Sadly, it is the final day of Sakura Taisen Appreciation Half-Week, which has now become more like three quarters of a week than a half-week, but whatever. So this will be the obligatory music post. ( Here be pirates. )
(Thank you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aster_dw, for the title of this post.)
FIRST! Because writing this series of posts has put me in the mood, this weekend I marathoned the fifth Sakura Taisen OAV series just for the heck of it. Then I did some poking around online, and, I am happy to report, the entire series is now available fansubbed, for those of you who want it. (The last time I checked it hadn't been completely fansubbed, but now... It has been!) The translation isn't the greatest, but it works. So, since this is the ONLY Sakura Taisen anime that is still unlicensed for distribution outside of Japan, y'all can check it out for free if you know where to look (*cough*).
And you all - or at least any of you that I've managed to get at least remotely interested in Sakura Taisen - should TOTALLY WATCH THIS OAV. Because it's one of the best introductions to the franchise that there is, and because it is awesome. First of all, because it's a completely self-contained story, and requires little to no knowledge of the game canon to watch. Second, it perfectly captures the COMPLETE AND UTTER INSANITY of Sakura Taisen in a way that no other animated version has yet managed to do. I mean, it's got everything, up to and including a carp-shaped spaceship. Yes, really. Plus, at one point in the series, some dude rips his own heart out - now there's the gore that previous Sakura Taisen anime shyed away from! Oh yeah, and at one point, a character actually shouts "Raise the quantum shields!" even though this anime is supposed to be set in frickin' 1928. Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that Our Hero Shinjiro spends prety much the ENTIRE series in drag, and not only that, is perpetually three seconds away from a makeout session with the manly villain of the series. Let me just say this now: This OAV is the gayest Sakura Taisen OAV ever. Heck, in the final episode, Rica even point-blank asks Shinjiro if he's going to marry the manly manly villain. That's kind of awesome.
But, anyway. The point of this entry is the Sakura Cafe. Yes, that's right. There's a cafe in Tokyo. Andaster_dw and I visited it. ( LOL, pictures! )
Anyway, we're almost at the end. Only one post left!
aster_dw, for the title of this post.)FIRST! Because writing this series of posts has put me in the mood, this weekend I marathoned the fifth Sakura Taisen OAV series just for the heck of it. Then I did some poking around online, and, I am happy to report, the entire series is now available fansubbed, for those of you who want it. (The last time I checked it hadn't been completely fansubbed, but now... It has been!) The translation isn't the greatest, but it works. So, since this is the ONLY Sakura Taisen anime that is still unlicensed for distribution outside of Japan, y'all can check it out for free if you know where to look (*cough*).
And you all - or at least any of you that I've managed to get at least remotely interested in Sakura Taisen - should TOTALLY WATCH THIS OAV. Because it's one of the best introductions to the franchise that there is, and because it is awesome. First of all, because it's a completely self-contained story, and requires little to no knowledge of the game canon to watch. Second, it perfectly captures the COMPLETE AND UTTER INSANITY of Sakura Taisen in a way that no other animated version has yet managed to do. I mean, it's got everything, up to and including a carp-shaped spaceship. Yes, really. Plus, at one point in the series, some dude rips his own heart out - now there's the gore that previous Sakura Taisen anime shyed away from! Oh yeah, and at one point, a character actually shouts "Raise the quantum shields!" even though this anime is supposed to be set in frickin' 1928. Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that Our Hero Shinjiro spends prety much the ENTIRE series in drag, and not only that, is perpetually three seconds away from a makeout session with the manly villain of the series. Let me just say this now: This OAV is the gayest Sakura Taisen OAV ever. Heck, in the final episode, Rica even point-blank asks Shinjiro if he's going to marry the manly manly villain. That's kind of awesome.
But, anyway. The point of this entry is the Sakura Cafe. Yes, that's right. There's a cafe in Tokyo. And
aster_dw and I visited it. ( LOL, pictures! )Anyway, we're almost at the end. Only one post left!
First off, as ladykleo indirectly reminded me in the previous post, TVTropes.org has a really good Sakura Taisen entry, including a quick guide to the Tokyo characters, and an overview of some of the anime adaptations.
But, anyway. Moving on.
To recap what we've got so far! Sakura Taisen is a series of games/anime/manga about three groups of women who fight demons using giant robots powered by steam technology and psychic powers, who front their robot-demon-fighting operations with an opera company, a burlesque, and a vaudeville theater, respectively. The ST characters have also been brought to life by a series of live musical revues. Oh, and most of the women are eminently slashable.
But remember how I said that the stage shows got even freakier than what was hinted at two posts ago?
Yeah, ( they do. )
Still to come: A trip to the Sakura Taisen mecca, amazing toys that you could buy for the small price of four thousand dollars, still the greatest Christmas song every written, and a final musical bonanza.
ladykleo indirectly reminded me in the previous post, TVTropes.org has a really good Sakura Taisen entry, including a quick guide to the Tokyo characters, and an overview of some of the anime adaptations.But, anyway. Moving on.
To recap what we've got so far! Sakura Taisen is a series of games/anime/manga about three groups of women who fight demons using giant robots powered by steam technology and psychic powers, who front their robot-demon-fighting operations with an opera company, a burlesque, and a vaudeville theater, respectively. The ST characters have also been brought to life by a series of live musical revues. Oh, and most of the women are eminently slashable.
But remember how I said that the stage shows got even freakier than what was hinted at two posts ago?
Yeah, ( they do. )
Still to come: A trip to the Sakura Taisen mecca, amazing toys that you could buy for the small price of four thousand dollars, still the greatest Christmas song every written, and a final musical bonanza.
Okay, so. The post that I HAD planned for tonight is clearly not going to happen, due to the fact that megami-sama.net's server is throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to let me upload anything. So I'm going to skip ahead of myself a bit, and throw up one of the posts that I was planning on doing toward the end of the week. Or half-week. Whatever.
Anyway,ladykleo posted this video of Maria and Orihime serenading each other, in the comments of the previous post:
Pairings in the Sakura Taisen fandom are a tricky beast. Because of the choose-your-own-romance nature of the games, it's up to each game player to pair up Shinjiro and Ichiro with one of a dozen possible love interests. However, because the animated adaptations have to pick a side, so to speak, exactly two pairings become canonized in the anime Sakura Taisen universe: Ichiro/Sakura and Shinjiro/Gemini. (Ichiro/Erica is also hinted at in the anime, but ultimately can never be anything more than a platonic love, because SHE'S A NUN.)
But in the anime, there's a lot more going on pairing-wise than just what the two token males are interested in. I mean, I can't have been the only person who was picking up Maria/Kanna and Iris/Reni subtext while watching the anime, right? Not to mention Lobelia/Glycine subtext, which comes across not-so-subtley in the fourth OAV series.
And even without any canonical subtext to support them, Sakura Taisen is rife with potential femmeslash pairings. I mean, the story basically centers around a group of girls enlisted in the military who live and work together... There are plenty of buddy-buddy relationships in the series that it wouldn't require too much of a stretch to see blossoming into something deeper. And there are already all of the requisite pairing fetish dynamics in place for many of the characters: butch/femme, sempai/kohai, commander/subordinate, love-hate rivalries, hurt/comfort, and more.
So, open thread time. What are your favorite Sakura Taisen femmeslash pairings?
I'll get the ball rolling. I vote for:
1. Reni/Iris. They've kind of got that Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura/Tomoyo dynamic going, anyway.
2. Lobelia/anybody. I wouldn't put it past her to seduce any of the other characters just to demonstrate that she could.
3. Subaru/anybody. For the same reasons.
4. Maria/Kanna. I think that they have a great dynamic together, and are the perfect foils for each other. Plus I like the way that a Maria/Kanna pairing would subvert the butch/femme dynamic, since they're both the resident "butches" of their troupe.
5. Kanna/Li. This pairing has no basis in canon whatsoever, but tell me that it wouldn't be cute as heck.
Thoughts?
ETA: I can't believe I forgot this one: Sagitta/Gemini. Oh yeah, baby.
Anyway,
ladykleo posted this video of Maria and Orihime serenading each other, in the comments of the previous post: Pairings in the Sakura Taisen fandom are a tricky beast. Because of the choose-your-own-romance nature of the games, it's up to each game player to pair up Shinjiro and Ichiro with one of a dozen possible love interests. However, because the animated adaptations have to pick a side, so to speak, exactly two pairings become canonized in the anime Sakura Taisen universe: Ichiro/Sakura and Shinjiro/Gemini. (Ichiro/Erica is also hinted at in the anime, but ultimately can never be anything more than a platonic love, because SHE'S A NUN.)
But in the anime, there's a lot more going on pairing-wise than just what the two token males are interested in. I mean, I can't have been the only person who was picking up Maria/Kanna and Iris/Reni subtext while watching the anime, right? Not to mention Lobelia/Glycine subtext, which comes across not-so-subtley in the fourth OAV series.
And even without any canonical subtext to support them, Sakura Taisen is rife with potential femmeslash pairings. I mean, the story basically centers around a group of girls enlisted in the military who live and work together... There are plenty of buddy-buddy relationships in the series that it wouldn't require too much of a stretch to see blossoming into something deeper. And there are already all of the requisite pairing fetish dynamics in place for many of the characters: butch/femme, sempai/kohai, commander/subordinate, love-hate rivalries, hurt/comfort, and more.
So, open thread time. What are your favorite Sakura Taisen femmeslash pairings?
I'll get the ball rolling. I vote for:
1. Reni/Iris. They've kind of got that Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura/Tomoyo dynamic going, anyway.
2. Lobelia/anybody. I wouldn't put it past her to seduce any of the other characters just to demonstrate that she could.
3. Subaru/anybody. For the same reasons.
4. Maria/Kanna. I think that they have a great dynamic together, and are the perfect foils for each other. Plus I like the way that a Maria/Kanna pairing would subvert the butch/femme dynamic, since they're both the resident "butches" of their troupe.
5. Kanna/Li. This pairing has no basis in canon whatsoever, but tell me that it wouldn't be cute as heck.
Thoughts?
ETA: I can't believe I forgot this one: Sagitta/Gemini. Oh yeah, baby.
Continued from this post!
Kosuke Fujishima, who some of you may know as that guy who draws really incredibly awesome women, is the man responsible for the original Sakura Taisen character designs, and much of the game and anime artwork. He was succeeded by the also-awesome Hidenori Matsubara. Between the two of them, they've produced an incredible body of Sakura Taisen-related artwork. ( Here is some of the best of it. )
Okay now. Remember what those characters look like. Burn their visages into your mind's eye... Because things are about to get freaky. ( Really freaky. )
Kosuke Fujishima, who some of you may know as that guy who draws really incredibly awesome women, is the man responsible for the original Sakura Taisen character designs, and much of the game and anime artwork. He was succeeded by the also-awesome Hidenori Matsubara. Between the two of them, they've produced an incredible body of Sakura Taisen-related artwork. ( Here is some of the best of it. )
Okay now. Remember what those characters look like. Burn their visages into your mind's eye... Because things are about to get freaky. ( Really freaky. )
In honor of my and aster_dw's fabulous trip to the Sakura Cafe in Tokyo;
In honor of the fact that the Sakura Cafe is closing forever on March 30th;
In honor of the fact that the franchise just refuses to die;
And in honor of the fact that I just feel nostalgic,
I hereby declare this to be SAKURA TAISEN APPRECIATION HALF-WEEK in my livejournal.
Why is Sakura Taisen (AKA "Sakura Wars" in the English-speaking world) so awesome? Because it features one of the greatest casts of kick-ass women ever featured in a combined video game/anime/manga/novel/stage musical franchise. Because it spread Japanese visions of steampunk to other countries a decade before steampunk really exploded in the English-speaking world. Because it made Hidenori Matsubara a star. Because it proved that an FPS game played almost entirely on horseback could be awesome. Because the theme songs are so damn catchy.
And because it is absolutely, utterly, completely batshit INSANE.
( How insane? I will illustrate WITH VIDEOS. )
Coming up next: You know what would be awesome? So we've got this series of video games, and a bunch of animated adaptations, about a fictional theatrical troupe that's actually a group of psychic-powered giant robot pilots who save the world from demons like, every Tuesday. So you know what would be awesome? If we made a REAL theatrical troupe of REAL women, had them dress up and pretend to be Sakura Taisen characters, and then have them dress up as Sakura Taisen characters dressed up as other fictional characters, and have them perform musicals! Just like in the video games!
aster_dw's fabulous trip to the Sakura Cafe in Tokyo;In honor of the fact that the Sakura Cafe is closing forever on March 30th;
In honor of the fact that the franchise just refuses to die;
And in honor of the fact that I just feel nostalgic,
I hereby declare this to be SAKURA TAISEN APPRECIATION HALF-WEEK in my livejournal.
Why is Sakura Taisen (AKA "Sakura Wars" in the English-speaking world) so awesome? Because it features one of the greatest casts of kick-ass women ever featured in a combined video game/anime/manga/novel/stage musical franchise. Because it spread Japanese visions of steampunk to other countries a decade before steampunk really exploded in the English-speaking world. Because it made Hidenori Matsubara a star. Because it proved that an FPS game played almost entirely on horseback could be awesome. Because the theme songs are so damn catchy.
And because it is absolutely, utterly, completely batshit INSANE.
( How insane? I will illustrate WITH VIDEOS. )
Coming up next: You know what would be awesome? So we've got this series of video games, and a bunch of animated adaptations, about a fictional theatrical troupe that's actually a group of psychic-powered giant robot pilots who save the world from demons like, every Tuesday. So you know what would be awesome? If we made a REAL theatrical troupe of REAL women, had them dress up and pretend to be Sakura Taisen characters, and then have them dress up as Sakura Taisen characters dressed up as other fictional characters, and have them perform musicals! Just like in the video games!