The farming RPG Stardew Valley and slice-of-life anime Flying Witch are beautiful refuges from the hustle of everyday life. Their pleasant themes offer a magical perspective on rural living. But as nice as those are, animation studio P.A. Works’ (Shirobako, The Eccentric Family) newest anime, Sakura Quest, has a theme that I find to be generally more relatable and less dreamy.
Sakura Quest’s protagonist Yoshino Koharu puts it perfectly:
“I don’t care about my golden years, I want to be blessed now!”
Like Yoshino, I was desperate to get out of the midwest. I promptly moved out of old Oklahoma the morning after I received my college diploma; I needed to be in the thriving city with all its shining opportunities. Sakura Quest tackles this exact mindset from several different perspectives to challenge the youthful ambition of escaping small town life. It’s humbling, funny, and makes me wish I would have appreciated my time living not too far from cows a little more. Its differences from Stardew Valley and Flying Witch make it a wonderful follow-up to their idealistic rural towns.
After applying to nearly 30 companies, Yoshino Koharu can’t find a job in Tokyo. She fought hard to get out of her hometown and into the city, and she refuses to give up on her new lifestyle. She ends up accidentally accepting a year-long position as Queen (a vague, project lead role) on a failing small town’s tourism board, effectively going against everything she was working for. While much of the first two episodes are about her denial of her new position, Yoshino’s ease into the role isn’t surprising. But Sakura Quest really finds its footing through scenarios that test each of Yoshino’s friends to confront their new, failed, and wandering career aspirations.
Each of the five women starring in Sakura Quest (Yoshino, Shiori, Maki, Ririko, and Sanae) have a unique connection with the rural town Manoyama. While Shiori and Ririko lived all their lives in the town, the other three lived in Tokyo. We learn more about them first; Maki was a relatively unsuccessful actress that did all sorts of jobs in the city to make ends meet. She eventually returned home to Manoyama. Sanae is a web developer from Tokyo who worked ridiculous hours to the point where she had to check herself into the hospital. She retreated to Manoyama to give the rural lifestyle a try.
Sanae is particularly relatable with her efforts to make her new life in Manoyama look much more appealing than it actually is. She gloats about her new, peaceful life on her blog when in reality she was living in fear of the bugs slowly taking over her home and she spent most of her time alone. Her hidden loneliness echoes the curated social media culture all too well, and much of her story reminds me of what happens to the player character in Stardew Valley.
They celebrate their hard work – and sometimes console their failure – with beer.
As the ladies come together to respark Manoyama’s tourism, each woman takes on a specific duty on the team. Yoshino acts as the leader since she’s the Queen, but it’s obvious that if she’s going to succeed, she’s going to need her new friends’ help. Through their various roles and tons of silly scenarios (like, you know, attempting to make a chupacabra-themed snack popular or competing in a mascot contest) they learn more about themselves and the town. I’m especially a fan of the scenes where they celebrate their hard work – and sometimes console their failure – with beer.
Sakura Quest does slow down a bit after Yoshino gets over the shock of her new job, and some episodes feel a little sporadic too. But much like Stardew Valley or Flying Witch, Sakura Quest ends up feeling like a comforting cup of tea. It’s mellow, but it’s sweeter moments really hit home.
Sakura Quest is scheduled to have 25 episodes and is airing weekly on Crunchyroll with subtitles and on Funimation with an English dub.
Miranda Sanchez is an Editor at IGN. You can chat with her about anime and video games on Twitter.
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