Title: Sakura, Saku Vol. 7
Author: Io Sakisaka
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 187
Genre: Romance
Publication Date: May 13, 2025
The Story
We open up with Iryu trying to make his move on Saku… forcefully. It gets to the point where she has to get physical just to cause some separation. Despite that, she tries to give him back his sweater, but he insists that she keep wearing it to stay warm. Meanwhile, Haruki has something that he wants to talk to Saku about at the planetarium the next day. Saku has a pretty good idea of what it was; however, the night before, she ends up having a conversation with Hazuki via text. She begins to wonder if Haruki still has some feelings for her, even if he doesn’t realize them.
After their outing at the planetarium, she can’t get things off her mind. Haruki is about to have that all-important talk with her when she gets a text from work. They need someone to cover Iryu’s shift because he came down with a cold. Feeling guilty about keeping his sweater and possibly being the reason why he got sick, she takes the shift and runs away from Haruki.
Since then, she has avoided Haruki like the plague. She needs answers and ends up going to see Haruki’s best friend, Dai. She explains everything to him, and he, in turn, explains everything that he knows about Hazuki, Haruki, and Ryousuke. Armed with all of that information, she’s not sure if she can face Haruki again. Meanwhile, Haruki notices that she’s been avoiding him on purpose, and it begins to annoy him, so much so that he has a bit of a falling out with Hazuki!
Eventually, cooler heads prevail, and they meet; however, the conversation doesn’t exactly go the way either one of them would have hoped!
Characters
There was a lot of development in this volume… some good, some of it just plain nonsensical. We’ll start with the good stuff first.
With Haruki, he has made up his mind. He knows that his feelings for Saku are real, and this causes him to try his hardest to confess to her. Even Saku knows that it’s coming, so why is it so difficult for them to connect? A lot of it has to deal with Haruki’s past with Hazuki. At one point, there could have been feelings for her, but it was a one-sided thing as she was in love with his brother Ryousuke. However, those feelings were in the past. His heart only belongs to Saku, so when she avoids him, you can see just how frustrated he gets. That’s proof of his feelings for her and that he is ready to make that all-important choice.
As for Hazuki, while she still has feelings for Ryousuke, she was absolutely crushed when Haruki gave her the cold shoulder. You could tell that it wasn’t an arrow through the heart for love’s sake, but because she still cares about Haruki on a friendship level. Plus, with him being the brother of the guy she loves, he’s important to her, too. When Haruki scolds her for keeping Saku up the night before their day at the planetarium, this deeply affects her to the point where she goes to the café just to see Saku and apologize to her. She truly isn’t trying to be a roadblock between them, and it shows that she cares about their happiness.
Iryu, on the other hand, is getting way too pushy. First, his outburst at the start of the volume, and then again later when he sees things falling apart between Saku and Haruki. He’s just willing to jump straight in and try and steal Saku for herself, but he’s not coming off as someone who is genuinely in love with her. Instead, he’s acting like a child who is having his favorite toy threatened with being taken away from him. Even when he told Saku that his feelings developed for her earlier that day, it just reeked of desperation. There are so many red flags with him, it’s not even funny.
Finally, the nonsensical development with Saku. So, here we have a situation where she knows that Haruki is in love with her, she knows that he’s planning to confess, but somehow, she’s hesitant, all because of Hazuki and some possible past feelings? Haruki even told her, flat-out, that he doesn’t have feelings for her anymore. Even Dai told her that Hazuki is in love with Ryousuke, but because he mentioned that there could have been something there before, she has to try and dig up the past and try to uncover these hidden feelings that Haruki himself may not even realize he has.
What?
So, knowing he loves her, having him flat-out tell her to her face “I Love You,” knowing he’s been trying to confess this entire time, isn’t good enough. She has to force him to admit he has feelings for Hazuki still because she thinks that he’s not aware if whether or not he still likes her. I’m sorry… what kind of reasoning is that? I don’t think Haruki could have made it any clearer that he loves Saku, wants to be with Saku, and is ready to dedicate himself to her. Even still, most normal people know that they are not the first in someone’s life. People involved in relationships have had other relationships before. Sometimes, things just don’t work out. It happens. Most normal people just accept it. They don’t turn it into a mental roadblock and completely shut down the person who is trying to confess to them. Sorry, I don’t buy this. This is beyond convoluted and creating so much unnecessary drama.
Final Thoughts
I still haven’t taken my record to the repair shop to get fixed, so excuse me if I still sound broken, but not only, with two volumes left to go in this series, do we insist on keeping Iryu in the picture as if he has a legitimate chance, but now Saku herself, is pulling out the “still have old feelings” card on Haruki to add even more unneeded drama. It makes you wonder why you even bother going through the trouble of developing their relationship when you’re just going to throw artificial roadblocks in the way. It’s not gripping, it’s not making me fear for the main character’s impending relationship, it’s not doing any of that. It’s just causing frustration, and not the good kind.
Artificial drama like this is not needed in the late stages of a series! This is the drama you’re supposed to introduce AT THE START so that the main character can go on a journey and overcome all of the obstacles to reach the goal of getting into a relationship with the main character. Establishing Saku and Haruki as the main characters, making it painfully obvious that they will end up together, develop their relationship, and then throw roadblocks at them, is not compelling storytelling. It’s actually insulting to the readers’ intelligence because no matter how many roadblocks you put in the way, it’s already established that they will become a couple!
I don’t understand why so many series do this. Maybe it’s a culture thing, maybe it’s an intelligence thing, I don’t know, but stuff like this just kills what could be a great romantic climax. Stuff like this late in a series causes me not to care what happens to the main characters. The series could swerve me and ship Saku with Iryu, and I wouldn’t care because, while surprising, it ruins the previous six volumes of build-up, and it would seem like a hard pivot just to create artificial shock value. If they get together, it’s just going to end up being a “well, there it finally is, can we wrap this up now?” kind of moment because the luster has already been lost.
Maybe I’m too cynical, or maybe because I have a vision of what a romance story should be, that plot devices like this always cause an abrasive experience, but… no matter what, you have to admit… this is just padding. You take away Iryu, you take away Hazuki, and this series is over three volumes ago. Instead, we have two more ahead of us before it ends. Let’s hope this nonsense comes to an end and they get together… even if I don’t even care to see it happen at this point.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
