Sakura Trick

桜Trick

7.5(2)

OtakuDen

7.0(128,167)

MAL Score

Ranked #5111

Popularity #1026

Comedy
Girls Love
School

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Jan 10, 2014 to Mar 28, 2014
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Haruka Takayama and Yuu Sonoda have been inseparable since middle school, so enrolling together at Misato West High School feels like the natural next step. Their plans are immediately tested when they’re placed in the same class but seated at opposite ends of the room—and with the school set to close in three years, they’re part of its final group of incoming first-years. Even so, Haruka is determined to stay close to Yuu and fill their time with memories that matter.

Yuu’s laid-back charm quickly draws the attention of other girls in their class, stirring Haruka’s jealousy and anxiety. Wanting to ease her friend’s insecurities, Yuu shares an unexpectedly intimate kiss with Haruka in an empty classroom, redefining what it means for them to be “special friends.” As their closeness deepens, their relationship begins to shift in ways that bring both tenderness and new complications.

Otaku Consensus

Sakura Trick earns its cult affection by doing what many schoolgirl comedies of its era only implied: it puts yuri romance on-screen and lets Kenichi Ishikura’s brisk, vignette-friendly direction turn that intimacy into both comedy and emotional currency. Reception is warm but not rapturous — MAL’s 6.95 and AniList’s 66 reflect a show valued by genre fans for its directness and low-drama pacing, while the main criticism is that its repetitive kiss-comedy structure and light ecchi framing keep it from developing the deeper coming-of-age material it gestures toward.

Why You Should Watch

Sakura Trick is for viewers who wish the teasing in schoolgirl slice-of-life comedies would stop winking and actually become the text. If YuruYuri’s comic energy is your comfort zone but Bloom Into You’s heavier introspection is more than you want tonight, this lands in the candy-colored middle: openly yuri, low-stakes, and built around short bursts of classroom awkwardness, jealousy, and punchline timing. Studio Deen and Kenichi Ishikura treat the material less like prestige romance than a fast, glossy CGDCT sitcom where intimacy is the gag, the reward, and the source of panic. Its appeal is precision niche: female-cast school comedy, no sprawling melodrama, no “are they or aren’t they?” evasiveness, and enough sincerity that the kisses don’t feel like disposable fanservice.

Key Characters

H
Haruka Takayama
Haruka is the show’s emotional accelerant, turning possessiveness, insecurity, and sincerity into the engine for its most frantic romantic comedy beats.
Y
Yuu Sonoda
Yuu’s easygoing social magnetism gives Sakura Trick its recurring tension, because her warmth reads as both comfort and provocation depending on who is watching her.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The series’ reputation rests on a specific distinction within schoolgirl slice-of-life anime: its yuri is not treated as background subtext or one-off bait, a point repeatedly highlighted in genre-focused criticism.
2
Kenichi Ishikura had unusually centralized creative control, serving as director and series composer while also storyboarding episode 1, episode 10, the opening, and the endings.
3
Studio Deen’s adaptation leans into compact, gag-forward pacing suited to Tachi’s original manga, making the romance function in short comic escalations rather than long melodramatic arcs.
4
Kyuuta Sakai’s character designs keep the cast firmly in the rounded “cute girls doing cute things” visual language, which sharpens the contrast between pastel presentation and unusually direct romantic intimacy.
5
The sound team is notably specialized: Satoki Iida handled sound direction, Noriko Izumo handled sound effects, and Ryousuke Nakanishi supplied the music, giving the comedy a bright, punctuated rhythm rather than a subdued romance-drama texture.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Kenichi Ishikura did not only direct the TV anime; he also handled series composition and personally directed both the opening and ending sequences.
Fun fact 2: AniList’s tag breakdown captures why the show is often cited in yuri discussions: Yuri is rated at 98%, LGBTQ+ Themes at 86%, and Cute Girls Doing Cute Things at 91%.
Fun fact 3: Sakura Trick aired as a 12-episode Winter 2014 series from January 10 to March 28, placing its entire TV run inside a single cour.
Fun fact 4: The anime was produced by Studio Deen from Tachi’s original work, with Kyuuta Sakai adapting the cast into animation-ready character designs.
Fun fact 5: Its audience profile is niche but substantial: over 128,000 MAL users contributed to its 6.95 score, and AniList records 960 favorites despite the series’ specialized genre focus.