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Just the cold indifference of time’s unending march…

Sakura Quest is an anime about a girl named Yoshino, a model looking for a job in Tokyo. Although she comes from the countryside, she wants to live and work in the city because everything is in the city. After failing to find a job for a while, her agency calls her to say she was specifically requested for a special job in Manoyama, a town in the countryside. Despite her hesitation, she accepts the job. Upon getting there, she learns her job has her act as the ‘Queen’ of a micro-nation for a year. As the Queen, she would help increase tourism to the town. After a brief crisis, she decides to do her best as the Queen. Over time, she gains a number of ‘ministers’ to help her with her duties. Their goals eventually shift from ‘tourism’ to ‘revival.'
The series is built into a collection of 2-parters, and each of these is focused on a particular thing. The first two episodes are focused on Yoshino for example. The particular thing of each 2-parter is typically a character and their issues, with it being tied to the town of Manoyama in some way. As another example, one 2-parter is focused around a small village and their unique culture, while also developing the ‘Minister of IT.'
Sakura Quest initially appealed to me because I could relate to Yoshino. Yoshino comes from the country, but finds life in the country unappealing, wanting to live in the city instead. According to her, ‘everything is in the city.’ I had a very similar attitude in the past.
Besides this, I was surprised to find the ‘philosophy’ in the series closely aligned with my own. The series starts out somewhat depressing - the town has been in decline for decades. Even many of the ‘schemes’ the tourism office comes up with in the first-half of the series fail or don’t end up as good as expected. Despite this, there’s an optimistic attitude, which eventually leads to a revival of the town.
Of the issues present in the series, the music is out-of-place sometimes. I’m also not sure whether some of the music actually fits the series. Besides that, the powered suits and what-not are just ridiculous and I don’t think they should have been present at all. I didn’t notice any significant writing issues, outside of it being incredibly convenient that Sandal-san’s hometown’s mayor happens to be in Japan during the festival and he’s not too far away from Manoyama. This is made worse by the fact he’s needed to do the sister-city thing to preserve Manoyama, which is a significant issue that was revealed a few episodes ago. The solution feels cheap. Perhaps I just haven’t noticed the others.
I would still recommend the series.

My favorite character is probably Anjelica, which I learned later. I happen to think about her more often than the other characters, especially since it’s been a while since I watched the series.

• aniDB
• TheMovieDB
• TheTVDB
• Sakura Quest is related to Shirobako and Hanasaku Iroha because all 3 were part of P.A. Works’ ‘working series.’