Keith Palmer's Multi-Purpose Journal

The Otaku USA news item emails I haven’t got to the point of unsubscribing from do keep dragging me to the different point of following a link every so often. A “survey of what anime series Japanese fans would like to see sequels to” (sourced from a different site that did the actual translation) would seem to have as much to do with who contributed to it as anything, and yet for all of the titles in the list that I haven’t seen myself it did get my attention when the number three pick was Bloom Into You (picked by about sixty-six voters). Its anime adaptation did just sort of leave off midway through, even if a part of me wonders if a particular part of the manga’s conclusion, in appealing to my skewed tastes, couldn’t get on TV. On a less sensational note, I also have just enough of an understanding that Adachi and Shimamura is a “girls’ love” title to ponder it being the number four pick, and can in any case admit my own “hopeless hope” for a continuation hit on Harukana Receive. The manga’s art has improved somewhat from its beginning as I approach its conclusion, but its anime was done well enough I can still suppose it turned out more appealing.

Going on to spinoffs of Bloom Into You says a bit about how the original manga got and held my attention. Translating and publishing those spinoffs seems to hint Seven Seas could count on continued attention from more people than just me (although I suppose I don’t know that much about “manga spinoffs beyond anime adaptations” in Japan itself). For one particular spinoff, though, I had a particular push towards it from a different direction. Some time ago I happened on a “scanlation” of a Bloom Into You “anthology” of short comics by a number of artists. There might have been a few “it might be the only chance I’ll ever get to read and understand this” thoughts in taking advantage of the “scanlation,” but while its fan translation did seem a lot less stilted than a great many others I’ve seen (something that’s kept me quite ready to buy official translations) seeing a Seven Seas release of the anthology scheduled left me thinking I had to buy the legitimate version.
( A variety pack )

At the start of the year I didn’t lack for anime to watch, and yet I had been asking myself how much of it I’d see in the three months ahead. For quite a while I’ve been getting through two half-hour episodes a weeknight. The thought did creep into my mind, though, that it might guard against burnout (having kept watching anime quite a while longer than many are said to has meant seeing certain people mutter a lot about just about anything recent) and sharpen my appetite to pare that viewing back to one episode a weeknight, even if just for one season. The extra half-hour opened up could be useful even if I can’t admit to doing anything profound in it, but I did keep enjoying what I did watch.
( Streaming selections: Appare-Ranman! and Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club )
( Blu-Ray chances taken: Bloom Into You and O Maidens in your Savage Season )
( Fansub follies: Shinkalion and Major )
( Going older: Future Boy Conan and Urusei Yatsura: Only You )

I’m still reading my manga-on-paper volumes at a pace that might amount to “rationing it out” (while managing to keep brushing by a certain quantity of digital manga I’ve already accumulated). That I settled on a way to have print volumes shipped to me is one thing, but I’m aware the larger problem could be becoming those print volumes getting to bookstores of whatever online capacity in the first place. Still, when I got to the seventh volume of the “girls’ love”-with-a-twist series Bloom Into You, I was pleased to have the chance to read it.
( Beyond the previous shocking conclusion )

Getting to a representation of a budding same-sex relationship I have fewer acknowledged hangups about (although maybe no more qualified to say anything about without unknowingly embarrassing myself), I turned to the fifth volume of Bloom Into You. This time, I seemed able to pick up the story on the fly; there have been times when even eagerly awaited and swiftly devoured volumes of manga, if in series that have run long enough over here the gaps between volumes have opened to the same lengths as in Japan (where it ought to be easier to follow their stories serialized, even with all the anxious reports crossing the Pacific of manga magazines folding in this age of smart phones), can be a little hard to get back up to speed with.
( Beyond the blurb )

After taking notice not just of another "girls' love" manga series from Seven Seas but of an unusual yet intriguing interpretation of one of its main characters and her ever-so-slow build towards not just accepting but feeling love, I managed to comment on not just the first but also the second volume of "Bloom Into You." As I bought the third volume, I remained a bit conscious that there's a delicate balance between having been fascinated that some saw something "asexual" about Yuu to begin with and thinking ahead to how traditional for the genre the ending may get. In some ways, I can reflect on my own difficulty with reading romantic connections into fictional characters even faced with others embroidering what might seem the slightest of links, and if I'm putting a weight on Yuu that's just another variant of "since there's no representation of this in media, I'll put it there myself!" Contemplations that maybe this volume would be the one where everything would become familiar and I'd run out of things to say, though, didn't come to pass, although in saying things I can wonder if I'm about to give something away.
( What might be given away )

I've bought a pretty good number of the "girls' love" (or "yuri," to use the more in-the-know term) manga that Seven Seas publishes, and as I began picking up they were about to begin another series I supposed I'd take a chance on "Bloom into You" as well. The reviews I read as part of that process, though, made it of particular yet perhaps peculiar interest to me.

"I just don't seem interested in boys" might might seem obvious enough leading off one of these series. When the viewpoint character Yuu's attempts to find the best way to turn down the confession made to her just before she moves from junior high to high school happens to get her acquainted with the slightly older Nanami, though, whose also turning down a boy's interest makes Yuu think she's found a kindred spirit, Nanami soon tells Yuu "I think I might be falling in love with you," and the younger girl's reaction remains pretty much "shouldn't I have more of a reaction?" Nanami kisses Yuu a few chapters later to show just what she mean by love, and Yuu keeps thinking to herself "I'm not even excited." The Anime News Network review suggested there was something asexual about Yuu, a strangely intriguing interpretation for me. I'm aware of all the times I see other fans willing to play along with the game of "shipping" characters and I just sort of suppose that with no definitive (much less daring) commitment in the story we get I'm content to push thoughts of "this fictional character must get paired off for their own happiness (to say nothing of my own satisfaction)" to outside the story and pretty much outside my mind.

With that said, one of the things that appeals to me about "girls' love" manga is the definitive commitment or even the promise of that, and Yuu in no way tries to turn Nanami down over the course of this first volume, willing at one point to mull over a comment from one of her friends (the supporting characters, although they have minor roles in the story, do manage to stand out a bit at points) that time may be all that's needed even in unusual cases. While I seem to find a subtle, hard-to-define peculiarity about the artwork (the closest I can come is to say the faces look a little "elongated," or "sharp," perhaps), I am interested in seeing where things will go.