Appendix 4: Reviews

Now that I’ve finished my comments on Sweet Blue Flowers, let’s take a look at what other people thought of it. This appendix contains a not-quite-comprehensive list of reviews of volumes 1 through 4 of the VIZ Media edition, omitting video reviews and reader reviews posted to online bookstores and book review websites.

Volume 1

Rose Bridges at Anime News Network. ANN is the most prominent anime news and review site; they also do a fair number of manga reviews. Bridges gave Sweet Blue Flowers an overall B+ grade, with a B for story and an A for art. “Overall, this release is an excellent way to dive into a yuri manga that’s a cut above the rest. Sweet Blue Flowers still has plenty of its genre’s trappings, but also enough bite for those seeking something more realistic.”¹

Ash Brown at Experiments in Manga. A generally favorable review that highlights Shimura’s artwork and its relation to theatrical performance, as well as the realism of character actions and interactions. “Sweet Blue Flowers is a wonderful series. The manga is emotionally resonate, with a realistic portrayal of the experiences of young women who love other young women.”²

Alex Cline at Adventures in Poor Taste. A generally favorable review on a website focusing on popular culture. Cline liked the characters and how they were handled, and thought the artwork stood out. One criticism he voiced was regarding a lack of clarity in some scenes regarding who was talking and where the scenes fit in the overall timeline. “Overall, Sweet Blue Flowers Vol. 1 is a solid start for the series. The characters are likable and well introduced, and the artwork throughout is beautiful. With that said, none of the volume’s more emotional moments are very memorably so. This is a volume that shows promise and generates enough interest to warrant giving the next installment a look, but it doesn’t quite reach greatness as is. I would recommend it, but not enthusiastically so.”³

Amelia Cook at Otaku USA. Otaku USA is a print and online magazine covering anime and manga; Cook is also the founder of the Anime Feminist website. Her review is favorable. She particularly calls out the depiction of the four main characters (Akira, Fumi, Yasuko, and Kyoko) as realistic and nuanced. She rated Sweet Blue Flowers as “recommended.” “Sweet Blue Flowers [paints] a picture of everyday life with complicated young women going through important formative experiences. You’ll end the 400-page volume rooting for them all to have a happy ending.”⁴

Leroy Douresseaux at The Comic Book Bin. A favorable review (score 8 out of 10) on a general comics site. “Fans of yuri and shojo romance will want to smell the Sweet Blue Flowers.”⁵

EyeSpyeAlex [Alexandra Nutting] at The Geekly Grind. A favorable review on a website focused on anime, manga, and video games. “At the end of the day, I really enjoy Sweet Blue Flowers. The characters feel real and have a depth and complexity to their lives. While the visuals could be a little more striking, it fits the down to earth tone of the manga.”⁶

Erica Friedman at Okazu. Friedman is one of the most well-known promoters and reviewers of yuri manga and anime, and hers is the single most authoritative site in English for yuri-related news. She also did previous reviews of the Japanese edition of Aoi hana. In this review she rated volume 1 as 8 out of 10 overall, with art and characters at 8 and story and “yuri” at 7. “Although the opening and the ending are—in my opinion—very weak, the rest of the story is excellent. It’s got surprising depth and breadth. Characters that surround Fumi and Akira are as well-developed as they and as interesting.”⁷

Sean Gaffney at A Case Suitable for Treatment. A favorable review from a manga-focused site. Gaffney acknowledges that the long delay in bringing out a complete official translation of Sweet Blue Flowers makes it seem less distinctive compared to more recent works like Bloom Into You or Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl. “Sweet Blue Flowers is absolutely worth reading and checking out, both if you like yuri and if you like Takako Shimura. It’s also only four volumes, so shouldn’t devastate your bookshelf too much.”⁸

Helen at TheOASG. A generally favorable review at a group anime and manga blog, albeit with some concerns expressed about the use of yuri tropes, possible queer-baiting, and the reaction by Yasuko’s family to her and Fumi’s relationship being unrealistic. Helen rated Sweet Blue Flowers at 3 out of 5. “Sweet Blue Flowers … treats its characters as people, not characters created for the reader’s gaze but real teenaged girls dealing with the always overly-complicated world of high school. But it still remains to be seen just how many times these girls have their hearts broken and mended by the time they graduate.”⁹

Chuck Hodgin at School Library Journal. A very favorable review that was highlighted on the web pages for Sweet Blue Flowers on two online bookstores. “These collected first volumes of Shimura’s manga tell an honest, poignant story about the joys, pains, and loves of gay and bisexual young women. … A no-brainer for yuri (manga focusing on lesbian romance) fans, but strong enough to recommend to romance readers and general manga enthusiasts.”¹⁰

Terry Hong at BookDragon. A favorable review on a blog hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. “For impatient readers, an 11-part anime adaptation debuted in 2009. For manga purists who appreciate the gorgeous art on the page, Shimura has never disappointed.”¹¹

livresdechevet at More Bedside Books. A generally favorable review that focuses in particular on translation issues and changes from previous digital releases of volume 1. “All in all Sweet Blue Flowers is an enduring series about maturing and girls in love with other girls finally receiving print treatment in English. … Whether someone is familiar with the genre and history or not it’s a story with characters that can reach out to teenagers as well as older readers.”¹²

Susan at Lesbrary. A favorable review on a website focused on lesbian literature. She notes that the characters both look and behave like typical teenagers, and praises the scenes of Fumi and Yasuko coming out as both realistic and unusual in manga. “I really recommend Sweet Blue Flowers. It’s cute and emotional, and is a marginally more realistic depiction of teenage romantic drama than I expect from manga!”¹³

Volume 2

Melina Dargis at The Fandom Post. A lukewarm to favorable review. She gave it a grade B for content, B for art, A for packaging, and A for text/translation. “While reading the second volume of this manga, I kept feeling lost in the story. There seemed to be a lot of jumping around and some reading in between the lines that perhaps I was just not good at it. The main story does come through, but with such a large cast of characters, it’s was hard to follow what was in everyone’s heart. That distraction is why I gave the content a lower grade. … Yet, beyond everything that could have been better, this story is a story that is desperately needed for not only manga, but mainstream reading in general.”¹⁴

Leroy Douresseaux at The Comic Book Bin. A favorable review: grade A, score 8 out of 10.¹⁵

EyeSpyeAlex [Alexandra Nutting] at The Geekly Grind. A very favorable review, with volume 2 rated 9 out of 10 overall, 8.6 for story, 9.5 for art, and 9 for character. “Despite having an unclear storyline at times, I really enjoy Sweet Blue Flowers. Each volume is longer than your typical manga volume, which is nice as it means the story doesn’t need to rely on cliff hangers. The soft art style and simple dialogue gives this manga a calming effect. Sweet Blue Flowers is by no means a page turning thriller, and I appreciate that. It’s nice to have a manga to read that I can enjoy for its’ [sic] relaxing story.”¹⁶

Erica Friedman at Okazu. Friedman rated volume 2 as 8 out of 10 overall (same as volume 1), with art and characters at 8, story at 7, and “lesbian” at 4. (Friedman usually assigns works a “yuri” score, as she did for volume 1. I presume she switched it to “lesbian” here because she thought Sweet Blue Flowers is not a typical yuri work.) “This is an excellent English release and I think we can expect it to maintain this high quality. … If you haven’t already picked up this ‘new classic’ of Yuri, I definitely recommend it, for having a depth of early 20th century literary history and still being grounded in the present.”¹⁷

Sean Gaffney at A Case Suitable for Treatment. A generally favorable review, though not as favorable as for volume 1. “Sweet Blue Flowers is a good series. That said, it’s exhausting as well, and I suspect that it’s best enjoyed either in one gulp—waiting till the other two omnibuses are out—or in smaller quantities, such as reading only half and then coming back. There is such a thing as too much Fumi. (And too [sic] be fair, too much Akira, though that’s slightly less pressure-heated.)”¹⁸

Susan at Lesbrary. A favorable review that praises the variety of relationships shown (“healthy and unhealthy relationships, reciprocated feelings and not”). “It’s still a good series and I really need to know where it’s going next, because I just want all of these girls to be happy!”¹⁹

Volume 3

Melina Dargis at The Fandom Post. Dargis gave volume 3 a grade B for content, B- for art, A- for packaging, and A for text/translation. “From a reviewer’s point of view, this story is difficult to summarize its content. In one chapter, it easily has up to five several short scenes that are only a few pages in length. This is very different from most manga where a chapter usually focuses on a specific character or situation. This is nice for reading, however. What is also nice about this style of storytelling is that it feels like it’s more like watching a story versus reading one. It also keeps the story interesting, moving and more in depth, but for some it might be distracting and confusing.”²⁰

EyeSpyeAlex [Alexandra Nutting] at The Geekly Grind. A very favorable review: rated 9.1 out of 10 overall, 8.8 for story, 9.2 for art, and 9.3 for characters. “Funny, endearing, and a little sexy. Those are the words I would use to describe the latest volume of Sweet Blue Flowers.”²¹

Erica Friedman at Okazu. Friedman rated volume 3 as 8 out of 10 overall (the same score as volumes 1 and 2), with art and characters at 8, story at 7, “lesbian” at 6, and “service” at 1. “This volume is, in my opinion the strongest of what Viz will release as four volumes. We can see the progress the young women make as people, before the story turns back into itself to fulfill the requirements of a romance series.”²²

Sean Gaffney at A Case Suitable for Treatment. A generally favorable review, with qualifications. “Sweet Blue Flowers … also has the same issues that it’s had before. … That said, this is still a very good volume, and since I believe it ends with the fourth book, there’s no reason for you not to get it so that you can wallow in pangs of young love once more.”²³

Volume 4

EyeSpyeAlex [Alexandra Nutting] at The Geekly Grind. A very favorable review: rated 9.5 out of 10 overall, 9.0 for story, 9.5 for art, and 9.0 for characters. “As far as finales go, Sweet Blue Flowers nailed theirs. This latest volume had the perfect balance of drama and resolution. The pacing was great and held my attention the entire time.”²⁴

Erica Friedman at Okazu. Friedman rated volume 4 as 9 out of 10 overall (a slightly higher score than previous volumes), with art, characters, and story at 9, “service” at 3, and “LGBTQ” at 10. “Here’s the the [sic] thing that’s amazing about Sweet Blue Flowers—it started serialization in 2005. It’s 13 years old. More than a decade ago it was a beacon of Yuri. In 2018, it’s an important stepping stone to where we are now, and now that we have a definitive edition for this in English, it’s time to move forward into a genre that has matured.”²⁵

Sean Gaffney at A Case Suitable for Treatment. A generally favorable review, with some qualifications. “The final volume of Sweet Blue Flowers shows off all the strengths and weaknesses of this particular series. … I do think this series ended at just the right length—it would have been exhausting to carry on for 3–4 more volumes. In the end, Sweet Blue Flowers had its bittersweet moments, but the end showed that sweetness can win out.”²⁶

Jaime at Yuri Stargirl. A favorable review with qualifications regarding the translation and localization. She rates volume 4 as 8 out of 10 (“Highly Recommended”) and the series overall as 9 out of 10 (“Essential”). “Not only is [Sweet Blue Flowers] one of my all-time favorite anime but it is also one of my all-time favorite mangas and so to finally have the story complete made my week. … The story, naturally, is wonderful … .”²⁷