Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka

Regarding Saeki Sayaka is a spin-off novel of Bloom Into You, in, you guessed it, Saeki Sayaka's point of view. Hitoma Iruma, the author of Adachi to Shimamura (another popular yuri work), takes the wheel in writing while Nakatani Nio illustrates. I didn't plan on reading this series. The writing switched from manga to light novel, which can easily mess up the flow and feel revolving a character. As this spin-off is made to expand Sayaka's side of the story, the world-building of fairly normal people could crumble down at a moment's notice, let alone the fact that this is written by a completely different author. Butmy worries turned to dust after a mere few pages. Taking the form of first-person perspective, we dive into Sayaka's head as an elementary schooler. We come to understand how hard-working she is as well as her demeanor. Her attitude during her younger years should reflect on why she acted the way she did during high school years and, well, Hitoma hit the nail on the head. How he displayed her tolerance, seriousness, bit of arrogance, and overall thought process was not something that worsened the reading experience. It's more likely that you'll get caught off guard by how well Hitoma could present Sayaka's opinions in a way that suits her character. Many writers fail to get into a character's head and voice their thoughts, making characters feel sloppy and inconsistent. But Sayaka's point of view is truly well done. The way she acted never contradicted what was shown in the manga throughout all three light novels. Setting aside Sayaka, how were all the other characters carried out? To summarize how well the other characters were written in four words: It was well done. Since you're planning to read the Saeki Sayaka light novels, then I'm assuming you've finished the Bloom Into You manga. [Spoilers] Sayaka's past and future were briefly mentioned in the manga. Her interaction with a girl in a pool is the first in this story, unmentioned in the manga. That one girl who only appeared for a couple dozen pages had her energetic and childish qualities distinctly highlighted. Whether Sayaka realized it or not, this was the start. The start of a rollercoaster of emotions. Just in this short start can I already grasp how characters will be handled. With care and emotions. If elementary schoolers can be written so well, then it would certainly be impressive with characters who have a different set of beliefs. Yuzuki Chie is Sayaka's next encounter. A person who pursues the idea of love instead of actually loving her significant other. But Sayaka fell in love with the other person, not the concept itself, leading the story into a spiral of Sayaka learning to accept and overcome as time shifts Yuzuki's ideals. What I found most displeasing is not volume 2, but volume 3. Volume 2 was great as expected. It gave us insight into Sayaka's relationship with Nanami Touko, her interactions, and how she views and loves Touko in her first year. If there's anything to complain about, then I would say how offsetting this volume felt. It did its job perfectly, but since we're looking through the lens of what technically is a side character, the volume felt oddly stagnant. We don't get to better know the person Sayaka fell in love with at all, since it's already done in the main work. We only get to know what Sayaka knows, but since Touko and her are so emotionally distant, Sayaka might as well be a viewer or a bystander who can never close in such distance. This is most likely what the novel was trying to emphasize, but it nonetheless carries a strangely different feel to the story than I'm used to. Nevertheless, volume 2 served its purpose with its never-failing careful consideration of portraying characters. It's the bridge to volume 3, Sayaka's future. There are two main things I can mention regarding volume 3. The first is how Sayaka has already matured. She's not growing and changing in the same way she did in the first two volumes. This volume is solely on her pursuit of love and finding happiness. This brings me to the second point. At this time, I feel like the author doesn't want to stray away too much from the original story. It's in the same way how fanfiction writers don't want to mess with the plot too much. Was he afraid of changing the tone of the story by a notch? It would've been much better if certain disputes were resolved. Perhaps the confrontation with Yuzuki be changed? Perhaps the conversation with Touko be expanded on? There are many ways I can't come up with to make volume 3 have a broader scope. But it decides to focus on Sayaka falling in love yet again. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing at all. Though the execution fell short of my high expectations. Great, but not a 10/10. It was forced. Sayaka falling in love with someone is a given, but the way she fell in love lacks the chemistry of previous occurrences. It's as if she could've fallen in love with anyone on the street given time. Sure, in real life you don't need any particular reason to love someone, but remember that this is a story. She slowly came to love Yuzuki while her attraction to Touko came with a bang. With Haru? Apparently it's because Haru is loud and energetic. Haru- The girl Sayaka ends up with. How they act are vastly different, but they end up together anyway. Whatever energy Haru has is the quality Sayaka lacked throughout her childhood. But the line of love is undistinctive, as Sayaka isn't much different than how she was portrayed during her high school years. She changed as a person if she can come to love someone so vastly different, but her characterization now is lacking in the sense that we can't differentiate her from the person who loved Touko and the person who loves Haru. All there really was in volume 3 is interactions with Haru, written in a still captivating way. This is an ending that wants her to be happy, and that's all there is to it. Overall, I rate this light novel series a 9/10. Although the execution for the last volume could be better, Sayaka's journey of love is something I can accept. I enjoyed it dearly, this take in love.

If you enjoyed the original series, then these three novels are a must-read. Regarding Saeki Sayaka is a realistic slice-of-life that follows ordinary events in Sayaka's life: She falls in love, she goes to high school, she joins the student council, she goes to college, she has lunch together with a friend. Despite how normal the story seems, Hitoma Iruma delves into every last detail about Sayaka's thoughts on her surroundings and feelings, and the result is an engaging and thoughtful product of Sayaka's perspective on her romantic experiences, which are explained in YagaKimi on a surface level. Saeki Sayaka is a deeply unique protagonist who iswonderfully characterized by Iruma. She's observative and serious. She gives off a mature and collected aura, but she doesn't think that of herself. At a first glance, the winter-cool type image seems to suit her perfectly. However, we can see at certain moments in the anime and manga that just like anyone else, Sayaka has her own flaws that one might not expect, yet she's vastly different from other characters with this archetype. By laying all of her thoughts bare, the author takes us much further into her personality; every tidbit and opinion; by the time I finished the novels, I realized that I had never before encountered a character like Sayaka anywhere else. The sheer complexity, yet simultaneously the simplicity of Sayaka's character, is what makes this book so interesting. Furthermore, Sayaka's coming-of-age experiences are ordinary, yet inspiring. Romance and selfish desires, sexuality and homophobia, moving forward and becoming an adult; numerous motifs are tackled in this story. As the story progresses, Sayaka grows older, which means that the themes also become more mature and are able to appeal to more people; however, the core of her character remains the same, and all three novels are enjoyable experiences. Iruma's writing style suits the original series fairly well. It's like taking the dialogue out of the manga, and adding monologues from Sayaka in between them. He also implements some symbolic elements that make the ordinary scenes feel a little more special, and it'll last in your memories a lot longer. The pacing is difficult to pinpoint due to the sheer amount of inner monologues there are, but it will definitely feel comfortable. Saeki Sayaka is a great character. This series is not extraordinary in every way, but it does exactly as the title says: "Regarding Saeki Sayaka." This alone will provide you a truly one-of-a-kind experience, and many valuable lessons.

Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka spin-off novel of Bloom into You Two sentence review: If you love the original series, this one is a must read. You will love Sayaka as a character even more, or even the series as a whole. It's just simply amazing 10/10, a masterpiece. Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is basically a prequel, midquel, and sequel of the original story told in Saeki Sayaka point of view. It moves her from a side character to the main one. Despite being written by a different author, they somehow managed to capture everything perfectly compared to the original: the character, atmosphere,storytelling. Not only that, but it also serves as a phenomenal character writing for her. With only three volumes, they managed to add so much depth to her already well-written character, which made me like her even more. It follows her journey of discovering, pursuing, and eventually succeeding in love. End of TL;DR, I will proceed with the reviews of each volume in depth, without spoiling much of the content. ================================================================================= The first volume focuses on Sayaka’s discovery of what love is. It separates into two points in her life: elementary and junior-high. Her relationship with an unnamed girl laid a terrific introduction to her character on how her personality was early on and her subtle changes of it later on. Second part of the volume focuses on what was briefly shown in the anime: her relationship with a senpai. Knowing how their relationship ends, it was somewhat sad seeing her getting hurt. Her coming to know what love is, only to feel it gone. Though, it serves as a significant leap in her character development and her knowing what love is. Moving on to the second volume, most events follow that happen during her high school days, love at first sight, pursuing her love, unrequited love. Expands her character during the first year, her introduction with Touko, getting to know more about her. Which gives depth and explains why she acts like she does in the original work. One of the most entertaining chapters in the story is seeing how Yuu and Sayaka interact with one another during the first chapter. How their friendship developed not with just Yuu but with Touko also. After her encounter with them, she moved onto a new chapter. The third and final volume, which is mentioned briefly in the last chapter of the manga, focuses on her journey of finally achieving love and takes place during her college years. We are introduced to a new character in the story, Sayaka’s girlfriend. It follows how they met and how their bond progresses. Getting to know her was really fun to read through. Not only that but this volume also serves as an interval between chapter 44 and chapter 45 of the manga. Moreover, there are also scenes about what happened after the manga as well. Watching how our beloved characters interact has never been more fun, especially with Sayaka and Yuu. To conclude, Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is a fantastic series, which manages to shed a new light on the series from Sayaka’s perspective, further adding more depth to her character: her thought process, action and behavior. Joining in her journey of love, we will come to love this series and Sayaka even more. Personal Enjoyment 10/10: Heavily biased as usually since this series is my top 3. I’m not much of a heavy reader myself. In fact, I’m a very slow reader. This took me months to finally finish it. I find myself wondering why didn’t I finish it sooner. I had so much fun reading through all of the volumes, specifically the last one. Seeing her finally getting the love she deserved. I have always thought that her character was already well-written, but the novel series adds another layer of masterful character writing in the series. Lastly, to be honest, I shed tears upon finishing the last page. Not because I was sad or anything, but tears of joy. I was so happy for Sayaka. End of a wonderful series.