Sakura Wars (サクラ大戦, Sakura Taisen?) is a Japanese media franchise created by Ouji Hiroi, with original character designs by Kōsuke Fujishima and owned by Red Entertainment and Sega that video games and other merchandise. The series began in 1996 as an eponymous dramatic adventure video game developed by Sega with a gameplay mixture of tactical wargame and dating sim for the Sega Saturn video game console. It had since been expanded to other forms of media, including an extremely popular anime series.

The original storyline, said to be inspired by the Shochiku Kagekidan, takes place in an alternate 1920s Tokyo. It follows the adventures of an all-female secret task force known as the Imperial Assault Force — Flower Division as they defend the Imperial Capital Tokyo against evil. They are led by Ichiro Ogami, a newly graduated Imperial Navy Ensign who had been assigned to the squad partly due to his unique ability to use a special type of armor that only women having high levels of spiritual powers could previously operate. The setting eventually moved on to other locations such as Paris and New York.

Although the video games in the series were never released outside Asia (except for Russia ), the various OVA tie-ins, the animated TV series, and the motion picture were licensed in North America by ADV Films, FUNimation, and Geneon (previously Pioneer Entertainment). The manga version, currently serialized in Kodansha's Magazine Z, is also released in English by TOKYOPOP.

Source: Wikipedia