Sweet Blue Flowers

Delicate, pastel-hued animation with a hand-drawn feel distinguishes this slow-moving 2009 dramatic series featuring a low-key (but uncloseted) lesbian theme. Former neighbors and best friends Fumi and Akira were in first grade together but then lost track of each other after Fumi's family moved. Quiet, yet prone to tears, Fumi is now a tall, reserved newcomer at the Catholic Fujigaya Girls Academy, where she reunites with Akira, who doesn't seem to recognize Fumi, although she does realize that Fumi has a Sapphic orientation. Fumi receives her first passionate girl-on-girl kiss instead from classmate Yasuko, a mannish alpha-schoolgirl fatefully cast as Heathcliff in a school production of Wuthering Heights. Yasuko's boldness attracts various Fujigaya peers, even as she pines hopelessly for a seemingly dull (male) teacher engaged to one of her own conniving sisters. Closing credits claim that the story—adapted from the manga Aoi Hana—is derived from Wuthering Heights, but that seems quite a stretch (Emily Brontë's classic is more than a bit removed from the world of LGBT Japanese schoolgirls). Compiling all 11 episodes, presented in Japanese with English subtitles and rated 13-up, extras include a character art gallery. A strong optional purchase. (C. Cassady)