We be bloggin'

When it came to shoujo anime in 2025, it felt like there was both a lot of it and also far too little. A lot of the shoujo we watched were underwhelming to say the least. But out of everything we did see, there was one anime that stood out by a long shot. The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity was a show that both Star and I greatly underestimated when we began it, and it was one that very quickly captured our hearts and attention. It was hands down one of the best anime we watched all year.

What seemed like a simple premise became a beautiful story with amazing characters. To give you a brief overview of the plot: a shy boy with the appearance of a delinquent meets a sweet girl who seems like an angel. They fall in love. At first glance, that is what this story is. But on top of that, it becomes an almost Romeo and Juliet story with its subplot; the boy, Rintaro,  is from a school for delinquents, and the girl, Waguri, is from a prestigious academy. At first glance the two couldn’t be more different and their contrast is made clear by the story. However, the story rarely lets itself get too caught up in this dynamic or simple retelling of the Shakespeare tale. Instead, it crafts it’s characters into living and breathing beings that make it understandable how these two crossed paths and fell in love.

Rintaro, despite looking like a tough guy and going to the delinquent school, is a real soft guy. He works for his parents bakery, serving cake to customers occasionally and helping out in the kitchen to make gorgeous and delicious cakes. He was raised well — treating almost everyone he meets with respect and kindness. And he’s surprisingly shy. It’s no wonder Waguri, the seemingly picture perfect girl, took notice of him. Waguri is always exceeding in everything, she seems untouchable, but on a day that she really needed comfort, she walked into that cake shop and Rintaro was there. Her story of then returning to the cake shop time after time in hopes of getting a glimpse of him was super sweet. Definitely the antics of a young girl in love. Which, by the way, Waguri for best girl this year is almost guaranteed by YCK standards.

Other characters were interesting but not overly distinct in my opinion. And what I mean by that is simply that it felt like they were just there to reinforce the Romeo and Juliet portion of the storyline. While sure they were all likeable, I’d say a weakness would simply be that they felt more like tools than they did like fully fleshed out friends (or maybe I’m just being too critical in this aspect). So that is the one weakness. I will also say that Star and I were dying to see Rintaro’s dad for most of the show. After all, it at first seemed like he wasn’t around as we only ever saw his mother (who was a delight). We very much thought he might be a deadbeat dad so it was a very welcome surprise when he ended up being the main baker —simply always busy.

I think one of the sweetest moments in this show, and the one that will stick with me at least for a while, was when Rintaro decided he wanted to handmake Waguri’s birthday cake. It showed that even though he knew her well and knew her love of cake, he knew that making it himself would convey his feelings and appreciation of her instead. So to see him do that was just like a truly special moment where I just wanted to fully applaud. Take notes everybody. That boy just did it right. It’s the moments like these within the show that really make it stand out amongst other shoujo. It’s teaching some good lessons (something I’ll go more into in a later Doki Doki Day post). The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is just one of those show I think is worth watching no matter who you are.

xoxo

Luna