Kase-san and Morning Glories

(Spoiler free !) I had very high expectations for this OAV since I've been following the manga for a long time now. I was not disappointed. The episode tells us the story of Kase and Yamada a little after they start dating (if you haven't seen the PV you should it's only 6 mins long and tells us how they start dating). It follows the general guideline of the manga but since the OAV is only 1 hour long, they decided to cut some scenes which I respect. Story-wise this is excellent. We can see how the girls struggle but it never falls into angst. Thefluff is here without ever being cheesy, and their love matures but the tone is always right on point. Honestly I'm impressed by the choices made here, every bit of story is carefully chosen and well told, I was completely immersed during the whole episode. As for the animation it's simply GORGEOUS, while the music melts perfectly with each scene. Being a lesbian myself, I was saddened by the lacking amount of good yuri anime and this happened. This is a gift. I can tell a lot of effort was put into the OAV and I'm immensely grateful. I'm not sure anyone can hate this because the love story told is just so pure and beautiful. Honestly I was grinning during the whole episode! This earns a solid 10.

This is one of the most shallow, frivolous anime I have ever watched. It has exactly two good points: Art and cutesy moments (which is at least 50% art, the rest voice acting and atmosphere). But outside of that there is nothing I can even find remotely redeemable about this anime. A quick list of some of the very obvious problems with this anime: - SHALLOW characters: Yamada is literally just the insecure, innocent, shy girl. That's everything about her character. She loves Kase, because she is nice? She gardens because why not give her a random hobby. The friend, while being my favorite character,is still basically just the stereotypical spunky friend, with glasses because why not. Kase doesn't even have a personality, she just runs fast, is popular, and loves Yamada because why not. The only personality traits she exhibits is that she is "nice" and she is dense as a brick when it comes to their relationship (although that is obviously just plot reasons). - SHALLOW, STUPID, PREDICTABLE story: Shy girl loves the popular girl. Jealous of the attention she gets. Acts shy. Other girl has a misunderstanding, think she doesn't love her. Makeup. Rinse and repeat. Then towards graduation end it with "I'll follow you to Tokyo". Literally the whole story. - REDUNDANT, OBVIOUS Exposition: She repeats herself multiple times in monologue saying when she started dating Kase & that she loves her. Why? Just show the damn story. - CONTRIVED Plot & Conflict: Misunderstandings only absolute idiots would have just to further the conflict. Also, they come to the point of tears before communicating at all. Just ask her if something is wrong, stupid. Also, dumb random things. You could clearly see the view of the clouds out of any of the windows, but she was like "You have to see this." Dumb af. Apparently texting somebody in the middle of the night, and them not responding, should be enough to cause drama. Also, the way they make the ending sound was so stupidly predictable. - LOOSE ENDS & NO CHAR DEV: The little bit of drama, conflict, and character development that might have been dealt with was just left hanging. Yamada never really faced her briefly explored issues of jealousy and trust (proving the relationship was shallow at best). She basically went to Tokyo because she thought Kase would move on, not because she actually was just going to miss her. It was clearly a selfish motivation (or else she would have said something along the lines of "I don't want Kase to feel lonely" which she didn't). She also never addressed her naivety and innocence (Made painfully clear when she didn't know what "do it" meant). They just never brought it up again and she stayed the same sheltered child. Kase never got to truly explore a deeper relationship with Yamada even. -ENDED RIGHT WHEN THE STORY GOT INTERESTING: The normally innocent shy girl made the rash decision of following her love to Tokyo, and has to deal with acclimating and actually getting into a college there. Kase, who spent the whole OVA trying to deepen their relationship, finally got the step forward she wanted, and their relationship could finally step beyond the shallow bits of high school puppy love. That should have been the rising action, the real start of the story, not the conclusion. So yeah, it was trash everywhere except the art and VA.

A six out of ten. I liked it, however I have one minor complaint near the end of the review. The amount of fluff in this thing is real high. I wouldn’t call it the fluffiest romance ever, and definitely not the fluffiest show ever, however it’s up there. The character acting is top-notch. As in, QUALITY. The lead character’s emotes are ridiculously cute and the little leaves that sprout out of her hair were honestly genius. Character sakuga in this OVA is off-the-charts. One could definitely go about analyzing the animation much further. The rest of the art is also fairly beautiful, but it has nothing strikingstyle-wise. It’s pretty, but it’s “generic high school late 2010s anime” pretty. It rides the trend of “heavily lighted, plant-abundant background art with almost-fragile outlining” that has been running strong recently. It’s nice to look at but it doesn’t stand out, and standing out is ultimately more important. The art, however, does contribute to the overall tone which I can only describe as “these are the good days of life” or “lightly sunny” or, simply, “a quiet niceness”. The long takes, the long establishing shots that come in succession, the sound design, and the amount of light that comes in every room add to that. The mostly objective and relatively distant camera also makes sure that that tone is never disturbed and maintained throughout the OVA. It adds much to the fluffiness. An exception to the objective camera occurs when the main girl is confronted by her best friend about a problem she’s been having. Suddenly, the main girl appears to be floating in a cloudy space and the best friend is with her in person saying the problem matter-of-factly. It’s the only real visually metaphorical or heavily stylised moment in the OVA (other than the character animation) so I believe I should talk about this. I tried to imagine the scene done completely objectively, but it just came off as cliche, making an already unoriginal trope worse (we’ll get to that in a bit). So, I believe stylizing the moment was the better choice. Visual metaphors work well in anime and animation because transitioning from realism to stylization is much less jarring than it is in live-action. While I can’t deny that the whole thing felt a bit sudden, the act of putting the two characters right next to each other, the best friend staring straight at the camera, makes the whole dialogue feel more direct and, in turn, more effective. Doing so also adds a sense of power to the best friend’s words. I also kinda liked the ED but I didn't notice the rest of the music. Now, the OVA’s scenarios and characters have to be its weakest points. The OVA, as I alluded to earlier, uses common and unoriginal tropes and presents them perfectly straight. Story examples include the “obliviousness to sexual advances” trope where one partner is oblivious to the other partner’s sexual advances, the age-old “sexual advances get interrupted” trope, the “kiss at a bus stop” trope, the “this rooftop is our private meetup” trope, and, the ever-classic [spoiler] “I’m applying to a different college” [/spoiler] trope that is pretty much universal. [While the “I’m too shy and embarrassed to see you in the bath” trope and the “People have distanced themselves from me because they saw me naked in the bath” trope are new to me, but I can interpret them as a yuri translation of the “We’re seeing each other naked and the difference in our bodily attractiveness is making me uncomfortable” which, while not exactly “common”, is a trope I’ve seen before a few times.] There’s nothing inherently wrong with these. Every trope, no matter how used, can further character development, move the plot forward, deepen characterization, and spark interesting character drama. The problem is they are not memorable. Repeated exposure to a trope takes away from its ability to stick to your mind. You don’t remember common and used ideas far less than new and original ones. They’re easy to forget because they blend in with all the other stories you’ve experienced and don’t stand out in your mind. Actually, after listing down all the story tropes above, I’ve softened my stance. Those tropes, although not exactly new, weren’t exactly cliche. They list also failed to cover everything the OVA had in its scenarios. You could definitely use the tropes listed to create something memorable and even iconic. I’m not going to say the same thing about the characters. The memorability problem extends to and is more prominent with the characters who are as straightforward as straightforward gets. The main girl is shy, easily flustered, and easily doubts herself but easily excitable and particularly expressive. Kase is cool and emotionally honest about herself with others but rarely fully grasps other people’s emotions. The dynamic the two have can be summarized as Kase being first to open up which prompts the main girl to open up in turn, but Kase doesn’t always fully detect or understand the main girl’s emotions so it’s the main girl’s job to make her emotions clear which sometimes needs some prodding. That’s them summarized. Although I wouldn’t call this two-dimensional and some people will find this satisfying, I don’t find it complexly-written enough or detailed enough in its presentation to be memorable. Again, the characters are somewhat cliche and you’re bound to bump into at least some of these tropes explored in more depth and nuance if you spent enough time watching or reading other yuri or even straight romance in general. I’ll probably forget what happens in the OVA in a span of a few days. I don’t even remember the main girl’s goddamn name (although it’s probably just because they don’t say her name much while Kase’s name is in the goddamn title of the OVA and the main girl mentions her name over and over and over). To clarify, I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF CLICHES. I am complaining about THEIR USE which is simplistic and ultimately lacking in depth and nuance. The OVA didn’t play with tropes so much as place them in its story as is and leave it at that. It doesn’t take the time to explore each trope’s full potential, making these tropes lead to something interesting or create nuanced character development or, hell, do something actually rememberable. Don’t get me wrong. I did end up liking the two leads and finding them cute both on their own and together. Their motivations were clearly defined, so it was easy to get motivated with them. The whole thing, as I said, was very fluffy. Fluff is always a good thing. I just didn’t feel like they presented anything memorable to them. Man, did I say a "minor complaint"? That actually was far from "minor". Ultimately, the OVA’s main problem is its memorability. None of it stuck with me and I’m sure I’ll forget all about it by tomorrow. As a fairly big fan of yuri myself, going through Dynasty Scans will probably get you something more interesting than this OVA. Anyway, watch if you like gay fluff, character acting sakuga, and nice art but it ain’t the masterpiece everyone says it is. Forgettable.