Bloom Into You

 Bloom Into You (やがて君になる) is a 13 episode slice of life yuri romance based on the manga of the same name by Nakatani Nio.  The anime originally aired in the Fall of 2018.

    Yuu is a first year high school student who is unsure if she understands love.  As she struggles with how to respond to a confession from a good friend in middle school she happens upon an upper classman reject one herself.  She feels that this older more experienced person may share similar ideas as her and desires to get to know her.  The upperclassman, second year Touko, instantly takes a liking to Yuu and welcomes her into the student council.  While Touko explains that she turns down everyone who has confessed to her.  She says that she has expected to feel like she is floating on air when she does love someone, but no one has yet to cause that to happen.  As she and Yuu spend more time together that spark suddenly erupts, leading the older girl to take dramatic actions to show her love for Yuu.

    Yuu is completely unsure of the situation and doesn't reciprocate the affection.  She tells Touko that she accepts her love but can not return it, and may never be able to.  Touko in turn says that's fine and still wants to be with Yuu, even if its just one sided.  However Yuu is unsure about the situation and feels that Touko is hiding her true self from everyone, causing undue strain and stress.  As time goes on Touko becomes more aggressive with her affection, much to Yuu's discomfort.  As they get caught up in the stress of life around them will they be able to come to peace with each other or is their time only limited to their brief life as co-eds?

 

    I'll come out right away and say this series has elements to it that did not sit well with me.  The relationship between Yuu and Touko is at times dangerous for Yuu.  Some of Touko's actions towards Yuu can be seen as a grooming or manipulative.  She has a vast amount of emotional baggage that shes is purposely neglecting, even after Yuu's desire to help her.  Yuu tends to exhibit symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, trying desperately to feel the same level of emotions for Touko but is unable to.  All the while Touko's closest friend harbors hidden love for her, and is unable to recognize the toxicity of her relationship with the underclassman.

    I enjoy realism and drama in slice of life.  This series deals with some realistic issues but also succumbs to genre tropes.  What concerns me with how Bloom Into You portrays this dangerous and troublesome relationship is that it doesn't appear to recognize the seriousness of it.  Instead it offhandedly escalates the power that Touko exerts over Yuu and Yuu continues to rationalize it in fantastical ways.  Ways that are not exactly done in a manner that underscores the seriousness of their situation.  Meanwhile it does portray some aspects of humanity that aren't often shown in anime.  One of Yuu's classmates is also aromantic, preferring to enjoy other peoples loves from a distance, somewhat creepy voyeurism.  There is also an adult lesbian couple who interact with characters at times in the later portions of the story, offering a more normalized, if hidden reality, of LGBTQ+ in Japan.  Beyond the difficulty with resolving the glib manner in how the story handle the dangerous content, the artwork is rather lack luster with quite out dated character designs.  In the end, I am not sure if I enjoyed the series.  Some aspects were welcomed but there was a lot of strained melodrama and a rather offhanded way of presenting toxic relationships.

    Bloom Into You is available for streaming in North America in both sub and sub formats.