English Dub Review: The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity “Self-Loathing; I love you!”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Subaru tells Kaoruko about her conversation with Rintaro and then gets asked by Rintaro to talk about said conversation.
OUR TAKE
Crazy to think we have already sped through half of this season so far. It feels like so much has happened but…also not really? Like at most, our main soon to be couple, Rintaro and Kaoruko, have talked and met up about a handful of times but are already head over heels in love, even though only one of them has really realized that yet, and the biggest impact that has had is that some of their respective friends have been side eyeing them about it because of an established and frankly very dumb mutual animosity between their schools. But thankfully it seems like cooler heads are prevailing at the moment, with this whole episode pretty much solely focusing on Subaru, Kaoruko’s closest childhood friend, finally getting to the heart of her own anxiety regarding her resentment for Rintaro, and it all basically comes down to her not disliking herself most of all, wanting to be protective of Kaoruko, and initially seeing Rintaro as a being a threat to that. But to her surprise, Rintaro is actually really sweet and decent guy who only wants the best for both Kaoru and Kaoru’s friends, so Subaru learns to think better of him, especially since Kaoruko admits to her that she is actually in love with him.
Now, if you’re worried that this might be leading to some love triangle shenanigans, fear not. This is kind of a spoiler, in the sense that I am spoiling what WON’T happen, but based on what I have looked up about the future of this plot, Subaru does not end up forming a crush on Rintaro as a result of his good boy behavior, which is at least a big relief for me. Who she DOES end up getting a crush on, well, that will have to wait until we actually get there, but it’s safe to say it will be a much more fitting option. Other than that, yeah, this is pretty much the episode all about Subaru starting to get over her self-loathing a little bit thanks to Kaoruko’s friendship, and despite it’s rather over the top visuals about that, I would say that’s a good message for the story to focus on, especially since Rintaro himself is dealing with a similar problem. Perhaps their new mutual friendship will help the two of them climb out of their respective emotional holes while basking in the warm light of Kaoruko’s friendship. Or maybe some more stupid school drama will happen, I don’t know.
