Probably because I’ve been “baking” lately after having given it up in my youth because there’s nothing I like about it, I have grown nostalgia about a variety of things. Digging through my CDs for things to listen to during drastic bouts of boredom while in the kitchen I came across my Sakura Taisen cds. I have a handful but I think that they must have put out upwards of 30 by now. Probably not 100 though. Probably. This prompted me to dig out my Sega Dreamcast for a trip down memory lane.
It’s debatable why I would be interested in that game series, but as far as those things go it’s not too bad anyway. I think the series really peaked with the 3rd game (though I might be biased, that one was probably my favorite). The 4th game was kind of a mess, and I haven’t bothered to play any of the games since then, including the actual new games that they put out on PS2 (notably the 5th game in the series). I’m not actually sure whether 5 was complete unto itself, whether there will ever be a 6th game, or whatever as a result. But I’m pretty sure that the series has really waned in popularity lately due to a variety of factors. Like the aging of the original cast, the aging of the fans, staff changes, Sega’s decline, cultural shifts, industry shifts, etc. Honestly the massive nature of the series was probably its greatest asset and liability.
It’s worth mentioning that the reason I started thinking about the series so much again after 5 years is that one of things that stands out to me the most about the music is that the majority of it was actually legitimately composed properly and intended for and recorded using real instruments which is ridiculously rare (well okay the games still used MIDI or whatever but all the side stuff was pretty serious). For the most part the members of the main cast could all actually sing as well. The quality of their voices is debatable, most problems come because of stupid inflections and accents used for character (I can’t listen to any of the Iris stuff), but they really are singing. It’s comparatively pretty rare for voice actors to sing well, even fairly popular ones. I think singing is kind of in a decline in general, but then again the first sakura taisen stuff is almost 12 years old now. Which makes me wonder if the reason I like the ST stuff is that it doesn’t matter if japan is 10 years behind the rest of the world musically if its doing music from almost 100 years ago.
Well no musing would be complete without a pointless run down of the female characters. Why did I play these games again?
Sakura: fool, default/titular sword girl.
Sumire: stuck up rich girl.
Kanna: male gorilla karate girl. A pretty unique character then and now I think. Probably the consistently worst outfitted and drawn character.
Maria: man+old maid type+russian+also questionably outfitted and drawn at times.
Iris: Annoying lolita (I always thought that it was really creepy that they had such a young character but lolita characters have almost become a requirement in japanese works like this since then so I’ve gotten used to it I guess?)
Kouran: Bespectacled overworked genius exploited chinese migrant worker with a kansai accent.
Orihime: another stuck up rich girl, speech is peppered with what’s supposed to be italian… To me she’s the most out of place and redundant character, I guess her antagonistic nature is supposed to be a comedic device.
Reni: A little boy with girl parts, somewhat the polar opposite of Iris.
Erica: Moronic comic relief (ST3’s default girl). Whether she or Iris is the most annoying is a subject of debate going on in my mind right now. The only particularly religious chracter if I’m not mistaken.
Glycene: another stuck up rich girl, only this time she’s an actual noble and carries a giant axe around which she constantly attacks people with.
Hanabi: Gloomy and timid widow. I think they made her a widow because she was too plain otherwise.
Coquelicot: The lolita of ST3, more tomboyish than Iris but less actually boyish than Reni. I actually thought her character was pretty good but why was she the most reliable character in the paris group? I don’t think anyone has confidence when they write her name in english or japanese コクリコ.
Lobelia: Dangerous woman. Probably the most amusing character, the supposedly manly character of the paris group, that intent is ruined by her somehow being the most licentious character as well. About the opposite of Maria, she gets into it with almost all the other characters (I am not remembering her and Coquelicot being particularly antagonistic), including the protagonist character Oogami. The source of all the actual comedy in ST3, seeing as Erica’s blundering is supposed to account for the rest.
Well. I thought that some of the side characters were better than the main cast, but that might just be an exposure issue. The one thing I’ll say about this series is that even though Oogami is a bit boring, at least there are actually reasons why girls would fall for him since he’s actually a commendable and competent character. Which is more than can be said of most “harem” series which have worthless male protagonists.
Ah I remember part of the reason I played the games now. At the time it was not a bad way, along with the Super Robot Taisen series, to familiarize myself with japanese. Playing ST4 for the first time in years I realize that my japanese comprehension is a lot better than I thought it was even though for some reason I still can’t speak or write it properly.
As a side note I haven’t seen all the anime related to the series because I frankly didn’t care that much, but I thought that the tv series was a decent alternate rendition. At least I enjoyed it. And that’s what I always say life is all about. If you’re not laughing you’re not winning and all that.
