(L) Yagate Kimi ni Naru (Bloom Into You)

[Requiem-x]

Oh yeah, this is the good stuff.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Down to earth mains (Zombieland and Jojo provide more than enough crazy anyways), well-done and lovely visuals (on that note, the first person bits reminded me of re-creators, except actually good) and no weird drama. I admit I was hestitant on Yuu's viewpoint at first since it looked like she just has a very embellished idea of love, but like Touko said, or rather implied, if you don't feel it there's no point in forcing it. Then again, she seems to have her own issues when it comes to love, so maybe her advice shouldn't be taken at face value. It seems learning about love will be the big theme of the story, and I'm fine with that.

Originally Posted by Kanon

A love triangle brewing? Maybe I'm dense but I didn't notice anything like that. Who's the third person?

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Did you miss the girl saying she wanted to support Touko? That's a clear third wheel sign right there.

[Mars Terra]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

That other girl near the end of the episode

Her name is Sayaka, and that's what I thought as well when I read some of the manga.

Originally Posted by Requiem-x

It seems learning about love will be the big theme of the story, and I'm fine with that.

Agreed. Since they're in high school, they shouldn't wise beyond their years.

[Kitsu Breaker]

As curiosity, the author, Nakatami Nio get inspired on Hibike Euphonium to create this history, is kinda noticeable later on Yuu and Touko relationship.

[Kanon]

This show is marvelously directed. The two moments that really stood out for me were time stopping during the kiss and the look on Yuu's face when she noticed Touko's reaction when she held her hand (that expression was amazing!).

This is taking an interesting direction. I definitely see that Sayaka is in love with Touko now, and no doubt drama will come out of it. Heck, she already started being jealous of Yuu in this ep. What fascinates me the most is how Yuu views Touko. Both of them initially thought they were kindred spirits, and Yuu is completely disillusioned now that she's realized Touko has genuinely fallen in love. It doesn't matter that she's the object of that love, she thought she wasn't alone for a moment and found solace in that, but it all came crumbling down. The kiss was a magical moment for Touko and us audience but she felt absolutely nothing. She probably feels even more out of place than before.

As for Touko, her attitude is a quite weird. She believes Yuu will never love her back and is perfectly happy with her love being one-sided.

Quite the complicated situation.

[Random Wanderer]

I maintain that Yuu's problem isn't an inability to feel love, but rather a lack of understanding of both how love really feels, and how it works. She's expecting a shoujo-manga-ish kind of sensation for love, where the instant she comes into contact with her destined beloved her heart will beat super fast, the world will be dyed pastels, and she'll feel like she's floating in the clouds. She doesn't understand that love doesn't always (or even often) hit people like that, and that many of the best loving relationships build up slowly rather than hitting all at once.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep2:

I love how it's like "I know you now that I held your hands and observed you", but when she tries to tell her no before anything even starts, the other side counters by striking first, stopping her from saying no.

[Requiem-x]

Unbalanced relationships are nothing new in yuri, but this episode had a nice twist to it, this time being the kouhai who doesn't get the feeling, even though she wants to. And yes, Touko is being VERY unfair, and Yuu is jumping from one uncomfortable moment to another.

Like Kanon said, Yuu's faces were something to see. That mix of non-chalance, then frustration and dissapointment was definitely out of the norm, and yes, the whole show looks and sounds really, really pretty. On that subject, the OP is fantastic.

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

I maintain that Yuu's problem isn't an inability to feel love, but rather a lack of understanding of both how love really feels, and how it works. She's expecting a shoujo-manga-ish kind of sensation for love, where the instant she comes into contact with her destined beloved her heart will beat super fast, the world will be dyed pastels, and she'll feel like she's floating in the clouds. She doesn't understand that love doesn't always (or even often) hit people like that, and that many of the best loving relationships build up slowly rather than hitting all at once.

To be fair, there's a lot of pastel tones in this anime so far, and we had lots of sparkles at the end there

[alex_drian]

For now the direction of the show is magnificent, I'm happy for that as a manga reader. Btw, OP and ED are God-tier, is my opinion but of the anime this season (or at least the ones I watch now) these are the best and is a strong season.

[FlareKnight]

I kind of feel for Yuu in this situation. People around her fall in love and some even fall in love with her. But she's left feeling miserable and isolated. Not an ideal situation. If Touko is going to be in love with Koito then might want to sympathize with that miserable isolation the person she's falling in love with is feeling. In the sense the happier she gets just being around Koito the more difficult the position for Koito.

Still, it does take this in an interesting direction.

[Triple_R]

Sadly, my take on Episode 2 is a fair bit different than other viewers here.

I really liked Episode 1. I thought Episode 1 set the table very nicely for a good relationship that would slowly and gradually blossom between the two lead characters. I was fine with Touko making a sudden confession, and then walking it back right away, and Koito not being sure what to do with it.

What I would have most liked to see was the two girls gradually grow closer together, but in a way that leaves Koito inwardly questioning and uncertain of what her relationship with Touko actually entails. I think a lot could have been made of such ambiguity, eventually giving way to what many viewers would want to see of course.

Instead, it feels anything but ambiguous, and it feels like a simple stalemate to me. Touko loves Koito, but Koito simply isn't into Touko. I mean, realistically-speaking, that is 100% how I would assess this if we were dealing with real life people here.

I mean, someone probably should feel some sparks and excitement as a teenager having their first kiss. If they're into the other person at all. This is especially true over a kiss as sudden and unexpected as this one was. I mean, when you're physically attracted to another person, you feel it, especially as a teenager. The nerves, the excitement, the raging hormones, they're there. If you're physically attracted to the other person.

And in my experience, both in my own life and in talking to other people about this topic, this almost never changes. "The Friend Zone" is a thing for a reason. Again, if these were two real life people, I would 100% feel that Touko has just been friendzoned, and that she's seriously setting herself up for terrible heartache and frustration by not fully accepting it now. That's not likely how this story will play out, of course, but if these events were between two real life people...

So, because of my desire for verisimilitude, Episode 2 is kind of a buzzkill for me, honestly. Unless they are almost perfect in how they execute future relationship developments, it's now hard to see myself buying into an eventual Touko/Koitu pairing.

To be clear, these are purely plot/characterization issues for me. The visual direction is indeed very good.

[Mars Terra]

I liked some of the directing in this episode. When Yuu is asked again to manage Nanami's campaign and she peers over to Nanami and sees the hopefulness in her eyes. The part where the camera is projecting what Nanami is seeing. The part where Yuu grabs Nanami's hand just to see how she will react. It's amazing how much you can say without actually saying a word.

I remember when I read the manga and they were at the railroad, I was under the impression that Yuu had gotten hit by the train before it showed what really happened. Re-experiencing this in the anime I see that she waited until the train came so that no one would see them making out. I think this is a brilliant scene, but I can't help but wonder if I had made the same mistake I made the first time had I watched this version first?

[Marina2]

@Triple_R The examples given by you are from the perspective of normal person. Yuu in not.

Yuu's mind can't process the feeling of love. She wants to love others and she wants to be loved by others but her mind can't produce that 'excitement' feeling that normal person would feel when they are in love. It prevents her feeling from developing further into the "love"

I think it is a bit different from one-side love where someone love you but you don't love him/her back. In that case, you 'can' tell that person is not suit for you. However, when Yuu was confessed to by her boyfriend, while she didn't feel she like him, she also not dislike him. It is an ambiguous feeling which made her delayed her answer for a month. The similar case happened when she was kissed by Nanami.

The first two eps. have showed us that currently Yuu's has this problem with 'everyone' no matter if the others are the 'right' person or not.

P.S. I'm not a love expert. There might be some mistake in my thought toward Yuu's issue.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Marina2

@Triple_R The examples given by you are from the perspective of normal person. Yuu in not.

Yuu's mind can't process the feeling of love. She wants to love others and she wants to be loved by others but her mind can't produce that 'excitement' feeling that normal person would feel when they are in love. It prevents her feeling from developing further into the "love"

I think it is a bit different from one-side love where someone love you but you don't love him/her back. In that case, you 'can' tell that person is not suit for you. However, when Yuu was confessed to by her boyfriend, while she didn't feel she like him, she also not dislike him. It is an ambiguous feeling which made her delayed her answer for a month. The similar case happened when she was kissed by Nanami.

The first two eps. have showed us that currently Yuu's has this problem with 'everyone' no matter if the others are the 'right' person or not.

P.S. I'm not a love expert. There might be some mistake in my thought toward Yuu's issue.

Yuu doesn't understand what love feels like. She only thinks she's feeling nothing because she isn't getting the sensations that shoujo manga and romance songs tell her represent love.

[Rnzlr]

Damn, that time stop was so beautiful

[David Watts]

So far this series has been everything I have hoped for, the first episode convinced me and the second solidified that fact. I like how everything is paced and I love how well the art direction and voice acting has turned out. I'm a huge fan of the manga so I'm glad to see it coming to life. I have real high hopes for the series now.

[Kanon]

The third episode focused more on Touko, and we see she has some issues as well. She maintains a perfect facade in front of her classmates and even her best friend, and it's implied it's because of something that happened in her past (death of her sister or mother?). Yuu is the only person she can show her weaknesses to and rely on, because Yuu doesn't see her as special. Again, definitely not the usual senpai/kouhai dynamic.

[Random Wanderer]

I'm told that there are a large number of translation mistakes in episode 3, particularly involving Yuu and anything she says or thinks. May be worth keeping in mind when discussing.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

I'm told that there are a large number of translation mistakes in episode 3, particularly involving Yuu and anything she says or thinks. May be worth keeping in mind when discussing.

The main thing I noticed is the conversation between Yuu and Touko taking a break outside before the speeches. There's a block of Yuu talking towards the end and the translations had it as her speaking about herself. It wasn't super clear at the start of those lines but I thought it was abundantly clear towards the end that Yuu was in fact talking about Touko there. It's one of those annoyances of Japanese (in how it is commonly used rather than being an inherent trait of the language) that sometimes the subject of the discussion can be ambiguous but I thought it was a pretty poor error not to pick this up in proof-reading/editing. Surely it was obvious that the lines didn't make sense the way they had it?

To re-phase what Yuu was saying there: you don't need to keep up a strong front around me because I saw how you really are in the first place. So you won't disappoint me by revealing an "imperfect" side to me because I never saw you as perfect in the first place.

Anyway...

While we saw more about Yuu in this episode I felt we gained the most knowledge on Touko and my impression of her character changed quite a bit. I had previously felt like she was close to being the female equivalent of a certain type of male character often seen in shoujo romance. Instead, she's a lot more likeable than I had found her previously. I almost feel sorry for her for how smitten she is with Yuu

Meanwhile, Yuu feels more ordinary around her friends but is somehow special around Touko. It's an interesting dynamic.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

The main thing I noticed is the conversation between Yuu and Touko taking a break outside before the speeches. There's a block of Yuu talking towards the end and the translations had it as her speaking about herself. It wasn't super clear at the start of those lines but I thought it was abundantly clear towards the end that Yuu was in fact talking about Touko there. It's one of those annoyances of Japanese (in how it is commonly used rather than being an inherent trait of the language) that sometimes the subject of the discussion can be ambiguous but I thought it was a pretty poor error not to pick this up in proof-reading/editing. Surely it was obvious that the lines didn't make sense the way they had it?

Actually it is not ambiguous at all. In that sequence you are referring to, Yuu is saying

思いっきり私情で私を責任者にしたり、そのくせ後から不安になったり、あと結構顔に出ますよね､すぐ赤くな るし。だから弱い所見せられたって今までと何も変わりませんよ。

It can't be interpreted in any other way other than Yuu talking about Touko as 思いっきり私情で私を責任者にしたり means more or less "[Nanami-senpai] Making me a staff member out of self-interest". So it is an extremely jarring error by the translator.

[kari-no-sugata II]

tl;dr This might be getting a bit too into the weeds for some but we definitely agree that this was a bad mistake in translation.

Originally Posted by Kakurin

Actually it is not ambiguous at all. In that sequence you are referring to, Yuu is saying

思いっきり私情で私を責任者にしたり、そのくせ後から不安になったり、あと結構顔に出ますよね､すぐ赤くな るし。だから弱い所見せられたって今までと何も変わりませんよ。

It can't be interpreted in any other way other than Yuu talking about Touko as 思いっきり私情で私を責任者にしたり means more or less "[Nanami-senpai] Making me a staff member out of self-interest". So it is an extremely jarring error by the translator.

That's the block of lines I was referring to when I said: It wasn't super clear at the start of those lines but I thought it was abundantly clear towards the end that Yuu was in fact talking about Touko there.

That was my real time impressions without re-watching the scene. Perhaps the thing that threw me initially was using ~tari for something someone else did to you. But it then quickly clicked deeper into it.

Even if the translator had a brain fade (these happen) someone else should have picked it up because it's obviously wrong.

PS Thanks for posting the raw.