Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools

Cheap, uninspired and excruciatingly boring. It's just poorly animated off-model people sitting and having baby's first attempt at dialogue over and over and over again. I did exhale through my nose one or two times in the first few episodes while heroine was dealing with the divorce proceedings, but it all just kept going downhill from there. Moving forward from the divorce it's more or less the same scenario repeating every few episodes. Someone says "I've got a problem", Dahliya replies "I've got the solution for it right here, give me a minute to craft it". She slaps together a prototype thing, it becomes immediatelysuccessful, everybody claps and takes the rest of the work off her hands to do it behind the scenes while she indulges her drinking problem with her not-yet-boyfriend. It isn't (at least not in any meaningful sense) an anime about her career path as an artificer. The creative process behind the profession is basically "make an outline of a thing from our world and slap a matchy elemental stone/colored slime paste onto it". It also isn't about her business career — each time she needs to handle a business related issue, one of the supporting characters appears, gazes longingly into a window, says "you know, I owe a lot to your father, so I'm gonna deal with this for you, also here's a cookie, share it with your boyfriend", aaaand that's it, she's free to go develop an alcohol addiction. Oh, so it's mainly a love story? A business lady meets an aristocrat guy, they eat local food, drink local alcohol, chat and learn more about the world? Go on dates to see local attractions? Well... Kind of. Like if you fed thirty bargain bin romance story books to ChatGPT and asked it to make you one of those set in an isekai. It will spew out something moderately coherent, but since it can't actually understand what it writes, it will forget the prior episode's introduction of ice stones as an existing method of refrigeration and will have characters lose their minds about heroine's next unbelievable magical tool — "the fridge". Everything about this anime is just a thoughtless amalgamation of fantasy-ish buzzwords slapped together to serve as a backdrop for 12 episodes of compliments heroine will receive from everyone around her about what a genius she is. If the genders were reversed I'd think this is just Elon Mask's isekai self-insert fanfiction.

tl;dr "Dahlia in Bloom" is a low-budget anime with average art and animation, though the character's eyes and emotional expressions stand out. The isekai aspect feels unnecessary, as it doesn't impact the plot at all. The world-building and the magic system, particularly the creation of magical tools, are well-executed. The characters are nice but underdeveloped, especially the side characters. The story starts strong but loses momentum after episode six. If you enjoy shows like "Ascendance of a Bookworm," you might like this one. The review: This anime has a low budget, and despite that, they managed to create something enjoyable. The art is a low-mid tier, the eyes ofthe characters are the only part of the art that is really good and noticeable especially how the emotions are shown through their eyes; and also maybe some foods and the background, it's not bad and not good either, it's just in the middle and sometimes lower. The overall animation feels average at best, and I didn't like that they reused some scenes over and over again, like the leaf on the window, but it's not a big deal so I don't really care. The OST is sometimes noticeable, but not so often, so I can't say good things about it. The setting especially the isekai part feels unnecessary and useless, I don't understand why they make it as Isekai when it doesn't have any influence on the show at all. Dahlia's past life in Japan is mentioned so briefly that it barely influences the story. The world-building, however, is done well. The magic system is shown in interesting ways, especially the creation of magical tools, which is a strong point of the series. The characters are slightly above average. While they aren’t fully developed, their personalities are distinct enough to understand and feel them a little. However, I felt that they didn't do just to the side characters as some of them play a really big role in Dahlia's life. The show barely touches on their life and personalities while the characters themselves impact Dahlia a lot. The story begins strong, steadily building intrigue in the first half of the show. Unfortunately, by episode six, the pacing slows down, and the plot feels like it loses momentum. While the show remains interesting, it lacks the same drive that made the earlier episodes entertaining. Overall, I enjoyed the show, it's interesting and I didn't feel bored by it. However, some people might get bored by what I find enjoyable. The show focuses mostly on the creation of magical tools and is similar to "Bookworm" by the vibes it gives, which is something some people find boring. If you watched "Bookworm" and didn't like it, there is a high chance you will not like this show either.

Dahliya in bloom is the latest in a recent trend of female led isekai about magical inventions. Honzuki, Tenten Kakumei etc., were all great for me and Dahliya’s no different. While the story isn’t anything to write home about, I really fell in love with Dahliya as a character and enjoyed her personal journey. A cute, smart, independent and badass female lead is my weakness and Dahliya had it all for me. For me the big selling point is Dahliya’s magic device business which usually revolves around implementing common things we have on earth in a fantasy world. She and her father tinkering aroundin a lab for half the season before bringing products to market, and then her doing it on her own later in the series. Seeing a female character whose motivation isn’t romance or chasing after a guy, but building herself up as a businesswoman and exec while growing as a person is so cool. There is a story surrounding Dahliya expanding her business and meeting new business partners, but honestly it’s not that strong. It’s very much a slow burn character story and your enjoyment of the show will hinge on how much you like Dahliya. I’m also a huge fan of the relationship between the two leads in this one. Instead of it being romantic off rip, Wolf and Dahliya get to know each other, start as friends and continue to deepen their bond over the course of the show. One of the things I hate the most in anime is how characters fall in love with people just because they’re nice to them once or because they smile at them, it’s so cliche and boring honestly. People meet, get to know each other and then take things from there IRL and so seeing that in an anime is always a plus. Additionally, for some plot related reasons Dahliya gets in a toxic situation and seeing her get out of that and start living life on her own terms is way more satisfying than another romance story. I’m sure it’ll come, but when it does it’ll feel earned rather than forced. The show admittedly doesn’t have the best production values, animation is a little wonky and the character designs range from ok to solid. But it has a cozy charm that’s hard to describe and that drew me in. Dahliya looks cute in most scenes so that’s good enough for me. Overall this was a great watch for me. I’m biased towards any well written female lead and this was another one of those. It’s a nice recent trend to have and I hope we get more of it. The light novels are doing very well in Japan and since this felt like just the tip of the iceberg for Dahliya’s story I look forward to a season 2 one day. Dahliya in bloom gets 8 out of 10.

This is a slow-burn slice of life type anime. Yes it's set in a "fantastica land" the protagonist has been reborn into, but it's not about the swords and sorcery, there's no high-drama or empire spanning plots. There's no dastardly villains that need defeating, this is, if you were to really narrow it down, a coming into your own as an adult story. The character development of the main characters is well done and the side characters are "mostly" well done. There are one or two that could have been fleshed out a bit more and their relationships established, but todo so probably would have detracted from necessary time spent on the main characters. The "drama", what there is of it, develops in the small bits and the small moments. Characters are showing growing by small things like subtle clothes changes, hair, posture, and bearing. People are just "people" there are no moustache twirling villains tying people to the train tracks. The musical choices are understated but apt. There's no "dance along and get with it" opening or closing pieces, and they're not "wallow in the melancholy of this song" pieces either. But they work for the production. The art style isn't dynamic, but there's no huge action set pieces either, and it flows well enough with the world design and the moments. Could it benefit from a more fluid style? Maybe, but it's not exactly a slide show either, there are just one or two moments where you're hearing speech but it doesn't seem lips are moving. I have no idea of the source material for this, but I would be happy to see a 2nd season. I think there is room for growth and development of the world and the relationships. I think some of the negative reviews are from people who need every box opened to be closed, and want "drama" and/or 'world changing events' in their stories. Which is fine, but if that's what you're chasing, this anime is NOT for you. It's not even a "sweet nothing" anime like "By the grace of the gods". But it is enjoyable if this type of show is what you're in the mood for. My personal review is 7.25/10 which with the site I round off to a 7. I recommend this anime if you are in the mood to watch a low-stress story that is quite enjoyable. But not if you are looking for either "sweet nothing mental floss" or "political drama". As always, your personal mileage may vary.