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PA Works Makes Sakura Quest Anime About Girls Reviving Rustic Town
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Anime studio P.A. Works announced a new original television anime titled Sakura Quest on Wednesday. The anime will premiere in April. The anime's official website describes the anime as the third in P.A. Works' "working" series about people and their jobs, after Hana-Saku Iroha and Shirobako.
The story centers on five girls who work in the tourism bureau of their small provincial town. The town revives its "micro-nation" tourism program, which originated from a nationwide movement during Japan's bubble economy period, and hires the five girls as "monarchs" (tourism ambassadors). The anime will depict one year in their jobs in the tourism industry, and show how they change and grow.
During the bubble economy in Japan, a micro-nation fad arose, where regions in Japan declared themselves "micro-nations" to revive tourism and industry in their region, starting with the "Shin Yamatai Koku" nation in 1977. The micro-nations coordinated with local governments and tourism bureaus, and some even had their own chambers of commerce. At its height, there were over 200 such micro-nations in Japan.
The cast includes:
Reina Ueda as Shiori Shinomiya, an employee of the Manoyama tourism bureau and works together with Yoshino. She loves her hometown, and is very conservative. She prefers order in her life. She has a bright, optimistic personality, and won't hesitate to help anyone. Her housework abilities are high.
Chika Anzai as Maki Midorikawa. Her dreams of being an actress were crushed, and she headed back to her hometown of Manoyama. She is used to taking a lot of part-time jobs during her time as part of a small theater troupe. She is cool and has a big-sisterly attitude.
Chiemi Tanaka as RIRIKO Oribe, a girl who hates the provincial Manoyama, but doesn't have the courage to strike out. Since graduating high school, she hasn't been able to find a proper job, and has resorted to locking herself up in her house and surfing the net every day. She becomes anxious towards strangers, and her only friend is Shiori Shinomiya.
Mikako Komatsu as Sanae Kōzuki, a woman who made the move to the countryside half a year before Yoshino, and is very conscious about appearing interesting to other people. She was born and raised in Tokyo, and got a job at an I.T. company after graduating college, but eventually quit. She longed for a healthy lifestyle of conservation and sustainability, and began renting an old Japanese-style house and does web design for a living.
"Alexandre S. D. Celibidache" is credited for the original work. Sōichi Masui (Chaika the Coffin Princess, Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu Ōgon no Spy Daisakusen) is directing the anime, and Masahiro Yokotani (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Re:Zero) is supervising the series' scripts. BUNBUN (Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, Izetta: The Last Witch) is designing the characters, and Kanami Sekiguchi (Hana-Saku Iroha, Shirobako, Charlotte) is adapting those designs for animation.
Source: MoCa News
