Recently, I finished 『サクラノ刻－櫻の森の下を歩む－』 (Sakura no Toki -Sakura no Mori no Shita o Ayumu-), the second entry of the Sakurano duology—or trilogy, (but Hibiki / Oto hasn't released yet, thus duology for now) depending on how you choose to view it. I suppose the reason I'm writing this is rather obvious: I simply want to put my thoughts into words.
Before that, though, a bit of context.
Over the years, I've experienced well over 2,000 works of media (from novels, visual novels, web novels, light novels, manga, anime, films, television, and games); not that anyone is counting (well, except perhaps me, though even I'm no longer entirely sure of the number). Regardless, I tend to be rather conservative with my ratings. I rarely give anything an 8/10, let alone a 9/10. In fact, I'm fairly certain only around thirty or fourty works sit above a 9/10 for me, and fewer still (my personal top twenty) rise beyond a 9.5. Some even reach a 9.9. As for a perfect 10/10, though... contrary to what one might expect (well, I suppose this is depending on what you are expecting but I digress), I don't think a work has to accomplish everything imaginable. It only has to do one thing: genuinely touch my heart. Until now, only one work had ever managed that—The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence. And now, like I said at the beginning: I've finished Sakura no Toki. It is many things, but perhaps the simplest way to describe it is as a beautiful coming-of-age story about happiness—or rather, a story that goes beyond happiness, and further still. Like A Requiem for Innocence before it, this profoundly beautiful work resonated with the deepest parts of my heart. For that, I find myself without words—and perhaps that's fitting.
Theres a line that gets said by a certain character in Sakura no Toki, specifically:
幸せな日々に、形を与えない方がいい。形があるものは必ず壊れる。
It's better not to give happy days a shape. Anything with a shape will inevitably break.(Makura, 2023)
Perhaps that's why words fail me. The moment we try to give shape to happiness, we inevitably reduce it into something smaller than it truly was for us in that moment. Happiness, is, after all, happiness. Perhaps that is why it is so difficult to grasp. We rarely recognize the happiest moments of our lives while we are living them; it is only later—in hindsight—when we look back, that we realize that they were.
There is another line from Sakura no Uta that I find fitting:
幸福は仮象の春色一面の空の様なものだ。
Happiness is like a sky full of the illusory colors of spring.(Makura, 2025)
As if happiness has no true substance of its own, but instead appears suddenly, like a dazzling array of brightly colored lights that shimmer into existence for only a moment. Perhaps that is why trying to perserve happiness is such a difficult thing. The moment we attempt to hold onto it, to define it, to give it a permanent shape, we transform something living into something fixed. And anything with a fixed shape will eventually break. Yet, even knowing that, I still want to write my thoughts down. Not because I believe these words can preserve what I felt, because I know they cannot. The feeling itself has already passed, and trying to recreate it perfectly would only turn it into something else. Rather, I want to leave behind the faintest trace that it once existed, so that perhaps someday, I can look back and remember this moment.
Perhaps words are nothing more than smoke. They are imperfect. They cloud the body. They can never fully contain what we truly wish to express. Even so, Sakura no Toki reminds us that there is no need to fear that smoke. The body may become impure, but that does not mean the soul is. Perhaps the act of putting these feelings into words is itself imperfect, but that imperfection does not make the feeling any less genuine. So I'll let these few words be enough.
This work—throughout my entire journey through art and media—is one I can wholeheartedly call a 10/10.
And for that, all I can say to SCA自 is:
「――ありがとう。」
2026-6-28 11:15am (And yes, I stayed up the entire night to finish Chapter 5 and the Epilogue / Chapter 6.)
奔る、奔る、奔る、刻が奔る。
そして無尽の世界にその音は消えていく。
それでもこの音は重なり合い、響いていく。
刻は流れて――そしていつか詩となる。
サクラノ刻は、詩となる。It flows. It flows. It flows. Time flows on.
And into the boundless world, that sound fades away.
Even so, those sounds continue to overlap, continuing to resonate.
Time flows on—and someday, it becomes poetry.
Sakura no Toki—the time of cherry blossoms—becomes poetry.(Makura, 2023)
Thank you for reading.
References
Makura. (2023). サクラノ刻－櫻の森の下を歩む－ 通常版 (Sakura no Toki -Sakura no Mori no Shita o Ayumu- Regular Edition) [Windows visual novel]. Makura.
Makura. (2025). サクラノ詩－櫻の森の上を舞う－10th Anniversary edition (Sakura no Uta -Sakura no Mori no Ue o Mau- 10th Anniversary Edition) [Windows visual novel]. Makura.
