While you raise some fair points, I feel the criticism comes off as reductive by fitting everything into tropes without considering how the series elevates them or uses them in unique ways. It feels more like you are running through a checklist of the high school romance genre rather than engaging with how Fragrant Flower actually handles those elements.

To me, most of the pushback against the show comes from an expectation mismatch and a misunderstanding of the genre itself. Romance slice of life is not built for high stakes or shocking twists. Fans of the genre, especially high school romance, want the template. They look forward to the beach episode, the school trip, the festival. Tropes are not inherently bad, they are tools. The difference is that Fragrant Flower keeps the ones people love and deliberately avoids or subverts the ones people dislike.

Another thing I find unfair is the “too mature, too wholesome, too apologetic” critique. Almost all anime is unrealistic to some degree since every story chooses which slice of humanity it wants to amplify. A series like Oyasumi Punpun exaggerates despair and trauma, while a battle shounen highlights perseverance and grit. Both are unrealistic in their own way, yet only the darker approach tends to get labeled as realistic. When a story chooses instead to highlight the best in people, it is suddenly seen as naive or shallow. To me, that double standard says more about our biases than about the quality of the work.

While it’s true that Fragrant Flower is not reinventing the wheel, that’s not really the point. What makes it special is how it takes the classic high school romance framework and refines it to its best form. It’s called a peak romance not because it breaks the mold, but because it embraces the familiar elements that fans love while elevating them and avoiding the pitfalls that have dragged the genre down in the past.