Most anime about growing up pretend childhood ends at the neck. This one refuses to look away. Tsubomi sits with her body changing, her mother's body changing, the specific shame and confusion of becoming a person who bleeds and who notices boys in a way she doesn't understand yet. It treats all of this with the same quiet seriousness, no fanservice, no cuteness defense, no adult irony. The show costs something to watch because it makes you remember what it actually felt like to be eleven and catastrophically aware of yourself for the first time.

Tsubomi Tachibana is a fifth grader facing a string of changes all at once. Her mother is expecting a baby, she gets her first period, and she has started noticing unfamiliar feelings whenever boys are nearby. Adapted from Yuu Yabuuchi's shoujo manga, which ran in Ciao, this three-episode OVA mixes romance and slice of life with a supernatural label. The source has been called a sex education story aimed at young teenage girls, and its realistic, level-headed handling of puberty and early romantic stirrings has earned respect from Japanese manga readers and from parents alike.