Kase-San and Morning Glories Anime OVA Review - Fleeting Flowers

Written by Rei Caldombra 11/30/25 Video: TBD

Hello everyone, Rei Caldombra here to do a review of the anime OVA of Kase-San and Morning Glories, adapted from the Kase-San Series manga. This review will be a bit different since I am focusing on an OVA, so I will be talking more than usual about things like adaptations and the context surrounding the anime. I will be also talking a bit about blue rays as I watched this as a blue ray for the first time and have not talked about it much before. Let me know if you enjoyed hearing thoughts on some other topics or if you prefer my reviews that are super focused on just the content itself. There will be some direct spoilers.

This is my first time seeing anything from Kase-San. I have been interested in checking it out for a while and the perfect moment came when I was ordering some blue rays from Sentai Filmworks. I needed something to put me over the line for free shipping, and Kase-San and Morning Glories was sitting there in my wishlist with the perfect price to get me just over $50. So, I went for it and got it. Normally I do not get blue rays or DVDs of something I haven’t watched, but I was very confident I would like it and want to keep it in my collection. And even if I didn’t, I could just donate it.

I will be viewing this as someone entering the series at this point. This is important to point out because this is not the beginning of the Kase-San story, the OVA takes place after Kase and Yamada start dating. And there is not an anime covering the earlier parts, this is not a situation of someone watching season 2 before season 1 then blaming the series. This is how the anime is presented, so that is how I experienced it. For any Kase-San veterans reading this, please keep that in mind. I am reviewing this adaptation as it is and on its own merit.

The anime starts with a brief compilation of what seem to be the notable moments of them falling in love. And the anime chooses to start from after they get together. While adaptations skipping previous parts is never something I would prefer, it is important to remember that every manga to exist is not guaranteed a full adaptation. So if they only had the opportunity to make 1 hour of Kase-San, I could see the merit of focusing on them being in a relationship rather than building that relationship. Doing both would be far harder to pace. Starting from the beginning makes more sense generally and would likely do better to get people to read the manga. But focusing on the relationship already formed gives it some more unique ground to stand on considering so much romance anime and manga end when the characters get together. We should acknowledge that there is some logic to a decision that could sound strange at first glance.

How that is executed is a different story. With this anime you do feel like you are in the middle of a story, rather than a movie that was written to be a singular piece. As much as we can rag on slow building romances, they tend to work because that time really lets you get invested in the characters and their journey. When done well, slow can work really great, like for me with Don’t Mess With Me Nagatoro. And in movies, fast pacing can work well if it fits the story and is directed well. But sometimes it can fall flat when the plot takes a lot of time. It doesn’t quite feel like I am watching a movie, nor does it necessarily feel like it was 3 episodes of an anime put together. This OVA works for giving you a shot of nice girls love / GL / Yuri romance, but it does feel a bit surface level. Which likely comes down to the decision to have the anime take place part way into the series.

But when it comes down to what this anime sets out to do, which is presenting you a sweet romance, it succeeds. For being so short, it does enough to make Kase and Yamada’s personalities and motivations clear. We also get just enough of them reminiscing on the past that we have enough context. They are both cute and endearing characters, who I see how they work as a couple. They have a nice dynamic, especially when they go back and forth between being the one whose blushy vs direct. I especially like Kase. Between the two, I think she is the better character.

The romantic moments work super well, they’re really great and the best thing about this anime. Considering what this is, I think it deserves praise for how much I like these two while missing so much context from the original and spending so little time with them. The key component of a romance is the characters, and it is important that the adaptation made sure these two stand strong. There are many scenes here I loved and that have some substance. Like that who they are as people is more important than the fact that they are both girls. Love should not be defined entirely by people’s sex and gender. My favorite scene is the one at the bus stop. Yamada choosing not to get on the bus after looking as Kase immediately makes Kase run over to her and embrace her. That spur of the moment action that really shows the energy and passion of love. No words were needed; each of their actions did all of the talking. I love how many sudden moments we have where they get affectionate. It is also nice that we get to see a lot of skinship, as that too can be extremely slow to get to and not happen as much as romances from other regions. The animation in particular during some of these moments is very smooth and really makes you feel the intimacy. The skinship does not get to a truly sexual level fyi for anyone who may be bothered by that. Another scene I love is when they hang out in Yamada’s room for the first time. The way they go from intimate moment to moment felt very natural. I love how they go about their feelings here. The bath scene also works as a way to show how romance completely changes your view on normal activities. There is a pretty stereotypical misunderstanding moment that ends up being a bit melodramatic (which I get people can hate on principle), but it doesn’t bother me because I can see that being a misunderstanding they go through as teens who are new to relationships. It also makes sense to have this to give the anime more than just one other moment where it has a little more emotion to it. This scene isn’t a highlight like some of the others but I don’t mind it. As a whole the anime has a nice soft and tender feeling to it.

When the anime is focused on the relationship between Kase and Yamada, it’s great. The problem is that I think every minute of this OVA needed to be about their relationship. With such a short runtime this anime needed to spend every single moment it had with them. It is harder to not be nitpicky knowing that this is what they selected from the entire series for a very limited amount of time. Moments with other characters like Mikawa feel like a detriment, even if short. To be clear, this is nothing personal to this. If Nagatoro had only gotten a 1-hour long adaptation I would’ve criticized scenes with Nagatoro’s friends for example. I have not read the manga, but I think there are probably scenes that would have fit the runtime better. In particular I think the school trip part of the story was the weakest. This is definitely a minor nitpick as it does focus on the main couple well, but I do feel this way. Hopefully it makes sense.

The pacing can be a bit awkward too. Some scenes work great for being slower, in particular the romantic scenes. With the scene at the bus stop and in Yamada’s room the slow and quiet moments work super well. But the ending definitely felt like it needed more time. It felt a too sudden. I wish Yamada had gotten more about her insecurity before it ended. I felt like Yamada was moving towards accepting Kase moving away through understanding new encounters can be to their benefit rather than just as a way of pulling them apart, but then her chasing Kase to go with her to Tokyo feels like she gave in to her pessimism rather than growing. If I was supposed to believe she grew, I didn’t see that. If I was supposed to believe this is her giving in to a negative trait, then that doesn’t feel like a good way to end it or make sense with how positive the ending seems like it is meant to be. I wasn’t really sure what to think. This is THE moment where I felt like there was something missing. It doesn’t completely ruin my enjoyment of it with hindsight, as I still did feel nice to see these two embracing each other. I buy into them as a couple enough that a flawed scene is still enjoyable. But it does bring it down from having an ending that is as strong as scenes that came before.

The presentation of the show is great. It is not movie quality, but it looks on the better end of your typical anime as far as I can tell. I love the style of the world as well as the character designs. There are a bunch of beautiful environment shots, something I always appreciate a lot. I’ve started to collect them across anime.

Overall, the art and animation are both great. The characters have some moments with very cute and funny faces and movements that are very expressive.

There are some great moments portraying weight as well, such as when they are touching each other. The voice actors in Japanese both put on great performances. I really like the song they sing together. I replayed the movie while writing this in the English dub and I thought it was good. I don’t talk about dubs a lot because I prefer subs 99% of the time, but I thought I might as well mention it for anyone who prefers dubs.

In conclusion for the Kase-San review, this OVA is successful at giving you a sweet girls love experience. I enjoyed it despite its flaws. It taking place in the middle of the manga’s story has its upsides and downsides, but it is still functional and enjoyable as a standalone story. But I did have the clear feeling that there were things I was missing, which is a big marker of a flawed adaptation in my opinion. I think it is good, but I can imagine ways it likely could have been better. It does make me want more, so the manga will be going on my list to get to eventually. When it comes to recommending it, I think I can only recommend it to people who really like fluffy romances like myself. I enjoyed it, but people who doesn’t eat up wholesome content like me will likely take more issue with its flaws. If you are super into the intricacies romance can get into, you may as well go straight to the manga rather than getting spoiled for parts of the story. I imagine the best audience for this one is people who already liked the manga and want to get an experience of it in motion. From what I experienced here, I think it is worth reading for the full experience.

Here’s a sort of review on the blue ray DVD. I don’t do reviews as DVD specific ones like other people do, but I may as well throw in some thoughts on it for fun since the opportunity presents itself. Most of my anime DVDs come from Sentai Filmworks. I have never had any issues with them when it comes to shipping or the DVDs themselves, and they have a great selection including tons of anime I love. If you are like me and think looking at promotional stuff can be neat, this one comes with the Japanese promo and teaser trailers for Kase-San and Morning Glories and promotional trailers for My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Oregairu), Tada Never Falls in Love, Bloom Into You, and Love Stage!!! I am a huge fan of Oregairu (I want to rewatch the series for the first time in years and write about it eventually) and Bloom Into You is another great Girls Love anime. I have not watched the other two.

The Also Available sections in Sentai Filmworks DVDs are totally just advertising, but for whatever reason I find it interesting to see what they would choose to include with each DVD and see how they market it. I’m not a big marketing person but when it comes to something I love and am knowledgeable about like Anime I think it’s fun to look into. I’ll be keeping this one in my currently modest collection as of now.

With that, I’ll bring this to an end. Sorry if this is a little messier than usual for me, I put this one together pretty fast. I am trying my best to get myself better with consistency. For that end I really want to maintain finishing an article every week. I think I have the capacity to put things out I am satisfied with in that period. I just gotta get better at managing my time and not hesitating and overthinking. I’m going to keep working at it and improving. Thanks for reading!

My Patreon if you would like to support me and the website: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra As a free member you can get notified about new uploads on Blog Under a Log and my YouTube channel. You can also become a paid member to financially support me, but any support is greatly appreciated! If you’d like to follow me on any socials, you can find them on the About page.

Some other Romance series I’ve covered (at this point I should make a tag for romance, I’ve slowly been adding some for concepts / genres I talk about often such as Slice of Life and Wholesome series)

Don't Mess With Me Nagatoro- One of my Favorite Romances — Blog Under a Log

My First BL Experience - Twilight Out of Focus — Blog Under a Log

Welcome to Japan Ms. Elf Anime Review - A Sweet but Messy Meal — Blog Under a Log

Yubisaki to Renren - Anime First Impressions Review — Blog Under a Log

365 Days to the Wedding Anime First Impressions — Blog Under a Log