Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana

Yuri and Alcohol, who knew that this combination would make for such a fun Slice of Life, Cute Girl Doing Cute Things show but this season "Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana" manages to surprise me in many ways. To me, this show is a more unique take on the CGDCT genre I've seen in a while because inherently, the "things" that they are doing are not exactly "cute", but the anime is able to illustrate how cute it is through the characters, visuals and OST.

Character
All the characters are fun, especially when seeing how their dynamic changes when they drink. Their characterization is ... also done pretty well so far.

Botan is a flirty, affectionate drunk who "blossoms" into a yuri magnet when she downs her liquor. She is more honest, which makes her interaction with the cast interesting, as she essentially helps the cast open up about themselves, especially Ibuki, who always seems to put up more of a guard.

Ibuki is a loner who prefers to drink alone, kind of like Rin from Yuru Camp, probably because she views her hiccups as a social hindrance. She is definitely the most level-headed character when calm, acting as the straight man for the entire cast despite being the first character to interact with alcohol. Seeing Ibuki slowly be honest with her feelings is absolutely adorable. Ibuki and Botan's relationship is really endearing. Their yuri moments are a delight to watch.

Kanade, where do I even begin with her? She is basically a walking disaster from the looks of it. Every moment she is on screen, she is either smoking or drinking or both. In 10 years, she is going to look and sound like shit. Having said all that, I can't help but enjoy her character for the absolute wreck that she is. She is also a sleepy drunk who admires Ibuki a lot. The more yuri ships the better, I presume.

Akane is potentially my favourite character in this entire show based on her taste of music alone. I mean this woman is into Radiohead and Pink Floyd. That single-handedly makes her the coolest character in this show so far. Yaeki is probably the least interesting character as of ep 3. She is the more temperamental one in the group and seems like a sad drunk from the looks of it. Her relationship and interaction with Akane seem pretty intriguing. I hope they will develop this aspect further to flesh out her personality more.

I am not particularly fond of alcohol myself, but the show's way of depicting the joy of drinking really makes me itch for some myself, whether that's a good or bad thing. All of the scenarios the author created for alcohol consumption break up the monotony of the show and make the Slice of Life elements fun and interesting.

Music
This show also has my favourite OP this season. The shaky close-up of all the characters helps to illustrate an intimate feeling like you are watching a compilation of all the moments they filmed during their college life. It makes me feel nostalgic in a lot of ways. The lighting, color, and camera filter make this OP particularly fantastic. The different EDs are basically glimpses into the characters' lives and they are drawn beautifully.

The OST is really good as it is able to enhance the emotional scene while keeping the chill and calm atmosphere for the entire show. The highlight so far is the Radiohead - Let Down inspired track they use for ep 3. I know that Kid A is the record they reference, but the track sounds a lot more like Let Down from OK Computer.

Animation
Ep 3 also went with a more experimental route with its animation and editing. It reminds me a lot of the Monogatari series with a mix of the loose animation style Masaki Yuasa used for Ping-pong. I feel like this helps to spice up the episodes quite a bit in a fun way. One complaint I have is the color they chose for the show. I am not that fond of the desaturated tone. The show looks kind of drab and lifeless at times, but it is nothing that deters my enjoyment of the show so far.

This show has a lot of potential to become one of the best soulful slice-of-life, CGDCT shows. I hope they can keep up this level of quality for the rest of the show's run.

Thank you for reading

The change in direction and art style for Episode 3 really caught me off guard.

Episode 1 and 2 were great, the story and worldbuilding were set up really nicely, and the character dynamics really got me hooked from the beginning. The music and pacing was great too. It set itself up (and my expectations) as a great wholesome girls-bonding anime with good potential for depth in the story and character development.

However I would like to talk more about Episode 3.

From a little amount of reading online, it seems that the studio is experimenting with the artstyle, animation, and direction. However, in my opinion there should ... be some kind of purpose or logic behind doing this more than just "wanting unique styles to shine".

As an artist myself, changing the style and direction of an episode out of the blue, and so drastically at that, without a clear purpose or function just breaks immersion. There is a reason why doing this is not common place, because it makes it significantly harder for the audience to be immersed and invest into the world and story. Not to mention it ruins the entire branding and identity of the Anime, and makes it infinitely harder to share or become recognizable outside of the already small audience.

Furthermore, the quality of episode 3 wasn't the best either. Even if you were to objectively look at this episode in isolation, the pacing, continuity, and animation quality of this episode was lackluster. I could see what they were trying to go for, and it definitely did work very well in a couple of scenes, but that is nowhere near enough to justify or to sell this change.

Even if the next episode returns to the style and quality they established in episodes 1 and 2, the whiplash is already, for me, too hard to recover from. I felt that this anime had so much potential, and it's such a shame that just one episode could sour the potential I saw in this anime.

As a note, there is nothing artistic about creating expectations, and shattering it in the name of "experimentation". If that's what you wanted to do, make it clear from the start, and do it tastefully and with a purpose. Don't try to be different just to be different.

Soigne did a fantastic job at producing Mono, one of the shows with the best values of production from last year. Now they are animating "Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk". If you are a fan of CGDCT anime, this might seem like a good fit, but it might not be. Every type of CGDCT's series has some theme to it, and here it's drinking. People will draw the comparisons to Hibimeshi, but where this one lacks is the characterization in the cast. While for Hibimeshi, it did a good job characterizing its main 5.

While here outside Ibuki there is very little characterization that ... traditional slice-of-life fans will like. The only thing you have is the girls are clearly at least bisexual, if not lesbians, and they enjoy drinking. Now if you are a fan of Girls Love and are looking for something close to a Yuri RomCom then you might enjoy this one. As there is a lot of Yuri comedy like there was in Bad Girl a few seasons back.

The strongest point in this show is in the production values, which I would argue is what is carrying the anime. The direction, art direction, and animation are all outstanding. A different ED in each episode alongside a different animation style is definitely impressive. But that isn't much to carry this show unless you are a big-time yuri fan.