The moment has arrived….the school festival is here and now, at last, the Student Council will perform a play. Touko will achieve the thing her late sister was never able to do. She will be able to put her sister’s phantom behind her. And then what?

In Bloom Into You, Volume 6 Touko will have to ask the question that has been plaguing her for years – and she’ll do it literally in front of the entire school all her friends and her family.

Unusually for a manga, we are allowed to see the whole play. Konomi nails the character each council member plays and it is especially lovely to be able to see how close to the mark she got in the dialogue, not just hear about it. (Even though, of course Konomi is not writing, but being written that way, it  still works in context.)  We are also given the opportunity to see audience reactions, like Touko’s parents looking pained when the dialogue lands on their lap, or the intrigued whispers at Sayaka playing Touko’s lover. All of it skirting >this< close to plausibility that the audience – and readers – might be tempted to think it was the truth.

This volume was both a triumphant climax for the series and one of the best school festivals play episodes I’ve ever read. It’s a pretty common trope for the play to reflect the story in an unsubtle way, as we’ve seen with Torikaebaya in Maria Watches Over Us, or Shuu-chan’s original script in Wandering Son. This one wins. Now Sayaka will have to deal with everyone wondering if she and Touko are, were, or could be lovers. Which, if she weren’t actually in love with Touko, might be funny.

And Yuu, at last, has to confess out loud what we’ve already known for a while now – she has failed to keep her end of the promise she and Touko made. Her heart-wrenching confession puts Touko into a tailspin.

We, the audience of this play-within-a-play are in the somewhat unusual position of having to wait to find out what happens because Volume 7 does not come out in Japan until the end of April and in English in December! I have read one or two of the chapters in Dengeki Daioh magazine where it is serialized, but am otherwise in the dark about where this story now goes. Which I quite like, so please do not helpfully spoil me, thanks. ^_^

Seven Seas’ edition continues to be excellent. This volume was, I think, particularly critical for this series, with a lot of future ramifications being laid out, and I was confident that translation by Jenny McKeon and adaptation by Jenn Grunigen were solid. The technicals were also especially good. Once again I feel that this volume offers the authentic manga reading experience fans are looking for.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 8

In my review of this volume in Japanese, I called the play “terrifyingly accurate.” While we know damn well that that’s contrived, it still worked.