Nothing has ever made me feel how Bloom Into You makes me feel.
Romance has always been my absolute least favourite genre with very few notable exceptions. (The Last Of Us Season 1 episode 3) So in an attempt to broaden my horizons, and because my previous favourite romance story was gay I decided to try a yuri manga and very quickly found Bloom. It isn't very often you see something as highly recommended as Bloom is so it immediately piqued my interest. I've only started getting into Manga/Anime in the last few months so I don't have a ton to compare it to but Bloom was my favourite by the end of volume 3. I read the first 44 chapters in one night, and put the last one off until the morning because the thought of this story being over in one night was unbearable to me.
I've always been averse to romance in real life just as much as in media. My "highschool romance moment" came and went with nothing but anxiety and confusion on my part, so I have considered myself aromantic for several years now. (My headcannon for Yuu is that she is demiromantic, because that is also now my headcannon for myself) Just like Yuu I thought it was something that just wasn't meant for me and I thought that I was ok with that. I've also had similar thoughts to Touko too, that love is like a cage and that being loved would mean you have to limit yourself to the version of you that a person fell in love with. I connect to Touko and Yuu in more ways than I ever have to fictional characters. I don't think it would even be possible to list all the parts of myself I seen in them in one reddit post. Needless to say, I project myself on both of them maybe a little bit too much.
Watching these characters that feel like parts of myself falling in love, Yuu learning to accept her feelings and learn what love is to her, Touko learning to accept love, and herself for who she really is. And all of it made possible because of the love they share. I feel like it healed something in me that I didn't even realize was broken.
This series also I think in a way helped me accept the fact that I am trans. As I was reading I realized that the familiar feeling of discomfort I get when I try to imagine myself in a romantic situation was absent, because I was imagining myself as a woman in love with another woman, rather than as a man.
I am rereading the manga now with the coloured webtoon, and I hope I will be able to drip feed myself the light novels, anthologies, and probably one more re-read and re-watch of the anime over the next couple of months. I am not emotionally prepared for when I have to put this world down again for an extended period. This is without any exaggeration one of the 3 best pieces of fiction I have ever experienced. (pls recommend more yuri to fill the gaping void soon to be left in my soul)
Thank you to anyone that read all of this I'm sorry you had to read my direct stream of consciousness. I don't ever really write anything or talk about stuff like this outside of my head but I just can't contain my love of this story.