Kimi no Iru Machi

While the spring and summer anime selection has left me in despair I have recently returned to the world of manga. After finding out that Kouji Seo, mangaka of Suzuka, has been releasing a new series I decided I needed to jump on it.  Since the manga for Suzuka ended I have had a void in the sloppy high school romance category and with my discovery of Kimi no iru Machi (A town where you live) it has been filled.

    Kimi Machi follows the day to day struggles of self sufficient first year rural Hiroshima high school student Haruto Kirishima. Just before the school year starts a freeloader interrupts his blissful existence. The daughter of a friend of his fathers has chosen to move from Tokyo to Hiroshima and live with them for unexplained reasons. The energetic, helpless and genuine Yuzuki Eba arrives and instantly grates on Haruto’s nerves. He is troubled by the uninvited appearance of a girl his age that he knows nothing about and will be sharing his home with. Immediately he attempts to hide her from his one sided love interest, classmate Nanami Kanzaki, which quickly backfires. Almost as quickly Haruto’s childhood friend, Takashi Yura, discovers her existence and falls for her. Takashi confides his feelings to Haruto and warns him he should quickly choose too between her and Nanami so he doesn’t get too attached. Haruto, off put by Yuzuki’s personality and sudden intrusion into his peaceful existence, has no interest in her.

    As time goes and they become closer he does develop feelings for her, not so much love, but a sense of protection. He fears that if left alone she is incapable of surviving. At the same time he is also becoming friendly with Nanami and when he confesses his feelings she shoots him down, only to come back later and ask him to wait for a proper answer. As he thinks his life is returning to normal and the girl of his dreams is within his grasp everything is thrown into confusion when he learns why Yuzuki moved away from home in the first place. Will Haruto’s sense of duty for the wayward Yuzuki jeopardize his opportunities with Nanami?

    Ok, so it’s a by-the-book high school romance filled with all sorts of push over characters who can’t express their own feelings and muddle through their affairs, shooting them selves in the feet along the way. The character designs look exactly like those found in Suzuka, especially Nanami, who looks very much like Suzuka herself. In fact the story is a bit of a crossover with the other one. Haruto’s older sister goes to college in Tokyo and bunks at the dormitory building that the Suzuka characters do. In one scene two of the side characters make an off screen appearance as well. While the details are different it is essentially the same story. While this can be seen as a bad thing I actually welcome it, it is nice and worn in, familiar and much missed. Since the manga for Suzuka ended I have only been able to partially fill the void left behind. This series, which is currently running and only on it’s 50^th issue, has been able to fill that hole nicely where other series only did so temporarily. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with the incredible similarity.

    While I do like the series and will continue to read it there are some things that are annoying. There is still an unnecessary plethora of shots of all the female characters bathing through out the series. I can understand the reason, this series, like its predecessor, is aimed at teenage boys who happen to like male geared romances. While not really a harem story, it still relies on the traditional idea of the weak and indecisive female love interests. Then again in today’s market any strong willed female character will get slotted into the tsundere category and make that idea a moot point, because all tsundere are afraid and in need of a mans direction on the inside anyways. Either that or she’s a dyke. So, while I can’t count on any strong and independent ‘normal’ female roles in Kimi Machi let alone anime/manga in general, it doesn’t mean that I still can’t enjoy the story. What it does mean, along with the self consciousness of the lead male, is that I want to reach through the pages and strangle every last damn character.

    So if you are enjoyed Suzuka or Miyuki this series will fit in nicely. There is no hint as to how long it will last and if there will ever be an anime adaption, but until then you can keep repeating the same thing over and over again by reading a rehash of a rehash of a re…

UPDATE: There was a 12 episode anime rendition released in 2013 and the manga is currently into the mid 200's issue count.  There is no word yet on the anime being licensed in North America, but the manga will soon be available online through a new service from Crunchyroll.