FLowering Heart
by Katie Parsons
Episodes watched:
Episode 1: “Crush at First Sight / I’ve Become an Adult?!”
Episode 2: “Runaway Pop Star / A True Shining Star”
Episode 3: “Diet of Despair / True Beauty”
Where: Netflix
Image: Netflix
Flowering Heart is a South Korean animated TV show. While not technically anime (since it’s not Japanese), Flowering Heart bears a lot of the hallmarks: “magical girls” who fight evil and wear cool outfits, animal mascots, and a mysterious prince (who is, really jarringly and completely coincidentally, named Trump).
The show is about three eleven-year-old girls (Ari, Suha, and Min) who start a school club to help others with their problems. The girls gain the ability to magically transform into different kinds of adults (doctors, pop stars, teachers, etc.), and learn that Hopeless Energy is preying on despairing people (in this show "energy" seems unrelated to Eastern religious concepts of energy, and is just a vague magical force). Their powers allow them to collect Hopeful Energy and save people in need.
Anime (including the bubblegum-pink, magical girl style kind of anime that inspired Flowering Heart) can really vary in terms of content. This is definitely a kids’ show, but there are still creative choices that feel out of place given the target audience, including some suggestive moments and some scenes that can be considered intense or frightening (IMDb lists the show as horror, and while it’s definitely not, but it does have downright creepy moments). Neither of these things are the main focus of the show, but they’re both definitely present enough to make some viewers uncomfortable. One of the male leads is sixteen and the other is twelve. Both look about twenty, and since the show has romantic plotlines this can feel a bit skeevy at times.
There’s one other aspect of this show that troubles me: the girls (who again, are eleven) sometimes worry about whether they’re attractive or not. While many pre-teens experience worries like this, the show doesn’t handle this topic well. This mostly pops up in throwaway lines in the first two episodes, but the third episode is centered around this theme. Two characters go on diets solely to impress boys, and they discuss skipping meals as if it’s a normal thing to do. It’s a very alarming episode, and it made me hesitant to trust the showrunners (even though I don’t think their intent was bad) in the future.
The animation is charming, with relaxing backdrops and big, expressive characters (even though the English dub can be a little awkward at times). The main characters’ sole motivation, and the only reason they can do magic, is because they “unselfishly and sincerely [wish] to help” others, which is a lovely theme. The procedural, problem-of-the-week plot is easy to follow, and the concept is open-ended enough to avoid being repetitive. There’s a lot in this show to like, but the first three episodes make it clear that the show is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of what messaging might come up, even in subtle ways. The messy aspects of the show don’t necessarily ruin it, but they do make it hard to fully enjoy what’s otherwise a fun, escapist fantasy.
Detailed content advisory for Flowering Heart: (Note: I have only watched the first three episodes)
Language: No profanity in the episodes I watched. Some insulting language, eg, “brat.”
Violence: None in the first three episodes, there are almost definitely going to be fight sequences later on.
Sexual content: In the episodes I watched, two characters (including one character who is a child temporarily transformed into an adult) are costumed / detailed in a way that feels gratuitous. A few suggestive lines/moments per episode.
Questionable content: Some frightening/intense images and sequences, eg, when a person is overwhelmed by Hopeless Energy, the Hopeless Energy takes on the form of a monster, which torments the person. This is intended to be scary. There are also scenes that take place in a dark, alternate dimension, which are intense. Unhealthy messaging about body image and food, especially in episode 3.
