Let's Talk About "The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity" And Other Romances in Shounen Manga

01 Dec, 2025

Romance manga aimed at boys has a long and interesting history. I assume. I don't actually know the history, if I'm honest. But have you ever read/watched anything by Rumiko Takahashi? Claaaassic.

Today we continue to see a steady supply of shounen romance manga.¹ There are romcoms that are stupid. There are others that are sweet and thoughtful. And there are some that are both stupid and sweet.

I like the genre.

In the past five years I have read (or watched the anime adaptation of) at least a portion of:

• Tonikawa (Fly Me to the Moon)
• Blue Box
• A Couple of Cuckoos
• Bokuben (We Never Learn)
• Kanojo mo Kanojo
• Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms (I only read one volume though. And the anime looked ugly)
• Taisho Otome Fairytale (the manga is a bit older, but the anime was in 2021—also, just don't bother with the manga, to be honest)
• Teasing Master Takagi-san
• Rent-a-Girlfriend (the most regrettable thing on this list. My only consolation is that I dropped it before the end of the first season)
• Call of the Night (this counts, I think?)
• You and I Are Polar Opposites
• Hope You're Happy, Lemon
• Don't Toy With Me, Nagatoro-san
• The Dangers in My Heart (Bokuyaba)
• Pseudo Harem
• Komi Can't Communicate
• Horimiya (web manga originally, but then it got a version in a shounen magazine, so we'll count it)
• Himaten (the most recent Nisekoi-like in Weekly Shounen Jump but of course it's not as fun as Nisekoi)
• Blooming Love
• I Want to End This Love Game
• and the best one, of course, Dandadan (maybe not entirely fair since Dandadan is so many different things... nevertheless, Momo and Okarun are probably the best couple on this entire list).

Now of course I've read/watched some other romances, but I have limited this list specifically to shounen manga (and anime based on shounen manga) that have been relevant in this decade (Bokuben was kind of a stretch, but it was still running in 2020, technically, so... close enough).

Anyway, yeah, that's my list.

Why do I feel like I'm going to be judged for it?

I can't deny I like experiencing trash every now and then. Just this winter I watched "I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class," which is based on a light novel. (Arguably you could put it on the list since the manga version is in a shounen magazine). Now, just being based on a light novel is a red flag already, frankly. But you know, the idea of a guy learning to love some tsundere girl in his class sounds pretty good, doesn't it? And it turned out that yeah, the main girl is cute as heck when you see her dere side. All the other elements of the story are almost completely disposable, but as long as we get a main couple that's cute, that's enough to make me tolerate the rest just so I can eventually see the romance bloom.

But we're not here today to talk about the relatively bad ones. We're here to talk about one of the good ones. Or at least it's one I heard was good. I mean randos online were really hyping this one up.

It's called The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity. It got an anime recently. And uh, it's pretty good. It's probably better than about two thirds of that list, honestly.

What Do I Like About Fragrant Flower?

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity, originally written and drawn by Saka Mikami, utilizes some timeless romance tropes. You have a couple who appear quite opposite. The guy is super tall and people think he's kind of scary (reminds me of the homie Ryuji from Toradora). The girl is quite short and seems like one of the purest beings on earth (aside from height, very much opposite to Taiga from Toradora). A classic foil.

You also have a situation of two groups at war with each other—well, not war, really, but there are these two high schools, and they don't get along. The girls' school is a proper upper-class place. The guys' school is cruddy and has a bad reputation. The schools are right next door to each other, but the rich girls look upon their neighbors with disgust. Our leading lady isn't into that classist junk, of course. Now, I know Romeo and Juliet is often what people think of when you have that sort of situation, but this is different. Because that story is a tragedy, and this one is not. At least I'm pretty sure it's not. Another example is that one episode of Avatar with the backstory of the secret tunnel. Did that story have a happy ending? Anyway, it's a fun set-up.

In the first episode alone, it's clear that Kaoruko, the main girl, already has a crush on Rintarou, the main guy, and I thought that was adorable.

This story is wholesome and just good vibes and I think it'd be nice to have the manga on the shelf, where every now and then I could reach for it just whenever I need to see something cute and sweet, you know?

The anime is really pretty. I don't have anything specific to say about the visuals. I just know I thought it was beautiful.

I Kinda Am Not As Excited About This Series As Other People Apparently Are

Unfortunately, when a series is as hyped up as this one is, it does sort of plant some expectations in my mind. And while I was excited about the story initially, by the middle of the season, I started wondering... when exactly is this going to start living up to all those 9s and 10s people are giving it?

Now look, I don't have any problem saying that it might just be a me thing. It's not like I was watching it taking notes, giving 110% attention. I'm not ready to give any sort of detailed review at this point. That said, my honest impression right now is that while I really like the series, I feel like it doesn't quite reach the highest tier of shounen romances. It probably reaches the second or third-highest tier, which is still pretty good.

As you will recall from my stupid list, I am no stranger to sweet shounen romance manga/anime of the Reiwa era.² You and I are Polar Opposites. Blue Box. I Want to End This Love Game—jeez, that one felt almost too sweet. This series is maybe better than some of those (well, it's better than Love Game, I think I like Polar Opposites more but I'm not totally sure, and I definitely like Blue Box more), but in any case, the point is that the competition in this space is pretty strong.

I've pondered on what it is that's keeping Fragrant Flower from fully connecting with me. And I have one hypothesis: the cast feels too nice.

"You can be too nice?" - Aang

I know, I know—what's wrong with being nice?

Every story has some form of conflict. Conflict doesn't have to be anything extraordinary to be interesting, but you want it to challenge the characters. You want the audience to feel some suspense as they wonder if the characters will be able to succeed. If the characters have a super easy time achieving their goals, then victory doesn't feel all that exciting.

It's not that Fragrant Flower is lacking in conflicts, but as the story goes on further, and the friend group becomes established, the suspense kind of dissipates. In the beginning, the girls' school hating the boys' school feels like a big problem, but after a while, the issue becomes irrelevant.

Also, in the first episode, some dudes show up and try to punch Kaoruko in the face for some reason. That was crazy. I think this part might have made me think this was going to be a more dramatic story though?

The friend group does have conflict sometimes, though it always seems to get resolved so quickly, so I don't really feel much suspense from it. These kids are very good at talking through their feelings—which is admirable! But for my tastes, it's too idealized to be super interesting. Sometimes I want to see a bit more insecurity, jealousy, anger, or any other difficult emotion. And maybe I want it to take more than one episode for the character to work through whatever's bugging them. Sometimes I want to dive into characters' heads.

You know what else I watched this year? (And I can justify this tangent by saying that it may explain where my head has been at when watching Fragrant Flower, don't worry). I finished Fruits Basket (the newer version of the anime of course) months ago, and gosh it's good. Fruits Basket actually gets quite dramatic, and just about every character has a heavy burden to carry. The profound loss Tohru has experienced as well as the harshness she continues to encounter makes her unwavering kindness and love that much more powerful.

But what we gotta accept about Fragrant Flower is that it's apparently supposed to be light and fun and not super dramatic. Right? And that's fine. Sometimes you don't want the sad stuff! Despite the drama in the first couple episodes, the series is more like one of those "healing" manga. Well, I guess I should have trusted the AniList tags, because the top tag on the manga is literally Iyashikei.

Fragrant Flower actually reminds me of Skip & Loafer (which is actually a seinen manga). I love Skip & Loafer. I haven't gone back to the series since the anime aired, but what I admired so much about it was how observant and empathetic it felt. It was a story that seemed to truly get humans. It was a relaxing, peaceful show, yet there were interesting character dynamics and conflicts. (Thank goodness season 2 is happening).

Now on the other hand, the romance and Skip & Loafer is not the quick kind, so if you want to see more obvious progress towards a boy and a girl becoming a couple within a single 13-episode anime season, Fragrant Flower will give that to you. But all the character writing in Skip & Loafer is good, so this was never an issue to me. Fragrant Flower's character writing just feels a little more surface-level, in comparison (it's aimed at a younger audience, in fairness).

So anyway, I figure there's a good chance I'll like The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity more in time, but I was just expecting to be more impressed than I am, I guess. That's the curse of hype, though.

Now I want to compare with some other shounen romance stories, because it's fun to do, and I guess because it will further explain my tastes here.

The Dangers in My Heart: Guarding your heart by becoming an edgelord

So here's a shounen romance that I find compelling: The Dangers in My Heart, aka Bokuyaba (which is short for Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu. I'm calling it Bokuyaba because it's shorter and I'm not gonna say TDiMH because what is that??) It's a manga created by Norio Sakurai. When the anime aired a couple years ago, I don't remember that much hype for it, but I gave it a try, probably because the description sounded funny.

One thing that made me suspicious of the show initially is that, at that time, I had realized that male-oriented romances in manga in recent years have frequently had the type of wish fulfillment where a lonely, quiet, possibly nerdy guy is saved by a beautiful, kind, outgoing girl, and I was like—hey wait a minute, stop pandering to me so much! Of course, a lot of fiction is some sort of wish fulfillment, so it's not really a crime to be that, but I was feeling a need to be wary of stuff that comes across as too pander-y.

The bigger obstacle with Bokuyaba for me and probably most people was the male lead. This cringey kid has cringey murder fantasies. Which is kind of funny sometimes. But also scary. And they said this show was going to be wholesome!

(Also the anime gives extra dialogue to the pathetically sex-obsessed loser boy Adachi, which, ew).³

But here's the thing about Bokuyaba: looking beyond the walls people put up to cover their insecurities is kind of the whole point. This show has an initial wall of "Ew this kid is creepy" but if you climb over it, you end up finding something very sweet. I feel like the anime's commitment to this concept is demonstrated by the way they don't play the opening sequence, which reveals the warm feeling of the show, until the end of the first episode.

Opposite to the edgelord male main character, we have Anna Yamada. We never actually see her inner thoughts, but if you pay attention, you can usually understand her well enough. This writer is bold, I tell you what.

Little edgelord boy discovers one day that Yamada, the prettiest girl in class, who he supposedly "hates" and "wants to murder," is not exactly who he thought she was. I mean, she really loves snacking. Never seen someone so enthusiastic about that. The noises she makes when she pigs out on snacks in the library are kind of off-putting honestly. And she's clumsy.

With this couple, once again, you have a foil. Yamada is a super tall girl, and Ichikawa is a short guy. Yamada is friendly, while Ichikawa is a quiet guy who is always having inner monologues where he's thinking stuff like "Man, I'm so messed up." Yeah sure you are kid.

Yamada's friends are such frickin good characters, by the way, but that's completely beside the point.

In the first few chapters, Ichikawa, who can't seem to help thinking about and watching Yamada, notices she could use help, and in his own odd ways, he lends a hand. Sometimes her ways of showing thanks are truly baffling (why would Ichikawa want an empty bag of snacks??) Before long, Yamada, with her friendly and unassuming personality, is interacting with him often. But will our edgelord be able to let down his guard for two seconds to consider that this girl is actually quite fond of him and would like to get closer??

I gotta say, the series really gives you that joyous, exciting feeling of young love.

Now, I appreciate that I can show Fragrant Flower to anyone, because it's very clean and non-problematic. Bokuyaba... ehh, like I said, the first couple episodes will scare people, I don't like a few shots that feel like they're sexualizing Anna, and there's a joke or two I dislike.

But, the way Bokuyaba writes these longer character arcs? Oh yeah man. That's where it's at.

There are moments in Bokuyaba where I want to scream at Ichikawa because he's sabotaging himself so hard. When I say that, you may start thinking "That doesn't sound fun or good." But the thing is, a lot of shounen romcoms have really boring protagonists. Which annoys me. And not only are they dull, they're oblivious to a level that gets ridiculous, simply because if they could connect the dots as to why all these girls are so insistent on spending all this time with them, you'd immediately get the resolution to the main conflict of the story and the manga might end. But Ichikawa is not like those guys. We understand him. It's not that he can't take a hint. He just won't. Because he's insecure. He's scared. In a lot of instances, Yamada is extremely easy to read, at least for the audience. However, Ichikawa has a paranoid mindset I'm familiar with myself where if someone is being nice to him, it can't be as simple as them just wanting to be friends; maybe they're actually making fun of him or have some other motive. It's very difficult for him to correctly interpret Yamada's actions because of that. So anytime I'm frustrated with him, it's like, "GRRRRRGHHH.... but I get it, man." And that's a big part of what makes it a compelling story. It makes it all the more exciting whenever Ichikawa pushes past the doubts.

So yeah bro Bokuyaba is good stuff. Some of the strongest writing in the shounen romance genre.

Silver Spoon Has One of the Greatest Shounen Romances

Fullmetal Alchemist. You probably know it. (You probably read the title of the show in that English announcer voice from the anime like I intended you to, right? Maybe?) For a generation of MyAnimeList users, FMA Brotherhood was the champion, the king.

And yet, how many of you goobers have experienced FMA mangaka Hiromu Arakawa's follow-up series Silver Spoon? Not enough.

What, you only like her brilliant character and comedy writing if you get a portion of fantasy and battle to go with it? Grow up. (Look, I don't really mean it that seriously, it's just... trying different things could enrich your life and expand your mind, you know?)⁴

I strongly recommend you give Silver Spoon a try. There is an anime, but it's not a complete adaptation. Also, it's been forgotten by licensors apparently and you can't stream it anywhere in English anymore. Still, if you have a way, it's worth a watch. It has a great soundtrack, and though I have a couple nitpicks (I'm not totally satisfied with how the facial expressions were adapted in some scenes, and I don't really like that they changed the order of some things), it's a good adaptation. But the manga on its own is really a masterpiece.

Of course, I haven't even explained what it is yet, huh? Silver Spoon is a manga about a boy who leaves the competitive atmosphere of the city to attend an agricultural high school. He struggles to adapt to the vastly different lifestyle, but he pushes through. Throughout the journey, he makes many friends and figures out a whole bunch of life stuff. FMA was a story where a young protagonist grew into a man, and Silver Spoon is really the same, just without any alchemy or any sort of supernatural happenings.

This story also features a fantastic romance. Did you like the elements of romance in FMA? Because there's more of that here.

Of course, I said it has a romance, but it's not the primary focus. That makes this example a bit different from Fragrant Flower or Bokuyaba. Still, the romance is a pretty big element. Even early on, our main character Hachiken's attraction to his classmate Mikage affects his choices. I mean, the main reason he joins the equestrian club was because she asks him to. Doing whatever a cute girl asks you to do—sounds like a teenage boy, alright. But of course, that seemingly insignificant decision affects the whole rest of the story.

In some romcom manga, it often feels like whatever plot there is just a vessel for bringing on the next heart-pounding event which will bring incremental progress to a couple's romantic relationship. With those series, the love stuff is basically the only thing you're there for, so it makes sense.

On the other hand, there are slightly more mature series that recognize that relationships can be built and strengthened in many ways.

In Silver Spoon, the characters have a lot they gotta deal with, whether it's school, competitions, family, or careers. Attraction may be what motivates Hachiken to want to spend time with Mikage in the first place, but there's nothing fake about his desire to help her or anyone else whenever a problem comes up. By spending time with him day to day, she can see that he's a good guy and starts to trust him.

(Of course, occasionally Hachiken does have thoughts that might get in the way of his honest intentions, but it's fine, because he doesn't let those take over. And that's just realistic anyway).

These challenges the characters face feel important. A couple of them actually are pretty heartbreaking. When Hachiken is determined to help out even when everyone says there's nothing that can be done, it really makes you admire his courage (and main-character energy).

And since I talked about The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity having drama without much suspense, Silver Spoon's drama is an aspect I particularly want to highlight. Silver Spoon is not like Fruits Basket where most characters have super sad backstories. It's not like one of those shounen romcom manga where all sorts of goofy shenanigans are happening with a guy and like five different girls. There aren't even any love triangles. I'm not at all saying I'm opposed to such things. What I'm saying is that the drama in Silver Spoon may seem slightly mundane in the abstract, but to me, it's gripping.

There are a couple reasons it works. For one, Arakawa's skill for writing characters is exceptional. Even with the less important characters in this series, I probably don't remember their names, but I can tell you about their personalities and interests. Understanding who the characters are and what's important to them lets us as the audience easily get emotionally invested. These memorable characters become the main groundwork for interesting conflict.

Arakawa really gives conflicts a lot of time to breathe. There are some storylines that are quick, one-chapter deals, but others are much bigger, with a lot at stake. When these kids are dealing with difficulties with family or questions about what they might do with their lives after graduating school, of course it's not going to be an open-and-shut case.

But we're focusing specifically on romance here, huh? So I will highlight, without giving the details, a storyline in Silver Spoon that is incredibly pivotal for Hachiken, the main character, and his classmate Mikage—both as individuals and as a pair.

This storyline begins 4 manga volumes into Silver Spoon, and we know these two characters decently well by this point. Hachiken has consistently shown that, while he may complain about stuff, he can't help but try to help out whenever he sees someone in trouble. Even in chapter 1, he sees a calf loose and immediately tries to catch it.

On the other hand, it seems that Mikage tends to guard her feelings behind a polite smile. (A character who is reserved can be a challenge to write, because unless you have their inner monologue, which we generally don't for Mikage, there is a risk that instead of seeming reserved, the character just seems to have no personality instead. Silver Spoon gives a number of hints that Mikage keeps people at a distance, though there is one moment where that one senpai girl from the equestrian club spells out this aspect of Mikage's character in a more obvious way).

With these two differing personalities, it's quite a dilemma when Hachiken sees that Mikage seems to be in some sort of distress and won't tell him anything about it.

The audience doesn't get to learn much more than Hachiken at this point, either. After Hachiken agonizes for a chapter or two about the possibility of this mystery having something to do with Mikage dating their friend Komaba or something like that, life goes on and other events take center stage. You don't really get the answer until volume 8. Now you gotta realize, we are juggling a bunch of story threads here. It's not like we're just killing time for four volumes. But when this particular problem comes back to the forefront, it leads to one of my absolute favorite moments in the series and a major turning point in Hachiken and Mikage's relationship. And I'm not talking about a love confession scene or anything like that.

But man, I don't want to spoil nothing. The emotion is just too good. The other day I was tearing up re-reading this part. And I don't think I would have that reaction if this story arc had been introduced and resolved within just a few chapters. Hachiken's agony when he was wondering what was wrong in the beginning was pretty comedic, and yet I wanted to know almost as badly as he did. And now, all these chapters later, we understand where Mikage was coming from, and can really feel what she's feeling.

This moment is one of the most important in Hachiken and Mikage's relationship, but it's not the end of the problems Mikage was facing in the first place by any means. That's part of what's so great about Silver Spoon: the relationships and romance are interwoven so naturally with every other issue. You get conflicts both from characters' personalties and realties of life that are beyond teenagers' control.

Of course that's not to say you don't get the more youthful carefree romantic moments too! There's plenty here that'll get the romcom fans cheering. I mean, in a shounen romcom, anytime a character sort of hints at their crush unexpectedly, or like if a character gathers up the courage to ask another character on a date, all that crud is cute, bro. You get both with Silver Spoon: the serious moments where the characters show they genuinely love, understand, and care about each other, and the simple, fun moments of navigating young love.

Also, romance aside, I feel like I gotta remind you that Hiromu Arakwa is so dang funny.

Anyway, I could drive home my love of the story by just recapping it enthusiastically, but it's better if you read it for yourself, you know?

Being "Safe" Isn't Enough

There's a manga in Weekly Shounen Jump currently called Himaten (it was on my big list up above), which I've been keeping up with, even though large portions of it get on my nerves. I don't read discussions about manga chapters nearly as often as I used to, but I have seen some people offer high praise for the writing. This baffles me, as I can't understand what makes this romcom with yet another bland male main character oblivious to the fact that three girls are crushing on him especially good. Now, don't get me wrong. There have been some chapters that had high quality romantic heart-pounding moments. I like most of the characters. The girls' facial expressions can be suuuper cute. It's a fun series. But do I find the writing particularly impressive? Not at all.

You know what I think is the biggest reason people praise the writing? People hate overused romcom tropes. They also hate when characters act super irrational and selfish. And this manga avoids both of those things pretty well.

But just because a work avoids things that are bad, that doesn't automatically make it good.

People seem conditioned nowadays to think about art more in terms of deductions. In this way of thinking, if a story just avoids all the "bad stuff," it gets a perfect score. The problem is, you're so focused on thinking about what the story avoids that you forgot to think about what it actually does.

It isn't useful to think of a creative work as starting from 100 and getting deductions, in my opinion. Rather, start from 0. The work will earn its points by showing us something cool. There will still be deductions, but now we're not operating under the assumption that crafting an amazing work of art is just a matter of not messing up too much. There are works that are messy and baffling, yet contain fascinating creative elements that make me love them. In contrast, there are works that play it super safe, and maybe I have a good time with them, but they leave little impact on me in the long run. I'd much rather see an artist take a big swing with an interesting idea, even if the end result is messy, than see them play it safe and produce something bland or derivative.

If I could go back to Himaten: I think the main reason I keep reading is because the titular Hima's crush has proven to be pretty cute. Also, the girl who is essentially another Onodera from Nisekoi is really cute, and it's funny to see you poor suckers falling for the same tricks as I once did. Other than the protagonist being bland, of course, to be totally honest, the main factor that gives me contempt for Himaten is just how lustful the author seems to be towards Kanna. But let's not get into that.

Anyway, maybe my theory is wrong and the fans have a totally different reason for liking Himaten that I don't yet understand. But I dunno, my theory makes sense to me. I mean, considering how one of the most-discussed shounen romcoms this decade is Rent-a-Girlfriend, a lot of people probably have incredibly low expectations for the genre, so when they see the cast of Himaten getting along and not being insane, they're like "PEAK!"

On that note, let's return once again to Fragrant Flower. Like I said, it's good. But I wonder if all this acclaim is partially the result of people judging art by counting the negatives—or lack thereof, in this case. I mean sure, Fragrant Flower never offended me or disappointed me really (other than my general disappointment of not finding it as good as it was hyped up to be). It's kinda nice when a story is nice to you.

But on the other hand, nothing about it felt revelatory. The theme of looking past the labels society puts on you to get to know the person underneath is a good one, but not an uncommon one.

So, like... yeah, I like the story. Do I feel passionate about it? At this point, no. 7/10 that's my score

But eh, who knows. I've been wrong before. I didn't really click with Chainsaw Man until reading the manga in 2023 and getting to the Reze arc. Though the reasons I didn't click with it were almost opposite to this case.

Well, all that aside, I am glad that so many anime fans are enjoying this kind of romance story. You could do way, way worse.

Did you know that Fragrant Flower, The Dangers In My Heart, and Silver Spoon are all written by women? So are Blue Box, You And I Are Polar Opposites, I Want to End This Love Game, and more. I'm just saying. I don't want to reinforce some kinda stereotype too much, but the women are really killing it when it comes to thoughtful, sweet romance in manga for boys.

But, there is at least one man today who can write a good shounen romcom. His name is Yukinobu Tatsu and the manga is called Dandadan, boyeeeeeeeeeeeee

I would talk about Dandadan again but I need to end this post already.

So my final words are: read Hope You're Happy, Lemon. It's really good.