Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk: The Finale Landed June 27 — Japan Reacts

Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 251)

• All three yuri couples are written completely differently, and every single one of them works.

  3組の百合カップルの描写がみんな違ってみんな良いんだよなぁ

  — @クンクン-u8h69 likes

• It's the kind of grown-up romance you rarely get in anime, and personally I loved every minute of it.

  アニメでは少数派の大人の恋愛を描いてて、個人的にはめちゃくちゃ面白かった。。

  — @アルマジスト29 likes

• Every couple gets its own journey and its own color. Just like liquor.

  各カップル違う過程と色があっていい、まるで酒みてえだ。

  — @user-ycyc13 likes

• The drinking scenes are so stylish it's unfair.

  お酒飲むシーンが毎回オシャレすぎる

  — @YamaD092265 likes

• I'm not even a strong drinker, but this show made me want to travel to the actual locations and order the exact drinks they had. An anime of beautiful intoxication.

  酒が強くないのに作中に出た酒を作中の現地に行って飲みたくなった酔いを味わう美しきアニメ

  — @鷹-u5r12 likes

• I went in expecting a cozy eat-and-drink show, so when they started hitting legit fancy bars I went 'wait, seriously?' lol. Also, none of them work part-time jobs — where is all this money coming from?

  最初はひびめしみたいな感じかな？と思って見ていたのでオシャレなバーに行き始めた時にマジか…って思った笑 というかバイトもしていないのにお金持ちすぎる

  — @natori88811 likes

• Books, films, music, liquor… a yuri anime that kneads in this much knowledge and never says anything straight out. It's one of a kind. Calling it a work of art wouldn't be an exaggeration.

  本、映画、音楽、酒… ものすごく多くの知識を練り込ませながらストレートに伝えないセリフの百合アニメ。 これは唯一無二。 芸術作品といっても過言ではないと思いました。

  — @gomychan42674 likes

• Botan Kamiina takes the OP's confession — 'if you want to stay together, you have to say it' — and expresses it not just directly but indirectly, through gorgeous art and staging. Watching it felt like reading literature.

  上伊那ぼたん、綺麗な作画と演出から OPの「一緒にいたいなら伝えなきゃ」という本音を直接的だけでなく、間接的に表現してるのが文学作品の様だなと感じて見てました

  — @ポンポン-b2t10 likes

• The piercer scene had real metaphor layered into it. Loved that.

  ピアッサーのシーンは隠喩が感じられてよかったわ。

  — @YM_John31614 likes

• The liquor, the girls' relationships, the highbrow books and films that keep showing up — rolled up in one, I think this was a story about the rites of passage of youth. And the animation, the soft-focus work, the way they angle the light… top-tier stuff.

  お酒、女の子たちの関係性、ところどころ出てくる高尚な本や映画など、丸めて言うと青春時代の通過儀礼の話だったのかなと思います。アニメーションもぼかし方とか光線の当て方とか最高レベルだったんじゃないでしょうか。

  — @ivanov-z3v10 likes

• I started out filing it as 'soft yuri,' then episode 4 flipped my whole read of the show and I fell hard. The emotional metaphors are literary, and Soigne's visual language made it a joy to watch.

  最初はソフトなユリ程度の認識が4話からガラッと変わってはまった。感情表現のメタファーが文学的で良かったしソワネの映像表現が良かったので見ていて楽しかった

  — @ROBOSKIJ15 likes

• I wasn't paying attention at first, binged it once four episodes were out, and got completely sucked in. I wanted to raise my resolution on this work, so I bought the manga and started following the author Hei's notes and X posts. Very few shows take me this far emotionally.

  最初はあまり注目してなくて４話まで放送されてから一気見したら一気にのめり込んでしまった。もっとこの作品の理解度や解像度を上げたくて原作購入や塀さんのnoteやXをチェックしてみたりとなかなかここまでの感情にさせてくれる作品はないなと思ってる。

  — @mustard70588 likes

• This one's dangerous. I went and bought the entire manga and read it cover to cover. The craftsmanship is just too good.

  これヤバイっす 何なら原作まで買って読みきった マジでこだわりが良すぎるんよ

  — @nodoguro92621 likes

• The people who go 'ugh, yuri, pass' are exactly the ones who should watch this masterpiece.

  「どうせ百合なんて、」と思っている人たちにこそ見て欲しい神作品

  — @えがちゃん-ega13 likes

• Gunjo-senpai got protagonist-level spotlight, and the staff drew her most beautiful, heart-piercing expressions to perfection. Nothing but gratitude for this production team.

  郡上先輩がもはや主人公レベルでスポットを当ててくれて、美しく心に来る表情を完璧に描いてくれた制作人の方たちには感謝しかありません

  — @やっほー-u8s32 likes

• I'm so glad Gunjo-senpai got her moment.

  郡上先輩よかったなぁ

  — @寺坊-s4d32 likes

• Gunjo-senpai and Jinran's pairing is just way, way too good.

  郡上先輩とジンランちゃんのカップリングがあまりにも好きすぎる

  — @やっはろー-g2v3 likes

• Genuinely great. Jinran was the MVP — she's the reason the final stretch was that fun.

  本当に良かった やっぱジンランちゃんがMVP 彼女のおかげで終盤最高に面白かったね

  — @LOVE_Hoshino-u3x2 likes

• This became one of my favorite shows too. The opening is so beautiful I never skipped it once. And the way the name shifts — 'dorm head' → 'Ibuki-san' → 'Ibuki' — that progression was… everything.

  自分も大好きな作品になった。 オープニングがとにかく美しすぎて毎回飛ばさずに見てしまう。 あと呼び方が、寮長→いぶきさん→いぶき になっていく過程がもう...最高すぎた

  — @Ameri-n6x1 likes

• The finale's ending sequence had something welling up in me.

  最終回のエンディングで込み上げてくるものがあった

  — @たまごサンド-561637 likes

• The show itself goes without saying, but every single ED was divine too. I melted.

  アニメ本編は言わずもがな、edも毎回神すぎて溶けた

  — @わろちんぶるちん36 likes

• I picked it up because I liked the OP, but the ED for the flashback arc — a story that isn't even drawn in the manga — was the one that got me.

  OPが気に入ったので視聴したが原作すら描かれてない過去編のEDがよかった。

  — @マスカットV328 likes

• As everyday-life yuri this was as good as it gets. And I was stunned to learn the original author personally drew the key animation for one scene.

  日常百合として最高のアニメでした しかも原作者様が原画をワンシーン描いていたのは驚いた

  — @opp60846 likes

• The final episode had key animation cuts by Hei-sensei themselves, huh.

  最終話は塀先生の原画カットがあったね

  — @留魂碑への誓い26 likes

• THIS is how you do an adaptation! They elevated it! Not just a change of medium — they took on stories that aren't in the manga, with playfulness and real swings. I had a blast. I drank along, too! 😊

  これぞアニメ化！昇華させてくれた！ 媒体を変えただけではない。原作に無い・無かったストーリーにも取り組み、遊び心や挑戦など、沢山楽しませていただきました。お酒も飲みました！😊

  — @citrussnow122 likes

• I just wish the whole show had episode 1's art…

  1話の作画で全話見たかったなあ…

  — @upk34-g7n20 likes

• Having watched everything, episode 3's art style still didn't sit right with me. The story is so good — that's the one thing I regret.

  全話見たうえで、やっぱり3話の作画はちょっと受け付けなかった。話は良いのにそこだけが悔やまれる。

  — @AtsushiMatsunobu7 likes

• Episode 3 was so wildly different in flavor that it built up my tolerance — after that, the art never bothered me at all.

  3話が飛び抜けて毛色が違ったから、耐性がついて以降の作画は全く気にならなかった

  — @ギリギリでいつも生きていたい奏8 likes

• It was fantastic, but somehow I get the feeling there won't be a season 2 — and I can't tell if that makes me happy or sad.

  めちゃくちゃ良かったんだけど、ただ何となく2期はやらないような気がして嬉しいような悲しいような

  — @梅干し太郎-b5g31 likes

• There's a new character in the ED! And the official comment called this 'a pause' — they are absolutely gunning for season 2!

  edに新キャラ！公式コメントの「一区切り」で、2期やる気満々だと感じました！

  — @ぼっちちゃん010 likes

• Same with mono — at this point nobody in the business does slice-of-life anime better than Soigne.

  monoもそうだけどもう日常系アニメを作らせたらソワネの右に出る者はいないレベルにいい

  — @たま-hi44 likes

• This was my No. 1 show of the season, so hearing it called a god-tier anime makes me happy. What I love about Botan Kamiina is how nobody ever says 'I like you' outright — they converse in metaphors, and it's beautiful. The turn across episodes 8–9, from 'I'm fine' to not 'let's date' but 'let's stop being friends' — that destroyed me. Travel, liquor, yuri: all my favorite genres balanced into one. Sounds like it's rating high overseas too. Here's hoping for season 2.

  僕の中で今期No1の作品で、神アニメと言ってくれるのが嬉しいです。上伊那ぼたんは好きという気持ちを直接表現せずに比喩で会話していくのが美しく好きでした。8〜9話にかけての私は大丈夫からの付き合おうじゃなく友達を辞めるという表現は堪らなかったです。旅、お酒、百合、好きなジャンルがバランス良く複合されていたです。海外の評価も高いみたいで、二期期待です。

  — @りっく-f7p6 likes

• So it's 'KAMI-ina Botan' now, as in god-tier? …Yeah, honestly, fair.

  『神』那ぼたんってか　まあ気持ちは分かる

  — @相川たる16 likes

• It was the best. I'm buying a bottle of Glenlivet.

  最高でした。 グレンリベット買います

  — @さーさーととろ3 likes

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