Kase-san and Morning Glories (OVA) – Final Review

In 2018 alone, yuri-genre shows have received more anime adaptations. However, it trends more towards the soap opera or edgy variety as seen with Citrus or Happy Sugar Life instead of an ideal fluffy love story without conflict.

Kase-sanis on the opposite side of the spectrum. The series itself focuses more on the warm and fluffy love story with a lot of sweet moments. The original video animation focuses on content in the first volume after they had their first kiss.

The story focuses on an ordinary girl named Yamada Yui who spends most of her time in the garden. She eventually starts dating another girl named Kase Tomoka who is a tomboy who runs for the school’s track team. At first, she had trouble trying to make time to eat lunch together and spending time with her. After Kase noticed that Yamada left the second lunch, she ate it and eventually shown the spot she watched Yamada. Later on, Yamada invites Kase to her house where they have strawberry short cakes and eventually kissed.

While on the school trip to Okinawa, Yamada became embarrassed because of what happened in the bath. It was because she wasn’t used to seeing Kase naked. The next day, Kase noticed that Yamada is down and takes her to the beach. Yamada eventually clear up the misunderstanding and makes a promise to come back to Okinawa someday as a couple.

In the last half, after Yamada had her parent and teacher meeting, she saw Kase in the hall. Kase later revealed that she told the coach that she wanted to give up the recommendation. She wants to go to a local college so she can be with Yamada. The principal called her in to change her mind. Eventually, Yamada realizes that she doesn’t want to be alone. She decides to go to a university in Tokyo so she can be with Kase.

Compared to other series like Citrus, which have a lot of drama, love triangles, and such, Kase-san and Morning Glories is the opposite. It takes a fluffier approach comparable to Iyashikei anime with a lot of cheerful, funny, cute, and heartwarming moments with Yamada and Kase.

While there were obstacles since Yamada and Kase don’t have much experience with romantic relationships before, they get resolved rather quickly. For instance, it’s understandable that Yamada would feel embarrassed after seeing her girlfriend’s naked body. Thankfully, Kase understands her feeling and felt relieved that it’s not something that she feared.

At first, Yamada despite her cheerfulness doesn’t have much confidence. This changes as her relationship with Kase develops. It shows with the sweet moments of them kissing and Kase putting a strawberry from her short-cake into Yamada’s mouth. Of course, there is the coral Kase gave to Yamada as a promise to name a few. The ending where Yamada decides to attend college in Tokyo so she can be with Kase was very heartwarming. To me, it’s a nice way to end off the original video animation since Yamada and Kase wants to be together forever.

As expected, the production values are nice and brought out the cuteness of Yamada and Kase. The moments where Yamada becomes excited over having Kase in her room and Kase going under the covers of her bed very endearing. Also, seeing Yamada’s phone interrupt their kiss was funny as well. While there are male students in a few scenes, they are shown with non-descript faces to emphasize how Yamada sees Kase as being far cooler than any of the boys in her class.

In the end, since this is an original video animation, Kase-san and Morning Glories will eventually give the viewer a feeling that it’s not long enough. Still, I think it’s the ideal and fluffy Yuri-genre romance story most fans of yuri desires. Hopefully someday if this animation garners enough support, hopefully they will release a TV series that fleshes out the story further. ¶