"There's nothing wrong with the way you feel."
"It's not fair...I thought Nanami-senpai was like me...But the face she made just because I grabbed her hand...She already knows what it's like to feel that someone's "special."...I want that, too..."
"Even though I haven't fallen in love myself...I've gotten close to the person who loves me."
I have no particular strong feelings for 'Bloom into You, Vol. 1', but it is a nice and calm little high school yuri manga. There is nothing skeevy or racy about it; it's merely a coming-of-age slice-of-life piece that explores feelings and different kinds of love, friendship, and devotion to another person. To someone "special" to you. It's as sweet and gentle as a pond with sakura petals in autumn, with slow moving trickles flowing into streams.
The romance, though it's one-sided at the moment, is between Yuu Koito, a quite timid, jaded and apathetic pushover who is possibly asexual and aromantic, and Nanami Touko, the typical cool, pretty, popular, dark-haired senpai, who is actually really shy and withdrawn.
Nanami feels she can be herself with Yuu, and is very much forward, sure and confident in her love for the new girl on the student council. To her ever disappointment, Yuu feels nothing. She has never fallen in love with anyone, and may never will, which she finds disconcerting. She thinks she isn't "normal", a word she aspires to. Nanami says she doesn't mind that Yuu doesn't feel the same way about her, and is happy just being with Yuu as a friend, but is she really?
There are great messages here about how your own feelings are valid, and nothing, certainly not love of any kind, is to be rushed. You matter, and there is nothing wrong with you if you don't feel like how you think you should be feeling.
However, Nanami is a bit too forceful with the uncertain and naive Yuu. She confesses her love out of the blue at least four times in this volume, and she even kisses Yuu without her consent in public once. Even though Yuu isn't uncomfortable or upset by this, that part of Nanami's character isn't great, though she does at least apologise to Yuu. Also I am annoyed and tired of the pervasive "girls asking out girls is not normal" and "two girls in love is not normal" attitude in high school yuri manga, like it's a thing that simply doesn't happen - is just not done - when it clearly does. It's a 2015 publication too, but I admit I'm not sure how progressive Japan was in terms of same-sex relationships back then (look at me, talking like this about something from 2015, wow does time fly).
Blooming and blossoming genuinely describe 'Bloom into You' well. I'm not sure I'll be picking up the next volume, but I am a little curious about what might happen next, and I am interested in the main relationship, and these characters (Yuu's friend Akari, her older sister Rei, and Nanami's best friend-who-might-be-in-love-with-her Sayaka, are cool and compelling characters too). I haven't failed to notice that this is yet another yuri manga with a strong female presence, abundant in female love and support, and hardly any male characters populate it.
Cute, tranquil, serene stuff.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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