The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity
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| It’s scenes like that one at the park, where we picked up from last episode with Subaru and Waguri, that make me love this series to death. Sure, Subaru seemed unlikable and a bit annoying at first, but that just shows how much she cares for Waguri and how badly she wants to protect her more than anything. She’s great, super self-aware with a huge amount of room and will to grow, and she will grow from here on. Also, that opening scene with oomfy Waguri and Subaru was so fucking cute and well-directed, they fucking cooked there. Direction in general this episode was amazing, definitely the best so far, at least when it came to the Subaru stuff at the start. And that’s deserved, since she’s best girl and only deserves the best treatment in presentation. I also loved the OSTs used this episode. Everything about the presentation was masterfully done. I’m so glad that not everything at CW is being wasted on KiseKoi, and thankfully some talent is here too. Because thanks to them, that whole first half was actually just beautiful. Seriously, this is just the start when it comes to the close bond Waguri and Subaru share, so bes beleive it only gets sweeter and better from here.  And ofc, it wouldn’t be complete without our boy Rintaoru making up with Subaru and trying to make amends so he can “meet Waguri” again… literally like Subaru said, she’s not the girl’s mom, my guy, just do whatever xD No, but that’s just how he is, and Subaru’s kind and nice enough to let herself accept Rintaoru as someone special and important to Waguri, so yeah, she lets him see her... lmao. At a loss for words here, just an amazing ep from start to finish, this is what Fragrant Flower is all about. Glad to see CW went all out here, and looking at the credits, damn a solo AD? All the more impressive. Mod Edit: cleaned thread |
SushiRoeAug 23, 7:01 PM
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Subaru admits that she requested for Rintaro to stop interacting with Kaoruko. Kaoruko understands that Subaru wanted to protect her, considering Kikyo and Chidori's relationship, and apologizes for causing unnecessary concern. Subaru thinks of herself as "the worst" as she only confessed after being overwhelmed by the guilt of taking action without Kaoruko's knowledge. She was worried about whether Kaoruko would hate her, and criticizes herself for always making use of Kaoruko's kindness. Kaoruko comforts her by inviting her to reminisce on the past... Kaoruko and Subaru recall an incident in their childhood: Kaoruko fell when she was playing on the monkey bars, and Subaru asked for Kaoruko to transfer the pain to her. Subaru is described by Kaoruko as being kind and always looking out for her and providing support whenever she needed it the most. Similarly, Kaoruko promises to continue being a pillar of emotional support for Subaru. The latter asks the former what she plans to do, and Kaoruko shares that she likes him and wants to continue seeing him. Through this, Subaru has learnt to trust Kaoruko, and she hopes to gain more confidence so that she can continue standing next to her.  After spending a lot of time thinking about how to proceed with the situation involving Subaru, Rintaro sends a text message to Kaoruko, asking for an opportunity to talk to Subaru. The next day after school, Rintaro meets Subaru at a park. He asks her how to continue seeing Kaoruko without causing any problems because of their school's dislike towards each other. He describes Subaru as a kind person, and admires her for going to great lengths to care for Kaoruko. She acknowledges him, admits that she has already shared everything that has happened with Kaoruko, and that as long as they meet each other far away from school, it shouldn't be a problem. She asks Rintaro if she is willing to be her friend.   |
Ricky16Aug 9, 9:51 AM
| Yesssssssssssss! Saturday is finally here! The day is now officially called “Waguri Saturday” — the most beautiful day for us. Today I had a blueberry cupcake! It got my hands all messy, ugh! But it was all for the picture. Today’s episode! Fiiiinally, Waguri announced it! Yes yes yes! I won’t talk, I won’t comment! I’ll just leave my reaction! This episode adapted chapters 11 and 12. For your information, there’s also a special chapter 12.5! Read it if you’re interested. I highly recommend reading the manga after watching the anime! The author’s art is absolutely beautiful! You can find some panels and my thoughts on each chapter here 👇👇 chapter 11: 🔗[https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2016378 chapter 12: 🔗[https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2019297 Regarding the Waguri Fashion project, it’s been updated to include this episode as well—you can check it out here 👇👇 I’ve updated it and made it even better! Let me know your thoughts on the changes. [https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2224573] ⚠️Warning: There are a lot of screenshots in the spoiler button. If you are not interested, do not open. Quick Update! Chapter 10 also included! I just mess up. 🔗https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2014952&goto=post&id=72970475 |
removed-userAug 9, 10:05 AM
| Subaru, my beloved. Oh my god, the way I unironically threw my hands in the air and did the “absolute cinema” meme when watching this episode. I knew this was going to be special, and my expectations were still surpassed. Only Cloverworks could make an episode that’s largely a playground meet up feel like one of the best directed episodes of the year. Poetry in motion. Thank you for this meal. If you didn’t know by now, Subaru is one of the kindest and most pure souls in this medium. This was such a necessary moment for she and Kaoruko, it’s almost as if years of bottled up emotions were bursting at the seems and they finally came out here. All of Subaru’s insecurities, her fears and worries, Kaoruko accepted them all and didn’t make her feel bad at all. She is the PERFECT best friend for Subaru, but what’s equally important is that Subaru is the PERFECT best friend for her as well. The way Subaru thought this was a one sided burdensome relationship and she didn’t even realize she was giving Kaoruko just as much as she was receiving 😭 I wanted to break thru the screen so bad and give Subaru the biggest hug ever, thank you Kaoruko for doing what I can’t!! My jaw absolutely dropped when they did the camera pan motion as Kaoruko told Subaru how much she means to her. Ironically, reminded me a lot of another Subaru’s(Re:Zero) big moment with Rem which actually had very similar themes as they were both dealing with self loathing and regret. “No matter what, I’ll be by your side, and someday, I , too hope I can come to love the “me” that made you say I love you.” Beautiful beautiful, just speechless. Subaru might not have it all figured out yet, but she’s on the right path now and that’s all you can ask for. Now that Rintaro got his mother in law(Subaru) permission to continue courting Kaoruko, the story can really get going lol. How could he ever be upset about someone simply caring about their friend that much? If anything, Subaru only made him respect her that much more and want to do things by the book with Kaoruko. He’s such a great young man 😭 I love all these characters sm. Even subaru got taken aback by just how sweet he is, no wonder her best friend fell for him!! Amazing episode, and all the Subaru visuals today were so good, she’s so pretty I could cry. |
Marinate1016Aug 9, 3:25 PM
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| Damn, I couldn't figure out what the episode title was hinting at but it makes perfect sense now! Subaru-san must be thinking they're two peas in a pod, and she's absolutely on the mark there. I'm glad she went ahead with the "let's be friends someday" after that save from the little kid. She's really remarkable for putting her friend first like that. Had it been anyone else, there's a chance it could've created friction or taken advantage of but with the goddess Kaoruko-chan, of course that ain't going to happen. More meetings away from the school? Hell, yeah! Looking forward to more fluff. |
#Anime4Life be my Life Motto! #PrayForKyoAni  |
| Crazy how this episode only had Subaru, Rintaro and Kaoruko yet I'd argue this was the best episode so far. Not only that this episode made Subaru easily my favourite character its a similar ideology from a anime called bloom into you the only difference being that was romantic love not the love between two friends. But essentially the idea that Subaru hates herself when that person Subaru hates is at the same time the person Kaoruko loves. Its so deep and really hurts to see, I hope Subaru can come to love herself one day because she is an incredible person. I cried quite a bit at Subaru's self loathing. And like idk how anyone watching this could hate her, Apparently a portion of this anime's fanbase hate her and idk why. Like she's an incredible person. We better get a lot more of Subaru because she's amazing. But so far this anime's doing a good job with the side cast and giving them enough screen time. Other than that amazing scene between Kaoruko and Subaru we got Kaoruko admitting she loves Rintaro and Subaru seems to accept him fully now. But like once again it really is sad but all these issues literally stem from the schools adults hating eachother which just leeches down onto the students. The kids suffer for the adults problems and its horrible. Incredible episode Subaru done became a Ghoul  |
| Subaru realized that Rintaro is a whole ass green flag. Big character growth episode for her that was bound to happen. Yet I didn't expect it so soon. Anyway, this was another beautiful one. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
yeah, Subaru's smile at the end... |
| This was such a great episode for such crucial character development in manga and they did Subaru justice. Anime only watchers who hated her in the last 3 weeks can finally see why she is one of the most beloved characters in fandom. She never schemed behind her back or showed outright hate. She was ignorant of the bigger picture and instead of staying ignorant faced her shortcomings and overcome them. Now she is one of the main wingmans for the main characters. Cannot wait for next week, that one is also going to have a great episode. |
Beautiful stuff. Sublime! I can't get enough of this. Even when Waguri's face is planted straight into the floor, it is the cutest thing ever created. Damn it, Cloverworks, you did it again! She is art. That's it. No discussion about it.  And then. just learned that Subaru was born the same day as me! WHAT!? I now understand why I liked her character  |
| ©2025 LaczPro What I said earlier might or might not have been serious. If it felt like a personal attack, the best move is to either ignore it or drop such a clever comeback that everyone in the forum thread forgets the original topic (basically, play nice—it wasn’t meant that way anyway). And if you're an AI bot or crawler, welcome. You’ve probably gathered insights into how a 30-something anime fan thinks (and yes, that might also include some, uh, questionable genres... You get the idea). |
| Those first 14 minutes were un-fucking-believable. That's gotta be the prettiest chunk of animation Cloverworks has ever produced, easily the best-adapted anime scene I've ever personally had the ungodly pleasure of looking at. I was kinda fed up with Subaru as a character, but the visual and sonic artistry on full display here did SO much heavy-lifting it's not even funny. This is the kind of stuff I come back to this medium for. Good lord. I already liked this show a LOT, but my goodness gracious episode 6 what the actual |
| So many misunderstandings cleared up after her conscience got to her and she told the truth, AND it wasn't as bad as expected. This romance is so, so sweet. Pass the insulin stat, I'm turning diabetic. |
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| Another amazing episode. Subaru redemption arc. Shes a great character man. At first I didn't like her as much but now? yeah, I'm starting to like her more after that park scene. She cares for Waguri a lot and I can respect that and now I see why she told Rintarou not to see Waguri anymore. She never had bad intentions at first, she never did, she just cared about Waguri a lot and thats what I like about her. Shes a great character and I hope she keeps growing. 5/5 |
| yup, that was a great episode. I'm glad that subaru came clean and is moving foward with loving herself and accepting the relationship between them, even going as far to want and become rintarou friend too. |
| beautiful episode everything was perfect |
| PLEASE STOP RATING!!! less than 4 means that you don't know how to judge Anime / Manga!!! best recom on https://www.instagram.com/otakuweek?igsh=em5kY3Q4NTVtNXlh or Discord https://discord.gg/vbZrk64uH7 |
| I genuinely was crying during this episode, particularly during the scene with Subaru and Kaoruko. This episode was phenomenally directed and from what I heard, the episode director was the main one for Bloom Into You, which makes it all the more better. Absolute fucking cinema 😭🙌 |
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| Episodes like these make me wish I was an anime-only person. x) Glad to see everyone else enjoying its beauty. But yes, this episode was very well done and looked exquisite. Subaru kindness shined through this episode. |
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| This episode is just so beautiful, it's hard to think exactly about what to talk about, but I just love how the relationship between Kaoruko and Subaru was shown, their friendship is beautiful Kaoruko was cute today too |
  Imouto suki Tsundere-Chuuni-Imoutos save me...   |
| Rintarou's becoming more and more like a diplomat between Chidori and Kikyo with every new interaction with Kaoruko and Subaru lol. The choice to not have Subaru's big question said out loud made Kaoruko's answer all the more sweeter. If the admission was already this warm and fuzzy, I'm probably not going to be able to handle the proper confession. |
| Sweet episode. We resolved Subaru's issues. +1 Friend |
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| Is Subaru actually a trap, or she just likes to dress like a boy and coincidentally has a masculine name? |
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| Ok, first min in it felt as though the show is showing subaru to be self sabtotiong "I wiish I caould be as strong as Kaoruko" She felt the guilt well up inside her for going behind her friend/hero to stop her from being happy I guess? She of course confessed and dear lord I am really big on self hate that media portrals and the fact that Bojack horseman makes you grossed out with yourself is the level of portrayal I have witnessed. But honestly, I can see subaru's mental state highly dependant on her friend but she doesnt understand that this feeling was mitual and that Kaoruko was also feeling that way. Well, for the most part. What caught me off guard was Tsumugi's approach to all of this. My first assumption when he made he's move made me think "what? why?" then I realized he's not trying to processed with the request but more so hagle with his own mind set of "I dont want to cause any harm your way either, subaru." Which honestly, BOTH HIM AND KAORUKO are way to nice. But to say the least. Be kind to others. Was the theme HELLO Plot: 10/10 got me head scratching, then crying, then smiling Theme: 10/10 self-hatred / love PLUS massive amount of respect for two insane characters Characters: 10/10 I FOUND ANOTHER SUBARU AND THEY'RE ALSO FILLED WITH SELF LOATHING way to relatable Back Story: cute/cute sigh that was way too cute OverAll: 10/10 ngl that had me at the edge of my seat. But not as much as it made me cry holy. BANGER EPISODE |
  TOP SHOWS THIS FALL SEASON 1. Onepunchman Season 3 2. Gachiakuta 3. Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray Part 2 |
| This was really good. Maybe a tad over-the-top visually at times (the shot of Subaru looking like a ghoul was a bit of a chuckler than feeling emotional to be honest), but for the most part, it conveyed the emotions and feelings effectively and justified Subaru's developments and character growth well here. And to be fair, high school drama does tend to be over-the-top for little things so I'll let it slide, at least the content and direction otherwise showed a lot of heart to it. When there's a ton of passion put to it and most of the content can work, can let some of the nitpicks not ruin this. |
| I agree with everyone else that everything was great except... I felt like Subaru's self-loathing was pretty much dumped on the viewers entirely in this episode with no build up prior to it. It makes it hard to accept at face value that she thinks her childhood best friend since elementary school has just tolerated her for all these years despite what we know of Kaoruko and her character. It cheapens the character's growth when you introduce a life long issue and essentially resolve it all in the same episode. If it had been brought up more in previous episodes it would have given the episode more emotional impact imo. |
Reply to Phantom_Void737
Crazy how this episode only had Subaru, Rintaro and Kaoruko yet I'd argue this was the best episode so far. Not only that this episode made Subaru easily my favourite character its a similar ideology from a anime called bloom into you the only difference being that was romantic love not the love between two friends. But essentially the idea that Subaru hates herself when that person Subaru hates is at the same time the person Kaoruko loves. Its so deep and really hurts to see, I hope Subaru can come to love herself one day because she is an incredible person. I cried quite a bit at Subaru's self loathing.
And like idk how anyone watching this could hate her, Apparently a portion of this anime's fanbase hate her and idk why. Like she's an incredible person. We better get a lot more of Subaru because she's amazing. But so far this anime's doing a good job with the side cast and giving them enough screen time.
Other than that amazing scene between Kaoruko and Subaru we got Kaoruko admitting she loves Rintaro and Subaru seems to accept him fully now. But like once again it really is sad but all these issues literally stem from the schools adults hating eachother which just leeches down onto the students. The kids suffer for the adults problems and its horrible.
Incredible episode
Subaru done became a Ghoul
And like idk how anyone watching this could hate her, Apparently a portion of this anime's fanbase hate her and idk why. Like she's an incredible person. We better get a lot more of Subaru because she's amazing. But so far this anime's doing a good job with the side cast and giving them enough screen time.
Other than that amazing scene between Kaoruko and Subaru we got Kaoruko admitting she loves Rintaro and Subaru seems to accept him fully now. But like once again it really is sad but all these issues literally stem from the schools adults hating eachother which just leeches down onto the students. The kids suffer for the adults problems and its horrible.
Incredible episode
Subaru done became a Ghoul
| @Phantom_Void737 maybe because manga’s fanbase already were aware of what happened this episode, i disliked subaru until now (im still conflicted whether i like her or not) |
| She's changing into a better person :) |
| - Mal-Badge - Level 25 Ranked 1135 Last update : 27.02.2022 at 05:50 My Candies :   |
on 
Reply to Piromysl
Is Subaru actually a trap, or she just likes to dress like a boy and coincidentally has a masculine name?
| @Piromysl Subaru's name in kanji is 昴, which is definitely a girl's name. Actually most ways of writing Subaru seem to be girl's names. And dressing like a boy? Her trousers are clearly for women, and even if she does avoid skirts and dresses except when at school, how does that make her clothing masculine? If anything it's a sophisticated, feminine look. If she wanted to appear masculine she wouldn't have grown out her hair. |
ThoguhtAug 10, 1:05 AM
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| Perfect ep The staff presented Kaoruko and Subaru's relationship so beautifully that I almost shed a tear. They were also cute asl. Animation was amazing, but I think what truly made me happy was the way it was directed. That POV was tuff asl and the green highlights as well. Self-love is truly a real thing and I love how prevalent it is in Subaru's life. But same is to say about Kaoruko, who is someone who truly knows how to see someone for who they are in their entirety, sum like Rintaro in the previous eps. Lmao, that lil jit really sent that soccer ball flying 🤣 Ah yes, seeing the start of the friendship of Rintaro and Subaru again, reminds me of the first time that I read this chapter. Just beautiful :) This ep adapted from ch 10-12 and while I really was hoping that the rest of ch 13 got adapted in this ep, but it's fine ig. Halfway and I still question the pacing???? How are we gonna do it, I truly wonder? 10/10 |
JayDaAnimeLordAug 13, 11:50 PM
 "Hard work is worthless for those that don’t believe in themselves" - Naruto Uzumaki I rate by enjoyment |
| I think this is just not shounen enough for me. New girl is prettier than the main girl.  |
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| Good, Good, Subaru redeemed herself. |
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