Bloom Into You


Bloom Into You is a Japanese yuri manga series written and illustrated by Nio Nakatani.
The manga began serialization in the Japanese monthly shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh on April 27, 2015, and ended on September 27, 2019. It was published in Japan by ASCII Media Works under the Dengeki Comics NEXT label.
As of November 2019, eight tankōbon volumes have been released.
The manga was licensed for English release in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment on February 14, 2016, and its first volume was released in January 2017. An anime television series adaptation by Troyca covering the first five volumes of the manga aired between October and December 2018.

Plot

First-year high school student Yuu Koito unexpectedly receives a confession from a middle school classmate, and turns him down, not knowing how to feel about such things. She later sees second-year student council member Touko Nanami turning down a confession herself and becomes convinced that Touko's situation might be similar to her own. Upon speaking to Touko, the two begin to bond over their similarities. To Yuu's surprise, Touko suddenly confesses her feelings to her. Yuu is uncertain how to respond, but Touko brushes this aside, telling Yuu that she would be very happy if Yuu were to not fall in love with her in return. Yuu agrees.
Touko declares that she will be running for the position of student council president and asks Yuu to be her campaign manager. To the dismay of Touko's best friend Sayaka Saeki, Yuu accepts the role. Despite both her and Touko being highly nervous, Yuu gives a powerful campaign speech on election day and simultaneously announces her decision to join the student council, resulting in Touko winning the election.
As president, Touko announces her intention to revive the student council play, which has not been performed in seven years. When the student council looks for someone to write a script for the play, Yuu considers that her friend Koyomi Kanou could write it, but does not mention this, wanting Touko to forget about doing the play. However, Sayaka tells Yuu to solicit Koyomi to write the script, and to look into the student council president of seven years ago. Yuu subsequently learns that Touko's older sister Mio was the student council president seven years ago and had been producing a play when she was killed in a traffic accident before its premiere. Yuu realizes that Touko wishes to produce the play in her sister's stead and tries to convince Touko that this is unnecessary, but Touko coldly refuses.
The play's production continues and Koyomi finishes the first draft. The narrative follows an amnesiac girl who must choose which person's view of her is her true self, with the original ending involving the girl choosing to be with her lover. When the student council holds a study camp to practice for the play, professional actor Tomoyuki Ichigaya, a former classmate of Mio's, is brought in to help with the rehearsals. Touko asks him about her sister and learns that Mio was a very different person than who she is now, leaving her conflicted. Concerned, Yuu has Koyomi change the ending to have the protagonist choose to be herself instead of conforming to a specific person's view, believing that this will help Touko come to terms with herself. When the play is performed at the cultural festival, its narrative and Touko's performance are acclaimed by the audience, and the manager of a local theater troupe approaches Touko, asking her to join them and become an actress. She initially declines, but eventually reconsiders and accepts.
Touko thanks Yuu again for her support and reiterates her wish for Yuu to stay with her as she is. However, Yuu has slowly begun to reconsider how she feels towards Touko and abruptly confesses her love. She misinterprets Touko's shocked response as rejection and runs away, causing Touko to realize that she has been overly imposing towards Yuu. Meanwhile, Sayaka speaks with café owner Miyako Kodama, with whom she confides her own romantic feelings for Touko. When the second-years take a class trip to Kyoto, Sayaka formally confesses to Touko. Touko is somewhat surprised but eventually turns Sayaka down, acknowledging her love for Yuu. Although dejected, Sayaka accepts this. Elsewhere, Yuu realizes that she is running away from her problems. Upon Touko's return, the two reconcile, and Yuu openly reciprocates Touko's feelings for the first time.
Over time, Yuu and Touko meet up at various places together and gradually become more emotionally and physically intimate with each other. This culminates when they go bowling together, with the agreement that whoever wins gets to request something from the other. Yuu wins and asks to sleep over at Touko's house. Touko agrees, confessing she had wanted to arrange that as well. On the day, Yuu arrives at Touko's apartment, where they spend the evening together. To Touko's surprise, Yuu comes on to her, and they have sex.
Some years later, Yuu and Touko are a couple, and have graduated high school and enrolled in college. They reunite with the former student council members to attend the cultural festival at their old high school. As Yuu and Touko reminisce about how their relationship started and reflect on their new lives as adults, they walk off into the night.

Characters

;Yuu Koito
;Touko Nanami
;Sayaka Saeki
;Seiji Maki
;Suguru Doujima
;Koyomi Kanou
;Akari Hyuuga
;Riko Hakozaki
;Miyako Kodama
;Rei Koito

Media

Manga

The manga is written and illustrated by Nio Nakatani. It began serialization in ASCII Media Works' monthly magazine Dengeki Daioh on April 27, 2015 and ended on September 27, 2019. The eight and final tankōbon volume of the manga was released in November 2019. Describing the series as having “…Adorable artwork and charming love story,” Seven Seas Entertainment announced its licensing of the manga for English release in North America on February 14, 2016. The manga is currently published in Japanese, English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Thai, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Volume list

Novel

A side-story novel, Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, is written by Hitoma Iruma and published through Kadokawa's Dengeki Bunko imprint since November 10, 2018. The second volume was released on May 10, 2019, and the third volume was released on March 10, 2020. Seven Seas Entertainment announced in July 2019 that they had licensed the series for release in English in North America.

Anime

A 13-episode anime television series adaptation was announced in the June issue of the Dengeki Daioh magazine on April 27, 2018. It was animated by Troyca, produced by Kadokawa, Docomo Anime Store, AT-X, Sony Music Solutions and Kadokawa Media House and directed by Makoto Katō, with Jukki Hanada handling series composition, Hiroaki Gōda designing the characters and Michiru Ōshima composing the music. The series aired in Japan from October 5 to December 28, 2018. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series and are streaming it on Hidive in both subtitled and English dubbed formats. The opening theme is "Kimi ni Furete" by Riko Azuna, while the ending theme is "hectopascal" by Yūki Takada and Minako Kotobuki.

Episode list

Stage play

A stage play adaptation ran in May 2019.

Reception

As of 2019, there are 850,000 copies in print in Japan alone. It placed 4th in the 2017 Next Manga Awards from Niconico and Da Vinci.
The manga has also ranked on Oricon's weekly manga rankings chart, with Volume 4 reaching 30th place and Volume 5 reaching 21st place. The manga placed 3rd in AnimeJapan's 2018 "Manga Most Wanted as Anime by Fans" poll.