Takako Shimura – författare

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!

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?

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…

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!

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.Akari decides that it is time for a change, so she goes back to being a hairdresser and moves into a new place. However, her plans to start anew backfire as working at the salon means working with her ex. Also, upon moving to her new place, she discovers that she’s now neighbors with Ayano! Can the two women live side-by-side without crossing any boundaries, or will their mutual attraction draw them even closer to one another?

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?

Of the many girls who attend Awajima Revue School, only a select few earn the right to bathe in the spotlight at center stage. Saori and Mikako are both cast in leading roles for their graduation performance, but while Mikako is forced to leave Awajima due to illness, Saori pursues her dream of becoming a top star. And after graduation, these former rivals cross paths once more…

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 leaves her husband Wataru and moves back into her parents’ home. She’s determined to use this time to really think about what she wants out of life, but Wataru is unwilling to back off and is dead set on fixing their marriage. Akari, meanwhile, can’t help but wonder if she and Ayano might have a future together after all.Series Overview: Ayano, an elementary school teacher in her thirties, stops by a bar one day and meets another woman named Shuri. Sparks fly as the two chat, and before the night is over, Ayano even goes in for a kiss. Shuri is intrigued but confused…especially when she discovers that Ayano has a husband! Both Ayano and Shuri are about to find out that love doesn’t get any easier, even as you grow older.