On paper, Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk sounds like a very tired concept: another round of cute girls going to tourist destinations together, with globs of yuri mixed in for some additional flavoring. And let's 80 proof it by making alcohol a gimmick here. In the wrong hands, this could have become an easily forgettable, flat drama. Botan Kamiina masterfully avoids the trap by becoming an engrossing romantic drama of epic proportions. This is a story about how one's personal indulgences help bring out their inner selves, one where alcohol ingeniously and nongratuitously serves as the brandy-infused icing on the narrative cake.

The titular character is an adorable, pink-haired, first-year college student of twenty years old sharing a dorm with four other girls. She catches her dorm's RA, the white-haired Ibuki, drinking by herself. Ibuki is not an obnoxious drunk by any means, if one can even call her a drunk to begin with. She does think of herself as obnoxious, and therefore confines herself to drinking alone to save herself from embarrassment. Botan helps Ibuki break out of her shell by sharing drinks with her, but it turns out that Ibuki is helping Botan break out of her shell just the same. Botan never drank before this, and sipping even the tiniest amount causes Botan to lower her defenses. The yuri reaches critical mass when Botan tells Ibuki verbatim, “I'd love to make that tongue of yours mine.” The two hit it off from there and go to hot springs, mountain trails, bars, and all the classic rounds of “will they or won't they (but you know they will anyway)?” It's adorable, merry, and gay in more ways than one.

Botan and Ibuki are then accompanied by their other dorm mates, Yaeka, Akane, and Kanade. Kanade is a purple-haired smoker whose pining for Ibuki leads to jealousy towards Botan, while Akane and Kanade have a relationship of their own with each other. The yuri becomes cut and dry here. Yuri fanatics might notice shades of the similarly purple-haired and jealous Mahiru from Revue Starlight, as well as Sound! Euphonium's Natsuki and Yuuno in Akane and Yaeka. There is a refreshing change of pace when a girl from Taiwan, Chang, comes in later on to form a bond with Kanade. It's a neat little turn that keeps the yuri from being too on-the-nose here.

Botan Kamiina's animation style has been called experimental. I think a lot of that is due to how many scenes are made rough in order to emulate the tipsy stupor these characters go through. That experimental edge is definitely there, but that's merely part of it. The direction, animation, and editing of the show give it more of a cinematic look than anything. Of course. A lot of great anime rely on cinema as a guide. Just ask Naoka Yamada, Akiyubi Shinbo, or Mamoru Oshii, among others. Botan Kamiina's love of cinema is nothing new, but that matters not when you're immersed in an anime with such an incredible attention to detail.

More than the alcohol itself, it is the anime's cinematic style that lets the characters' emotions fully blossom, enveloping the audience in its atmosphere and yuri as it does. There are so many artistic touches, edits, and shot compositions that have such a creative sense of Cahiers du Cinema-level film geekery. My favorite example is right at the end of episode five, when Kanade gets a moment to truly bond with Ibuki. The two drive up to a hot spring together, and the scenes leading up to their arrival have them at a distance from each other. The direction and framing smartly emphasize their distance, and are spare in having the two share the same frame with each other. In one long shot where they do, they are driving through a tunnel with their backs and faces against the camera, sitting in the front seats with the space between them being the main focus of the shot, marred by moments of awkward silence. This makes for great build-up that pays off when the two arrive at the destination. Kanade hands Ibuki a jar of strawberry-infused whiskey as a gust of wind roars away a swirl of delicate golden leaves towards Ibuki's way. It's a surreal expression of the adoration Kanade has for Ibuki, and I absolutely love how delicate and crisp everything is.

There are other tricks Botan Kamiina has up its sleeve. Halfway through episode seven, Botan tells Ibuki that she's in love. Cue another gust of wind, and then a shot of a giant, erect tower for unsubtle symbolism. Botan then says she's actually in love with outer space right after, but...come on. The subtext is obviously not about outer space. In the very same episode, the two characters' faces are focused on through cutaways made to imply distance, later becoming togetherness when Botan and Ibuki are seen cuddling together through a montage of cutaways that enter and exit with sliding door transitions. Imagine the so-called hip-hop edits of Requiem For A Dream slowed down to show tenderness instead of destruction, and you're halfway there. Using a scant few examples undermines the quality a bit. Believe me when I say this is a show that lives and breathes cinema. Some might call this a classic case of style over substance. Maybe. But God, what style! As a lover of film myself, I surrender myself to this hyperstylized, cinematic style completely.

Booze is everywhere in Botan Kamiina, and sometimes the characters can't hold their liquor. But never do you feel that the characters' drinking is mindless. Every sip becomes a slow burner, where it's more about the aroma, the vibes, the taste, and the personal bonds it creates rather than getting drunk and letting the alcohol take the wheel. The characters' analysis of various alcohol—beer, whiskey, absinthe, you name it—is done with the utmost level of respect, speaking with the thoughtfulness and enthusiasm of a writer for Wine Spectator half the time. You really get to know how much they enjoy their drinks. This anime could have had Botan take a swig of beer and go “Sugoi!” and end the dialogue there. The fact that Botan Kamiina takes that extra step to indulge in alcohol in a subtle, mature way is very commendable. It makes the booze an integral plot point rather than a cheap prop.

As a guy who can never shut up about movies and music, wow! Talk about a show that panders to me! It's absolutely obscene, and I love it for that. Beyond everything I just discussed, we also have literal references to older cinema. The girls talk about Ingmar Bergman(!), they talk about Robert Altman(!!), one scene even has a poster of Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas(!!!) in the background. And to top it off, we've got rock music too! Akane plays a cherry red Stratocaster guitar, mentions Drop D tuning, and has a giant collection of vinyl records, one of which is none other than the first Audioslave album! Rarely have I seen a show that speaks every word of my language every step of the way. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if there was a Queens of the Stone Age album juxtaposed with an old poster of The Third Man. You would have heard me scream from thousands of miles away, and I apologize to no one for that.

Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk is a wonderful series that I cannot stop gushing about. It is a great example of everything I love in anime: a slice of life romantic drama that goes above and beyond to connect the dots between anime and cinema. It is a spellbinding and spectacular experience all the way through, and an obvious nominee for anime of the year for me.