【Ao Haru Ride】A beautiful and romantic story, sure to make your heart throb with love!!

2022-04-18

What is “Ao Haru Ride”?

Ao Haru Ride is a Japanese Romantic manga series written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka.
The manga series was serialized in Shueisha’s Bessatsu Margaret from February 2011 to February 2015. It’s individual chapters are compiled and collected into 13 separate volumes. In 2014, the manga had over 5.84 million copies in circulation. This manga series was very well received, and once even became one of the best selling manga in Japan. It became the 21st best-selling manga in 2013.
An anime television series adapted by Production IG was released in 2014, consisting of 12 episodes. Aside from that, 2 OVA’s and a Live-Action Film of this series have also been released.
Ao Haru Ride

What's the story?

“I dislike boys. More and more after middle school started. I mean, they’re violent and uncivilized in general. But, in their midst...... Is Tanaka-Kun, from the neighbouring class. He’s different somehow. He has a small build, and his voice, rather than low and rough, is clear and smooth, like a girl’s. I guess that’s why...... I’m okay with him.
Futaba has always disliked boys in general, and this hate came to grow even more as she entered middle school. But amidst all that hate for boys, she secretly has feelings for Tanaka, which she tries to deny.
One day, while walking home with Yumi-Chan and rest of her friends, Futaba runs into Tanaka and his friends playing ‘cops and robbers’. Yumi requests to join the game, as she too has feelings for one of the boys.
During this, Futaba and Tanaka’s eyes accidentally meet for the first time. She shyly looks away.
The game begins and everyone scatters. Futaba slowly makes her way to a hiding spot, but as soon as she turns the corner, she finds Tanaka already hiding there. She apologizes and tries to leave but Tanaka grabs her arm, saying that the cops the nearby.
Tanaka backs up as soon as he spots a cop headed their direction.
“He smells of shampoo. And just a bit of sweat...... I wonder if this is what all boys smell like...... “
Tanaka suddenly gets up and starts running, diverting the cop’s attention and getting caught. Realizing that Tanaka got caught for her sake, Futaba tries to rescue him, but gets caught too.
Now both in the prison circle, Tanaka slowly thanks her, saying that seeing her come for his rescue, he felt very happy.
From that day onwards, whenever they were close to each other, there eyes would meet and they both would shyly look away, only to look at each other again.
Then one day, while walking back home, it starts raining and Futaba has to take shelter in a shrine. She looks beside her and realizes that Tanaka is also taking shelter here. “It’s coming down today huh” says Tanaka. Gotten flustered by this, Futaba replies with a simple “Yeah”.
To break the awkward silence, She blurts out where he is going to the summer festival, but immediately regrets saying it, thinking that It sounded like an invitation.
Tanaka hands over his gym t-shirt so she can dry her hair, saying that she needn’t be worried as he has only wore it once. This flusters Futaba as he gives out a big laugh.
“that’s quite...... Quite a...... Mischievous laugh. I wonder what face he’s making right now...... I wonder whether Tanaka-Kun also...... Maybe......? Or maybe not......”
The next day, as Futaba returns his gym shirt, Tanaka asks weather she’s going to the summer festival.
“7 o’clock, In Sankaku Park, By the clock”, says Tanaka. While she is still realizing that Tanaka just asked her out, another student, Naitou appears, causing Tanaka to rush into class. Naitou persist on asking Futaba about her and Tanaka, causing her to yell at him, saying that is exactly why she hates boys.
Tanaka accidentally hears this and takes off without saying anything.
7 o’clock, Sankaku Park, By the clock, that day Tanaka didn’t show up.
Futaba awaits for the summer holidays to end, so she can talk to Tanaka. But when school again starts, she finds out that Tanaka has transferred schools.
After school, it again starts raining and she has to take shelter in the shine. She looks at the sky, and remembering his smile, tears start pouring from her eyes and she can’t stop herself from crying.
She finally realizes that she liked Tanaka all along.
Will Futaba and Tanaka ever meet again? Why did Tanaka transfer schools?
Ao Haru Ride

Popular Articles