Bloom Into You is a manga that fundamentally changed me as a person and shaped my perspective on what it means to "love".

This manga presents love in a different way than we're typically used to for romance manga. We're introduced to our first main character, Yuu Koito, a first year in high school. She talk's about how she often reads Shoujo manga’s and listens to love songs and that the words that they use all so sparkly and bright. She understands what they mean, she doesn't need a dictionary but... they're still foreign to her. Still waiting for the day that she too, will experience her own love story. She always thought that she'd experience it, one day someone will confess to her, and her world would suddenly spring to life, and she'd finally understand what she'd had been missing. One day, it came true. On the last day of middle school, a boy confessed to her... but nothing happened.

" [...] But I also longed for the day I'd get to experience that light and floaty feeling, as if I'd grown wings. I expected that to happen... but... my feet were still firmly planted on the ground."

We see Yuu with her friends, Koyomi Kanou and Akari Hyuuga. Yuu is having trouble selecting a club that she'd like to participate in, when suddenly a teacher comes through the door calling her name and asks her to try out Student Council since they've been in need of extra hands anyways. On her way to the Student Council building, she accidentally snoops on someone confessing their love! This is our introduction to our second major character, Touko Nanami. We see a boy attempting to confess his feelings to her. Touko Nanami is Yuu's senpai and is established to be a very mature, responsible student. Overachieving and never making a mistake. Many people have tried to pursue a romantic relationship with her, but to no avail.

"I have no intention of dating anyone no matter who they may be"

Touko turns him down.

She sees Yuu and realizes that she's the freshman that's supposed to help with student council that day, so Touko guides you to the student council room, which was actually used for calligraphy lessons, but was later given on to the student council.

The next day we get introduced to our next major character, Saeki Sayaka. She's also one of Yuu's senpai's and similar to Touko, she’s presented as elegant, professional, and serious. We learn later into the story that she is the one person who can keep up with Touko in terms of grades and is the reason why Touko can always manage to stay on top.

Sayaka asks Touko about the confession she received the other day and if she had turned another person down yet again. Yuu asks Touko if anyone has ever caught her eye before.

Touko reveals that when people tell her that they love her, her heart doesn't react. Yuu, seeing this as an opportunity to finally connect with someone who is similar to her, reaches out to Touko to help her confront the boy who confessed to her. Yuu liked him but planned to turn him down anyways.

"I wanted to be able to to say "yes" to him. But I have no idea what it feels to think of someone as special"

Touko reassures Yuu, telling her that it must've been hard for her, thinking that she needed to fall in love, and telling her that with everyone always talking about love and romance, she wonders if something's wrong with her.

Yuu's phone starts to ring.. it's him. Holding Touko's hand, Yuu answers his call.

"You'll be just fine. All you need to do is tell him how you really feel. Just like how he told you."

Yuu successfully turns him down with Touko's help. Suddenly, Touko pulls Yuu towards her and exclaims:

"I think I might be falling for you"

AND THAT'S THE END OF CHAPTER 1!

I absolutely adore how well the first chapter was written. In the 49 pages worth of content the brilliant author Nio Nakatani expertly managed to display our main characters and the main conflict of the series, which being that Yuu cannot manage to "fall in love", and that Touko, although claiming that she couldn't date anyone no matter who it may be, ends up falling for Yuu.

Even though Bloom Into You is a story that heavily revolves around the main characters, there are two side characters that I think play massive roles in shaping the story and ultimately moving the manga to it's ending. Those two being Saeki Sayaka and Seiji Maki.

-- seji maki: the catalyst

Although Maki is a side character, I firmly believe that his character plays a major role in the progression of the story and eventually resulting in Yuu and Touko getting together. Nio Nakatani brilliantly transitions Maki's role as a side character with a minor importance, into becoming the sole catalyst in Yuu recognizing that she cannot be like Maki. Maki helps Yuu understand that no matter how much she wants to be like him, she can't. The difference between these two characters is that unlike Maki, Yuu wants to feel love. Nio Nakatani establishes this from the beginning.

I think the moment in the Manga that solidified this is the batting cage scene, where Maki and Yuu go to a batting cage together. Maki uses the analogy of sports, baseball to be specific.

"There'll be those who want to join in, but of course there'll also be those who simply enjoy watching it. I'm the latter. Although there are more people participating in romance than any sport out there. You and I, we're different people of different sides."

This quote. This quote may have been the most integral piece to the story in terms of thickening the plot and understanding between Touko and Yuu. Although I am not aro/ace, I think that this quote is very powerful and is an analogy to explaining aromanticism to those who don't quite understand it.

Having Maki as a character in this story is so important, not only to help with the plot but it's also amazing to see aro/ace representation in a romance story like this. Seeing Maki help Yuu understand her feelings more was so heart-warming and from the bottom of my heart believe that more stories need characters like this.

-- saeki sayaka: 'just in arms length'

Saeki Sayaka's character is a tragic one and a character I'm sure some people reading this review can possibly relate to. Sayaka is simultaneously Touko's best friend, and in love with Touko. Touko was love at first sight for her. Sayaka is similar to Touko in terms of personality. Over-achieving, elegant, prestigious, etc. Sayaka doesn't seem that interested in other people, we see her often times reading books or caught up in student council activities. The one exception however is Touko Nanami. Sayaka vows to always stay by Touko's side and attempts to be the closest to Touko.

She's one of the few people who knows about Touko's true, messy self. However, unlike Yuu who tries to help Touko understand that it's okay for her to become her own person, Sayaka tries to give Touko what she wants, which is to continue living as a clone of her sister. However, she fails to realize that this is what Touko wants, not needs. Yuu on the other hand realizes that she can be a little selfish and goes through with trying to change Touko and making her more comfortable with herself and her own personality. I say that Sayaka's character is tragic because she's sort of in a stuck situation. She's in love with her best friend and can't say anything because she doesn't want to ruin the "special bond" they have with each other. Sayaka, in attempt to keep their bond, gives Touko what she wants, and not what she needs. Ultimately in the end, even though she loved her, cherished her, and missed her. She knew, she wasn't hers. That's truly what hurts the most out of her character, in my opinion. No matter what she did, or said, nothing would change between them. She would be stuck perpetually has her best friend. I think that the reason Sayaka would never truly be able to be more than just Touko's friend is because her heart was set in the wrong part of Touko. She put Touko on a pedestal and loved the "perfect" side of her, because that's what Touko presented to everyone. This, however, adds to the pressure that Touko faced in trying to become her sister, and ultimately separating the two, just out of reach for Sayaka to become a love-interest to Touko. I say that this is a situation that some of you guys could be in because I know that most of you have probably fallen in love with your best friend before and in an attempt to not ruin your friendship you end up just keeping them at an arms-length, hoping, praying that you're still the person closest to them.

Sayaka's character is deeply tied with Touko's mask and helping her conceal her true self in front of everyone to continue living out her goal to becoming her sister.

**-- eventually... become *you***

It's revealed about mid-way part in the story that the reason that Touko tries so hard for everything. For her grades, for student council president, and for the play is because she wants to be just like her sister, Mio Nanami. When Touko was only just a child, her elder sister died in an unfortunate traffic accident. She decided from then on that she couldn't stay the way she was. She would become her sister. Touko felt almost an obligation to replace her sister. From everything that she'd seen and witnessed, her sister was the role-model student. Perfect grades, an amazing leader, etc. But during a rehearsal of the schools play, Tomoyuki Ichigaya, the person from Riko Hakozaki's acting troupe, is revealed to be an old member of the school’s student council from when Mio Nanami had been the president. In search for answers, Touko approaches him, asking him how Mio had been like back in the day, and the way he responds... describes a completely different Mio than Touko had remembered her to be like.

"You and Mio aren't very alike at all"

This confuses her, as she had always imagined Mio to be a perfect model student. Distraught, Touko wants Yuu to comfort her, but is afraid that Yuu won't let her anymore.

"I want her to comfort me. But how much of that will she allow? I'm afraid of using up all that sweetness."

Eventually, it's Saeki Sayaka who comes and comforts her. Sayaka reveals to Touko that she knew all about her sister. Sayaka says that she's sorry, but Touko replies with:

"I'm fine with you knowing, Sayaka. Thank you for worrying about me."

This scene was a major part in building up Sayaka & Touko's relationship together.

Bloom Into You is an amazing story, but the title always struck me as bizzare... Bloom Into You? What exactly does that mean...?

I believe that the translation of the title 'Yagate Kimi Ni Naru' can be interpreted in two ways.

• "Eventually, I will become you."

or

• "Eventually, you will become yourself."

Eventually, I will become you is coming from the perspective of Touko Nanami. She is declaring that her goal is to one day, become just like her older sister, Mio Nanami. We see this theme throughout the entire manga, Touko constantly doing everything in her power to eventually try to replace her sister, we see this culminate by her finally being able to do the thing Mio couldn't, which is finally being able to perform the Student Council Play.

Eventually, you will become yourself is coming from the perspective of Yuu Koito, talking to Touko. This is in reference to the fact that Yuu actively tries to make an attempt to make Touko more comfortable with herself and with her own personality throughout the manga, and I like this interpretation a lot more than the second one. It really shows a lot into Yuu's character and how she ends up deeply loving Touko in the later chapters, so much to completely try to convince her to stop upholding the mask that she's been using in front of everyone for her entire life, and to help her understand that it's okay to become her own person.

-- student council play

The student council play was the major turning point in the story and ultimately is the reason why Nanami Touko finally accepted herself as who she was and no longer felt an overwhelming pressure to be exactly like her sister. The student council play had played a major role in the story since the earlier chapters and we first learnt about it when we discover the student council 7 years ago that was unable to do the play (because Mio had died from a traffic accident) and it is Touko's main goal throughout the entire story, but as the date for the play draws closer and closer she becomes ever increasingly worried about what she'll do once the play is over. The plays’ theme is about a girl in the hospital who has lost all of her memories, 3 people come to visit her in the hospital, her brother, a classmate, and her girlfriend. All three of them explain what type of person she was to them, but they all seem to describe different people. The main plot of the play is the girl deciding which person she wants to become, ultimately deciding to become her girlfriend’s version of herself. Yuu and Kanou eventually change this, however, to make the girl "choose her own person", hence the title of the play being "I only know you". The play was obviously meant to be symbolism for Touko, symbolizing her many masks that she maintains in front of everyone, and the pressure on herself to ultimately figure out which mask she needs to become. Yuu was the person who simultaneously changed the narrative of the play, and also showed Touko to be comfortable being herself.

Although I absolutely adore this manga, I can realize that it isn't really for everyone. This thread is a great example of this. It covers the fact that Nanami Touko, one of our main characters, is weirdly assertive in the first couple chapters. It's almost to the point where you wonder if this can be called consensual. When I first read it I kind of overlooked it, but after a re-read, I was wondering if this could be considered actual sexual harassment. It's clear to see that Yuu wasn't really into it in the beginning, but she does open up more and more throughout the manga. Even though the romance was on point and I really liked it, I can see how this part of the manga can tick some people off. There is a lot of romanticism of sexual harassment in Girl x Girl / Boy x Boy series recently which is very problematic, but I really don't think that Bloom Into You is one of them. Either way, what do you think about this situation?

Overall I think that Bloom Into You is a manga that everyone should at least take the time to consider reading and if it piques your interests then why not give it a go? There are some things that could rub people the wrong way about this manga like Touko Nanami's overexteriveness, or maybe the weird pacing of the manga, whatever it may be, but the concepts and themes presented in the 8 volumes that Nio Nakatani brilliantly crafted for us should definitely be something on your radar.

All of my "references" are down below if you'd like to refer to any one of them.

references

? Seji Maki Character Analysis
? Regarding The English Title "Bloom Into You"
? WHAT DOES THE TITLE "YAGATE KIMI NI NARU" REALLY MEAN?
? Wow, another romanticisation of assult
? Why Touko doesn't want Yuu to love her back