It’s those daydream days in a daydream nation, or mini nation, hyper nation. Hyper station. We got some more countryside slice of life from P.A. Works our way, let’s hope it’s better then Glasslip….
To restore the community, Sakura Quest is the story of Yoshino Koharu, a 20 year old girl who’s applied and been turned down for 30 jobs. One day she gets a call to do work at a run down country side, once a mini-nation of sorts, becoming the Queen for a once popular tourist attraction, the Kingdom of Chupakabura. What she thought was a one time job turns out to be a year long deal, now Yoshino’s countryside adventures begin.
This was a nice first episode! Yoshino grew up in a countryside but moved to Tokyo for action. After failing to get a job she ends up in a dead town with the job of helping revive the once active community. Turns out she was mistaken for an old time idol, and wasn’t even meant to be called. But now she’s stuck there and I suppose countryside adventures will ensue. This was a well paced episode, slowly introducing us to Yoshino, a fairly reversed character in a loud environment. There are more main characters but we’ve only met the weirdo manager who chills in a sleeping bag. Running the whole thing is passionate old man Ushimatsu Kadota who Yoshino straight up gives a heart attack later in the episode.
It’s an instantly compelling and fun cast of characters, and the dynamic of turning this old countryside back on is a premise that can lead to lots of nice small town themes. Yoshino has very muted reactions and acts incredibly normal, so by putting her in this setting with odd characters it makes for a nice grounded feel. It’s a P.A. Works show, the animation is nicely done and the character designs are good. The OP is good and the ED is especially awesome. Sakura Quest sets up to be a promising show with a lot of potential for nice small town slice of life action! I’m so down for this!
The Manimal