A Town Where You Live (君のいる町) is a shonen romance by Seo Koji. The manga ran from 2008 until 2014 and has been compiled into 27 tankoubon. It also received a 12 episode anime adaption in 2013 that covered the first two arcs of the story, with the first arc being largely glossed over. The series and its characters are indirectly related to Seo's prior work, Suzuka, and the ending leads directly into the continuation of that series with the manga Fuuka.
Kirishima Haruto is about to enter his first year of high school in rural Hiroshima prefecture. His easy going and idyllic life is turned upside down with the appearance of an unwanted house guest, Eba Yuzuki. Yuzuki, who's father is childhood friends with Haruto's father, convinces the Kirishima's to let her board with them. She has decided to get out of Tokyo and spend some time in the country, planning to attend high school there. Haruto want's nothing to do with the weird girl from the big city and sees her presence as an invasion of his privacy. His mother see's no problem with the bubbly girl staying with them for the foreseeable future and ignores her sons pleas.
Yuzuki's first day with the Kirishima's turns out to be a series of problems for Haruto. First his mother forces him to show her around town. He tries to get out of the task by loaning her his bike, so she can give herself a tour instead. Yuzuki tells him that she doesn't know how to ride a bike, further reinforcing his distaste for what he sees as a spoiled aloof girl from the glittering capital. He begrudgingly bikes her into town, obligated by his mothers request. As they stop at a convenience store he attempts to distance himself from her, forcing her off of the bike. Coming out of the store is a classmate and object of unrequited love, Kanzaki Nanami. Haruto is desperate to distance himself from Yuzuki, to prevent any misunderstandings about their relationship, especially when it comes to Nanami. The plan fails and Yuzuki excitedly introduces herself to the bewildered girl, hoping they can become friends once school starts.
Before more damage can be done to his fragile ego, Nanami heads home. Yuzuki grills him about his behavior at the convenience store, suspecting him of having feelings for the other girl. Lying, he rebuffs the accusation and pedals faster to get home and away from her. His home doesn't shield him from further complications as his best friend, Yura Takashi, pays a visit. Unable to hide Yuzuki from him, he tries to paint her in an unfavorable light, working to establish his level of disinterest in her. Takashi on the other hand is smitten with the new girl. He first challenges Haruto for her attention then asks to him help her see him in a favorable light. Before he can push him out of his house and find solitude Yuzuki needs to go back to the convenience store. She fell into his families pond and needs to buy some more underwear. Kanzaki misunderstands the reality of the request and fears shes going commando while wearing a revealing dress.
With this idea in his head and understanding she will have to ride side saddle on the back of his bike, he tries to force Takashi to go home. Instead, wanting to spend more time with the new girl, he follows them into town. During the trip Haruto tries various tactics to help Yuzuki protect her dignity form the prying eyes of his friend. When they reach the convenience store he stalls him from entering, so he won't find out why she's there. Takashi again lays down an ultimatum about trying to date the new girl and forcing an unrealistic rivalry with Haruto. In the end he forgets to buy something from the store himself and continues on home, leaving Haruto alone with Yuzuki once more. On the return trip she questions his erratic behavior. He comes right out and tells her he was trying to prevent her from flashing Takashi since she didn't have any underwear on...at which point she tells him she did and just needed more for when she changes clothes after taking a bath in the evening. After the first, entirely too stressful day, misunderstandings lead to careless actions by Haruto related to this troublesome girl that he doesn't want anything to do with.
Due to the size of the school, all of the freshmen are grouping in a single class, meaning Haruto is stuck with Yuzuki all day, every day. To try and prevent people from getting the wrong idea about them, he plans to make her walk the last leg of the way to and from school instead of on the back of his bike. The first day goes relatively smooth, with Yuzuki being the center of attention among his classmates. He senses an opportunity to walk home with Nanami afterwards but needs to ensure Yuzuki gets home. Since Takashi is interested in her he ask him to give her a ride back to his house. Haruto then follows after Nanami, struggling to have any meaningful conversations with her. As she parts ways with him she expresses her desire to become better friends. Before he can absorb the implications of her statement, Takashi calls him, telling him he never found Yuzuki. Frustrated, Haruto back tracks to the convenience store where he finds her hiding nearby. She didn't know about Takashi's plan to take her home, taking to heart Haruto's concern over people seeing them together to and from school But, with the implications of Nanami's intentions buzzing around his brain he can't be too bothered with Yuzuki's personality quirks and misunderstanding.
Thinking that Nanami would be joining the cooking club, like she had done in middle school, Haruto joins, claiming to be have the goal of opening up his own restaurant in the future. His plan fails when he learns she was forced to join the baseball team instead. Faced with this pointless gesture he struggles to find a path forward. As she heads out to the first meeting of her new club, Yuzuki drops a bomb on Haruto. She realized why he joined the cooking club, further proving her suspicions about his feelings for the other girl. Teasingly, she offers to be his object of affection instead, since he keeps failing at getting close to her. Shocked by the sudden joke, Haruto brushes it off as her being mean to him, but it sticks into his brain none the less.
Haruto's club rarely meets, so he spends most of his afternoons waiting on an empty classroom for Yuzuki's club activities to end. To make it up to him, Yuzuki invites him to visit a hot spring on their way home, enticing him further by inviting Nanami as well. The following day he comes down with a strong fever at school and is taken to the hospital. While resting at home, worrying about how Yuzuki will get home she enters his room accompanied by Nanami. As soon as they arrive, Nanami has to excuse herself to answer a phone call from her older brother. Sensing an opportunity and grasping at still unknown motives, Yuzuki leans in to kiss the bedridden Haruto. She tries to explain away the kiss by saying it was a way to get rid of his cold, but he's not buying such a flimsy excuse. He fights with her, accusing her of being a flirt, playing with any boys emotions that looks her way. She tries to protest but his anger doesn't let him listen to her words.
The next day his cold keeps him from school. His mother tells him that Yuzuki will be getting a ride to school from Takashi. Believing that she really has just gone to the next victim in her twisted world, he settles in to recover for the rest of the day. Later, after school has let out, Takashi calls him to let him know about Yuzuki's behavior at school, telling him she was different than she had been previously, sitting alone, eating barely anything and arriving late. For whatever reason she had lied to Haruto's mom about getting a ride to school with Takashi and had walked the entire way. Worried about her, he rushes out of the house to find her before anything happens to her, ignoring the lingering exhaustion from his fever. When he finds her on the road, she breaks down and accuses herself of being so useless with out him around. Both kids remain silent on the way home, Haruto dwelling on why she had been behaving so erratic the past few days and what her intentions really are. As hes about to settle in for the night Yuzuki calls him, instead of coming to his room, to talk. She tells him she was happy when he came to find her and that she had turned down Takashi's offer because she only wants to rely on Haruto in those kind of situations. Before she hangs up she asks him if he's going to ask her about why she kissed him. When he tells her he doesn't want to know she morosely accepts and hangs up. The following day she has returned to her normal carefree self...confusing Haruto further.
Haruto's other childhood friend, Akari, rope he and Yuzuki into joining her on an outing with Nanami's older brother, Narumi. Akari has a crush on the older boy and is hoping this will be a good chance to get closer to him. During the outing Narumi questions Haruto about Yuzuki, telling him he likes her. Haruto is astonished, knowing how much Akari wants to date the older boy but is unwilling to let her know that his attention has shifted to the new girl. Nanami accidentally tells Akari that her brother is interested in Yuzuki, causing her to skip school to get over her broken heart. Nanami, concerned for her friends well being, confides in Haruto about the dilemma. Not sure how to broach the topic in a way that will present him in a favorable light, he bumbles into a confession to Nanami. She doesn't respond to him, fleeing the music room they had gone to for their discussion, leaving Haruto to worry over any damage his confession may have caused.
Things become awkward between Haruto and Nanami and he tries not to interact with her. He can't avoid her during a school trip they take and she tells him that she just wants to remain friends, crushing the dreams he has held onto for three years. Sensing his depression, Yuzuki tries to cheer him up, telling him that even if he's just friends with her for now, that doesn't mean the friendship won't turn into love later on. Reinvigorated by her encouragement, he works to normalize his growing friendship with the girl he likes.
While Haruto tries to return to normal with Nanami, his life at home becomes significantly more problematic when his older sister suddenly moves back in. Aoi is going to college to be a teacher and has come back home to serve as a temporary teacher at Haruto's high school to help complete her certification process. She and Yuzuki quickly become friends, causing more trouble for Haruto, who feels a need to take care of both of them. Everyone quickly plans to throw a welcoming party at the Kirishima's house for Aoi, including Nanami. During the celebration Haruto elects to cook more food and Nanami decides to help him out. As he agonizes about not getting to date her and hoping that eventually their friendship will blossom into something more, she tells him that he should wait for a proper answer to his confession.
As Haruto settles into a comfortable peace, with Nanami undecided about dating him, Aoi brings up a lost memory for the past that suggests Yuzuki and he met when they were younger. After digging through the storage room, looking at old summer diaries, he remembers meeting her in 3rd grade at the summer festival. She was lost and upset and he did everything he could to calm her down. She had gotten separated from her family and was frustrated with her father making her come to rural Hiroshima. Haruto remembers something he said from that time, that if she ever needed help again, to let him know. He mulled over that declaration and if there was some hidden reason behind Yuzuki moving in with his family.
He didn't have long to mull over his premonition though as he was faced with a dilemma of obligation on the following Saturday to either help Yuzuki practice riding bike or to help Nanami do some shopping for her brother. Haruto catches a break when Yuzuki heads back to Toyko for the weekend instead, due to something unknown that has come up. She tells him it isn't anything to worry about and he forgets about it, seeing it as fate working to his benefit. This quickly evaporates as his mother urges him to accompany Yuzuki to Hiroshima to catch the train back. She tells him Yuzuki is returning to Tokyo for her grandfathers funeral and is worried that the girl will run into trouble on her own. Once there he has to force her onto the train, Yuzuki having severe reluctance to follow through with the trip. Haruto finds himself stuck on the train as well, heading to Tokyo, forced to cancel his plans with Nanami.
Haruto makes a point to accompany her all the way to her house, suspecting she will try to avoid whatever shes avoiding. Before they reach her house they run into her parents, who greet him and take over escorting her, like she's a prisoner. Haruto backs out of their invitation to come with and spend the night with them, telling them he has other things he needs to accomplish. Free of Yuzuki, he goes to his sisters apartment to clean it, upon her request. As he heads out to catch the night bus at Tokyo Station a young woman appears at his sisters door. The girl claims to be Yuzuki's younger sister Rin, she is looking for the older girl and thought to check if she followed Haruto to his sisters apartment. Once satisfied he doesn't know where she is, the girl turns to resume the search. He convinces the younger girl to allow him to tag along. They search around, not finding her. Haruto mentions that Yuzukia had talked about not wanting to return home, reluctant to run into someone. When he mentions this to Rin, the younger girl replies that the person Yuzuki is avoiding is her, that she is the reason her older sister went to live with Haruto's family.
The kind and courteous girl suddenly transforms into a cold and calculating woman when she begins to talk about Yuzuki with honesty. Complaining about having to look after the older girl and watch her seduce people to do her bidding. Accusing her of appearing to be helpless as a calculating way to get attention. Haruto finds himself dumbstruck with the sudden change in Rin's personality and questions his initial impressions of everyone he has met in her family to this point. Before he can figure out whats going on, Rin receives a call from her mother about Yuzuki returning home safe and sound. Rin quickly bids farewell to the boy and runs off, leaving him alone, questioning what happened and needing to catch the bus back home before he is stuck over night in Tokyo.
Haruto never gets on the bus, receiving a phone call at the last minutes from Yuzuki. He knows she's lying and suspects that Rin and her mother were lying earlier when they said she returned home. He tells Yuzuki to stay where she is and he rushes off to meet her. He tells her that she doesn't have to go back to her parents home, if it causes her that much trouble, instead she can stay at his sisters empty apartment for the night. (Suzuka side note: they end up watching a show on TV where Honoka talks about meeting Yamato as kids when he fixed her shrines broken bell). Yuzuki tells Haruto that her siblings are step-siblings from her fathers new wife. The reasons behind Yuzuki suddenly coming to live with his family comes into focus. He understands the discomfort she is feeling, faced with living with 3 new members of her family, due to her father remarrying. Not wanting her to feel isolated, he tells her that she can consider him family as well and for her to let him know when ever she needs help, that he will come and save her any time. Setting the stage for further development in their relationship.
Before the night ends, her older step-brother Itsuki knocks on the door and introduces himself, relieved that Yuzuki is staying that night at Haruto's sisters apartment instead of returning home. Before he leaves he asks Haruto to talk with him in private. Itsuki explains to him that the friction between the two girls is due to Rin's obsession with her older brother. The merger of the two families and Yuzuki's outgoing nature has caused the younger girl to see her as an enemy, who is trying to take her brother away. This perception has lead to a lot of aggression and antagonism from the younger girl, putting strain on Yuzuki, who is trying hard to have a normal life with her step family. Haruto gets angry with Itsuki and punches him, just as Yuzuki arrives. To break the tension she tells Haruto that she's going to go home and talk things over with her family.
The spring semester comes to a close and as the last day of school ends before summer break, Nanami
asks Haruto to walk home with her. Jumping at the opportunity he finds himself alone with her again, wondering about the status of his proposal. Before he can press her about it they get caught in a downpour. While waiting for the ran to let up she invites him to go to the beach with her the following day. His thoughts of being alone with her at the beach are quickly squashed when it turns into a group event, chaperoned by her older brother Narumi, who is driving them to and from the beach. Haruto has a phobia about open water so chooses not to join the others playing in ocean. instead busies himself with a sandcastle. Nanami seeks him out when she realizes hes by himself and joins him on the beach. She asks him is he wants to come with her the following week to the summer festival, alone.
Haruto's lazy summer comes to a halt when Yuzuki's step siblings arrive to stay with his family. Rin is bored being on the country, with nothing to do. The entire group goes to a cook out and Rin notices the chemistry between Haruto and Nanami. Rin also overhears a conversation between Haruto and Yuzuki where Haruto brings up Yuzuki wanting him to fall for her. Recognizing the potential drama she can unleash, Rin is suddenly more interested in being there.
On the day before the festival Rin joins the others on a trip to buy yukata. She casually brings up Haruto going all the way to Tokyo with Yuzuki. Internally Rin connects the dots and realizes that he lied to her when he told her why he had to cancel going shopping with her. That night when Haruto calls her to finalize the plans for meeting up she abruptly cancels it and hangs up on him. Unwilling to let it slide, confused by the drastic change of attitude, he sends her a message to meet him at the convenience store so they can talk. At the festival Rin gets bored and decides to head to the convenience store to harass Haruto. She tells him that Nanami isn't going to show and explains why. She was hoping for him to get angry at her for tattling on him, but he accepts that the situation is his fault. Frustrated that he's not falling for her bait she leaves him, bound for Nanami's house.
She concerned about the older girl, who despite cancelling the meeting is dressed in a yukata when she answers the door. Rin coxes the story between she and Haruto's relationship out of her. During the course of it Nanami realizes that she needs to tell him how she feels instead of dragging it out, waiting for feelings that may never come. She rushes off to meet him, afraid he has already left. When she gets there she is prepared to tell him her feeling but us interrupted when the others who also arrived, talking about how they aren't sure where Yuzuki is. Haruto rushes off to find her, realizing she is probably at a secluded spot where he first showed her the fireworks reflecting on a pond 10 years earlier. His hunch was correct and he finds her, lost but safe. They head back and find only Nanami waiting. Yuzuki, realizing shes a third wheel, runs off ahead of them. Nanami confirms what Haruto suspected and she declines his confession and tells him she isn't able to date him.
The following day Haruto is worn out from the depression of having his heart broken. Rin on the other hand is quite pleased with herself. When she finally decides to return to Tokyo, he is forced into making sure she gets there safely. Wanting to mess with him more, she continues to come up with distractions causing her to push-back which bullet train she will take home until she gives up on toying with him. She had expected him to lose his temper after a while but has come to realize his caring nature knows no bounds. She returns to Tokyo with a different understanding of Haruto but is still satisfied in her mischief. Haruto can finally get some well deserved rest for the remainder of the summer break.
According to Rin the reason Nanami isn't able to date him is due to his undying commitment to Yuzuki. Time after time he has left Nanami's side to aid Yuzuki in something and Nanami is unwilling to compromise her love. She doesn't want to share Haruto's attention with another women. As she leaves, she tells him that he needs to come to terms with the feelings he has for the girl living in his house. Haruto mulls over this, frustrated at Nanami's inflexibility. Bur her words bury themself into his psyche, strengthened by his sister telling hims something similar when she pries information about Nanami from him. He suddenly begins to question whether its true, looking at Yuzuki in a different way. But just as he begins to see her in a new way she confesses to him that she is planning to return to Tokyo in a few months.
The fall semester brings preparations for the cultural festival. Yuzuki volunteers herself and Haruto to be part of the executive committee. They along with the two other members, Kimuro a boy who is on the baseball team and Kikukawa a shy girl, must formulate the plans for the classes event. The class decided on a cafe and its up to the committee to flesh out the details. Through being bullied into it by Yuzuki, they decide on a maid cafe and learn that Kikukawa is adept at sewing, leaving the costumes in her hands. Kimuro tricks Haruto into talking with Nanami about getting apples from her families farm for the cafe. Since she rejected him at the summer festival things have been awkward between them. The conversation is normal enough that Haruto decides to ask her once and for all the reasoning behind her rejection. He jumps the gun during the conversation, thinking he understands what the reason is and prematurely cuts her off. Satisfied he was told the truth from Rin, he asks her not to tell Yuzuki, fearing it would destroy her if she was the reason Nanami rejected him. Nanami slaps him in anger, furious with what he proposed without knowing the truth, only assuming things on his own.
Haruto and Yuzuki end up having to walk home together one day and he takes a chance with holding her hand. She only lets it slide for a little bit and pulls her hand away, leaving an awkward silence fill the gap. She begins to avoid him and as the cultural festival nears Narumi begins to turn up, flirting with Yuzuki. He is going to help them pick apples and bring them back to school from his families farm. This gives he and Yuzuki plenty of time alone together. At the same time Kikukawa misinterprets Haruto's kindness and begins to openly flirt with him, hoping he will confess his feelings for her at the end of the festival. Haruto has really shifted his romantic attention to Yuzuki but is uncertain about why shes behaving the way she has been. Kikukawa is nowhere on his radar for romance and he fears if her misunderstanding continues the let down will be devastating.
Their classes maid cafe is a smash hit, near the end Haruto and Yuzuki are sent on an errand to get more supplies. He gathers up the courage to ask her if shes been avoiding him because of holding her hand. She confirms his suspicion and he tries to play off the act as nothing more than innocent communication between friends. She asks him to take her to the bonfire. Shocked, he brings up his suspicions about her going with Nanami's older brother. Her mood shifts and she tells him it was just a joke. Confused he struggles with what to do during the bonfire, actively avoiding Kikukawa. Yuzuki comes up to him and asks him to dance with her. Shocked at first he goes a long with it but soon destroys the mood by asking what happened with Narumi. Frustrated by how dense he is and how little he pays attention to subtle clues, she leaves the bonfire and lets him mull over the problem on his own.
Haruto chases after her but they are both stopped by Narumi. He tries to get Haruto to pay attention to Kikukawa, leaving Yuzuki to himself. Instead Haruto drags her out of the area so they can talk more in private, closing the door for both Narumi and Kikukawa. He confronts Yuzuki about his feelings but downplays it, saying it is hypothetical. She tells him it would never work out if he was really confessing to her, since she would be moving in six months. The reality of the situation dawns on Haruto and he drops the subject, never talking with her about it until the day she leaves for Tokyo the following March.
The day shes set to leave for Tokyo, he wakes her up in the early morning. He has a surprise in sotre her with a natural formation in the nearby river that only happens in the dead of winter, ice clusters that form flower like shapes. While there he broaches the subject of dating again, saying they could do it as a long distance relationship, telling her he means it and has liked her for a while now. She declines again, voicing her concern that the distance between them would make things unstable, especially if he decides that he has feelings for Nanami still. He accepts her rejection and stays quite all the way up to when she boards the train back to Tokyo. Before she leaves she tells him that she has changed her mind and would like to try dating him long distance.
Haruto struggles with their relationship, unsure if shes actually interested in him or not. He has a hard time interrupting their conversations and gets annoyed when she wants to talk about her new pet bird. Takashi and Akari try to convince him its mostly in his head but caution him when it comes to his selfishness in their conversations. A month into the relationship an opportunity to see her presents its self as the class will be taking a trip to Tokyo. After setting up plans to meet with her during the trip he joins Akari and Takashi doing part time work at a restaurant over Spring break.
Haruto chooses to work in the kitchen instead of as a waiter due to his dislike of interacting with people and his confidence in cooking. Shiho is an 18 year old, who has worked part time at this restaurant for the past three years. She has enviable talent as a cook and her confidence and prowess has earned her respect from the full time staff. She is tasked with breaking in the temp employee and boy does she break him in. The first day he drown in a mountain of dishes, doing nothing but washing bowls and flatware for 10+ hours. She then makes him do a bunch of prep work to finish out the day. When she questions him about why he prepped shrimp the way he did he tells her it was to reduce the change of water being left over for frying. This insight and understanding makes her trust him a little more.
The next day she starts to have him do some of the line work, putting together some of the dishes. When she challenges his attempt to short cut at one point she demonstrates why he was wrong. He immediately recognizes why what he did was wrong but his pride gets in the way and he feigns ignorance. At that point hes back on dish duty. That evening, sensing shes upset with him, he admits that he recognized the mistake he had made and apologizes for being stubborn about her lessons. She makes him food during a break on the third day and they begin to talk about long distance relationships. She warns him that it didn't work for her when she tried it and it may not work out for him. With that concern in his mind he finishes up the grueling work, earning some respect along the way, and has some cash to buy Yuzuki a present when he meets her in Tokyo.
They get into the city early on their first day and Haruto hastily makes plans to see Yuzuki that day. She decides to get his present first and gets stuck on a train after a fatal accident shuts down the line. As hes waiting for her, Nanami comes to tell him the teacher is waiting for everyone for their first event. She then asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend for the trip so that she can impress an old friend of hers that she's meeting. Before he can turn the request down, the old friend arrives and immediately assumes hes her boyfriend. Haruto is now stuck having to pretend to be Nanami's boyfriend for part of the time, while also juggling meeting with Yuzuki. Knowing the past between all three of them, Haruto knows it will be hard to explain things rationally to Yuzuki if she catches wind of what hes doing for the girl he used to like.
Nanami's friend Haruna is bold and unapologetic. She susses out the truth pretty quickly but lets it pass. As they part ways, Haruto tries to convince her of the false relationship one last time and holds Nanami's hand as they watch her train pass by. Before they break the ruse Yuzuki sees them from across the platform. He quickly rushes to meet her and explain things but she boards the first train that arrived and he has no idea where she is going. Nanami feels terrible for the mistake and they both wait for Yuzuki at the spot he was going to originally with her. She never shows and refuses to respond to any emails or calls from either of them. There is little he can do now and they return to the hotel.
After trying to get a hold of her into the evening he decides he has no choice but to sneak out of the hotel and go to her house, figuring she will at least be there so he can try and explain things to her. Nanami and Haruto explain the situation to Takashi and Akari and all three agree to help cover for him, alone on his own at night, away from the confines of the school trip. He rushes over to her house, only to realize he left his phone at the hotel. Rin comes up to him and tells him she saw her sister shopping. Unsure what to do, thinking shes avoiding him and without his phone his options are limited. Little does he realize the mistake he made in leaving as Yuzuki comes to the hotel they are staying at to visit him. Not wanting to wait for him at the hotel, her best opportunity is to wait for him at the train station he would most likely pass through as he tries to make curfew. After Haruto exhausts himself checking the nearby shopping district he decides to call it quits and head back, only to run into her where she decided to wait. They reconcile and connect on a level they had not been able to reach before. She gives him his present, but he had left hers back in the hotel. They spent as much time together as they could, cherishing every moment, but that time was too short and he had to return, unsure when he would see her next.
Yet that was the last chance he had to talk with her. When he got back from the trip her number was no longer available. After their heart felt reunion and bitter sweet departure, Yuzuki appears to have cut off all connection with the boy who had given her his heart. Yuzuki ghosting Haruto isn't a secret and weeks after she stopped communicating with him and everyone else in Hiroshima, Nanami struggles with how to break him out of his funk. Akari thinks that he just needs to get another girlfriend, even if its for a short time, to help free him from his feelings for Yuzuki. Nanami thinks that she could be the person that can help heal him, still conflicted over her feelings for him and the complications surrounding their relationship.
In an attempt to get closer to him, Nanami quits her position as the manager of the baseball team and switches to the cooking club, of which Haruto is a member of, but never goes to. Akari forces him to go with her on the first day and a series of mishaps at Nanami's expense brings a little bit of light to Haruto's eyes. That evening, Nanami gets a phone call from Yuzuki's younger sister, Rin, who tells her that Yuzuki has apparently started to date a new guy. It hurts her how badly Yuzuki has treated him and she struggles with what to do with the information, fearing it would do more damage to him just as hes beginning to perk up. In a moment of panic she confesses to him. He replies with the same thing she told him last year, to give him some time to respond to her.
Haruto is prepared to reject Nanami's confession. He doesn't want to hurt her with his lingering feelings for Yuzuki, especially when so much is left unanswered. The day they decide to talk it over she surprises him by coming to his house. He tries to let her down gently, but she tries to persuade him that any lingering emotions for Yuzuki are not a deal breaker. He knocks over the present Yuzuki gave him in Tokyo, never opened, spilling a letter out of the bag. Nanami convinces him to read the letter. In it is Yuzuki's admission that she was leaving him for another guy, a guy that she liked in middle school. Haruto can't believe the letter though, thinking it to be something else, perhaps a prank by Rin.
Haruto tells Nanami that he can't date her. He needs to find out the truth behind whats going on with Yuzuki and is determined to go to Tokyo to find that out. She resigns her self to that and tells him that she will wait for him a bit longer to make up his mind once and for all. On the final day of class before Summer break he stuns the class when the teacher announces that Haruto is transferring to a school in Tokyo for the fall semester. He is going all in to find out whats going on with Yuzuki and to try and reconnect with her.
A Town Where You Live takes place in the same universe as Seo-sensei's previous manga, Suzuka. The apartment complex that Haruto's sister lives at is the same all girls dormitory that Suzuka takes place in. While he is there the first time there is a passing reference to the two drunken college students who frequently pestered Suzuka's male lead, Yamato. During the class trip to Tokyo, there is a passing reference to another character from Suzuka, Sakurai Honoka, who had become a fashion model in Suzuka. The first portion of the manga is really little more than set up and character establishment. The building of the relationship between Yuzuki and Haruto and the complex interactions with the other kids hes grown up with in his rural community. Seo-sensei has a passion for drawing teenage girls who look like adults and then exposing their panties and nipples as much as he feels he can get away with. The fan service doesn't detract much from the story but it does suffer from some rather rote trappings of the genre.
Romance stories aimed at a young male audience fall into a some similar trappings, story arcs and character personalities that appeal to them. Vulnerable women, 'every man' main characters and ridiculous situations where drama is forced and insincere. this manga isn't an exception to those styling, but it also moves away from some of the more annoying traits. This story is really slow though. The Hiroshima arc is covered by 79 issues of the manga, ending halfway through the 8th tonkouban. There is still a long way to go though with the story, sometimes a little too much. The next phase brings in some interesting plot points and a hope for a more mature story. All done and said though...Haruto is a fool to throw away Nanami.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment