Bloom Into You started strong and continues the same way. In episode two, we saw Yuu struggle with some realizations about the way love works, and Touko take things to the next level.
New Love, Same Old Problems
Even though Yuu finds Touko fascinating and respects her greatly, she still doesn’t get that world-changing feeling when they’re together. She tests this theory by holding Touko’s hand during a photo shoot, but even when the pair kiss later, there’s no magical moment of realization that they’re supposed to be together.
Touko realizes that this is an issue and proposes a compromise: allow her to love Yuu, even if the arrangement is one-sided. At first glance, this is easy to dismiss as a standard romance trope, but there may well be more here. It’s revealed that Touko is highly intelligent, and I think she knows that love isn’t always something that happens instantly. By spending more time together, Touko presumably believes that Yuu will slowly fall in love.
Finding a Balance
While Yuu acts more or less in the same way regardless of the circumstances, there are essentially two different Toukos. There’s the student council candidate Touko: friendly, but very much all business, then there’s the Touko wrestling with her attraction to girls and wondering how to proceed.
To her credit, this isn’t a problem for Yuu. She’s mentioned a couple of times that it’s “weird” to like other girls, but overall, she seems open to the idea. This speaks to her as a character: to Yuu, it doesn’t matter what gender a person is, as long as you love them. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence of this as yet.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Like it or not, these girls will be spending a lot of time together from now on. This means that Touko will have plenty of opportunities to gain Yuu’s affection, and Yuu can see if she’s actually interested or not. Ultimately, though, if there’s no attraction, Touko is going to have to accept this or risk losing Yuu not only as a partner, but as a friend.
That said, it’s likely Yuu will stick around. For one thing, she’s only known her senpai for a few days and already, she’s been introduced to new ideas, responsibilities, and possibilities. It’s particularly interesting to see the difference between her perception of the relationship versus the public perception: even when the two kiss in front of numerous people, nobody really cares. Of course, this shows just how important every relationship is to a high school student.
