A Girl on the Shore

Plot

After Masaki, an upperclassman, forces Koume Sato to give him a blowjob on their first date, she uses Keisuke Isobe as a rebound and asks him to take her virginity. The two enter into a casual sex relationship, and although Isobe liked Koume in the seventh grade, she does not reciprocate feelings for him. Since Isobe's parents aren't home often, Koume spends time at his house reading manga, listening to music, and with the pair sexually experimenting. Haunted by his brother's suicide, Isobe also continues his brother's anime blog. When Koume receives a camera as a present, Isobe gives her an extra SD card he found, on which she discovers pictures of a girl on the shore and later deletes them from his computer out of jealousy. This causes Isobe to ignore her and Koume realizes she likes him, but he breaks up with her out of boredom. Shota Kashima—the school's top baseball player and Koume's childhood friend—confronts Isobe after rumors spread of their relationship. Isobe provokes Kashima, and when Kashima rushes him, they fall over a bannister.

Kashima injures his leg, forcing him to be unable to complete in a prefectural tournament. Koume hangs out with Masaki and his friends, but leaves after he tries to get her to smoke cannabis and force her to kiss him. Koume visits Isobe at his house, they have sex, and he tells her of his intention to commit suicide. Koume writes a letter for him and buys a copy of Happy End's album containing the song "Gather The Wind" (which she had heard at his house), planning to give them to him at their school festival. Isobe attacks Masaki and his friend, calling the police on them so they can find the illegal cannabis in their bags. On the day of their school festival—Isobe's birthday as well as the day his brother committed suicide—Koume requests "Gather The Wind" to be played, but finds that Isobe hasn't been to school in three days. Keiko Kobayashi, Koume's friend who likes Kashima, performs in a couples contest with Kashima and they win, prompting her to ask him out. Koume desperately searches for Isobe during a storm, but doesn't find him at home, with a sticky note saying "sorry". When she sees a cheerful Isobe a week later, he tells her that he met the girl in the pictures and got her email address, aiming to get into her high school. Koume confesses her feelings to him and asks him out, but he declines. In high school, Koume gets a boyfriend named Otsu Katsutoshi, who she kisses. On her way home, she meets Kashima, who reveals that he still has feelings for her. On the shore, she exclaims that she found what she was looking for, "something bigger than everything else, the sea!"

Production

When Asano started out in manga, he saw sexually related material as normal in life so he used it to portray reality in his work. He felt that he created A Girl on the Shore at the right time because he later found himself in an unfavorable environment in Japan and with manga readers to explore sexual issues. Shaenon K. Garrity of Anime News Network felt that the showing of pubic hair in the manga was "a sign of the changing times in Japanese publishing" because they used to be taboo.

Release

The manga was launched in Ohta Publishing's magazine Manga Erotics F and was serialized from July 7, 2009 in the 58th issue to January 7, 2013 in the 77th issue. Ohta Publishing collected the 20 chapters into two volumes on March 17, 2011 and February 21, 2013. At Genericon 2015, Vertical announced that it had licensed the manga, publishing it as a single-volume omnibus edition on January 19, 2016. The manga has also been released in France by Éditions IMHO, in Germany by Tokyopop Germany, in Spain by Milky Way Ediciones, and in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan.

Reception

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network found the manga's depiction of adolescent relationships to be realistic and Asano's treatment of the characters respectful, saying that it "doesn't shy away from its emotional issues", concluding that the manga lingers in the mind after finishing it. Gabe Peralta of The Fandom Post said that the manga "is an emotional ride about emotionally broken children" which is accompanied by "beautiful visuals". Ash Brown of Manga Bookshelf called the manga's depictions of teenage sex "frank", but "integral to the story" because they "carr[y] meaning beyond titillation." He also called the manga "brutally unsettling and hard-hitting", concluding that its themes of "loneliness and isolation" are emphasized by Asano's "detailed backgrounds, dramatic perspectives, layout and use of space". Sean Rogers of The Globe and Mail compared the manga to the films Fat Girl and Kids in how it "deals explicitly and honestly with its young characters' sexuality", calling Asano's approach "raw and unblinking, but never salacious". He also called the protagonists' relationship "intense" and complimented the art's "expressive force". Elliot Page of the UK Anime Network podcast called the manga haunting and dense, saying that the manga "goes places with such care and respect and intellect into the characters and their plight". He also called the art gorgeous and complimented the backgrounds, comparing the way the manga creates a "pocket dimension" to The Flowers of Evil.

The manga was part of the Sélection Officielle at the 2016 Angoulême International Comics Festival.