Sakura Quest

Sakura Quest サクラクエスト(Sakura Quest) is an anime about a girl named Yoshino who is a model looking for a job in Tokyo. After failing to find a job for a while, her agency calls her to say she was specifically requested for a special job in Manoyama, a town in the countryside. Upon getting there, she learns her job has her act as the ‘Queen’ of a micro-nation for a year. As the Queen, her purpose is to increase tourism to the town. After a brief crisis, she decides to do her best as the Queen. Over time, she gains a number of ‘ministers’ to help her with her job. Their goals eventually shift from ‘tourism’ to ‘revival’.
This anime unexpectedly appealed to me on multiple levels so…well, I’m afraid to say this but…it’s probably one of my favorites. That said, I think that, quality-wise, it’s below Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako…y’know, its two sister series.

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Review

Most of Sakura Quest is assembled from various 2-parters. Each 2-parter is focused on something specific…usually a character and their issues, tying them to Manoyama in some fashion. For example, the first two episodes of the series were focused on Yoshino, while a later 2-parter was focused on the ‘Minister of IT’ and a nearby village’s unique culture.
Initially, Sakura Quest appealed to me because I could relate to Yoshino. Yoshino is a country girl who thinks life in the country is pretty boring because ‘everything is in the city’. While I’m not exactly a ‘country guy’, I do live in the country and still somewhat hold this attitude today, though to a lesser degree. I’d articulate it more as ‘what I want isn’t in the country but at least it’s pretty here’. On top of that, I found the ‘philosophy’ of this show closely aligned with my own…though I don’t remember specifics and it has been a while since I watched it.
Sakura Quest has a somewhat depressing start: the town had been in decline for decades. Many of the ‘schemes’ attempted by the tourism office in the first half of the series end up failing or falling short. Despite all this, there’s an optimistic attitude - embodied by Yoshino especially - which eventually leads to a revival of the town. Interestingly, this revival is achieved through the revival of an old town festival.
Among the issues I noticed in the series…the music is sometimes out-of-place and I’m not really sure some of it fits Sakura Quest. There is also some sci-fic technology (powered suits) which I just find ridiculous…they really shouldn’t have included them.
I don’t think there were any significant writing issues besides, y’know it being incredibly convenient that Sandal-san’s hometown’s mayor happens to be in Japan during the festival and he’s not too far away from Manoyama. This is made worse by the fact he’s needed to preserve Manoyama by declaring it a sister-city to Sandal-san’s hometown. That itself is a bit weird since Manoyama’s dissolution/reorganization into another entity was revealed just a few episodes prior. This all just feels cheap. Though it’s completely possible that I just didn’t notice the other issues.
I do still recommend watching the series.