank you. I agree.

My pleasure.

(Funny thing how writing a wall of text on something one hates feels so much better than writing a sentence or two on something one likes.)

last edited at Sep 15, 2015 3:45PM

h3x

^ That was a good read. Thank you. I agree.

My pleasure.

(Funny thing how writing a wall of text on something one hates feels so much better than writing a sentence or two on something one likes.)

I suspect it's more "something one really, really wants to like, but found their expectations were betrayed", at least by readong what you wrote. Which I would imagine is why you had enough emotional investment to write that.

Nezchan
Yes, precisely that. I mean, at this point, I hate this series so much that it is going to take me some time before I can even read the manga. But going in, I was really enthusiastic about this series. I mean, yuri anime series are rather rare, and even when they appear, yuri is either part of a background for some other genre (like mecha), or, alternatively, played for comedy, or in an unrealistic environment where literally everyone is gay, and male gender seems to not even exist. Very, very rarely have I seen a realistic yuri series, where it is the central theme. And even when something like that appears, like "Aoi Hana", or "Sasameki Koto", it is never brought to a conclusion. Honestly, is it that much to ask for a single yuri anime, that actually deals with yuri, and to have it completed, and not left unfinished in perpetuity? It does not have to be a happy-ending one (although a happily-ever-after would be preferred on my part), it does not have to be too serious, comedy is fine, just that it is realistic yuri, and that it is completed. And this series actually had that going, at least for me, despite being mostly mindless comedy. Those few last scenes, though, effectively destroyed that, not only with sheer stupidity, but because they retroactively practically erased the yuri element.

h3x

And you got tricked in the end. Now you know whay the title is SAKURA TRICK.
God, I hate that when they do this in yuri anime. The same is happening in Yuru Yuri. The "non-threatening way" of showing yuri in anime.

Well, at least I have my dreams. Of waking up one morning and finding out that "Girl Friends" is getting an anime adaptation...

And consider this, they have made a serious anime dealing with brother-sister incest (case in point, "Koi Kaze", which not only tackles the issue head on, and without any comedy, but actually is a rather realistic, believable story, with things like the Westermarck effect being clearly in the author's mind), which is an almost universally accepted taboo, but having a realistic yuri anime, in an age when, at least in the Western world, homophobes are decisively losing the battle, now that would be too much.

last edited at Oct 28, 2015 10:33PM

Nevri

Kotone x Shizuku since they actually know what they doing

Can we be certain, though? I personally believe that yes, they actually know what dating is, and yes, they are dating, but can we be certain that that is actually the case? After all, Haruka and Yuu showed no signs of severe brain damage before those last few scenes, and if it not for that, they too could pass for a genuine couple.

last edited at Sep 15, 2015 6:29PM

they totes know what they are doing. especially after the two resolved the pool incident.

they totes know what they are doing. especially after the two resolved the pool incident.

Adorable, that entire scene. If only it was incorporated into the anime, it would even redeem the ending (up to a point, at least) by giving us a solid, definitive, probably-to-be-long-standing yuri couple. As it is, there is not a hint in the anime that either of them is willing to fight for their relationship.

Also, I have a question for those of you that have read the manga: do Haruka and Yuu ever learn what dating is, or do they just keep it at "special friendship" (and sadly, that one is not a euphemism)?

Also, I have a question for those of you that have read the manga: do Haruka and Yuu ever learn what dating is, or do they just keep it at "special friendship" (and sadly, that one is not a euphemism)?

Well, I didn't read all of it but I saw a scene Yuu was talking with her sister's friend. She said she likes her sister and wants to date her, then ask Yuu about Haruka. If I remember correctly Yuu said they're not dating 'yet' . With lots of blush of course.

last edited at Sep 23, 2015 2:48PM

Wait, we use pairing tags for canon material now?

Wait, we use pairing tags for canon material now?

Whoops. First time uploading something here. I'll edit that out.

...KaeYuzu OTP though.

Well, to be fair, hint at some possible actual developpement for KaedexYuzu was kinda worth the notification. XD

Funny chapter, loved how Haruka was all "lesbian sense are tingling !" :p

tangerine is dense.

Chapter 36? I thought extras didn't count as chapters so this should be ch35 right? And this is volume 5 right? I'm more interested in how he'll write Kaede x Yuzu though.

last edited at Oct 18, 2015 7:35AM