Bloom Into You Premium Box Set ends as it began, with shockingly good visuals and voice acting that elevates the story beyond the original manga.
Disk 2 might appear anti-climactic for those of us watching for Sayaka, but it is in these final episodes that the seeds of the rest of the story are sown. We are there to witness, you might say, the moment when Yuu’s promise turns into a lie. She might not know it yet, but we can see the moment she falls in love.
The DVD “extras” are basic. Clean beginning and endings for your Anime Music Videos (seriously, that’s why those are there, it’s a relic from “back in the day”) and promo material for other Sentai properties are the only content extras.
BUT, in order to do a complete review, (and to do a test run for the family get-together next week,) I made Rei’s cheesecake recipe. I wasn’t sure we had a springform pan and ultimately, we ended up throwing the one we had out, because it was degrading and made the cake taste weird. It might well have come with this house for all we know. ^_^;
The recipe was straightforward enough. It calls for cake flour, which gave the cake a lighter profile than the thicker cheesecakes I’m used to, which I actually liked. It wasn’t very sweet, which I also liked and the lemon functioned the same way sour cream does on Hungarian cheesecake, to cut the sweetness…and give it flavor.
Even packed down, the crust was really loose and crumbly. We’ll have to compact it a lot more next time, since we did not use cookies, we used graham crumb and it was super crumbly and dry. (Although, overnight in the fridge firmed it up considerably.)
The instructions say to leave the cake in the oven until completely cool, but this really overcooked it. Next time, we’ll take it out at half an hour. It’s going to crack no matter what. You could use a bain-marie to keep it moist but does *anyone* really care if the cheesecake cracks? Seriously. Eat the damn cake.
The flavor was very good. As I said, it had a slightly cakier texture, which meant it wasn’t as cloying or rich. It’s a really pretty good recipe as cheesecakes go. I gave half to cake to neighbors with a cautionary “It’s a 6.5/7 on a scale of 10.” I don’t bake, so for my first cheesecake ever, it was pretty successful. I’ll try again next week with some small changes. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 3
Overall – 9
Bloom Into You Premium Blu-Ray Box Set, is a feast for any Yuri fan. With dessert.
Points for being an actual baked cheesecake. Most recipes for cheesecake in shoujo manga (it seems to be a more-common-than-you’d-think trope) are for “nama cheesecake,” the no-bake style that, frankly, can’t be called cheesecake in my opinion.
BTW, if you want to bind up the crust better you need melted butter to mix in with the crumbs. You can look up the amounts on other cheesecake recipes or wing it if you like to cook that way. But trust me on the results in both texture and taste!
There is melted butter in the crumbs. We followed the recipe exactly as written.
Yes, a lot of cooking in manga is simplified, which makes sense depending on the audience. I would not expect that the Card Captor Sakura recipe was too complicated. The audience is children. Likewise, I can see that Yoshinaga Fumi’s characters are making more complicated meals. ^_^