Asagao to Kase-san.

This is one of the most shallow, frivolous anime I have ever watched. It has exactly two good points: Art and cutesy moments (which is at least 50% art, the rest voice acting and atmosphere). But outside of that there is nothing I can even find remotely redeemable about this anime.

A quick list of some of the very obvious problems with this anime:

- SHALLOW characters: Yamada is literally just the insecure, innocent, shy girl. That's everything about her character. She loves Kase, because she is nice? She gardens because why not give her a random hobby. The friend, while being my favorite character, ... is still basically just the stereotypical spunky friend, with glasses because why not. Kase doesn't even have a personality, she just runs fast, is popular, and loves Yamada because why not. The only personality traits she exhibits is that she is "nice" and she is dense as a brick when it comes to their relationship (although that is obviously just plot reasons).

- SHALLOW, STUPID, PREDICTABLE story: Shy girl loves the popular girl. Jealous of the attention she gets. Acts shy. Other girl has a misunderstanding, think she doesn't love her. Makeup. Rinse and repeat. Then towards graduation end it with "I'll follow you to Tokyo". Literally the whole story.

- REDUNDANT, OBVIOUS Exposition: She repeats herself multiple times in monologue saying when she started dating Kase & that she loves her. Why? Just show the damn story.

- CONTRIVED Plot & Conflict: Misunderstandings only absolute idiots would have just to further the conflict. Also, they come to the point of tears before communicating at all. Just ask her if something is wrong, stupid. Also, dumb random things. You could clearly see the view of the clouds out of any of the windows, but she was like "You have to see this." Dumb af. Apparently texting somebody in the middle of the night, and them not responding, should be enough to cause drama. Also, the way they make the ending sound was so stupidly predictable.

- LOOSE ENDS & NO CHAR DEV: The little bit of drama, conflict, and character development that might have been dealt with was just left hanging. Yamada never really faced her briefly explored issues of jealousy and trust (proving the relationship was shallow at best). She basically went to Tokyo because she thought Kase would move on, not because she actually was just going to miss her. It was clearly a selfish motivation (or else she would have said something along the lines of "I don't want Kase to feel lonely" which she didn't). She also never addressed her naivety and innocence (Made painfully clear when she didn't know what "do it" meant). They just never brought it up again and she stayed the same sheltered child. Kase never got to truly explore a deeper relationship with Yamada even.

-ENDED RIGHT WHEN THE STORY GOT INTERESTING: The normally innocent shy girl made the rash decision of following her love to Tokyo, and has to deal with acclimating and actually getting into a college there. Kase, who spent the whole OVA trying to deepen their relationship, finally got the step forward she wanted, and their relationship could finally step beyond the shallow bits of high school puppy love. That should have been the rising action, the real start of the story, not the conclusion.


So yeah, it was trash everywhere except the art and VA.

The only good thing I have to say about this is the art and sound. Anything else, including the plot, character, and character interactions ranges from mediocre to cringeworthy. In Asagao to Kase-san, the anime rides itself on the fluff as well as the small dramas in their relationship; it's really the only two things that happens.

Before I talk about the bad parts of the anime I want to say, if you enjoy art and like the aesthetic you see going on, Asagao to Kase-san will be an utter delight. Also the voice actors are nice and Yamada sounds precious. As for Kase, I'm ... sure I would have gotten used to her voice if the anime was an episodic thing. Overall, everything just looks good and sounds good. I think it's totally reasonable to just watch it for that.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the fluff, which can demonstrate how weak the characters and their interactions are. It was cute but feels shallow because the characters are shallow. Kase and Yamada really can be boiled down to nice and has nice intentions, except one is athletic and the other one is timid. Following that, the only difference is the people around Kase who always pull her away from Yamada. These two dimensional characters stumble around a bit, smile at each other, and do romantic things which a major part of their interaction. From that stems the main problem, which is that their chemistry is lacking, and they feel like templates for cute lesbian things to happen.

So in order to compensate, because Kase and Yamada are boring when they aren't building up to that one fluffy moment in the otherwise dull sea of pleasantries, we have the melodramatic bits. While I might be biased because I don't enjoy melodrama, I find it manga like Bloom into You handles it well by not treating it as momentous or as a reason to cry. Asagao to Kase-san on the other hand, utilizes very nice directing and art to make everything seem sad but I'm on the side wondering if the situation actually warrens that. The situations don't justify how sad Yamada is feeling, so the way the show does so much to communicate it (and very successfully too) makes it seem blown out and over-emotional. I couldn't actually watch the last bit of the anime because at that point I had stopped due to how cringey the moment the background turned white felt.

One more bit I want to talk about is how the conflict is set up. Up to three or maybe more times, the conflict was sown or escalated by people pulling Kase away during a conversation or by calling her. It was used once to erupt a fluff scene too. All of these interruptions makes it feel overdone. Even more, Kase always prioritizes the people around her to Yamada, even when it feels like it should be the other way around. Each time they speak, even if they have not resolved the conversation, if Kase's friends call on her then she goes away no argument.

Overall, Asagao to Kase-san is cute, but lacks substance which it tries to make up for with unconvincing drama. If you're starving for yuri or you just like yuri for the sake of yuri, go on right ahead! If you want more, find something else.