Regarding "Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka"

    I finished reading the Bloom Into You spin-off novel, "Regarding Saeki Sayaka" the other day. It tells the story of Sayaka's first relationship, which is mentioned in the original Bloom Into You series to have been a formative experience for her, from her own perspective. It certainly lives up to the "Bloom Into You" title. In this story, Sayaka learns what "love" is to her, and how she personally experiences and reacts to it. This is the same overarching journey that Koito Yuu goes through in Bloom Into You, but the individual experiences and struggles of both characters are diverse. Reading this spin-off after the original series was like watching someone walk down the same path, but during different weather.

    Koito Yuu in Bloom Into You is notably an asexual protagonist in a romance series. Sayaka is not. To be clear, the series itself doesn't explicitly apply labels to either character, and the experiences depicted in these stories may overlap with those of people who may apply a variety of labels to themselves. I simply want to highlight the fact that Sayaka's internal realizations come from a different place than Yuu's. This isn't to give the impression that she's constantly lusting after other girls; it's not that kind of series. 

    Sayaka's story wasn't as relatable to me personally, but I found it no less compelling. Reading the original Bloom Into You validated many of my personal experiences as an asexual person, and this spin-off novel exposed me to experiences and thought processes that were distinct from Yuu's, and my own by extension. I find it equally valuable, and I have no doubts that this spin-off story can be similarly validating to other people. As a fan of Bloom Into You, this look into Sayaka's past and internal thoughts and feelings adds depth to her character. I'm looking forward to the next volume in the spin-off novel series, which will cover Sayaka's first year of high school with Nanami Touko, before Koito Yuu enters the picture. When I re-read the original Bloom Into You story, I’ll be glad to have the extra insight into Sayaka’s state of mind.

    I would also like to recognize the quality of the writing in this novel itself. The novel was written in Japanese by author Hitomi Iruma. I read the English translation from the staff of Seven Seas Entertainment, which was wonderful. This book is filled with many concise, yet vivid descriptions and metaphors. There were multiple times that I immediately read a passage over for a second time, not because I didn't understand it, but because I enjoyed the wording so much I wanted to take it in again. It was a joy to read, even when the events of the story weren’t joyful.

    I haven’t read the Japanese version, but I have enough knowledge of Japanese to understand how some of the passages were likely written originally. Based on these educated guesses, I believe the English version of the novel did a fantastic job adapting the ideas from the Japanese version, and conveyed them effectively in wording that sounds natural and suits the English language. I appreciate the effort that was clearly taken to make this novel work in English as well as it does in Japanese. Nakatani Nio, the author and illustrator of the Bloom Into You manga, contributed illustrations for the novel, visually portraying the characters and events as one would imagine they might look in the manga. These illustrations give the spin-off a sense of unity with its parent story.

    I certainly recommend “Regarding Saeki Sayaka” to anyone who enjoyed the original Bloom Into You series. I also think it's an acceptable introduction to the series if you want to just jump right into it, though I would remind that, like the main series, this is a rather serious story, and while it has cute moments, it's not a light and fluffy thing.