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青い花 [Aoi Hana] #1
青い花 1 [Aoi Hana 1]
Enduring love, the consequences of choices and coming of age.
Fumi and Akira were best friends when they were little, with Akira always looking after the crybaby Fumi. That all ended when Fumi's family moved away, with tearful cries and unfulfilled promises.
Several years later, Fumi's family returns, and after she and Akira coincidentally meet on the way to school, they became friends again, quickly slipping back into old patterns.
Fumi and Akira were best friends when they were little, with Akira always looking after the crybaby Fumi. That all ended when Fumi's family moved away, with tearful cries and unfulfilled promises.
Several years later, Fumi's family returns, and after she and Akira coincidentally meet on the way to school, they became friends again, quickly slipping back into old patterns.
193 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2005
5 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Takako Shimura
176 books211 followersTakako Shimura (native name: 志村貴子) is a manga artist primarily known for her manga works published in Japan which feature LGBT (especially about lesbian and transgender) topics. Originally from Kanagawa, she now resides in Tokyo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 22, 2017
I liked this, it was a bittersweet depiction of what it's like to love other girls. I loved what a good friend Aki is! The only thing was that it switched back and forth between the two storylines too quickly, so was confusing at times. Otherwise I liked it!
March 18, 2017
Reasons why I like this series:
- There is more than one central relationship; lots of side characters
- The series shows the intricacies and difficulties of navigating a romantic relationship. It's not just smooth sailing for the characters.
- Good, respectful communication!
- It manages to do all this while maintaining a certain lightness and sunniness. Not depressing, but still pretty realistic in terms of relationship dynamics.
-The artstyle is really cute, and the characters are pretty... :)
- There is more than one central relationship; lots of side characters
- The series shows the intricacies and difficulties of navigating a romantic relationship. It's not just smooth sailing for the characters.
- Good, respectful communication!
- It manages to do all this while maintaining a certain lightness and sunniness. Not depressing, but still pretty realistic in terms of relationship dynamics.
-The artstyle is really cute, and the characters are pretty... :)
November 27, 2024
Poco interesante, lioso a ratos y con un punto de incesto raro…
December 29, 2025
ça frôle l'inceste c'est vraiment nul
October 27, 2012
I am really enjoying this story. I find the characters to be engaging and the plot very sweet. I am slightly annoyed at how the relationship between Fumi and Ah-chan is bouncing all over the place but I suppose that it does make it more realistic for their ages and environments.
February 27, 2019
Es súper dulce y me parecen súper cuquis todos los personajes. Son todos rollitos de canela. Se merecen lo mejor del mundo y las quiero adoptar a todas ❤️
July 4, 2022
I like the art of this and it is interesting because the characters look to have a style to them but also look... plain? In a good way! Something about female mangaka makes things cute or attractive but not male-gaze-y.
The story is sometimes confusing to follow because I am still learning about all the characters and their relationships. It feels like I have to reread pages and refer back to things more than usual but that might be because there are so many characters and so many different relationships right out the gate. Not a bad thing but can be kind of hard to follow at first.
I think it is sweet how supportive the main protagonists are of each other throughout. Fumi's coming-out scene was simple but dear. I know where this is heading as yuri, but it is nice to have all the characters feel so fleshed out and different this early on. Looking forward to more.
The story is sometimes confusing to follow because I am still learning about all the characters and their relationships. It feels like I have to reread pages and refer back to things more than usual but that might be because there are so many characters and so many different relationships right out the gate. Not a bad thing but can be kind of hard to follow at first.
I think it is sweet how supportive the main protagonists are of each other throughout. Fumi's coming-out scene was simple but dear. I know where this is heading as yuri, but it is nice to have all the characters feel so fleshed out and different this early on. Looking forward to more.
February 14, 2021
I can't really review Manga/Graphic Novels for some reason but I loved this one. It was so good. I'm only marking down the first volume but I have read the whole thing. I just don't really feel like putting down all of the volumes at once.
But the art style was so good and all of the girls were so pretty. I would highly recommend as a short lesbian manga at only 8 volumes. It's very rare to see lesbian manga/anime get talked about at all and get popular, so it's hard to just get them casually recommended to you. But this one was so good and I would highly recommend this one.
But the art style was so good and all of the girls were so pretty. I would highly recommend as a short lesbian manga at only 8 volumes. It's very rare to see lesbian manga/anime get talked about at all and get popular, so it's hard to just get them casually recommended to you. But this one was so good and I would highly recommend this one.
August 26, 2021
Me gusto uwu pero hay varias cosas que me hicieron Mucho ruido.
1. Las familia, aka la prima de la alta y el hermano de otra, he de decir que la primera es más turbia que el otro pero los dos son muy raros, también hay que aceptar que yo ni es pedo mandaría a mi hermanita menor de edad a una cita a ciegas con universitarios, osea WTF?!
2. Porque casi todos los hombre de esta historia son tan malos/ están tan mal: desde los pervertidos del tren hasta el prometido, todos! Que onda con eso?!
De ahí en más, pues like.
1. Las familia, aka la prima de la alta y el hermano de otra, he de decir que la primera es más turbia que el otro pero los dos son muy raros, también hay que aceptar que yo ni es pedo mandaría a mi hermanita menor de edad a una cita a ciegas con universitarios, osea WTF?!
2. Porque casi todos los hombre de esta historia son tan malos/ están tan mal: desde los pervertidos del tren hasta el prometido, todos! Que onda con eso?!
De ahí en más, pues like.
May 16, 2022
This was okay. I spent most of the first half super confused as to who was who, what school we were at and who had feelings for whom. The story just drops you right in and it gives little explanation as to what is going on. Not my favorite style of storytelling and I probably won't continue this one as I'm not really invested in any of the characters.
July 24, 2018
I don't know why but this is giving me a lot of anxiety. I'm not good with this... complicated relationships sort of thing. I guess I enjoy certainty, or at the very least a fixed point of view. But I thought it was good and I'll probably read the rest later on.
September 19, 2022
To say I loved this retelling is an understatement. It definitely reminded me why Rapunzel is my favorite. I liked this plot twist with her and the main story of a brother telling this story to his sister. Her interrupting with questions was amazing. Will definitely be buying myself a copy asap!
April 6, 2018
Interesting characters and story, excited what will happen next. The girls are all cute and wonderful.
July 21, 2018
Very cute first volume. The art style is lovely and the characters already seem more than one dimensional just in these first chapters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2018
Aoi Hana is probably one of my favorite manga ever. I love the art, the writing, the characters (Fumi just reminds me of my teenage self so much), and just everything.
November 16, 2018
It was... okay. The relationships were weird and confusing, and the characters are boring and cliche. There were some parts that were interesting, but I wonk be reading the rest of the series.
June 26, 2020
1.75 stars.
January 5, 2021
parece una historia muy dulce, ya me enganche uwu
June 5, 2021
it's adorable :((
May 17, 2024
Somewhat depressing view into the tropes of the genre but very reminiscent of the time it was written.
January 25, 2016
I'm sure this review is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but there I go!
Last week I saw this manga in the bookshop I work at and I must confess, the cover captured me. I read the summary and it sounded like something I could be obsessed with, so what better thing to do than read it! I read it in that same night, and my disappointment was the worst in this last year. This could have been a fantastic story! But it was just extremely cheesy and annoying to me. Not much happens, but that would be okay if the characters were at least interesting.
Two childhood friends who reunite after years of not seeing each other, one of them is lesbian and the other, apparently not. The apparently-not-lesbian girl is the typical kind of funny friend and the lesbian girl only cries. She literally can't do any other thing than cry. I get that she is shy, and that she is experiencing a few emotional changes at that moment, but all she does is cry! She could be a richer character! The tools are just there!
Okay, you may hate me for what I am going to say now (if you don't already), but I'm more than okay with discussing about this. Once I finished the book I was left with a very disgusting taste in my mouth. I felt that the lesbian characters were no more than an excuse to make the friendship a bit more interesting and to catch attention of manga readers. And not more than that.
Lately I am getting the feeling that sexuality is being "used" in the publishing industry. Of course I am talking in unfortunate general terms; there are honest and reliable publishers that help literature a lot! And there are of course fantastic stories that every single human being should read and which literary value is very high. What I am not okay with is that once one topic becomes important in the publishing industry, it becomes frequent to see that the amount of books of that same topic grows uncontrolledly, and the literary value is way lower. This same thing happened with cancer books not far from now. It is like a mechanism for selling easily for a limited amount of time, and writing without a real reason. And that until a new topic becomes a fashion. This makes me very mad because for me it is sometimes hard to tell whether I am picking a good book or this kind of books that happen because another one has worked well. And I refuse to not read about a topic that interests me or that I may be curious about. I have the feeling this happened to me with this manga. I hope it gets better in the following numbers of the series, but I won't be reading them.
Last week I saw this manga in the bookshop I work at and I must confess, the cover captured me. I read the summary and it sounded like something I could be obsessed with, so what better thing to do than read it! I read it in that same night, and my disappointment was the worst in this last year. This could have been a fantastic story! But it was just extremely cheesy and annoying to me. Not much happens, but that would be okay if the characters were at least interesting.
Two childhood friends who reunite after years of not seeing each other, one of them is lesbian and the other, apparently not. The apparently-not-lesbian girl is the typical kind of funny friend and the lesbian girl only cries. She literally can't do any other thing than cry. I get that she is shy, and that she is experiencing a few emotional changes at that moment, but all she does is cry! She could be a richer character! The tools are just there!
Okay, you may hate me for what I am going to say now (if you don't already), but I'm more than okay with discussing about this. Once I finished the book I was left with a very disgusting taste in my mouth. I felt that the lesbian characters were no more than an excuse to make the friendship a bit more interesting and to catch attention of manga readers. And not more than that.
Lately I am getting the feeling that sexuality is being "used" in the publishing industry. Of course I am talking in unfortunate general terms; there are honest and reliable publishers that help literature a lot! And there are of course fantastic stories that every single human being should read and which literary value is very high. What I am not okay with is that once one topic becomes important in the publishing industry, it becomes frequent to see that the amount of books of that same topic grows uncontrolledly, and the literary value is way lower. This same thing happened with cancer books not far from now. It is like a mechanism for selling easily for a limited amount of time, and writing without a real reason. And that until a new topic becomes a fashion. This makes me very mad because for me it is sometimes hard to tell whether I am picking a good book or this kind of books that happen because another one has worked well. And I refuse to not read about a topic that interests me or that I may be curious about. I have the feeling this happened to me with this manga. I hope it gets better in the following numbers of the series, but I won't be reading them.
June 19, 2015
Review is for the entire series. Likewise for any spoilers...
This was the first series I actually read from Takako Shimura, prior to picking up Hourou Musuko / Wandering Son. The scanlations (or the series itself) hadn't gone that far, so I ended up reading the former series, which completely gripped me.
Hrm. It was interesting and sweet, with a wonderful dreamy drawing style (especially in the colored pages) with eyes chock full of emotion even as they're drawn in a minimalist fashion. I liked the main cast of characters that we meet in the first couple of books. The side characters aren't entirely filled out but they had that sense of school friends that might not be your best friends, but someone you've grown to know over time.
Seeing Fumi's character develop throughout the volumes was definitely the strong point of the series. Akira's (Ah-chan) as well. And, well, as Yoshino was my favorite character of Hourou Musuko, I rather liked Sugimoto and wish we had seen more of her story. But I just wish that the focus had been tighter, as the further on we went in the series, the more meandering the pacing became. At times, I wasn't sure who we were discussing and the time skips weren't balanced. Maybe if there had been more seasonal / timely scenes, we'd sense time's passing all the better. Instead, it seemed to go from dramatic scene to scene, and then skip to the end of the school year.
The ending itself...well, I wasn't entirely sure who was who for a while.
I'm glad I read this in its entirety and will definitely watch the anime since it does seem to do a good job translating drawing style to screen. But still not as pleased as I'd like to have been, as it seems so much more could've been done if more time was taken with a smaller cast.
This was the first series I actually read from Takako Shimura, prior to picking up Hourou Musuko / Wandering Son. The scanlations (or the series itself) hadn't gone that far, so I ended up reading the former series, which completely gripped me.
Hrm. It was interesting and sweet, with a wonderful dreamy drawing style (especially in the colored pages) with eyes chock full of emotion even as they're drawn in a minimalist fashion. I liked the main cast of characters that we meet in the first couple of books. The side characters aren't entirely filled out but they had that sense of school friends that might not be your best friends, but someone you've grown to know over time.
Seeing Fumi's character develop throughout the volumes was definitely the strong point of the series. Akira's (Ah-chan) as well. And, well, as Yoshino was my favorite character of Hourou Musuko, I rather liked Sugimoto and wish we had seen more of her story. But I just wish that the focus had been tighter, as the further on we went in the series, the more meandering the pacing became. At times, I wasn't sure who we were discussing and the time skips weren't balanced. Maybe if there had been more seasonal / timely scenes, we'd sense time's passing all the better. Instead, it seemed to go from dramatic scene to scene, and then skip to the end of the school year.
The ending itself...well, I wasn't entirely sure who was who for a while.
I'm glad I read this in its entirety and will definitely watch the anime since it does seem to do a good job translating drawing style to screen. But still not as pleased as I'd like to have been, as it seems so much more could've been done if more time was taken with a smaller cast.
January 4, 2016
Es un lujo poder disfrutar de la sensibilidad y el estilo de esta autora en edición en español (cruzando los dedos para que algún día llegue Wandering Son, que además trata un tema muy a explorar todavía). Y llegar el vacío de shoujo-ai/yuri que había en España de paso. Takako Shimura tiene una manera muy propia de desarrolar sus historias - no la puedes confundir con ningún otro mangaka, y no sólo por su estilo gráfico (suave y maravilloso, lleno de personalidad). La narración es sútil, dejándo al lector sacar sus propias conclusiones y aunque de momento una de las dos protagonistas de la historia no me resulta tan lograda como el resto de los personajes que normalmente crea Takako Shimura, este manga es una perfecta introducción al mundo de la autora.
July 29, 2011
I read the english translated version online. It is a sweet and realistic story. It follows Fumi, a high school girl, through the ups and downs of lesbian life and love. It takes you through her coming out to her best friend, her first love, her first heartbreak and more. The art work is beautiful and the story heart warming. It's yuri aimed at an actual female audience :)
May 10, 2023
3.5/5 stars. Era raro, un tanto desconcertante y sin mucho sentido en ciertas partes. Parecía saltar de un punto a otro distinto con cada página que giras. Los personajes en sí son cute y el romance muy fluffy.
January 9, 2015
the only girl/girl manga i have ever read.
April 9, 2015
Aoi Hana es un manga que avanza muy lento, pero es de lo mejorcito que hay en el Yuri. La historia es muy tierna, y los personajes se sienten reales, se desarrollan, y tienen historia.
July 23, 2018
Aoi Hana es un manga que avanza muy lento, pero es de lo mejorcito que hay en el Yuri. La historia es muy tierna, y los personajes se sienten reales, se desarrollan, y tienen historia.
January 28, 2020
Un tomo muy introductorio, no destaca nada de la trama. Quiero ver como evolucionan las relaciones entre las chicas.
July 19, 2021
Muy bonico, voy a seguir leyendo la serie.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews