Sakura Quest Episode #23

This is Kudo-san, the CEO of Belem Pastries where he’s a Manoyama native and was inspired to open a shop at his hometown.

Of course, he understands the risk of opening a pastry shop in the sticks so Kudo asked both Yoshino Koharu and Shiori Shinomiya for some help of making it happen.

Also, there’s a concern over Chitose Oribe and her Japanese confectionery business as she might potentially lose some customers… or so she though since no one is coming to buy her sweets anyways. My bad!

Anyways, Chitose-san decided to give the go ahead of having Belem Pastries at Manoyama. The question is where they could find a place to set up a store.

Meanwhile, looks like Maki Midorikawa is doing fine as the leader of her own acting troupe, with final preparations and rehearsals taking place at the former middle school-turned-cultural center as we speak.

By the way, they’re doing the adaptation of the Manoyama Dragon Song, which it would make it more understandable for the audience when it’s broadcast live at their Not-YouTube channel.

Now then, it’s time for the emergency meeting as the Board of Merchants are discussing the inclusion of Belem Pastries, as well as the future of the shopping district.

While most of the shop owners are discussing on who’ll give them space for the pastry shop, Chitose Oribe pointed out that the future of the shopping district is pretty bleak due to the emergence of supermarkets, department stores, and online shopping. In fact, she might decided to disband the Board of Merchants altogether as she thinks that the concept of shopping districts are obsolete. Heck, you might see abandoned shopping districts somewhere in Japan.

Now let’s go back on topic as they’re trying to point fingers on who’ll lend some space to Belem Pastries.

Eventually, they decided that Akiyama’s shop will be the venue for the pasty shop, but he refused to do so because Akiyama feared that Belem Pastries might abandon his place altogether. In fact, he experienced it when an outsider went missing after lending that person a place to do business. Oh, and that person took Akiyama’s money for a double whammy.

Yeah, I have to say that Akiyama had a rough time afterwards that he left his shop and live to another place altogether. With that said, seems that Yoshino Koharu won’t force Akiyama on lending his store space to an outsider, despite the fact that Kudo-san is a Manoyama native. Well, there goes Belem Pastries…

That’s until this guy offered his hobby store to be used for Belem Pastries after hearing Akiyama’s side of the story.

Yeah, he sympathize his fellow shop owner about that unfortunate event, but it’s all good now!

Anyways, looks like it’s sorted out regarding the Belem Pastries as the company has successfully opened shop at the former hobby shop.

On the other hand, Chitose Oribe and the Board of Merchants have decided to sponsor the Mizuchi Festival, making it official instead of being proposed until further notice. Not only that, but both Chitose Oribe and Ushimatsu Kadota have not only decided to lend a hand in the upcoming stage place, but also reconciled… just a bit.

Well, they still bicker from time to time, but it’s a step in the right direction between Chitose-san and Ushimatsu-san!

One last thing, seems that Queen Yoshino has decided to use the toyetic Shining Dragon as the stand-in for the shrine float ornament.

C’mon, it’s expensive to make a replacement of the golden dragon ornament since it’s made with real gold. But hey, it’s better than nothing for the upcoming Mizuchi Festival!

However, it seems that there’s some bad news as Kadota told everyone that Manoyama as a town will be over, with rumors that it’ll be absorbed by the nearby town of Tomikura. Yeah, not a good way to end this week’s episode.

So, what’s gonna happen to Queen Yoshino and everyone else in Manoyama now that they’ll get assimilated by a nearby town? I mean, their plans of revitalizing the town is going smoothly and having it stopped will be a waste of effort. But anyways, I’m hoping that something good will happen on the penultimate episode!