Asagao to Kase-san.

*this review contains minor spoilers*

While the storyline itself is one I've seen many times before, it was refreshing and so lovely to see a wlw couple. As a queer woman, this anime really warmed my heart. It was sweet and wholesome, the characters and relationship felt very real. I related a lot to the fears and anxieties Yamada had and the struggles of navigating a lesbian relationship.

The awe and love shared between first loves felt raw and represented. The transition from high school to university and the changes and fear that occur hit close to home for me, especially since I went to a ... university away from home, just like Kase. I especially liked that homophobia didn't appear in this anime. It becomes exhausting when every queer piece of media features it.

It was truly amazing to see a wlw that wasn't sexualized and just wholesome and sweet to witness. I hope more yuri anime and manga follow Asagao to Kase-san's example. I think it would truly help young girls navigate and learn comfort with their sexuality.

Overall, I rate this a 7/10. It was a really sweet and solid anime to watch.

Im rating this perfect 10 because im gay, lonely, and jealous of them 'kami-sama when is it my turn'. THE WHOLE MOVIE IS PURE WHOLESOME WITH ENOUGH OF SMOOCHIE SCENES OFC 😳 I was halfway the movie and i thought to myself that its too good to be true of a gl anime without angst 🙂🙂. I literally prepared myself for a bigass angst that may happen but there is NONE! Its too pure 😭 I wish I could have that kind of relationship with my previous lovers tho 😔 but I'll be looking forward to have a relationship where we could both grow and ... communicate to avoid miscommunication and fix problems. This is a great representation and I give this a TEN! Its a rare gem 💎 this has now became my comfort anime and i'll rewatch again and again!

Just perfect. No it won't have you thinking about it a week later. (Watch Bloom Into You for that.) You may tear up for a minute or two, but you won't be bawling for half a day. But it is a perfect slice of life romance that will make you feel good and leave you in peace.

The story, the art, the music, everything is just fine. The drama is at an acceptable minimum. The comedy likewise is pretty sparse. It is the very definition of Slice of Life. But the romantic intensity will make you wish it was more than just a one hour ... OVA.

I'm going to buy the manga right now in the hope of prolonging this feel good peaceful happiness!

This left me feeling entirely and complete. For what it is, it's good, but there is just a complete lack of completion. The story was really just getting going when it ended. I was so happy with how early in Young Love is portrayed here, but it quit before it got beyond that stage.

This is a delightful Yuri representation and definitely worth a watch, just be prepared to know that too little gets accomplished in 57 minutes. It would be nice to see a follow-up of some sort, but it seems that it might be too early to tell whether that's going to happen or ... not.

This is the gayest shit I've ever seen. It's just a tomboy and a shy gardener girl who can't stay away from each other for more than 5 minutes. You can't get more gay then that if you tried. This is less of a movie and more of 50 minutes of wholesome yuri slapped together. There's almost no plot to speak of. The only conflict in the film is just the pettiest melodrama. There's even a scene where the main character starts having an anxiety attack from there being too many guys near her. It's hilarious how gay this is.

It's honestly a pretty terrible movie ... but it's cute and I'm gay as fuck so I'll at least give it a 6.

It's short, it's yuri, it's beautiful.

First off, you have to be aware of 2 things:
- It is a promotional OVA for the manga with only a bit less than 1 hour. It basically summarizes/adapts a portion of the main story from like the first 11 (?) manga chapters.
- It is purely romance, and yuri at that. So if you can't accept lesbian romance, this won't be for you.

Other than that, it's simply a nice fluffy romance. There is no deep tragic drama (but it isn't completely plain either), it's the kind of romance you simply can lay back and enjoy the adorableness.

The story ... revolves around Kase and Yamada, which are dating at this point. Kase being a tall, athletic, somewhat tomboyish and popular girl, while Yamada is basically the opposite by being small, clumsy, naive and insecure.
__________

If you liked this OVA I highly recommend the manga, you get to see how they get together, many stories in between those 3 shown here, and also how it actually goes on after Yamadas resolve to go to Tokyo with Kase. That, and Yamada learns what a lesbian couple can do apart from "only" kissing...

Personally, I hope that they will make a full anime adaption of this series. The characters are great, and the manga has enough content to cover.

I named it "homosexual shoujo"
Simply love it. This is the type of yuri I was searching all my life, so pretty and pure, also like a real lesbian couple and without that "comedy" or fanservice included in others of the genre (It's totally respectable, but not my type of yuri...)
If you're searching for a lesbian romance anime I think this is perfect. I enjoyed it a lot, was like a flash lol, and the art is so sooo beautiful, reminds me a little of Makoto Shinkai films, it has that type of relaxing aura.
You can empatize well with the characters and her situations, I thinks ... it's realistic in this point.
It was a good experience watch this OVA, it's probably that I rewatch it ^^

lesbian fluff.

a simple cut story, with a loveable cute couple. i think they expressed the "early in a relationship" part really nicely. they weren't close before so they're a bit awkward, but they're comfortable with eachother.

though i must say there weren't anything special or great about this ova. the story was common, girl likes girl, they get cute, problem occurs, happy ending. there wasn't Any character development nor any traits that makes them a good character. i dont think there was even any development ?? kinda dissapointed at that part but eh.

the visuals were pretty !! the sound and music were fitting and the ... seiyuu's did good voicing them.

Being an anime fan for 14 years straight, I've refined my tastes over the years, so I know what I like and don't like, and if you like what I don't like, or don't like what I do, that's cool. You win. Everyone has their preferences when it comes to anime/manga. That being said, I've never really been fond of yaoi or yuri manga, and that's because many of them tend to play up the sex too much, especially sex that's dubiously consensual at best, are just poorly written in general, and don't necessarily reflect the experiences that actual LGBT people go through, since those ... works aren't written with that audience in mind. For me, they've just never been my thing. However, like any form of media, there are exceptions to the rule, and some of the more recent yaoi/yuri/shounen-ai/shoujo-ai stories are making an effort to actually be good and high quality, such as Shimanami Tasogare, Aoi Hana, Bloom Into You, and for today's subject, a little OVA called Kase-san and Morning Glories, based on the manga by Hiromi Takashima. I've only read two volumes of the manga, so I won't be commenting on that.

The OVA centers around two girls, shy gardener Yui Yamada, and popular sporty track star, Tomoka Kase. At first, the two barely know the other exists, but after a few meetings in school, they gradually become friends and start spending a lot of time together. Over time, the two find themselves crushing on each other, realizing they love each other, and after some initial awkwardness, they eventually decide to start dating. The OVA begins after they start dating, so they're technically already in a relationship at this point, so it focuses more on how they deal with their romantic feelings, the awkwardness that comes from being in a relationship, and showing how they work together as a couple, so there's a heavy focus on character driven conflict.

The OVA is only 50 minutes long, just short of an hour, but it's slowly paced in that it focuses a lot on the girls' lives, finding wonder in mundane things such as talking to your loved ones and going on vacation to a sunny beachside, and putting heavy emphasis on setting up a mellow, soft atmosphere. The animation sells it wonderfully, with bright colors, subtle but smooth character movement, great use of light and shadows, and giving the whole series a warm, welcoming palette. If you're not the patient type or someone who prefers heart pumping action and stuff happening all the time, then this isn't the show for you. It takes its time to really flesh out the leads and show their relationship evolving.

Honestly, while I do like the main characters, and their chemistry is really nice to watch, they don't really get fleshed out all that much. I mean, this is a 50-minute episode that leaves out a lot of important details from the manga, so this is inevitable. But I think the characters suffered quite a bit in the transition. Granted, I've only read two volumes of the manga thus far, and while they're not poorly executed or anything, they do come off as rather one note archetypes, with Yamada being the shy girl, Kase being the sporty energetic one, Mikawa being the typical spunky friend character who snarks a lot, so on and so forth. I've seen them done worse, but Kase-san doesn't really try to do anything with them other than play them straight, without doing anything to spice it up or make them somewhat interesting.

Plus, you'll find a lot of romance tropes used here that may or may not annoy you, such as a bunch of misunderstandings that don't get cleared up right away, the girls not always walking to each other about important things, sexual advances getting interrupted, melodrama resulting from things getting blown out of proportion, and so on. Granted, it does manage to do these things much less obnoxiously than most TV shows I've seen, so I'm willing to cut it some slack on that, but for those who utterly hate these things overall, you should probably look elsewhere. Furthermore, the anime is very fluffy and lighthearted, focusing heavily on cuteness, fluff, and sweetness than the downsides of being in a relationship, which is totally fine if done well, and in this day and age, we need more stories about LGBT people that don't involve lots of angst and drama. However, piling on too much sugar can detriment a product more than anything, and I like that Kase-san is trying to present a lesbian relationship in a sweet, positive light, I feel like the short length of the anime rendered any growth and chemistry the characters developed to be rather shallow, as we don't see them actively trying to work together or encounter genuine problems that could require them to strengthen their relationship. Romance isn't all rainbows and unicorns, you guys.

But for what it's worth, it's still a sweet, fluffy shoujo-ai anime that you can watch if you just want to relax and dream of good days ahead.

!No Spoilers!
This anime is an amazing GL, in the span of 50 minutes, you see so much happen.
It's so nice to have a GL where it is super fetishised or creepy. The relationship was super cute and I love both of their tropes!
The art and music are both equally as amazing and it suits the theme of the story and characters really well. The overall pacing of the story is somewhat slow but the beautiful visuals make it worth it. The characters have some form of communication in their relationship which is great to see, normally in queer animes it is misunderstandings on and on..
This ... is a must watch if you like GL!

(This review is completely Spoiler-Free, if you haven't watched the OVA you read this review.)

When I watched Kase-San and Morning Glories, I was surprised at how good it was. However, if you've noticed the 58 minute runtime, you can assume that the pacing won't be that good. And you would be correct, the OVA feels like a bunch of anime scenes that are loosely connected, but those scenes are very fun to watch, so I didn't care that much. The animations looked stunning. The characters were likeable, I enjoyed watching Yamada's and Kase's relationship unfold. I was rooting for the characters, even Mikawa who isn't ... really plot relevant besides being Yamada's best friend. The ending hooked me, it made me worry for the main characters and the situation they were in. That's how likeable the character's are. And if you're worried about what happens next. I'm pretty sure the manga* continues the story afterwards.

In conclusion, Kase-San and Morning Glories is a much-watch OVA if you like Yuri anime or even Romance anime in general. Yamada and Kase's relationship is amazing. I hope that the entire manga is adapted, maybe as a full length seasonal anime.

*I say this as someone who hasn't read the manga at all, and has only watched the 2 anime adaptations.

Even tho normally I am not a fan of romance genre in anime.This is the most heart warming movie I have ever seen in my life. Finally no over sexualization of lesbian couples and just a heart felt story of 2 high school girls facing normal daily life couple problems. I understand some reviews about characters being generic or shallow but I would like to remind them that this is just adaptation of only few parts of the actual manga. So it is only being 1 hour movie lacks major parts of it understandably. I still think the animation and music theme covered those holes ... with beyond amazing work. This is hopefully will be first but not last step to more beautiful, simple but breathtaking and not coated with fan service or fetishization of Yuri anime's. I will deff rewatch it more than five times and edit my comment each time.

This OVA is so fluffy...it's so gay...it makes my little lesbian heart flutter with happiness. I am someone who is very skeptical in the choice of yuri I watch, but I was happy to stumble upon this little 60 minute joyfest. The story isn't groundbreaking, nor are the characters, but I think this OVA did an excellent job taking bits and pieces from the Kase-san manga and putting it together in a delightful, too-good-for-this-world OVA.

The artwork and its inclusion of watercolors is breathtaking to witness. That twinkling sound of the soundtrack sets the quiet, adorable tone of the OVA. And overall, the short vignettes pieced ... together create a small, yet still emotionally impactful, story about the developing relationship of two young women.

I actually cried within this OVA, not just at the unsettling climax where Kase and Yamada have to decide what will happen to their relationship as college approaches, but also in more quieter moments, when Yamada struggles to get the attention of Kase due to her popularity. I think these quieter moments were easy for a queer woman like me to relate to, and they were more impactful because of that.

That being said, when there are not little bits of relationship drama sprinkled in, there are some adorable, awkward, and funny moments as the girls try to figure out their relationship. This OVA is a collection of those moments, and it is really only in the last twenty minutes or so during the college arc that the anime becomes a bit more serious. In the meantime, it is usually cute and funny to watch, with deeper romantic moments thrown in between. SPOILER but...that scene where Kase drops her bike and runs to kiss Yamada and she misses her bus because of it just...because ?? *Chef's Kiss* There are heartfelt moments, frustrating moments, and sad moments in this OVA all packed in within 60 minutes. Yet the anime doesn't feel too packed or rushed. Instead, you are watching an achingly sweet tale between two girls starting out their relationship for the first time.

This yuri makes no groundbreaking statements about the LGBTQ+ community, and it falls into stereotypical yuri tropes with a more masculine-appearing Kase and Yamada's constant "wE'rE bOtH gIrLs BuT..." HOWEVER, the OVA is still a fluffy, non-fetishized representation of wlw culture to watch, and I am okay that it makes no radical statements or looks more deeply into the issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community because sometimes, you just need some fluffy, mind-numbing material to watch.

From one lesbian to another, this gets my approval. Simply put, Kase-san is a short and sweet OVA about budding relationships that manages to pull at the heartstrings.

The Kase-san manga is one I'm well familiar with. It started in 2010 and was originally meant as a one-shot. But the positive response to it prompted an entire series. In 2018, Zexcs released an hour long OVA. Yes, the same studio behind Cheesesteak Suppository & Umi Monogatari. 

Story:

Yamada is on the greenery committee at school. She's started going out with Kase-san, the star of the track team and a girl who's "way cooler than any boy." So, this takes uses material from after the first volume of the manga. And it basically goes over a bunch of the events they experience from the second and ... third volumes of the manga. 

The big issue with this as an adaptation is that it skips a lot of the sweeter, more contented moments where Kase and Yamada are just happy and being adorable in favour of showcasing the more "dramatic" moments. Which makes it seem more melodramatic than it actually is. It also has the unfortunate side effect of making Kase & Yamada seem really insecure. Yeah, every couple has those moments but when it's the majority of what you see it comes across as worse than when it's a more occasional thing. 

That being said, it does a good job of presenting those moments it includes. Albeit a bit abridged. And those more cutesy moments they did include like Kase-san visiting Yamada's house or the pair on the plane do make for some very nice scenes. 

Characters:

The big problem here is the insecurity issue. In this OVA, our heroines spend more time being worried about their relationship and thinking it might be about to end than they spend being happy and appreciating each other. And since you don't see how they got together, you don't really know why they bother unless you've read the first volume of the manga and all the happy moments from the second and third volumes that the OVA skipped. 

It doesn't help that the characters aren't all that complex and the main draw of the manga is that they're absolutely adorable and their whole dynamic is just a joy to read. Not when the OVA is determined to undermine that aspect as much as possible. 

Art:

I do have to give Zexcs credit here. They did a great job of capturing the art style and bringing it to life. Which does make for a very pleasant looking OVA. The characters look good, the animation flows nicely and the backgrounds were nicely filled out. 

Sound:

Sakura Ayane & Takahashi Minami do an excellent job in the leading roles. They capture the chemistry betwixt the girls pretty much perfectly and pull off both the more dramatic and cutesy moments handily. The music is nice. Especially the ending duet with our leads. 

Ho-yay:

This one is all about the les-yay. 

Areas of Improvement:

A better job capturing the Manga's aesthetic. Here's the thing, most of the manga is less dramatic, more cutesy. If this OVA had one big dramatic sequence at the end and the rest focused more on cutesy moments, it would better represent what you can expect from the manga and the characters wouldn't come across as so insecure. 
Show the start of the relationship. I get that they don't want to spend much time on it, but it would help our investment if we saw at least a flashback of how they got together rather than having Yamada monologue about it. 
Stronger Supporting Cast. This is an issue with the manga too. We rarely see much of any characters besides Yamada & Kase. The strongest supporting character we get is Mikawa and she mostly shows up when Yamada needs someone to talk about her relationship with. 

Final Thoughts:

I don't recommend letting this OVA be your introduction to Kase-san. Yes, it has its moments but the general focus on the more tumultuous points of their relationship could easily give you the impression that it's a lot more filled with insecurity and generally much weaker than it actually is. If anything, I would say this is a good supplement for the manga. So, if you read the first three volumes and you want to see some of the scenes brought to life, I'd absolutely watch this. But I'd generally go with the manga over the OVA. It's only five volumes and has a lot of cuteness. And that's not including the ongoing follow up manga. For the OVA, I'll give it a 6/10. 

Kase-San and Morning glories is a beautiful (albeit short) movie about yuri romance (the best kind, no doubt). While Kase-San is the titular character, the protagonist is definitely her lover, Yamada. They have a nice chemistry going on. I'll admit, this movie did a good job with it's romance, making my heart beat afflutter and giving me goosebumps from the tender romance. The soundtrack is lovely as well, with nice ending song. The art is pretty great and beautiful (even if it uses so many lens flares it puts JJ Abrams to shame).

The story, surprisingly, starts with Kase and Yamada already dating, which is definitely ... a fresh change from all the "will they won't they" stories which only show the characters kissing or getting together in the very end. It instead deals with how they handle their relationships. I'm not sure if the manga did the same thing but regardless, I dig it. Seeing characters who are already in a relationship as the protagonists of a romance story is something we need more of, and for the most part it's really nice, a slow burning beauty.

Whaaaaaaat absolutely kills it for me though, is the entirety of the conflict in the final act. I won't get into details because common courtesy, but it's honestly a relatively archaic idea that honestly seems pretty outdated and a bit silly given the existence of things like internet messaging and whatnot. Also their use of that infamous train station trope was..... kind of making me cringe to the point where my face felt like it was shrinking back into my head. Like the rest of the movie was relatively grounded and reasonable, but that one final moment kinda felt dumb. Honestly I think I prefer Bloom into You over this mainly because it never had any sort of big, grand, over-the-top gesture moments like the climax of this movie did. But aside from that part, they're both pretty equal to me in terms of enjoyment. Like honestly, I don't think I'd throw my whole life away just for a relationship. Honestly, in the age where online relationships through discord and texting has become more common and actually possibly can lead to successful(?) marriages, it just seems even more moronic that the conflict even exists, let alone how Kase and Yamada respectively resolve it. Thankfully it's not that much of the film, so it isn't too much of a gamebreaker for me at least, but it's still making me dock a point from the film for that end alone.

Regardless, it's still sweet nontheless, and I loved this movie. It's just that the ending kind of was something any human being who's been in an actual relationship might cringe at. Ending aside, it's a beautiful experience that you should watch, if you can stomach terrible romantic cliches from an archaic age before humans invented the web.

EDIT: I have come back after reading the manga (yes I read the entire manga in the 5 hours after finishing the OVA because I’m that pathetic) and lemme say; the manga honestly does a lot of things better. Most namely the handling of the scene that was the ending of the OVA (i meant its still corny, just slightly less so). Plus it ends on a much better note, continuing for at least 10 chapters after that one. Do read the manga, since I think the OVA condensed too much stuff.

I'm new to seeing shoujo ai, even though I liked this OVA (very nice art, story development, among other things) it bothers me that a character (Yamada) has become so infantilized, especially when it becomes clear to us at the end that both girls are already going to college (I see that it is a recurring topic to generate unequal relationships, I hope to find something different in one of them) but, in general, it seems like a nice OVA.
Another aspect that seemed relevant to me is presenting the relationship between Kase and Yamada as something naturalized and outside the idea of "secret" or friendly ... idealization, in which many shoujo ai stories end up falling.

* Sorry for possible errors in my English

es muy bonito pero el principio lo senti lento un poco bueno l hay que concidiguaerar que es una ova pequeña.
En esta ova podemos ver que la monita de pelo claro es bien inmadura pero el final de el anime fue muy bonito y el final es nuy emocionante yo estaba como correeeeeeeeeeeeeeee pero si esta bien bonito el anime recomendado.
Otra cosa que podemos tomar en cuenta es que el estilo de animacion y dibujo esta muy bonito los tipos de cara que ponen otra cosa tambien es que la chica tiene un mini tallo en su cabeza que eso me parecio bien tierno la ... verdad

When I finally read the manga, I fell in love and just had to watch the OVA as well. Despite the mixed reviews I saw from other people, I decided to set aside my worries and just watch the anime anyways.

First of all, I want to point out that this is just an OVA. It isn't the entire manga turned into an anime. Although some parts of the story seem rushed, that is likely because this only shows very specific scenes instead of the entire story.

The art style is adorable and the animation is fluid. Many scenes are beautifully drawn. All of the music ... and sound effects were relevant to the scene they're in as well. This quickly became one of my comfort animes, something I watch when I feel down.

But there was always one thing that bothered me and continues to bother me whenever I think of this anime: the shallow characters.

It's always nice to see lesbian couples who aren't extremely sexualized, but it's also a shame to see such plain stereotypes forced onto characters. On one hand we have Kase. She's an athletic extrovert, the complete opposite of her love interest. Yamada is shy and easily flustered and... that's it. That's her whole character, at least that's what it felt like.

Overall, I'm going to give this anime an 8/10. Hopefully if there're more of this in the future the characters will have more personality than they do now!

ok first of all I LOVE THAT SHIT This movie was fucking amazing asagao to kase-san was an yuri anime that had a pretty decent story for an 1:30 hour anime they putted all the effort into making it and the manga fans were all over it the moment it came out everyone loved it for me asagao to kase-san was rly something amazing they had such an amaing art style and the story was about a girl that actually loves flowers AND I FUCKING LOVE FLOWERS the girl was gardner that was looking after the flowers everyday and kase san found that pretty intersting ... about her bcs she knew that she cares alot for everything and treats it with love that yuri anime couple is one of my favorites kase san got one of my favorite type of personalities in animes as well i gave asagao to kase-san a strong (9/10)

I'm not used to leaving a review, so I apologize if this is not the best.

I've only gotten into the romance genre of anime rather recently. And most of the Yuri/Girls Love/Lesbian anime I've seen before is not very realistic, or is lacking in depth. This OVA was an excellent watch! The characters felt real, and not overbaked stereotypes. The music was good. I couldn't give a higher rating on the story because there wasn't much of one; it was very lightweight storytelling, and only got more present at the end.

This also suffers from just being too short an anime. With only a single 1 ... hour episode, there wasn't time to properly build everything up. Still, for as short as it was, what we see feels very real. Like it could actually have happened. The characters are treated like people, not objects, which is rather refreshing.

I would love to see this turned into a full series sometime! My heart aches at not seeing these two explore their relationship more, or maybe see how it started out in greater detail. I grieve for what could have been.