Aoi Hana (or Sweet Blue Flowers) is a Manga by Shimura Takako about girls in love. Aoi Hana eschews both silliness and overt melodrama and instead settles on Slice of Life. The anime adaptation debuted July 2009. The anime was licensed by Lucky Penny Entertainment on July 2012 and released in the US as a complete series DVD set on February 2013.Aoi Hana initially focuses on four high school girls:
Manjoume Fumi — A Shrinking Violet and crybaby in her first year of high school. She was a childhood friend of Akira, with whom she had been very close when they were younger.
Okudaira Akira — A fairly level-headed first-year student to the prestigious Fujigaya Girls' High School. A childhood friend of Fumi.
Sugimoto Yasuko — Captain of the basketball team at Fumi's school. She's a fairly masculine tomboy and The Casanova.
Ikumi Kyouko — Another first-year student at Fujigaya. She has a strong unrequited love for Yasuko, despite having her own fiancé (although in name only).
The plot begins with Fumi and Akira meeting each other after many years apart, and going to their first day of high school together.
Bait-and-Switch Credits: Sure, Akira and Fumi are extremely close friends, but they have not become the lovey-dovey couple depicted in the opening as of the end of the anime series.
Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: It becomes clear that for most of the girls in the series having feelings for another girl is merely a phase in life.
Big Brother Instinct: Akira's brother Shinobu. Even more pronounced in the manga than in the anime.
Big Fancy House: The Sugimoto household as well as the Ikumi household.
Bi the Way: Shinako. It's been revealed that she has had relationships with both men and women.
Butch Lesbian: Yasuko, who even wears a suit to her sister's wedding. Played with in that she's actually bisexual and dislikes the "prince" role that was actually forced on her by everyone's expectations. She grows out her hair and takes on a more feminine appearance after being Put on a Bus.
Brother-Sister Incest: Akira's older brother actively crushes on her which squicks Akira quite a bit. This is far more overt in the manga. He crawls into her bed while she sleeps and follows her around every chance he gets. Thank God he eventually gets a girlfriend and quits this.
The Casanova: Yasuko. Truthfully, she is not seen with anybody else, boy or girl, aside from Fumi, but she is extremely flirtatious.
Yasuko's sister Shinako actually fits this more, as she seemingly has dated a great number of men and women already. At one time she even brags about how many girlfriends she has.
Comic Trio: Easily Mogi, Pon-chan and Yassan. They provide the series with some of its best comedy. The poor Matsuoka drama club is made up of a bunch of clowns.
Members of the Sugimoto family can be seen as such, teasing Yasuko about her fickleness. Though interestingly, this trio is not made up of the three elder sisters, but of Kuri, Shinako and their (considerably for her age) Hot Mom.
Cool Big Sis: Sugimoyo Shinako. Despite her seeming nonchalance towards people, she seems to know a lot more about human nature than her younger sisters. She drops words of wisdom every now and then. Plus, she just likes to have fun.
Orie. More so in later chapters when she agrees to supervise Haruka and her friends during their trip to the onsen.
Demoted to Extra: Kyouko, after she gets back together with Kou.
Gayngst: Poor Fumi, losing two love interests in a row to men. She begs Akira not think of her as disgusting after she first comes out, and brings this up again after she confesses to her at the end of volume 4. Ramped up considerably starting about the end of volume 3, and to massive amounts after she gets dumped by Akira.
Genki Girl: A trio of them, in Fumi's school friends Youko, Misako and Miwa. Akira is repeatedly called genki by other characters. Haruka also counts.
Kou also has some of this with regard to Kyouko. Things appear to be looking up for him, though.
Hot for Teacher: Yasuko has a crush on her former teacher, Kagami, who just to make things worse is engaged. To Yasuko's older sister.
In the manga's extra section "Little Women", it is seen that one of Hinako's students harboured deep affection for her. Hinako turns her down of course, but the student seems thrilled that she is rejected for ethical reasons rather than her gender.
Huge Schoolgirl: Fumi. Ueda qualifies as well and Yasuko is taller than Fumi.
If It's You, It's Okay: This might be the reason why Akira decides to try going out with Fumi after all.
Important Hair Cut: Yasuko gets one in a flashback. It is revealed that Kyoko's hair is short now because she tried to imitate Yasuko in the past.
See the final shot of the anime's opening sequence.
This also happens in a movie theatre between Akira and Fumi, after Fumi is dumped by Yasuko.
In Vino Veritas: Invoked by Fumi, who uses the courage of being drunk to confess to Akira. Since she has already done so several times, and they are currently dating, an exasperated Akira can only exclaim "I already know that!"
Jerkass: Yasuko. Her bratty nature and the way she treats Kyoko might just be a defence mechanism or her own warped idea of kindness, but it doesn't erase the fact that she is kind of a jerk. Curiously, only to girls.
Joshikousei: The uniforms at Akira's school are classical seifuku.
Kissing Cousins: Implied heavily so between Fumi and her cousin Chizu. In fact we see them naked in silhouette.
Relationship Reveal: At the end of volume four of the manga, Fumi confesses to Akira the extent of her relationship with Chizu.
Say My Name: Misako and Miwa poke fun at this with their 'reenactment' of one of Kyouko's childhood memories ("Kyouko! Kou-chan!").
Scenery Porn: Being set in lovely Kamakura naturally invokes this.
Schoolgirl Lesbians: A significant portion of the cast, at some point in their lives.
School Play: The main plot revolves around several of them.
Sempai Kohai: Yasuko and Fumi, and later Akira and Kyouko to Haruka.
Ship Sinking: After many chapters of worrying and complaining, Akira finally decides to just dump Fumi after all. Any hope of reconciliation between them is lost when realizing this is a work by Shimura, who simply doesn't do that kind of stuff.
Snow Means Love: In the anime Fumi and Akira share a very important moment in the snow.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Kyouko and Kou get an overly long story arc about their engagement that has no relevance to the main story whatsoever.
Tareme Eyes: Ryouko, which curiously gets more pronounced as the series progresses.
Team Mom: Funny enough, it's Kyouko. Fumi and Akira seem to run to her whenever they need advice and she also carries herself quite maturely. Except when she's around a certain Sugimoto, who just makes her lose all sense of dignity.
Ueda Ryouko fits this trope a lot more, especially since she becomes somewhat motherly towards Akira and Haruka.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Yasuko and Fumi as well as Akira and Fumi. Also, Kaoruko and Shinako.
Those Two Guys: Kou and Shinobu, to some degree, on the girls' first summer vacation. They literally are the only two guys in a gaggle of young teen girls, and they... bonded to a certain extend. If one considers Shinobu's Big Brother Instinct rearing its irksome head around Kou to be "bonding".
Tsurime Eyes: Kyouko and a few of the Sugimoto sisters.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Fumi, in a double dose: First she gets dumped by Chizu, and later by Akira.
To a lesser degree, Kyoko and Kou, as a portion of the fanbase actually prefers that she gets together with him rather than Yasuko.
Yuri Fangirl: In the manga, a lot of the girls get very excited about Kawasaki and Yasuko living together as exchange students, which even gets mentioned on the front-page of Fujigaya's news paper.
And this happens again when Fujigaya's news club publishes rumors about a Fujigaya student dating a girl from another school. Which is clearly about Fumi and Akira, much to Akira's chagrin.
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