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Review of “Aoi Hana” (“Sweet Blue Flowers”)

As fans of Yuri (Japanese animation and comics with lesbian characters and stories) know, there are a number of tropes that seem to be endlessly recycled in this genre. The most rehashed trope of Yuri is the schoolgirl crush at a girl’s school – a first love, requited or not.

Perhaps surprisingly to many, there is historical and literary precedence for this overused and abused convention of the genre. The origin of almost all Japanese “girl’s” literature can be traced to the early 20th century, to a series called Hana Monogatari, which translates to “Flower Tales.”

I mention this because the first episode of this anime series is titled “Flower Tale” – a clear indicator that the creators of this series have not forgotten this literary tradition or their place in it.

Manjoume Fumi is a quiet, bookish girl, a crybaby who tends towards tears rather than confrontation. She returns to the town she grew up in just in time to enter high school. As a result, she is reunited with an old childhood friend Okudaira Akira. Akira and Fumi were inseparable as children, but have not seen each other for ten years – and are now going to two different girl’s high schools. Fumi joins the drama club to be closer to butchy and charismatic Sugimoto Yasuko. Yasuko and Fumi find themselves attracted to each other and, before she knows it, Fumi is going out with one of the most popular girls at the school. But, Fumi isn’t just another crush-struck teenager – Yasuko isn’t her first relationship with another woman.

Fumi comes to the inevitable conclusion that she prefers women, and her relationship with Yasuko provides the impetus for her to come out to Akira.

Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Flowers is very much a “typical” Yuri drama in many ways but, within the framework of the girl’s school setting, it is in no way typical. The characters are extremely three-dimensional and likeable. We all can sympathize with protagonist Fumi and the inner strength that it takes for her to come out to her friend.

Fumi is not the only one dealing with her feelings for Yasuko – Akira’s classmate Kyouko has her own issues with regards to the uber-cool upperclassman. And Yasuko herself is not without conflict.

The manga (comic) for Sweet Blue Flowers is drawn by a well-known and popular artist, Shimura Takako. It runs in a magazine called Manga Erotics F which is one of the few magazines in Japan that is not specifically targeted towards either a male or female audience. This makes Sweet Blue Flowers an anomaly in a country in which most manga is targeted to a precise gender/age/interest range. (In fact, most western readers would probably be surprised at the more “adult” manga that runs alongside Sweet Blue Flowers.)

Unfortunately, at this time, no English-language version of the manga has been licensed. What makes this series particularly interesting to us right now is that has just debuted as an anime (cartoon). Not only is this entirely Yuri story on Japanese TV, but it is also available online to the United States, its territories and possessions, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand on Crunchyroll.com.

They are running the anime as a “simulcast” which means that, an hour after an episode has premiered in Japan, it will stream on Crunchyroll with English subtitles. No subscription is required to view the anime, but you will need to subscribe to see the simulcast.

Non-subscribers can see an episode a week after it has debuted on Crunchroll.com, or on AfterEllen.com. This means that you do not have to wait for a company to license the anime and put it out on DVD – it is available to you whenever you have 24 minutes free.

(Fans looking for more than just Sweet Blue Flowers to justify membership in Crunchyroll might also be interested in Saki, another anime running currently. The main plot deals with competitive Mah Jong, but there is some light Yuri feeling between the two main characters and another new anime series Kanamemo, which stars a “Yuri couple.”)

There are several qualities that make Sweet Blue Flowers a stand-out series. The manga is presented in watercolor images on the covers, and stark, clean lines on the interior pages. There is little action, uncomplicated backgrounds and a lack of heavy-handed “tones” (background design patterns.)

This is captured in the anime through crisp, realistic art. Ikuhara Kunihiko, best known in Yuri fandom for co-creating and directing Revolutionary Girl Utena, a gateway Yuri anime a decade ago, worked on the opening credit sequence for this new anime. He brings with him a style and sensibility that will remind the audience immediately of his earlier work – yet another quality that places this anime firmly in the chronology of Yuri.

But what really sets this series apart from the pack is the story itself.

Fumi’s struggle to understand herself in relationship to the people around her, her growth and her brutal honesty transports this story from the realm of the typical into a sphere of storytelling far surpassing most Yuri in general. This is a classic “character-driven” story, in which the depth of the main characters strongly affects what little action takes place.

It would not be completely delusional to compare Sweet Blue Flowers to a Jane Austen story. In fact, on Japanese TV, Sweet Blue Flowers broadcasts in the “Noise” timeslot on Fuji TV. This late-night, weekly timeslot features animation geared at non-fans – people not likely to watch anime.

This particular series has an aesthetically appealing, simple story that will capture your heart – even if you have not previously watched any Japanese animation.

One of the defining characteristics of “Yuri” as opposed to “Lesbian” is that typically in Yuri, there is lesbian content – a crush, a relationship, a kiss, even sex – without any acknowledgement of lesbian identity. Rarely does a character verbalize they are going out with another girl, much less come to terms with the fact that it is women who interest them romantically. Fumi will not be likely to self-identify as “a lesbian” in this series, but she definitely deals with her attraction to more than one other girl and recognizes that this may indeed be part of who she is. Not only will she have to come to terms with this, so will Akira, and the other people around her.

Sweet Blue Flowers is not a melodrama or a parody, like Strawberry Panic! There are no horse races; there is no amnesia, no Evil Psycho Lesbian duo or helicopters, private or otherwise.

Where Strawberry Panic! paints everything in the bright colors of melodrama and huge brushstrokes of titillation, Sweet Blue Flowers is drawn in the quiet pastels of real life at a girls’ school, with club activities and personal drama, balancing time with friends and with lovers.

Above all, Sweet Blue Flowers is the story of a young woman who enters high school and comes to terms with her sexual orientation. A story that has been told a million times, but rarely with this sense of grace, beauty and strength.

Erica Friedman is the President of Yuricon and ALC Publishing and reviews Yuri anime and manga at Okazu.

Watch the first episode of Sweet Blue Flowers, and look for a new episode each week on Crunchyroll.com, and then on AfterEllen.com

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