Release Date: August 8, 2024 (Japan)
Developers:  MintLip
Publishers:  MintLip, Edia Team Entertainment Inc., PQube
Platforms:  Nintendo Switch, Steam
Rating: Cero D

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STORY

Him, The Smile & Bloom presents four love stories set in the flower shop called “Fill Flower”, where all the love interests work. Each story revolves around a different flower and explores various relationships, such as the “kohai-senpai” relationship, the work colleague relationship, the childhood friend, and high school classmate.

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ART AND MUSIC

Director: Arai Natsumi (Team Entertainment Co., Ltd.)

Artist/Illustrators: Yuuya (Main), Zozo Hoshikura (Chibi)

Scenario Writers: Uta Amemiya, Yuzuko Asai

OST: Mao (OP and ED theme)

BGM: Orikura Toshinori

Looking at the creative team behind Hanakare, they are basically the same team behind the otome game Ayakashi Gohan (excluding the artist). Scenario writer, Uta Amemiya has also worked on Charade Maniacs, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, as well as new the upcoming localization titles, Genso Manege and Teminara: Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights. Meanwhile, Yuzu Asai has worked on other popular otome titles like Dynamic Chord, Blackish House, and Starry Sky.

This game is based on the hit drama CD Hanaemu Kare to & bloom, also known as “Hanakare”. This Drama CD was originally conceptualized by Arai Natsumi, who also led the project as the overall director of the game.

The character design and overall art were by the popular illustrator Yuuya (known for Cafe Enchante, Cupid Parasite, Jakou no Lyla, 9 R.I.P., etc.) And if you’re not new to this blog, you already know how much of a fan I am of this artist; everything they create is pure gold to me (laughs). All of Hanakare’s CGs were absolutely gorgeous! I was also surprised to see 5-6 sprite variations for each of the four love interests! I’m quite impressed tbh! Moreover, the lovely BGMs and OST perfectly suited the cozy, relaxing atmosphere the game introduced.

Fun Fact: The OP and ED themes of Hanakare, written and performed by mao, are actually counter songs from both male and female perspectives. The OP theme, “Lady Flower,” is from the male (LI) perspective, while the ED theme, “Omoi no Hanataba” (Bouquet of Feelings), is from the female perspective, serving as the heroine’s response to the LI.

Voice Acting

Ryohei Kimura as “Wataru Tori” – Gil Lovecraft (Cupid Parasite),  Kageyuki Shiraishi (Collar x Malice), Nicola Francesca (Piofiore), Kuo (Diabolik Lovers) Arthur (IkeVamp), Kanesada Izuminokami (Touken Ranbu)

Ryota Suzuki as “Ginnosuke Sugawa” – Yona (Tengoku Struggle), Kiito Minorikawa (Jack Jeanne), Koyou (9.R.I.P), Trey Clover (TWST), Ink (Gunka Haita Neko), Caster (FGO), Ash Meyer (Desperadrops), Mizuro Tamaki (Tokyo Ghoul)

Makoto Furukawa as “Hokuto Ichige” – Allan Melville (Cupid Parasite), Crius Castlerock (Even if Tempest), Yoritomo (Birushana), Lugus (Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk), Shaw (MLQC), Adage (Steam Prison), Ookurikara (Touken Ranbu), Kyle Ash (IkeRev), Kazuma Kamikubo (Lover Pretend), Dazai (Charade Maniacs)

Atsushi Tamaru as “Tenya Minami” – Ichigo Hitofuri (Touken Ranbu), Kasuga (Variable Barricade), Tsukioka Tsumugi (A3!), Kohei Natsume (Kitty Love), Semi Tokitaka (Dairoku), Azul Ashengrotto (TWST), Edward Bernstein (Mistonia no Kibuo)

Takuya Eguchi as “Rei Karakusa” – Miroku (B-PROJECT), Murakumo Go (Touken Ranbu), Gretel (Taisho x Alice), Kazuki Hoshino (CollarxMalice), Tenma Sumeragi (A3!), Nomura Risaburo (Hakuoki), Klein (IkePri), Lee Gyu-hyuk (Buried Stars), Reon (Dynamic Chord), Roger Barel (IkeVil), Yori (Utakata no Uchronia)

Hiroki Nanami as “Kozue Arisawa” – Midori Tancho (Jack Jeanne), Noah (Angelique Luminarise), Joka (The Apothecary Diaries), Hao Asakura (Shaman King), Kenshin Uesugi (Nobunaga the Fool)

Liura (from the idol/utaite group “Ireisu”) as “Chikashi Utsugi” – this is his first game project,🥺 and as a utaite enjoyer, his group, “Irregular Dice” is pretty good!

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CHARACTERS AND ROUTES

This title does not have a common route. The game begins with a very short prologue, then lets you choose which route/love story you want to play right away. Unlike most otome visual novels, where the protagonist branches into different routes with various love interests, Hanakare features distinct couples for each route. This means that each love story has its own unique heroine and LI.

The developers have not implemented any specific route order, so you are free to choose whichever story you want to unravel first. If you want a soft route order rec, my suggestion is Tweedia → Mimosa → Anemone → Nandina. What’s really nice about the game is that all the love stories occur within the same timeline. Meaning, all four couples are falling in love during the same period, with only a few months difference between them. Each love story subtly introduces or mentions the next couple who is about to fall in love, so the order above is based on that logic. Then again, I want to emphasize that route order is not important in this game!

Walkthroughs:

• Wataru Tori (Tweedia)
• Ginnosuke Sugawa (Mimosa)
• Hokuto Ichige (Anemone)
• Tenya Minami (Nandina)

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~TWEEDIA~

WATARU TORI

• genki Kimoryu
• golden retreiver energy

Wataru Tori is the youngest staff member at Fill Flower, working part-time while attending college. Him and the heroine, Serina, shares a “kohai-senpai” relationship; where he is the kohai and Serina is his senpai. They have a five-year age gap, though this doesn’t bother him in the slightest. He is popular with older customers due to his cheerful and considerate nature, and his bright personality makes it easy for him to get along with everyone.

**Wataru reminded me so much of Varibari’s Nayuta, but less wacky and intense.😆 He exudes that golden retriever energy so much and its so pleasant to see him be at his 100% all the time all to impress her senpai, Serina.

Route Enjoyment: 7/10

~MIMOSA~

GINNOSUKE SUGAWA

• the playboy prince
• loves to netflix & chill😏

Ginnosuke Sugawa is the “prince” poster-boy of Fill Flower. Lots of women flock at the Sakuragamori flower shop branch because of him. He is highly skilled in arranging flower bouquets and ikebana, and he shows a genuine love and meticulous care for flowers. While he takes his role as a florist seriously and with great attention to detail, he is rather laid-back and unserious about romance, preferring to just go with the flow in his dating life.

**I like how confident Gin is. The man clearly knows he’s a handsome piece of work, and he embraces his prince image in public because he understands it benefits the business and boosts their shop’s sales. So he’s perfectly fine with it– …marketing skills 101 right there! 😂 On a different note, I just want to say that Ryota Suzuki’s shy tsundere noises are 10/10! While Gin is by no means a tsun-tsun, we do get a few of his signature flustered moments here. If you’re like me and a sucker for those, you will love this route! 😂

Route Enjoyment: 7.5/10

~ANEMONE~

HOKUTO ICHIGE

• big bro vibes
• 185cm climbable 🥵

Hokuto is the manager of Fill Flower. He’s highly knowledgeable about his job, adept at recognizing different kinds of flowers, and knows the ins and outs & dos and don’ts of being a florist down to a T. His juniors, like Wataru and Tenya, look up to him. He also has this big brother energy and is always ready to lend a hand to his colleagues. He deeply cares for his childhood friend, Fuuka, the heroine.

**I think I was much more hooked on Fuuka and Hokuto’s love story than the previous two couples. To be honest, all four love stories were great in their own right, and it just really comes down to which tropes click with you more as a player. For me, there’s something about a good one-sided love, especially from the heroine’s perspective, that just hits different. I’m a sucker for these tropes in my cdrama/kdramas, so it’s no wonder I was so invested in Fuuka and Hokuto’s relationship dynamic.
That bad ending tho!👀 waaw mami!

Route Enjoyment: 8/10

~NANDINA~

TENYA MINAMI

• best boy 🥺
• best boy 🥹
• best boy 😩 _{(i luv him sm, kicking my feet!)}

Tenya Minami is ‘the quiet one‘. A little bit aloof, stoic, and indifferent. He’s a man of a few words and is quite soft-spoken. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking because of his usual impassive demeanor. Although he is rather reserved on the surface, when he falls in love, he becomes intense and ultimately devoted to his lover.

**Ohmygosh! This route IS IT! Right from the first chapter, I was already glued to my screen! This couple’s chemistry and dynamic was so good! I couldn’t get enough of them!😩

Route Enjoyment: 10/10

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SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION

I loved the overall design of this title’s user interface. However, the game’s system had a couple of drawbacks that detracted from making my gameplay as smooth and easy as possible.

Localization

Well, for starters, judging by the game not being available in western eshops, I don’t really think there was any proper “localization” done for Hanakare in the first place. That is, if we are going by the actual definition of what “localization” is. Localization goes beyond just translating the text from one language to another. It involves adapting content to fit the cultural norms and contextual nuances of the target audience. This includes changing idioms, and sometimes cultural elements to make the game feel natural to the (english-speaking) audience. With Hanakare, it appears to be more of a direct JP-to-EN translation, and it feels more like the game was simply made available in English rather than adapted to fit the english-speaking players’ preferences, if that makes sense? Sometimes the lines can be a little stilted, and the sentence structures and phrasings can be a bit awkward.

Personally, I thought the translations weren’t terrible, and at best, tolerable, most especially if you are used to playing unlocalized Japanese titles. The errors I’ve noticed in the TLs include:

• Pronoun swap (his/her were interchanged a few times)
• Inconsistent spelling of Wataru’s last name (Tori, Toori, Touri).
• Missing linking verbs, and prepositions in some lines.
• Inconsistent tone in the translations: Wataru and Gin’s routes felt more stilted, while Hokuto and Tenya’s routes at least had some effort put into making the English feel more natural.

If you’re a “localization-only” player who’s very particular with translations and prefers a more seamless, nuanced approach in your otome games, you’re probably going to be disappointed with this game’s English subs. So just keep that in mind.

UPDATE ON THE TRANSLATIONS (NEW!)

This game has now been officially localized by PQube, and the English translations has been improved to better suit Western audiences. If you already own the English version of the game, be sure to download the patch when prompted.

Please note that the Japanese version of the game is different from the English version localized by PQube, and the patch will not work with the Japanese release.

You can purchase the official English (localized) version of the game through the links below!

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TRAILER

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OVERALL THOUGHTS

This title took me 18-20 hours to complete. And that’s me taking my time and choosing all options to see if there were any more unlockable endings beyond the three main ones. The game was really short ngl, and I wish it was longer. If you’re a fast reader, you can probably finish everything in 15 hours or perhaps less!

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A 100% Slice of Life Otome Game

Given that Hanakare is a game adaptation of the Drama CDs, I anticipated it to be a character-driven game, and I think they delivered exceptionally well on that front. The game highlights the romantic relationships of the four couples, and that is entirely the whole focus of the story. There’s no central plot, no action-packed events, or any kind of twists, none of that sort. It is exactly what it was primarily marketed as: a slice-of-life love story.

I thought it had somewhat of a similar vibe to Sympathy Kiss, except with much LESS drama shoved in. I put emphasis on “less drama” because the conflicts in this game are more like a walk in the park. They don’t linger for more than maybe ten minutes (or less), and everything is resolved quickly, albeit satisfyingly. Any “angsty moments” the game offers are found in the Bad Ends, and ngl, I thought they were decently good, 🤭 so if you’re an angst enjoyer, I wouldn’t dare skip them.👀

It’s very tropey, but it works!

Each of the love stories lets you in on four different dynamics between the heroines and their LIs. Tweedia is the “kohai-senpai” route, Mimosa explores romance between work partners, Anemone digs into the unrequited love of a childhood friend, and Nandina involves reuniting former high school classmates. While these themes might seem a bit clichéd, they actually work very well in the game’s modern-day setting.

The unique chemistry between the four couples, along with having four different heroines (with their own particular quirks) adds layer of diversity to the game, and no, it didn’t feel like the stories were overdone much less redundant. If anything, this variety gave me a refreshing feeling every time I switched routes from one to the next.

🌸I also really loved how every story incorporated different types of flowers, each carrying deep significance for the couples. Whether the flowers initiated their relationship, served as a device that brought them together, or evoked past memories that led to their developing feelings for one another, they played a subtle yet important role in every narrative. The way the love stories culminates with special mentions of these flowers, making it a full-circle moment, is something I REALLY enjoyed. It felt like the flowers were the actual threads connecting their love stories! It’s such a beautiful and wholesome concept really!🥺

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Well-grounded and Believable Romance

And now, my favorite part: the romance! This game floods you with an overwhelming amount of sugar content! I was over the moon, jumping from one love story to another, grinning profusely and kicking my feet! 😂😭 All four LIs and their heroines had such believable relationships. Their romantic progression was also nicely paced; it never felt contrived, they were all written maturely and they felt rather authentic to me, as well. Not only that but, the chemistry between the four couples is just too good! I felt it in my bones! fr!

As I pointed out before, all the routes were actually pretty good in their own right, and it really just boils down to the player’s preference, as far as what tropes clicked with you the most or which dynamics you enjoyed more than the other. For me, Tenya and Miku gave me brainrot and diabetes for days! I love these two so much you have no clue!😭 They were so good together. Their chemistry blew me away. Seriously, I just want to put these two in my pocket!🥺 I also really identify with the heroine, Miku. Her introversion, social anxiety, and tendency to overanalyze and overplan really resonated with me… homegirl has a schedule for everything, bless her!😭 And then you have, Tenya Minami… who’s exactly the type of LI I always look for in otome games: soft, stoic, indifferent, devoted, loyal… intense! I’ll have to stop myself here, or this review will turn into a 10,000-word vomit about my never ending TenyaxMiku ship! (cackling)😂😂😂

Might I add that this title also offers some decent spicy content! So be sure to wear headphones if you’re playing this game in public!🤭 As for the side characters, I don’t think they stood out to me that much in the game. They were easily forgettable except for Rei Karakusa… because damn, how can you forget someone like him?!🥵

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Do I recommend this game? YES.
I’ve been leaning more towards enjoying slice-of-life romance recently. I was also in the mood for a chill, cozy summer love story that I could easily relax with, without having to think too much after a long day of stressful daily grinding. This game served as my healing medium, so with that said, Hanakare felt like a seamless fit for what I was looking for.

I think you’ll love this game too if you’re looking for the exact same vibe, or if you’re someone who enjoys, a well-grounded slice-of-life romance, then I cannot recommend Him, The Smile & bloom enough! This game will make you feel all fluffy and up in the clouds. I’d say this title also made me feel young again and brought back memories of my first romance 😂😂😂 (oh, the pain of realizing you’re an old fart! ROFL)👵

Anyway, I love this game! If you’re looking for fluff, a little bit of spice, and a lovely cozy summer/fall romance story, this is an instant recommendation from me!

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