Sakura Tsûshin
Tags: psychedelic, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Touma Inaba is a high school graduate who is trying to get into the prestigious Keio University. After dismissing a weird call girl the night before, he meets and falls in love with a red-headed woman named Mieko Yotsuba on the day of the entrance exam. When Mieko is listed for Keio, but Touma is not, he pretends to have been accepted, while having to enroll in cram school. In the meantime, he lives together with his cousin Urara Kasuga, who has a crush on him and is willing to do anything to help him (including being that call girl in the first chapter). Urara encounters Mieko and Touma at karaoke, but pretends to be his sister. However, romance rival Tatsuhiko Mashu suspects something is up, and after sleeping with Urara's friend Komi Natsuki, learns that Touma is not a university student. Mashu tricks Touma into revealing the truth to Mieko.
The heartbroken Touma starts a sexual relationship with Urara. The "happy couple" angers cram school teacher Kugenuma, who conspires to break the two up by framing Touma with harassment. The rumors force Touma to leave cram school, but Urara tries to work a deal with Kugenuma for him to return. But when Touma learns about the deal and that it involved sexual favors, he breaks up with Urara.
When Urara discovers that she is pregnant, she joins Natsuki at an escort service to raise extra money. Suspsecting that Mashu has cheated on her, Mieko makes advances on Touma, and they finally have sex. Urara, Natsuki and another girl named Mizuki hustle a client, but it backfires when the client then beats Urara up (and gang rapes Natsuki). Urara suffers a miscarriage, but reunites with Touma. When Mashu sees Mieko with Touma, he tells Touma to back out, but when he refuses, Mashu hatches a scheme where he has Natsuki give Touma a "memory-enhancing" incense as a study-aid. The incense is actually speed, to which Touma becomes addicted as he prepares for his next mock exam. Urara gives him an ultimatum to stop using the drug.
When Mizuki collapses and is hospitalized, Touma learns that she is his best friend Kouji's little sister and that she has been battling leukemia. When Kouji gets in trouble for shoplifting, Touma talks some sense into him. Urara takes on extra jobs to get a Christmas present for Touma, but when one of the hostess club patrons gets raunchy, she is saved by Ryuichi Kazama, a childhood friend who is ordered by Urara's father to be her home tutor and to secretly spy on them. When Ryuichi learns that Touma and Urara are living together, he kicks Touma out without telling Urara, and then tries to make a move on her. After Urara declines, Ryuichi conspires with Mashu to kidnap and to beat up Touma, but the plan goes awry when he pushes Touma in front of Mashu's car. Touma survives with a broken arm, but Urara does not know about it until later, as she breaks ties with Ryuichi. While Touma tries to recover, Akimoto learns Mashu is involved and attacks him, however, he is stabbed in the back and is hospitalized as well.
Touma's arm heals in time for the real exams; his test scores place him with S Shuu University, but he misses the school's deadline to enroll because of his attention to Akimoto's hospital bills. That leaves him with K Sawa and eventually Keioh, both of which reject him. Frustrated with his bad luck, he smashes the windows of his middle school, but the police arrest Urara, whose student ID was found at the scene of the crime. Urara agrees to take the blame and declines her college admission. Touma's "little sister" childhood friend Momoe Shimizu visits for spring break. Touma sleeps with the big-breasted cram school receptionist Etsuko Koiwai. He encounters Kotomi Hayashibara, a twin-tailed high school student who idolizes Urara; she sleeps with Touma in order to frame him for infidelity. After the resulting fallout with Urara, Touma meets and sleeps with a shy, glasses-wearing Mieko Hotta. He eventually returns to Urara, who challenges him to ascend and descend the temple stairs a hundred times before agreeing to take him back. They must deal with her father's return.

Review: A heart touching story. Watching this series for the first time I am still sitting here in front of my PC not believing it is over. The story was so real and the daily life problems of the people so, so, well so much like mine I feel like I have looked into a mirror. The strange thing for me was that I thought I would have related more to Touma, the male lead, but in fact I related to Urara the most. With out telling to much of the plot it is hard to say much but that her confusion and pain dealing with life is done so very real it will truly hurt your heart to watch her.This series does a great job of giving the viewer a look into the inner drives and thoughts of each player in the story that even when they are behaving badly, which they often do, you can't help but feel for them and wish them the best. If you are looking for an anime that will truly touch your heart and one you will make you look at your one life and what drives you. Sakura Diaries is your anime.The only thing I did not like about the series is that it had to end. :D 5 out of 5 stars. Anime Bliss. Sakura Diaries is one of the best animes i have ever seen, the story is very well done, the animations are top notch, and if i said what i truly liked about it i would be spoiling the 12 episode series.But i can say this, this is a romantic comedy.......... A WELL DONE ROMANTIC COMEDY!! This isn't one of those J-Lo movies, this romantic comedy is worth taking a look at.If your into anime as much as me, and i think you are you'll find sakura diaries a whole lot of fun and quite possible, a must buy for the anime collection.I give sakura Diaries.....10 out of 10. A likable "PG-17" anime series. This review is based on the 2001 U.S. Collector's Edition, which is in Japanese with English subtitles, and which does not contain the work of actors whose English voice credits may appear elsewhere in the IMDb entry for this title. The package is labeled "Contains mature situations. Parental guidance is suggested" and "Suggested 17+", due no doubt to nudity and teenage sex, some violent.Briefly, Tokyo high school student Urara has been bearing a crush for her "country bumpkin" cousin Touma (Tonma-chan to her) ever since they were children, when he promised to protect her after her mother's death in a car accident. Urara "bares" her crush when her Tonma-chan arrives in the city to try out for prestigious Keio University by taking the entrance exams. Urara arranges for Touma to stay with her "and her father," who never appears in the flesh, due allegedly to some mysterious, erratic work schedule. He later "phones in" his part, literally, and Touma discovers the truth.At the exams, Touma meets and falls head over heels for lovely well-to-do Meiko, thus setting up a love triangle. Unbeknownst to Touma and to us is the fact that Meiko already has a fiancé whom we learn much later is studying abroad.Meiko matriculates in Keio University, and has all the boys falling for her, including handsome Mashu (a.k.a. "Keio boy") upon whom Urara's best friend, Komi, has developed a crush of her own. (Urara and Komi, remember, are still in high school.) Touma, meanwhile, has failed the entrance exams and enters "cram school" to prepare for retaking the exams. But because cram school students are the subjects of ridicule by university students, Touma lies and claims he passed in order to pursue a relationship with Meiko. This lie of course begets other lies. Indeed, lies and deceptions by the various characters are pivotal in several relationships and motivate conflicts which propel the story.After watching and enjoying all twelve episodes, this viewer was a bit disappointed in the ending. There was no conclusion, per se, but merely dreamy allusions regarding where the characters wound up and where they may be headed nextleaving the door open, perhaps, for a sequel.The original story is credited to "Ujin (Shogakukan Young Sunday Series)". Does this parenthetical credit indicate the day this series was televised? In particular, at what time of day was this series seen, and who was the original intended audience for this Japanese teen sex farce too explicit for U.S. teens?