This is just me turning what I felt into words. So, please don't consider this anything more than a fan talking about what they love. Meaning, constructive criticism is already out the window.

Personally, I hate romance movies. It may be how fantastic and unrealistic their plots are (I'm looking at you fifty shades). Or it may be how lovey-dovey the characters act with each other. No matter how hard I tried, I always ended up skipping them. That was until I found the world of anime, and more specifically the world of Shoujo Ai (also yuri). I just feel entranced watching a good anime with two girls going all out like in Citrus, or watching two girls slowly get together one step at a time like in Adachi & Shimamura. They just erupt a boatload of feelings in me and they feel great to watch. I'm also undeniably more invested in their plots and in their characters than any other genre of anime. Hell, I'm even writing this for YagaKimi's sake (and mine). So in short, these shows occupy a special place in my heart that no other form of media has ever been able to get through to. Getting back to the show...

From the way I see it. Bloom Into You is not your typical romance. It's more of a love story about self-realization. Following teenagers, who are just getting to know the intricacies and weirdnesses that arise from within one's heart. With the two leads, Touko Nanami and Yuu Koito, this anime truly makes you wonder the philosophical sides of who and what you really are? Are you what other people describe you as? Or are you someone different? Then again, do you even know who you really are? These are the types of questions that the characters of this anime deal with. And it is through finding comfort in the answers or lack thereof that you can truly find and embrace yourself.

Being a self-entitled aromanticist (i.e. a person who doesn't feel love) Yuu has always dreamed of falling for someone. To feel her heart flutter and race at their presence.

Unable to grab ahold of these feelings, even when someone confesses their love to her. She ends up feeling nothing. On top of this she's ashamed to admit it. She's trapped in her own prison of numbness. Hoping that someday she'd find a person who would rescue her from it. It is this fantasy that keeps her mind entertained while dreading the thought of never being able to flee from the loneliness that encapsulates her heart. This keeps her from fully conforming with her friends and peers, who are far more understanding of what they want romantically. This is until she meets Tokuko.

To Yuu’s surprise, like a butterfly's metamorphosis, Touko confesses to her. Though she’s not able to reciprocate Touko's affection, she allows her to be in love with her. Even when her first kiss is stolen, she ponders whether she should be angry or happy.

This is where the tale of self-discovery begins, as each character learns from the other who they are and how to place their feelings towards each other. With Yuu hoping that she’d be able to learn how to love through the shower of Touko’s affection, and Touko enjoying the feeling of having a special one while dealing with a full-blown identity crisis (literally).

What does it mean to love someone? What is the difference between the love we share with a family member and the love we share with a soulmate? People often deeply ponder, philosophical questions such as these when they are stuck at crossroads. May it be while in between different relationships or may it be when they don't have a clue if they truly love someone or if it's them just trying to be nice. Which brings us back to Yuu. She is the type of person who cares for others deeply but masks it beneath a veneer of logic and normalcy. Throughout the show, we see her pushing through boundaries she would have previously avoided for the sake of Touko. However, yet again she considers them acts of kindness from her part and nothing more. Justifying the lengths she goes for Touko to be a part of who she is. As the show progresses, Yuu slowly begins to understand the lies she's been telling herself. As she reflects on who she is and gains a better understanding of her own identity. All the while, getting to knoe what love truly is. Seeing through the dilutions of romance she previously held.

This is why labelling Bloom Into You as a romance would be only half true; while it features people in love, it is much more complicated than that. Before Yuu can love, she first has to face the realization of what she wants, who she is and who she wants herself to become.

What exactly does it mean to be one’s self? Is the face of life we project outwards our true form? Or is it the face we project inwards our true self? Do we even know who we really are? Or rather, can we know who we really are? It is this dilemma that the amnesiac girl from Kanou’s play is struggling to figure out. From having to face three contradictory personas by the lover, the family member and the friend. She’s completely oblivious as to which of them is her true self and which of them are just facades.

We all can relate to the feeling of being expected and counted upon. Even if the facet of yourself that another is relying upon is not a person who you wish to become. We continue to push it forward even when we aren’t completely comfortable it. For the sole purpose of not letting someone down, or due to the fear of losing what little we have. This is the weight Touko is living through. With the death of her sister, Mio, she’s pressured to live up to her sister’s legacy. Even when the personality she’s trying to imitate and copy is not who she desires to be. This creates a difference between what she considers her real self and what she considers her public self. This conflict between personalities is the root of why she set one condition to Yuu as she loved her. To not love her back. She hates her multifaceted persona to such an extent that she fears Yuu will fall in love with a person she hates. Because in her mind she can’t possibly be loved. This raises the argument. Maybe, just maybe, she doesn't love Yuu because she understands her and accepts her, but because she understands herself more when she's with Yuu.

The story talks about love, not just of the people you care about, but of yourself. While pondering questions like, what it means to be you? Or like how in good God's name do you figure out which part of you is genuine and which part you is just an act? This opens up two nice ways, one can interpret the title of the show. Bloom Into You meaning, blooming into a self-realized version of yourself or blooming into a loved one by understanding the feelings you hold of them.

At its core, the story deals with loneliness. Yuu, who’s unable to identify her feelings with her fantasy fueled view of love and Touko, who’s struggling to express her true feelings due to the expectations placed on her shoulders by society and by herself. It is only by closing out the distance between the fractured outward self and the inward self can this void be filled. For this, you must first open yourself, and being open to others starts by being open to yourself and understanding who you really are. Allowing yourself to bloom into that person whom you want to become.