Being an anime fan for 14 years straight, I've refined my tastes over the years, so I know what I like and don't like, and if you like what I don't like, or don't like what I do, that's cool. You win. Everyone has their preferences when it comes to anime/manga. That being said, I've never really been fond of yaoi or yuri manga, and that's because many of them tend to play up the sex too much, especially sex that's dubiously consensual at best, are just poorly written in general, and don't necessarily reflect the experiences that actual LGBT people go through, since those works aren't written with that audience in mind. For me, they've just never been my thing. However, like any form of media, there are exceptions to the rule, and some of the more recent yaoi/yuri/shounen-ai/shoujo-ai stories are making an effort to actually be good and high quality, such as Shimanami Tasogare, Aoi Hana, Bloom Into You, and for today's subject, a little OVA called Kase-san and Morning Glories, based on the manga by Hiromi Takashima. I've only read two volumes of the manga, so I won't be commenting on that.

The OVA centers around two girls, shy gardener Yui Yamada, and popular sporty track star, Tomoka Kase. At first, the two barely know the other exists, but after a few meetings in school, they gradually become friends and start spending a lot of time together. Over time, the two find themselves crushing on each other, realizing they love each other, and after some initial awkwardness, they eventually decide to start dating. The OVA begins after they start dating, so they're technically already in a relationship at this point, so it focuses more on how they deal with their romantic feelings, the awkwardness that comes from being in a relationship, and showing how they work together as a couple, so there's a heavy focus on character driven conflict.

The OVA is only 50 minutes long, just short of an hour, but it's slowly paced in that it focuses a lot on the girls' lives, finding wonder in mundane things such as talking to your loved ones and going on vacation to a sunny beachside, and putting heavy emphasis on setting up a mellow, soft atmosphere. The animation sells it wonderfully, with bright colors, subtle but smooth character movement, great use of light and shadows, and giving the whole series a warm, welcoming palette. If you're not the patient type or someone who prefers heart pumping action and stuff happening all the time, then this isn't the show for you. It takes its time to really flesh out the leads and show their relationship evolving.

Honestly, while I do like the main characters, and their chemistry is really nice to watch, they don't really get fleshed out all that much. I mean, this is a 50-minute episode that leaves out a lot of important details from the manga, so this is inevitable. But I think the characters suffered quite a bit in the transition. Granted, I've only read two volumes of the manga thus far, and while they're not poorly executed or anything, they do come off as rather one note archetypes, with Yamada being the shy girl, Kase being the sporty energetic one, Mikawa being the typical spunky friend character who snarks a lot, so on and so forth. I've seen them done worse, but Kase-san doesn't really try to do anything with them other than play them straight, without doing anything to spice it up or make them somewhat interesting.

Plus, you'll find a lot of romance tropes used here that may or may not annoy you, such as a bunch of misunderstandings that don't get cleared up right away, the girls not always walking to each other about important things, sexual advances getting interrupted, melodrama resulting from things getting blown out of proportion, and so on. Granted, it does manage to do these things much less obnoxiously than most TV shows I've seen, so I'm willing to cut it some slack on that, but for those who utterly hate these things overall, you should probably look elsewhere. Furthermore, the anime is very fluffy and lighthearted, focusing heavily on cuteness, fluff, and sweetness than the downsides of being in a relationship, which is totally fine if done well, and in this day and age, we need more stories about LGBT people that don't involve lots of angst and drama. However, piling on too much sugar can detriment a product more than anything, and I like that Kase-san is trying to present a lesbian relationship in a sweet, positive light, I feel like the short length of the anime rendered any growth and chemistry the characters developed to be rather shallow, as we don't see them actively trying to work together or encounter genuine problems that could require them to strengthen their relationship. Romance isn't all rainbows and unicorns, you guys.

But for what it's worth, it's still a sweet, fluffy shoujo-ai anime that you can watch if you just want to relax and dream of good days ahead.