What’s the show? Bloom Into You, Episode 3.
So how’s this episode? Pretty much the same as the first two—meditative pacing, serene visuals, it’s a slow moving romance story but in the best ways. It’s never boring—but it’s certainly taking its time getting anywhere.
Why do I get the feeling you’re going to struggle to fill it a decent sized review? Probably, but it’s still nice to talk about this series—it’s interesting because I feel like the side characters are written in such a way to compliment the actions of our two protagonists but they’re just as interesting and humanised as Yuu and Touko and their ~struggles~.
And what “struggles” do Yuu and Touko have to deal with this week? Nervousness. Something which might seem slight as far as ‘drama’ goes but consider your own high-school experience, speeches are nerve-wracking things to give at the best of times, let alone when you’re in front of the whole school. And as it turns out its not just Yuu who has some jitters about the speech she needs to deliver but Touko has been putting on a brave face for the sake of her friends and classmates, but she’s honestly scared. She confides in Touko and the two share an intensely intimate but still surprisingly innocent moment. It’s pretty gorgeous and touching and of course Yuu goes onto deliver a speech that goes off script at the end—but shows that maybe Touko being in her life is a good thing—at least as far as adding some spontaneity to the girl’s personality!
It doesn’t sound very interesting, just saying… You’re right it doesn’t sound interesting sometimes, but that just speaks to the quality of the writing and direction that it legitimately is interesting. Even the speech, which lasts several minutes, is delivered in full and is filmed kind of statically still manages to command your attention—not the least because of Yuu’s little contradictory commentary is thrown in between the gaps in sentences. This show has a mesmerising beauty that starts with the visuals, continues with the soundtrack and is capped off with the voice acting performances.
Anything else you wanted to add? The world is expanded a little with the introduction of Yuu’s family—mother, father, older sister and grandmother—they run and live above a bookstore and its just another lovely detail that adds to the overall tone of the series. Fact is, this show is so perfectly executed, is that my weekly reviews almost feel unnecessary as there’s no way this show could slip up its adaptation. Certainly there will be those who find it boring or too slow-paced, but for everyone else this show will continue to provide the same level of entertainment for the rest of the season—short of some catastrophic production issue of course!
That almost sounded like you were about to say you were stopping these weekly reviews for this show? I’m undecided, I’ll take it week-to-week and see if I have enough to talk about. Much like Cells At Work last season its consistency and established quality made it difficult to write compelling reviews for—it (almost) did nothing wrong, and Bloom Into You is in a similar boat, though I’m in a worse situation as there’s no surprises to be had for the narrative as I’ve read the manga. I’ll eagerly watch each episode, but whether I review each episode is another matter. Time will tell!
Previous Bloom Into You Reviews:
Love Takes Time – Episode 1 Review
The Flower Blooms Alone – Episode 2 Review
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Anime QandA 
It can be tough to review a shoujo romance story (which this is, even if it’s yuri). And usually, they throw in stupid other side challenges, which this hasn’t so far. You know, the other man, the other woman, the paralyzing crisis of confidence. It’s all stuff that just gets in the way of the part I like, which is the two-people-falling-in-love part.
I thought this episode did do more to articulate why Touko is so attracted to Yuu, the secret that us manga readers might know but hasn’t been explained in the show. Because Yuu gave Touko a chance to break down, to show herself, not her perfect special self.
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