Sweet Blue Flowers - Reviews

Please, please disregard the official review. I understand that everyone has different tastes, but I believe ThePatches is unreasonably harsh. This anime presents a beautiful and touching portrat of first love. It is also among the most well known and well recieved Yuri anime, and is much loved by the lesbian community. Erica Friedman, President of Yuricon and ALC Publishing, says it best:

"But what really sets this series apart from the pack is the story itself. Fumi's struggle to understand herself in relationship to the people around her, her growth and her brutal honesty transports this story from the realm of the typical into a sphere of storytelling far surpassing most Yuri in general. This is a classic "character-driven" story, in which the depth of the main characters strongly affects what little action takes place." (Taken from AfterEllen, link provided below)

The anime is well worth watching and I highly recommend it. The story does progress somewhat slow and could perhaps also fall under the "slice of life" category. So bare in mind that it may take a few episodes to really get into it, but you will!

If you are looking for a more indepth or detailed review of this anime, Erica Friedman has reviewed it on her blog Okazu (http://okazu.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-anime-season-summer-2009-yuri-anime.html) and on AfterEllen, as sighted above (http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2009/9/aoi-hana-review?page=0%2C1). The review on AfterEllen does contain spoilers. You might read it after you have watched the anime. It provides some interesting background and insight.

i love aoi hana <33 (light spoilers??)

i'm a queer girl, and I watch a lot of wlw (women loving women) media because there's not really a lot of wlw around me in real life, not many of my friends are, and I'm too shy to talk to other queer people online. so most of my interaction with lesbianism and other lesbians comes through media. and representation feels really really good, but it doesn't feel good when the 'representation' comes through the form of over-sexualization, abusive themes, fetishization, fanservice, tokenism and in general just lesbian relationships told from the perspective of the male gaze. it really makes me sad when I see other wlw anime watchers watching and recommending things like citrus, dragon maid, or even yaoi bc we are desperate to see our type of relationships and love on the screen. so I am really really happy when I'm able to find and watch anime like sweet blue flowers. it's not free of some problematic themes (the age gap relationships/crushes: akira's brother and her friend, sugimoto and the teacher, fumi and her COUSIN), so I took one point off for that. but that aside, it was really very beautiful to watch. i thought the characters were well fleshed out and plot was good for a very short anime. it brought me a lot of peace to watch, and much less of the ickiness that I feel when watching some other not so good forms of lesbian media. it was really delicate and beautiful. i love the simple but pretty art style and soft music and designs and how they highlighted and left a good platform for the yearnings, relationships, self-reflection, and awkwardness that make good coming of age stories. also it's very rare to see in wlw anime the actual use of terms like 'lesbian' or 'coming out' (idk why those are such scary words for anime creators). and it made me happy because fumi is just, a lesbian. it's not played as the type of 'circumstantial and impermanent lesbianism that comes with all girl schools', she's just a lesbian, has loved girls, knows she loves girls, and always will. it also had instances of wlw physical attraction, kissing, and the topic of going to third base or hooking up in a relationship, but not in a way that was sexualizing these high school girls, if that makes sense. it was just serious and subtle and felt nothing like a usual anime perspective on girl x girl love. no giant boobs and wildly unrealistic figures, accidental nonconsensual kisses or other touching, it was just peaceful and real and delicate and lovely. I'm not gonna act like it was a 10/10 plot, like the plot was the best of all time, but I ranked it high because of how it made me feel. it made me feel so so good I actually cried a little bit lol even though it wasn't really super sad, I just saw and felt the characters so much. the way it dealt with LGBTQ+ themes kind of felt like stars align to me. I'm really excited to watch her other work, wandering son, bc I want to see some positive and serious trans rep in anime (we've progressed past the need for trap jokes in anime, hate that shit). i really recommend other girls (or nonbinary lesbians) to see it. it may not be everyone's type of anime, but it was a nice breath of fresh air. also if you're a man, especially a cisgender hetero man, if you want to leave a review or publicly express your opinion, first consider that your perspective on how something dealt with LGBT relationships, is probably not a very well informed, and not needed, perspective. lesbians have to suffer from the male gaze enough,, maybe don't come in this space and act like you're qualified to say how realistic the lesbianism is. (also if you're 'obsessed with yuri!!' or 'watch lots of lesbian stuff and think lesbians r so hot and so i jumped on the chance to watch the newest lesbian anime!!' fck u i seriously hate you.

anyways, i got off track but i love it. akira and fumi's relationship is really sweet and lovely, i hope there's another season about their second year because I'm pretty sure the manga progressed past this season. yeah <333 I'm bad at writing reviews lol i just love anime like this and want to make sure other queers watch it.

edit: one thing, other than some of the pedophilic themes, i can say in criticism is the sexual assault/groping on the train near the beginning, was unnecessary and kind of triggering and hard to watch and I really don't know why they chose to bring them together that way. also reading some other reviews it kind of makes me happy that there's cishet men who say they didn't like it and said it thoroughly wasted their time, bc its clearly very overtly not for them, so it makes me happy that their time is wasted and they felt unpleasant :)) xoxo

Wery first of all..... i watched it like one or two episodes per day so i realy enjoyed it... i know in that week i managed to piss everybody off saying that this was an exelent anime ^^ Gomen.....
Anyway... the main point why i enjoyed Aoi hana was becouse it was the long wanted Romance anime without any ecchi or comedy or stuff like that..... The week that i watched it was wery stresfull for me a lot of studies (friging two schools) and i even had work (HUNTING) so this anime relieved the whole stress of my back whitch makes it the perfect for the ppl that have wery little time and a lot on nerves.

8/10 and dont even try to say anything about my bad english

Second time, not quite the charm (better than the first though)

I should have known better. Why did I watch Sasameki Koto again? I mean, it was disappointing enough the first time. Oh wait... this is a different anime? Aoi Hana. That's pretty much my overall impression of this series. Though that's not totally fair. There's a reason I haven't (and probably won't) review Sasameki Koto. 'My mama always said if you ain't got nothin nice to say don't say nothin at all.' So it's fair to say that Aoi Hana is definitely an improvement upon SK. Mostly, this is in the area of the story. Aoi Hana has significantly more depth than its counterpart. While SK is about a tall shy girl going after her best friend the whole series, in Aoi Hana the tall shy girl is (for the bulk of the story) in love with a taller sempai and uses her friend as a shoulder to cry on. Literally. There is WAY too much crying in this series. Really, it's almost to an offensive level, so if you're a feminist do not watch this series. But pushing that aside, the plot is actually quite complex. The so-called web-of-intrigue for this series is vast and intertwining. This may be one of the few anime in which the characters seem to have a better sense of what's going on than the viewer. I personally didn't find this aspect bothersome, in fact I welcomed it. But I'm sorry to say that the good times didn't last. This is one thing that the viewer could pick up easily. The relationship is formed too early on so you know right away that eventually it's gonna break off. The post break-up portion of the series is certainly lesser than what preceded it. The web-of-intrigue degenerates into a well of self-pity, one-sided love, and reminiscence. The way I've explained it, this might still sound interesting... not really. But unlike the non-existent ending sequence of SK, there was still hope down the stretch for Aoi Hana. Sugimoto-sempai is able to get over her past love and seems willing to take Fumi-chan back. But Fumi denies her feelings and chooses to stay by Aachan's side instead. In case you're not seeing where I'm going with this, I wanted Fumi-chan and Sugimoto to get back together. That would've put this series at least in the discussion with the greatest Shoujo-ai anime there is, Strawberry Panic. It wouldn't be on the same level as Strawberry Panic, but still a firm number 2. Yes, the ending is VERY similar to the "ending" of SK. However, even if it wasn't the ending I wanted, at least there was something there. Going beyond the story and moving towards the other points of the review, the animation design I must say is rather poor. I liked it for the first episode, but then it just got old. I understand that it was meant to be a simple animation design, but this was poorly done for such a modern vintage. The scenery for the most part I don't have complaints; it's more the character design and structure. The OP and ED are pretty good and appropriate; also the insert song in the final episode is quite good. The characters are more than a sum of their parts, but still lacking overall. I must say that for a shoujo-ai anime, two of the three male characters are portrayed quite well particularly Kou. And to be fair, I liked the supplemental characters for the most part. The main characters were the weak link particularly Fumi. Sumika from Sasameki Koto was definitely the better tall shy girl. One last thing, I think one reason why Aoi Hana didn't reach the heights it could have is simply that it was too short. The difference between 11 eps and 12 or 13 eps is amazing. Basically there is one main thread that holds the story together, but when it snaps (i.e. the break-up) the series is left with too much to do in too little time. In conclusion, Aoi Hana is a good Shoujo-ai, if you're a fan of the genre I'm sure you'll enjoy it, I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10. But just so I can fit my rant in here, is there any Shoujo-ai other than Strawberry Panic that has a true lovers ending?

 So I'm back to anime after a toku binge. My first thoughts? I am really behind. But I said whatever and decided to watch whatever I thought looked good and don't worry if I'm watching something new or old. I also decided to start writing reviews. So I sat down and asked myself which anime I should start with. I had an urge for some shoujo-ai, so I decided to rewatch this series. I promise my next reviews won't have long winded speeches of my life before them. Without further a due, Aoi Hana review.

Story 6/10

Okay, so there's this shy girl who just moved back to the town she grew up in. She reunites with her childhood friend and they resume a friendship they thought long lost. Later the shy girl meets a boyish senior who all the lower grade students adore, because of course it's an all girls school.  What?  You've heard this before?  Not surprising really, why?  Because this is same story in every shoujo-ai. Aoi Hana does it good with a few subplots thrown into the mix to help keep things interesting. I don't loathe the story, but usually I get really emotionally involved in a story, throwing myself into that world.  But I couldn't with this one. It's a very basic shoujo-ai story so it was mostly just a checklist anime.  Shy girl, check.  Childhood friend, check.  Boyish older girl, check.  You get the picture.

The basic story may throw off more veteran shoujo-ai fans, and the way it drags on and on will discourage all other anime fans. You really want to just yell; get on with it! There are only eleven episodes and it really drags those episodes out without getting to the obvious ending.  Which if you have ever watched a shoujo-ai or even a romance anime before, you can pick it out from a mile away.

Lastly, being a shoujo-ai there are to many non shoujo-ai romance subplots. By to many I mean they outnumber them. Between the love triangle, the love rectangle, and the brother subplot.(One of the girls friends fall for the protaganists brother.), it trails away from being that pure shoujo-ai creation.

Animation 9/10

A high score. Why? It deserves it. Why is it not a ten? Well, I have to refer back to the story. The story being so drawn out across the eleven episodes causes the scenes to drag. The subtle movements and facial emotions, beautiful. Watching a woman paint for a bit with only the camera moving and a voice over?  Not my thing.  May be yours, but it isn't mine. The animation follows the slow pacing of the story. While beautiful to look at it does get boring.

Sound 5/10

Oh, the opening. Such a beautiful song accompanied by the animation. The piano, the singer, that swell after the recap of the last episode. It's great, so what brings it down? All the other music. I can't really remember any of it, I think it was mostly piano pieces. They don't stick with you like the opening does.  The ending falls in with al the other non opening songs.

The voice actor for Akira, perfect. She matches personality, the way she looks, and brings the character to life. Sugimoto, typicl boyish girl in any anime. The voice actor brings a nice monotone voice to the character, matching her personality of being closed with everyone around her. Keeping her emotions to herself.  Fumi is the one I have a problem with. She's a shy girl, she would rather keep to herself. Her voice should be timid, and frail. Which it is, but to much. Fumi sounds like she's on her death bed. She sounds way to frail, she's much to soft spoken. The voice never matched up to the character for me.

Characters 5/10

Shy Fumi is really a basic character model for shy girls. She even wears glasses and enjoys reading. It's hard to become emotionally attached to a character that is really defined by one word, shy. The only reason I was rooting for her at all is because she is one of the main protagonists. Akira is fun, outgoing, and a blabbermouth. Akira is fun. I was much more interested in seeing what Akira was going to do in a situation than any other character. Sugimoto is the average boyish girl, though she does have the best(and most plotted out) back story. The others characters aren't particularly worth mentioning. The cast is lack luster and it's only saving grace is Akira.

Overall 6.25/10

This could have gone so much better. The short period of time to have with the characters doesn't allow you to grow attached or care. It's also very basic, leaving no room for many surprises along the way. You know what's coming before it happens, and you know what the ultimate outcome will be.

If you want to finish out AP's shoujo-ai list, watch it. If you're looking for a romance story that you can invest your time into and become attached to the characters and emotionally invested in the story, go watch Nana.