The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

Episode 1

When a show takes this long to debut, even if it's just due to the whims of the streaming service, the question is always, “Was it worth the wait?” And now that The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity has at long last made its English-language debut on Netflix, I believe that the answer is “yes.” With a good amount of fidelity to its source material and art that does justice to the original creator, Saka Mikami, the show delivers a solid first episode that lets us know precisely what it's all about: an adorable love story that looks beyond first impressions.

Or rather, relies on slightly different first impressions than most of the characters have. Rintaro has one of those unfortunate anime faces that makes everyone assume he's a bad boy, and that's been the case since he was in elementary school. Now that he's in high school – the worst high school, to hear him talk about it – the problem has only been compounded by his large build. Even when he's being friendly, people assume the worst, and that extends to his group of friends, just because they're with him. So when a delicate girl sees him in his family's cake shop and runs away, he assumes it's just business as usual.

So of course it's not. The girl, Kaoruko, is embarrassed that a boy – a boy she thinks is attractive rather than scary – saw her eating four people's worth of cake. She's the first person outside of Rintaro's friend group to look at him and see a person like any other, and one of the strengths of the episode is showing how much that means to Rintaro. He's so used to being an object of fear or being accosted by thugs that it's mind-blowing to him that a pretty girl would want to be around him. And she doesn't just seem to be into him for the bad boy appeal, either. To be perfectly honest, I suspect that part of his attraction for her is that his mom owns a patisserie, and not only is she clearly a cake enthusiast, she also can't associate anyone involved in baking with anything bad.

There's a further layer of complication, however: Kaoruko attends the fancy all-(rich)-girls high school directly next door to Rintaro's bottom-rung public high school. There's a clear never the twain shall meet attitude between the two institutions, and it's striking that the so-called ladies of the girls' school are much less nice than the presumed thugs of the boys' school. When a group of them is walking to school and one of the girls drops a handkerchief, a boy picks it up and tells her she dropped it. Rather than being grateful or gracious, she instead sneers at him and tells him to throw it away, with a powerful implication that he's sullied it far more than being on the ground did. It's a disgusting reaction to an act of kindness, and it shows viewers what's likely to be the reaction if Kaoruko and Rintaro continue to see each other – romantically or otherwise.

But this is a situation that's just begging to be shaken up. Assumptions run rampant in this episode, and only two people are trying to see beyond them. Rintaro's just accepted that he's not going to be liked or understood, and that's incredibly sad. If Kaoruko has the strength to help change his world (and I think she does), everyone will be the better for it.

Rating:

Dub Thoughts: The screener Netflix provided me was for the English dub, and for the most part, it's good. The only voice I don't care for is Kaoruko's – she's a little too breathy and squeaky, and a lot of her lines sound stilted, as if the actor is having trouble matching the mouth flaps. I'm interested to see if I prefer her sub voice or if this is a case of the dub trying too hard to match the Japanese VA.

ANN received a screener for this premiere episode. The first episode of The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity premieres on Netflix on September 7.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is currently streaming on Netflix.