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?

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 1 (1)

Comics & Graphic Novels

Shimura, Takako

Manga

VIZ Media, LLC

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?

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 2 (2)

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?

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 3 (3)

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?

Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 4 (4)

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<li>In the first of eight volumes, readers are introduced to fifth graders Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki. They have happy homes, loving families, and are well liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates the already-complicated verge of puberty: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. </li> <li>
Wandering Son: Book One is written and drawn by one of today's most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura, who portrays Shuishi and Yoshino's very private journey with affection, gentle humor, and unmistakable grace. </li> <li>
Wandering Son: Book One is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn. </li>
</ul>

Wandering Son, Book 1

Fantagraphics Books

Our heroes enter the sixth grade in volume two of this legendary series. In the second volume of Shimura Takako's superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Shuichi spends a precious gift of cash from his grandmother on a special present for himself, a purchase that triggers a chain of events in which his sister Maho learns his secret, and Shuichi inadvertently steals the heart of a boy Maho in interested in. The woman who showed so much interest in Yoshino (when she was wearing a boy’s school uniform) in volume one reappears with her boyfriend, and becomes a mentor and friend to the two children. And the kids go on a class trip that is a rite of passage Shuichi would rather pass up. Shuichi is called a “faggot” by another boy, and the dramatic nature in which Saori comes to Shuichi’s defense leads the two to discover a shared fondness for Anne of Green Gables. But despite his propensity to cry (a propensity noted repeatedly by his more outgoing sister), Shuichi finds strength and courage he didn’t know he had. A sophisticated work translated with sophistication by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn. 200 pages of black-and-white comics

Wandering Son: Book Two

A sensitive, sophisticated work of literary manga.
As shown in the first two volumes of this acclaimed series, Shuichi and his friend Yoshino have a secret: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.
But one day, abruptly, their secret is exposed, and the two find themselves the target of sixth-grade cruelty. Their friendship is strained, as Yoshino makes a half-hearted effort at being a “normal girl”... and their mentor, Yuki, reveals the harder reality of being transgendered. Meanwhile, Shuichi’s sister, Maho, realizes her dream of becoming a model, and drags Shuichi along for the ride. Shuichi meets another boy who wants to be a girl, and finds himself on an arranged date with a boy who doesn't know that the girl he has a crush on was born a boy.
After an unhurried, almost leisurely buildup that gave us an opportunity to get to know and understand our protagonists, artist Shimura picks up the pace in this latest volume, with tears and laughs aplenty. A sophisticated work translated with rare sophistication by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn. Black &amp; white throughout

Wandering Son, Vol. 3

Fantagraphics

Love is in the air. The standard rules apply: If A is in love with B, B is certain to be in love with C, and C is likely to be in love with D, or possibly A. The simple friendships of childhood develop into the complex, tense relationships of adolescence. Friends become strangers, or worse. But while everyone seems to have caught the bug, Volume 4 revolves solidly around the triangle of Nitori-kun, Takatsuki-san, and Chiba-san. Yet centrifugal force seems to push the three away from each other, and there is a certain grimness as they say goodbye to elementary school, and put on the (highly gendered) uniforms of junior high school.

Wandering Son, Vol. 4

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CREATOR OF SWEET BLUE FLOWERS AND WANDERING SON.\nEver 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.

Even Though We're Adults Vol. 4

Seven Seas

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CREATOR OF SWEET BLUE FLOWERS AND WANDERING SON.\nAyano 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.

Even Though We're Adults Vol. 5

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Books by Shimura, Takako