Bloom Into You
Author: Nakatani Nio Genre: Slice-of-life/Romance/Yuri Years of Publication: 2017- 2020 Pages: ~200 pages (per book) Number of Volumes: 8
Writing: 10/10 Plot: 10/10 Characters: 10/10 Creativity: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Perfection. I loved this so much.
Before I dig into the series that kicked off my new obsession, let me clear up some things.
1) Most of the time, the “creativity” rating refers to how interesting and unique the setting/premise is. Since this is a slice-of-life high school romance story, I can’t really grade it on uniqueness (it’s just high school). SO, due to it being a manga, the rating refers to the art.
2) This review covers all 8 volumes. I feel like it’s easier to discuss the entire thing instead of one book at a time.
And thus, my descension into yuri-hell begins.
Alright so… manga. I didn’t plan for this series to be the first manga I review on this website (I was holding out for Beastars) nor did I expect it to be the first romance story I talk about, but here we are. First things first, I don’t normally read romance stories. I’ve been reading new things to expand my scope and so far, it led me down yuri-hell so… success??
Warning! I’m going to spoil the story wholesale. In order for me to really explain my love for this series, I have to dig deep. If you don’t want to be spoiled, go read the books!
I’m going to change the format a bit. I’m combining plot and characters as it is easier to explain. Again, SPOILERS APLENTY COMING UP!
The story follows Yuu Koito and Touko Nanami as they build a relationship and learn about themselves and each other. Yuu yearns to have a relationship similar to the romance stories she reads, however she has never felt romantic feelings towards anyone. Touko refuses to date anyone stating that everyone who confessed failed to make her feel anything. The two bond over this similarity and suddenly, Touko confesses her love to Yuu, stating that Yuu’s “inability” to form strong-romantic attachments is the reason why she has feelings for her. She asks Yuu if she (Touko) could love her in secret and for Yuu to not reciprocate her feelings. Yuu agrees. Thus begins the saga…
Touko- Honestly, the most complex character in this entire story. Touko is intelligent, beautiful, responsible, kind, confident, and admired by basically everyone she comes into contact with. She scores the highest scores in her grade, she runs for and becomes student council president, participates and shines in school events, and she works really hard to live up to and surpass the legacy her deceased older sister left behind. Her sister tragically died in a car accident and this event shaped Touko’s outlook. To honor her, Touko basically becomes her, filling in the same commanding roles her sister held. This puts a lot of pressure on her as everyone expects her to be just as great as her sister. She’s stressed, but she hides behind a facade of confidence and perfection. To everyone, she’s special. Even her best friend, Sayaka Saeki treats her like this perfect goddess of the school. This adoration made her put up mental barriers, preventing her from forming deep connections with anyone (including Sayaka). It wasn’t until Yuu shows up and announces that she has never met anyone that felt special to her. This excites Touko because there’s a person who doesn’t worship her like a god. There’s a person who doesn’t have any expectations. She never felt love and seems to be incapable of experiencing that emotion. Yuu can treat her like a normal person. Now, for the first time, Touko has her own special person that she can dote on. This is why she asks Yuu to not reciprocate her feelings. If Yuu were to do so, she would be yet another person in a sea of people who look up to Touko. Yuu is also something her sister never had so whenever Touko is alone with Yuu, she expresses more of herself, her real self. She can reveal the weaker side of herself, the side she hides from everyone. During their relationship, she starts off very emotionally needy (and handsy. I’ll talk about it later) and selfish. Eventually, as they learn more about each other, Touko matures and becomes more of an individual, distancing herself away from her sister’s shadow. All of this thanks to Yuu.
Yuu- Our main character. Yuu is quiet, loyal, and considerate. She struggles with the concept of love as she has never experienced that feeling even though she yearns for it. She watches her friends develop crushes and go on dates, unable to relate to them. Even when Touko kisses her (stealing her first kiss), she still feels nothing. She deems this to be unfair. Her friends can have crushes and Touko can be in love with her, but she can’t because she lacks those feelings. Heck, Touko tells Yuu to not fall in love with her (for reasons stated already) which is doubly unfair. But, she swallows her emotions and moves on. During Touko’s campaign for student council president, Touko lets Yuu know that she’s nervous and stressed and, right before Yuu has to give her speech about Touko, Yuu realizes that Touko likes her because she can truly be herself. From this point on, Yuu lets Touko express her love however she pleases as a way to help her out. She’s clearly struggling and views their relationship as something sacred so… eh, might as well just go with it. Yuu tells herself over and over that she’s not in love with Touko and that she can’t fall in love because she made a promise. It’s not until Seiji Maki, a student council member, tells her that she clearly likes Touko and is just deluding herself.
Maki tangent: So Maki is clearly asexual and/or aromantic. He witnesses Touko and Yuu kissing and teases Yuu about it. We learn that he, like Yuu, has never experienced love or any of the feelings associated with it. However, unlike Yuu, it doesn’t bother him. Yuu thinks there is something “wrong” with her, while Maki is completely content. When Yuu confides in her feelings with him, he blatantly tells her that they are not alike. Yuu clearly likes her, but is just keeping quiet because of her promise to Touko. This conversation gives off strong demisexual vibes from Yuu. I’ll get into this more later.
The more she is around Touko, the more she learns about her. Touko wants to put on a play run by the student council, a tradition that stopped seven years prior. The play was something her sister wanted to do but wasn’t able to due to her death. Yuu thinks the play is a bad idea at first because she sees how much pressure it is putting onto Touko (who is already under a lot of pressure beforehand). Since Yuu is such a good person, she attempts to convince Sayaka to talk Touko out of making the play but Sayaka turns her down, telling her to look up what happened with Touko’s sister. Her sister was student council president before her and, as stated, Touko pushed herself to be on her sister’s level as a way to honor her memory. Putting on the play is the ultimate way to honor her. It was something she couldn’t do so Touko is tasking herself to finish her wish. However, Yuu is still bothered by this. Touko looks up to her sister so much. She copies her even though it stresses her out. At one point in the series, Touko learns that her sister was a very “hands-off,” laidback president that didn’t do much, the complete opposite of Touko. This devastates her and she begins to hate herself because for so long her entire identity revolved around being her sister. She makes Yuu promise to not fall in love with her again because she can’t stand the idea of the girl she loves falling for someone she hates (It’s the saddest part in the manga and it hurts my soul!). Yuu tries to make her see sense, but Touko is too caught up in self-loathing, so Yuu gets her friend Koyomi Kanou (aka the playwright) to change the play’s ending.
I forgot to mention that the play that they’re putting on is written by Koyomi and while they’re rehearsing she constantly states she’s not sure about the ending. Koyomi specifically wrote each part for each member of the council and struggled to write a part for Touko, who is playing the lead. The play is about a girl who, after being in an accident, is suffering from memory loss. Her classmate, brother, and lover all tell her different things about herself so she could remember who she was. Each account is vastly different from the other. Her classmate states that she is a straight-a student and is loved and admired by everyone. Her brother tells her that she is cold and distant at home. Her lover tells her that she is needy and emotional. The girl has to figure out and choose which side of her is the side she’ll return to. Originally, the girl was supposed to side with her lover, but Yuu convinces Koyomi to have the girl choose no one’s side and to go down her own path. Touko, who is projecting onto the character, does not like this change, but everyone - including Sayaka- tells her to go with it. SPEAKING OF SAYAKA!
Big Sayaka tangent! The best character. I love her so much. Sayaka is Touko’s confidant. She’s always one step behind her, academically and physically. She’s always with her. The idea of Touko failing and messing up never crosses Sayaka’s mind even though she knows the pressure Touko is putting on herself is hurting her. This is what Touko wants to do and Sayaka supports her all the way because she’s secretly in love with her. Sayaka wants to be with Touko. She wants to express her feelings openly but hides them since she doesn’t want to be rejected and doesn’t want to change their current relationship. She knows that Touko needs to come into her own, but doesn’t cross that line because she wants to continue to be near her and support her. So, she waits. She waits for Touko to change on her own and when she’s changed, then she could confess. She opens up to Miyako Kodama, the owner of a cafe she and the rest go to after she realizes that Miyako and Sayaka’s literary teacher (and student council advisor) Riko Hakozaki are dating. I like this little tidbit because growing up queer in an environment that’s not particularly friendly or open to queer people is hard, especially for a teenager. I like that Sayaka is able to truly open up to a trusted adult who is also gay. It’s cool. It’s a small part I really like. We get Sayaka’s backstory where we learn that back in middle school (she went to an all-girls school), another girl confessed to her and they started dating. However, right before they graduated, that girl broke off their relationship and announced that she was just going through her “gay phase.” This, understandably, bothered the hell out of Sayaka, who had genuine feelings for this girl. She vowed to never fall in love with another girl after this. She even enrolled in a co-ed school for that purpose, but then she met Touko and forgot all about that. We get a pretty cathartic scene later on with the same girl. She brutally says sorry for making Sayaka “not normal” and hopes that she would become normal in the future. Yikes! Sayaka, who is with Touko, wraps her arms around Touko and brushes off her former crush. It’s pretty great.
Sayaka sides against Touko in the play-ending-change debate because she feels that the new ending would be therapeutic and overall really good for Touko. She’s 100% correct. Touko changes after the play. She becomes more relaxed and decides to get into acting since she did a phenomenal job and loved doing it. She’s still an over-achiever but doesn’t pretend to be perfect anymore. Fast-forwarding a lot, we get many scenes of Yuu rethinking her true feelings towards Touko. She helped Touko a lot. Had some pretty deep conversations with her. But now, she has to reevaluate her emotions. She made a promise to Touko to not fall in love with her. She is special to Touko and the latter doesn’t want to former to treat her like the rest, but Yuu truly loves her now. Yuu, building up a lot of courage, confesses, but the only response Touko gives is a soft “sorry.” Yuu runs off, mistaking this to mean that she was rejected because she broke her promise. In reality, Touko realizes that she was preventing Yuu from expressing her emotions. She was suffocating her, really. Her “sorry” was an apology, not a rejection. The upperclassmen go to Kyoto on a school trip. Sayaka and Touko are together and the former finally feels like she can confess now that the latter is no longer drowning under all of her responsibilities. However, Touko does reject her and admits that she is in love with Yuu. Sayaka accepts this and they remain close friends. It’s so cute and heartwarming. I love it! Yuu and Touko come together and they start dating officially. More stuff happens, but we’re done here.
Wow. Okay! That was a lot. Now I’m going to talk about some other things. Dig a little deeper.
1. Yuu is demisexual and no one can tell me otherwise. As an asexual, I’m projecting a lot here, but I don’t care! I’m 100% certain that she is demi. Whether or not that was the intention of the author, who knows? I don’t care. She’s demi. Full stop. (“Maya, wtf are you talking about? What is demisexual?” Here ya go). Why do I think this? I’m projecting… but there’s evidence! Yuu grew up reading romance novels and watching romance movies and longs for that relationship, but she has never had a crush on anyone. Even when there’s a boy who is interested she doesn’t know how to feel because… she feels nothing towards him. This bothers her. She thinks that there is something wrong with her. She feels left out when her friends all talk about crushes and dating. She beats herself down about this. This is something I can relate to as an asexual. Without getting too TMI here, back in high school, I dated someone too but I didn’t feel anything. I questioned why I wasn’t feeling all warm and fuzzy or whatever people feel when they’re in love. Even when we kissed, I felt nothing. I learned, just from researching around, that I’m asexual demiromantic. I was teleported back to high school when these pages showed up. (read right to left)
“WAIT IS SHE ACE?” Was my first thought. Que in Maki! He’s aromantic. He has no interest in anyone, he’s not interested in dating, he’s not bothered by the fact that he doesn’t have romantic feelings, but he understands why people go for it. He’s aro. 100%. When Yuu confides in him, explaining how she has never felt love before, he tells her that he’s the same way. She is very happy about this.
“I thought I was just weird for not falling in love. I just wanted to be like everyone else.” The ace vibes reverberate off the page. Maki deduces that she is in love, but is just not accepting it. The closer she gets to Touko, the stronger her feelings grow. She’s DEMISEXUAL! And no one can tell me no!
2. LOOK AT THIS ART! IT’S ADORABLE!
I have nothing deeper to say about the art really. It’s soft, pleasant, and is really beautiful at points, especially with the full-colored pages. The one above is my favorite.
3. I love how mature the characters are. I’m so used to stories set in high schools being sappy, melodramatic, downright agonizing, angsty (the bad kind of angst) etc. This one is not that at all. The story takes a lot of time to fully explore the character’s feelings and relationships. I love interpersonal relationships, I love being able to see them grow and change. This is a great example of those elements. Touko grows the most throughout because, really, the story is about her coming into her own. It's just wholesome.
4. Bloom into You made me understand the appeal of romance stories. I usually avoided them because a lot of them were boring and bad. I’m down to read more romance stuff after this. More sapphic romances please and thanks.
5. My only complaint. This is the only negative. Touko is a bit too pushy for my liking in the beginning. There’s one moment where she forces Yuu into a kiss and made me uncomfortable. Luckily, after that point, she doesn’t pull that anymore so… yeah that’s it. Literally the only part I didn’t like.
Thanks to this fantastic piece of work, I’m now in yuri-hell. I can’t stop reading this gay crap. I need more!!! I’m not sure if I’m going to talk about the other sapphic mangas I’m reading. Eh... if they impact me as much as this one did, then I will.
Recommendation: Literally everyone. READ THIS!
