Sweet Blue Flowers is a show I caught the first episode of and then put in the “I’ll finish this sometime” pile. Luckily, Right Stuf pushed me into it by sending us a copy! I’m very grateful.
Sweet Blue Flowers is about two childhood friends who reconnect again when Fumi moves back to town. They are attending different high schools but make sure to meet up for their shared commute. Each make and share friends as their all-girl schools team up to perform a play. Akira is carefree while Fumi is more introverted as she begins to deal with her feelings for another girl at school.
More than anything, I was drawn in by Akira and Fumi’s friendship. It is really rare in anime to see a character “come out” to a friend, worry about being judged, and then finding understanding and acceptance on the other side; it just isn’t dealt with at all usually. Whether this honest and tender friendship ever develops into more will be left in the hands on the manga.
I love Akira, she is a great friend and has an infectious joy about her. There were a lot of wonderful moments of her supporting those around her with an ease, it just comes natural to her. She is also hilarious and has great expressions. I felt a kinship with her which solidified the characterization of this show.
This is from the creator of Wandering Son which feels very close to Sweet Blue Flowers in its ability to handle complicated issues of sexuality and the growing pains of youth while featuring how the bonds of friendship pull you through.
Sweet Blue Flowers is an unusual animal in the menagerie that is manga about girls falling in love. You tend to think of yuri manga as the equal and opposite of yaoi manga. A genre about homosexuals mostly for the titillation of heterosexuals of the opposite gender with little grounding in real relationships. But both genres have titles that deal with said relationships in a realistic fashion. The original Sweet Blue Flowers manga is by Takako Shimura who also writes Wandering Son. That makes sense as Wandering Son takes the topic of transvestism and gender identity and makes them real subjects for drama and not fetishes. She does the same with lesbians with Sweet Blue Flowers.
I think one of the most interesting things about Sweet Blue Flowers is that while Fumi’s sexual orientation is fairly clear on the Kinsey scale we don’t really get a good sense of where Akira’s preferences lie. In a show were we delve so deeply into the sexuality of the principal characters I think that Akira’s lack of examination is notable. Even when Akira goes on the group date she seems far more interested in it as a nonsexual social interaction than as an opportunity to find someone to date.
I think it would be easy to assume that Akira exists as a blank slate that solely exists to validate and support the fragile Fumi. But see a good deal of depth and nuance to her character outside of her interactions with Fumi so it is not like she is just a device and not a person. I feel that in that sense this has to have been done for a deliberate reason. Considering that the manga is still ongoing I wonder if this is a topic that is be saved for later examination.
That observation aside I think that anyone interested in a romantic drama with something beyond the standard boy meets girl story there is a good deal of material to sink your teeth into. There is heartbreak, drama, self-examination, and tender love. But there is also genuine and uncomplicated friendship with humor and fun. Sweet Blue Flowers is also just able to explore a good deal of issues outside of the normal romantic fare by stepping outside of the standard mold.
As a side note Reverse Thieves favorite Kunihiko Ikuhara was the unit director for the opening. That alone should make it worth checking out.
The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.
Continue reading →
The NYICFF was over the moon for their screenings of From Up On Poppy Hill, but I had a much more dubious reaction. After all, Goro Miyazaki left a terrible first impression on me with Tales from Earthsea so I wasn’t going in with anything akin to expectations for his newest work. Still, a tiny bit of my heart was hoping he’d redeem himself; I love a good comeback story!
Reverse Thieves 