Sakura Trick First Impressions--Lesbians. Now That I Have Your Attention...

Some teenage girls start high school and occasionally make out. That's it. That's the whole show.

 
I would leave it at that, but I'm obligated to write 400 words on this for the OASG guide, so... This was not exactly what I was expecting. The word "relationship" in the preview synopsis made me think that it would be about an actual relationship. I assumed wrong. The camera loves to linger on their thighs and skirts, thinks that close-ups on chests count as scene transitions, and teases every panty shot that they could've taken but didn't. There's even a moment where one of the main characters has a random, unwarranted fantasy about the girl who sits next to her for no apparent reason. It's admittedly pretty tame as far as fanservice goes, but there's still enough to make it clear that this is a series for the male gaze. "Look! Underage teenage lesbians! Isn't that hot?! And there will be more of them! Just look at the OP! Lesbians everywhere!"


There's not much of substance going on here, even by school life 4-koma adaptation standards. The girls go to school. The girls kiss. The girls get stuck on the veranda. More kissing. It does deserve some credit for getting right to the point and delivering what people are watching it for, but aside from the kissing there is nothing in this show to distinguish it from the tons of other "girls in high school with homo-erotic undertones" series out there. Other shows where "lesbians" are the main draw at least have some comedy or drama to make things more interesting, but Sakura Trick does neither. There were moments when I think it was trying to be funny, but didn't work very well. The boob grab joke has been dead and buried for decades now guys, it's time to let it go. Everything seems to be an afterthought to getting back to the kiss scenes, which have most of the animation budget as well.


That said, the animation itself is pretty decent. Aside from two of the girls in the main group who immediately blended together in my mind, the character design was well done. I liked the art direction as well--substituting in daisies for one of the main characters in some shots was a cute choice, as was the recurring circle pattern. But the rest of it is so bland and forgettable that I couldn't help but feel that this would've worked better as a five-minute short. It's harmless fluff, but its such boring and obviously pandering fluff that I don't feel any incentive to keep watching it. This is a series for somebody, but it's not for me.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available at OASG.