Sakura Quest - Volume 1 - Manga Review - Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Given that this blog will be turning 10 years old next year, I want to expand my content. Aside from anime reviews and Japanese video games, I will cover some Japanese manga. I imported 9 volumes from different series, mostly leaving where the anime left off. All the manga I bought are Manga Time Kirara series.

With that, the first I will review is the manga adaptation of Sakura Quest.

Author: Kohinata Iroha (小日向いろは)

Publisher: Manga Time KR Comics (Serialized in Manga Time Kirara Forward)

Original Release Date: May 12, 2017

Where to Buy: CDJapan

Plot Summary (Warning: Spoilers!):

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
The first chapter focuses on the heroine, Koharu Yoshino. During her childhood, she was made the ruler of a kingdom. After she recollect on of that event, she is on the train heading to Manoyama thinking it’s a one-day gig. She has interviewed for 20 jobs in Tokyo. However, none of them resulted in a job offer. When she arrived, she saw a group of people welcoming her with confused looks. It appeared that they made a mistake since Yoshino’s name look familiar to the person they intended to pick. However, the person they wanted already passed away. Despite this, Yoshino went long with the gig. After Yoshino went through the crowning ceremony, Shiori eventually shows Yoshino to her dorm. This is where she finds out from Maki that her gig is not a one-day affair, but a 1-year term. With that, she attempts to go back to Tokyo, but fails. The bus driver calls Kodota and he eventually calls Shiori, who is getting out of the shower relaying the message that Yoshino is attempting to escape. Shiori and Kodota tries to make Yoshino stay. Instead of Yoshino taking the sword and defeating Kodota as Chupakabura, she hits him with a bag, which sends him to the hospital. In the end, Yoshino couldn’t get back into the dorm. With that, she decides to stay at the palace. This is where Yoshino finds out that she was there before during her childhood. She eventually sleeps at the throne while wearing the cape and the crown. When Yoshino came in the next day, she is happy that Yoshino decided to stay. The second chapter focuses on the task Kodota assigned her. Kodota receives a shipment of 1000 boxes of Chupakabura Manju at the palace, which he ordered too much of. He makes Yoshino an offer to sell all the product within one week in order to have her contract voided. With that, she enlists help from Sanae, who worked on the website, Ririko for research, and Maki, who set up the stand. Sadly, the girl’s efforts were fruitless, despite the video generating a lot of views. With Yoshino passing the deadline, she decides to open a box to try one out. After eating one, she finds them delicious. With that, the girls treat themselves to the sweet buns. Eventually, the girls decided to distribute them to the towns people. In the third chapter, Yoshino is riding in a car with Shiori as Kodota drives like they are in a parade. They caused a ruckus in town, which causes Ririko’s grandmother, Chitose to become annoyed. After Yoshino finished an interview with someone from TV, it didn’t go well since she doesn’t know about Manoyama. Eventually, Yoshino went around town with Shiori to learn what needs to be changed in Manoyama. Of course, the town’s people want to keep the status quo. Shiori and Yoshino returned to the dorm and they saw Sanae and Maki eating lunch. They were eating turnips, which is Manoyama’s specialty. Shiori eventually shows a picture of the old mascot, Turnip kid on her smart phone. She reveals that Chupakabura replaced him during the UMA craze. The next day, Yoshino is participating in a mascot competition with Kodota. Kodota realizes that the mask for Chupakabura’s costume is missing. Shiori, Maki and Sanae tried to look for it, but their search was fruitless. Ririko eventually comes to help them and suggest using the turnip kid costume. Sanae eventually finds a video showing turnip kid making children cry in a hall. Either way, the girls managed to find the costume and brought it over. Meanwhile, one of staff members found the mask at the garbage processing plant. Of course, Kodota is not going to wear it. Thankfully, the girls bought the Turnip kid’s costume on time. However, Kodota makes a big fuss about it. Eventually, he puts it on. Afterwards, Yoshino gives her speech saying that Manoyama didn’t care about either mascot. Afterwards, she makes a commitment to find the special thing in Manoyama with the help of the town’s people. After the event ended, the girls celebrated. Yoshino asks Kodota if she can have her new friends help her out with her work. Kodota accepts. The Omake focuses on the girls trying out special turnip sushi, which is already split into four pieces.

Spoiler Inside

Select Show

The first chapter focuses on the heroine, Koharu Yoshino. During her childhood, she was made the ruler of a kingdom. After she recollect on of that event, she is on the train heading to Manoyama thinking it’s a one-day gig. She has interviewed for 20 jobs in Tokyo. However, none of them resulted in a job offer.

When she arrived, she saw a group of people welcoming her with confused looks. It appeared that they made a mistake since Yoshino’s name look familiar to the person they intended to pick. However, the person they wanted already passed away. Despite this, Yoshino went long with the gig.

After Yoshino went through the crowning ceremony, Shiori eventually shows Yoshino to her dorm. This is where she finds out from Maki that her gig is not a one-day affair, but a 1-year term. With that, she attempts to go back to Tokyo, but fails. The bus driver calls Kodota and he eventually calls Shiori, who is getting out of the shower relaying the message that Yoshino is attempting to escape. Shiori and Kodota tries to make Yoshino stay. Instead of Yoshino taking the sword and defeating Kodota as Chupakabura, she hits him with a bag, which sends him to the hospital.

In the end, Yoshino couldn’t get back into the dorm. With that, she decides to stay at the palace. This is where Yoshino finds out that she was there before during her childhood. She eventually sleeps at the throne while wearing the cape and the crown. When Yoshino came in the next day, she is happy that Yoshino decided to stay.

The second chapter focuses on the task Kodota assigned her. Kodota receives a shipment of 1000 boxes of Chupakabura Manju at the palace, which he ordered too much of. He makes Yoshino an offer to sell all the product within one week in order to have her contract voided. With that, she enlists help from Sanae, who worked on the website, Ririko for research, and Maki, who set up the stand.

Sadly, the girl’s efforts were fruitless, despite the video generating a lot of views. With Yoshino passing the deadline, she decides to open a box to try one out. After eating one, she finds them delicious. With that, the girls treat themselves to the sweet buns. Eventually, the girls decided to distribute them to the towns people.

In the third chapter, Yoshino is riding in a car with Shiori as Kodota drives like they are in a parade. They caused a ruckus in town, which causes Ririko’s grandmother, Chitose to become annoyed. After Yoshino finished an interview with someone from TV, it didn’t go well since she doesn’t know about Manoyama. Eventually, Yoshino went around town with Shiori to learn what needs to be changed in Manoyama. Of course, the town’s people want to keep the status quo.

Shiori and Yoshino returned to the dorm and they saw Sanae and Maki eating lunch. They were eating turnips, which is Manoyama’s specialty. Shiori eventually shows a picture of the old mascot, Turnip kid on her smart phone. She reveals that Chupakabura replaced him during the UMA craze.

The next day, Yoshino is participating in a mascot competition with Kodota. Kodota realizes that the mask for Chupakabura’s costume is missing. Shiori, Maki and Sanae tried to look for it, but their search was fruitless. Ririko eventually comes to help them and suggest using the turnip kid costume. Sanae eventually finds a video showing turnip kid making children cry in a hall. Either way, the girls managed to find the costume and brought it over.

Meanwhile, one of staff members found the mask at the garbage processing plant. Of course, Kodota is not going to wear it. Thankfully, the girls bought the Turnip kid’s costume on time. However, Kodota makes a big fuss about it. Eventually, he puts it on. Afterwards, Yoshino gives her speech saying that Manoyama didn’t care about either mascot. Afterwards, she makes a commitment to find the special thing in Manoyama with the help of the town’s people. After the event ended, the girls celebrated. Yoshino asks Kodota if she can have her new friends help her out with her work. Kodota accepts.

The Omake focuses on the girls trying out special turnip sushi, which is already split into four pieces.

As you expected from the plot summary, the manga adaptation follows the anime adaptation for the most part. However, there are subtle differences with the manga and the anime. The noticeable ones are Yoshino failing her interviews and running out of money. These events happened before Yoshino set out to Manoyama. In the manga, Yoshino had a flashback during her failed escape to Tokyo. Another difference is that in 2^nd chapter, Yoshino didn’t sell any sweet buns. In the anime, she only managed to sell a few.

Compared to the rest of the girls, Shiori receives the most fan service.

Of course, compared to the anime, there is some fan service, especially with Shiori. This is not surprising since she is well endowed. There is one scene in particular where Shiori’s breasts rested on a box she is carrying it. It’s done in a similar manner like with Shion from Slow Start.

It continues with Shiori answering the phone while getting out of the shower.

Of course, it doesn’t stop there since Shiori answered her cellphone with a towel wrapped around her in the bathroom. This does not happen in the anime as Kodota answered the phone.

This scene gives some the impression of a Maki and Sanae pairing.

It doesn’t end there. There is also the scene where the girls besides Ririko becomes drunk. The way Sanae acts is hilarious, more so in the omake when she asks Maki to feed her a piece of the sushi. While Maki refuses, I guess this moment might get some hopes up for some who have yuri goggles on.

As for the artwork itself, I have to admit that it’s good and pretty close to the art style of the anime. It looks pretty detailed as well. This is evident with the way how Iroha adapted the commercial video for the Chupakabura manju.

Overall, while there are some differences from the anime, I have to admit that the first volume of Sakura Quest’s manga adaption is good. Sure, it has more fan service compared to the anime. With the artwork quality and the story being faithful to the most part to the anime, it’s definitely worth taking a look at the first volume if you watched the anime. ¶

2 Comments… read them or add your own.

Kris says:

March 9, 2018 at 5:14 pm • Magical Level: 2

I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this series, especially considering it has an anime and manga adaptation. I definitely want to give it a try soon, because it seems like a really interesting series. I’ve been seeing a lot of really cool series recently though. One that I’ve really been into is The Knight of The Falling Star. It’s about a man from the fae realm who’s training to become a knight. The last thing he has to do before he can become a knight is to travel to the human world. He’s excpecting to find a medieval era when he travels over, so he’s shocked to find a modern world. The series is following his journey in the human world, and the relationship that he’s building with a human girl who’s his exact opposite. I definitely recommend trying it out if you’re looking for a new fantasy series to read.

- chikorita157 says:
  
  March 11, 2018 at 5:51 pm • Magical Level: 2457
  
  I forgot to mention that this manga is based on the Anime. It’s one of PA Work’s work comedy series that focuses on five girls working on reviving a town, which aired back in 2017. With that, most people will know about the anime rather the manga, especially since it’s not localized yet.
  
  As always, I will consider suggestions in the future when I finish my big backlog. For the time being, I am focusing on manga series of shows I already covered on the blog to at least get my feet wet since I haven’t read any manga before this. I appreciate the suggestion.