is a shōjo

Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...

 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series by Ayumi Shiina

Ayumi Shiina

is a Japanese shōjo manga artist. Her debut was in 1987 with the story Namida no Message, published in the Autumn issue of Ribon Original. She has since published her manga in Ribon and its spin-off magazines....

. Part of the story has been adapted into an OVA.

Story

Seara is a mature young girl that fell in love with Shuhei Seto when she was still very young. Telling him that she would be his bride

Bride

A bride is a woman about to be married or newlywed.The word may come from the Proto-Germanic verb root *brū-, meaning 'to cook, brew, or make a broth' which was the role of the daughter-in-law in primitive families...

 when she grew up, Shuhei told her that if she grew up to be a beautiful young woman, that he would think about it. Four years later, Seara comes to live with Shuhei while her parents move to America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She grew up to be a beautiful young woman, just to be with Shuhei. She drank milk every day for the past four years and looks a lot more mature

Mature

Mature is the adjectival form of maturity, which has several meanings.Mature may also refer to:*"Mature 17+", a rating in the Entertainment Software Rating Board video game rating system*Mature, a character from The King of Fighters series...

 than any girls her age. She is also much bigger than them and prefers to be on her own. It is said that she's afraid of people, although it is not said so in the OVA.

Characters

• Seara Arisugawa . A tall, beautiful sixth grader who fell in love with Shuhei Seto. She is a strong,athletic girl who touches people with her honest expressions of how she really feels. Seara once said that one of her mottos is "whoever is nice to me, I'll be nice to. Whoever is mean to me, I'll fight back!" She decided to stay with the Seto family while her mother and father moved to America so she could get closer to Shuhei. At Seara's previous elementary school, anyone who was nice to her seemed to get hurt, so she was known as the "God of Plagues" and didn't have many friends. In her new elementary school, however, things seem to be going well and she is the most popular girl in the class. She is constantly trying to improve herself for Shuhei's sake.
• Shuhei Seto . A tall, popular basketball player who is three years older than Seara. He has rejected Seara three times and made her cry on several occasions. He was in love with Ayano Nishina, but stepped aside for his friend Ko Segami. Seara and Shuhei began a trial dating period after much denial from Shuhei and much effort from Seara. Unfortunately, things went downhill after Ko and Ayano broke up, and Seara was again rejected. Now Shuhei is very confused as to who is most important to him, Ayano or Seara.
• Koharu Seto . Shuhei's sister and Seara's classmate/roommate, Koharu is a stubborn and easily embarrassed sixth grader. She is not very athletic nor tall and is a bit of a tomboy. She and Wataru Nikaidou had both liked each other but did nothing about it until Seara pushed them along. Although Koharu initially was unhappy about sharing a room with Seara, they are now very good friends. Koharu can be a bit difficult but she is ultimately a caring person, as Seara puts it in volume 1, "a tender-hearted, good-natured person with the word 'idiot' on top."
• Rai A tall, athletic basketball player who is best friends and the same age as Shuhei. The two are unstoppable when they team up because they have been playing together for so long and can predict the other's actions. Rai fell in love with Seara at first sight and cares about her very much but was crushed to find that she was in love with Shuhei. Unlike Shuhei, Rai was not bothered by Seara's age difference. Overall, he is an honest, goofy guy who is caring and good-natured.
• Wataru Nikaidou A basketball playing sixth grader. He is dating Koharu and looks up to Shuhei for his basketball skills. Through a series of complicated events, Wataru was led to believe that Seara had been in love with him but let him go to Koharu so he could be happy with the one he truly liked (in reality, the only person Seara was ever interested in was Shuhei. She said this to draw attention to herself so people would stop making fun of Koharu). Wataru tells Shuhei this false information which causes Shuhei to believe that whenever Seara sees Wataru and Koharu together she is secretely in pain and he sympathizes for her.
• Ayano Nishina Seara's biggest rival for Shuhei, Ayano is the beautiful, large chested girl who Shuhei previously fell for. Her classmates consider her a smart beauty with a good personality. She confessed to Shuhei but was rejected due to certain circumstances. She began dating Ko Segami in an effort to forget Shuhei, but she never did. She is surprisingly unathletic.
• Ko Segami A friend of Shuhei and the boyfriend of Ayano. He was aware of Shuhei and Ayano's feelings for each other, however he asked Shuhei to help him be with Ayano anyways to prevent the two from dating. When Ayano confessed to Shuhei, Shuhei rejected her remembering his promise to Ko. Ko then comforted Ayano and confessed, and they began dating. Although he may seem a bit sneaky, he honestly loves Ayano and justified that if Shuhei truly loved Ayano he would not step aside for anyone.

Volumes

1. ISBN 4-08-853851-X published in April 1996
2. ISBN 4-08-853877-3 published in September 1996
3. ISBN 4-08-856011-6 published in April 1997
4. ISBN 4-08-856037-X published in September 1997
5. ISBN 4-08-856063-9 published in February 1998
6. ISBN 4-08-856078-7 published in May 1998
7. ISBN 4-08-856109-0 published in November 1998
8. ISBN 4-08-856137-6 published in April 1999
9. ISBN 4-08-856153-8 published in July 1999