Check-in Station: Sakura Trick ep1 (I can’t believe I’m saying this…)
Where to start with this unique little series?
Haruka and Yuu are friends going back to their middle school days. They’re now entering a new high school together and… and… well, I really wasn’t paying too much attention to the stuff about their past or their current situation too much. Let’s just say that they’re in a new school now, of course an all-girl school, and there will be hijinks, shenanigans and lots of physical displays of affection. And you can bet that along the way, their new friends will join in on the action – the comedic action.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this little yuri show. On one hand, it’s bright, vibrant and cute. It gives me lots of girl on girl kissing, which is extra cool, but it also seems to be missing something. It’s not terribly funny, either.
It’s strange for me to say this, but I need more from my yuri anime than really good kiss scenes and cute faces. I can’t even believe I’m typing this stuff myself! I should be ecstatic that the girls all have somewhat distinct personalities and are pretty much already paired up. I should love that their character designs are cute and sexy at the same time. I should love that I got like FIVE good yuri kisses in an anime, when at best I get one in an entire year! It just shows that I’m holding this show to some imaginary standard that I won’t admit to yet. It certainly does make me miss Love Lab though. While I started watching that show with the mistaken belief that it would be a yuri comedy, the actual comedy and characters made me not care in the long run. Right here, I find myself immediately wishing for that same sort of chemistry and atmosphere here.
Maybe I should just let go of these pretenses of quality and just look at this show like I look at summer action flicks. Maybe I just need to drop my standards and enjoy the spectacle. It would be nice if I could do that, or the show could show me that it’s a little bit deeper, but I’m not holding my breath on that.
For now, just expect me to keep up with this series in AniFriday posts at least until I figure out if this show is worth watching past the first four or five episodes.
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Random Member of My Harem
the Check-in Station 
Ain’t an all-girls school, man. They had a whole screen showing the class’ gender breakdown even. I agree with you though. The relationship doesn’t have enough establishment, so the kisses – while really nice – just come off as nothing.
Sorry about that. I guess the males in this show left so little an impression that I forgot about them. I’ll correct that
I watched the first half of the first episode just out of curiosity. Visually, I think it’s a really nice show, and if its viewers are out to get the Japanese version of slow-motion pillow fights and whatever else it is that faux-lesbians do, then I still think it’s probably pretty good. I’m clearly not the intended audience though – if I watch yuri at all, it’s in the hope that I can see something approaching emotional realism (e.g. Aoi Hana). I won’t critisise Sakura Trick for obviously not doing so, since I highly doubt that that’s its objective, but suffice to say I’ve now watched enough to know that it’s really not my type of series.