Series Review: Shikizakura – A Traditional Yet Modern Tokusatsu Anime

If you want to defeat the Oni,
then use the strongest Oni’s power to do so…

Tokusatsu is a very expansive franchise beloved by many, especially the Henshin hero where humans transformed into armored warriors to fight against evil. The charm of Tokusatsu is the special effects added to the normal footage, such as blasts, explosions, slash auras etc… that combines both the fantasy element and realism to create something non entirely realistic like CGI but very charming. Making an anime with tokusatsu themes isn’t easy, because you have to translate those special effects into animation while still retaining the charm of it, and the characters and story has to be on point too. In that aspect, Shikizakura did a very good job of being a modern animated Toku show that everyone can enjoy.

Shikizakura – at first glance – is your typical full CG kids’ show that are shallow and just done for merch or marketing. And it was true in *some* way, as the series also acts as an advertisement for the region of Tokai in Japan, especially Nagoya. The series featured an all-Nagoya cast as well and OST from May’n and Asaka – who are also from Nagoya. The series put a nice emphasis on the Japanese folktale of Oni – demons who can disguise as human – and the Demon Slayer (lol) warriors that fight against them generations after generations. And in all era – the most important figure of the battle is the Miko – a priestess with the power to purify the Onis. Protecting her are young warriors that don the “Yoroi” (lit. Armor), who belongs to warrior houses and were raised as fighters. Our main character, however, is a young teen that seemingly had nothing to do with these supernatural entities, who got sucked into the fight unintentionally (as it always is) and ended up forming a contract with the strongest Yoroi in existence – the Oni Ibara.

Plot: The series has only 12 episodes, not enough to flesh out a very deep and drawn out war. And traditionally, Tokusatsu went for way longer than just 12 ep, at least hitting 20+ before concluding, and some even went as far as 50. And Shikizakura doesn’t have that, so we get a very short and concise story. The usual format of the genre is slowly building up to the final boss by exploring each character’s personality, backstory and personal struggles. And Shikizakura followed the same format, but they burn a lot of the process by featuring only one arc for each character in the main cast, and give the protagonist the rest of the focus. This has the con of glossing over the support cast, in this case the 3 fighters aside from Kakeru. Out of the 3, Ryou is perhaps the one with the most emotional and well-developed arc.

The main focus of the series is no doubt the main character Kakeru, and his living Yoroi – Ibara. Their story is tightly interwoven with the heroine – Ouka Myoujin, the current generation priestess. It’s a very typical motif where the protagonist is a young man with a strong sense of justice, who always wanted to be a hero and help people, was granted the power of the devil (looking at you Ikki Igarashi). And Ibara initially presented himself as a brash and violent demon just waiting to be unleashed to the world. But of course Kakeru has no intention to let him loose uncontrolled, and formed a pact with him to use his power to protect Ouka instead. Overtime, their bonds developed and more backstory was revealed about Ibara’s past struggle and about the war with the Onis as well. With just 12 episodes, they managed to establish a very coherent storyline. While the story is actually quite predictable, there was 1 or 2 plot twists that really caught me off-guard, truly a gotcha moment, but essentially, it’s Kamen Rider Revice anime.

Animation: The series is fully 3D animated, so you already know what we’re gonna say. Spectacular combat, mediocre human animation. It wasn’t too bad but Sublimation definitely don’t have much resources and experience to make them look more…human. It’s very Netflix Ultraman like but the texture is much flatter which resembles normal 2D anime. But whenever you see characters’ fingers moving, you’ll notice very weird movements. But that seems to be the norm for full CG animes.

Now to the meat of the series – the Henshin and combat scenes. The Henshin scene are done exceptionally well. The transformation is very similar to those of Kamen Riders and Metal Heroes, coupled with some Super Robot style for equipment, like how guns, swords appeared and attach etc… The main hero – Ibara – has a pretty standard transformation however. But his combat scene are the most entertaining.

Each Yoroi has its own combat style. We have Kakeru as the hand-to-hand bruiser, Ryou as the swordmaster, Kaede as the aerial hit-n-run, and Haruko as the long-range artillery combatant. Each Yoroi has their own uniqueness and fighting style. For me, I really enjoyed Ibara and Ryou. Their style is fast-paced, very martial artsy and is more inline with Tokusatsu style. And each of their punches have a visible impact, and their slashes have “resistance” which gives the impression of actually cutting something heavy, which is very cool. It’s kinda a shame that Kaede and Haruko wasn’t utilized much, especially with Kaede, the aerial fighting style could be a great audience-shocker if they animated it right. And 3DCG is much easier to animate spinning aerial shot since you can move the camera angle faster and easier than hand-drawn.

And the best part of the animation is no doubt a Super Sentai and Ultraman staple: the team combo attack. In the final battle, the team went full Avenger style and perform a ridiculous 7-people combo. The choreography of that scene was amazing and, of course, the bad guy turned into a giant punching bag just standing there for them to pummel.

+ Music: The songs by Asaka and May’n are pretty good for this series. They are very vibrant and upbeat. It’s very similar to the slower openings and endings of post-Neo Heisei era Kamen Rider. The songs also carry positive message that applies to the protagonist the most. The opening is for Kakeru’s insecurities at the start where he still had his trauma from the past and doesn’t believe that he can gain power to become a superhero despite wanting to do so. But eventually he found the courage in him to help those in need. The ending is actually quite a sweet song for him and Ouka – the girl who believe in him and his potential. And their story is quite cute, not to mention he dresses like Aruto Hiden and Ouka is an ojousama. The comparison was uncanny when the show released and I think it’s pretty funny too.

+ Conclusion: Shikizzakura is a great short series for a Tokusatsu-themed anime. The series is short, straightforward with well-done twists. The characters are developed well despite the somewhat large cast, especially the main hero and heroine. The animation is a bit choppy at times, especially in normal daily life scenes, but really ramp up during combat scenes – especially for Kakeru/Ibara and Ryou. The songs are well done, while they aren’t classic level, they suit the series’ atmosphere. Overall, I really recommend Shikizakura if you like series like Kamen Rider or Garou.

Check out more recommendations: