A Town Where You Live

Plot

Years prior, Haruto Kirishima befriends Yuzuki Eba and asks her to return to his hometown, Shōbara, Hiroshima, if she is ever troubled.^{Ch. 23} In the present, Yuzuki transfers to Shōbara due to her estrangement with her step-family.^{Ch. 29} She helps Haruto develop a friendship with Nanami Kanzaki, but Haruto ultimately falls in love with Yuzuki.^{Ch. 39} He helps Yuzuki reconcile with her family which encourages her to return to Tokyo.^{Ch. 50} The two begin a long-distance relationship until Yuzuki suddenly cuts all ties with him.^{Ch. 70} Haruto transfers to Tokyo and learns Yuzuki has begun dating Kyousuke Kazama out of sympathy for his terminal illness.^{Ch. 92} In response, Haruto declares he will take Yuzuki back prompting Kyousuke to take a risky surgery in order to compete for Yuzuki's love fairly.^{Ch. 98} Following Kyousuke's death, Haruto and Yuzuki stop seeing each other out of guilt.^{Ch. 100}

Two years later, Haruto has been dating Asuka Mishima. When he reunites with Yuzuki, the two realize they still love each other.^{Ch. 137} Haruto ends his relationship with Asuka in order to be with Yuzuki which causes their friends to ostracize them.^{Ch. 141} When Yuzuki's father objects to their relationship and attempts to relocate her, she begins living with Haruto;^{Ch. 160} the two eventually earn her father's approval.^{Ch. 164} After reconciling with their friends and graduating from university, Haruto takes a job that relocates him to Kōchi.^{Ch. 246} Unable to sustain their relationship, the two break up;^{Ch. 256} two years later, Haruto is transferred back to Tokyo and reunites with Yuzuki, who had been waiting for his return.^{Ch. 260} The two are married shortly after.^{Ch. 261}

Characters

Haruto is a high school student in Shōbara, Hiroshima. He has an earnest personality and chastises others when they are in the wrong. Because he often cooks for his family and friends, Haruto is skilled at cooking and considers it as a possible career. His older sister Aoi^{Ch. 19} lives in Tokyo in the dorm room next to the Akitsukis from Suzuka.^{Ch. 80} He has a long-time crush on classmate Nanami Kanzaki, but his feelings shift towards Yuzuki as the series progresses. At the end of the series, he marries Yuzuki, has a son named Daiki, and opens up his own restaurant.^{Ch. 261} In both Tatsunoko Production's and Gonzo's anime, he is voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya.

Years prior to the series, Yuzuki attends a summer festival in Shōbara where she befriends Haruto. There, Haruto tells her to return if she is ever troubled.^{Ch. 23} Since then, she grew fond of Haruto and plans to visit him one day.^{Ch. 162} After her father's remarriage, Yuzuki feels estranged by her family and decides to attend school in Shōbara.^{Ch. 29} Due to Haruto's intervention, Yuzuki is able to mend her relationship with her step-family, prompting her to return to Tokyo.^{Ch. 50} There, the terminally ill Kyousuke Kazama asks Yuzuki to be his girlfriend for the remainder of his lifespan.^{Ch. 92} Following Kyousuke's death, Yuzuki decides to stop seeing Haruto out of guilt.^{Ch. 100} Reunited two years later, the two reaffirm their love, and begin dating. At the end of the series, she married Haruto and they have a son named Daiki.^{Ch. 141} In both Tatsunoko Production's and Gonzo's anime, she is voiced by Megumi Nakajima.

Manga

A Town Where You Live is authored by Kouji Seo. It was first announced for serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, issue 24, 2008. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in issue 26 of 2008 which was released on May 28. The final chapter was released in issue 11 of 2014 which was released on February 12. Seo stated he wanted to create a love story set in his hometown as the inspiration to the series and that some of his characters were inspired by his friends. On October 30, 2013, Crunchyroll Manga was launched and included A Town Where You Live in its library with English translation by Abby Lehrke; The series has also been published in languages such as French and Chinese. Kouji Seo created a guide book titled A Town Where You Live Official Guidebook Love Navi: Love Navigation! which was released on August 16, 2013.

Tatsunoko Production

A Town Where You Live: Twilight Intersection (君のいる町～黄昏交差点～, Kimi no Iru Machi Tasogare Kōsaten) is a two episode original video animation series produced by Tatsunoko Production in collaboration with the city, Shōbara. Yasuhiro Yoshiura and Hiroshi Kobayashi were the directors with script by Momoko Murakami and music by Keiichi Oku. The series' theme song was Tasogare Kōsaten (黄昏交差点^?, lit. "Twilight Intersection") by Erina Mano; the theme song was later released as a CD single by Hello! Project. The episodes were bundled with the limited edition manga volume 17 and 18; they were released on March 16 and June 15, 2012 respectively. The series covers Haruto Kirishima's class trip to Tokyo as he separates from his classmates to search for Yuzuki Eba.

Gonzo

A Town Where You Live was made into an anime series by Gonzo. Shigeyasu Yamauchi was the director with script by Reiko Yoshida and music by Keiichi Oku. It was first announced in Weekly Shōnen Magazine, issue 15, 2013. To promote the show, a radio program consisting of the anime's voice cast was broadcast on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting between July 6 and July 27, 2013. The anime aired on TX Network between July 13 and September 28, 2013. It was also broadcast on Hiroshima Home Television and AT-X and was made available for streaming on networks such as Niconico and Bandai Channel. The series uses four theme songs: The opening theme is Sentimental Love (センチメンタルラブ, Senchimentaru Rabu) by Mimimememimi. The first ending theme is Kimi no Iru Machi (君のいる町^?, lit. "A Town Where You Live") which was used for the first six episodes while its alternate version, Answer Songs was used for the final episode; the song was performed by Yoshimasa Hosoya. The remaining episodes' ending theme was Dear Friend by Daisuke Ono. Sentimental Love was released as a CD single by A-Sketch while Kimi no Iru Machi and Dear Friend were released by Universal Music Group. Right Stuf Inc.'s Nozomi Entertainment announced an English subtitled release for North America in July 2015.

Gonzo also produced two original video animation episodes which are bundled with the limited editions of manga volume 26 and 27. Gonzo's anime resulted in a drama CD and an image song release.

Episode list

Reception

In Japan, A Town Where You Live manga volumes frequently appeared on weekly sales charts during their week of release. Jason Thompson praised A Town Where You Live's serious, mature tone and wrote that the audiences will either like the series for its realism or criticize it as slow and mundane. Manga-News praised the series' introduction for being more realistic than the author's previous work, Suzuka, and the plot which was described as eventful. In later volumes, Manga-News criticized the plot for being predictable, encompassing cliché aspects of the genre, and for dragging its story. They also panned the characters' behavior, calling it implausible and inconsistent. Manga-News returned to positive reviews during the volumes involving Kyousuke Kazama; they praised the story arc for introducing a new setting, for breaking away from the usual classicism, and for surprising the readers for the first time in the series. Following this, Manga-News returned to negative reviews, echoing their previous points. AnimeLand had similar reactions. Initially, they were positive, praising the realistic protagonist, but further reviews repeated Manga-News' criticisms.

Works cited