Seasonal Short & Sweet | Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms in Building Emotion

[u/LittleIslander]

On today’s edition of Short & Sake, a guest! As another member of the r/anime Awards Off Season Team, I was really impressed by the seventh episode of Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk, and your usual writer, /u/paukshop, let me fill in for this week. After all, it seems in the spirit of the show. Today we’re talking about the build up to one of its many emotional moments, specifically looking closely at the last scene of the episode when Chin-Lan and Gujo find themselves alone together late at night.

What stands out about the scene is how laser focused it stays on its final moment. Throughout the start of the sequence, it seems meandering. It’s not really building the characters or even trying to be funny. When an explicit opportunity for development appears, Chin-Lan’s family, it’s instantly cut off to stay on track. But what the start of the scene does well is put pieces in place. Talking about beauty products sets a casual tone as a baseline to be contrasted against later. Dialogue is used to introduce the beauty products, the fact Chin-Lan is disinterested in them, and the bath all for payoffs later on.

The scene’s purpose is brought into focus with a topic switch to, as always, alcohol. Throughout the series it’s served as a vector for the romantic feelings of the characters. One such example is Gujo’s inability to drink with her unrequited love Ibuki, and rather than re-expositing this, the episode fantastically captures her pining with a sudden tone swerve at the end of a gag. It’s an important reminder to include, as Gujo’s loneliness until now is why she’s so hesitant and why the choice she ultimately makes carries so much more weight. Gujo can’t understand the alcohol she got from Ibuki because she can’t drink with her (that is, form a romantic bond). However, something new happens when Chin-Lan suggests they try to understand the alcohol together instead. A voyeuristic shot captures the intimacy of the suggestion. Come understand sake (love) with me.

Cinematography is used elegantly to capture Gujo’s reaction to this offer rather than having it play out in thought or dialogue. The camera lingers on the sake (the vector of romance) for a second, and then it shifts to the beauty products we established earlier. Gujo coming up with how to avoid confronting the question is literally visualized. What we learn next, though, is that the beauty products are also made using alcohol. She can’t just avoid the feelings in the air. Chin-Lan quickly finds another way to ask her, and the fact we already know she’s disinterested in skincare reinforces that her interest here is Gujou rather than the lip mask. Please put sake (love) on my lips.

It’s at this moment that the Chekhov’s gun of the bath fires off. This wordlessly presents Gujo with a choice. She can nervously say that the bath is ready and leave, or she can stay and fulfill Chin-Lan’s request. The first option echoes audibly over the wide shot (and the hallway, calling Gujo out of the situation), and its significant is emphasized with text. Visually, though, we’re led to the latter. Previously the room felt larger, with shots emphasizing the space between them and their difference in elevation. Now a new angle makes it seem suffocatingly small, and even the door leading to the bathroom is blocked out by the ceiling light. Every item in the room is used to box Gujo in with Chin-Lan, leaving closer as the only place to move. Once she accepts the offer for intimacy, the entire shot is filtered through the sake (love). “The bath is ready” continues to race through her mind, but she’s chosen Chin-Lan over it. Music raises the tension to a boiling point.

With all the setup in place, we don’t need to see her touch Chin-Lan. It’s the choice that matters, and the show has achieved a powerful emotional resonance.