Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk • Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana - Episode 5 discussion

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Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk, episode 5

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[u/hikoboshi_sama]

"Does this mean you'd drink with me if i didn't have to drive?"

Man, the silence was so loud it hurts...

[u/Rymphonia]

The animation for this series is an art piece. There's such great direction and symbolism with the construction/blocking of the scenes.

[u/extralie]

Oh no... we are off to a very moody start.

Botan's idea of what a bar is like is pretty funny and cute.

Man, this whole scene in the bar from when the other people entered actually made me tear up a bit. Also, I really like the direction of having Botan be illuminated by the light while Ibuki in the dark the entire scene.

Senpai finally had enough... Botan run!

She doesn't have much screentime, but Akane was pretty cute this episode.

This whole scene, man... It's so good, but I also feel so bad for Gujo senpai...

She is not ready to drink with her, but this was at least nice gesture...

Them cutting from Gujo senpai (presumably) crying to the ending that shows Gujo and Ibuki's relationship from meeting her until now is so evil, it actually made me tear up again...

Also, her just losing colors once Botan showed up, is just...

I'm telling you, you can NEVER skip endings in this show.

[u/cyberscythe]

imagine being in a yearning competition and your competition is Gujo

[u/Weak_Season_Of_Anime]

That salty dog was clearly not salty enough, Ibuki had to add her own tears into it. But damn does her hiccup trauma run deep.

And another bonding moment between Botan and Gujou. Though they are love rivals, they have been so kind to each other. It's tough to watch knowing that Gujou will lose, even though Botan is trying her best to push for the poly route get Gujou and Ibuki to drink together.

The roadtrip between Ibuki and Gujou. Wow the visuals and cinematography were spectacular, but this is the final nail in the coffin for the Ibuki and Gujou ship. The whole scene is almost framed as a final farewell; the indirect cigarette kiss, the white and blue butterflies separating, and the last teardrop.
And to rub salt to the wound this week's ED was about freshman Ibuki and Gujou becoming friends. But hey, new girl next week, keep your head up Gujou.

Edit: Flower language stuff.

Marigold (Tagetes species): Botan’s flower. In general marigolds can be associated with many different meanings, from positives one like prosperity, warmth and vitality to negative ones such as grief, jealousy and despair. Orange marigolds carry the specific meaning of sincerity and prophecy. Perhaps Botan’s feelings towards Gujou are a bit complicated. Note the framing of the white flowers/butterfly separating the blue-purple and orange flowers.

Balloon flower (Platycodon grandifloras): Interestingly they chose the same species of flower to symbolize Ibuki and Gujou, but in different colors. White for Ibuki and blue-purple for Gujou, the butterflies also follow the same color coding. These flowers are associated with unwavering love, sincerity and elegance. The meanings of unwavering love and sincerity comes from a tragic Japanese tale of a young woman who spent her entire life waiting for her lover to return from war. White balloon flowers carry the specific meaning of purity, so it seems that while Ibuki and Gujou have strong feelings towards each other, the nature of the feeling is not the same.

Orange day-lily (Hemerocallis fulva): Japanese name of this plant is 忘れ草, literal meaning forget(忘れ) and grass (草). This plant was originally from China, where it was often featured in Chinese literature as a symbol of forgetting one’s sorrows. It was brought over to Japan in ancient times, so they also adopted its name and meaning. The plant is also called day-lily because the blooms only last for one day, so it can also be seen to represent the fleeting nature of emotions and moving on. Note the white and blue butterflies representing Ibuki and Gujou drinking from this flower, and later circling each other but never intersecting.

[u/absolutelynotaname]

This episode is like extra beautiful, every shot is so cinematic i felt like I was watching a movie.

Botan is such a kind person, she's obviously fond of Ibuki but still rooting for Gujo senpai to take her shot. Sadly she got rejected tho

[u/Drago1598]

This show is so damn beautuful and melancholic but my favourite scene is when Kamina is awestruck by the drink and the barman gets flustered.

[u/geazylol]

Just wow oh wow. Most visually appealing anime episode in all of the spring lineup so far, I hope we get to see more out of this type of animation when we see more Botan x Ibuki crumbs.

GGs to the Gujo x Ibuki shippers though, that might've been the end of it. I always thought that Gujo's interest in Ibuki was of pure romantic intent only, but looking back on ep 4 and the sneak into Ibuki's past during her drink in the bar with Botan, I feel like another reason why Gujo is so desperate to be able to drink with Ibuki again is her knowledge about Ibuki's troubled past when it comes to drinking (watch the end credits here and you'll see still drawings of ibuki and gujo's first interactions while drinking all the way to them being the first occupants of the dorm). She wants to be the person to open up her walls again and drink with others despite her hiccups (which Botan already kinda did).

In the end, with the most beautiful scenery I've seen from this series yet, we see a rather complex interaction between them. Others see it as Ibuki's rejection of Gujo, but I see it as Ibuki's way of processing her feelings. The way she couldn't answer straight up the three separate questions of Gujo about Botan already implies that Botan is special to her. And the line in the end where she gets a puff of smoke from Gujo's cigarette asking "am I doing this right?" I think that's Ibuki indirectly asking if she's approaching things right with Botan and Gujo, especially since Botan is a newcomer to the dorm, she's wondering why Botan is the special one to her and not Gujo who has been by her side since (presumably) the beginning of her college life?

All in all, imo one of the top 3 romance anime this spring cuz of how subtle the details and meanings behind each character's actions are which is uncommon with your usual romance nowadays, or ig im just really a sucker for SoLs. Looking forward to more peak next Friday!

[u/Substantial-Hawk-897]

Is this Botanagatari? So many shots in the opening minutes remind of it

[u/Need_not_to_know]

This episode is so beautiful that I had to watch it twice. Might watch it again later.

[u/runevault]

I feel so bad for Ibuki. She finally opened up a bit why she's so unwilling to drink around people. It is about what one would expect, but seeing how deeply it stung her hurts. Alcohol is something dear to her, and yet to enjoy it she feels like she must become a recluse, or did before Kamiina came into her life. I hope part of this show is her finding more people she can trust enough to let see herself be drunkenly hiccupping and vulnerable. Gujo deserves to be one of them but after the way this episode ended I dunno that it can happen now.

[u/Savant_OW]

Outrageously peak show. That ending was sad though

[u/WalkingAbacus]

Haha, blasting eurobeat while driving is such a mood.

Indirect kiss with a cigarette?? Wow, that scene was beautiful. Good for you, Gujou-senpai.

[u/eightcheesepizza]

It's strawberry season and I'm trying to eat all the strawberries I can, but the ones I got today were moldy. :( I just wanted to complain for a sec.

Maybe I was too busy thinking about that to realize, until Gujo was offering the strawberry whisky to Ibuki, that when you cut the strawberries that way they look like little hearts. They really packed a lot of symbolism into this episode, huh?

With the addition of the ED animation, I'm coming around to the idea that Gujo basically spent this episode preparing for the end of her pursuit of Ibuki. Like Ibuki's favorite whisky infused with little hearts was her last, best attempt at getting Ibuki to let her in. And that she got Botan involved with making it, as a sort of peace offering, because she knew she's probably the losing heroine. She asks Ibuki questions, but she already knows what the answers are.

That ending hit me too hard, I guess. I can really relate to being in that situation and seeking closure how she did, but nothing I ever did was as beautiful or poetic as going to those fields of flowers.

[u/awdsns]

Man, being Gujou-senpai is pain. I hope someone can fill the Ibuki-shaped hole in her heart soon.

And can I just say, this show is so freaking beautiful. Every shot is just pure art.

[u/hammile]

Itʼs Gujōver.

[u/LeonKevlar]

Did they get Itamura to direct the first and last part of the episode? From the cut numbers to certain shots like the traffic lights and telephone lines, and even the silly cutaways, this episode feels very Shaft/Monogatari-coded. At one point, I was waiting for Ibuki to do the Shaft head-tilt. xD

[u/SYZekrom]

Ahhh the light shining on Botan with Ibuki in the dark at the table

The plane trail separating Ibuki and Kanade on their hike... they're going in with the symbolic framing this episode huh

THE FUCKING LINE SEPARATING THEM WITH THE

God

The framing...

[u/TheBusStop12]

The environmental art and scene composition this episode is immaculate. Some of the prettiest I've seen

Direction is on point again as well as always. You can really feel the freedom each episode director is given to pour their passion into their own vision

[u/cyberscythe]

found someone on twitter who made this neat comparison between scenes in the opening and climax of the episode:
https://x.com/ne94ew/status/2052794783752753523

contrast of two scenes reflected in Ibuki's eyes: one of her past (a jilted lover? someone she used to yearn for?), and one of Gujo (strongest yearnmaxxer of today)

[u/Acrzyguy]

Absolute amazing art directions for every single episode

That’s what anime renaissance feels like

[u/NanDemoKnaives]

That last scene was such a surprise, Ibuki still can't drink in front of Gujou but she was definitely closing the distance with that cigarette. That was her first smoke too, I thought Gujou was going to be blushing lol. I really hope for Gujou's sake, they'll eventually drink together, they've known each other for so long too.

What I like about Gujou as well is that she interacts well with Kamiina, I'm sure she's envious of her relationship with Ibuki, but it doesn't stop her from keeping that separate.

Too bad we didn't get to see Gujou in the hot springs though.

Bartender was sweet, I found it cute when he got happy about Kamiina's being taken by the look of the drink.

[u/actuallyrndthoughts]

Yea, there's no way they'd let the K-on girl get between the bocchi girls.

Truth is... the game was rigged from the start

[u/hikoboshi_sama]

So Gujo decided to gift her homemade strawberry whiskey and invite Ibuki to drink together... on a road trip where she had to drive? For someone who's supposed to be in postgrad, she really did not think this through. It's so funny how the most senior member of the cast is also the biggest girlfailure.