After Action [COMPLETED]

[WS] "FORMAL REVIEW: 'BLOOM INTO YOU' "

Written 15 November 2019

'Bloom Into You': A "pseudo-romantic" rabbit hole

"How complicated can be the relationship between Yuu and Touko?"

So we're now on our fourth (formal) animé review. And this time, we are diving down the rabbit hole that is 'Yagate Kimi ni Naru'―more popularly known by its English title, 'Bloom Into You'.

Koito Yuu has just started her first year of high school. However, the ghost of her middle school years also started to haunt her back. She has always been a fan of the romance genre―specifically, of romance-themed songs, mānga, and novels. When it was her turn to experience "romance" itself (on the final day of her middle school life), she was cold and unresponsive, which surprised even her. With the desire to start her high school life―in a new educational environment―fresh, she decided to take action by herself . . . until such an opportunity to ask for assistance arose when she happened upon a classic scene: a girl who coolly rejected her male suitor's confession of love.

'Yagate Kimi ni Naru'―and I will refer to the animé by its Japanese title for uniformity―is a thirteen-episode "Girl's Love" animé, adapted from the mānga series of the same name. It deals with female worries of both the social and romantic varieties, and how some teenage girls find companionship with other girls at school―when society expects them to fall in love with the opposite sex. It also tackles lesbian relationships budding from the school level, with only a few of those relationships continuing on towards adulthood due to a number of reasons.

Both main characters―Koito Yuu and Nanami Touko (and yes, the latter has "Nanami" as her family name)―are broken souls―with warped perspectives of life―who, by a quick turn of events, have begun their . . . well, complicated "pseudo-relationship". As I have asked earlier, on the opening line of this animé review, how complicated can be their so-called "romance"? It is as complicated as their relationship being contradictory to the preconceived societal notion of the term itself―i. e., being a relationship exclusive between a man and a woman.

While it is not heavily focused on the drama, like 'Citrus' is (based on the first mānga volume that I have read not long ago, plus the first episode of its animé adaptation I've watched, but have not followed through due to its ongoing status at the time), it is, nonetheless, a total mindfuck―for this Internet "mercenary", at the least. (Then again, "love" is something I can't fathom anymore.) I mean, what do they really want out of their relationship? Or, more precisely, what do both Yuu and Touko really want in their respective lives? Why did they seek out each other after that brief encounter? And why did they actually enter a "pseudo-relationship", in the first place? Also, there are other interesting characters added into the mix―from both within the student council, in which Touko is the current president, to Yuu's circle of friends, and the coffee shop where both groups hang out whenever they have the time to do so. And as the story progressed with each episode of the animé, the more mysteries start to pop up, the most pressing of which is Touko's elder sister―who was only mentioned numerous times throughout, yet have not made an appearance at all. Lastly, given with where―and how―the animé ended, it is more likely we will expect a second season, provided that the producers have enough source material to adapt from the mānga series.

Even with the complicated nature of Yuu and Touko's pseudo-relationship, the viewer can't help but follow them through, and see where they will actually go; same goes for other characters. Maybe the somewhat laid-back nature of the story makes the viewer focus more on how this forbidden pseudo-relationship will turn out, in a playing field that weighs favorably on heterosexual relationships featured in other romance-themed animé―e. g.: 'Kaguya-sama', 'Golden Time', 'EF' the animation. (And fuck me, I can actually understand 'Generation Kill' much more easily than this animé―then again, this is irrelevant to the review.)

Nonetheless, 'Yagate Kimi ni Naru' is a rabbit hole worth diving into, if one wants to watch a romance-themed animé that has a lighter amount of drama and less plot twists than the usual "Girls Love" animé. As a result, the story itself is more "natural", in the sense that the viewer―or reader, if one would prefer to read the original mānga series―will not back out of it due to the dragging tension, both from within and without. This is a "nine-stars-out-of-ten" experience for me.