Sakurada Reset

Kei Asai lives in the oceanside city of Sakurada—a town where the inhabitants are born with strange abilities. On the school rooftop one day, he meets Misora Haruki, an apathetic girl with the power to reset anything around her up to three days prior. While no one knows when she has reset, not even Haruki, Kei can retain everything before the reset thanks to his own ability: photographic memory. After they successfully help someone by combining their powers, they join the Service Club to aid others in their town.

However, their club becomes involved with and begins completing missions for the mysterious Administration Bureau—an organization that focuses on managing the abilities in Sakurada and manipulating the town's events for their own ends. They may find out that there are more things at work in Sakurada than the machinations of the uncanny organization.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Souma, Sumire Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Asai, Kei Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Haruki, Misora Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Nonoo, Seika Supporting

Misawa, Sachika Japanese

Urachi, Masamune Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Ukawa, Sasane Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Chiruchiru Supporting

Kawanishi, Kengo Japanese

Michiru Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Murase, Youka Supporting

Makino, Yui Japanese

Sakuin-san Supporting

Uetake, Kana Japanese

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Kajita, Kouji Producer

Tachizaki, Takashi Producer

Ogisu, Hirotsugu Producer

Reviews

Sep 13, 2017

balagergo

Recommended

Considering that an article on this very site, written somewhere around the end of last season, has already declared this show to be a "miss" at its halfway point (real professional work there, guys, next time you should just rank animes based on their announcement PVs), and that most viewers have already decided to drop the series in favour of the latest pseudo-hentai, harem LN adaptation, it might be far too late for me to write a review about this piece of work, killed before it ever had the chance to show its values, but I believe that Sakurada Reset deserves better.

First, let's acknowledge ... reality, the show is not the second coming of your local salvation-based deity, it is definitely not for everyone. If you believe that anime, as a genre, should be solely about unadulterated entertainment of the most vulgar degrees, little girls fighting each other to the death, cow-titted, blonde onee-sans snuggling up to virginal heroes of godlike powers, or whatever the fuck you people see in those Eromanga-senseis and whatnot, then you'd do best avoiding this series, you will only be disappointed and will possibly whine about it being boring, confusing and seriously lacking in infantile erotic tension.If you, however, think that this is one of the greatest mediums to give an experience equally stimulating visually and intellectually, capable of opening your eyes to completely different points of view, then I highly recommend the series.

The story itself is about presenting the numerous way the people of Sakurada relate to other's and their own abilities, and how encounters with one another influence personal growth. It's not a world-changing great adventure or a hard struggle between embodiments of good and evil, even the larger scale events are given a personal grasp, as they are significant to the individual, but only mere episodes for the world in which those individuals exist.
And that's where the main focus lies, the characters. Again, if you are looking for the usual character tropes and typical over-the-top voice acting you get from My Little Tsundere Princess Sister And The Magical Academy Of Lightshow Battles, then you will most definitely find all the characters boring and empty. Each and every member of the cast is constructed in a layered fashion, first only providing the means for a surface-level understanding of their personalities (and that's the point where most viewer gave the series a 2/10 and quit), only to open up for us as our eyes into their world, Kei, begins to unravel the circumstances that lead them to this point in their lives, our encounter with them changing their views significantly, later appearances showing glances of their growths by the end of the series.
In tandem with the aforementioned narrative focus, the characters of Sakurada Reset all act and emote in very human ways, they show subtle expressions while talking with normal tonality, the same way as any of us would in given conversations. Hell, one of the main point of the series is how the characters develop as they interact with others, the dialogues' unfolding nature serves this purpose perfectly, especially in Haruki's case, who goes from an extremely cold and emotionless presentation to become one of the most vibrantly expressive characters of the series.
Spoken lines do tend to be somewhat slow-paced and very philosophical in their nature, the characters often discuss thought experiments and theories in detail, and that too might be one of the reasons for the hasty abandonment of the series by those who mainly use philosophy books (provided that they ever held one in their hands) to find every single mention of a phallus, but in my opinion, they work in context, expand the narrative and fit the more contemplative tone of the series.

Another complaint aimed at the show was its visuals. Without going on a rant or a needlessly long-winded analysis (like I kinda did in the last section), it seems to me that these arguments could be connected to, yet again, the large masses' expectations. This is neither the diabetic world of moe animes, neither the visual orgies of a Shinkai Makoto or ufotable project, the colour scheme is a very relaxing one and the designs are in no way flashy or complicated. Despite all that, I can state with all honesty that the visuals are perfectly satisfactory. They don't draw attention away from the dialogues, are pleasant to look at and even without jaw-dropping animation, the proficient work of David Production often manages to create captivating imagery through the simplistic beauty found in the carefully composed frames.

There are many more to talk about when it comes to this series, but I don't think my dreary essay here is not the right way to approach the matter. Rather than that, I would like to encourage every single person who took their time to read this review to join the conversation and discuss this anime. I've been tastelessly positive in these (not so) brief paragraphs, there are many positives and negative to be found here, far more than I ever cared to mention, but I believe that all of that should be said and seen by many more than the few who humoured this narcissistic nerd for the time of a review.
If I could ask one thing from you, dear reader, I would like you to look beyond the premature denouncement and check out this anime, form your own opinion about it based on what you actually get and not on the popular trends that exist on an entirely different side of the medium!

Give Sakurada Reset the chance it never got, the chance to give its audience the experience it meant to!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 13, 2017

EnZanity

Mixed Feelings

Review contains slight spoilers about Masamune Urachi

Sakurada Reset was a painful but worthwhile experience. This may sound weird at first, but as this review goes on, I hope to make it clear to why I wrote that starting sentence. There are factors that I thought the show did really well, while there were others that ruined the show for me and caused the low average score and the large drop count.

The first half of the show was pretty much character introductions and build up. We learn about the town of Sakurada and the gifted people that live in it, following the lives of two high ... school students. Misora Haruki is a quiet girl who has the ability to save a moment in time for 3 days and reset everything back to that certain point, causing everyone to forget what had happened after she used her ability, including herself. Kei Asai is a quick thinking problem solver who has the ability to remember everything he has experienced, even stuff that happened during a reset. With the compatbility of their abilities, they go through each arc solving a new case and problem, introducing a new character and learning about their ability and personality. This is where the problems start. The personalities of each character feel incredibly empty. Most of them rarely show any sign of emotions, and the way they speak feels boring and monotone. The dialogue also manages to throw in philosophical questions like the Swampman and the Ship of Theseus. It feels unrealistic that a bunch of high school students are talking about these kinda topics, and it really takes you out of the anime. The fact that the characters are pretty much emotionless androids ruin any kind of drama that the first half tried to create, even though the drama itself was quite interesting and the way they used their abilities to solve them were quite clever. There are also quite a few scenes that feel pretty pointless to the overall story, and some characters that are introduced but having no real importance to offer. All these factors make the first half an incredibly tough ordeal to get through.

The second half is where the story really kicks in. To be more specific, the part where it really starts to pick up is the Eden arc. Old characters start to show a little more emotion, although not that much, while the painful dialogue slowly becomes more tolerable, even though they continue to use philosophical questions and monotone voices. I don't know if this is because the show's script got better or if I just got used to the way Sakurada's characters talk, but I could actually enjoy the anime more than I previously could. The drama feels more genuine as characters struggle to come to terms with the way others use their abilities, truly making it worth investing my time into this show. More characters are introduced and are still slightly unrealistic, but they also feel significantly better compared to the introductions in the first half, especially with the appearance of Masamune Urachi. Urachi is the director of the Administration Bureau's Management Department and becomes the main antagonist of the show. He has one simple goal he wants to achieve, to remove abilities from Sakurada. The show really lets you understand exactly why he wants to do this, and you slightly sympathise with him. Of course, our MC Kei wants to prevent this, and the clashing of their opposing ideals is what the show had been building up to. This is where the show really shines as both characters attempt to outsmart their opponents so they may reign triumphant. The ending is truly amazing as they use the abilities of their teams to solve the issues that had been made apparent in Sakurada.

In the end, I can't say for sure if I'd recommend Sakurada Reset to anyone. I'm glad I finished this show, but if I had to choose between rewatching it or forgetting it, I'd probably never be able to come to a decision. If you think you can endure the dialogue and characters and see what the story has to offer, I would definitely tell you to give it a shot and see if you like it or not. It's sad knowing if these things had been different, the anime would have been more well received and might possibly have become one of the best to come out of this year for me.

Thanks for reading, send feedback if you have any!

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 13, 2017

Werty800

Not Recommended

Hey, do you know that show called Monogatari? If you do, try to remember what Monogatari is like for a second. It's a show which is full of dialogues. It's a show which has most of its big moments resolved through dialogues. It's a show that was able to focus both on telling and showing at the same time, proving to many that "show don't tell" really isn't the be all end all for visual media like anime. Now take every person from the staff that worked on it, anyone that had any creative input in it, and give it to people who can't comprehend ... how to make it interesting at all. Oh, and don't forget to also get Takayama Katsuhiko to do the series composition. You know, the guy who wrote the script for Boku No Pico, and whose last big project was Big Order.
I have no legitimate idea who thought that this is the team that can be creative enough, to turn a light novel story, that's really heavy on exposition, slow and hard to consume on its own for sure, into a story inside of a visual medium, but let me tell you, they were wrong in all the worst ways imaginable.
Ladies, gentlemen, I present this review which I humbly wrote about a series, that I'm pretty sure had less passion while being developed, than I had while writing this analysis.

*Spoilers past this section*

Superpowers aren't a new idea, neither is one of them being controlled by the government, but there are titles coming out each year that are able to do some good with such topics. My Hero Academia, Captain America: Winter Soldier and the X-Men comics are just a few that immediately come to my mind. All of them have found a way to create worlds around such ideas and adapt their plot to play to its strengths. Sakurada Reset attempts to do it, but it fumbles at every point and every corner, creating a huge jumble of ultimate nothingness.

The story takes place in Sakurada, that has been a place where all sorts of powers have sprouted out of nowhere and have been taking the place by storm. The things have been calmed down and controlled by the Administration Bureau, that has been controlling and ministering over the area. Thanks to that, Sakurada is able to continue with its everyday flow and the abilities become a common thing, a part of everyday life. However, the trick is, the abilities do not spread, they're contained within Sakurada and everyone who walks outside of its boundary immediately loses all memories of them even existing.
One day, a boy by the name Asai Kei enters Sakurada, and it turns out that his ability is ultimate memory, which allows him to remember everything no matter how his memories are altered. Years pass, and one day, during school, he meets a girl - Haruki Misora - that can reset the world to the state at the time when she has last "saved". Combined, they are able to do great things, as Kei is able to plan out and fix problems that arise due to his perfect memory. Their story leads them to a lot of pain, a death of a friend, a fight against those who despise powers, but also the joy that they see through helping the community and the happiness they find in each other.

This show's problems are somewhat weird, especially pacing-wise. It begins two years before the actual events, when Kei, Haruki, and Sumire Souma meet and solve their first case together, which later one becomes a basis for them helping other people out. The pacing in those first episodes is extremely fast and unapologetic, it doesn't care if you didn't catch something, you're just supposed to have understood everything in between the stupidly fast transitions. Considering that those beginning moments of the show are supposed to introduce you to the concept of powers and set up the entire drama later on, I don't think I need to say much more about why that is a bad thing.
But to add salt to the injury, every problem that the show struggles with in general is present this early on as well, which is both weird and sort of funny at the same time.

That's because despite the fast transitions and scenes generally passing by like flies, the show is surprisingly slow in the delivery of each line. You can spot awkward pauses everywhere, there are those empty, 5-10 seconds breaks during dialogues. They really become apparent in the third and fourth arc, but they're there from the beginning, and they're quite hurtful to the flow of the conversation and the general pace of the anime. It feels like they're there to sort of fill out the time instead of doing something meaningful. You might ask "How is it possible that the early scenes go by so fast if the scenes themselves are so slow?". It's simple, the scenes are slow, but they're just short early on, and it's only later that it becomes a serious issue, as they start becoming longer. And what makes it worse, there's a distinct lack of anything interesting going on with the show's visuals.

At the very beginning of this review, I mentioned Monogatari, and I did that for the purpose of making you, the reader of this review understand something. If you've watched Monogatari you've obviously noticed its style, its distinct way with visuals and how it enhances dialogue that would normally feel dreadful and boring. There are tons of visual gags, characters screw around in the background, the art style changes on a lot of occasions, most metaphors are visualized and generally, the show is just interesting to look at, even though most of the information you get is through the characters talking. Despite the silliness, however, it's still able to maintain the seriousness and groundedness that Sakurada tries so hard to achieve with its "serious conversations" or the "focused visuals". Do you know why that is? Because its writing is good enough so that it's able to create those serious scenes whenever it wants to. Sakurada Reset feels like it doesn't believe in its writing or characterization enough for the viewer to continue following them through if there's something else going on on the screen. That wouldn't even be that bad, but the show looks horrendous. Everything is plain, the designs are boring and have absolutely nothing to them, the background art is often nonexistent or cut out due to the camera placement. The animation for what I'd say is over 60% of the show consists of still shots and characters with their moving mouths.

If the show's so boring to look at, my question is: why is it an anime? Why did this story have to be recreated in this medium? If the director has no inspiration to add any personality, humanity or individuality to the show, if the background artists are doing only what's necessary, if the show doesn't have anything special going for it visually, then what's the point of LOOKING at the show? Hell, this adaptation goes even further, as it HURTS the plot with the previously mentioned awkward, soundless pauses, the lack of emotions on character's faces, and the mostly uninspired designs of everything you look at. It just throws you off from the start and never draws you in again.

But those are technical things, those don't matter, right? Let's talk about...

NO!

People! Stop undervaluing the influence of the things you look at in anime. If the thing you're looking at does nothing to even attempt to adapt to the medium that IT CHOSE, then why should you, as a viewer, adapt to the way it's presented to even digest it? Goddamn Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979, freaking Serial Experiments Lain from 1998, name any other show from god knows how long ago, and all of them, despite looking like they're drawn in Microsoft Paint at times, are able to create style, atmosphere, and designs that integrate into the experience, creating a distinct feeling to them. Sakurada Reset is content with being the most limited and basic version of itself imaginable. It's fine with the bare minimum if it just means it can tell a story. Where's the passion? Where's the love for the project that you're working on? This show feels like it was more of a chore to make rather than something that anyone wanted to work on. It's disgusting, repulsive even. While watching, you can basically feel as if nobody wanted this project to work out. Well, maybe there's someone...

I'd argue that if someone feels like they tried it's the original creator. This is light novel writing through and through, and every amateur mistake is there. The lazy exposition where Kei or others go out of their character to explain things to the viewer; the lack of proper explanation of the powers, that leaves up countless possibilities, which end up feeling like conveniences; and the clear struggles of the author as he tries to get from point A to point B, desperately setting things so his vision can finally take place. He clearly had ideas and did some research, but he's just not a good writer. He lacks subtlety and understanding of the people he's catering to. He believes that if he didn't understand something before writing about it, then we also won't, so he forces explanation into the plot, be that either some storytelling term or a psychological one. He doesn't use those dialogues to contextualize the world or the characters, the most you'll get is that Kei reads philosophy, apparently. The author also ends up making the characters, especially the side cast, feel like devices to fit the finale rather than the fully realized ones. He gives them those mini-arcs that, he thinks, are enough to justify the characters' existence, but that's not true. It's hard to say if it's a case of lackluster experience, lack of time, or anything else, but even though the plot is a mess, you can't say it lacks ideas or creativity in what it ended up being. It's just the execution that sucks. Nobody thought about working out those issues.

Let me go back a little bit and talk about the way this show uses its characters. What I mentioned is unfortunately true to the core. Characters end up feeling like they exist just so that their power can be in the story, and the writer gave them interactions and moments so they won't be considered as plot devices. Bad news: they are still plot devices.
Despite quite a few characters that the show attempts to get through something, there are pretty much no implications for them before, during, or after they're done with the things they need to do. Their shown only when they're absolutely needed, in situations where it's necessary for them or their powers to exist. When Haruka needs to express emotions that she can't show to Kei, she talks with the cat girl that she met before. She never really seems to have any internalized monologues, none of the characters do, they have to express it out unless it's something that has to be explained to the viewer. Most lack stances on the world, they lack personalities and reasons to exist, it's impossible to see them actually live inside that world, outside of the events that the show presents. They're puppets, moving when they are picked up and put down when another puppet has to step in. Can you tell me what life does Ukawa lead? Can you tell me what personality does she showcase in conversations? What about Murase? Oka Eri? You can't. As I said, they are puppets, they're not characters, but the show pushes in this bullshit narrative and character arcs for each of them as if they were meant to be. They exist so that their powers can be used in the finale, that's it.

I said that the characters don't feel like they couldn't fit in casual situations, but are there situations like that in this show? To be honest, not at all, but the show tries to hide that fact. The problem is, it does it really poorly. I'd compare it to someone who's really fat trying to hide behind a pole. There's obviously a large part of his body sticking out. same goes for those "casual" conversations in Sakurada. They try to showcase those dialogues between Kei and Haruka, but all they or anyone for that matter talk about are psychological scenarios and terms. Let me show you two supposedly laid-back conversations from this show:

"Hey, what are you thinking about"
"Have you heard of the Swampman?"
"No, what is that?"
Proceeds to explain the entire idea of the Swampman

"Your notebook was new today"
"Yeah"
"It's almost like as if a new world was born today"
"You mean like the Five-minute Hypothesis?"
"Yes. It's a thought experiment...."

Both of them are clear and lazy attempts at explaining the viewer a concept that will appear or has already appeared in the story, NOT casual conversations that those two characters would have. I heard so many times that this show is good at foreshadowing or that it requires lots of thought to understand, but I can't fathom anyone thinking that this is well written in. The main character explains everything before you can even think, like that time when a monster appeared representing some character, and the MC just, straight up, explained his design. That design was probably the most creative thing that happened in this show ever since they introduced the concept of powers, but nope, you don't get to understand it, the show understands it for you. It's aggravating to me as the viewer, the show doesn't have to implement those explanations into the narrative, nobody needs to hear about what they're called unless the characters can develop perspectives on them, which in turn can lead to several narrative uses or make for interesting character studies. Of course, this show doesn't use them that way. Ever.

So if the casual conversations are ruined, and you can't enjoy thinking about the show since it's done for you, can you at least follow the mystery properly? No. The powers haven't been explored or given enough room for that to be available. Can you at least look at the things as they uncover, since the plot has some heart? Well, seems like you forgot that looking at it isn't fun at all too. Well, I think I can say this show is worthless now.

I said all that I needed to about Sakurada Reset in the last paragraph alone, there's very little that I can add to it. If something, I guess I have to commend it that it capitalizes off of the characters and lets them grow with the story, but again, that's only noticeable because the show decides "Oh well, they're different people now", not because it's something that comes naturally, that you can see for yourself through their choices and interactions. There's nothing in their behavior or thought process that changes, even though they underwent this "big" change. The same tone, the same facial expressions, the same mannerisms, the same thinking process, all remains just as it was. It's just that now, they apparently have a different opinion on something.

Overall this show lacks any sort of real value, both as an experience and as a piece of art.

And I'm done.

As always this is purely my opinion, but I can't encourage you to develop your own. Watch at your own risk.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Sakurada Reset - Anime vs Light Novel Hormoz - Mar 21, 2025	1 replies	by Chichi123 »» Oct 5, 2025 9:48 PM
	Poll: Sakurada Reset Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 13, 2017	116 replies	by yveltalkyogre »» Sep 17, 2025 4:50 AM
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