News
Chie Shimada Ends Sakura Wars: Kanadegumi Manga This Month
posted on by Karen Ressler
The official website for Hakuensha's shōjo magazine Hana to Yume has announced that Chie Shimada's manga series Sakura Taisen: Kanadegumi (Sakura Wars: Performing Division) will be ending in the magazine's 12th issue, which will ship on May 20.
The project began as the first major spinoff aimed at female players for the Sakura Wars game franchise. The story follows the young woman's relationship with five attractive young men in an imperial opera company named Kanadegumi in Tokyo. Shimada launched the manga version in Hana to Yume in November 2011 as a two-chapter manga, which was then expanded into a regular series in February 2012. The project has since inspired an anime DVD and a stage play. The third compiled volume shipped this past February.
Since its debut more than 15 years ago, Sakura Wars has been a dating simulation/tactical role-playing game franchise aimed primarily at male gamers. The previous entries in the franchise followed the alternate-history adventures of several all-female mechanized task forces — that also perform musicals to maintain their top secret cover. The games' voice actresses reprised their roles in real-life stage musicals that lasted long after the main game series ended.
[Via Manga News]
