The good news about this episode of Sakura Quest is that the more forced conflicts in the last installment are toned down to more manageable levels weekly. Everyone's answers to Erika's want to leave town this week sense much less contrived than a number of the content that is creating did. Alas, the attempts at dramatic symbolism and platitudes are still put items on too thick, and the resolution to the town-restoring segment of the storyline is lackluster. All this ends in a story the series had to inform being implemented beneath Sakura Quest's usual standards.
Alleviating the compelled hostility of the atmosphere does help the beginning of the episode encounter strong, with good humor juxtaposition as half of the team hunts to the Golden Dragon, while the others speculate on how successful they will be (answer: not really). There is also a strong piece where Erika calls Shiori out on not needing all the answers in her strategy to leave the town, and I love how genuinely the series would like us to see both sides of this conflict. Everyone always has room to grow, according to Yoshino's funny minute of déjà vu when she scolds Erika. The ideas about growth are much better than the points this incident always reiterates about dreams. We get more information concerning the shuttering shopping district throughout (to be wrapped by the ending), however I can't help but feel all this fantasy speak has Sakura Quest coming off overly sentimental for its own good. The series's always had one foot planted in nostalgia nation, but like Shiori's inability to fully articulate why she likes Manoyama, the series appears to be using that sense for a crutch for actually demonstrating the charm of this town.
The series keeps driving at cheap symbolism throughout the incident, something that Sakura Quest has fought with throughout its conduct. Erika and Shiori bathe together (at a rather classy scene(frankly), bearing their feelings over their bodies. The section with Erika's loose baby tooth calling attention to her lingering feelings of being a child was a somewhat cleverer set up, but it's still also on the nose. At least everyone spat out their mobiles to look up information proved to be a wonderful scene hauled from the, nicely working together with Sakura Quest's real world atmosphere.
Having to go to the shopping-district pharmacy also lays the series' angle on local-town advantages on a little thick. It's a cute touch in relation to the focus on Erika, but the way the series keeps calling slightly too much attention to the shops makes them more of a distraction for this arc.
That primary plot does at least get an effective resolution, as the search for Erika's little brother lends a strong air of excitement for the climax and her return home afterwards delivers as well. That's two strong emotional monologues we've gotten from good voice actresses in as many episodes, and Erika's outburst gives this arc some of the better portrayals of kids in anime. Even if you don't find her relatable, you'll likely at least find Erika's frustrations understandable, and the following scene with her mother is endearing without being cloying. With all the other elements of this arc being more lackluster, you have to wonder if they couldn't have just cut all the Erika content into a single stronger episode. It's especially frustrating given all the smaller threads throughout the series that have coalesced into this storyline about the youth of Manoyama; it's an overarching plot that deserved a more consistently strong conclusion.
Indeed, the weakest part of the episode is its conclusion after wrapping up the shopping district subplot. While it's kind of neat that the lanterns from a few arcs back return (and the music as the team initially tours the sleepy district is very nice), the actual idea of just hanging the lamps from the closed shops doesn't do a lot for me. It's effectively sentimental, an emotion this arc has leaned into pretty hard, but it doesn't really accomplish anything for the tourism or commerce of the area; it just looks nice. It's the type of the idea the Tourism Board has pointedly been trying to move away from in this series, so to fall back on something like this just because the writers thought we needed some sort of resolution to this established problem smacks of cheapness. It's emblematic of the issues holding this whole storyline down, going for the most obvious answer when they could have spent a little more time coming up with a more nuanced solution.
At least I enjoyed the final fake-out with the Golden Dragon, bringing everything up a few points simply by feeling the episode feel less roped into a formula. It leaves me with hope for how the story of finding the 'real' Golden Dragon will turn out, almost as if the series itself were admitting it could do better than the water-treading it managed for two-thirds of this storyline. Even spelling out its final message of "You can't wait for somebody else to give your wishes, you need to take action yourself" bites of a series that knows it could do better and hopefully will. I would hate to watch Sakura Quest fumble at the conclusion simply by falling back on easy solutions.
Rating: B-
Sakura Quest is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Source : http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/sakura-quest/episode-22/.120762
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