Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom | Episode 10 and 11 Review

Episode Ten Thoughts

Something just clicked for me, whenever you watch the OP, you see Chiya’s and Kokoa’s group of high school friends there. One thing that always bugged me about that scene in particular was the uniforms, not because I disliked them, it was because they looked oddly familiar. Every time I watched the OP I would always think the same thing “I am almost certain I’ve seen this type of uniform before”. I finally figured out! The uniforms reminded me of Jinsei, and Yuru Yuri. Yuru Yuri was the more obvious comparison because that is one of my favourite comedies but Jinsei was the anime that was always on the top of my tongue. However for some reason I couldn’t quite remember the name of the anime — until today that is.

Anyway, on with my thoughts of episode ten of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom. It’s now the Christmas season here in the world of Gochuumon. ‘Tis the season for secret Santa, the exchanging of gifts and spending time with close family and friends. One thing I would like to mention off the bat, Chino’s outfit she wore while she was out on her walk to Kokoa looked wonderful and very stylish for someone who’s in middle school. Quite the fashionista.

One thing that I will always loath about whenever I talk about Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom is it’s animation and art. What this anime does extremely well through it’s animation and it’s associated background music is its ability to establish those ‘feel good’ and ‘genuine’ moments between two or more of our characters. Like when Kokoa and Chino were walking through a part of their town was that decorated in Christmas lights and trees, the moment they had together while snow fell all around them was just wonderful. Episode ten also showed that even though Kokoa is a little crazy and spontaneous most of the time, it’s always in her best interest to see her friends happy. As shown by Kokoa working all those part-time jobs to earn money to buy presents for her friends that would make them genuinely happy.

Episode Eleven Thoughts

I love how everyone in the anime has their own colour that they run with. It’s something you’ll see from time-to-time and it’s something that Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? Bloom loves to use. Even when all our characters are not in their colour designated clothes and are in ‘normal’ attire; they still have something on their person that is associated to their colour.

Episode eleven is the embodiment of what an ideal Christmas gathering is in a perfect world. The appreciation of friends and family and the bond between them all and the exchanging of gifts. Episode eleven to me was an episode where we got to see everyone’s personality put to good use. A perfect blend between all our characters, main and supporting coming together to make one episode work. That was something that I thought was pretty cool and neat. On top of that, none of the personalities we saw in this episode worked against one another, everything was harmonious.

It was a nice touch to add one small feel good and sentimental moment between Tippy and Chino’s father. I assume that it was Chino’s mother’s dream to witness and bask in the moment of seeing everyone in the Rabbit House Café, in their uniforms having fun and enjoying the moment. This is something Tippy hints at towards the end and is affirmed by Chino’s father. They get to live and experience a dream that Chino’s mother wasn’t able to, which is bittersweet. Sweet because Chino’s mother’s dream came true, bitter because she wasn’t there to experience it with them.

Overall episode eleven was a nice feel good episode, for sure.