“Kase-San and Morning Glories” Review

Warning: If you haven’t read the manga “Kase-san and Morning Glories” by Hiromi Takashima, do read it first if you don’t want to come across spoilers in this review!

I’m back with another book review, and since it’s Valentine’s day, I figured—how about a dash of romance to review, given my love for great romantic fiction? This time, we have “Kase-san and Morning Glories” by Hiromi Takashima! Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“Yamada is the plant appointee; tending the school’s garden of flowers on her own. She isn’t the slightest bit athletic, she’s actually quite clumsy – but that doesn’t stop her from having feelings for the star track member in the class next-door, Kase-san. Slightly shy, Yamada is reluctant about her feelings for the enthusiastic Kase-san. Still, slowly but surely, the pair are helping each other to grow in confidence for both themselves and their budding relationship, each blush and brush of the hand at a time.”

The first word that comes to mind when reviewing this was that it was adorable. Kase and Yamada’s romance felt so naturally built up, culminating with their love confessions and first kiss by the end of this first volume (yes, it’s a series!). It’s an incredibly healthy, cute and blossoming romance because you can see all the care and love Kase and Yamada have for each other.

As the pacing of the plot was based around Kase and Yamada building up their relationship with each other, I thought it was not rushed at all, compared to romances such as “Let’s Dance a Waltz” (and before you ask about that one, yes, I do plan on continuing to read that series!). Compared to “Let’s Dance A Waltz,” I felt that the romance in “Kase-San and Morning Glories” really depicted both partners having their insecurities about whether to even enter their relationship in the first place is incredibly relatable, but also optimistic rather than going the dreaded angsty route that some romances go down. It’s clear that both Kase and Yamada really do care for each other and also really want to be together while also not being jerks to each other (at least not intentionally, and if they do hurt each other they apologize pretty fast), so I was happy that they both made the leap to get into a relationship with each other.

The art style of the manga really fits with the lightehearted tone of the plot, as well as the characters’ situation of them starting their romance as it was very cute, and this added to the cuteness of Kase and Yamada’s interactions individually and together. The closest you get to angst in this volume is Yamada having her doubts that the two of them as girls getting together in a relationship isn’t possible, and even then it’s less like a “oh crap it’s forbidden love in society and all that” type of looking at it compared to a “oh my gosh, we’re girls and I’m falling for her and this is cool and kind of overwhelmed by this! What do I do with these feelings!?” sort of lens. I honestly felt like giving Kase and Yamada hugs (though especially Yamada) throughout the volume, and I felt the urge to seriously cheer them on, which basically shows how convinced I was by their romance.

Overall, I’m rating this 5 out of 5 stars, and I eagerly await reading the next volume in this series! If you’re looking for cute and positive wlw (women love women) romance, this manga is definitely worth reading!