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.

Totally, completely mediocre. The Romeo & Juliet angle is somehow both forced and incredibly underutilized at the same time, and there really isn't much else besides the neat and orderly succession of every single romance trope you've ever seen a million times before with no significant variations or surprises.

I knew it was time to drop this series when I could skim through and read maybe one out of ten speech bubbles and have no confusion about the plot or characters.

Genuinely, if this story seems appealing on a level besides the art style, I'd recommend getting the same experience from more influential works that ... were doing all the same tropes 30+ years ago for the extra cultural value. When reading this, it's as if nothing has changed since then.