English Dub Review: The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity “Kaoruko and Rintaro”

The flower blooms fully

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kaoruko reveals to Rintaro how they really first met as they step into a new stage of their relationship.

OUR TAKE

We’ve come to the final episode of the season (and maybe the show?) and just like was predicted, this episode is all about Rintaro and Kaoruko finally confessing their feelings and officially starting to date each other. And…that’s it, actually. I don’t mean that’s the main focus, I mean that’s the ENTIRE episode. There’s nothing else going on EXCEPT for the build up to that moment. No denouement for any other characters, no resolution for the other character arcs that have been happening, and not even a last scene with everyone to mark how they have all grown as people by becoming greater friends to each other. I guess it would be like ordering a burger and getting nothing but a patty and two buns. Or in cake terms, since cakes are a big part of this story, like getting a plain cake with nothing on it. Like yeah, that is the bare minimum to be what I technically ordered, but I think you know that there’s supposed to be a bit more that comes with it. I honestly would like to see some small check in with Subaru or Saku or the other two guys, since, you know, they were in this show too.

That said, what we got was far from bad. The main addition in this episode specifically is Kaoruko using the time spent with Rintaro to tell him that she’s actually been pining after him a lot longer than he’s even known her, having apparently met him briefly in the cake shop and becoming enamored by him, thus beginning her efforts to win him over throughout the show. I do have a slight few problems with this though, partly because I would have liked to have been in her head as much as we were in Rintaro’s instead of having all of this dropped at once. But also, she mentions that she was apparently dealing with some heavy stuff prior to meeting him, and we never learn what that was. I can’t imagine it went away suddenly after she started seeing him or being his friend, and it again makes her feel a bit more distant as a character. I would have liked this to be the story of both of them, not just Rintaro, but maybe that’s something they can get into if they get a second season. Until then, let’s look back in the Season Review!