I went into Sakura no Toki with my expectations through the roof and needless to say those expectations were met, no they were surpassed in every sense. The comedy which was lacking in Sakura no Uta was good in Sakura no Toki no moment felt stale and no moment felt hollow. The narrative in Sakura no Toki builds off of its prequel (obviously) but not only as a story but it takes what Sakura no Uta was lacking (pacing, cast, and comedy) and perfected it and needless to say made those aspects some of the best factors of the experience. Sakura no Uta was lacking in its side cast most of the side characters were not their own person they felt hollow and had no HEART, but Sakura no Toki took those side characters (Kana, Rin, Nei, etc) and made them into fully fledged characters that I can personally call some of my favorites. As for the narrative of Sakura no Toki it is phenomenal; it adds new characters and builds phenomenal dynamics with Naoya and the other members of the cast, and adds a thought provoking true route in the second half of the narrative with IV-VI. All in all Sakura no Toki takes what Sakura no Uta layed down and explores and builds upon it and ends the story of Naoya Kusanagi and Kei Natsume with one of the best and most emotional endings i’ve ever witnessed. Thank you SCA-DI, and thank you KeroQ for giving me the opportunity to read this grand narrative of happiness and anguish, a story of a genius chosen by god and a genius abandoned by god. Thank you for showing the bliss of life and art. And most of all thank you for your hard work.

“Sakura no Uta” may be considered the spiritual successor to Subahibi (made by the same author), however I fail to see it as anything but it trying to live off the back of it’s predecessor, doing the same things it did but more “family friendly” which completely reduces the message to utter incoherent nonsense which holds no true meaning and is just bait for wannabe philosophers. The story is a drag, they completely failed to keep it quick and conscise and rather opted for a manner of storytelling never seen before since Sword Art Online. And the characters… don’t get me started on the characters. Thats for another day. Overall, 2/10 it only gets those 2 points due to it having some good art sometimes, and even that is subject to change because in retrospect it doesn’t even look that good.