Sakura Wars: The Movie

Sakura Wars: The Movie (サクラ大戦 活動写真) is a 2001 Japanese animated film adaptation of the Sakura Wars series directed and co-written by Mitsuru Hongō.

The film takes place between the onset of Sakura Wars 3 and Sakura Wars 4. Lachette Altair is dispatched to the Imperial Capital Tokyo from New York to work for the Imperial Assault Force's Flower division while division captain Ichirō Ōgami is in Paris. Meanwhile, Douglas-Stewart, an American company led by the sinister president Brent Furlong, unveils a plan to make the division obsolete. When commander Ikki Yoneda is captured and the entire division is ordered on indefinite standby, the fate between the Flower Division, Douglas-Stewart and Tokyo is at stake.

The film was released in Japanese theaters on December 22, 2001 along with Slayers Premium, Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie and DiGi Charat. It was licensed in the United States by Pioneer Animation (now Geneon Entertainment).

Plot
The film begins with the Imperial Revue celebrating Leni Milchstrasse's seventeenth birthday following a performance at the Great Imperial Theater. During this, Yūichi Kayama appears to join the celebration. The next morning, on Christmas Day, Sumire Kanzaki and Maria Tachibana visit a theater, where Maria finds out that Brent was one of the mafia members in New York when Maria was in the United States. At the Great Imperial Theater, Lachette Altair arrives from New York to be assigned into the Imperial Assault Force Flower Division. Douglas-Stewart president Brent Furlong and his subordinate, Patrick Hamilton, summon the Kouma to obliterate a city. The Flower Division is summoned to the battlefield where the Kouma are at. However, during the battle, Lachette appears in an Eisenkleid and briefly battles the Kouma. They retreat and the Flower Division is introduced to Lachette. Meanwhile, Brent and another one of his subordinates, Haruyoshi Tanuma, arrive at the facility where the Japhkiels, robots made by Douglas-Stewart, are made. One of them attacks Tanuma, scaring him. Patrick uses a soundwave technique to stop the attacking Japhkiel.

After the division suffers injuries sustained in battles, division commander Ikki Yoneda and count Yoritsune Hakakōji are suddenly captured by Patrick and they are informed that the Theater has been taken over by the army and they are ordered on indefinite standby. Soletta Orihime is ordered to go in her Eisenkleid, but she is manipulated by Patrick. Meanwhile, Maria investigates the Douglas-Stewart facility and is injured following an ambush by Patrick. Back at the Flower Mansion, the seven remanining members of the Flower Division and Yokihiko Ōta of the Rose Division, who reveals that the army was being manipulated by Douglas-Stewart, work together to take back the theater. With the help of Kohran's Katsuryu-maru, the seven rebel against the army and successfully take back the theater. Following another battle with the Kouma, the Division confronts the manipulated Orihime. During the struggle, Lachette accidentally destroys Leni's Eisenkleid in the process in an attempt to kill her. Orihime releases power blasts at the division, but they destroy her Eisenkleid, returning her to normal. Kayama rescues Yoneda and Hanakōji while the facility is destroyed, but Brent escapes and combines with the remaining Japhkiels. Brent overwhelms all of the protagonists and destroys Lachette's Eisenklied in the process. Following an ambush by division captain Ichirō Ōgami, the division defeats Brent and saves Japan. Meanwhile, Maria confronts and defeats Patrick on a rooftop. Later, the Flower Division puts on a play based on Kyōka Izumi's The Sea God's Villa and turns out to be a success. The film ends with Sakura walking down a street filled with cherry blossoms.

Staff

 * Original story: Ohji Hiroi
 * Director: Mitsuru Hongo
 * Executive producer: Toshimichi Ohtsuki (King Records)
 * Executive coordinate: Seigo Tanaka, Takeshi Yasuda, Yasuaki Nagoshi
 * Production supervisor: Norikatsu Ohba (SEGA)
 * Supervisor: Satoru Akahori
 * Script writers: Mitsuru Hongo, Hiroyuki Nishimura, Nobutoshi Terado, Ohji Hiroi
 * Music director: Kōhei Tanaka
 * Original character design: Kosuke Fujishima
 * Character design: Hidenori Matsubara
 * Movie edition character design: Takuya Saito
 * Animation direction: Takuya Saito, Mitsuru Ishihara, Hiroshi Okubo, Akiharu Ishii, Sushio
 * Mechanical design: Atsushi Takeuchi, Hidekatsu Uemura
 * 3D Motion Director: Atsushi Takeuchi
 * Art design: Hiroshi Kato
 * Art director: Yusuke Takeda
 * Color design: Nobuko Mizuta
 * 3D CGI animation director: Tokumitsu Kifune
 * Director of photography: Koji Tanaka
 * Special effects: Masahiro Murakami
 * Editor: Junichi Uematsu
 * Sound direction: Masafumi Mima
 * Music recording producer: Yuji Saito
 * Music recording director: Hajime Toma
 * Music production: IMAGINE
 * Sequence directors: Mitsuru Hongo, Tamaki Nakatsu
 * Production manager: Tomoyoshi Koyama
 * Producer: Tetsuo Uchida
 * Production: Production I.G
 * Sakura Wars: The Movie Production Committee: Sega, Kadokawa Shoten, Production I.G, Nippon Shupan Hanbai, Rent Lock Japan, Imagica, Character and Anime dot com

Rating
In the United States, Sakura Wars: The Movie is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.