Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka spin-off novel of Bloom into You Two sentence review: If you love the original series, this one is a must read. You will love Sayaka as a character even more, or even the series as a whole. It's just simply amazing 10/10, a masterpiece. Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is basically a prequel, midquel, and sequel of the original story told in Saeki Sayaka point of view. It moves her from a side character to the main one. Despite being written by a different author, they somehow managed to capture everything perfectly compared to the original: the character, atmosphere,storytelling. Not only that, but it also serves as a phenomenal character writing for her. With only three volumes, they managed to add so much depth to her already well-written character, which made me like her even more. It follows her journey of discovering, pursuing, and eventually succeeding in love. End of TL;DR, I will proceed with the reviews of each volume in depth, without spoiling much of the content.
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The first volume focuses on Sayaka’s discovery of what love is. It separates into two points in her life: elementary and junior-high. Her relationship with an unnamed girl laid a terrific introduction to her character on how her personality was early on and her subtle changes of it later on. Second part of the volume focuses on what was briefly shown in the anime: her relationship with a senpai. Knowing how their relationship ends, it was somewhat sad seeing her getting hurt. Her coming to know what love is, only to feel it gone. Though, it serves as a significant leap in her character development and her knowing what love is.
Moving on to the second volume, most events follow that happen during her high school days, love at first sight, pursuing her love, unrequited love. Expands her character during the first year, her introduction with Touko, getting to know more about her. Which gives depth and explains why she acts like she does in the original work. One of the most entertaining chapters in the story is seeing how Yuu and Sayaka interact with one another during the first chapter. How their friendship developed not with just Yuu but with Touko also. After her encounter with them, she moved onto a new chapter.
The third and final volume, which is mentioned briefly in the last chapter of the manga, focuses on her journey of finally achieving love and takes place during her college years. We are introduced to a new character in the story, Sayaka’s girlfriend. It follows how they met and how their bond progresses. Getting to know her was really fun to read through. Not only that but this volume also serves as an interval between chapter 44 and chapter 45 of the manga. Moreover, there are also scenes about what happened after the manga as well. Watching how our beloved characters interact has never been more fun, especially with Sayaka and Yuu.
To conclude, Bloom into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is a fantastic series, which manages to shed a new light on the series from Sayaka’s perspective, further adding more depth to her character: her thought process, action and behavior. Joining in her journey of love, we will come to love this series and Sayaka even more.
Personal Enjoyment 10/10:
Heavily biased as usually since this series is my top 3. I’m not much of a heavy reader myself. In fact, I’m a very slow reader. This took me months to finally finish it. I find myself wondering why didn’t I finish it sooner. I had so much fun reading through all of the volumes, specifically the last one. Seeing her finally getting the love she deserved. I have always thought that her character was already well-written, but the novel series adds another layer of masterful character writing in the series. Lastly, to be honest, I shed tears upon finishing the last page. Not because I was sad or anything, but tears of joy. I was so happy for Sayaka. End of a wonderful series.