Review of Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-

Mystery is one of the touchier genres of anime. This is because in order to do a good mystery, you have to choose either one overarching mystery, or several little ones. Both of which have their own little hurdles in order to be successful. And so, we have Sakurako-san, a show that deals with a very odd kind of Sherlock Holmes kind of scenario, with bones. Lots of them. Story: Shoutarou is a boy who tries to differ from the normal. Rather than spend time with other people his age, every day after school, Shoutarou goes into thewoods and finds a big mansion. Inside, is a woman named Kujou Sakurako, an osteologist who has a fascination in reforming specimens out of the bones she finds. As such, our dastardly duo finds bones at every turn, solving the mysteries of the skeletons they find.

Going for a more episodic route for storytelling, each episode or two of Sakurako-san follows our two main characters as they go about the town and stumble or are given tasks that usually involve some aspect of mystery to them. Usually, there are bones involved, Sakurako and/or Shoutarou figure out the case, and the entire mini plot is done. Finish, rinse, and repeat. For the entire runtime of the show, Sakurako-san follows this format of storytelling and really bolsters itself as a decent show for a good while. However, there are quite a few flaws with this formula that created a lot of cracks in the marrow of this show, and in the end, made all of the pieces fall out of place.

One of the bigger issues of Sakurako-san is its inherent plotline of being just the same thing over and over again. There's little to no variety as to what the characters do. This however, is not the main issue for the show, though it is a small bit of a problem going in. The real problem of this show comes with the fact that Sakurako-san tries to also do a bit of an overarching story, throwing in hints early on in the series. Now, this wouldn't be much of an issue if the show focused on that in its latter half. It didn't. Instead, for the latter part of the show, we get a mesh of overarching and episodic story that just doesn't mesh together well. As a result, the story suffered greatly and a lot of what made Sakurako good in the beginning, just wasn't there to hold it up in the end.

But what really was the kicker was the fact that Sakurako-san's ending was the final nail in the coffin. The last episode was just a complete waste of time and really didn't do the series any favors since it was just a backstory that I personally didn't care about. Not only that, but it really didn't have any impact on the issues that were at hand, and as such, left that 'overarching' feeling that was sprinkled in throughout the series as dead weight that didn't mean very much in the end. Still need some answers! (It's also got this butterfly motif that they didn't really do much of anything with since the character it was tied to was barely even there.)

Overview:
+ Good start
+ Decent episodic mysteries
- Bad ending
- Overarching mystery didn't come to fruition/was bad

Characters: Sakurako-san really only has two characters that are worth mentioning. That is, our Sherlock Holmes duo of Sakurako and Shoutarou.

As the title character and most important person in the series, Sakurako is someone who really enjoys bones. Every day she arranges new skeletons and is able to tell the kind of things that has been happening to a body due to her extensive knowledge on bone structure. As such, she is a very intelligent character and at times, throws caution to the wind. She plays the 'Sherlock Holmes' of the series, as she is the one that solves almost all of the cases and does the majority of the work in any given set of mystery bones that are found. She's a bit of an oddball character that has an assumedly traumatizing backstory added to her. Problem is, we don't get much backstory. Instead, we're left with a character that freaks out over something that we don't know and have to infer. (Not like it was hard to do, but it's not really right to do that to the audience.) She as a character had a lot of potential and while fulfilled most of it, just didn't have that final push to make her great.

Then we have Shoutarou, the 'Watson' of the duo. As the sidekick to Sakurako and the POV character of the series, we don't really get much about him. He mostly just aids Sakurako in her duties whenever she finds a new bone case, and as such sort of acts like the second brain on the trip. He himself isn't really all that developed of a character and only acts as an anchor to make sure she doesn't go too far whenever she's enchanted by the bones of an adult male, cat, fox, what have you. This is largely due to the fact that Shoutarou represents more as the 'outside' character, looking into Sakurako's world. A world that is still shrouded in mystery due to the lack of focus on the backstory that we were hinted at.

Other characters are pretty much characters that pertain to certain cases with the exception of a few on account of their appearance in other cases. But for the most part, characters only pertain to a singular story or situation regarding someone's murder, be it a family member or the one who committed the crime, everyone else is pretty much just fodder for story progression and really nothing else. Bit sad, cause I liked Yuri.

Overview:
+ Sakurako-san (Even without her backstory fully explained, she drove the show as much as she could.)
- Shoutarou is pretty much just along for the ride
- Side characters are all pretty much plot based and nothing more

Art: Made by Troyca, a new animation studio who helped work on Aldnoah Zero, the artstyle for Sakurako is quite grey and dull in comparison to a more lighter style. Since most of the show relates to death and the loss of a loved one, the artstyle reflects that by having everything be mellowed out in color. As such, the atmosphere fits the show and it's really, really nice.

In addition, the animation quality for Sakurako is very nice. There are little to no flaws with the way that this show was produced, and I have nothing bad to say about the way the show looks. Especially when Sakurako puts that glove on and the moving skeletons pop up. God that was good; wish they used it more.

Overview:
+ Fitting Color scheme
+ Good animation
+ Dat Cast starting animation. (Why didn't you use it more!!!)

Sound: The sound for Sakurako is unique, to say the least. Rather than an instrumental OST, the OP and ED for Sakurako both utilize more electronic beats that give it a more somber and melancholic feel to reflect the theme of death that this series talks about since every skeleton has a story about how it died. I wouldn't say that these are memorable tracks, but they are a couple of really nice ones that add in to overall aesthetic of the show. A+ in my book.

Personal Enjoyment: The Fall 2015 season was...disappointing, and that was putting it lightly. There were only a few shows that I declared mid-season were worth watching; Sakurako-san was one of them. Though, as the season came to a close, I was disappointed at how one of the better shows in this season just sort of shot itself in the foot at the last second, turning something that I looked forward to every week, into something that was a little bit weird in terms of pacing and where it was going.

Did I like this anime?

Up until the last couple episodes, Sakurako-san had a very solid start that I was really happy about. It defined what it wanted to do in the beginning and I had high hopes for what it would accomplish. (Until they were turned into dust, of course.) Sakurako is also a character that I enjoyed, as she is very different and has depth to her character, even if we didn't see all of that depth. Aesthetics as well, can't complain. Also, 10/10, would Hector again. (FLUFFY DOG!)

What didn't I like about this anime?

Aside from the fact that Sakurako created a BS plot at the end that left a lot of questions rather than answers and the waste of time last episode, Shoutarou himself was an issue I had. He just didn't seem to have much of a personality since all he did was stand behind Sakurako and act as the layman so Sakurako would explain all of the sciency and analyzing stuff that was happening on screen at that time.

Would I recommend this anime?

As a mystery anime, I would say that this rates about average, like most mystery. It's definitely one of the better shows this season, but the doesn't mean it's really good. It's still worth a shot since I find Sakurako to be quite a fascinating gal, and for no reason other than because it is Sakurako. That being said however, if you choose to watch this, just skip the last episode. It's...pretty worthless, I'll be completely honest with you.