Review of the anime The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity / 薫る花は凛と咲く

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

When it comes to blogging, or even watching movies and whatnot, I’ve been in such a weird headspace lately. I started a new job after quite a bit of a spell of not having any besides freelance and contract work, and now that I am actually working, I’m not watching as much as I used.

Part of it is fueled by my newfound YouTube addiction, but part of it just is that I can’t stay awake long enough to get everything I want done. I haven’t even been going to the movies lately to see them in-person because I simply am just tired after I get everything else done.

This is a really interesting blog post for me because it’s an anime. I used to be such a big anime kid when I was in elementary and middle school, but kind of fell off of watching any form of television through high school into college. It was working professionally as a film critic that I started watching television again and began appreciating it as its own art form.

However, while I was watching a ton more shows, I still wasn’t back on the anime grind. I don’t know what compelled me to press play on The Fragrant Flower, especially as I had literally never heard of it before pressing play. But something led me to it that day and I binge watched the entire show.

Let’s get into the review!

A boy and girl from rivaling schools find solace in each other—and learn they’re not so different along the way.

We learn right off the bat in this show that the premise is this: there are two rivaling high schools right next to each other. Chidori Public High School is, well, the public school that tends to be a popular spot for young men who aren’t from privileged backgrounds. Meanwhile, the school next door is Kikyo Private Academy Girls’ High School.

Kikyo is actually a school for wealthy elite girls from the upper crusts of society, so it’s no wonder why the students of these schools are at odds with each other. Our male lead is Rintaro, who attends Chidori and thinks no differently than his peers about the girls next door, even though one catches his eye one night when she stumbles into his family’s bakery.

He’s working behind the counter with Kaoruko wanders in and wants to buy products from them. He sees straight off the bat that she’s such a kind soul, then is shocked that she goes to the same school that he loathes. This is only the beginning, though, as Rintaro and Kaoruko are going to continue crossing paths.

Eventually, they will become friends, much to the shock of those who know them and attend the same school. Suddenly the boundaries between those at the two schools are completely crossed and changed for good, and as their friend groups start to interact, we can actually see some wounds healing.

At the same time, Rintaro struggles with his feelings with Kaoruko. I say this anime is short in the grand scheme of things, but it does take its time developing that there is something real between these two, especially considering they have some good chemistry straight off the bat.

All in all though the main highlight of this series is seriously just watching the two leads interact with each other. They’re so soft and sweet when engaging with each other specifically that it’s just adorable to watch on-screen, even if it’s something that happens inorganically. I would say most of the series plays organically though, which is why I ended up watching all the way through.

Overall Thoughts

I did genuinely enjoy watching this series a lot. I thought I wasn’t going to care for it because of how I haven’t been watching anime for so long, but I ended up really liking this and wanting to watch more. It’s rare that I want to watch more of something and this show hit that sweet spot.

I don’t know if a second season is in the works, as I never read the manga and have no idea where that ended, but I would totally watch a second season if they manage to find a way to freshen it up and make it feel new.

My outro is a bit shorter this time because I don’t know what else to say! I feel that I’ve said everything I’ve need to, so if you find something that interests you about this show and you want to see it, then give it a chance. It’s a quick watch.

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