Bloom Into You is one of, if not the greatest, manga series ever. While it may be a girl’s love story, it created a representation of how complicated love is, and was really directed extremely well, with organic worldbuilding, beyond proper showing of human growth, superb character writing, and even a divine ending. It’s not for everyone, but it’s arguably one of the few titles, even in overall fiction, that perfectly fits into the term ‘jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all’, which is something most fictional series could hardly, if ever, reach. Of course, despite the brilliance of the manga, we can do even better, with just one spin-off. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, a spin-off dedicated to, you guessed it, Saeki Sayaka. Despite it being written by a different author, Nakatani Nio trusted Iruma Hitomi to tackle what Sayaka’s vision truly is like. I was a little skeptical when I saw that it’s written by a different person, but the more I read the novel, the more I’m easily impressed and filled with immense joy. While it only has 9 chapters in only 3 volumes, it arguably does even better in nearly every single aspect compared to its parent manga. But the real question remains… What actually makes the Sayaka LN the closest to being a masterpiece? My friend, I’m really glad you asked. You know the drill by now, let the yapping commence!
--- VOLUME 1 - THE GROWING CONFIDENCE OF SAYAKA
> “I was doing it all over, as though I had forgotten the scars and the pain. I just don’t learn my lesson, I thought, laughing at myself a little. Maybe I never will. This time, I broke into an even bigger smile. Eventually, she started calling me Sayaka, and I started calling her Touko. Once I met Nanami Touko, I accepted it. It wasn’t understanding, or resignation, just acceptance. Of myself, and of the fact that I could only love girls.”
-Saeki Sayaka, narrating, volume 1
While this is a spin-off, the first volume of the novel may or may not have been a prologue to the parent manga, as it takes place right before Yuu made her major debut. This novel starts with Sayaka, who hardly knew the concept of love, just like Yuu. But unlike Yuu, who was willing to communicate with anyone, regardless of her initial struggles, Sayaka was a lot more on the introverted side. In fact, Sayaka might be afraid of talking to people, as her life is heavily shifted on her skills and such. We’re already seeing a lot of valuable character development here. Whether you relate to her in this scenario or not (I’ll jump into the relatability part later), this perfectly illustrates what major weakness or more she has. She would often run away from her problems rather than overcome them, further emphasizing her initial introvertedness. There are people around who have valuable talents, but would still have some cowardice within themselves, and in this case, Sayaka’s character writing once again fully captures that. Her lack of confidence, while relatively short-lived, plays an extremely crucial part in her character, and is written and directed excellently. As chapter 2 begins, though, this is where Sayaka embraces a growth mindset. All it takes is finding a person she’s comfortable talking with, and her cowardice is (mostly) diminished. One would think it’s not enough depth or is a cheap toneshift, but it actually showed a lot of heart for the story’s writing. Let me explain.
Exploring what the concept of love is may be hard, but it’s not absurdly difficult either, ‘ahem’, contrary to what one would think. If you have trouble with communication and such, then yes, it’s painful. But believe it or not, no matter what type of person you are, you can actually fight it by just talking to one person you’re comfortable chatting with. You may not resolve your communication problems, but you’ll still push them back. This is what Sayaka in the first volume teaches us about, and it amazingly paid off. Not only does she gain more confidence through talking to more people, but she also shows more emotions about her life and her connection with what message she tries to convey. She looks at what went wrong with herself, and she’s willing to develop more in her communication skills. This already marks the beginning of what makes Sayaka such an amazing character. Hell, this is a fantastic prologue because of the time/pacing intervals between being overwhelmed by self-emotions in chapter 1 and how you can overcome and even use them in chapter 2 and onwards. You’re not yet done with it, but that’s fine. Not everyone is done with all of their achievements. They’re just getting started. It's not easy to do so, but it's not hard either. Sayaka went through her challenge through interactions, and it paid off very well with how her personality shifted, the more she ventures. Keep in mind that having a friend, which is shown in volume one, is different from having a love partner, though, which brings us to…
--- VOLUME 2 - GUARDIAN ANGEL MEETS FALLEN ANGEL
> “As long as I was by her side like that, someday—someday—I would be able to do what I needed to when I felt Touko had changed. I could only wait and trust that time, or someone, would bring that someday about. I would just keep waiting for my chance, coward that I was. That was what Touko wanted, or so I told myself. And so I said nothing. I swallowed what I thought was right and chose to be wrong. That was the decision I made, that I thought would allow me to stay by Touko’s side and someday connect with her. I will never forget that choice. I must never forget.”
-Saeki Sayaka, narrating, volume 2
Of course, volume 1 is only a fraction of the brilliance of the light novel. Volume 2 turns up the grill more, and we already know how cooked the crab will be. From here, we get to see Touko, the mature girl from the outside but immature on the inside, and Yuu, the clueless girl who would learn a lot of things. For this volume, though, it’s mainly focused on Touko, as she’s the main character for Sayaka to interact with. We see Touko and Sayaka interacting with each other, and it looks normal. Seeing two people getting to know each other doesn’t cast any spark of chaos. …this obviously already didn’t age well. The more the story progresses, the more we see just how much they contrast with each other, not just from characteristics, but from their method of answering what love is as well. Both of them want to answer what it means to be with a person, as long as their friendship is well-established, but they have completely different backgrounds. As we all know by now, Sayaka was once a fragile introvert, but now, she’s a self-made person who is surprisingly philosophical about her feelings and is willing to help anyone she develops connections with. Touko, on the other hand, is self-proclaimed and maybe even somewhat sociopathic, if that makes sense. While she does have a tragic backstory about her late older sister and is also philosophical about her feelings, at the same time, she paints herself as successful, when in reality, she’s a fragile person who tries to compensate for her dark past and faults. In essence, these two characters resemble and illustrate a perfect yin-yang in a love story, and there is another, but again, we’ll get to that later.
Sayaka learns about Touko’s success, which is practically the latter’s outside core, and wants to get along. But this will not go according to plan, as Touko not only acts ignorant, but has her eyes set on Yuu. Sayaka wants to find ways to improve her relationship with her, but it went horribly wrong. We’ve seen countless topics, conflicts, and so on, but no matter what, they will never get along with each other. Sayaka is defeated by both the ignorance of Touko and her little development in observation and patience, despite the confidence she established on V1C2. Nothing ever makes me cry more than this. We all know what Sayaka and Touko are to each other, and it’s really nice that we see more and clearer details in regards of this twisted relationship. Sayaka, no matter how much she improves, still struggles. This also resulted in creating an interpretation of why the world is cruel, and in this case, it’s much more different than the lenses in other stories. It’s more of why being together is painful. Having a friend is not all that difficult, as stated earlier. Having a love partner, however. …yeah, it’s a different kind of complicated. Sayaka should have been more aware of her relationship tactics, but at the same time, she’s still an easy person to feel bad for. Volume 2 is just divine. It deeply illustrates how relationships are not easy, how mistakes are made, and how different a person is from another in multiple dimensions, really well. Both Sayaka and Touko are profoundly tragic, but the former is especially, with her own buildup. While Yuu and Touko have their deserved happy ending, Sayaka gets the exact opposite. …or is it?
--- VOLUME 3 - THE BRIGHEST STARS FORMING THEIR PERFECT WORLD
> “Since then, I had come to understand the sensations that accompanied love, and now that I knew it existed in the world… I had felt many kinds of pain throughout the years. By chipping away bit by bit at my past pain and failures, and patching myself back together, I had come to be who I am now. And I was incredibly relieved that I had found peace before I allowed my entire self to be rearranged by pain. Maybe that was what you'd call happiness.”
-Saeki Sayaka, narrating, volume 3
[!]THIS SECTION REGARDING VOLUME 3 CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS, DON’T READ UNTIL YOU FINISH IT[!]
Spoiler, click to viewVolume 3 of the Sayaka novels is the most original story content that Bloom Into You as a whole offers, but it still arguably makes a strong connection. With Sayaka being rejected by Touko, there is still one thing she can do. And that is to find another friend to compensate. Introducing Edamoto Haru, who looks like Iruma-sensei’s own replica of Yuu. Both Sayaka and Haru are complete contrasts to each other. Similarly, Sayaka is a self-made guardian angel, whereas Haru was a fragile, crystallized feather that has yet to be charged. Compared to Touko, however, Haru is seen more on the light, as opposed to Touko’s lust for pride. In unison, Sayaka and Haru form their very own yin-yang. We talked about how Sayaka and Touko have their own yin-yang, and while that’s still true, that was created under a twisted shadow, whereas this one is more in a balanced, refined area. Both Sayaka and Haru equally expressed their very own feelings, and not only do they get to know each other very well, but they also illustrated their personal lives and what their struggles were throughout. Not only did they learn everything they encountered from the past, but they also learned to answer the question, a question regarding relationships that was very hard to comprehend. And that answer leads them to their very own paradise. Yuu and Touko got their own freedom; it’s time we give Sayaka, and by extension, Haru, that chance too. With this, it even changed Sayaka’s life after all these years.
Haru is just an amazing character and an outstanding connection to Sayaka. Not only were her personality and feelings presented cathartically, but it feels like we should have met her long ago, and we wouldn’t have noticed. But it doesn’t matter, and look where we are now. Haru is obviously different from Sayaka, with her characteristics and growth, but her struggles and needing to find an answer are on the same scale. While she may be exclusive to volume 3, she’s very believable and well-illustrated with her development. She’s truly a real friend who needs comfort after a horrifying trauma, and Sayaka truly approached her. While the relationship between Sayaka and Touko is definitely amazing, no matter how toxic it can be, this relationship is just on another level, all because of the way they profoundly express everything they have on their hands. To achieve happiness isn’t necessarily to rebuild a path you take, but rather, to create a new one, something that illustrates a different element or more while still keeping you up, and this novel easily shows that. All of these things even gave us what’s arguably the best ending of any novel and one of the best in fiction. As mentioned, Haru and Sayaka are perfectly made for each other, regardless of contrasts, and they truly have the most endearing answers to a question about love. Sayaka’s journey has truly changed the standards of a love story forever.
--- REGARDING SAEKI SAYAKA IS TRULY NAKATANI’S AND IRUMA-SENSEI’S MAGNUM OPUS, AND I WILL FOREVER DIE ON THAT HILL
Now, where do I even begin? This series is good. Very good. Amazing. Hell, even beyond that! It may be shorter than the parent manga, but that doesn’t stop it from being deeper while still further exploring the direction the manga established. The novel’s direction is like a more philosophical version of the themes and elements the manga conveys from start to finish. While the main story still undeniably perfectly explores human struggles, progression, and decisions, the novel did even more so, especially through its own lens of how cruel reality is. We’re given more than enough organic context about what the series tells and shows to us. Not only was everything about it so well-written and memorable, but we were even given very valuable lessons. Something about how being in a relationship is a big challenge, but very manageable if you work hard enough and observe what person you’re going with. Through what we see here, the Sayaka novels are a perfect representation and illustration of ‘hard to learn, but easy to master’. It’s something I followed ever since I finished the novel, and you know what? This lesson provided by the story is absolutely right, which completely explains the complicated yet cathartic nature of its character writing. The cast may be small, but it still has the very upper hand when it comes to showing us what the characters are, what they do, what they aim for, and why they went with their ways to begin with. The shifting of personalities when you learn something, learning that talents are not always true, you name it.
Objectively speaking, the presence, personality, backdrop, development, and catharsis of Saeki Sayaka are all outstanding, organic, and arguably unmatched. The journey she ventures into and directs not only comes full circle and fully uncovers all of her colors, but it also elevates storyboarding and philosophies to a whole new level. Seeing all of her suffering and then overcoming it, as well as having the ability to learn the concepts, are what made her so particularly special. Without her, what lessons would we learn from the story, really? She teaches us about love better than literally anyone else. In my opinion, I absolutely relate to her. Seeing the aforementioned journey truly motivated me to do something similar, as mentioned earlier. I deeply love Sayaka and her own story, and I'll forever see it as Iruma-sensei's and Nio’s very own magnum opus. Hell, I might go so far as to say that this whole spin-off shows us how Iruma-sensei and Nio understand each other so well, despite what they work on. I might even say that Nio and Iruma are like Sayaka and Haru, respectively, when they discuss the story and have the latter write it. This is nigh-perfection, and all of this is still just a spin-off that only has 9 chapters and 3 volumes. Sometimes, you can make the impossible 'possible' through hard work, and once again, this series proves to all of us that.
--- NIO ONCE AGAIN COOKED WITH HER ART
Now, you can skip this section if you’re not interested. But there is one last aspect I want to glaze: the volume cover art. Nio once again cooked with her designs. The art style she established may be simple, but it is very balanced in shading, details, and proportions, all while also giving characters a lot more personality within their looks. Sayaka’s novels are no exception, and you can even make generic design tropes in animanga look really great, as seen with Sayaka herself in her black uniform in volume 1. Words cannot express just how perfect Sayaka looks in black clothing, especially with how her light brown hair and braids are visually illustrated, not to mention how clean her green eyes look.
--- THANK YOU, SAEKI SAYAKA
So that will do for my yapping of the novels. I still have more thoughts and compliments to share, but I want to stick with things that are most important. I said this once, and I’ll say it again: almost all animanga titles could hardly, if ever, reach this rare phrase ‘jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all’, and the novels manage to achieve that. The only way you can ever make your story remotely close to the word ‘perfect’ is through relentless hard work, precision, and general observation, and look where we are now. Again, I was skeptical about how Iruma would write YagaKimi, and I say this as someone who isn’t fond of Adachi to Shinamura, even to this day, but reading the novels drastically changed my view in the best ways possible. They’re so special that it makes me wonder and excited what spin-offs for characters like Maki and Koyomi, among others, would look like. I’m really looking forward to what the general future of Bloom Into You would look and be like, even if Nio isn’t touching it right now. With all this said, thank you so much for reading, and thank you, Saeki Sayaka, for changing my life forever.
