The story starts with a schoolgirl names Sakura Chiyo, who secretly has a crush on Umetarou Nozaki. She tells him that she is a fan of his, even though she means something different. He mistakes her for a real fan, which is why he gives her his autograph, but she tells him she wants to be with him forever. He invites her to his house and lets her help him out with a few manga drawings. Chiyo discovers that Nozaki is really a famous Shoujo Manga artist, Sakiko Yumeno. She accepts a job as one of his assistants to get closer to him. While working on his manga with him she meets the people who inspire his stories and the other assistants he has for his manga.
The main character Sakura Chiyo doesn’t seem to ever be worried about very many things, which can sometimes be a bit annoying. She tends to think there’s a romantic meaning behind everything, which causes her to be disappointed a lot. There’s a bit too much comedy, which sometimes overshadows the romantic aspect of the show. This is why I would’ve loved to have seen a bit more romance in the story.
The drawing style is very pretty and colorful, the characters have also been portrayed very nicely. The opening is one of my personal favorites compared to others. It’s a very cheerful and fun song, which even has some very nice guitar playing in it. Because I watched the subbed version, the original Japanese version, I thought the characters’ voices were very fitting. For those of you who prefer dubbed versions: there is an English dub available for this anime.
Sakura Chiyo would profit from being a bit less emotional, in my opinion. There was a little too much comedy for my liking, this could’ve been balanced more by adding more romance. The opening song (Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai (君じゃなきゃダメみたい)) was very well executed: the guitar play is nice and cheerful and the voice of Masayoshi Ooishi only adds to the perfection. Aside from that it’s good to know that the manga is still ongoing, but there has no word on a possible second season yet.
Studios: Doga Kobo
Started airing: 7th of July 2014
Number of Episodes: 12
Rating: 85/100
