Sakura wars is a tough series to review; it is lacking, quite a bit, but, on the other hand, I loved it. The story is pretty unoriginal. A whole bunch of demons attack Tokyo, so there are a bunch of girls with tremendous amounts of spirit energy, that are brought to Tokyo pilot The Obba, which are neat steam powered robots. The Imperial Flower Division, (with the robots painted pink, yellow, purple and other girl colors) must defend Tokyo from demons and evil robots sent by the evil man. That's about it... Ok well, shall we start off with the bad things? First, the story is rather unoriginal. It would have worked though, if the OVA series held the story well together, but everything just seems so sporadic. I mean, the plot is just all over the place, and it skips some things that shouldn't be skipped and of course, some things that could've been skipped. For example, Sakura taking one whole episode to learn how to do a sword attack could easily have been skipped, or cut down, as it doesn't even influence the rest of the show. Also, a lot of battles are skipped. The series just says, oh this battle took place and so and so won. Why don't we get to see them? I would much rather see a great battle, then the Sakura practicing her sword attack or other things that really aren't needed for the series. The time taken for the other useless scenes could've been used for battles, explaining things (for example, one of the women goes to avenge her father's death and all of the sudden she is back in the next episode, with no mention about her father again... hmmm.) and giving the bad guy a larger presence.

That leads me to my second point. The bad guys are pretty non-existent. Sure, there are a few demons, but the people who are causing this demon war have I think about two one minute scenes in the whole two hours. I, honestly, have no idea what that bad guys look like or what their names are. Also, as I mentioned before, there is a serious lack of battles. There could have been some fantastic Tokyo shattering battles, but noooooooooooooooooooo. We have two battles, which are pretty exciting. One battle shows the girls unable to work together and the second one shows the girls working as a team. However, these two battles aren't that long and seem like battles that really aren't all that epic or heart stopping. (think of an RPG; there are two types of battles, the less exciting random encounters and the huge, exciting boss battles. The battles in Sakura Wars feel like random encounter battles.)

Sakura Wars is also pretty corny. Well, some of it anyway. Sakura Wars does get silly at times and it's great when it does, but when the series tries to be serious, it comes off as silly. For example, the attacks are pretty corny, and oh my god, don't even get me started on Sakura and Ohgami's double sword attack. It is so lame. It looks cool, but they say their attacks together and I just couldn't help rolling my eyes. There is also a lack of an ending. Someone comments in the movie that the evil is over, but I didn't see anyone kill any of the real bad guys. However, I know that this is only a prequel, and there is a second Sakura Wars 6 episode OVA series that, I believe, continues this series and will be released soon, I hope. So, this can be forgiven.

You know, if I didn't know that there was another OVA series, I would still be very angry about the lack of the ending. WHEW, those are the bad things, but Sakura Wars does have quite a few good things going for it. First off, the setting is fantastic. It is an alternate old Tokyo that has machinery powered by steam. It's almost like an industrial revolution time Tokyo. It's awesome. Second, the characters and character designs are fantastic. All the girls are very pretty and they all have different personalities. Each character is also very likable. In fact, I don't think there was one character I hated in this movie! The music is great too. The opening theme is fantastic and feels very James Bond-ish. The battle music and other music in the series is very nice too.

The animation is pretty simple, but it is very bright, cute and colorful. I like it. Also, the voice acting is great. Each character has an accent particular to her country and they are all very believable. (I love Iris' and Maria's French accents.) And last, the series is very entertaining. It is lacking, but I think the characters and silly fun that this series presents makes up for, at least for some of what the series lacks. While, I think the series could have been much better, I think it is one of the funnier, more fun and entertaining things I have seen in a while. And I think it would be much better as a TV series, to flesh out the story more, give the bad guys a bigger role and have more battles. (In fact there is a TV series and will be released in the U.S. soon.) The biggest strength of this movie is it's characters and if you like character development and the like then you should like this series, as it really is about the girls overcoming their problems, fears, and the fact that they all hate each other but find a way to work together at the end. However, if you like dark, serious stuff with intelligent, complex and coherent plots, then I think you will want to bypass this series. To be honest with you, I can't wait for the next OVA series and I am eagerly awaiting the 26 episode series to be released here.