Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom

Episode 4

The school’s Cultural Festival is in full swing, and something I enjoyed a ton about the first half of the episode because it was all about Chiya and Kokoa. The two have surprisingly worked exceptionally well together as they both carry the same vibe; that being, the two are total airheads, and I find that extremely entertaining. It’s strange. We visited Sharo’s and Rize’s school, known commonly as the ‘rich girl’ school, during episode three. where they do activities that are considered, I guess, posh? (Within the scope of this universe, of course). Everything about that school seemed very formal. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Kokoa and company’s high school, which is your more traditional high school, well standard within this universe.

My favourite part of the episode for me was its reference to Oktoberfest. Immediately I thought, “what? Alcoholic beverages at a high school cultural festival?” They later clarified it was a joke, and all beverages being distributed by Kokoa and Chiya’s festival room was apple juice. Anyway, just the reference as a whole was the funniest thing to me, and I don’t know why. Seeing a reference to what I consider to be a very “adult” event in real life, being referenced in this universe through a high school setting was extremely entertaining.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. It was about friends hanging out, helping each other out, and having fun in the process. A straightforward but excellent episode in my books.

Episode 5

Chiya is starting to grow on me massively. Her comical exaggerations, determination, unwavering spirit and overall personality are starting to rub off on me. Chiya’s determination to finish the marathon this time around to the point where she trained every morning with Rize was undoubtedly fun to watch, especially since her motivation along with her goal of finishing the marathon was, of course, food.

There was never a dull moment throughout the episode because shortly after the little marathon training and completion at the episode’s start. We immediately switch to all our protagonists alongside Aoyama and Rin running around their town playing tag. Which is something they do all day until they come across this carousel in the middle of their village, something they all decide they wanted to ride — adults included. That part I find strange, randomly a rabbit carousel draws their attention from their game of tag. But then again, playing tag in your town with two adult figures in Aoyama and Rin seems odd also, but hey, if it works, it works.

All that being said, the following scenes and illustrations animated for us, accompanied by the very calming and beautiful (to me) OST played during Aoyama and Rin’s little moment, was just incredible. It offered us that beautiful “feels good man” moment. It was nice. It also helped that the talented Hayami, Saori, who plays Aoyama, her calm and soothing voice complimented that feel-good moment between the two friends. Overall that whole scene was something to behold. It was a moment of genuine happiness, which I liked.

These kinds of moments contained within Anime is what I enjoy most, I hope that Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom continues to do that.