The second episode of ‘Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity’ aka ‘Kaoru Hana Wa Rin To Saku’ is released. Certain expectations were kept from this episode, as mentioned in the first episode’s review, and it carries on fairly in that direction. Before reviewing the episode precisely, I would like to highlight that this episode is meant to portray a state of restlessness, where minds are shaken and hearts are falling hard.
A short recap will tell us that in the first episode, Rintaro was dazed to meet Waguri-san. She is a regular customer at his family’s bakery. She happened to be the first person who smiled eye-to-eye with him and told him that he was not scary. Just by being herself, she secured his attraction towards her. But upon accidentally getting to know that she belongs to Kikyo Girls High School, he didn’t want to let it sink in. It had to be the last thing he could think of. This is because Rintaro is a student of Chidori High, a bottom-tier boys’ public school, and Kikyo High is a high-class girls’ private school. Kikyo High and its students looked down on Chidori High and its students. This consequently built a sense of hatred among the students of these two institutions.
Episode 2 begins with the classroom scene of Chidori High. It’s early morning as the students are, one by one, filling their desks. As soon as Usami shows up, he turns back to Rintaro, whose seat is just behind his, and complains of being awkwardly stared at by Kikyo girls. In the meantime, Ayato and Saku also walk in and join the discussion. Saku swears that Kikyo High girls are getting on his nerves too. Rintaro keeps listening to it all silently. His thoughts had already been running desperately since last night. Now, he drowns even farther into them, thinking, “She’s never going to come back to the shop knowing I’m a Chidori student. It’s good for both that we cut off from each other.”
After school, Usami asked Rintaro if he was free to hang out with them. Rintaro checked his phone, and since he had no text from his mother today, he agreed. He didn’t join his friends regularly due to his sense of responsibility towards assisting at the bakery.
The scene shifts to Chidori’s gate as the students gather for a rare sight. A girl from Kikyo High waits there for someone from Chidori! As the crowd gathers near the Kikyo High student, Rintaro and his friends also take a peek with curiosity, but to Rintaro’s surprise, that girl is none other than Waguri-san. Usami loses his cool after spotting a Kikyo High girl at the school gate and lunges with an infuriated approach towards her. She frankly asserts that she is waiting for someone from Chidori when questioned why she is there. Usami further scares her on hearing this. Rintaro steps in and holds Usami back, reminding him that she is a girl and he should behave properly. With many curious eyes locked on him and Waguri, he acts as a stranger towards Waguri-san to further avoid causing any more trouble. A couple of the girls from Kikyo High run to her and take her back with the advice to better maintain distance from the boys of Chidori High. Eventually, this incident clears up as if she was either unaware of the bitter feud between the schools, or she had little idea of it but not the whole picture. Rintaro’s move to not recognise her surely saved the day from things getting worse from there.
Now it’s evening, and Rintaro and his friends are chilling at karaoke as planned earlier. Usami sings to his content. Saku and Ayato sit, enjoying and waiting for their turns as well. Rintaro is the only one who again seems to be occupied by an off mood. Saku notices this, and he brings it up again to see if he is alright. The other two also agree that he doesn’t seem himself and urge him to come out with what is troubling him. At the end of a quick, dense stream of thoughts, he realises that nothing would come out of telling them about Waguri. He doubted if it was even worth mentioning to them. Just the word ‘Kikyo’ relating to her would let them badmouth her again. And so he draws a new face with, “Everything’s fine. Thanks, Saku, for your concern.”
Rintaro gets back home in the following scene, only to find Waguri-san waiting at the shop for him. She immediately apologised for the commotion she caused and admitted to taking things lightly. He comforts her by saying that it was alright. He then asked her to eat cakes with him (as agreed in the last episode). While she savoured her bites, conversing with him, his tongue slipped and he uttered that he was happy to meet her. Her reaction makes it clear that she is also feeling the same happiness. She adds that she felt more happy to know that they went to neighbouring schools. Now, out of the blue, he derailed from the mood again. He blurted out to her what he was thinking during school, and that meeting him would do her no good. As a result, she left without eating the pastry, with a saddened look. His mother comes at this moment. He looked like a skeleton, so she got worried and wanted to know what had rendered him like that.
After confiding everything, he gets hit with the perfect reality check from her. She presents the view that he is doing all the ill that has been done to him. He was judged for his appearance, for being a Chidori student, and now he is judging her on her school’s basis no differently. “Did her behaviour change towards you after figuring out that you were a Chidori student?”
He shook his head and realised his mistake once and for all. There is a saying that one should treat people the way they wish to be treated, and that is exactly what came to the surface for Rintaro.
The next morning, Waguri-san couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Rintaro waiting outside Kikyo. He walks up to her and apologises for hurting her. She hesitated, but shortly confessed that she was hurt. He then pulls off a hearty speech centred on his last night’s realisation.
“I didn’t care about the fight between our schools. But I didn’t want you to be involved and go through something similar to what I have. I was happy to meet you, too!” After this heartfelt confession, both of them felt relieved, and a feeling which no person in love could resist began to blossom in their hearts. This instance led them to exchange each other’s contact information and look forward to being involved in each other’s worlds wholeheartedly.
Summing this episode up, as expected, the character development of Rintaro is noticeable. The restlessness and its cause, as mentioned in the introduction of this blog, are inevitably exciting. Animation is running up to the mark, and CloverWorks is doing great as always. Compared to the first episode, the background music placements feel much better, and the subtle silence during heartfelt conversations between the characters makes it just the perfect experience for every fan.
With this episode, Rintaro, in contrast to his character and his developing mindset, became crystal clear through the required descriptions. However, more about Waguri-san is yet to come, and most probably, the next episode or the one after that will have bunches about her. So stay tuned till episode 3 releases!
