Aoi Hana

Summary:

Fumi Majoume is a meek and bookish girl who is beginning her first year of high at the Matsuoka Girls’ High School. A girl bumped into Fumi on her way to school, and she also helps her when Fumi is molested in the train. The girl turns out to be Fumi’s childhood friend Akira Okudaira who parted ways ten years ago, and she is studying at the privileged Fujigatani Girls’ Academy. During a visit to Akira’s school by Fumi and new friends, she discovers that both her Akira and Fumi’s schools have shared stories of  unrequited love, admiration and self-discovery.

When the term “homosexuality” is mentioned, many opinions come to mind for different people and these opinions may range from the positive to the negative. From the onset, Aoi Hana seems to be a story about female homosexuality and subsequently, that turns off some viewers right from the beginning. Do not be fooled; despite the suggestive opening sequence, Aoi Hana is not by any means a story on lesbianism. Instead, it is a slice-of-life story about growing up and experiences of young love which includes female homosexuality issues. Homosexuality is naturally a touchy subject so for a series that wants to explore the topic in a subtle way is a difficult feat to achieve. Aoi Hana does so with commendable maturity and unlike many other romance series, it delivers powerful scenes with natural poignance, rendering them emotional in a natural way.

In Aoi Hana, homosexuality is not simply explored in light of sexual orientation; rather, it’s the result of the four main points discussed in the story – admiration, envy, rejection and selfishness. Each character goes through at least one of them and the story showcases how their individual actions are influenced by their personalities and intentions. In the process, they discover their own emotions and slowly each pays attention to how their own actions will adversely affect those around them. This form of delivery by Aoi Hana’s story is akin to the likes of another series Bokura ga Ita and Natsume Yuujinchou, where the characters’ emotions unfold in a natural way rather than being forced down the viewers’ throats. Plus, Aoi Hana also employs the subtle animation approach where each background is just a vague hue, giving the series a sense of purity to accentuate the young love involved in the story itself. Another unconventionality about Aoi Hana’s romance story is how it does not revolve around the concept where characters are in love to each other in an enclosed loop e.g. a love triangle. On the contrary, they are in a love chain where one is emotionally linked to another and how each of them ironically bears a similar trait to one another, and this is what really sets Aoi Hana apart from other conventional romance stories.

The title of this series translates as “blue flowers” and I find it to be an apt title. The flower itself needs an appropriate amount of space for it to grow and bloom, and it is symbolic to similarly see how each character in Aoi Hana is given enough personal space for character development in their respective roles. It’s safe to say that Fumi and Akira are the protagonists in the show, but the spotlight isn’t always on the both of them. Each character in the story gets a turn under the spotlight to showcase how they bloom in character through their individual circumstances, rendering every supporting character as complex as the protagonists themselves. It is a surprise to see how the supporting characters in Aoi Hana play a somewhat more important role in maintaining the story’s cogwheel in motion.

I have two gripes on Aoi Hana, and the first one is perhaps its short series length which is somewhat of a trend noticeable in recent times. This is somewhat ironic because though I find it a tad short, the story manages to eventually be wrapped up with neither any obvious loose ends nor the dissatisfied feeling of what happens to the characters after the series ended. The other gripe is perhaps Fumi’s voice done by Ai Takabe, who is relatively new to seiyuu work. Although her whispery voice complements Fumi’s gentle demeanour, I occasionally find it hard to relate to during emotional scenes where good voicing is essential to intensify the delivery.

Aoi Hana is nevertheless a moving romance story that does remarkably well in developing their characters and exploring young love which involves female homosexuality. On top of that, all the emotions in the series are portrayed with such naturalness that even the numerous scenes of crying does not render this series sappy in any way. I am glad to see how this series makes good use of homosexuality as a mean to develop their characters and I am equally satisfied to see that the story generally ended on a positive note. J.C. Staff has done well with this series and I’ll honestly have more faith in it if it continues to produce such a great series.