Anime Recommendation: Bloom into You

Why not check out my favorite romance anime, Valentine's Day is coming up.


Bloom into You was an anime that I did not expect to enjoy, at least to the extent that I did enjoy it. I'm not a big fan of romance anime and I have only seen a few yuri anime. However, it didn't take me long to get attached to the characters and invested in the story. Bloom into You is now my top favorite romance anime.

Yuu Koito is a girl who has never felt romantic feelings but she would like to know what it would be like to fall in love. The student council president, Touko Nanami, seems to share Yuu's feelings about love and romance until Touko falls in love with Yuu. Having never experienced romance, Yuu tries to figure out her feelings towards Touko while also learning more about the older girl and growing closer to her.

While Yuu and Touko are the focus of Bloom into You, there is another character that is just as important. Sayaka Saeki is Touko's best friend and secretly has feelings for Touko. Throughout the series, Sayaka is trying to make sense of her feelings and accept that there is nothing wrong with her for liking another girl.

Bloom into You is an anime about these three girls learning about their identity. Yuu thinks that love and romance should be as electric as it is in shoujo manga. That is part of why she doesn't quite understand her feelings towards Touko. Sayaka is in love with Touko but has grown up believing that girls shouldn't fall in love with other girls. And Touko has lost herself in a performance. She tries to be a perfect student council president that everyone can look up to, while denying her true self.

The characters of Bloom into You felt real to me. They were like real people with genuine concerns and confusion. There were few moments that felt overly dramatic or cliche. I find that appropriate from an anime that challenges how romance is portrayed in stories and the media.

Bloom into You is a very gentle love story and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good romance or interesting characters. I do think that this is one of the best anime of 2018, or at least of the last Fall season, so if you find that hard to believe, just watch it and tell me I'm wrong. 

If you actually have seen Bloom into You, go ahead and leave a comment. I'd love to know your thoughts on the series and I'd love it if you could recommend me other romance or yuri anime.