What’s the show? Bloom Into You, Episode 6.
So how’s this episode? Fantastic! Stuff happens, big important stuff and stuff only the audience is privy too thanks to internal monologues but still important all the same. And not that the show wasn’t interesting when it was all low-key moments and small emotional movements but this episode represents a definite turning point in the course of the narrative.
Sounds important. What happens? Well spoilers obviously, but not only do we get the answer as to why Touka has been so intent on having the student council put on a stage show–her sister was student council president 7 years ago but died in a traffic accident before the performance could be staged. We also get an emotionally charged (not to mention gorgeous looking) scene down by a river where Yuu tells Touka that she doesn’t have to live up to the standards set by her sister, that she doesn’t have to take her place, that she should live her own life. Only for Touka to completely rebuff her and stay committed to being “the perfect stand-in” for her deceased sister.
Wow, heavy stuff. Mmhmm, and if that wasn’t enough there’s a fantastic post-credit scene that lets us into Touka’s mindset more than anything in the previous episodes, where she basically spells out ~why~ she fell in love with Yuu in the first place. Touka considers love to be a manipulative thing, meant to keep a person from changing too much, she uses the phrase “I love you just how you are” as an example–likening it to being “kept”. And the fact that Yuu is seemingly incapable of love is exactly why she’s drawn to her, she ends her little inner-monologue with the sentence, “Never fall in love with me”. And it’s just such a bitter-sweet thing that I can’t help but adore it.
You sound very enthusiastic for a change, usually you’re struggling for things to say about the show! To be honest I’d forgotten about this part of the manga, which I know might seem crazy considering how big of a deal it is, so that’s probably explaining why my enthusiasm seems so high. But even if I had remembered this part, the anime just does such a better job at adapting this section that it’s almost like a different thing entirely, I’ve already mentioned how gorgeous the whole ‘walk home from school/riverside conversation’ is but it’s worth mentioning again because of how strikingly pretty it is. And not in a showy, technical way but just on a purely aesthetic and artistic level–in a way it’s a lot like this show, it’s not doing anything ground-breaking or flashy, but it’s doing something rare and beautiful–simply put, it’s art.
Previous Bloom Into You Reviews:
Love Takes Time – Episode 1 Review
The Flower Blooms Alone – Episode 2 Review
Strength In Vulnerability – Episode 3 Review
The Ever Watchful Gardener – Episode 4 Review
Study Buddies – Episode 5 Review
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Anime QandA 
This is why Touko needs Yuu so much, so that she can hopefully break out of the way she’s constructed “love” in her mind. She thinks that love creates an obligation on the other person, to be the person that someone “loves”. And here, Yuu is saying that Touko doesn’t need to feel obligated to those other people, no matter what they said, yet Touko’s response is to reject Yuu’s advice, to stay shackled to the other people because she’s more afraid of being rejected by them. And the only way she feels she has any freedom with Yuu is because she thinks Yuu hasn’t constructed that box to keep Touko in, the box that says Touko is “special” to Yuu.
It’s really just heartbreakingly naive and short-sighted, that Touko is the one who has locked herself into this role because that’s how she’s responded to other people’s expectations. But it’s also an interesting window into the culture, that that kind of wording can hold so much weight when in the west it would be almost instantly discarded.
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