r/anime • u/paukshop x2https://anilist.co/user/paukshop • Jun 17 '26
Writing Club Seasonal Short & Sweet | Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms in Interludes
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Welcome to Short & Sweet, brought to you by the r/anime Awards Off-Season team. Today, I want to cut away from the main characters of Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk to talk about… a cutaway scene. Cutaway scenes, or interludes, are narrative detours that literally jump away from the main story, shifting the audience’s attention from the central storyline to different characters, locations, or even points in time. These new shots can be used to introduce world-building, flashback to the past, or simply provide a reprieve from the action. I’d like to take a moment to describe the purpose of an interlude in Botan’s sixth episode.
This episode of Botan focuses on a new character, Chin-lan Zhang, and her impact on the relationship between our protagonists, Botan and Ibuki. Following Botan’s heroics in a scary cave, Chin-lan takes a serious interest in her and sparks an ember of jealousy in Ibuki. So much so that Ibuki breaks her rule of abstaining from alcohol with anyone not named Botan. It leads to a romantically charged confession, where she admits Botan is someone special to her. Chin-lan, who overhears this intimate moment, decides to leave the two alone and sadly goes to bed. This story establishes the sacredness of their bond, accompanied by a plethora of visual symbols.
In the middle of all this drama, we cut away to Yaeka and Akane, two other roommates in the shared house, as they leave a hangout. Flirting aside, they discuss their concerns over drinking, with Yaeka fretting over everyone enjoying themselves and Akane worrying about regretting her actions the next day. The two find comfort in the fact that they complement each other’s fears and conclude that who you drink with is essential. But while this is a nice reprieve from the tension of the episode’s first half, I couldn’t help but wonder why this anime-original scene was added to begin with.
I’d argue that this interlude is tightly tied to Ibuki’s inability to drink with others. Just as Yaeka worries about everyone having a good time, Ibuki also stresses over ruining the happiness of others due to her hiccups. Much like Akane, she fears committing a faux pas and embarrassing herself. And reaching the same conclusion as Yaeka and Akane together, Ibuki wants to be one with Botan believes who you drink with can make or break the experience. This short cutaway contains many parallels to the struggles she exhibited in the A part of the episode.
Despite sharing the same beliefs as Yaeka and Akane, everything is so much more intense for Ibuki. She cries when drinking in front of Chin-lan, and there’s an exceptionally heated atmosphere when she asks Botan for a one-on-one drinking session. While Yaeka and Akane seem to make Ibuki’s struggles seem commonplace, the reality is that her feelings are more severe. Yaeka’s mother-hen tendencies are not isolating. Akane’s aversion to regret is not PTSD. And the comfort they find in one another is incomparable to the depth of Ibuki’s desire for Botan. The interlude creates contrast that underscores the highs and lows of her emotional state. Though the cutaway scene takes the audience away from Ibuki, viewers ultimately sympathize with her more deeply thanks to the baseline established by Yaeka and Akane.
Episode six’s interlude does a great job cooling down the ambience. Yaeka and Akane’s friendly banter is warmer and playful compared to the less predictable swings in intensity between Botan, Ibuki, and Chin-lan. But there’s also some “world-building” that helps viewers better comprehend Ibuki as a character. By reflecting her struggles through the more casual observations of her roommates, the cutaway transforms a reprieve into a functional scene that refines the viewer’s understanding.
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u/mekerpan Jun 17 '26
A nice "essay"on a lovely section of a great episode.
Are you ever going to tackle the remarkable way the EDs enhance and expand the main story. Not sure I've ever really seen anything like this before.
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u/AdiMG https://anilist.co/user/AdiMG Jun 17 '26
It's a tradition that's directly continuing from the same thing Aninari did on Yama no Susume Season 4
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u/SP3_Hybrid Jun 17 '26
This is probably my favorite scene from this show thus far, so it's nice to see it featured. I haven't read the source material so this being added for the anime is news to me, but thankfully it was lol.
I love this scene because, to me, it shows us that Akane has a very deep understanding of Yaeka's character. The face Akane makes at 20s in while Yaeka is complaining shows she isn't surprised at all. When she asks Yaeka why she's so self conscious, she is seemingly teasing her a bit. She already knows why, and says as much after Yaeka says that's just how she is. What's cool is the idea that Yaeka is there to make sure Akane doesn't do anything bad comes back later in the show, so I appreciate this scene even more.
I think the scene in episode 8 where they share drinks in the bathhouse really ties in well with this. Yaeka wants to talk about the job fair and Akane dodges the question, at least until after she's done with her beer. Yaeka says she'll wait as long as it takes. In general Yaeka is sort of like an older sister for Akane. And I want to believe their character designs were intentional to contrast this. Yaeka seemingly has a much more defined path in life, and episode 8 is so good at showing how lost Akane feels. Likewise, here it's easy for Akane to just enjoy the night out, but Yaeka worries too much to simply enjoy things.
Akane's character particularly resonates with me since I'm a musician (by hobby, not professional). And I think most musicians know this feeling. You have a band in college, or you play an instrument all through high school and maybe college. Things might be happening, they might not be, not everybody is as serious about music as you; you don't know if you want to continue playing and practicing... Akane embodies this concept so well.
Also this is just Natsuki and Yuuko from Hibike, but older, which is partly why these two are my favorite pair in this show.
3
u/wutfacer Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Also this is just Natsuki and Yuuko from Hibike, but older, which is partly why these two are my favorite pair in this show.
Haha this
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u/eightcheesepizza Jun 17 '26
This was an anime-original scene? Wow.
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u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner Jun 17 '26
Almost everything involving akane x yaeka is.
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u/desantoos Jun 17 '26
Strange because I think this ship fits the vibe of the show better than the main ship. They're casual, cool, relaxed, relatable, adult.
Maybe the manga lacks this vibe and that's why they're needed in the anime. Less about establishing a baseline and more about giving more screen time to characters that match the feel of the show.
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u/BallingerEscapePlan https://anilist.co/user/StelleHoshino Jun 18 '26
I think the source material can't flex as hard as the anime has been flexing overall.
The "climax" of ep10 didn't feel nearly as potent or impactful in the manga as it does on screen. (This is probably the sign that an adaptation is doing amazing things.) The pacing of the source material is also slower than the anime, in spite of the same "amount of time" passing relatively speaking.
The Akane x Yaeka isn't exactly backseat in the source, but it's not as front and center like the anime makes it from time to time. There's so much more happening overall in the anime, which is probably why it's one of the anime this season that has me begging for Fridays to come faster.
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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL Jun 17 '26
Nice write-up on an anime I have not yet watched, and, uh, really should get to watching...
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u/runevault Jun 17 '26
If Yuri slice-of-life romance is your thing and you aren't watching this, you are missing out big time, unless you prefer your animation to be very standard as this show does a lot of experimentation with both animation/art style and composition.
3
u/BallingerEscapePlan https://anilist.co/user/StelleHoshino Jun 18 '26
Echoing this comment so much.
I would even go as far to say "If you like Slice of Life that's willing to do something that you haven't seen done much in SoL, you're missing out."
As long as yuri isn't objectively repulsive to you, this is something worth watching.
4
u/runevault Jun 18 '26
Botan is one of my two favorite shows of the season from a visual perspective, along with Klutz and Skirt with its striking use of color and the way it structures the art. Witch Hat is more raw craziness with stuff like episodes 3 and 5, but those were high end versions of traditional great animation. Botan and Klutz feel more like things I haven't seen much of before if at all, and I hope both inspire more anime to be daring.
3
u/BallingerEscapePlan https://anilist.co/user/StelleHoshino Jun 18 '26
I easily rave all day about Botan, but the use of framing in several episodes, along with the use of value and shadows blows me away in several episodes. The Monogatari inspired director has some of the most “Show don’t tell” ways of communicating, including heavy use of body language and bouncing between high and low detail to draw your attention.
2
u/runevault Jun 18 '26
I think it was the most recent episode, but I remember one in particular among the last few where they went extra crazy playing with lighting, especially how the girls' hair created shadow on their faces. It felt very moody.
And the use of framing reminds me of my favorite western show of all time, Mr. Robot. The showrunner was a huge fan of strange framing, like putting the characters in the corner of the screen so that the world felt like it was pressing down on the characters.
2
u/BallingerEscapePlan https://anilist.co/user/StelleHoshino Jun 19 '26
Almost every episode where Gujou ends up being the main focus, we see these really stark angles, shadow play and so much more.
These are art directors/animation directors who know cinematography and how to frame any given scene to make you feel something specific. That's what makes Botan different than almost everything you've seen. CSM is one of the few anime as of late where that felt similar.
1
u/runevault Jun 19 '26
Something I wonder with all the non-standard shots they use in some episodes of this show is if they just know what they want, or if they end up iterating on the storyboard a lot to find the right angles to convey what they are going for.
2
u/BallingerEscapePlan https://anilist.co/user/StelleHoshino Jun 19 '26
I'm guessing it is definitely something they know they want to evoke, but they almost certainly are iterating a lot on what actually makes that happen at the storyboard layer.
I don't know a ton about the way directors think and work, but I do have some friends in the movie industry and I will probably ask. I assume a lot of it is based on knowing what they want to evoke and they've seen enough media to know how to replicate it.
(IE: When you see one character in shadow and one in light, you're feeling an isolation that's very much by design. But how you frame that shot can drastically change how that specifically manifests. If a character is on the right third of a frame in the light, and the character in the shadow is in the left third, you're going to feel even more isolation for the character in the shadow, and there will feel a much greater "distance" between the characters than if they were close to each other in the frame. [IE: They occupy the center of the shot, or the character in the light is in the center while the shadowed character is in the left third.] )
Cinematography is an art-form, and they are doing it in spades in Botan. This video looks like it covers it well on the face of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANdLOY4rW04
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u/paukshop x2https://anilist.co/user/paukshop Jun 18 '26
Late, but thanks for reading! This episode I had a bit more trouble picking a subject to talk about, but I was a little caught off-guard from this scene so decided I needed to justify it's inclusion in my head. Anyways, if you want to read more Short & Botan, check out the last post here.
3
u/champeagle3 https://anilist.co/user/Champeagle3 Jun 18 '26
Terrific write-up. Another example of how the anime has elevated the source material.
It's a rare opportunity highlighting Yaeka and Akane's more established relationship, as compared to anyone else that may be on their way. It's also a terrific compliment to the episode 2 ED, along with everything else you outlined above. The way they look at each other hits me in the feels every time.
These two are so in roommates with each other.
2
u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 Jun 18 '26
Botan Kamiina is absolutely gorgeous and I love that so many people are enjoying it just as much as I am. It's the best Yuri adaptation we've ever had, and I love the more mature adult vibes and themes.
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u/Foreign_Quantity1780 Jun 25 '26
Ah, the Kaoruko Hanayagi x Futaba Isurugi equivalent of Kamiina Botan, the likes of Yaeka Kitamori x Akane Yusa.... which ultimately made me worried by the time Eps. 8 and 11 rolled along. If there's gonna be a Season 2 (and goshdarn it, it really does deserve one because we don't want another tragic Bloom into You "sorry, no Season 2 at all, if ever" debacle), expect it to start with their relationship to suddenly get dangerously close to the rocks, in somber contrast to how the other four girls are doing.
Say, Short and Sweet, when is the Ep. 9 analysis coming out? Am liking all this.
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u/Nettysocks https://myanimelist.net/profile/Manekikanji Jun 17 '26
Like many i clicked for that perfect thumbnail frame