Aoi Hana

This anime was definitely not made for everyone, including myself. I was expecting a love story, and I got one. It wasn't bad, and honestly was a great portrayal of young love and figuring yourself out. However, the two characters we expect to get together at the end of the show (which is HEAVILY alluded to in the intro and throughout the show) do not end up getting together.

Overall this anime was boring. It was realistic, the animation was cute and not anything like other girl love animes, but jeez I'm kinda mad I wasted time on this one. It is a very subtle anime. ... The characters were boring, the story was boring, every girl was going for this one male teacher?? Like there was never any explanation about that OR Manjome's weird love for her cousin. Strange show that many people seem to love.

As a slice of life anime, it's kinda slightly above average and okay. As a Girl's Love anime, it's a rare bit of representation of realistic sapphic high school romance. In short, if this anime wasn't gay, I probably wouldn't be recommending it. But then again, if you've even come across this anime, it's probably because you were explicitly looking for gay content (like I was).

Characters: The characters are sweet, but don't really stand out much and leave you kind of wanting more depth. The redhead was probably my favourite character but the protagonist was cool, too.

Plot: The relationship that was central to the plot ... was... eh. Like, it was okayyyy. I feel like it takes a lot of guts to make a realistic gay anime and input a freaking heterosexual wedding scene in the climax lol. And the casual biphobia and the lack of plot-critique around age gap/grooming of teenagers by adults was just nasty, but I guess Japanese entertainment media really has a problem with that end of things.

Sound/art: Eh. You're not going to be watching the anime for the art and the soundtrack really made the anime quite maudlin and a bit cheesy but also bittersweet at times.

Overall: 6/10.

Aoi Hana is a slow burn anime...not a good one, though.

I'd say that Aoi Hana's story definitely could be a realistic portrayal of lesbians or yuri, and that's kind of the route that the show goes for. Now, the thing you have to ask yourself is this: do you like "realistic romance?"
I think that despite all of the episodes going at a snail's pace, I didn't really manage to understand most characters, since there are so many. There's a multitude of relationships and love interests, and eventual breakups in those relationships that you are going to see, and so, for the most part, the show ... is going to be focused on 5+ characters that all have their own part to play in the plot, whether it be pure support, or just because of their unrequited love for another character.
I guess for the most part, all of the characters in the show are not necessarily put under a microscope despite the slow-paced nature of the show, and you're not going to get to know the characters all that well since the focus is sporadic and spread apart. This, included with some emphasis on plot in terms of the drama club play and other miscellaneous scenes that you could argue is just for character development if you like the work, or just a waste of time if you're like me, and are indifferent to it.
For example, you could have Yumi and A-Chan sit together in a cafe and hanging out, yet they only have, I don't know, a grand total of 5 seconds of dialogue before a jump to the next scene.
There's no real slice of life dialogue or content, and most of the show is going to be focused on melodrama based on the relationships and love interests as a I described earlier.
I found the episodes excruciatingly slow, since by episode 6, I still have zero emotional investment in any character, since what is there to love? Most of the time, you are shown nothing but how a certain character has a sad past, or that they have a certain unrequited love, and all of the sudden you're supposed to care about them? This can certainly be said about Okudaira and Yumi, much less the supporting cast of characters that have even less screen time than both of them. How much do you actually know about them? Do you ever see them having fun? You mainly just have them either witnessing or experiencing some sort of melodrama, some thoughts brewing in their minds as it unfolds.
Do I think that this show is a yuri just as a gimmick? No, actually. Lesbians coming out of the closets and the consequences of doing so is a recurring theme in the show, and the girls in the series are not yuri archetypes that just fall in love and show fanservice scenes. Does that make the show good? Absolutely not. Again, in the case of romance shows, "realisticness" is something that you can pursue, but it's not something that's going to elevate your show when there's not much to get invested in.
An extremely average and run of the mill romance show. The show only adapts 18 chapters in it's 11 episode run, which is 1.6 chapters per episode, which can explain the snail's pace the show runs at, all with its focus on still frames and slow dialogue that just drags on the seconds and minutes, which all add up. There's not much of an excuse for the anime to adapt so slowly other than to save animation work, and it shows. Sure, the chapters are 40 pages long or so, but that does NOT warrant less than 2 chapters per episode.

Overall this was an ok anime. It is better in story then say citrus. Although I feel there could have been more to the story, more context, and answer alot more questions within the story. Like why does the character cry so much? Why does she feel the way she does? why can't she talk to the person that hurt her? The way they portray the "relationship" between the two MC's is lighter, softer and non aggressive compared to the BL that I have watched. If you are into that thing, then this is for you. I haven't found many other anime with in the ... GL genre that I can vibe with and that I feel represents more then one type of relationship that is out there in the world. I probably need to start reading more manga to find the stuff I am looking for rather then watching anime. So far it seems kind of the same.