Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Today we’re continuing our journey through Bloom Into You, a thoughtful romance that has been impressing me at every turn. While the show’s first three episodes essentially acted as a self-contained arc setting up the initial relationship and club situation of Yuu and Touko, our most recent episode significantly expanded the scale of our drama, directly roping in new characters like Maki while also hinting at potential conflicts for characters like Sayaka and Koyomi. Yuu and Touko’s feelings are still central, but the scope of this world is clearly expanding, and I’m looking forward to seeing more complex character dynamics develop between all our leads.

At the moment, Maki feels like the biggest question to me. While his desire to be a romantic spectator is to some extent understandable, it still feels like a strange motivation that won’t necessarily lend itself to realistic or sympathetic drama. But given Bloom Into You has handled all its prior conflicts with such thoughtfulness and grace, I have plenty of confidence that Maki will also develop into a multifaceted and at least theoretically sympathetic character. Either way, I’m excited to see whatever’s coming next as we continue our journey through this terrific show!

Episode 5

“Today I’m tending the shop. By being here, I get a sense of the type of books everyone likes.” Ooh, I like this. Genuinely integrating Yuu into her family’s business is a nice way to add some solidity to her home life, and I get the feeling working here will also let us see other aspects of her personality

“Akari only reads manga. Koyomi is a regular who buys literary magazines and books by her favorite authors.” This is also great. A natural way to flesh out these characters in directions unrelated to their romantic dilemmas. As I’ve said before, romances that are only concerned with characters as potential romantic partners for each other tend to feel pretty hollow; great romances demand fully fleshed out characters with ongoing lives, details which give us reasons to care about them, and subsequently inform our understanding of why they might be great together

Sayaka likes “new releases and research journals,” Touko prefers “study guides and pop fiction.” That seems appropriate for her – straight-laced when it comes to her studies, but also a very exuberant, bubbly person in her own right

It is such an incredibly Touko move to intentionally buy raunchy lesbian romances while Yuu is at the register. What a devious power play

“If I overreact, I’ll just be playing into her hands.” Yuu doesn’t realize that she’s still playing Touko’s game here, or perhaps can’t admit that to herself. Pretending you didn’t see anything is its own kind of flirty response

Ahaha nope, Touko just didn’t realize it was a lesbian romance

This emphasis on what books these characters are into is echoed by the imagery of the OP, as well as Koyomi’s brewing drama. Bloom Into You’s thematic focus on how narratives dictate our expectations for our own lives is thus woven into the day-to-day narrative of these characters’ lives

Apparently we’re already at midterms

Maki pesters Yuu as to whether she’ll keep meeting Touko during the student council break. I really do hope they go somewhere with this guy beyond him just being a narrative irritant designed to create drama

“The reason I worry about Touko is because she’s a fragile person on the inside, and no one knows that but me.” Yuu’s attempts to deny romantic feelings always come off as extremely romantic

“Even if this didn’t involve Nanami-senpai, I’d still do the same thing.” Okay Yuu, sure

We finally learn about Koyomi’s drama: she’s actually writing a novel herself, and so is tired all the time from writing and editing. She asks Yuu for her thoughts on the manuscript so she can submit it to an amateur writing competition. An even more overt embracing of Bloom Into You’s preoccupation with how fiction informs our expectations and self-image

Yuu seems very happy to be relied on by her friend like this

“She already knows what she wants to be. Koyomi sure is amazing.” I’d almost forgotten Yuu’s initial anxiety about not having any direction, given she’s committed herself so fully to the student council. Issues like that aren’t the sort of thing you can get over just by embracing the first passion that walks by, though; our relationships with our deepest anxieties are always going to be negotiations informed by years of assumptions regarding our true natures. It’s very hard to recognize our own growth from the inside

This is also realistic in that we’re not perpetually defined by our anxieties – they ebb and flow with our own preoccupations. Yuu has been seriously distracted by Touko, but seeing another friend seemingly rushing ahead of her own growth reminds her of old fears

Yuu ends up resolving to work on what she can, which currently means studying for the midterms. And of course she ultimately ends up at the library with Touko, so good luck with that

“Ah, don’t think about it. Have to stay focused.” We spend an unusual amount of time hearing Yuu’s running internal monologue as she herself hears it, as opposed to tidied up into focused speeches for some assumed audience

The show slowly details Touko’s move over to Yuu’s side of the table, emphasizing Yuu’s own preoccupation with Touko’s movements. Whether it’s intended or not, things that a show spends extra time lingering over will be parsed as important to the audience. It’s important to match some event’s screentime to its relevance, meaning that sometimes complicated concepts must be summarized because they’re not actually critical to a narrative. Viewers will often complain when complex tasks are summarized or skipped entirely, but maintaining narrative pacing and emphasizing the right events generally trumps explaining everything

Granted, plenty of works spend lots of time prioritizing odd digressions, but you should really know the base rules of how fiction parses for an audience before you start to break them

Once again we end up at the train crossing, so often used as a metaphor for waiting to grow up

“I would have been happy with anyone who agreed to study with me, it didn’t have to be Nanami.” An echo of her earlier “I’d have done that for anyone” line, and just as unconvincing

Focusing on Yuu’s most immediate, unconsidered thoughts works well for this episode’s focus, since this is essentially about her conscious mind actively arguing against her underlying feelings

“I have to admit, I don’t hate being chosen like this.” ‘I don’t hate it’ is a common translation for this phrasing, and it always feels a little awkward to me

“I’d be okay with anyone, but for right now, I don’t mind her being the one who chose me.” There’s an interesting push-and-pull between Yuu’s clearly shifting feelings towards Touko, and the profound lack of self-confidence that prompted her to accept this arrangement in the first place. Yuu is partially okay with this because she’s just so desperate to have some worth or direction, and at the moment can only seem to find that through being valued by others

With the library full, Yuu invites Touko to her house

We run into one of Yuu’s older sisters with her boyfriend

After an episode so drenched in Yuu’s anxieties, I appreciate this extended sequence of Touko nervously settling into Yuu’s room

“They must be far along in their relationship if he comes to visit her house,” Touko asks, while sitting in Yuu’s room

Touko’s expressions are so good. She is so profoundly lovestruck here

“You seem like you’re really distracted.” I’ve previously assumed that Yuu was intentionally messing with Touko in terms of her flirting, but it may just be that Yuu is profoundly, unbelievably oblivious

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one at school who pays attention to me.” Yuu’s lack of self-confidence makes her blind to her own charms, which sure messes with Touko’s feelings

“You are the only one I want to be with, but I know you don’t feel the same about me.” Yuu has been so wrapped up in her own anxieties that she hasn’t really considered how Touko might feel. To the perpetually anxious person, it always feels like everyone else has got it together

“You’re the one who needs me most. If you ask, I’ll stay with you.” Even Yuu’s attempted assurances center around her own desire to be needed

“Will my feelings about her never change at all? I’d hate that.” Yuu actively regretting her own condition feels like a meaningful step. She wants to join Touko at this point, and is no longer regretting the fact that Touko isn’t like her

Oh my god, Yuu’s sister sends Touko a photo of Yuu sleeping. I’m glad someone in this family is supportive of our dorks

And Done

Welp, that was a very sturdy episode. While we did establish a new conflict for Koyomi, the bulk of this episode was a return to the first episode’s extremely close, almost claustrophobic focus on Yuu’s feelings. That made sense, given where both she and Touko are at – while Touko is currently pretty set in her romantic feelings, Yuu is undergoing a process of perpetual self-examination, questioning again and again how she really feels. Unfortunately, Yuu also kinda sucks at genuinely parsing the feelings of either herself or the people around her, so it’s a pretty laborious process. In spite of that, I very much enjoyed this episode’s convincing portrait of Yuu’s psychology, and am loving how well this show is developing the chemistry between our leads. Keep it up, Yuu!

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