English Dub Review: Sakura Quest “Off to Magical Mayonama”

A down to earth show with the warmth of a small town and the humor of the big city.

Spoilers Below

Yoshino Koharu has a singular memory stuck in her head. Being crowned queen as a child, and adored by all the people. That memory fuels her, even though it feels like a dream. She can’t stay in her rural home anymore, and after finishing junior college tries to get a job in Tokyo. Tries and fails. But, she’s given one more chance. The tourism board of the small town of Mayonama has asked for by name to be their “queen” as a publicity stunt to jump-start their economy. She accepts. This town is way off in the sticks, and its people are a bit behind the times. Really, they had wanted to ask for someone else, but that actress was long dead. Luckily, Yoshino got the job for having a last name with remarkably similar kanji. The town’s big attraction is “The Kingdom of Chupakabura”: a play on the Japanese word for root vegetables and the Central American monster Chupacabra. She sticks through the coronation and goes to the log cabin dorm for some rest. That’s when she discovers her terrible mistake.

In not reading her contract, she missed that the term for this job is not a day, but an entire year! Realizing that keeping this job will keep her in this podunk town for a whole year and end her prospects of a management job in Tokyo, she heads for the hills. The townspeople head her off, trying to reenact the backstory of their Kingdom of Chupacabra, with her as the hero! Realizing that the monster is just a dude in a castoff monster suit from a Tokusatsu stage play, she opts not to draw the “mystic sword” but instead to beat him with her luggage instead. The man in the suit was the man who would be her supervisor, and she just put him in the hospital. Still needing a place to sleep the night, but having been locked out of the dorm, she returns to the tourist trap to sleep. There, she spots a photo. It’s her as a child, being crowned queen of Chupacabra Kingdom! Her memory was real, and it was here! Though she still isn’t sure that she wants to stay here a whole year, her connection gives her pause to at least give us another episode.

This show feels like a sweeter, less insane Parks and Rec. And that’s a compliment. Though the plot twist at the end was telegraphed at the start, the overall story is still a bit of a mystery to me. I have no idea where we are going to go from here, and I like that. I mean, I know she’s gonna stay, probably even after her year is up, but what brings us there is still in the air. The town is loaded with quirky, but not completely outlandish, characters. Even the town stoner/troubadour is down to earth enough that he’s completely believable, despite the nonsense he spouts. Seeing just a few people we have just gives the whole place a feeling of home. The character dialogue is well written and well translated.

The animation doesn’t show off very much. It’s completely traditional animation all the way, which is to be expected with P.A. Works. Though they’ve had plenty of anime of their own over the years, they’ve also been the in-betweeners for a variety of very popular anime, such as Blood + and Eureka Seven, and have partially produced the animation for the Professor Layton games. They know this show is a slice of life and doesn’t really need a ton of high-action motion. Instead, they focused on doing the little things consistently. They took it a little slower on this one and turned out a solid piece without obvious flaws. The art style is rather close to mainstream, but the details of the mouths are really cute to me, and each character has uncomplicated personality baked right into their design. The characters don’t go overboard with emoting, leaving a few scenes feeling as if the animation was lacking punch, but this was intentional. Nobody goes hog wild with emoting their feelings when they talk. I mean, other than me.

Instead, this show brings in some good vocal talent and lets the voices do the heavy lifting. Alexis Tipton (Yoshino), Tia Ballard (Shiori), and Mark Stoddard carry this show’s emotions in their voices, making each of these main characters not only feel believable as a person but as a person who has something they are passionate about in life. I was actually a bit taken with Tia’s performance, just sitting there talking in a car. That was a character with a spirit right there, and a spirit that belonged to that sleepy hamlet. I think that’s what this show is really about anyways. Finding something you’re passionate about right where you are and pursuing it. This is an earthy, feel-good anime, and I like that I look forward to seeing more of. My only real complaint is that it feels as if very little happened in the episode, but I think that may change as we go. I give it seven Chupacabras out of ten.