"It feels like there's still something inside... it's such a weird feeling..."
I hardly found what I was looking for, but maybe I never really expected to find anything in the first place.
A Girl on the Shore (Umibe no Onnanoko) is a Coming of Age Story by Inio Asano. After being manipulated and subsequently rejected by a boy she had a crush on, junior high student Koume Sato begins to have sex with classmate Keisuke Isobe, a strange, introverted boy with a crush on her. However, both parties have serious emotional issues, and conflicts soon arise as they begin to spend more time together and others get involved.
The manga was serialized in Manga Erotics F from 2009 to 2013, and compiled into two volumes. Its English translation was released by Vertical Comics in 2016. A live-action movie adaptation was released in 2021.
Be warned that the series contains graphic pictures of sex/genitalia and some blood and violence. There will also be some NSFW tropes on this page.
This work provides examples of:
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: Initially, both Koume and Isobe state that they're basically with each other for sex.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: At the story's climax, Koume is finally able to say that she wants Isobe and her to be a real couple after Isobe tells her that he's going to try to attend the high school of the girl whose pics were on the SD drive.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite all the mean comments that bounce back and forth between them, especially from Isobe, there's moments of genuine warmth between them, such as when Koume covers Isobe with a blanket before leaving his house or the two holding hands as they sleep beside each other.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Isobe's parents are emotionally negligent and almost never home, while his brother committed suicide. To make things worse, Isobe still lives in their (shared) room with all of his brother's belongings around him.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: One of the first signs that Koume is beginning to actually fall for Isobe is her displaying hints of jealousy towards his interest in the girl on the SD drive. At one point, she spitefully deletes the photos on it, much to Isobe's annoyance.
- Double-Meaning Title: It refers to both Koume, who has several scenes on the shoreline of her and Isobe's town including the very last scene of the manga, and a girl whose pictures are on an SD card Isobe found on the beach. Isobe was apparently in love with her the whole time he was with Koume, as he put those pictures on a folder on his computer, used one as his computer's background, and essentially cleans himself up and dumps Koume after he runs into her near the end of the manga.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Isobe's brother by the school's baseball team.
- Isobe contemplates this frequently as a result of his despair over his brother's death and his generally negative outlook on life, and at the story's climax Koume thinks that he has, but he was at a coffee shop.
- Friends with Benefits: Though Koume is reluctant to even be seen with Isobe in public, they end up spending a lot of time together.
- Important Haircut: Isobe cuts his shaggy mop after running into the girl on the SD drive as part of his getting himself cleaned up, as he plans to take the entrance exams for the high school she attends.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Koume is reduced to this by Isobe not accepting her declaration of love at the manga's climax.
- Jerkass: Misaki is sleazy and manipulative; he coerced Koume into giving him oral sex prior to the start of the manga, and forcefully kisses her and almost gets her to smoke marijuana at a party, but she refuses and leaves.
- Jerk Jock: Kashima's brother. Kashima also appears to be on the same track based on his beating up Isobe, but by the end of the story he seems to have avoided this.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted; it seems that Isobe won't be caught by the police for beating up Misaki, but near the end of the manga two policemen confront him to ask about what he was doing that night and he's not seen again.
- Kids Are Cruel: A lot of the characters in this manga are junior-high students (ages of which can range from 12-15) and they can all be quite cruel to each other, including the two main characters.
- Masochism Tango: Koume and Isobe are locked pretty tightly in it.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. Koume has her period twice: once when she's thinking about how she previously had sex with Isobe, and again when she's at Isobe's house.
- Scenery Porn: As typical of Inio Asano, all the backgrounds regardless of setting (bedrooms, seasides etc.) are gorgeous.
- Their First Time: Averted; Koume and Isobe's first time happens with little fanfare. It doesn't even happen in the manga—it's recalled as a flashback in the first volume.
- Throwing Your Gun at the Enemy: Isobe uses a stun gun on Misaki's friend, then tosses it to Misaki in order to distract him so he can wallop him with a collapsible baton.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Isobe was quite open about his crush on Koume, who in turn couldn't really care less and refuses to take their relationship any further than as Friends with Benefits. As the manga goes on, Isobe eventually grows sick of Koume's treatment of him as a tool for her boredom and shifts his feelings over to the girl on the SD card. Koume in the meanwhile begins falling for Isobe for real as she grows jealous of his interest in the girl. It spirals to where Isobe gets over Koume right as she musters up the nerve to give out a Anguished Declaration of Love that's rejected.
