Title: Sakura, Saku Vol. 8
Author: Io Sakisaka
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Romance
Publication Date: August 12, 2025
The Story
We open up with Haruki talking to Saku about his feelings, swearing that he doesn’t like Hazuki, and wondering what he has to do to prove that to her. Still, no matter what he says or does, Saku is convinced that he doesn’t know how he feels because he doesn’t know how Hazuki feels, and that if he hears what Hazuki has to say, he’ll end up with her instead.
This begins a very awkward volume, in which Iryu tries to make his move. After a study session ends abruptly because Saku leaves, she realizes that she’s missing the eraser that Haruki gave her. It’s important to her, so she tries to find it. Iryu helps, but it very insistent on doing so only because he likes her. Later on, he takes Saku out on a date, but only as friends, making it clear that he’s only doing it to help her clear her head, promising that he won’t make her fall for him.
Meanwhile, Haruki finally breaks down and texts Hazuki back after ignoring her all this time. Eventually, Haruki asks her to meet up. When they do, she pours all of her feelings out for him and wants an answer, but not right now. She simply gave him something to think about. This causes Haruki a bit of confusion, but he knows that his feelings for Saku are true. He confronts her one more time, but instead of asking her out, he asks a different question… and receives an answer… one that might just tear things apart for everyone.
Characters
I don’t get Saku… like… at all. Her development went from “oh, they are building up this romance” to “she’s the dumbest girl on the planet.” I’ll get to that in my final thoughts, but I didn’t think it was possible to regress a character, then double down on it over multiple volumes, but I feel that this is what happened to Saku through some of the most non-sensical writing I’ve experienced in a romance story. I’ll leave it at that because I end up putting my final thoughts in the wrong section.
Iryu isn’t boyfriend material to anyone. Period. How can you claim that you’re in love with someone, then blatantly tell them that you are only being nice because you want to go out with them? Treating sincerity as a plot point in a scheme to date someone, and then telling the girl you like your scheme, is insanely degrading. On top of that, during their day out together, because he wasn’t trying to win her over, he was putting her down, insulting her, making fun of her lack of athletic skills, etc. Even if you’re trying to be a friend, and not a possible boyfriend, why would you go and say things like that? The fact that I think he should end up with nobody shows that he’s doing his job as a character. It’s hard to imagine anyone liking someone like that.
Hazuki poured her feelings out for Haruki, but she came off completely desperate. That should be a massive red flag right there. Even when he tried to reply to her feelings, she cut him off and pleaded for him to hear her out. It’s like she has zero respect for the way the other person feels, and when you try to force yourself upon someone, it’s more off-putting than it is endearing. Personally, if a girl became that desperate to get me to like her, I would walk away in an instant. That’s not worth the headache. Even if she has bottled up her feelings for so long and wants to fix things, there are better ways to handle a situation than to just come off as someone who will refuse to stop bothering you until you cave and agree to go out with them. That’s manipulation at its finest.
Final Thoughts
Sorry to say that this series took a total nose-dive since the previous volume. I mean, it’s bad enough that a common romance series will build up its two main characters, making it painfully obvious that they are going to get shipped in the end, then throw in a rival from out of nowhere to force drama that will, nearly 100% of the time, go nowhere outside of serving as an artificial extension to the series. But when you have this series doing the same thing, AND you transform your female lead into one of the dumbest characters I have read, that’s a massive, MASSIVE problem.
Sorry, but Saku likes Haruki, yet she won’t accept his confession because she THINKS that if Haruki heard how Hazuki felt, he would end up with her instead? Even when Haruki SAYS IT PLAINLY TO HER FACE that he has ZERO FEELINGS for Haruki and LOVES YOU, you still stand there and don’t believe him? Then, when you turn him down, you have no clue that you REJECTED THE PERSON YOU LIKE WHO OPENLY TOLD YOU HE LOVES YOU AND YOU ALONE?
Tell me how this makes sense? That’s what I thought when I read it in the previous volume… and then… this volume tries to explain the reasoning behind all of that, and my brain short-circuited at how dumb the explanation was. None of this makes any sense whatsoever. Haruki loves Saku unconditionally… and she won’t accept it because of some psychic Esper-like feeling she has about Hazuki?
Then, they try to make us believe that this obnoxious jerk has a chance to steal Saku away from Haruki, or that a desperate childhood friend who had YEARS to fix things, but never did, has a chance to steal Haruki away from Saku? You would also think that these false drama plots would bring our two main characters together, but then Saku is written to be even dumber by giving Haruki the worst possible answer to his question before running away and realizing she made yet another mistake.
Just terrible writing. I don’t know why Io Sakisaka thought that this would be compelling storytelling, but it’s all nonsensical to me. Maybe I’m missing the way culture has changed over the years, and maybe weird stuff like this happens in real life, but if it does… good lord, we’re doomed as a society.
Well, the only saving grace is that the next volume is the last. I’m expecting all of the love rivals to mysteriously give up on their interests, do a 180, and get Haruki and Saku together. At this point, might as well go for it and prove that all of the drama was for nothing. In fact, I kind of want Haruki to end up with Hazuki now. Saku kind of deserves it after how stupid she was portrayed. But that’s just me, and I know that won’t happen, because we already spent 5-6 volumes setting them up to be the couple of the series.
Annoyed and disappointed. That’s all I have to say about this series.
You can also check out other Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theouterhaven.net
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Viz Media
