Bloom Into You, Anime Recommendation of the Week!

Article at a glance:
Yuu and Touko’s evolving, complicated relationship forms the emotional core of Bloom Into You.
The anime excels in deep, nuanced character development, especially with Yuu and Touko.
Troyca’s animation and vibrant color design enhance the storytelling, with expressive visuals and a solid soundtrack.

Ho boy, how have I not seen this one before? What is up with Yuri anime starting relatively normal and then suddenly getting heavy as hell halfway through? This has happened with Lycoris Recoil, Magical Revolution, and now with Bloom Into You. Everything aside though, I am genuinely surprised by how good the character writing in this show is. And of course, as I mentioned, it is heavy. That makes it a little hard to recommend to everyone but I do urge you to check it out because it is genuinely really damn good.

So yeah, welcome back to another edition of our anime recommendation series. This week we are talking about Aspects of the Crucible: Bloom… I mean uh, Bloom Into You. So let’s get started.

Introduction

Bloom into You is based on the manga of the same name by Nakatani Nio. It was serialized in the Dengeki Daioh from April 2015 to September 2019 and is just 50 chapters long. As for the anime, it was made by Troyca and it has 13 episodes. Now, unfortunately, the anime doesn’t cover the whole manga but it is still a really good adaptation which is why we are talking about it. The anime aired in the fall season of 2018.

Plot

The plot follows two girls, Yuu and Touko. Yuu has never had special feelings towards anyone but she still wants to experience love despite all that. Touko on the other hand does find that “special” someone in Yuu but because of how much burden she is shouldering, she can’t pursue a proper relationship with Yuu. Even though Touko confesses to Yuu, she has no intention of dating because she simply doesn’t have the leeway for it. The plot follows the two as this complicated relationship evolves.

There is quite a bit more to the plot that I left out. The plot is actually really good certain things and twists are quite unexpected and I love how it ties into the characters and character arcs. It will take a moment for the characters to click but once they do, you will just be swept away by the story. But yeah, as I mentioned, this anime is quite heavy so do keep that in mind.

Characters

I am surprised by how much I ended up liking Yuu by the end. She may come off as unlikable at first, not reacting to Touko’s feelings towards her. But you have to understand, that she wants to know how Touko feels and what being in love means, it just takes her some time to figure it out. And yet still she cares about Touko a lot. Touko herself is a very interesting character. She pretends to be this perfect girl in front of everyone, treating everyone nicely and all but she never lets anyone get too close.

I love how Tuoko and Yuu’s relationship evolves. It is a complicated mess in the best possible way and it keeps things interesting. Sayaka is another awesome character and her presence does so much for the story.

Animations

Troyca did a great job with this adaptation. Shame it doesn’t have a sequel but the animations are great. The colors pop out so well, the characters are expressive and the animations are fluid. The soundtracks including the opening and ending themes are pretty good as well.