A shojo manga by Nana Haruta, currently at 7 volumes.Fourteen year old Anna Koshiro is a middle school student and is childhood friends with the two most popular boys in her school, Sou Nagase and Hinata Tokura. Sounds like paradise, right?Wrong.Everyone—including Anna's crush Enomoto—is under the impression that either Sou or Hinata has got to be Anna's boyfriend, and Anna's friends urge her to break away from the triobond or she will never have a real boyfriend. Anna is reluctant of this, as Sou, Hinata, and Anna have been neighbors and lived in the same apartment complex since they were little, and she feels her relationships with Sou and Hinata are purely platonic, certain that they will always stay childhood friends forever.... That is, until Sou confesses to her.
This series provides examples of:
The Ace: Sou is academically at the top of his class, is the best at sports, and tons and tons of girls adore him. Even Anna, who has known Sou since they were babies, can't believe it when he demonstrates his abilities in class.
Adaptation Decay: Hinata Kazami makes a manga based off of Anna's experiences and even uses her as the model for the main character. Coincidentally, it happens to be about childhood friends too.
Aloof Older Brother: Mashiro, who acts like big brother more with Anna than his actual sister Beni.
Art Evolution: In an early promotional image of the series, Hinata was drawn so similarly to Sou that he could pass off as his twin brother. Fortunately, by the time the series debuted, Hinata's character design was adjusted into the one we recognize today.
Berserk Button: When Anna accuses Sou that his confession was a lie, Sou gets pissed.
Better as Friends: Anna and Sou are currently this. Sou indeed has feelings for Anna, and they end up dating for a little while, but nothing comes of it and they break up because 1) Anna doesn't like Sou romantically, and 2) she had no idea what was going on or what to do.
Sou and Enomoto for Anna is the first official love triangle presented into the story. It lasts the first chapter, however, because Anna loses interest in Enomoto once he tries to kiss her.
Hinata and Sou for Anna. The triangle starts off more as an Imaginary Love Triangle because everyone thinks there must be something between the Three Amigos when it's really Sou crushing on an oblivious Anna. It's subverted because Hinata doesn't seem to have feelings for Anna, but Anna develops feelings for Hinata.
Anna and Beni for Sou.
Sou and Mashiro for Anna. While Sou was jealous of Mashiro, and Mashiro seemed suspicious, Mashiro was never really romantically interested in Anna and turned out to be not Anna's real first love. It's really Hinata.
Mochizuki and Anna for Hinata.
Anna and Mari-sensei for Hinata.
Big Brother Instinct: Mashiro is kind and supportive to Anna to the point where she considers him an older brother figure. Surprisingly, he is kinder to her than to his actual little sister, Beni, and is more of an Aloof Big Brother to the latter instead.
Book Dumb: Anna, who studies little and doesn't pay attention during her mock tests. However, when Mashiro becomes her tutor during golden week, Anna preps up and studies for the lesson.
Anna: ... It's just like when I told Enomoto-senpai that I liked him. I thought I liked him. I really thought I did, but... When he tried to kiss me, I thought, "How disgusting."
Cameo: Thanks to his overbearing mom, Hinata owns a lot of Mi-chan merchandise despite him being a junior high student. One who has read Nana Haruta's works in the past would immediately recognize that Michelle de la France is a character from Love-Berrish!, an old serialization of hers that lasted from 2005 to 2007.
The Casanova: Mashiro, when he was in middle school.
Childhood Marriage Promise: Mashiro reveals to Anna that he's not really Anna's first love because she promised to marry either Sou or Hinata when they were children. Anna agreed to marry both of them, much to Sou's dismay. When Mashiro told Anna that she can only choose one, she chooses Mashiro. Curious, Mashiro decided to ask Anna again, thinking that she only chose him because they were all important to her and she didn't know who to choose. Anna reveals to Mashiro that the person she likes the best is Hinata.
Sou's girlfriend in Chapter 1. She gets pissed when Anna visits Sou's room late at night and questions if their relationship goes beyond that of childhood friends. When she asks Sou not to let Anna into his room again, he flat-out refuses and they break up.
Beni, a sixth grader with a big crush on Sou and is jealous of Anna's closeness with him.
Dreaming of Things to Come: When Anna keeps having dreams of Hinata asking out Mochizuki, Hime jokingly convinces her that she must be having a premonition. Anna (being, well, Anna) takes it seriously and believes it.
Hinata and Beni can see Sou has a crush on Anna. His "current" girlfriend in chapter one even feels threatened by Anna merely because she can enter Sou's room so casually (because of their childhood friends and neighbors).
Sou and Mochizuki learn right away that Anna has an obvious crush on Hinata.
Fangirl: Sou and Hinata have a lot of them, complete with a Squee each time either of them walk by.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Mashiro gives off this vibe in his first appearance, but it turns out he's not really such a bad guy when he tutors Anna for her midterm and later reveals to her who her real first love is.
Green-Eyed Epiphany: Anna doesn't truly realize her feelings for Hinata until she discovers that Mochizuki has a crush on Hinata and is planning on confessing to him. It only worsens when Anna discovers that Hinata has a crush on Mari-sensei.
When Anna finds out Sou has a girlfriend, she's jealous. Not because she likes Sou, but because he got a girlfriend before she got a boyfriend. Yeah, she thinks it's one big competition.
Beni has a big crush on Sou and gets easily jealous of Anna, who she believes is her love rival.
When Beni's brother (and Anna's apparent first love) Mashiro returns and volunteers to tutor Anna, Sou grows wary of him.
Several hints have shown that Anna may have stronger feelings for Hinata than she first realized. When Hinata is perfectly fine with Sou and Anna spending Sou's birthday together without him, Anna impulsively blurts out that she'll break up with Sou. When Mashiro called Anna "cute," she felt happy, but when Hinata called Anna "cute," she felt embarrassed and made her blush. Noticing this, Mashiro pesters Anna on if she has any feelings for Hinata, and she angrily denies it. It is revealed that Hinata is Anna's real first love, and she gets jealous when she realizes Mochizuki likes Hinata, and later when she discovers Hinata likes Mari-sensei.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mochizuki. Sou, especially, when he begins to distance himself from Anna since he feels that he's always hurting her because they've been getting into more fights recently.
Despite being kind, both Sou and Mashiro are capable of being Jerkasses too. Mashiro deliberately drives off and abandons his own sister while she is chasing his car and calling out to him. A more serious version of this trope is when Sou ignores and treats Anna horribly during their double date with Ayane and Hinata Kazami.
Sou has gone through a bunch of girlfriends, presumably, based on Ayane's recollection, to help him move on from Anna as he has the foresight to know that she'll probably never return his affections.
Mashiro's side story reveals that in middle school, he took on a bet with his friends to make Rin, Sou's sister, fall in love with him, as she Does Not Like Men in general. Eventually, he ends up falling for her for real, but Beni rats him out. They haven't talked since despite that Rin has her own boyfriend and Mashiro is said to have a girlfriend too.
Lolicon: Anna's friends suspect Mashiro is this, commenting how shady is for a university student to agree to tutor Anna for free of charge on golden week, but he's really not.
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: This case may apply to Hinata since he may have channeled any possible feelings he had for Anna onto someone else out of respect for Sou, who he knows likes Anna.
Love Dodecahedron: Beni has a longtime crush on Sou, who in turn has a longtime crush on Anna, who initially had a crush on Enomoto but briefly dates Sou before they break up and stay friends because Anna doesn't like Sou romantically, and Anna's first love was Beni's brother Mashiro, but it turns out her real first love is Hinata, who Mochizuki also has a crush on, but it turns out the person that Hinata has a crush on is Mari-sensei.
Mari-sensei. Even though she has a boyfriend and encouraged Mochizuki to confess to Hinata, Mari-sensei kisses Hinata while being well-aware of his feelings for her and acts as though the entire thing wasn't wrong (as she further claims that she could kiss any student and it wouldn't mean anything to her).
Nanoka suits this trope as well at first when gulling Anna to unintentionally mess up her relationship with Sou in order to get back at him for dumping Ayane back in middle school.
Name's the Same: Anna's new classmate is alsonamedHinata, though with different characters in his name. Sometimes this leads to confusion between herself and the rest of the characters.
Not What It Looks Like: When Kazami passes out after pulling an all-nighter to finish his manga drafts, he collapses on Anna. Nanoka walks in on them and immediately draws conclusions from there.
Obasan: Hinata's mom is a prime example. At the age of 39, she qualifies to be a Hot Mom but is the female version of a Man Child. She ends up dressing Hinata in childish clothing and giving him mascot utensils to eat lunch with despite that her son is a junior high student. Also, she gets so upset at her association with this kinship term that Sou refers to her by her first name, Hiyori, from then on.
Anna. When Sou tells Anna that he likes her, Anna is convinced that Sou just wants to "kill to birds with one stone" because she made him promise that he can't get a girlfriend until she gets a boyfriend. When Sou insists his feelings are true, Anna thinks he must be lying. Even when they decide to go out, Anna does understand why Sou wants only the two of them to celebrate his birthday together, thinking that it'd be more fun with three people. Even when they start dating, she's confused, so they decide to break up and stay friends. Not to mention her realizing her feelings for Hinata...
There's an instance where Sou gets jealous when a classmate tries to ask Anna for her e-mail address, which leads to an argument between Anna and himself. Anna initially believes his possessive tendencies are simply because he gave her a necklace on her 15th birthday, which Nanoka implied to be a slave contract. Also, when Anna asks Sou out on a date, he gets extremely upset when it turns out she was setting him up with Ayane and even calls her out on being so oblivious to how he feels about her.It got worse before Anna finally understands, and it continues to do so since it gets to the point where Sou decides to just avoid Anna altogether to give time to himself since she often forgets that he likes her.
Hinata doesn't notice Mochizuki (and Anna) has feelings for him. Probably because he has a crush on Mari-sensei.
Parental Abandonment: Sou'sparents are usually away on business trips. Sometimes Anna even has to give him food that her mom makes since her mom is concerned about his health. On a similar extent, Ayane's parents are fighting all the time so neither pays attention to her.
Pinky Swear: Anna promises Hinata that as long as he is on her side, she will always do her best.
Platonic Life Partners: Anna only thinks of Sou and Hinata as her childhood friends and can never imagine herself in a romantic relationship with either one of them, thinking of it all as one big competition on whoever gets a boyfriend/girlfriend first. It develops into Just Friends when Sou is revealed to have a crush on Anna, and they briefly date, and later when Anna's first love is revealed to be Hinata, and she redevelops feelings for him.
Anna (id/superego), Sou (superego/id), and Hinata (ego)
Regarding Anna's group of friends, the arrangement would be Anna (id), Hime (superego), and Rui (ego).
In the high school arc, Anna becomes this with Nanoka and Ayane, as Rui and Hime are in a different class with Mochizuki and dropped out of the photography club while Anna continued on with the other two girls. The fact that Sou begins to distance himself from Anna and Hinata attends a different high school makes it all the more easier.
Princess Curls: Beni dons these as part of being fashionable.
Beni has unrequited feelings for Sou, though it's only have a three year age difference. Sou regularly rejects Beni and treats her like a kid.
Played straight with Anna when she was a child. Her first love was Beni's older brother Mashiro. Subverted, as it turns out her real first love is Hinata.
Mashiro seems suspicious when he is first introduced, but he was never romantically interested in Anna or had any desire to hurt her. He is more of a big brother to Anna than his actual sister Beni and looks out for her.
It looked like Anna and Sou were going to be the Official Couple within the first few chapters, but the manga turned a 180 by revealing Anna's first love being Hinata and her newfound feelings for him.
Sacred First Kiss: Anna treats her first kiss like this. She decides that if she kisses someone (and she doesn't think it's disgusting), then she must like that person and go out with him. Since Sou and Anna kissed, then it surely means she likes him, so they decide to go out. They later break up because Anna is uncomfortable and really has no idea what's going on.
Anna towards Enomoto. She only liked him because he was handsome, and he only liked her because she was his type.
Again, Anna but towards Sou. She only goes out with Sou under the belief that since she was able to kiss him, then it must mean she likes him; but even Anna lampshades that she doesn't really get the situation either. When Sou realizes this, they decided to break up for now.
Shipper on Deck: Mashiro seems to enjoy pairing Anna and Hinata up.
Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Played with. Anna has no interest in either one of her School Idol best friends Sou and Hinata, but has a crush on her former School Idol in middle school, Enomoto. She dates Sou for a few chapters, but realizing she doesn't really like him like that, they decide to break up and stay friends. Then, it turns out Anna's first love wasn't Beni's brother Mashiro; it's Hinata. Played straight with Mochizuki's crush on Hinata.
Twincest: Nanoka tells Anna that the reason why Ayane and Sou broke up in middle school was because theyweretwins. Turns out it was a lie to get Anna to unknowingly cause trouble so Nanokacould act on her revenge on Sou for dumping Ayane.
Sou obviously likes Anna, but the latter sees their relationship as Just Friends. Usually Anna's lack of understanding leads to some comical bickering between them, but eventually Sou takes a break from Anna since he's certain that she'll never acknowledge his feelings and that it's causing the strain in their friendship. Anna begins to miss him tremendously and at one point, she takes a photo of him unconsciously, despite that it's clear that she can move on with her life without him.
Anna has made it clear that she likes Hinata, yet despite Hinata's apparent crush on Mari, he begins showing hints that maybe he's only channeling possible feelings for Anna onto her just to respect Sou, who he knows likes Anna. When Sou begins to distance himself from Anna, Hinata becomes interested in winning Anna over, gives her a kiss, asks her out on a date — basically things one would normally not possibly do with someone who is Just Friends with another.
A shojo manga by Nana Haruta, currently at 7 volumes.Fourteen year old Anna Koshiro is a middle school student and is childhood friends with the two most popular boys in her school, Sou Nagase and Hinata Tokura. Sounds like paradise, right?Wrong.Everyone—including Anna's crush Enomoto—is under the impression that either Sou or Hinata has got to be Anna's boyfriend, and Anna's friends urge her to break away from the trio bond or she will never have a real boyfriend. Anna is reluctant of this, as Sou, Hinata, and Anna have been neighbors and lived in the same apartment complex since they were little, and she feels her relationships with Sou and Hinata are purely platonic, certain that they will always stay childhood friends forever.... That is, until Sou confesses to her.
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