The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity Volume 1
With over 1 million copies in circulation as of early 2023 and 13 volumes, it’s fair to say that The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity has proven to be quite the hit for Kodansha back in Japan. Now this popular series has finally made it to print in the West, but has it been worth the wait? Let’s find out!
The story follows Rintaro, who is a second-year student at the all-boys school Chidori High which is known for taking in those with the lowest grades. However, right next door is the all-girls school Kikyo Girls’ High where only the most wealthy and high-class attend. Understandably, having such a posh school right next to one filled with delinquents and troublemakers has served to create quite an antagonistic relationship between the students of each school.
Due to his fierce face and bleached blond hair, Rintaro certainly gives off the impression of being a delinquent himself. In truth, he’s a gentle soul who studies hard and spends his time after school helping out at his family’s patisserie business (a fact he keeps secret from his friends). It’s while helping one evening that he meets Kaoruko, a girl who loves sweets and frequents the shop regularly. Upon their first meeting, Kaoruko quickly flees when Rintaro approaches and he’s convinced his face scared her off. However, the next day he finds her waiting outside Chidori High and soon learns the truth behind her running away.
Kaoruko has never found Rintaro frightening and ran away simply due to fearing that he’d think poorly of her for the number of desserts she ate! She’s seen Rintaro working in the store and has developed a fondness for him. She’s also not deterred by the rivalry between the schools, even if all her friends warn her to stay away from students of Chidori. Rintaro fears he may be a bad influence on her or put her in harm’s way due to his reputation (and that of his friends), but the two have struck up an unlikely friendship and now find themselves wanting to spend time together. Could there be something more romantic blooming between them as well…?
Kodansha advertises this series as a “cute and twisty manga spin on Romeo and Juliet”, which I think is an apt summary. If you’re into opposites attract series then you’ll certainly have a blast watching these two characters navigate their newfound friendship. Rintaro is pleased to have found someone who sees him for who he is, while Kaoruko is happy just to have someone who is not as stuck-up as the students of Kikyo (it turns out she’s not one of the posh girls, having got in on a scholarship instead).
Of course, if it was just Kaoruko and Rintaro getting to know one another they wouldn’t face half of the problems they do. The issue is, of course, their schools and the bad blood between them. Rintaro is well aware that Kaoruko will be bullied by the boys if they see her hanging out with him and he doesn’t want her to get hurt, so tries to keep her at arm’s length. Kaoruko’s friends, too, don’t want her to associate with the boys and try desperately to stop her from spending time with Rintaro. It’s not going to be easy to overcome that and more than the central romance, the series is focused on diving into the emotional impact that strife has left on the students of both sides. For this to work between our leads, their friends are going to have to get over their preconceptions of each other.
The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is mangaka Saka Mikami’s first series, which shows in the artwork far more than it does the story. While the plot and characters are well-developed, I find the art underwhelming. The character designs aren’t particularly attractive (although they are expressive and detailed), and I think there’s a lack of romantically charged scenes, despite the obvious attraction between the two characters. Having said that, I grew to appreciate the art more as the volume went on so perhaps I’ll feel differently after another volume or two.
At the very least I think Mikami makes good use of panelling and how to highlight emotional scenes. This comes across especially well in the print release since Kodansha has treated it to one of their bigger formats. This also helps prevent the smaller panels from becoming overwhelmed with speech bubbles, which is a bit of an issue early on but improves after Chapter 2.
As mentioned above, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha. This release has been translated by Fabian Kraft with lettering by Madeleine Jose. The digital version has lettering credited to George Bao, as well as a different editor, which I suspect is actually for the K Manga release as the digital volume came out the same day as the print, so has no reason to be different. The release reads well with no issues of note and comes complete with colour pages at the front and some translation notes at the end.
The series is ongoing in Japan with 13 volumes currently available. Here in English, Volume 2 is scheduled for release in August with #3 following in August, so it appears we’ll be on a bimonthly schedule for this similar to a lot of Kodansha’s other popular series. If you’re in the US this is available to read on K Manga, where I believe they simulpub it but I can’t verify that, due to the region locking.
Overall, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity Volume 1 proves an interesting first instalment of a series that holds a lot of promise. There’s a sense that we’ve seen this all before, but in the same breath, the characters are likeable enough that I’m not entirely convinced that’s a problem. Certainly, one to keep an eye on if you’re fond of this set-up!
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
