Sakura-Gari

Description

Sakura-Gari is a Taishou-era romance story, ten years in the making. It centers on 16-year-old Tagami Masataka as he is aiming to find his place in life. While attempting to start prep school as a rounin, he encounters Saiki Souma, the son of a distinguished noble of the Saiki Koushyaku family, and becomes part of the Saiki household.

It seems as though this will be the story of Tagami's life, taking us through both him growing up physically and emotionally.

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Cherry Blossom Harvest

Cherry Blossom Hunting

Sakura Gari

Sakura Hunt

Sakuragari

The Hunt for Cherry Blossoms

樱狩

櫻狩り

Groups Scanlating

Watase's Sorai

Latest Release(s)

v.3 c.9 (end) by ? [Add] 15 years ago

v.3 c.8 by ? [Add] 15 years ago

v.3 c.7 by Watase's Sorai 16 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

3 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

2 topics, 24 posts

Click here to view the forum

User Rating

Average: 8.6 / 10.0 (891 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.53 / 10.0

49%

18%

12%

Last Updated

March 30th, 2025 8:13pm PDT - 1 month ago

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Genre

Drama Historical Josei Mature Mystery Psychological Tragedy Yaoi
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Categories

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Recommendations

Onani Master Kurosawa

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Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Shogakukan

Serialized In (magazine)

Rinka (Shogakukan)

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #747

(-4)

Monthly Pos #1593

(-78)

3 Month Pos #2600

(-50)

6 Month Pos #3208

(+181)

Year Pos #3465

(+298)

List Stats

On 552 reading lists

On 669 wish lists

On 1671 completed lists

On 56 unfinished lists

On 557 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Thoughts on Sakura Gari Ending

13 years ago

Watase Ends Sakura-Gari

15 years ago

User Comments [ Order by time added ]

ugh

by aksiane
9 years ago

Rating: N/A

Cons

Everyone just can't help but rape others.
They can't help it.
Main character is always apologizing for how horrible a person he is
Main character was told he grew (positively) from his experiences and that one person "changed him". Said experiences were multiple rapes. That "one person" mentioned was his rapist. Main character falls in love with rapist. He grew from the experience. This is a great manga
All characters are empty people. Their motivation is either to have sex with main character's rapist or have sex with the main character. Or they are the main character.
Too many poems
That ending LOL

Pros

The beginning part in which main character and main character's rapist's relationship is developed and the girlboy little sis wasn't there was done pretty well.
Main character's hair
Art

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Going nicely so far

by heywhatsthat
17 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I have so much more respect for Watase-sensei after reading this. She's successfully broken out of her shoujo restraints and made an actual YAOI. Though the focus isn't just guy on guy and there's definitely more text then a normal yaoi, she's matured as a mangaka and I'd hope to possibly see her delve deeper into the genre once this piece finishes.

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Sakura Gari - A story of redemption

by lrenne
11 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Such a powerful story, filled with pain and sadness. The ending is full of hope though, at least in my view. I've been haunted by their love since two days ago, hence this post. I'm speechless as to how to describe this masterpiece. It's a beautifully crafted story with well developed characters and gorgeous art. The advancement of the plot covers every angle. Everyone acts/reacts as they should given their lots, and by that I mean realistically, not predictably.

Synopsis:

Souma was a kind and gentle boy doomed by his own beauty and the indifference of those around him. Tormented and damaged, in one moment of despair, he reached out to the wrong person and because of that, slid down the slippery slope and fell into the deepest darkness. Years later, Masataka, a pure and innocent boy, came into his life. For the first time, Souma felt the warmth and gentleness of another human being extended to him, bringing him out of his cold and lonely existence. As a response, all the warm and gentle feelings of his own, bottled up for so many years, finally broke their barriers, filled up his heart and soul to the brim and turned into painful longing and obsessive passion. Before they knew it, they were both swept into a whirlwind of frightening emotions that shook their being to the core, with only one escape route: redemption, for oneself and for others.

... Last updated 11 years ago

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A Darker Side of Watase's Works

by MiiSS HACHiiKO
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

Personally, I read nearly every single one of Watase-sensei's works. I often compared her other works to each other, but this series was way different than I originally expected. Her older works had their shares of the heroine experiencing dramas, but when I thought Ayashi No Ceres was dark, Sakura Gari made me think twice about it.

There were events in the story, that gave me chills, and made me feel like I was the main character himself(despite the fact I'm a girl..). He experienced tragedy, but not just him, but the characters around him had their own shares of darker pasts. Sure, the uke of the story, isn't as good looking, but what made me admire this story, is how she made each character as realistic as possible.

How she breaks out of her shell of having a heroine, and having a bubbly shojo-like storyline going into something as harsh as rape and suicide, is something to give compliments to her. Frankly, despite it's overly dramatic tone, I still love how she properly fits the characters in the era, and how they are uniquely developed in their surroundings.

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if you like blood diamonds, you're going to love blood rape diamonds

by lilliful
15 years ago

Rating: 1.0 / 10.0

Seriously folks, just like blood is the currency for diamonds in some parts of Africa, blood is the currency for absolutely everything in this manga -- especially love and salvation. I know I'm in the massive minority and that this review will be inflammatory to some, so I'm just going to throw out some hard statistics upfront:

7 deaths
2 completed suicides
1 attempted suicide (not the same person as either of the completed suicides)
4 completed murders
4 attempted murders (mainly against the star couple)
1 conspiracy to commit murder
893469 counts of rapings and beatings

Now, not that I'm any stranger to the yaoiland mantra of "it's not rape, it's just sex the uke didn't know he wanted," but usually that's in much smuttier, lulzier manga than this one. This one seemed to try to be at least vaguely serious. Anyway let me start out by saying that this reminds me of a bad exploitation film alla Showgirls or Striptease. The end-of-manga interview has the mangaka saying "I think all the characters were saved in their own way" -- ironically, the purification method of choice for everyone seems to be rape and death. Yes, my friends, this manga went along the lines of rape death rape rape death rapity rape death death. I even love how at the end the uke was all

OH BTW I'M ALSO A RAPECHILD. And every single bad thing that happens in this manga, ladies and gentleman, can be traced back to a man who couldn't keep his pants zipped.

Also, really, the seme a.k.a. Mr. Rapemagnet that nobody can help but rape upon first sight of him was a glorified Gary Stu of the "boo hoo hoo I've suffered every imaginable trauma known to man" variety. And as for the relationship between the uke and the seme, all of it is serious emorape. There is no sexyrape. It's not sexyrape when the scent of the seme makes the uke vomit. So be prepared for this to just be mainly angstrape. There is literally ONE consensual sex scene between them in the entire manga.

Anyway, I know you are all now tired of seeing every sentence I write contain the word rape. So I'm going to switch to beatings. It's almost comical going through the manga watching these characters pick up so many scars from near-death beatings and near-death assassination attempts and near-death rapings (sometimes these things get combined for efficiency's sake). By the end, in addition to having their own unique but generous assortment of scars, the main characters even have identical giant wounds THAT'S SO SWEET I KNOW RIGHT. No seriously ladies and gentleman, by the end I could have sworn their bodies more resembled hardened samurai warrior yaoimen than their bishy intellectual selves. Did I mention not a single one of EITHER of their numerous scars were obtained from them fighting something? They just tended to get beaten or attacked, step in the way of attacks, or attack themselves.

Anyway, I think you guys get the point by now, so for those who can't be bothered to read my long review, I'm just going to sum it up for you:

RAPE.
BEATINGS.
😕
SALVATION!

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By far her best work.

by Baniita
13 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I'm running through all the manga I remember reading and putting them on booklog. (So far, 1127 volumes of manga of all genres excluding BL, since I'm still in the process of adding that).

I have read a heck load of shoujo--and all that I have read from Watase Yuu were cliche and boring. From Fushigi Yugi to Ceres to Alice 19th to Absolute Boyfriend to Imadoki etc. It kept getting worse. I only ever read them in the library if I was really bored. This one actually had twists I didn't expect. I also like that the uke looks like a normal, unextraordinary boy. This has the dark atmosphere that I like most in my manga (well, more tragic than Nakamura-level dark). I do think it's beautiful. (But keep in mind I think Double Mints is beautiful.)

I really dislike the "no-no-no-YES!" aspect of most yaoi manga--this is the first real "no-no-no-NO!" BL manga I've read. I'm pretty sure this is considered actual shounen-ai (genre pretty much no longer exists). Back then, people complained about the lack of gay sex. Nowadays fujoshi, including me, are complaining (rightfully) about the lack of depth in BL.

(Christ, now I'm craving for the next Ai no Kusabi OVA--a series which has both treats and depth.)

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Beautiful, Disturbing, Tragic

by Sayax0
10 years ago

Rating: N/A

I would call it a masterpiece of a love story. It is dark from possessiveness, traumatic histories, blackmailing, and even murder, but innocence, love, and forgiveness are at the center of it all.
As for the ending,

I think there was a reason Watase wrote in Souma's last thoughts that he will live on and they will meet again someday, so I personally don't think he dies at the end

A must-read masterpiece.

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i simply love this

by 303
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

Sakura gari is such a beautiful work that i am seriously anticipating for upcoming chapters. to be honest, I don't usually favor Watase Yuu's work on daily basis despite the fact that she is, no doubt,a really good artist; her other works were simply not of my style. But sakura gari really blew me away. The intricate art and the depth of the story is just wonderful. The fact that she construct something out of her ordinary style and make it truly splendid really shows how good she is as a manga artist.

What i really like about sakura gari is that there are so much to the storyline--so many layers and various perspectives. the portrayal of the characters and their emotion is vivid. everything flows and the yaoi factors are also placed well within the plot too.

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I hate to admit this...

by asaliah1116
16 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

Speaking from one who hates Yuu Watase's work, this is actually...good. I tend to steer clear far away from her works but this caught my interest simply because it is her first blatantly yaoi work. It has a heavy atmosphere, psychologically draining to read and a plot enough to make a person's stomach twist in discomfort. I read the first chapter, decided that I hate it but before I realise it, I have already download the rest of the chapters and read all of it through with morbid fascination akin to watching a coroner doing autopsy on a corpse or ghastly road accident victim. Even as I read the latest fifth chapter (while in the back of my mind rewinding the vow to not do so no matter what almost 4 months ago), the pull of Sakura Gari was so strong that I ended up finishing this chapter as well with a look of pure disgust on my face. It is that good, which is something I hate to admit. While there are other works that go through the same theme (or somewhat like it), the way Yuu Watase did it has much more impact that somehow rubbed me the wrong way. Not many manga can move me with such strong emotion like Sakura Gari. Give it a try. Some might like it and some might hate it with a passion. But in the end, love it or hate it, it will still pull you in like it did with me, no matter what.

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greater

by Dragoness57
17 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

her yaoi series is greater than any of her other shoujo ones.. and i've read all of them.

it has more depth, realistic references, befitting artstyle, great imagery, and such intelligent design that i can't even stop rambling..

i'm just in awe. the characterization blows me away with the overflow of emotion.

the depth of the characters goes as far as to show the desperation that humans can truly feel- and the result of their actions as well as their motives can be devastating.

... Last updated 16 years ago

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