Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku

Sometimes, looking at the anime I have watched, I wonder to myself, why do I gravitate to the romance genre so much? What is it about two people falling in love that strikes a chord with me? To me, I find the idea of becoming a better person along with someone you love to be a beautiful thing. The pursuit of a light that guides you along the way of all the trials and tribulations in life is interesting, and seeing even fictional characters sometimes gives me new perspectives on how people interact, how people think, and through romance stories, they give me the relatablemoments, as well as some inspirational moments sometimes. The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is probably one of the most normal stories to exist, but in an excellent way. The romance is earnest, heartfelt, and cute, the characters are supportive and understanding, and people TALK TO EACH OTHER. The story starts with a classic Romeo & Juliet setup with the male protagonist, Rintarou Tsumugi, a tall student at Chidori High School, a school regarded as low in prestige and its students being delinquents, and the female protagonist, Kaoruko Waguri, being a student at Kikyo High School, next door to Chidori, is regarded as high class. The two schools have a history of hatred, and therefore, the students at their respective schools also hate the opposing school and its students. In keeping with the vibe of the school, whenever someone looks at Rintarou, they are intimidated due to his stature, but Kaoruko, when they met, treated him no differently than any other person she would meet, judging someone based on their actions, and not by their looks. I have to admit, based on this setup, it felt rather generic. However, the way that this anime broke through the poison of misunderstandings and conflicts was quite admirable. No conflict gets solved without communication, and this anime tackles conflict with elegance, like it itself was from Kikyo. In both their actions and how they speak, it is clear that the characters from both schools care about their own very deeply. Certainly, there was initial conflict between Rintaro’s friends, and Kaoruko’s friend, Subaru, due to prejudice and past experiences, but this anime depicted how clear and calm communication can bridge the gap between parties, whether it relates to romance or not. The author seems to not like to drag on misunderstandings, conflicts, or drama, but rather handles them quickly, which is a breath of fresh air and something that is sorely needed sometimes. There is a reason romance anime such as His and Her Circumstances and Mysterious Girlfriend X are among my favourites in the genre, and that is because the main couple, as well as the other characters, TALK to one another about their problems. It is as simple as that. Certainly, the romance in this anime is cute and made me smile a lot, but the main appeal of this anime to me is the cast as a whole. The first thing Reira Ushio, the singer of the ending theme for the anime, noticed about "Kaoru Hana" was that there were no negative feelings coming from the characters. She said, in an interview, “Aren't most works filled with unpleasant characters? Sometimes the presence of a villain can make the story more exciting. But this work doesn't have those elements, and yet I thought it was amazing how it was such an interesting story that you could keep reading.” With how kind and supportive both Rintarou and Kaoruko’s friends are, it also brings me to the discussion of realism. I do not know at what point did thoughts around media started revolving around how realistic it was. Perhaps a reason would be that grounded characters can resonate with people, but even if everyone is super nice, or polite in the way that they talk, does that mean the story is not grounded in other ways? The characters may apologize a lot, and yes, many people do not talk like that in real life, but even in doing so, some of the characters felt more real than a lot of shows out there. Yes, seeing everyone be so kind to one another might be an idealistic view on human interactions, but rather than seeing a dose of reality in my anime, here, I would rather see a fantasy or exaggeration of reality, because reality exists outside of the screen. If I wanted to see some drama, I could literally go outside, and chances are, at some point in the day, someone would be mean and crass to someone else. Why would I not want to watch something pleasant or saccharine? It’s not like a lot of shows are like that these days. The existence of parents in romance anime feels like a rarity, but when they appear, and especially if they are not used as a dramatic device, they almost always add to the charm of the cast. One of my favourite things in media is seeing parents treat their kids with love and care. I have definitely been in Rintarou’s shoes, not asking his parents for things, in fear of inconveniencing them and holding them back. There were a number of episodes in particular that got me very emotional, but one of them definitely took the cake. I have not really felt this way watching something since I watched *Liz and the Blue Bird*, which to this date is still my favourite anime of all time because how much I related to the notion of holding people back, whether it be friends, family, or anyone close to me. I've always been a bit selfless, not putting myself first, so I could really relate to Rintarou's empathy and kindness. When I saw Rintarou’s mother being so proud of his son for even trivial things such as bringing his friends over to his house, I could not help but feel that in my soul. I could also see the effect that Rintarou’s parents had on his own personal values, and that screams good parenting. When friendship, romance, and good vibes coalesce, that was what the cast in this anime turned out to be. From hating Kikyo High, to embracing Kaoruko and Subaru as part of the group, Rintarou and his friends came a long way, and it all got sparked from the winds of change that came from the unlikely duo of Rintarou and Kaoruko. The constant stream of communication, airing out the past dirty laundry, to spilling out whatever it was on their mind, everyone in the friend group was the biggest of green flags as you could imagine. Furthermore, Rintarou’s parents acted as an excellent support system for their son, which fostered the growth of himself, as well as many people who interacted with him. Therefore, I could see how much each character complimented each other. This anime aired at the same time as two other shows from the same studio (CloverWorks), which were two other romance juggernauts in My Dress-Up Darling Season 2, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus, and while it was not the best looking out of the three, it did not need to have the snappy pace as the directing of My Dress-Up Darling, for example. The animation was still very solid throughout, and I was particularly impressed by the bright colours that matched the emotions of the characters, as I mentioned earlier. The pace was slow, sometimes adapting only a single chapter in an episode, and with that, us as viewers got more time to see the characters grow, and have their personalities get more layered, due to the way conflicts are quickly resolved. Considering this was the first full manga work (outside of one-shots) done by author Saka Mikami, the writing for both the manga, and now the adaptation, worked well in their respective mediums. Out of all the romance anime I have watched, this anime might have my favourite cast as a whole. The characters grow together, support each other, and change each other for the better. The story pushes past its Romeo & Juliet setup and became something special, and all it took was everyone being nice, supportive, and understanding of one another. It is these earnest stories that really make my day, and as much as I like spicy stories and drama like the next guy, sometimes, I do need to have some water, or maybe, something sweet like a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Interestingly enough, this scoop of vanilla warmed my soul.

This anime made me realise that there must be two very distinct audiences when it comes to romance - those that want a lot of nuance, subtlety and character driven tension (with release further along down the narrative) and those that want comfort, sweetness and regular emotional catharsis. All romance anime stand somewhere on this imaginary tension-comfort binary. This anime is in the very, very extreme of the latter. If this is you - you'll love this excellent Cloverworks adaptation of this sweet and feel good story. If you're more about the former though, like myself, you will watch this and say "Why is thisrated so highly? This is trash."

Without a doubt, one of the romance anime of the decade. Not a good one! Just one of them. If anyone wants to discuss how creepy it is that we're meant to treat it as wholesome that someone stalks someone else's place of employment for several months just to talk to them, or how weird it is that the main male character thinks the main female character is a child initially while the main female character thinks the main male character is an adult initially, and tell me that I'm just supposed to enjoy it for being "wholesome" and "cute", feel free, but until then, Iassure you, the only reason this gets anything above a 1 is because the animation was really pretty and that saved this from being some of the best fucking sleep-aid since my insomnia medication. Haven't been this disappointed in a seasonal anime since Frieren.

A story which could have been a brilliant fairytale romance ended up being just another basic attempt at the genre. This show ends up playing it so safe just because the author wanted to present a mature take at the genre that it completely backfires on the fact that these are just teenagers and there is no possible way that everyone can be this polite , humble , responsible , formal and polished. Don't get me wrong , I am not trying to say that every series has to be realistic and full of conflicts , but there is a certain line of believability which thisone crosses that it makes me roll my eyes. Just small mistakes , hesitants and misunderstandings could help for such a fulfilling iyashikei. Let's imagine a situation - Rintaro ends up hurting kaoruko unintentionally and that makes her cry. Just a very normal thing to happen in teenage romance , right? And then this leads up to him making a sincere apology for his mistake. Can you imagine how earned the apology will feel in this scenario? , the entire apology argument which everyone keeps bringing up would be completely gone because instead of using the word for every trivial thing , we have a proper situation backing it up. The word itself will not lose it's value if used when required. Same can be said about "thank you". The characters while having decent writing, don't have enough pull to make me completely invested in their life and that's because they overreact over the most basic moments that aren't even that serious. Let's take subaru's situation in account - We get a very brushed over flashback to her childhood which barely lasted like 4 mins and then we see her calling herself a "devious and horrible person" ...like the way these scenes were presented itself makes you feel that the character might be going through depression or something horrible but if we are being honest to ourselves , was thier enough backing by it's backstory to make it feel earned? I personally do not think so. It's a very common example of "show , don't tell" . Now about the portrayal of friendship between rintarou & his friends and kaoruko & subaru - Everything is treated with so much formalness that it's hard for me to find anything relatable in it. It's not really a big deal for friends to tease each other , make fun of them etc.. Not everything needs to be treated like it will be a huge problem if a character just said anything slightly offensive. And if they do say something irresponsible unintentionally then it will just make THE APOLOGY MORE EARNED. The constant praising of each other over the most common qualities like "being nice" feels so unnatural. Ig that's enough yapping of the shows flaws , because if anything , I also disagree with those who completely brush off the series from it's merits too. There was some brilliant direction , storyboarding and score composition in certain episodes which people didn't notice and let's be real , the whole healthy dynamic of rintarou and his supportive parents was done really well. The love confession moment of rintarou to kaoruko was also very genuine and wholesome. Decent but not something I would call one of the best new gen romances either. A show needs to do more than just being a fluffy one time watch to leave a lasting impression on me.

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