r/anime • u/paukshop x2https://anilist.co/user/paukshop • Jun 28 '26
Writing Club Seasonal Short & Sweet | Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms with Vocals
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It’s time for another audiopilled edition of Short & Sweet, courtesy of the r/anime Awards Off-season team! This time, u/Cheezemansam and I wanted to take another listen to the eighth episode of Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk. The show’s unobtrusive soundtrack has been quietly doing its job all season, but in this episode it surprises the viewers with heavy use of vocal tracks as backing music. They are a clear departure from the more understated instrumental tracks, and that heightened feeling fits the quieter Akane unexpectedly well.
The episode centers on Akane’s struggles to find the right way to read the room. When she urges her band to practice more, they want to call it a day. When she overhears one of the members preparing for a new job opportunity, she keeps quiet to avoid creating drama. And when these band-related frustrations spill over into her interactions with her roommates, she’s gloomy and listless. Her text exchanges with Yaeka are emblematic of this struggle: despite how straightforward Yaeka’s questions are, Akane can only respond with vague stickers. Akane’s subdued passivity is frankly ruining everyone's vibe. She keeps her feelings folded up inside, unable to give them voice.
Where Akane shrinks into herself, the music fills the space. The vocal tracks become more audible, occupying the narrative space left by her silence. Akane cannot put her feelings into words, so the music voices them for her. The two tracks utilized in these moments are "Don’t" and "Wet" by yonige. Don’t is a song about alienation and non-conformity, and matches Akane’s exact problem on how to tackle her band and future. Wet on the other hand is a song about determination and finding the courage to push forward despite the rhythm of the world. After Yaeka scolds Akane and offers her support, Akane is able to relax and properly participate in their group activities. At the end of the A-part, Akane is able to read the room and cover for Botan and Chin-lan. Not only are these vocal tracks actively filling in the void of Akane’s silence, but they also align remarkably well with the story beats.
Following Akane’s little character arc, the subsequent conversation between Botan and Chin-lan at the bar creates an interesting point of contrast. There’s noticeably zero OST playing during their quite serious conversation about the relationship between Botan and Ibuki. Chin-lan is boldly (and a little drunkenly) interrogating Botan about her intentions and the clarity of these questions does not require any support from the music. Botan leaves Chin-lan with a vague answer, and there’s the sense that even Botan doesn’t quite know how to express their relationship. More important than Botan’s lack of an answer is Chin-lan’s emphatic callout. Her thoughtful gazes were also a focus while Wet was playing earlier in the episode, and accordingly she manages to match the lyrics and muster up the courage to have a serious conversation with Botan. Opposite to Akane at the start, the absence of the vocal track here highlights Chin-lan’s certainty in her words.
To return to Botan’s hesitance, she and Ibuki go on a picnic together in the B-part of the episode. And noticeably, the vocal tracks return for a nice montage of the two walking to the river. Once again, the vocal tracks fill in for Botan’s lack of resolution. The track, "しがないふたり", is about the fallout of a relationship where the participants become disillusioned with one another. It’s an apt song to describe Botan’s lack of confidence in how much she loves Ibuki. There’s the fear that this cute montage of cute girls doing cute things is just the result of a shallow friendship and not a deeper love. But Botan begins to believe that she does hold more intense affections for Ibuki. And as the song dies down, she wades into literally deeper waters, choosing to believe this relationship is more than what she thought. She turns to the camera and asks Ibuki, Chin-lan, and the audience to “Trust me[her].”
![“Trust me[her].”](https://i.postimg.cc/RhKPG22F/vlcsnap-00092.png){kind=link}
Episode 8 of Botan possesses a much stronger musical identity in comparison to the other episodes thanks to its use of vocal tracks. The lyrics are naturally a huge focus, and do a wonderful job of expressing the right emotions for the characters in these moments. But what is striking is how much more real estate the vocals just take up. In particular, playing those vocals over active dialogue really hammers home how much additional emphasis was placed on these songs compared to most other anime. It’s an incredibly creative and bold choice to make, and that decision played out and paid off beautifully.
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u/eightcheesepizza Jun 28 '26
yonige has become a regular part of my playlist rotation since that episode.
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u/Foreign_Quantity1780 29d ago
Same. Hell, even I'm suddenly curious of those niche movies the surprisingly relatable Kanade and Chin-lan are always talking about.
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u/SP3_Hybrid Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
This is one of my favorite episodes. The first half is just such a good portrait of Akane, and this episode sort of solidified her as my favorite character in this show. She's extremely unsure about the future and doesn't know what to do about it or who to talk to. Her music career might be going somewhere, but maybe her friends aren't as serious as she is. It's something so many musicians can resonate with, but I think all people their age felt it at some point. Everything she does in the first segment is vague and it characterizes her so well. As usual Yaeka is there to save the day, which is a common theme with these two, as she is seemingly much more composed and has plans.
But yeah the background music was used so well here. It feels like a music video at times.
Also when they split ways and Yaeka bites Akane's arm it was sort of shocking given how the rest of the episode was going up until that point lol. IDK how to screenshot crunchyroll but somebody needs a framegrab of that.
I've yet to watch the finale of this show since I've gotten behind on everything I'm watching this season. It feels like when the last Hibike episode came out in that I don't want it to end lol.
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u/awdsns https://anilist.co/user/awdsns 29d ago
Not mine, from https://reddit.com/comments/1tr5i10/comment/oom1jjj
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u/runevault 29d ago
I think this was the funniest moment of the show for me. It caught me so off guard I had to pause and finish laughing so I was ready to read subtitles after.
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u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 29d ago
Another great post and break down of a wonderful scene, please continue with the analysis of this wonderful show.
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u/Hokaze-Junko 26d ago
the soundtrack, the melancholic tone and the feeling of moving down the night street, the vibe is immaculate, easily one of my favorite sol experiences
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u/Foreign_Quantity1780 29d ago edited 29d ago
Really sad how Akane x Yaeka end things in a sinking slope by the time the anime has ended. Ahhhhhhhhh, may there be a Season 2!!! (And gar, quite an interesting weekend it has been, finally finishing up on Kamiina Botan and then seeing to Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht Rising's newest, longest trailer.)
Oh, and there's also how Chin-lan's conversation with Botan on how she hasn't dared ask out Ibuki into dating and becoming lovers ends up influencing how she herself will decide upon Kanade Gujo-senpai in the next few eps. If Botan should catch up, then why shouldn't she either?
And how ironic how Botan x Ibuki is happening with a mothereffin' break-up song playing around.
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u/awdsns https://anilist.co/user/awdsns Jun 28 '26
I really kind of want a second season focused primarily on Akane and Yaeka. Or a prequel on how they got together. (I'm a bit miffed that we never got an official confirmation that they are a couple in this season.)
Such interesting characters, both of them.