So ya with the Bloom into You Anime over and done with I thought I should kinda go back and discuss what I think about the manga cause there is honestly a lot to love about the series beyond the fact that it's a love story (Yuri or otherwise) and one of thoise biggest strengths is that it actually tackles the very simple but also complex subject of what it means to fall in love so lets get into

Story

So story wise I'll start by saying that the story as a whole is very minimal but the author uses any and every moment she can to make sure that the characters and their relationships are at the core fuelling the story. And at the centre of it all this are the main protagonists Yuu and Nanami who's dynamic with each other is very interesting because the story jumps you right into their "relationship" without giving you much warning but from there it actually takes it's times developing the their connection which leads to many great moments of seeing just how insecure the other is about being in love or just trying to understand what the word love even means

And that also leads to one of the other biggest strengths of the series which is that seeing these two characters grow and develop really starts to make you question if their relationship is even going to survive by the end of the series or if something is going to tear them apart (especially after Chapter 37) and there are many scenes that do keep us guessing if everything will have a happy ending for these two like the controversial scene by the lake where Nanami rejects Yuu's confession leading the latter to run away crying and I'm about to be fair to that scene: While I did understand the outrage for it after all they did for each other that's exactly why it makes so much sense: Nanami is simply afraid of getting hurt again, afraid of losing the one person she's formed a genuine connection with since her sister and just letting her walls down at all which is debatable in how contradictory that is to what we've seen thus far but in some cases that's just how romance works. And I know all this cause I'm kinda in that position myself albeit a little more open but still cautious

Characters Of course as I said before a lot of what moves the story forward is the characters and what makes this story so unique in that aspect is that the supporting characters play just as much of a role in helping develop who Yuu and Nanami grow into just as much as they do themselves as majority of the secondary cast very subtly but still openly support helping the two try and understand their feelings for one another while other times the line gets blurred even more than before but in either case their involvement helps give perspective for how things might end in the long run

And on that note I wanna talk about a very specific supporting character and that being Seiji Maki, the character who I wasn't really a fan pf when he made his first appearance and thought I would like him even less when we saw him accidentally eavesdrop on Yuu and Nanami kissing but that didn't happen and from there he actually became one of my favourite side characters due to the fact that a lot of what makes him intriguing is how he exhibits a lot of the qualities of a wallflower and observer, someone who isn't interested in love but still fascinated by the concept which also gives off the vibe that Seiji is very much the author's look into an asexual character but even if he's presented well or not I just don't care because in a way he feels like us the readers

Now having said all that one thing I'm not the biggest fan of is the romantic triangle between Yuu, Nanami and Sayako and it's not necessarily bad but it just feels REALLY one sided on Sayako's part which inadvertently makes her appear a little pathetic and desperate but maybe that's the point of her character, to show us how love can make us do and say crazy things to the point where it makes us appear as the bad guy and to answer the question if what happened in chapter 37 has done anything to change my opinion on the character I'd say it's a half and half situation: I do in a weird way sympathize with Sayaka's side of things more than I did in the beginning but I do feel there is this weird imbalance where I'm less inclined to want them to get together now Artwork So ya last thing to talk about is the artwork and like most romance manga the artwork is very simple when it comes to character designs however I feel where it truly shines s whenever its try to capture a moment or a visual representation of what a character is feeling, that's at the points where the artwork really becomes quite a visual marvel and a lot of that is due to the author's very unique and clever use of shading to make a scene pop even more than if it was to be portrayed with strictly bright light representation

Apart from that however one thing I do like is that for as simply designed as the characters are the way they're all drawn does give them a very three dimensional feel almost like they leap off the page right alongside the backgrounds which adds to the feeling of that this feels like a lived in world and helps in surprisingly drawing even more emotions out of the characters than if the author were to go with more two dimensional character designs

Conclusion

So ya overall Bloom Into You is a manga i'd recommend not just to fans of Yuri but to fans of romance in general because it really explores what falling in love means but neither is it done in a way that's pretentious, the story and romance is told in a believable way that near anyone can get behind, now as far as my thoughts on the anime...I'll get to it eventually

8.1/10