Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku
The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

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Just by looking at the cover picture, you can tell it is another "Romeo and Juliet", "Delinquent and smart girl" cliche slapped together. However, the mangaka is able to turn these overused tropes into something amazing and wholesome that other mangas with the same plot simply could not accomplish.

The plot is simple: we start of from the perspective of a delinquent guy, our male lead Tsumugi Rintaro from a low-ranked public high school, coincidentally meeting with a petite girl, our female lead Kaoruko Waguri from a prestigious all-girls high school, at a cake shop owned by Rintaro's mom. Both schools are also coincidentally next to ... each other with a unfathomable hatred of each other. It is without a doubt both leads would need to navigate their relationship within the web of animosity between their schools and friends.

What changes the progression and pacing of this plot lies entirely with the characters, and the mangaka sure does know how to write good characters. Tsumugi, who is portrayed as a scary person on the outside, is soft and kind on the inside. He is able to learn quickly from and correct mistakes he made, intentionally or unintentionally progressing the relationship between him and Kaoruko. Kaoruko, who saw past Tsumugi's scary appearance and a love of cake, naturally opened up to him at his family's cake shop (for reasons that would probably be explained in the future). What is truly refreshing is that these two main leads are not shy of expressing their feelings and are able to face the obstacles head on whether it be from objections of their social standing or their classmates. The main leads and side character's honesty and respect for their values makes this manga enjoyable to read as they develop.

The art is nothing to be scoffed at considering the mangaka's first published work. Every character's facial expressions are extremely detailed and can invoke heavy emotions, whether they be upset, crying, blushing, or joyful. Every character is also unique and as a reader can easily distinguish who is who. In addition, the backgrounds of each scene are meticulously drawn to give an adequate sense of the setting of each event.

Within the first 10 chapters, there has been more meaningful progression between the relationship of Tsumugi and Kaoruko than other mainstream romance mangas. Although it is easy to see the general gist to what the ending is, I am excited to see how the mangaka will lead the plot to that ending as every chapter has been full of twists and turns, and heavy emotions that is hard to replicate after reading hundreds of the same genre.

If you are a fan of this type of romance genre, I highly suggest you give it a try. Even if you are tired of other mangas overusing these cliches, I would still recommend you try the first two chapters as it sets a solid foundation of what the rest of the manga will be like.

Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku is not a bad manga. However, I do not think it offers a distinctive enough experience to justify its high MAL score.

To compare, time tested manga like Chihayafuru, Tokyo Ghoul, Your Lie in April, and Fruits Basket are all rated lower than this manga. Current juggernauts like Spy x Family, Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Lock, and Attack on Titan are also rated lower. It is in the same ballpark as big names like Blue Period, Solo Leveling, Frieren, Gintama, and Mob Psycho 100. So, what exactly are people seeing in this manga?

Mikami Saka is a skilled artist, especially with ... facial expressions. Kaoru Hana has some remarkable close-up shots during emotionally intense or complex moments that I hoped would be more effective within the framework of the story. They can capture subtle details that really capture what the characters are feeling.

Additionally, Rintaro and Waguri have a healthy, admirable relationship that positively influences their immediate friend groups. They also start dating relatively early and avoid the often-cumbersome dynamics of “will they, won’t they” romances. All the characters involved make efforts to communicate well and establish good relationships despite the challenges and biases caused by tensions between their respective high schools. As an example of good behavior, these things are fair to admire from the manga.

However, I think the dramatic tools the story utilizes are at odds with the story’s content. Often accompanied with genuinely enjoyable and natural slice of life shenanigans are multiple chapters of the following: characters calling friend group meetings to talk about one decision that a character plans to make, characters apologizing a lot to each other for really excusable transgressions, admitting they were not kind at first impression, revealing that they had a harder time earlier in their life, apologizing again after having just apologized for something else related to the something that has already been resolved. These, in and of themselves, are not bad story telling tools nor even inappropriate within the context of the story. However, the dramatic manner they are told has, for me, not appropriately matched the gravity of what has happened in the story.

Melodrama works in conjunction to the extremity of the circumstances it is capturing. Shows like Violet Evergarden or this season’s My Happy Marriage work because the characters are in obviously extreme, easily to sympathize with circumstances. Though the tensions between the two schools is interesting, the manga has not succeeded in convincing me that this tension is so palpable that there are compelling stakes for these characters to interact with each other.

Recognizing that I am an older manga reader and may be less interested in the material than a younger reader might, I would still recommend the manga to pre-adolescent or young teenagers for the sake of reading about admirable characters who solve their problems in healthy ways. However, I think there are much more compelling examples of these types of relationship in the manga world.

English is not my first language


The problematic of this manga has gone beyond the point of being forced, which many manga that take place in school have, and it has become just plain stupid. This tension between the schools has no rationale, and the teachers also being part of this tantrum only makes it more ridiculous. The fact that the two schools are single-sex should actually encourage students to interact with each other, as they are deprived of this contact for hours.

In the course of the plot there are some more silly dramas, like the MC's friend getting annoyed because our MC didn't want to ... tell something about his PERSONAL LIFE, as if he had an obligation. This friend is that, a friend, not a father, not a boyfriend, not a brother, so I didn't see much point in all that drama.

Episodes ahead, there are several other moments that are much more dramatic than necessary, WAY more than necessary. The author wants to create impactful scenes in every way possible. some of these moments are even embarrassing. What's worse is that the author must think these moments are super cool and even badass in certain cases, but are actually just Corny because of how forced they are.

Zero emotional intelligence on the part of the main characters.

FMC is one of those characters that the author portrays as a good person who always wants to help, but the end result is a naive person who doesn't think much and doesn't know much about life (which, in my opinion, is reinforced when in the middle of the second volume she is already stating that she loves the MC). When analyzing her actions, I don't see a selfless person, but someone who fails to notice the toxicity of others. Her friend tries to go behind her back and push the MC away from her and in the end it's the FMC who ends up apologizing for making her worry about her safety...jesus. A genuine person would understand where his friends actions come from and, despite excusing him, would not make excuses for his actions and would scold him for it. Here, she doesn't give a fuck, she's her friend so it's okay, you're automatically excused. It's ridiculous that this character trop is repeated so much in manga, especially shounen fantasy, and nobody noticed this. Thet aren't selfless people, they are just ingenuous, or just plain stupid.

And there are certain moments where i feel like I'm reading a manga for children, because of how silly certain parts are(like the above), which creates a huge discrepancy of when it's taken too seriously.

The auto also tends to take the readers for idiots when explaining everything the characters are feeling and going through, or he is simply incompetent in showing and not telling what is going on (which is a great achievement, considering that this would be something easier to do here than in a book, since we are in visual media). Everything that happens is chewed up by monologues and presented to you in such a way that you don't have to stop to understand the characters. Sometimes these chewing scenes are so big and ridiculous that they stretch for pages. Sometimes I feel like these moments take up more than half the pages of certain chapters; this is not hyperbole, these monologues occupy almost entire episodes.

Inconsistent art. At one moment the art is beautiful, especially when it comes to the FMC, but at others it's so clumsy because of how crooked the faces are sometimes.

How does this manga have such a high rating?