AllMovie

In Sakura Wars, it is the year 1919 and dark forces are amassing. In an effort to keep the badness at bay, people with the strongest spiritual energy are gathered. These people all happen to be young women, and so the classic all-female-fighting-force formula is employed, each girl with a trademark personality and skill. There is a tough martial arts expert, a coquettish French psychic, a sweet, small-town sword expert, a Russian girl who is a master shooter, and a number of others who complete the team. There is also a young, handsome commander watching over the girls who is constantly finding himself the object of a crush. Despite this seemingly clichéd premise, Sakura Wars: OVA 1 is a well-received anime. While the time period for the story is specified, the technology actually depicted was created specifically for Sakura Wars, with absolutely all machinery being steam-powered, even the weapon that the girls use to fight their enemies. Based on the popular Sakura Wars video game, this four-episode OVA spawned several more OVA releases, a feature film, and a television series that retells the same story.