Sakurada Reset

Considering that an article on this very site, written somewhere around the end of last season, has already declared this show to be a "miss" at its halfway point (real professional work there, guys, next time you should just rank animes based on their announcement PVs), and that most viewers have already decided to drop the series in favour of the latest pseudo-hentai, harem LN adaptation, it might be far too late for me to write a review about this piece of work, killed before it ever had the chance to show its values, but I believe that Sakurada Reset deserves better. First, let's acknowledge reality, the show is not the second coming of your local salvation-based deity, it is definitely not for everyone. If you believe that anime, as a genre, should be solely about unadulterated entertainment of the most vulgar degrees, little girls fighting each other to the death, cow-titted, blonde onee-sans snuggling up to virginal heroes of godlike powers, or whatever the fuck you people see in those Eromanga-senseis and whatnot, then you'd do best avoiding this series, you will only be disappointed and will possibly whine about it being boring, confusing and seriously lacking in infantile erotic tension.If you, however, think that this is one of the greatest mediums to give an experience equally stimulating visually and intellectually, capable of opening your eyes to completely different points of view, then I highly recommend the series. The story itself is about presenting the numerous way the people of Sakurada relate to other's and their own abilities, and how encounters with one another influence personal growth. It's not a world-changing great adventure or a hard struggle between embodiments of good and evil, even the larger scale events are given a personal grasp, as they are significant to the individual, but only mere episodes for the world in which those individuals exist. And that's where the main focus lies, the characters. Again, if you are looking for the usual character tropes and typical over-the-top voice acting you get from My Little Tsundere Princess Sister And The Magical Academy Of Lightshow Battles, then you will most definitely find all the characters boring and empty. Each and every member of the cast is constructed in a layered fashion, first only providing the means for a surface-level understanding of their personalities (and that's the point where most viewer gave the series a 2/10 and quit), only to open up for us as our eyes into their world, Kei, begins to unravel the circumstances that lead them to this point in their lives, our encounter with them changing their views significantly, later appearances showing glances of their growths by the end of the series. In tandem with the aforementioned narrative focus, the characters of Sakurada Reset all act and emote in very human ways, they show subtle expressions while talking with normal tonality, the same way as any of us would in given conversations. Hell, one of the main point of the series is how the characters develop as they interact with others, the dialogues' unfolding nature serves this purpose perfectly, especially in Haruki's case, who goes from an extremely cold and emotionless presentation to become one of the most vibrantly expressive characters of the series. Spoken lines do tend to be somewhat slow-paced and very philosophical in their nature, the characters often discuss thought experiments and theories in detail, and that too might be one of the reasons for the hasty abandonment of the series by those who mainly use philosophy books (provided that they ever held one in their hands) to find every single mention of a phallus, but in my opinion, they work in context, expand the narrative and fit the more contemplative tone of the series. Another complaint aimed at the show was its visuals. Without going on a rant or a needlessly long-winded analysis (like I kinda did in the last section), it seems to me that these arguments could be connected to, yet again, the large masses' expectations. This is neither the diabetic world of moe animes, neither the visual orgies of a Shinkai Makoto or ufotable project, the colour scheme is a very relaxing one and the designs are in no way flashy or complicated. Despite all that, I can state with all honesty that the visuals are perfectly satisfactory. They don't draw attention away from the dialogues, are pleasant to look at and even without jaw-dropping animation, the proficient work of David Production often manages to create captivating imagery through the simplistic beauty found in the carefully composed frames. There are many more to talk about when it comes to this series, but I don't think my dreary essay here is not the right way to approach the matter. Rather than that, I would like to encourage every single person who took their time to read this review to join the conversation and discuss this anime. I've been tastelessly positive in these (not so) brief paragraphs, there are many positives and negative to be found here, far more than I ever cared to mention, but I believe that all of that should be said and seen by many more than the few who humoured this narcissistic nerd for the time of a review. If I could ask one thing from you, dear reader, I would like you to look beyond the premature denouncement and check out this anime, form your own opinion about it based on what you actually get and not on the popular trends that exist on an entirely different side of the medium! Give Sakurada Reset the chance it never got, the chance to give its audience the experience it meant to!

Hey, do you know that show called Monogatari? If you do, try to remember what Monogatari is like for a second. It's a show which is full of dialogues. It's a show which has most of its big moments resolved through dialogues. It's a show that was able to focus both on telling and showing at the same time, proving to many that "show don't tell" really isn't the be all end all for visual media like anime. Now take every person from the staff that worked on it, anyone that had any creative input in it, and give it to people who can't comprehend how to make it interesting at all. Oh, and don't forget to also get Takayama Katsuhiko to do the series composition. You know, the guy who wrote the script for Boku No Pico, and whose last big project was Big Order. I have no legitimate idea who thought that this is the team that can be creative enough, to turn a light novel story, that's really heavy on exposition, slow and hard to consume on its own for sure, into a story inside of a visual medium, but let me tell you, they were wrong in all the worst ways imaginable. Ladies, gentlemen, I present this review which I humbly wrote about a series, that I'm pretty sure had less passion while being developed, than I had while writing this analysis. *Spoilers past this section* Superpowers aren't a new idea, neither is one of them being controlled by the government, but there are titles coming out each year that are able to do some good with such topics. My Hero Academia, Captain America: Winter Soldier and the X-Men comics are just a few that immediately come to my mind. All of them have found a way to create worlds around such ideas and adapt their plot to play to its strengths. Sakurada Reset attempts to do it, but it fumbles at every point and every corner, creating a huge jumble of ultimate nothingness. The story takes place in Sakurada, that has been a place where all sorts of powers have sprouted out of nowhere and have been taking the place by storm. The things have been calmed down and controlled by the Administration Bureau, that has been controlling and ministering over the area. Thanks to that, Sakurada is able to continue with its everyday flow and the abilities become a common thing, a part of everyday life. However, the trick is, the abilities do not spread, they're contained within Sakurada and everyone who walks outside of its boundary immediately loses all memories of them even existing. One day, a boy by the name Asai Kei enters Sakurada, and it turns out that his ability is ultimate memory, which allows him to remember everything no matter how his memories are altered. Years pass, and one day, during school, he meets a girl - Haruki Misora - that can reset the world to the state at the time when she has last "saved". Combined, they are able to do great things, as Kei is able to plan out and fix problems that arise due to his perfect memory. Their story leads them to a lot of pain, a death of a friend, a fight against those who despise powers, but also the joy that they see through helping the community and the happiness they find in each other. This show's problems are somewhat weird, especially pacing-wise. It begins two years before the actual events, when Kei, Haruki, and Sumire Souma meet and solve their first case together, which later one becomes a basis for them helping other people out. The pacing in those first episodes is extremely fast and unapologetic, it doesn't care if you didn't catch something, you're just supposed to have understood everything in between the stupidly fast transitions. Considering that those beginning moments of the show are supposed to introduce you to the concept of powers and set up the entire drama later on, I don't think I need to say much more about why that is a bad thing. But to add salt to the injury, every problem that the show struggles with in general is present this early on as well, which is both weird and sort of funny at the same time. That's because despite the fast transitions and scenes generally passing by like flies, the show is surprisingly slow in the delivery of each line. You can spot awkward pauses everywhere, there are those empty, 5-10 seconds breaks during dialogues. They really become apparent in the third and fourth arc, but they're there from the beginning, and they're quite hurtful to the flow of the conversation and the general pace of the anime. It feels like they're there to sort of fill out the time instead of doing something meaningful. You might ask "How is it possible that the early scenes go by so fast if the scenes themselves are so slow?". It's simple, the scenes are slow, but they're just short early on, and it's only later that it becomes a serious issue, as they start becoming longer. And what makes it worse, there's a distinct lack of anything interesting going on with the show's visuals. At the very beginning of this review, I mentioned Monogatari, and I did that for the purpose of making you, the reader of this review understand something. If you've watched Monogatari you've obviously noticed its style, its distinct way with visuals and how it enhances dialogue that would normally feel dreadful and boring. There are tons of visual gags, characters screw around in the background, the art style changes on a lot of occasions, most metaphors are visualized and generally, the show is just interesting to look at, even though most of the information you get is through the characters talking. Despite the silliness, however, it's still able to maintain the seriousness and groundedness that Sakurada tries so hard to achieve with its "serious conversations" or the "focused visuals". Do you know why that is? Because its writing is good enough so that it's able to create those serious scenes whenever it wants to. Sakurada Reset feels like it doesn't believe in its writing or characterization enough for the viewer to continue following them through if there's something else going on on the screen. That wouldn't even be that bad, but the show looks horrendous. Everything is plain, the designs are boring and have absolutely nothing to them, the background art is often nonexistent or cut out due to the camera placement. The animation for what I'd say is over 60% of the show consists of still shots and characters with their moving mouths. If the show's so boring to look at, my question is: why is it an anime? Why did this story have to be recreated in this medium? If the director has no inspiration to add any personality, humanity or individuality to the show, if the background artists are doing only what's necessary, if the show doesn't have anything special going for it visually, then what's the point of LOOKING at the show? Hell, this adaptation goes even further, as it HURTS the plot with the previously mentioned awkward, soundless pauses, the lack of emotions on character's faces, and the mostly uninspired designs of everything you look at. It just throws you off from the start and never draws you in again. But those are technical things, those don't matter, right? Let's talk about... NO! People! Stop undervaluing the influence of the things you look at in anime. If the thing you're looking at does nothing to even attempt to adapt to the medium that IT CHOSE, then why should you, as a viewer, adapt to the way it's presented to even digest it? Goddamn Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979, freaking Serial Experiments Lain from 1998, name any other show from god knows how long ago, and all of them, despite looking like they're drawn in Microsoft Paint at times, are able to create style, atmosphere, and designs that integrate into the experience, creating a distinct feeling to them. Sakurada Reset is content with being the most limited and basic version of itself imaginable. It's fine with the bare minimum if it just means it can tell a story. Where's the passion? Where's the love for the project that you're working on? This show feels like it was more of a chore to make rather th…

"Who owns the McGuffin will control all the abilities in Sakurada" Don't worry, the McGuffin meaning is complicated, but at the end, we could understand it ... or not. The weighted score and negative reviews scared a lot of the persons around. The complexity in the first episodes was the escape route for a lot of individuals. Gladly, I decided to continue with the story, and I am not disappointed. I consider this story very complicated, and you need to pay extra attention to the details. That is the reason why at first in the building, several users complained about the pacing and the boredom. The story. All the persons in a city (Sakurada or Sagrada) were born with some power. Kei Asai has a particular power, he can remember everything and with the help, Haruki Misura that can restore the time back to some days, work as a team to help the persons of the city with complicated matters and situations that affect their world. If a person leaves, the city will forget that has power, but it isn't the case of Kei. He can't forget anything. In the development of the story, there are several changes, conspirations, situations, actions, a twist of the story, unexpected correlations, new powers, cats, etc. I decided not telling more because the most positive aspect of this animation is the story, The characters. The complexity of each character is great. In this story, we don't have a generic nature. All of them are needed in a certain way to maintain the balance in the whole story. Each character has different powers, but not in the way that are OVERPOWERED. They have a single power that could affect the environment but needs the support of other characters to do it. In other words, a simple being can't alter the story. The personality of them is flawless. Each character has needs, and take decisions based on that needs, has doubts and ideas. The building of each person that appeared in the story could be complex, but it is in a right way. Each arc will affect a group of characters, but you need to pay attention to the details because in the next episodes all that information is going to be needed. The art maybe is considered average. It is passable, and I am sure that the art group didn't care about it because they focused on the story. The sound is good. All the ED (1, 2) and OP (1, 2) are good. However, I liked the first OP and the second ED. The sound mix is standard. They don't need a complex mix here, so they did good work. Finally, I understand that the first episodes are complex. The story could seem tedious, but after some episodes, all start changing. We will know the reason for all the details. Sakurada is like Charlotte, and we won't understand what is happening until the end. If you like good stories that aren't predictable, then this anime is a good option. If you are seeking fights, several actions and excessive use of powers, then you should just skip it. This animation isn't for everyone.

After the first 3 episodes of this show, I was ready to pick apart every single flaw and problem that this show had. I was so enraged at the lack of quality that had made up the first three episodes. This was going to be my magnum opus review where I shredded apart this show and exposed it bare for the lack of quality that it was. But then something happened. It suddenly stopped sucking. Maybe it was Amazon treating the subs better or maybe it was the show having a clearer idea of what it was doing. Either way it got better. Not good, but better. And then came the last arc in which finally Sakurada Reset finally knew what it was doing and turned itself into an enjoyable and actually good show. For one arc. The sad fact is, besides the one arc the show is still overall sub par. Even in its best arc the direction is still lacking and the art is so bland and featureless that it adds nothing to the show. Often times it looks like they aren't even trying as there are no real directing cues, or moments with more than bland featureless art. It's all the same dull looking and unexpressive views that don't add anything over and over again. The voice acting as well as too monotone and while it does lead to a certain atmosphere, it also hinders the emotional impact of the work, and also conflicts with one of the shows biggest problems: Convolution. Sakurada Reset is a fan of Convolution. It likes to make nothing simple. If there ever where a simple answer, Sakurada Reset would find some way to go around it. There is one lady whom one has to phone 5 times just to get her to pick up and talk. Why is this done? Convolution. They talk in metaphors and in psychology more than they talk one on one. And while that can be interesting at times. When done too much it gets overdosed and ends up saturating the show with too much of that. It makes the connection between the characters feel less human and feel less realistic. It makes the characters themselves feel less realistic They don't feel like humans anymore rather like machines or some other entity. It makes the show fall apart. Added to that is a script that is awful at best. The line "If you ask me, I'd say I'm on the talkative side, and I'm pretty expressive. My name is Kei Asai." sums up its problems very well. First off that's a lie. He's not expressive, and if the show thinks he is then they've failed at expressing that. Second off, no one talks like that. The formatting is all wrong and doesn't make much sense. Third off he's telling this to one of his best friends (whom promptly matters very little afterwards) not a stranger. It comes off as a poor attempt to explain the characters to us even though it makes no sense in context. Characters are best built by actions not poor explanations like this. The worst of the lot was when a character said, "I'm not sad. You're the one who's sad., I'm crying because you're sad." after an event that was very impactful on their own life. It was so completely out of left field and unnatural that it was hard to take the show seriously after that. If someone is really going to play that card after the serious event that happened, then that person is lacking in humanity. And because of these traits the characters don't really develop until the end. Even then the development is quite confusing. The characters are so convoluted themselves that it's hard to take anything at face value. Sometimes I feel like simplicity is underrated. One can get across clear strong messages easily by going for something simple, clear, and definitive. But since Sakurada doesn't like any of that. It makes a game of trying to figure out everything from the statements that are made and the ways that the characters talk to each other. Not to mention a lot of what actually is there isn't anything that interesting. Most of it ends up in characters that love the MC, which isn't really well written. One character is defined by her love for the MC and basically does everything for him and because of him. It's shallow characterization and it's annoying to see a one-dimensional character devoid of development even throughout 24 episodes. While it does actually get put in depth later and does have some merit, for most of the show it's shallow and boring. Even with all of the information that Sakurada Reset gives and among all its conversations, it's very boring and hard to follow due to those convolutions, a lack of directness and a lack of expression in the art, direction, and sound. It takes a lot of effort to watch for no real reward and overall it just isn't any good. The worst of which is episode 11 which has to be one of the worst episodes I've ever watched, due to how boring and frustrating it was. However, that last arc does work well. The script did get a bit better over time, and as soon as it shifted into mindgame time the show actually worked. It was still confusing but at least there was a pay off for its confusing moments. There was a reason to follow their lines of logic and there was a reason for the characters to code their messages more. While there were mindgames before none were as direct as they were in the last arc and they never worked as well as in the last arc. While the last arc worked well, sadly a final arc can't save a show. For the most of it's run it wasn't any good and was a pain to watch. Just because the last 5 episodes are decent doesn't make the first episodes worth it anymore. Even though I did like those last episodes I still wouldn't recommend it to others because to get to them one would have to wade through a lot of crap. And frankly, it's not worth it. If you like overly convoluted and dialogue heavy works you might like this. However if you can't stand boring visuals or can't put up with trying to decode everything including the mangled thing they called a script, it's not worth your time and you're best off not watching it.

"I like hearing wind chimes when I least expected it. Like finding a rainbow." Sakurada Reset; episode 3 "Please, Tomoki. It's like a ritual...like exchanging rings becasue you pledge your everlasting love to God." Sakurada Reset; episode 16 "Thank you, I wouldn't want the ice cream to melt." Sakurada Reset; episode 18 "Grab her by the p*ssy" Sakurada Reset; episode 25 Sakurada Reset is an anime that grabbed my attention months before it started airing. The story's main gimmick- the reset ability- is an interesting concept that has been explored well in literature and other anime but with this anime promising a young duo using clever tactics and wit in conjunction with the reset ability, it looked to be an actually good addition to a string of otherwise bad thriller anime that have been pervading the last few years. It was very unfortunate, then that I carelessly ignored checking up on the staff on this anime. And I paid for it. WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME Sakurada Reset is a flat, shallow, farcical anime that whole-heartedly thinks its a serious show. It's a tragic example of a good idea done completely wrong. Sakurada Reset's problems go way beyond simple bad writing and bad direction- it's a mix of so many terribly done aspects that it's actually possible they have no connection to each other. In other words, everything is individually bad and not because one part of the anime affects the other. It's an additively, not multipely, bad anime. This makes it more annoying than normal bad anime since those at least have things tied together to the point one bad thing affects everything. First off, the characters. All the characters are boringly written with very little to actually develop them. Their dialogue is bad (more on that in a latter paragraph) and all of them except the main characters merely exist as plot conveniences whenever the main character needs a handy ability around. The main character himself- Asai Kei- is an omniscient and omnipotent God who simply cannot lose because he's always right. Not my words, mind you, the other characters all treat him like he's the Messiah coming down from heaven in a wave of majesty. He's incomprehensible. His entire backstory is incomprehensible. The other characters are just bland as heck. Most of them are introduced in small arcs in the 2nd act (eps 3-12) of the anime and all of them suck. The arc has them play as minor villains who, in the end, become allies for the main character in the final arc of the show. Damn this anime make them incomprehensible. I'll try and explain the main arcs in order. The first arc had the character- Murase Youka- have a terrible excuse in that she wanted to save a cat and you can clearly see the anime pad out the runtime with pointless dialogue and events that make no sense. But its climax was where she literally tried to kill Kei. She has literally zero reason to kill him but the anime was written to have her be crazy and stupid enough to do so. Not one character talked any sense during this confrontation or even before. In the end, she just pisses off until she is needed again by the show. Next arc we have Oka Eri as our Scooby Doo villain of the week. She's a character who for some reason holds antagonistic feelings towards our hero and wants to "beat" him. That would be great if the anime actually showed us any motivation for her. It's offhandedly explained in some throwaway dialogue but this girl has no reason to be as bitchy as she is. The arc also has her do F*CKING NOTHING at all. Seriously, she just shows up, bitches about things, and pisses off to wait until the anime needs her again. Also in this arc there's something about a Witch and shit which I'm sure is important but was so boringly done I forgot most of it. Oh yes we are also introduced to some bloke who can transfer abilities from one to another through touch. He'll be a super important bland character later. Oh yeah, we also have WhatsApp guy. I mean Tomoki. He's a friend. I think. The anime doesn't exactly show him unless it needs him. Funny...I'm seeing a trend here... Anyways, the main problem with all these characters is that they're just so boring. The main characters (Kei and Misora) have the exact personality of an unpainted brick wall. I don't get how anyone can get behind their relationship because, unique as it is in anime, it's a very poorly handled relationship. There's a fair bit of emotional scenes in this anime and all of them fail due to the fact that these are badly written characters. Much of the development is rushed (ironically in such a slow show) and ham-fisted and the emotional scenes get in the way of much of the show instead of weaving itself closely. This is done much better in the final act of the show where I could see the anime sort of trying to give proper development but its let down by bad pacing and direction. The only character I was even half impressed with was Souma Sumire- the only character to carry this show from "unrelentingly horrendous" to simply being "really terrible". She's a walking plot device. Not kidding, she even describes herself as such. She is, however, the only character with even half-reasonable motivations and explanations for what she does. She has an actual interesting character arc and sees more development than all other characters combined. She's also the only character we see being subtle in her methods and you can see faint threads throughout the story that she leaves behind- meaning she has a genuine presence within the show (for example, setting up the McGuffin so that Kei can meet up with Youko. I think that was one of the reasons. Though it still doesn't give any reason for Youko to be so bitchy about things). Helped A LOT that she was voiced by a top form Aoi Yuuki who puts everyone else to shame (not too difficult though since they're all as engaging and relatable as sandpaper). All other characters in this show do not matter. They're all plot conveniences used by the main character to look smart and show his omniscience. Then finally, we have our villain- introduced in the second half of the show and wants to erase all abilities from Sakurada town. He's a villain so bad he puts the villains from ERASED, Chaos;Head and Guilty Crown to shame. I literally know nothing about him. The anime does such a poor job of building him up as a character and thinks flashbacks and sinister smiles are enough to make him imposing in any way. The anime tries so hard to tell you he's a smart guy with an excellent plan that they fail to actually show him being smart and doing excellent things. All he really does is get driven around in a badly rendered CG car, writing notes and talking about how angsty his childhood was. The anime does a sloppy job giving him any motivation to why he wants to erase abilities from Sakurada. This creates a problem in the main conflict of the show. There's supposed to be this grand conflict of ideologies in this show about how Kei wants to keep abilities (also very poorly shown) and direclty opposes bad guy's desire to erase abilities. For all the anime trying to sound smart it doesn't give us anything tangible as to why we should support any of these characters. The themes that run through the arcs are poorly carried over and lost in the bad dialogue near the end of the show. This anime has very little to offer in challenging the viewer's views as it can't even present the opposing viewpoints of the characters very well. Also, the 2 side goons of the main villain have no personality at all. But that's not surprising. The story is about as incomprehensible as the characters. It's mostly all over the place with numerous plot holes that pop up whenever a character opens their mouth to explain something (which is frequent).The show also tries to do these really "clever" twist showing Kei's intelligence but these twist are shown in such an infuriating way its impossible to take seriously. The anime gives us…

An anime does not need to hijack your computer and send hoax emails about your untimely death to your loved ones, nor discolor the screen you're watching it on to be considered completely, utterly worthless. The key is in the word itself; worthless - meaning an absence of worth. Are there animations within the medium, albeit mostly of the mouths of characters plastered onto static backgrounds? Yes, there is. Is the voice acting competent in that it maintains a consistent tone of voice for its characters, and there's no flub takes being snuck into the final product? Also, yes. Is there a narrative that builds toward some sort of conclusion? I cannot say no. Neither of these things can be justifications that I in good faith can recommend another person to endeavor this joyless experience. Kei Asai is the main character, and you love him because he has blue hair, sits in the back of the classroom next to the window, goes to the rooftop for lunch, and believes in justice real hard. He wants to wipe the tears of every crying child. He wants to lead lost puppies back to their homes and set out milk bowls for all the starving cats. Happiness is not just a word, it's a permanent reality you can achieve if you accept Kei Asai into your heart and allow him to do what he feels is best for you. To quote one of his sycophants, "Those who wish to save the world know what's right for the world to be saved" - the ends justify the means, and if you'll leave both of those up to Kei, he'll lead you to the Promised Land. Parallels to Jesus Christ are unavoidable, with the glaring omission that Kei does not end up nailed to a cross in the final act to give some sort of catharsis to the viewer. It's not just that he's self-righteous, infallible, unflappable, egoless and always right. It's that there's nothing else. Women fall in love with him, not because of his charms, but because he's Kei Asai. Former antagonists rally up behind him because he's Kei Asai. His motives or reasoning never needs to be questioned; people follow him because he's Kei Asai. There's no character development, no flaws, mistakes that trigger self-reflection, earthly desires that compete with his superego. He's flatter than flatbread on the back of a flatbed truck. It's not just a case of "bad main character, bad anime". Anime can have reprehensible protagonists while being grossly entertaining (albeit controversial, School Days would be an example of this for me, your mileage may vary). But there are no other characters in the show, they are mere extensions of Kei Asai's will. They might be initially opposed to him, but soon enough they'll see the error of their ways and subject themselves to becoming another screwdriver or hammer in his tool belt. Apart from the main "bad guy", their motivations rank from "I want Kei Asai to succeed" to "I love Kei Asai and its troublesome that other people do the same". Cult leaders and totalitarian dictators wish they had subjects as subservient as the supporting cast in this anime. Maybe the plot is great? No, as prior described, characters lack motivations, never does Kei Asai's righteous decisions backfire, the stakes are not properly established and whenever our hero is in a pickle the anime can wring some use case out of the abilities to have him come up smelling of roses every time. The arc format doesn't help matters as it's just another fair maiden in a tower needing to be saved and the main plot is underdeveloped because of it. Dialogue is unnatural, trite, no one has a unique tone of voice, and they try too hard to appear smart by ham-fistedly shoehorning in philosophical concepts in-between the exposition too many times. I don't fault anyone for finding enjoyment in this anime, you might see qualities I am blind to and I'm happy you liked it. For me, this was an utterly joyless ordeal, but I at least watched it with people I love, so once the ugly head was reared, we could make fun of how bad it is, but even then, there are way better anime for that purpose. Don't watch this.

Sakurada Reset is the very definition of a "hidden gem". Literally no one talked about it when i aired, and six years later it's still not known. And it's a shame, because it is a unique anime, in terms of ambiance. Are you sick of the over-the-top reactions and surreal battles with the world at stake? Good! Because SR has none of that. It's a very grounded story, with down-to-earth characters like we rarely see in the anime industry. STORY This is a world with magical powers. A girl has the ability to reset time, but she can't alter anything because she loses her memory when she uses it. A boy has the ability to keep his memory no matter what, even if Time is reset. A common friend of them puts them in relation so they can work together and save people from tragedies before they even happen. But they are all young, and they are all human. So even though they have a perfect combination that can save a lot of lives, things don't go so smoothly. And while they live through these conflicts, they may be tangled with an even bigger one involving the Bureau, the organization that tries to manage superpowers. Sakurada Reset could be described as a "Sherlock Holmes with magic and drama". Although there is no genius like Holmes, the anime shows several investigations surrounding characters with superpowers. The stories are clever, the way they use the powers to move the plot is brillant. This is by far the best story involving time travel I've ever seen. On par with Stein's Gate. Another thing that is worth praises is the fact that each power has its limitations. Like Code Geass or Death Note, Sakurada Reset describes its supernatural side with rules that serve the scenario as the characters must acknowledge those limitations and work despite them. The perfect power doesn’t exist, but every power has a perfect use case! And it’s not just the scenario and the powers that is clever. The dialogues are brilliant too! They’re very philosophical: the show aims to make you ponder. About a lot of things. It brings up a lot of typical philosophy themes, like the Swampman (similar to the Ship of Theseus), or the matter of self-preservation, or the Trolley Problem, and so on. One problem I noticed: many things are explained much later in the series. For example, why does Time act exactly the same after a Reset? That question isn't even asked before it is answered during the second part. Or, at some point I was wondering why Kei didn't realize that someone was resetting Time even though it is said Haruki had been doing it for a while; well it turns out he did notice it, it's just never brought up until much later. My point is you will find inconsistencies from time to time, but in fact the author did think about it, they just bring up the explanation later! RHYTHM Sakurada Reset moves at a very slow pace. You have been warned. Even though I loved it, I did find a few episodes boring. But it’s all worth it! CHARACTERS Although all characters are likeable and relatively complex, I do have one complaint here: most secondary characters are useless most of the time. I still don't understand why Michiru got so much screentime. I also wish we had seen more of Minami and Nakano. So my only complaint with the characters is we don't see them enough! Let that sink in. MUSIC AND SOUNDS The OST is pure. I just can't describe it otherwise. This is one of the highest points of this show. While the composer doesn't have any special musical identity (I mean, you can recognize Kajiura or Takahashi because they have definite styles ; not this one), the music doesn't need it to be beautiful! VISUALS While SR is nothing ground-breaking, it also doesn't have any major flaws. It's gorgeous overall, my only minus point will be for Haruki's short hair, they look pretty bad from face, lol. CONCLUSION Sakurada Reset is a unique anime show, and one I much needed to see. There’s so many anime with overacting and battles, and I like that, but I need something else too, and that is what Sakurada Reset brings! Characters are civilized humans despite their superpowers and their grand goals. They solve their issues through investigation and discussion, not through punches and fire. How many anime shows do that! Although it can feel boring at times, if you think you can handle it, I highly recommend it!

Please Note This review assumes that you have finished watching Sakurada reset and while care has been taken to minimize story related spoilers there will some spoilers within character analysis. Sakurada Reset is based off a popular light novel of the same name and introduces a rather interesting setting that puts a unique take on the powers genre. The overall premise of Sakurada Reset is twofold. On the surface Sakurada Reset is a power based anime that also feature heavy elements of human drama, mystery and school genre elements but it also features a unique play on the traditional powers anime. Because of both western influence and a need to make an anime stand out power based animes tend to feature either heavy combat or feature powers that are flashy to look at. Because of this it’s a popular misconception among anime fans and general viewers that superpowers or in this case abilities are always flashy and powerful and has the potential to strike a guy a mile away. Sakurada Reset introduces its own take to this by going along an entirely different route. In the case of setting Sakurada Reset takes place in a large town of the same name of which what is noteworthy is that the town houses a substantial amount of people who live in the town that have access to various types of abilities. As noted before these abilities are not as flashy and destructive as what one would see in other forms of media. For example, the ability to send pre-recorded messages to one another via telepathy that can be delivered on a date and time of your choosing may seem normal to us and indeed may sound like it’s similar to an email but this is a good example of what abilities in the anime are like. In that while they are not as flashy or powerful they are still able to provide to their users a means to enjoy their lives better and help others that may be less fortunate than them. This take on the traditional powers anime I felt was interesting as I felt that not all superpowers should be destructive or flashy and indeed some can be subtle and still have a powerful effect on people and society. The fusion of a traditional powers anime with human drama and mystery is also something that I quite liked about the premise and one that was rather unusual as well. Now that the premise is done let’s move on The overall story for Sakurada Reset follows the lives of Kei Asai and Misora Haruki two teenagers that live in the town of Sakurada that met each other on the prompting of Kei’s old school friend Sumire Souma. The two of them because of living in the town of Sakurada the town where ability users live are both ability users and each have powerful abilities that help complement each other. The overall story common with modern animes features several different story arcs that are combined into the main plot while also having a number of sub plots as well. In the town of Sakurada both Kei and Haruki while still students on the surface use their powers to help the members of the bureau help maintain order within the town and solve ability related incidents. While solving problems with their powers is part of the overall plot that’s not the only one as the growth and development of Haruki and Kei’s relationship also forms it as well. As the series goes on and they encounter more characters and events Kei and his friends and allies soon discover that their involvement with the bureau will link them to much larger events that had in its roots in the towns mysterious past that can also affect the lives of everyone in the present. Common with most modern anime Sakurada Reset features a number of plot lines that are bundled into the overall plot as story arcs each of I felt was unique. Kei Kei Asai played by veteran voice actor Kaito Ishikawa of Owari no seraph and Occultic Nine fame is one of the main characters of the show and serves as the main protagonist of the show. A teenage boy that lives in the town of Sakurada Kei is a somewhat normal looking guy from initial appearances but beneath his somewhat mundane appearance Kei’s personality is what defines him and allows him to be effective at countering the enemy. Personality wise Kei is a level headed, kind and caring person and as a result can understand the views of others quite easily which I felt was important for his job with the service club. At the same time Kei, due to his level-headed nature is able to easily get to the heart of a problem by understanding the crucial parts of an event and come up with a means to solve it showing that he also has impressive deduction and analytic skills as well. However, while agreeable and pleasant to talk to when Kei is in his normal mode Kei has shown to have a more devious and cunning side to him when creating plans to deal with his opponents. In this state Kei while still bring his trademark cautiousness to the table is also willing to place himself and his friends at risk so as to allow his plan a higher chance to succeed. However, Kei’s most prominent skills that allow him to stand against powers greater than him in the overall plot is undoubtedly his intelligence and his skill at strategy both of which allowed Kei and his friends to outsmart the series main enemy faction the bureau on multiple occasions. Although still a teenager by all accounts Kei has shown himself to very adept at strategy especially with regards to both anticipating the enemy’s moves and outsmarting them by moving events in motion before the enemy does which I found to be pretty amazing considering his opponents in the story are all adults. When combined with Kei’s unique ability as a character Kei is someone that can be seen to be a cunning and devious opponent for the bureau that while still impressive in his own right is more so when he’s working with allies that agree with his plans and aims. As the series goes on Kei’s personality changes a great deal as a result of both meeting the series main female leads and his interaction with a number of different characters that reside in the town. In the beginning of the series Kei while still having his trademark calmness was rather quiet in the beginning and rather indifferent to the plight of others that meant that he at this time only had a small circle of friends. However, as the series goes on and especially after Kei meets Haruki Kei’s personality starts to gradually change becoming more understanding of others and their situations and more importantly learning to place more trust in his friends and allies as well. As a character, I thought that Kei was a pretty well-designed character that showed that despite his young age that good planning and strategy combined with good analytic and deduction skills can easily frustrate opponents that have larger numbers of assets at their command. Watching Kei direct his friends in demolishing the enemies plans that he gleaned using his skills was a joy to see. I thought that Kaito Ishikawa really did an excellent job portraying the character of Kei. Sumire Souma Sumire Souma voiced by veteran seiyuu singer Aoi Yuuki is one of the main characters of the show and can be considered the second main female lead after Haruki. A old school friend of both Kei and Haruki when they were still in middle school Souma was the one that ultimately started the friendship between the two and with that create the foundation that will create the strong bond that both of them share as the series progresses. In the beginning of the series Souma behaved very much like a childhood friend of Kei’s and looked rather normal which I believe was part of her character design as one would never assume that such a girl would become so important to the overall plot. Personality wise Sumire is a positive and cheerful girl that at the same time is also rather bold and brave at times. Her relationship with Kei in the beginning of the series did seem to be rather close which she uses to her advantage by teasing him often and being m…

Review contains slight spoilers about Masamune Urachi Sakurada Reset was a painful but worthwhile experience. This may sound weird at first, but as this review goes on, I hope to make it clear to why I wrote that starting sentence. There are factors that I thought the show did really well, while there were others that ruined the show for me and caused the low average score and the large drop count. The first half of the show was pretty much character introductions and build up. We learn about the town of Sakurada and the gifted people that live in it, following the lives of two high school students. Misora Haruki is a quiet girl who has the ability to save a moment in time for 3 days and reset everything back to that certain point, causing everyone to forget what had happened after she used her ability, including herself. Kei Asai is a quick thinking problem solver who has the ability to remember everything he has experienced, even stuff that happened during a reset. With the compatbility of their abilities, they go through each arc solving a new case and problem, introducing a new character and learning about their ability and personality. This is where the problems start. The personalities of each character feel incredibly empty. Most of them rarely show any sign of emotions, and the way they speak feels boring and monotone. The dialogue also manages to throw in philosophical questions like the Swampman and the Ship of Theseus. It feels unrealistic that a bunch of high school students are talking about these kinda topics, and it really takes you out of the anime. The fact that the characters are pretty much emotionless androids ruin any kind of drama that the first half tried to create, even though the drama itself was quite interesting and the way they used their abilities to solve them were quite clever. There are also quite a few scenes that feel pretty pointless to the overall story, and some characters that are introduced but having no real importance to offer. All these factors make the first half an incredibly tough ordeal to get through. The second half is where the story really kicks in. To be more specific, the part where it really starts to pick up is the Eden arc. Old characters start to show a little more emotion, although not that much, while the painful dialogue slowly becomes more tolerable, even though they continue to use philosophical questions and monotone voices. I don't know if this is because the show's script got better or if I just got used to the way Sakurada's characters talk, but I could actually enjoy the anime more than I previously could. The drama feels more genuine as characters struggle to come to terms with the way others use their abilities, truly making it worth investing my time into this show. More characters are introduced and are still slightly unrealistic, but they also feel significantly better compared to the introductions in the first half, especially with the appearance of Masamune Urachi. Urachi is the director of the Administration Bureau's Management Department and becomes the main antagonist of the show. He has one simple goal he wants to achieve, to remove abilities from Sakurada. The show really lets you understand exactly why he wants to do this, and you slightly sympathise with him. Of course, our MC Kei wants to prevent this, and the clashing of their opposing ideals is what the show had been building up to. This is where the show really shines as both characters attempt to outsmart their opponents so they may reign triumphant. The ending is truly amazing as they use the abilities of their teams to solve the issues that had been made apparent in Sakurada. In the end, I can't say for sure if I'd recommend Sakurada Reset to anyone. I'm glad I finished this show, but if I had to choose between rewatching it or forgetting it, I'd probably never be able to come to a decision. If you think you can endure the dialogue and characters and see what the story has to offer, I would definitely tell you to give it a shot and see if you like it or not. It's sad knowing if these things had been different, the anime would have been more well received and might possibly have become one of the best to come out of this year for me. Thanks for reading, send feedback if you have any!

Man, I was so hurt by the 6.whatever rating Sakurada Reset had before (It's starting to move up a little though) I had not enjoyed an anime has much as I had with Sakurada Reset. I found every episode to be much more enjoyable than the last, even the first few episodes that others have claimed to be slow. The way the story brought everything together was so interesting. It did not leave anything out, and carefully explained every detail til the end of the final episode. Nothing ever felt boring to me, even the discussion between Nono and Haruki (pointless yet pleasant, as they've said in the episode). The characters was the best element of the show to me. They were very realistic, each with their own ideals and emotions. Kei, the main male character, was such an awesome character. He is so unpredictable, and will do just about anything to prove a point or achieve his goals (like in episode 4, that was just brutal). Haruki and Soma, the two main female characters, were both great too, but I don't think my explanation is good enough to do them justice. Also, Haruki is best girl, sorry Soma! The music were all amazing, but the ending by Oral Cigarettes tops everything (I started checking them out because of this, and they are my favorite band now). Hopefully the score for Sakurada Reset will get much higher, and I hope those who dropped this will give it a go again. This is the first time I've written a review, and I just kinda wrote whatever I wanted, but those are my thoughts on the show. Story -10 (loved it) Art-7 (wasn't its strongest point) Sound- 9 (Oral Cigarettes man) Characters- 10 (so cool!) Enjoyment- 10 (of course) Overall- 10 (One of my favorite shows!)

This anime is a book of poetry. You will not find any brawls here, and there are no special effects for powers. They're usually very powerful though. The atmosphere is peaceful. Overall, this is more for a mature audience in general. You won't see fan service and it's best not to expect any. The biggest reason I'm writing this review is just to tell people to go to Reddit after each episode so that they can read the comments to understand important details in each of the episodes. I hear that it is all slow until episode 6, but it's definitely all worth it if you're looking forward to the story and if you like the poetry behind the thinking experiments. I personally did not mind the pacing at all, and was just a very curious individual that really couldn't wait to see the story unfold. It also made me feel somewhat smart for keeping up with the episodes, but at the same time dumb, since I can't understand everything they're talking about on my own. But again, that's what Reddit's for. So I write this review as an individual who feels this is in the best interest of normal people who just want a good thinking anime. Think of it like those book gatherings: After reading a book, you meet up with friends that read the book and converse among yourselves about all the things the book had to give, and end up appreciating the book more. Story: 10 I've never seen an anime made this way. It feels like every episode was necessary in completing the story it was trying to tell. I would like to think the main catch of the anime is the thinking experiments, as they tell you how they work, then they get involved in the story in some way at some point. I'm not sure what else I can tell without ending up summarizing the story tbh so I leave it at that. Art: 7 I heard the anime was a budget anime, but for a budget anime, the artwork is pretty well-done. Imo it's like a polished version of Diomedea's recent anime Fuuka in terms of character design and animation. The animation is very smooth, probably because there's no super crazy fight scenes to animate. The camera angles are just right as well. I do feel this anime would get a lot more praise if it was made by SHAFT or Kyo Ani. SHAFT would be using a lot of crazy transitions while Kyo Ani could make it the way they made Hyouka. Sound: 7 For the most part, the music is very simple. Everything about the anime is watered down, actually. The only things that aren't watered down are those OPs and EDs. Those have so much emotion put into them. As long as the music is fitting, I don't see a problem. But they aren't astounding either. They do their part and it does help with the atmosphere. Character: 9 There's a reason Kei is the way he is. Haruki was just born the way she was. And there's a reason Souma is the way she is as well. But of course, they're not normal people either. People complain about how they're not relatable, but that's exactly what the story needs to be the story that it is. Kei doesn't want to solve things with violence, but how is a person supposed to be able to do that? Kei is a character that shows you how to be someone so intelligent, they can solve problems without violence. We have OP characters all the time, and I've seen people love the MC of Aldnoah Zero, so there's no real complaint to be made here. At the very least, Kei has more reason to be who he is than that kid. Souma is easy to take in, that's why people love her. Haruki though, not as many will like her, simply because she's like a robot. But her being born that way is definitely a human reason. There can be people like that in the world. Not impossible at all when there's over 6 billion people in the world. All the side characters get their bit of shine too. The antagonist is also pretty well done, imo. Although it's not to the death, you can think of this as a watered down version of Light and L's mind battles. But watered down means less hostile and more civil, which is a closer means to a better world. Enjoyment: 9 Now this is the part where this is completely my own enjoyment. Whether you enjoy it or not is really up to you as a person. If, even after the reddit suggestion, you do not like the anime after 3 or so episodes, it's simply not for you. The enjoyment of the anime will usually be very low or very high. I cannot say if there is an inbetween, but that is what I've seen of people. Perhaps because I feel most people won't like it, the enjoyment should objectively be around 4. Overall: 8 Pros: -Great Characters -Great Story -Poetic -Thinking Experiments -Solutions to conflicts without violence -Life Lessons -Great understanding of how people work (Very vocal about it) -Like reading a book -If you get through all of it and enjoy it, you're definitely an intelligent person! And I bet you're quite positive in general as well! :) -Very few, if any at all, plot holes. -Almost everything, if not everything, gets explained. Cons: -Too much talking (Of course, that's what this show is about. Keep in mind I'm basing this on audience opinion and not my own. This is ironic and that's the point. btw this is exactly how they are in the show.) -Not enough visuals to help with explanations and conversations. -It's like reading a book. People who watch anime don't usually read books as a hobby. (Though I have to say this is my perfect book) -Characters can be uninteresting to most people. -Even if the story is one of the best out there, it still has a very slow start-up As I've somewhat mentioned before, this anime would garner much more people if it were made by Kyo Ani or SHAFT. The writing, planning, and execution of the anime were excellent in my opinion, but under objective views, the execution could've been much better. People cannot get past around 6 episodes because there's not much visual spark. I also heard the translation wasn't all too well done, but even then, it'd still be confusing for most people. Again, that is why I recommend going to Reddit after each episode to understand them better. As well, because this is such a confusing premise for a first watch, it's obvious that once you finish the show, you can rewatch it to then be able to completely understand everything. Indeed it is one of those shows you'd have to have the time for. I cannot recommend this to people with busy lives, unfortunately. This is my unbiased review of the anime. In my heart though, it is a 10/10. Please give it a watch if you'd like to see a peaceful anime that's very real in its own way, have the time on your hands, like feeling smart (you'll definitely be more enlightened by the end of it, I assure you), like to think, like poetry, and like a good story. If everybody in the world liked the anime more than not, I feel we'd definitely be living in a better world. In that sense, it's a very romantic anime. And just maybe, that is why I love the anime so much.

Two individuals use their reset ability and their eidetic memory abilities to solve problems involving or revolving around abilities. Story: Most stories have a sort of macguffin, whether it is a physical object or just an end result that the protagonist tries to achieve. In any case, a macguffin is a motive for the main character to do what he or she has to do. This anime is no exception. In the town of Sakurada, people possess strange abilities that range from making everyone within a certain radius laugh uncontrollably to having photographic memory. It may seem like a standard superpowers anime, but there are a few differences. There’s barely any action and it’s not the standard comedic slice of life either. Instead, this anime focuses primarily on mysteries and deeper themes such as identity and ethics. In a way, this anime focuses more on human behavior rather than the abilities themselves. As such, there are many seemingly-nonsensical conversations between the characters. However, there is a method to this show’s madness. It will reveal itself in time. Characters: One noteworthy aspect of this anime is the characters themselves. At first glance, all of them seem monotonous, lifeless even. However, they all have their own idiosyncrasies and personal growth, aside from their abilities, of course. First, let’s talk about the two main characters Asai Kei and Haruki Misora. On the surface, they are probably the most apathetic characters in the show, rarely ever showing emotional responses to their surroundings. However, this does not mean that they are monotonous individuals. Throughout the storyline, they slowly learn more about themselves, their identity, their beliefs. Kei constantly struggles with his ideals: the perfect human being, why Souma did what she did, Haruki’s development. Meanwhile, Haruki constantly struggles with her emotions and her individuality. The two of them grow—with Haruki’s development being reset from time to time—and learn how to deal with conflicting beliefs/emotions. Now, with the two characters that most people would expect to have the most character development out of the way, I personally think that there are other characters that have significant character development. Out of necessity for keeping this review as spoiler-free as possible, I’m going to go over these characters very briefly. Souma Sumire, to start, is very important as Kei constantly thinks back to her and her identity. On the other hand, I really admired Kagaya and Tsushima because they themselves were struggling with their own conflicts with the town. Kagaya struggled with the concept of ethics, more specifically between the utilitarian perspective and the consequentialist perspective. Tsushima on the other hand struggled with his responsibilities and his own emotions, although his story was very much skipped over so it’s largely insignificant. Although it may not seem like it, I believe the conflicts that these side characters face bring up important points in everyday society. In any case, Kei brings up a good point: “There is no right answer. Everyone should be able to find their own answer.” Music/Audio/Art: This section is going to be really short because I do not usually have qualms about the music, voice acting, or art style. Both openings and endings were nice to listen to before and after episodes. The music in the episodes did not have a big impact on me, but they were not out of place either. As for voice acting, Yuuki Aoi did a really amazing job voicing Souma Sumire’s character, especially in the final episodes. The art of the anime itself is satisfying to look at. It hosts calm colors so that viewers can fully immerse themselves into the dialogue without becoming distracted by the art. Execution/Overall flow: Yes, the show may seem slow and tedious for those who do not stick around until the end. Yes, the concepts that they touch upon may seem complex, trivial, or even overbearing. However, everything will start to make sense in the final arc. Pretty much everything is reviewed within the final few episodes, wrapped up, and handed back to you. The first few episodes/arcs are bound to feel long and strained due to the introduction of countless thought experiments (which I personally find intriguing) and theoretical debates. The writing is well thought-out and every conversation and soliloquy happens for a reason. Overall score: 9.5/10 I was originally put off by the slow pacing of this anime, hence why it took me 4 months of on and off watching to finish the show. However, the final arc was truly captivating and brought back questions that I previously had and had forgotten, and then answered them in the most satisfying way possible.

To begin with, this show is, well, it is not for the average watcher who expects pew pew boom boom kind of action. I, myself, loved the show, but it is because I understood everything that was said and done in it. For other people, it was a hard time understanding it, thus such a low score on MAL. You need some brain to keep up with the show. The story is very well-knit. I have to admit, it's been a while since I've watched a show that is this well-written. For me, it was a very good time because at times, I even foreseen what some things meant, which gave me an easy time watching. The show very well follows the principle of progression and you have to admit that by the mid-end there is some intense action that keeps you interested and curious to see the ending soon, because you can feel the tension and atmosphere of it coming to an end. Story development, culmination etc. is well done. Art: Well, if I'm being honest, I'm watching D.Gray-man and Sakurada Reset at the same time. Since I finished Sakurada Reset, I watch D.Gray-man. To compare both, Sakurada Reset looks way better and well-drawn, executed, than the opposite is, and D.Gray-man is an action anime, so you can pretty much worry about art the least. Sound: Okay, this is the part where I want to cry, because the anime so well got me interested and intrigued that I couldn't even really take a notice onto the music. It was there, but it went straight to my emotions instead of my brain, so I'm literally just listening to the music after watching the anime. That means it is definitely not lacking. Character: Now character development is something that I liked. Yes, change on supporting characters wasn't the main objective, but I really liked the development in Haruki, Kei and even Soma. Even some supporting characters can be seen changing. Despite even the character development, you could see visual development in general, which is also great. Enjoyment: Overall, I'm giving this a 10 just because I enjoyed it to its fullest. The characters were relatable, I really loved their behaviour. I couldn't help but notice the differences between them, and despite Kei and Haruki, I especially liked Soma. Her speech manner is rather lazy, or relaxed, as if she knew everything, but at the same time everytime she talked, it's as she is absolutely sad, despite being bright. And at times, she talks the same way again, as if being lazy, but that speech feels as of someone's who has seen a thousand years of experience, of life, of everything. When she speaks to Kei, it seems as if they're both some kind of higher beings, but Soma is someone who knows more, knows better, knows right and in a way, leads Kei's way, lectures him, when they casually discuss some things over. That is where I see the issue, that even the strong ones need help. Enjoy the show, make sure you don't have any misunderstandings, and don't listen to those who tell it's a bad anime. Do not mistake a bad anime to a something that you don't like, it is rude and incompetent.

-------------------------------------Sakurada Reset---------------------------------- Well after 24 episodes I have to say that I had so much hopes for this anime at the beginning but it was a disappointment for me. The concept of the anime is pretty interesting with the whole thing about time resetting, but honestly I thought about dropping the anime since the fourth episode. You need to take your time to watch and understand the events happening in Sakurada Reset. [ART & ANIMATION] The art was pretty decent for the most part of the series, but I’m not gonna lie, it had some drops. I like the art style of the characters, but sometimes their hair didn’t seem natural. The background art was pretty normal, nothing that stands out of it, just simple. The animation was decent but sometimes they did abnormal movement of their bodies, but in the most part was a smooth animation. (7/10) [SOUND] The soundtrack of the anime was pretty good, I sometimes found myself rocking out with the openings and endings of this anime. I honestly like the songs that they used, and the music was one of the factors that helps transmit the feeling that the anime wants to transmit. In the other hand, the voice acting started badly but it improve over time. I honestly believe that each voice actor fit it the characters that they portrayed, but they could not transmit the feelings of the characters to the viewer until the climax part of the anime. (6/10) [STORY] (5/10) Here is where the anime didn’t work for me. By only reading the synopsis, the story actually sounds pretty interesting and makes you watch but the anime was a big disappointment for me. The events that unfolded during the series are pretty great and really interesting to watch, the problem that the anime has it’s the way that it tells the story. It gives so much information to the viewer in a short time, and most of it is useless. Also all of the characters didn’t transmit any feelings until the very climax, so it’s really hard to be interested at the beginning. The concept of the anime sounds great, but the way it portrait the story didn’t work out. (5/10) [CONCLUSION] I personally didn’t enjoy the anime, there was lot of information and little time to process it. I also didn’t enjoy that the characters didn’t show any emotion until the climax. I enjoy the idea of the anime and I recommend to watch it if you like psychological anime, but have time to watch it because it has a slow pace. (6/10)

Sakurada Reset is unfortunately another one of those series that got literally zero attention from anywhere in the anime community. On top of that, out of the people who have started the show, over 25% have dropped it. However, in my opinion, and to my surprise, this turned out to be one of the best written stories of this year. --- ***REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS*** This is more about outlining why I enjoyed this show despite its unpopularity and high drop rate. --- One of the things I liked most about the series was the way the story progressed. In the beginning, the characters are rather closed-off and almost seemed dull. Much of the communication between characters is done through riddles, thought experiments, or metaphorical stories. Over 1/4 of viewers quit watching the show just because the characters were "boring and emotionless." However, as Ive said before, the characters were intentionally made this way, and in that respect they are very well written. The characters at first seem to be static, but in the second half, they turn out to be dynamic characters with internal change Haruki is a very timid and unambitious girl with zero self confidence. She lives strictly by her own set of rules, but she also has a high dependency upon others. However, in the second half, she slowly realizes her own desires and preferences; and eventually, she is able to act on her own accord. Haruki also begins to feel resentment and jealousy towards Soma, sensing her as a threat of being replaced as Kei's partner. Kei is a very level-headed character who is able to develop a plan for any situation. Soma, having the ability of clairvoyance, is naturally several steps ahead of Kei's plans and uses him; however, she also depends on Kei in her shortcomings. Kei and Soma are very similar characters in that they both act out of selfishness, but their selfish desires also coincide with the interests of the people who are dear to them. Kei does everything in his power to stop Urachi from erasing abilities from Sakurada for selfish reasons; however, he also wants to rescue Soma from her internal conflicts. Soma goes as far as killing herself and using Kei for her plans to selfishly escape her fate of being captured by the Bureau and becoming the second Witch; however, at the same time she chooses her actions with the desire to fulfill Kei's happiness. Soma is deeply conflicted because she wants to be the one that Kei loves; but she knows he will choose Haruki, not her. In the very beginning of the show, Soma brings Kei and Haruki together for the sake of both her plans and Kei's happiness, knowing that it will ultimately damage their relationship. Soma acts for Kei's happiness even though it pains her. --- Another aspect of this series that is really well-done is the use of abilities. This isnt just some shounen anime that shows off flashy supernatural powers; and it isnt a repeat of Charlotte's trainwreck. The series is good at defining both what the ability can do, and what limitations the ability has. The show also focuses on how different abilities can be used together in complex ways to achieve the characters' goals. Right up front, we are told Haruki's Reset ability has 3 limits: she can only Save once every 24 hrs; and that save only lasts for 72 hours; and like everyone else, she loses memories after a reset. However, with Kei's Perfect Memory ability, together they are able to circumvent Haruki's memory loss flaw and effectively change the past. Kei instructs Haruki to Save immediately before a pivotal point in time; then he uses the next 72 hours to discover the events that happen; then instructs Haruki to Reset before the Save expires, so he can change the past. Because Haruki can only Save once every 24 hours, Kei only has one chance to change what happens in the first day after a Reset; however he effectively has 3 chances to change the events that happened in the final 24 hours of the 72 hour window. Urachi's ability first seems like it can only remove people's memories; however, he actually has the ability to turn back the time for one specific object. He uses his ability to frequently turn back the time for his own mind, thus intentionally losing memories. This can be used to circumvent Sakuin's lie detection and Soma's clairvoyance, which depends on conversation. Kagaya's ability first seems like it can only be used to lock/seal doors; however his ability permanently seals objects in space and time, and can be used to petrify people, or freeze the exact current condition of an object. Object that are sealed with Kagaya's hand do not change even after a Reset. Therefore, Urachi uses Kagaya's ability to seal notebooks that contain his memories; that way he can later remember the things he intentionally forgot. There are also a couple occasions where several abilities are used together to accomplish a goal. There were 5-6 (i forget) people and abilities involved in reviving Soma. Another number of abilities were used together to bluff the Bureau and kidnap Urachi. And these are just a few examples. In fact, there aren't many instances where only one ability alone is used to do something significant. The well-defined structure of abilities and the ways abilities are used are what makes the supernatual aspect of the story interesting.

All the resets Misora does can't stop from LA disliking this anime... Sakurada Reset is an exercise in patience and pointlessness in LA's eyes. LA has ALOT to unpack so let's start with it's... Flaws which it has alot of. Sakurada Reset PRIDES itself on giving us static images and bland deadpan monotoned characters through it's 24 episode screentime, what's worse it that these two elements makes this anime much longer than it's suppose to and sure LA isn't expecting EVERY anime to be shounen-esque especially from a premise like a town filled with superpowered humans and the Bureau governing and suppressing their inhabitants powers but keeping this atmosphere 24/7 won't help the experience of having dead air and slow traction in plotlines to occur and be dealt without as much as a sense of urgency. IT'S AN ANIME ABOUT SUPERPOWERED HUMANS AND A GOVERNING BODY SUPPRESSING THEM, HOW IS THIS NOT FUN???. The deadpanned monotoness of this anime are easily manifested in the majority of the cast but especially in the form of our main characters Kei Asai voiced by Kaito Ishikawa who has the power of remembering everything and Misora Haruki voiced by Kana Hanazawa who has the resetting powers (before people starts, LA GETS why they are monotoned considering their situation the both of them are in, the fact that both characters have a strong sense of justice and doesn't want people to be hurt and protect them but at the expense of themselves not to mention the Bureau looming around them, but just because LA "gets it" doesn't justify why these MAIN characters are extremely dull on ALL fronts as a result) and it's even worse when this comes into the romance angle of this anime and it is damn forced how they play this out. The fact that these two characters really don't display much to any emotion is one thing, but as LA watched Sakurada Reset, LA just found the romance between these two to be not only forced but plot-driven in Kei's part to the point LA only saw Kei using Misora as nothing but a plot device and nothing more, his ulterior motives in using Misora came into the romantic angle and failed miserably (not only because both characters display no emotion and are pretty static, both in relationship but also the anime's atmosphere outright kills any notion of a romance angle for LA). Aside from the romantic angle, Kei also has some other plot-driven problems about him, mainly because of his beliefs of not hurting people at any cost but at the expense of his own sacrifice which becomes annoying as that is one of his defining traits and one of the reasons why people think he's a saint or a hero and it's compounded by the fact that due to Misora's resetting powers and Kei's own powers, he resolves ALL problems rather quickly, sure you can defend this by saying well duhh because of the Misora's powers, but Kei's finds some rather TOO convenient ways to resolve things and quickly LA mind you. Let's see what else, ohh how about the fact that many of the static imagery this anime does display actually hurts it's rare action scenes it has, due to how subdued and lacking in the animation department Sakurada Reset is, even the animation especially the action falters to a slow crawl of heavy action. This also affects the superpowered humans and their abilities as well making their abilities rather dull as interesting as they are at times. Voice acting also gets crippled by the atmosphere of this anime thus the majority of the characters are either deadpanned or rarely way to excitable. The biggest victim of this anime being Kana Hanazawa due to her robotic way of talking sounds like Kana isn't even caring how she sounds and just doing her basic deadpan Kanade Tachibana vocals only without the effort, it's not Kana Hanazawa's fault it's her character's traits but nonetheless. So was there ANYTHING LA found enjoyable in Sakurada Reset?, well LA did found for the most part the superpowers element at the very least interesting, even better when Kei found ways to mix other powers together to do something out of this world but this only goes so far but that a bit later. Sumire Soma is LA's ray of hope for this anime, why?...because she's one of the ONLY characters to actually emote in this anime and be different from the majority of the cast, she also shakes things up and allows some of the plotlines to have a modicum of interest and hell Sumire's voice actor Aoi Yuuki is LA's favourite voice actor in this anime hands down, but alas...there's also some problems with Sumire but that also a bit later. Lastly is that the final arc did try to do something Kei giving him a bit of character development and showing us what his true goal is but ummm yeah the finale also has some problems...let's start addressing them shall we? First the superpowers were interesting and LA quite liked it when they "stacked" with one another making for some interesting results, what LA didn't like towards all this is that Kei manipulates and uses them without a second thought because of his plot-driven nature, it made the entire superpowers albeit interesting lose steam extremely quickly by being extremely convenient to Kei as a whole and nothing more than that (not to mention Sakurada Reset DOES NOT throw us bone when we have to remember what EVERY side characters or one off characters' powers were), also this leads into the Bureau as they do a pretty horrible job at managing powers even in secret by NOT doing anything or using blatantly abuse of power and even allowing a highschool kid to do most of the work for them and expect him to abide by their rules, because of this, it cripples the basic premise of Sakurada Reset to be even interesting. Second is that Sumire Soma is in this dumb love triangle and SHE'S the one goading Kei and Misora to be together when it's clearly obvious that Sumire likes Kei and LA sees this, supernatural politics aside, Sumire's character is downplayed because of this albeit she's one of the most unpredictable character in this anime and reasonings are reasonably justified in some situations but still LA utterly hated the stilted dumb love triangle Sumire got herself into. Thirdly is the final arc that LA made LA question this anime's point in pointlessness when it came to the "big" dilemma in this anime and the villain of this anime in question. LA is going into spoilers but LA doesn't care because the villains reasoning was pathetically annoying, but yeah, his plan was to remove every ability in Sakurada because his father wanted to, thus the villain wanted to make his father's wish come true. The pointlessness of this entire ordeal comes from the fact that "so what if people loses their abilities?", why does Kei even care about it?...for his romance with Misora, that's a laugh, as for having abilities or not has a grey morality to it's proceedings as to how they are used but Kei ALWAYS tries to be on the "right side" even if the villain he faces ALSO wants the same thing just using differing methods. So again...does it matter if Sakurada has no abilities anymore or not?...Kei seems to think so, but LA doesn't. Pointless really. (Also you can defend that this is around the time that Kei gains a bit of character development thus is NOT pointless but no...he stays pretty static just with his sense of justice cranked up to an eleven and that he "loves" Misora which again is a moot point for LA). LASTLY, yes there's more, the dialogue in this anime is utterly pretentious as LA came to realize, with every character spurting out that Kei is a saint or a hero in the most blunt way possible or wondering what this feeling is like to the morality of having abilities or not or even the act of existing comes up. So yeah compounding the dead air atmosphere and deadpanned characters, the lack of action and superpowers glanced over to many of the problems EASILY being resolve by our all mighty janitor Kei...can YOU SEE how boring this anime gets and at 24 episodes a…

Sakurada Reset is an amazing anime that knows how to balance between realism and supernatural. Though the anime may seem mediocre, resulting in a low rating. This anime is truly a hidden gem for those yearning for a realistic romance drama and an ethical/moral plot. STORY : 9/10 SYNOPSIS In a town so-called Sakurada. A town where every single person possesses an ability of random that can be anything or even everything. A student named Kei Asai who lives in the town and has the ability to recall the past meets up with Haruki Misora, a student who has the ability to "reset". Later on become colleagues. With the power of their formidable combined powers. They use their powers to aid others in the town. But will their powers really outmatch against the difficult obstacles that they both have to face in the future? ( Optional-To-Read ) Explanation Of The Two Abilities Combined : Kei Asai has the ability to recall the past accurately whilst Haruki Misora has the ability to reset ( go back to the past with the limit of 3 days maximum ). One issue with Misora's ability is that she does not remember the past when she resets. Making her ability practically useless. However. With Kei Asai, even if she resets Kei would still have his memory intact. Allowing him to be able to pretty much change the past. OVERVIEW The story of Sakurada Reset from the start to the very end is incredibly solid. It has the capability to maintain the state of satisfaction with no ups and downs. However, one issue with that is that some people may not find the state satisfactory but mediocre instead. Since the story rarely "BOOMS" and feels more calm throughout the series. You could say that some people find the story of this anime the same as eating only rice. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the story a lot. In fact, the calmness IS the reason why the story is so good. It doesn't get too exciting nor too boring. It feels just right. ART : 10/10 Perfect. No comment. Sound : 10/10 Could somebody give Sumire Souma's voice actor an award? Like, seriously. Her voice felt so matching with her appearance and personality that my respects alone wouldn't even be enough for it. Perfect. No other comments. Character : 10/10 CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT The character developments of this anime is astonishing. But it doesn't fit the genres the show ultimately has at all. Well, to a certain extent. Still. It's amazing. So amazing. Everything just feels so well-planned that I can't be bothered to describe it because that would make the review too long. OTHERS One great thing about this anime is that the character's personality matches perfectly with how they look. This makes it even better for an anime that doesn't really have any ups and downs for the story. It adds a more "fitting" environment into it. Making the story even better. Enjoyment : 10/10 Really enjoyed this anime. Lowkey triggered of the fact that the rating is so low. But it's reasonable. Overall : 10/10 I'll say this again. If you're looking for a realistic romance drama and an ethical/moral plot. This anime is exactly what you need. Hands up. Period. Also one of the best 7s I've ever seen one there. Really, really, good.

Watching Sakurada Reset felt like watching various popular shows at the same time: ~ Take a setting like that of "Charlotte" where people have special powers, ~ but make the story revolve around few characters with time reversal like "STEINS;GATE", ~ bring in an MC who has logic and intelligence like Ayumu from "Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna", ~ Making the conversations long like "HYOUKA" or "MONOGATARI series" and ~ finally most importantly add the philosophy like that of "MAWARU PENGUINDRUM" whose true essence never came out and there you get "Sakurada reset" So basically, the story is simple, a town having people with special abilities and there is a mysterious Administration Bureau which controls how the things work, but our MC tries to help them but also tries to uncover the secrets behind the organization. The main problem with this series is that, it tried to put 24+12 episodes of content in 24 episodes which made it seem little less lively but that doesn't mean the series is worthless like the rating shown, but to be honest the content of the story is on par with all the names of anime I have mentioned earlier. As the story covers events of elementary, middle and high school life in just this short span. This series has one of the best written stories because when it states the rules of a person's abilities, it strictly sticks to it and also gives us insight of how it can be used various other things, which you might not expect when you aren't thinking out of the box, which shows like "Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works" failed miserably, as they don't give any proper reason for rules being bent for the sake of story. The most important thing which I've found interesting in this series is the "Philosophical thoughts" which were really well written and analyzed and no doubt they are even applicable in our real world. Coming to characters, its the main drawback of the series, I mean mostly only 3 characters are developed and that too you wouldn't know much of their backstory about why they were being emotionless. That's what makes people hate this show, i.e., you can't say which character you like the most or whose behavior you liked, but you can only just say that the ending is beautiful and a story worth the watch. The MC Asai Kei might not be cool, but he is definitely one of the smartest characters in anime history. Its just that he is not someone who you might take for a favorite person, but he has good ideas, also he is someone who tries to reach everyone needs, which is as if he is trying to be a God but if you just skip that part of his naïve ideal rest assured is good. Coming to soundtracks, there aren't any noteworthy soundtracks, but the op and ed songs are good to listen. Art is very common, which isn't much appealing to see but it's alright to watch. Well that being said, this series might not be something great, but it definitely underrated and has one of well-written story and philosophy, so watch it with patience as the ending is worth the watch. It doesn't have cool fights but it has some really interesting battle of wits. I know people dropped it because waiting for week for a single episode is a real pain, but now you can binge watch it and taste the true essence of a masterpiece.

I'm going to keep it short. This is a story with a lot of dialogue but also suspenseful moments because it is a lot planing vs planning showdown moments. Its about a story about a city with super powers with powers been very balance and instead of concentrating on power like fire and so, they focus on powers where you have to use tactics to use. A story about a government supervising these powers and how it might be obsolete, a story of righteousness, cruelty and selfishness....and time travel. The story its very solid. The characters, the foreshadow,the plot and the MC are very solid. The MC is very decisive and takes action. This story has a lot of shred of mystery where everything will be explained in the end. Music, openings and ending are very great too. There will be some people that will be turn off the series in the beginning for two main reasons. One this story, although not very heavy dialogue oriented, it will concentrate on this (which in my opinion they did incredibly great on), and many people like a lot of movement and action happening. Second a lot of the characters do not react like your usual anime characters, they are bit stoic. Although they do express their feelings compare to many other series, they might appear dull. I like the way the characters express themselves in this story for three reasons. First, when they finally react to their feelings exaggeratedly (compare to their usual mood) it elevates the scenes even more. Second the way the story is, and the plot, it is understandable, it will feel off if they will act like usual anime characters. Third, the way they express themselves is unique and refreshing, specially if you have seen a lot of anime. If you are interested in good plot, solid characters, decisive main character, time travel story, strategy vs strategy showdown, and great solid development and interaction between characters, this is your series.

The score for Sakurada Reset has being pretty low, BUT do not listen to them since they only watched 2 to 4 episodes and dropped- which will make no sense since the story takes places in ALL 24 EPISODES (NOT 4). This anime is unique and a true Masterpiece, I will recommend anyone to watch as the main Character- especially Asai Kei is really outstanding in knowledge. Great development and growth of character as they realize throughout the story who they are and the weaknesses, which is amazing. The art and sound are great as they appeal to each character perfectly 9/10, but with the story will just make it feel beautiful. Overall this is a true Masterpiece and will deserves anyone's time!