Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku – 01
Sometimes a series comes along that just mystifies me, and Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku is one such series. I confess I knew almost nothing about it when the anime was announced, and was rather stunned when I saw the aggregator scores for the manga. The ones for the anime are even higher and, frankly, I’m absolutely stumped as to why. That disconnect happening with a genre that’s just not my jam is normal enough – a CGDCT or isekai or preposterous “sports” series. But a seinen romance? Liking one more or less than most people is one thing. This is just… odd.
Admittedly this premiere played like a shoujo in seinen clothing, but that shouldn’t matter – that demographic line is often fuzzy. The Fragrant Flowers Bloom With Dignity is a love story between a rough-looking boy from a rough school and a girl who goes to the elite girls’ academy next door. That sounds pretty formulaic, and frankly it is (so far at least). It wasn’t especially realistic and nothing that happened surprised me. It’s well-executed and the visuals are terrific (CloverWorks seems to be leveling up all the time). But apart from that, I’m hard-pressed to think of a less exceptional premiere. It’s not bad, it’s just kind of pretty cotton candy.
Something this inexplicable annoys me. It’s my nature. I just don’t get how this of all shows could be in the all-time Top 20 on MAL, as dubious a measure as that is. There just seems to be so little that’s distinctive about it. If you think you can tell me what I’m missing, please do – I feel like there has to be something here I’m just not seeing.
Dekin no Mogura – 01
And then we have Dekin no Mogura. It makes the perfect bookend for Kaoru Hana for reasons I’ll delve into in a moment. This adaptation is pretty under the radar considering it’s from a manga by Eguchi Natsumi, whose Hoozuki no Reitetsu was both a massive commercial success and a personal favorite. I just never heard much about this one, the sales haven’t been great, and the last time I checked it wasn’t even being scanlated. Brain’s Base was possibly my favorite studio once upon a time, but they’re much-reduced since the schism that resulted in the formation of Studio Shuka.
So, two seinen. Separated by 2.61 points in MAL score (I just checked). Dekin no Mogura is at 6.28, and I like it the better of the two. Much, much better. The score is less of a mystery to me – it’s esoteric and talky, and the opposite of conventionally pretty quite by intention. But I found this premiere really interesting from start to finish. And what’s more, I loved the visuals, which retain Eguchi’s wonky character designs paired with a bright, cartoonish surrealism. Too many anime look and sound the same, even good ones. Dekin no Mogura is weird and awkward, and I love that about it.
The story follows a couple of university lit majors named Magi and Yaeko, who one day on their way home from an izakaya bitch session see a guy felled by a falling koujien (dropped by their classmate). A koujen is a type of dictionary, and this one leaves the fellow bleeding badly. These are good kids, and determined to help this weirdo despite his insistence that they not (because he has no money or insurance card). Eventually they follow him back to the bathhouse he runs on “Drawer Street“, and it’s very clear something weird is going on with this dude. Just how weird doesn’t come into focus until Magi-kun starts seeing strange things the next day.
First of all I love the dialogue here, which reminds me a bit of Morimi Tomihiko’s Yojouhan Shinwa Takei. The guy’s name is Mogura (Mole) Momoyuki, and I found all three characters to be really interesting and likeable. Mogura spins a wild tale of his banishment from the afterlife, and how he has to stay alive by collecting ghost fire because if he dies he’s guaranteed to get lost on the way. How long that’s been going on is unclear by at least since Meiji times, given his “Oppepeke” signoff. There are also some typically dry moments of Eguchi hilarity, like Mogura saying the scariest thing he ever saw is the consumption tax, and comparing the NHK man to the KGB.
The Earthbound Mole is not going to be for everybody, that’s patently obvious. Even Hoozuki was highly literate and obtuse, and this series lacks the other trappings that made it popular in the mainstream. But if you’re the niche audience it’s aimed at, I think there’s the potential for something really good here. And the experience of these two premieres is just a reminder of how completely the anime experience is driven by personal taste. Vive la différence…
Lili
July 8, 2025 at 11:31 pmKaoruHana’s strength, much like BokuYaba and YubisakiRenren, lies in how incredibly consistent the quality of the writing is and that it treats its (younger) characters with a lot of respect and maturity after an initially very basic premise. It’s not my personal favorite, but the praise the manga gets at least is imo very deserved.
Snowball
July 9, 2025 at 2:54 amI agree with your assessment on KaoruHana. Every thing that happened was so contrived. The overly animated, blowy hair annoyed the hell out of me as if it was a character of its own. I thought Busu ni Hana was the better of the two romance premieres.
Collectr
July 9, 2025 at 4:55 amI tossed Hana into the recycle bin after less than five minutes, but Dekin shows a lot of promise. Mogoro’s frown is identical to Hoozuki’s, so that’s a good sign. The two lit students make good foils. Too much exposition, but it was intercut with enough weird humor to keep it interesting. So yeah, I’m in that niche.
ruicarlov
July 9, 2025 at 8:19 amI felt some bokuyaba vibes from Hana, even if things felt a bit more contrived that the first, and with a bit of “Ore monogatari” sprinkled in. But I do feel that this could be a very good one and I like the characters. At least for our male lead, we’ve got a bit into his head, and his inferiority complex feels real and relatable. As for Kaoruko, much is still in the air, but it’s quite clear she is a very sweet girl, but not a doormat.
Guardian Enzo
July 9, 2025 at 10:42 amI don’t know, I’m clearly in the minority on this one but it just doesn’t resonate with me. It played as very generic and formulaic (which BokuYaba,as an example, is anything but). But maybe it’s me that’s the problem. I’ll certainly give it another episode to convince me.
Bob
July 10, 2025 at 2:16 am>Something this inexplicable annoys me. It’s my nature. I just don’t get how this of all shows could be in the all-time Top 20 on MAL, as dubious a measure as that is. There just seems to be so little that’s distinctive about it. If you think you can tell me what I’m missing, please do – I feel like there has to be something here I’m just not seeing.
I’ve had that reaction countless times, including to things you’d die for, and well, there’s just no accounting for taste. I can’t say if you’re correct in this situation since I have no experience with the story itself, but from what I hear, people love the emotional maturity of the characters and the relative lack of drama.
Say
July 10, 2025 at 10:50 pmI agree that KaoruHana felt formulaic. I can see potential, though. I’ll give it two more episodes to convince me.
ahnold11
February 11, 2026 at 10:44 pmOnly 6 months late to the party on this one, so I’m getting better 😉 As I continue along my anime journey, I’m discovering more about what I like (and what I don’t). Emotional realism seems to be a trend, and so I got a recommendation for KaoruHana for that very reason.
After 6 episodes, I think I can speak to what makes it stand out, at least for me. The setup and premise isn’t pretty interesting or novel. The characters themselves don’t really stand out. (I know, damning with faint praise so far..). And I think that may be the point. What is interesting here is how the relationships are handled. These characters are acting like the “Best” versions of ourselves. It’s an idealized form of adolescence. This show addresses the feeling of “Man, in hindsight I wish I had said xxx in that conversation, to really share how I felt”. These characters do that.
Which immediately means it’s lite on the drama. I dont’ even think the “Romance” is necessarily the star or point of this. It’s just one of the 3 core relationships. You have a group of adolescent men, at a “rough” or delinquent school, each of them are there for a reason presumably they’ve had some challenges in their past. But instead of acting how we’d expect boys of this type to be, they are refreshingly non toxic. They have feelings, struggle with them, and then ultimately express them in constructive ways. It’s endearing and hopeful how they support each other. Issues that could be big conflicts in other shows, get smoothed over by being quickly addressed head on. They are acting like how we wish most young men did in our society.
I kept internally predicting how “bad” each scenario would go, and was pleasantly surprised each time when the characters actually talked about their feelings and did the things necessary to clear up the conflict. Each time it left me with a smile on my face.
Same with the relationship between the two female cast members. There is immediately friction there, one of them is facing some pretty intense emotional challenges. But again it didn’t go down the predictable route, instead they shared their feelings, actually communicated, and ultimately supported each other. There generally seems to be at least one member of each “conflict” that is the audience proxy, they are the ones expecting things to go badly like us watching. And they get the internal surprise/relief of things not being as bad as they thought, because people were honest with their emotions and shared them with the people they cared about. Again, it leaves you smiley and hopeful.
The “romance” itself is perhaps the least significant of the relationships so far. It’s small, cute, and sweet. But not earth shattering, you aren’t particularly invested in seeing this pair get together. But it’s nice to see two people, obviously interested in each other, a bit shy, a bit polite, one full of self doubt, and yet, rather than stumble into any of the obvious pitfalls in this situation, they actually stick it out, are brave, communicate, and grow closer in a meaningful way.
It’s not that the characters don’t experience conflict or tension, they just resolve it in very open and refreshingly straight forward ways. This leads to very little drama. So I think it’s “refreshing” in that sense, that is the vibe of the show. People acting in the way we all wish we could in our own lives, clearing up miscommunications, having the perfect lines, being the “best” version of ourselves. Supporting our friends instead of giving into emotional insecurity etc. Now it’s not particularly realistic, this very much reads as “fantasy”, but not crazy iseki, but rather the “wouldn’t it be nice if our world actually was like this, and it feels like it should be possible”. Aspirational I’d guess you could say.
It feels nice to watch and is rather stress free. (Case in point, there is a scenario involving some potential physical violence, and as the audience you feel like this is the point where the bubble is going to “pop”, the good times are over and now the painful nerve wracking drama will take over. It lets you rest in that fear for 1 beat, and then immediately resolves. Leaving you with a sense of relief). I’d guess to say the material knows the audience expectations and uses that to subvert it into giving you a feel good show.
It’s not particularly realistic, but I think it feels “real” in terms of emotions. Everyone’s feeling and actions make sense, it’s only that they are always making the best/smartest choices, the ones we wish we would make. I think it threads the line of flirting with our expectations to avoid feeling “boring” and instead feeling warm, fuzzy and inspiring. But you definitely have to be ready for that. Nothing about the plot, or even the characters, is particularly new or interesting in of itself. It’s just in their interactions where I think the pleasure comes.
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2026 at 10:50 pmI tried, it just didn’t work for me. I don’t demand harsh realism in romance or anything else – there’s room for both Bokuyaba and Seihantai on my shelf. But this show had no ring of truth.