Oh my god you guys it’s finally time. We’re diving back into Bloom Into You, and I couldn’t be happier. Last episode saw this phenomenal drama experiencing one of its most fundamental shakeups yet, as Touko learned that the facade she had been putting on in order to better emulate her sister was… actually a facade in her sister’s case as well. Though Mio put on a convincingly professional face as the head of the student council, in truth, she constantly leaned on her councilmates, and wasn’t really a diligent leader in the slightest.
Learning her personal ideal was a lie has left Touko understandably shaken, though it remains to be seen how she’ll actually adjust her behavior in consequence. It’s been clear all along that Touko’s desire to emulate her sister wasn’t really something her sister or family actually wished for – having seen her sister’s success, Touko has simply internalized a belief that achieving anything less would be a profound personal failure, and likely even a betrayal of her sister’s memory. Beliefs like that, the foundational myths of our self-images, don’t just dissipate when they’re proven not to match the historical record. Touko might reinvent herself or simply stay the course, but I can’t imagine her embracing full sincerity now – to be honest, it feels more likely that the coming rush of self-doubt and insecurity will only make her double down on her initial beliefs. But the fun of this show, and of character dramas altogether, is that great characters will always surprise you, and through surprising you teach you something new and true about the human experience. Let’s see how Touko handles this shift in another episode of Bloom Into You!
Episode 12
Once again we open with clear touchstones of summer, as we begin with a shot of a standing fan contrasted against the sound of cicadas. Bloom Into You isn’t the most tonally focused show on the whole, but it still makes a point of initially establishing the current atmosphere at the beginning of each episode
Yuu wakes up to the second day of their camp, and Touko has already left her bed. The combination of consistent cicada noises and saturated lighting make it seem like she’s waking into a dream, and as she walks outside, she sees Touko engulfed in the morning light. A classic trick – using the tonal holism of one well-captured moment to convey how one character personally sees another. See: at least one scene in every other episode of Euphonium, etc
It’s a familiar trick because it works, though. An audience can’t necessarily parse a character saying “I’m falling more in love with this person” in an emotional sense – but the experience of waking up into a dream, and seeing your crush as if they were an angel in the morning light? Yeah, that parses
Turns out we’re already on the last day. The last shot of this cold open centers us on Yuu’s reaction, as she frowns at Touko politely brushing her off. Yuu’s reaction to Touko’s shift was also the final beat of the previous episode, making me think this will be more of a Yuu-focused episode than a Touko one. That is endlessly cruel of this show to do, but it makes sense – we want to know the truth about Touko’s shift just as much as Yuu, meaning withholding it even from us aligns us that much more with Yuu’s perspective
Touko is preoccupied reflecting on what her sister now means to her, while also getting continuously poked in the ribs by the on-the-nose relevance of their play’s dialogue. Not a fun situation
“Why would anyone choose to act distant and lonely around their family?” Koyomi’s play is so specific in its accuracy that it feels a bit much – thematically relevant in-universe fictions are one thing, but this is basically just about Touko
“Maybe I only acted that way to let the rest of you remain a happy family.” In every sphere except for where it comes to Yuu and Sayaka, Touko seems to let the desires of the group dictate her own identity. And yet, as we’ve come to know, Touko’s behavior doesn’t actually make her parents happy. Her guide is ultimately her own insecurity
“Just because I showed you weakness doesn’t mean that was the real me.” This, at least, we know to be an incorrect assumption of the plot. Which is good – Koyomi’s protagonist is more “a girl who distrusts all her prior bonds” than Touko specifically, who has repeatedly demonstrated she can feel vulnerable and even genuinely afraid with Yuu
“I wore a different mask for everyone, and now no one knows who I was underneath, not even me!” But this general fear seems very earnest, and seems to offer our clearest hint as to Touko’s current perspective. She may know she can no longer be the person she was, but is unsure how to move on from there
“I have to choose to believe that one of the masks is the real me, and I have to live as that one.” Touko can’t conceive of simply choosing actions based on her immediate desires, one choice at a time. She needs the safety of a perspective – there is far less vulnerability involved in rationally considering “what would the person I portray myself as do in this situation” than in genuinely deciding what you want
Once again, Sayaka maintains closeness while Yuu hangs in the background
Sayaka seems to really enjoy lording this information over Yuu. “I’ll take care of her, don’t worry. Hey, did you want some ice cream?” Sayaka can be a jerk in some very entertaining ways
The current chosen ending is the lover ending, which obviously maps to Yuu. Bloom Into You’s themes basically guarantee the actual answer will be “all of them,” though. And it’s not a failure of the writing that we can already guess that – dramatic coherency is something you appreciate more and more as you start to see the common threads of narrative, and is far more satisfying than unseeded twists inserted just to subvert our expectations, at the expense of a story’s dramatic and thematic congruity. We don’t finish our pop songs with thirty seconds of death metal just because “it’s surprising,” we write coherent goddamn songs
The fact that Yuu is the nurse and Sayaka the lover also neatly echoes how Sayaka is “winning” in terms of closeness in this current arc
“Even now, I don’t desire anything of you but to be by your side. I won’t ask anything of you. Just be right there as you are.” Sayaka’s dialogue as the lover returns us to extremely on-the-nose parallels, as she gives a speech that Sayaka herself might well make, if she thought she could get away with it
In the current script of the play, there are clues that make the lover the “correct” answer – the one piece of meaningful information she receives from her past self is “October 10,” and that’s her lover’s birthday. That gives the play a sense of dramatic congruity and a “puzzle to solve,” which means it essentially “works” as a story, but its solution fails to engage with the thematic crux of the narrative. A story about “choosing your true self” that ends on “welp, I guess I’ll pick this particular version” is a pretty superficial story (unless the protagonist’s failure to coherently grapple with what is being asked of them is actually the point)
Yuu and Dojima are the only two members of the council to jump at the mention of homework. A nice touch
Nice sequence of expressions as Yuu steels herself to ask Touko what’s happening
We return to that fateful train stop, with the ringing of the alarm once again echoing the rising tension of our characters’ conversation
Oh wow, this move to rainbow pastels for the passing is gorgeous. Motes of light rush by as the train passing reminds Yuu of all her moments with Touko
Yuu invites Touko to her room, and Touko tries to make excuses, but Yuu is insistent. “What are you so afraid of? Are you worried I might come to dislike you?” Yuu is tired of this distance, and understandably so
“If I go to your room now, I might really take advantage of you.” Touko’s hair covering her pupils is a nice touch, making her seem that much more unreadable and dangerous
Both the first and second episode halves have the same title this time, so I guess this was a two-parter in the manga as well
Touko awkwardly sitting in Yuu’s bedroom is pretty funny. This show is quietly good about its character acting – there’s not a huge amount of fluid movement, but the base postures tend to be quite expressive
Touko sits in Yuu’s lap. I wasn’t aware this was an adults-only production
And now she wants Yuu to feed her. Touko is a relatable fuckin’ mess, I can see why my timeline loves her
The minimalist sound design and relatively subtle post-production glow effectively convey the intimacy of their kiss. I like these mostly transparent globes of light the show is using to give the room an uneven sense of radiance
And now, at last, Touko opens up about what happened with Ishigaya
“Isn’t everyone like that to some extent? Even if it’s not to the extreme of the protagonist in the play.” Yuu slams her palm down on the Theme buzzer
Yuu asks if she needs to become someone, and then the lighting darkens as Touko resumes her usual defensiveness, and asks “what point is there to my real self?”
“Don’t fall in love with me, okay?” Touko is so fucking unfair. THIS SHOW MAKES ME MAD
“I hate myself. You couldn’t love someone who says they love something you hate, right?” TOUKOOOO
The alleyway adjacent to their parting offers a natural visual partition between them, emphasizing their current rift. Once again, we’ve arrived at a clear “Yuu should dump her ass right this second” moment, but of course that’s not going to happen
“What about you? Don’t say you hate what I love, either.” Ah good, it is excellent that Yuu comes to terms with being in love with Touko in the context of her girlfriend expressing how much she hates herself
“Can we change the ending of the play to one where she doesn’t choose one of her three selves?” Yuu’s new realization and determination to help Touko grow out of this situation dovetails perfectly with the lingering thread of the play’s ending. When a story is cohesively written, its beats just feel right
Yuu shifts from “Nanami herself might not wish for this” to “No, she wouldn’t.” It’s a pretty meaningful change – Yuu is now actively committed to helping Touko grow, and not enable her any more
This also offers a clear expression of her love for Touko. Yuu now cares about Touko enough that she’s willing to sacrifice her own relationship with her in order to ensure Touko can come to love herself
“Staying with the lover isn’t what the current protagonist wants. She made that decision based on her past self.”
“The protagonist has to arrive at her answer through what happens during the play.” This is a very pragmatic angle for approaching this change, but it’s true. If a protagonist makes their most important decisions based on experiences and information we in the audience didn’t personally witness, we get no sense of satisfaction from experiencing their growth. It’s close to the emotional equivalent of deus ex machina – when a solution arrives from outside of a story’s established variables, the victory feels hollow
And Done
Holy crap, that was a tumultuous episode! Not only did we receive Touko’s full takeaway on learning the truth about her sister, but we also saw Yuu taking bold steps that both affirmed her own feelings and fundamentally altered her relationship with Touko. As expected, Touko learning about her sister’s facade wasn’t any kind of comfort – it mainly just left her even more adrift, as she now lacks even a person to emulate. But though the old Yuu might have simply accepted Touko’s self-hatred, our current heroine is determined to make Touko face her own feelings, and hopefully emerge with genuine self-love. This was a propulsive, often infuriating, and utterly true-to-life episode, and I’m thrilled to find out where this drama finally ends.
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