The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

Plot

Sakura Dormitory is a dorm of the high school affiliated with Suimei University of the Arts (often shortened as Suiko), which hosts the strangest, most trouble-making students. After being kicked out of the normal dorm for keeping a stray cat, Sorata Kanda moves into Sakura Dormitory. As he starts to get used to the life in the dorm, Mashiro Shiina, a world-famous artist who cannot even take care of her daily life, moves in. Sorata is forced to become Mashiro's caretaker. The story is about their daily lives as well as mental growth.

Characters

Sakura Dormitory residents

Sorata Kanda (神田 空太, Kanda Sorata)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese); Greg Ayres (English)

Sorata is the male protagonist of the story. He is a second-year (later third year) student of Suiko, who lives in room 101 of Sakura Dormitory. He was kicked out of the regular dorms after he chose not to give up a stray cat he found (he cannot resist taking in stray cats, and he ends up keeping seven of them in his room). As many of the Sakura Dormitory residents have outstanding grades and art skills, he often feels plain and normal among them.

Chihiro, the dorm supervisor, chooses him to take care of Mashiro, the "pet girl" referenced in the title, and he is, understandably, reluctant to do so but ends up getting used to it. At the end of the thirteenth novel, he confesses to Mashiro. Sorata decides to become a computer game designer, but his game proposal to a famous computer game company is repeatedly turned down. In the sixth novel, he decides to make a game on his own. A major plot of the story is how his personality and self-expectation evolves.

Mashiro Shiina (椎名 ましろ, Shiina Mashiro)

Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese); Caitlynn French (English)

Mashiro is the female protagonist of the story. She is the resident of room 202, as well as a world famous artist who transferred into Suiko as a second-year to learn how to draw manga. Although her artwork is widely admired, she knows nothing other than drawing and has an extreme lack of common sense and living ability. Due to this, Sorata is forced to "adopt" Mashiro and help her out with the basic tasks of everyday life that everyone else takes for granted; he even has to pick out underwear for her to wear or she will go out without them. Her focus on what she wants to do, draw manga, awes Sorata and inspires him. She has very bad grades, since she cannot pay attention in class, but she can still pass the make-up exams by photographically memorizing all of the answers with her art talent. In the third novel, Mashiro starts to develop feelings for Sorata and she even claims that she cannot live without him. According to Mashiro, she plans to live in Sorata's house and work as a manga artist after graduation.

Suiko students

Yūko Kanda (神田 優子, Kanda Yūko)

Voiced by: Yui Ogura (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)

Yūko is Sorata's younger sister and is in her third year of junior high school; she later attends Suiko. She borders on having a brother complex and wants to be spoiled by Sorata. At first, she does not like any of the other girls because she thinks they are taking her brother away, but after spending time with them, she at least accepts Mashiro because she "has a few issues". However, she still dislikes Nanami because not only can she take care of herself, she also helped Sorata and Yūko's mother with many of the household chores during her stay at their home, garnering praise from their mother. She is quite air-headed and has a tendency to jump to conclusions about her brother and the other girls, mostly ending in perverse ways. She enters Suiko as a first-year student during Sorata's third year.

Daichi Miyahara (宮原 大地, Miyahara Daichi)

Voiced by: Taishi Murata (Japanese); Adam Gibbs (English)

Daichi is Sorata's and Nanami's classmate. He has feelings for Nanami.

Mayu Takasaki (高崎 繭, Takasaki Mayu)

Voiced by: Yurika Kubo (Japanese); Avery Smithhart (English)

Mayu is Sorata's and Nanami's classmate.

Saori Himemiya (姫宮 沙織, Himemiya Saori)

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese); Mai Le (English)

Saori is a third-year student in the Music department who Misaki calls "Hauhau", and often produces music for Misaki's anime. She is in a relationship with Sōichirō.

Sōichirō Tatebayashi (舘林 総一郎, Tatebayashi Sōichirō)

Others

Kazuki Fujisawa (藤沢 和希, Fujisawa Kazuki)

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (Japanese); Heath Morrow (English)

Initially introduced as one of the judges for "Let's Make a Game", Kazuki is later revealed to be an alumnus of Suiko and lived in Sakurasou. It is hinted that he has feelings for Chihiro. Sorata idolizes him, and Kazuki admires Sorata's efforts. He later becomes Sorata's mentor and game adviser.

Ayano Iida (飯田 綾乃, Iida Ayano)

Voiced by: Masumi Asano (Japanese); Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Ayano is Mashiro's editor for her manga and also a friend of Rita.

Fūka Kamiigusa (上井草 風香, Kamiigusa Fūka)

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese); Kira Vincent Davis (English)

Fūka is Misaki's older sister. She is Jin's childhood friend and ex-girlfriend.

Koharu Shirayama (白山 小春, Shirayama Koharu)

Voiced by: Mikako Takahashi (Japanese); Patricia Duran (English)

Koharu is the homeroom teacher of Sorata's class. She and Chihiro were acquaintances when they were in high school.

Sorata's Father (空太の父)

Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese); Mike Vance (English)

Sorata's father.

Akiko Kanda (神田 明子, Kanda Akiko)

Media

Light novels

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou began as a light novel series written by Hajime Kamoshida, with illustrations drawn by Kēji Mizoguchi. ASCII Media Works published 13 volumes in the series under their Dengeki Bunko imprint encompassing 10 main novels and three short story collections released between January 10, 2010, and March 8, 2014.

Manga

A manga adaptation, illustrated by Hōki Kusano, began serialization in the April 2011 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine. The manga ended serialization in the magazine's May 2014 issue and continued serialization in Dengeki G's Comic between the June 2014 and July 2015 issues. The first tankōbon volume was released on October 27, 2011, and there have been eight published as of June 27, 2015. A four-panel anthology volume was published on February 27, 2012.

Anime

A 24-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by J.C.Staff, written by Mari Okada, and directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, aired between October 9, 2012, and March 26, 2013, on Tokyo MX. The series makes use of five pieces of theme music: three opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening theme is "Kimi ga Yume o Tsuretekita" (君が夢を連れてきた; You Brought a Dream) sung by Pet na Kanojotachi, consisting of Ai Kayano, Mariko Nakatsu, and Natsumi Takamori. The first ending theme "Days of Dash" is by Konomi Suzuki. Episode 3 uses the tune "Days of Dash", but different lyrics and accompanying animation than episodes 1 and 2. From episode 13 onwards, the second opening theme is "Yume no Tsuzuki" (夢の続き; The Continuation of the Dream) by Suzuki. The second ending theme is "Prime Number (Kimi to Deaeru Hi)" (Prime Number ~君と出会える日~; Prime Number ~The Day I Met You~) by Asuka Ōkura. The opening theme of episode 14 is "I Call Your Name Again" by Nakatsu under her character name Nanami Aoyama.

The series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America, which re-released the series on Blu-ray with an English dub on August 25, 2020. The series was also simulcast on Crunchyroll. Following the acquisitions of Crunchyroll by Sony Pictures Television and Sentai Filmworks by AMC Networks, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, among several other titles licensed by Sentai Filmworks, were removed from Crunchyroll on March 31, 2022.

Visual novel

A visual novel adaptation, developed by Netchubiyori and published by ASCII Media Works, was released on the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita on February 14, 2013.

Reception

The Mainichi Shimbun reported in April 2012 that the novels have sold over 850,000 copies.

The anime's sixth episode, The Blue After the Rain, had a scene where Jin Mitaka prepared samgye-tang for Nanami, who was sick. This was a departure from the original novel where the equivalent scene had him serve kayu instead. This change has resulted in backlash from some fans, leading to some claiming that this change was made as part of a stealth marketing campaign for Korean food. The claim was denied by both Animax and Media Factory, which were part of the production committee at the time.