The Melancholy of Kyoko Ikumi

In another story, Kyoko Ikumi would be the main character. Her life thus far has followed a trajectory associated with many Class S and early yuri stories: apparently destined for an arranged marriage with an older man for whom she seems to have little if any real feeling, seeking refuge in an unrequited crush on an older girl, then meeting clear and unequivocal rejection from the object of her affections. If this were a traditional story, the only suspense would be whether her remaining life would be short and unhappy or long and unhappy.

But Kyoko is not the main character of Sweet Blue Flowers, which tells us something about what kind of story this is: “S for a new generation,” as Erica Friedman put it in her review.¹ That new generation will presumably identify more closely with Akira and (especially) Fumi, whom Friedman called in another context a “Heisei girl,” born after the Shōwa period ended in 1989 with Emperor Hirohito’s death.²

So, why is Kyoko featured so prominently in Sweet Blue Flowers (almost as prominently as Yasuko Sugimoto in this first volume)? For one, she serves as a friend and classmate to Akira, a guide to her as she navigates the new world of Fujigaya Women’s Academy. As Kyoko tells Akira, the women in her family have always attended Fujigaya, from elementary school on (SBF, 1:287).

Kyoko is also both a (would-be) rival to Fumi for Yasuko’s affections and eventually a fellow sufferer (SBF, 1:375–76). I’ll have more to say about Yasuko later, but clearly Kyoko’s transparent neediness and Yasuko’s own problems poisoned the possibility of any real relationship between them.

Where will Kyoko go from here? Thematically she seems destined to represent the past, as Fumi represents the future. Personally she still has Ko Sawanoi waiting in the wings, and perhaps their relationship (strained as it is) is her own best hope for escaping the unhappy fate of many a Class S protagonist.