Takako Shimura – författare

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.Akira Okudaira is starting high school and is ready for exciting new experiences. And on the first day of school, she runs into her best friend from kindergarten at the train station! Now Akira and Fumi have the chance to rekindle their friendship, but life has gotten a lot more complicated since they were kids…Fumi is glad Akira is back in her life. Even in kindergarten, Akira knew how to stand up for herself, and she was always willing to stand up for Fumi too. But Fumi’s first love recently got married, and Fumi is grappling with a broken heart and the fact that her sweetheart was another woman… Can Akira’s open heart help dispel the gloom Fumi has been caught up in?

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.Akira Okudaira is starting high school and is ready for exciting new experiences. And on the first day of school, she runs into her best friend from kindergarten at the train station! Now Akira and Fumi have the chance to rekindle their friendship, but life has gotten a lot more complicated since they were kids…Kyoko’s fiancé invites a group of her friends to join them at his family’s summer home. But the trip ends up including more than just ghost stories and horseback riding—Fumi can now confirm that she has feelings for Akira. And Akira learns more than she wants to about Kyoko’s private life with some accidental eavesdropping. After this, how can the girls just go back to school like nothing happened?

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.Akira Okudaira is starting high school and is ready for exciting new experiences. And on the first day of school, she runs into her best friend from kindergarten at the train station! Now Akira and Fumi have the chance to rekindle their friendship, but life has gotten a lot more complicated since they were kids…It’s time for the Fujigaya Theater Festival again, and this year Akira and her friends have chosen an ambitious Japanese play. Not only will it seriously challenge their acting abilities, but the number of characters means they’ll need all hands on deck to pull it off. But ever since Fumi admitted that she has feelings for Akira, their friendship has been a little awkward. Will the forced intimacy of working on the play together help them figure things out or just make them worse?

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.Akira Okudaira is starting high school and is ready for exciting new experiences. And on the first day of school, she runs into her best friend from kindergarten at the train station! Now Akira and Fumi have the chance to rekindle their friendship, but life has gotten a lot more complicated since they were kids…Fumi is elated now that she and Akira are dating, but she’s also terrified that her desires will lead her to do something Akira doesn’t like. But Fumi’s feelings for her friend aren’t chaste, so how can she reconcile her seemingly contradictory impulses? Akira, meanwhile, finds dating her best friend much more serious than she expected. Will taking their relationship to the next level bring them closer or ruin things forever?

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CREATOR OF SWEET BLUE FLOWERS AND WANDERING SON.Ever since Ayano and Akari became neighbors, the two women have tried to put aside their romantic feelings for each other. But their attempts at playing it cool might have been a little too successful, as now Akari is becoming friends with Ayano’s husband and his family! As they spend more time together, Akari realizes that she can’t think of Ayano as just a friend, and Ayano is forced to think about her future.

It’s finally time: Ayano tells her parents that she has left Wataru and has fallen for someone else. And that someone is a woman. When the news breaks, Wataru finally gives up on trying to make things work, which means the wall between Ayano and Akari’s love has now been knocked down. Meanwhile, Eri struggles with her feelings for a married man. Is there a way out of this labyrinth for anyone?

Awajima Opera School—where countless girls from across the country flock in hopes of one day standing on the big stage. As they work toward achieving their dreams of stardom, their time at Awajima is filled with as much friendship and admiration as competition and jealousy. The precious feelings of girls who are at once both classmates and rivals, tenderly captured in the portraits of an ensemble cast!

Awajima Opera School—where young girls from across the country flock to in aspiration of standing on the big stage. Where the past and present intertwine, and memories of different girls layer upon one another. Of which, the hopes, the disappointments, the regrets, are woven through three generations of Katsurako IIbuki's family…

Is it worth making everyone else miserable just so we can be happy? Even as they wrestle with this question, Ayano and Akari decide to move in together. Their new life together sustains Ayano after salacious rumors chased her out of her last teaching job. Meanwhile, Wataru is left hurting in the wake of the divorce and Eri struggles with an adulterous love of her own.

The new term comes, and Ayano starts work at her new school while Akari relishes the joy of living with her. They can’t escape their guilty feelings, but their relationship moves forward nevertheless. Meanwhile, Eri is wrestling with her adulterous love for Morita when she gets a call from Morita’s wife!

Ayano and Akari have started living together, but there are still some issues they need to sort out. Ayano goes to see her ex-husband Wataru to have an honest conversation and get some closure for both of them. Meanwhile, Eri comes to a decision regarding the married man she’s dating, Wataru’s mother, Yoriko, deals with the pain in her heart, and Ayano’s adoring former students figure out where they stand with each other.The final volume of the heartfelt drama Even Though We’re Adults!