Sweet Blue Flowers

Gr 10 Up—These collected first volumes of Shimura's manga tell an honest, poignant story about the joys, pains, and loves of gay and bisexual young women. Fumi Manjoume moves back to her hometown with her family after being away for several years. She's troubled because her first love recently married, but she reconnects with her old best friend, Akira Okudaira, who allows Fumi to be herself and helps ease her pain. During her first days at her new, all-girls school, Fumi falls for a popular, beautiful third-year senior, Yasuko Sugimoto, and the two begin dating. Shimura's art varies depending on the mood of the scene. During comedic moments, the designs lean toward the exaggerated, but during important dramatic scenes, Shimura adds layers of appealing detail. Since these shifts occur only during high points, they will be comfortably familiar to fans of anime romances such as the webcomic Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun and "Toradora!" At first, characters may seem a bit archetypal, but Shimura's deft pen crafts unique human beings from what appear to be genre staples. While the initially brisk pace may be off-putting, readers who acclimate themselves to the narrative's rhythms will find LGBTQ+ characters to root for.