Utsumi Shinichi, a writer whose fame came on by a stroke of luck, has recently moved into his grandmother's house in the countryside to get away from things and focus on writing. The whole story begins, when Morimoto Haruka meets him and asks if she can take care of a stray cat in his front yard. Allowing her to do so, Shinichi and Haruka slowly begin to strike up an acquaintanceship that eventually becomes a friendship.
The story follows their daily life, how Haruka becomes a regular at Shinichi's house and interacts with his friends, taking care of the housework. The manga spans across several years, covering Haruka's time in middle school and high school. Kodansha USA announced an English digital release of the series, but so far the English version has yet to be released.
Kore wa Koi no Hanashi contains examples of
- All Love Is Unrequited: Utako ends up falling for Oogaki, who doesn't requite her feelings, before falling for Sugita, who likes Haruka. And Satomi has had a crush on Shinichi for years, even before she transitioned, but knows that nothing is reciprocated.
- Animal Motif: The stray cat that Haruka takes care of in Shinichi's front yard, called Sakura.
- Babies Ever After: The final chapter shows that Shinichi and Haruka have a daughter named Yui.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Sugita develops feelings for Haruka and tries to ignore them, because he knows Haruka only has eyes for Shinichi. He does become more open about this and confesses to Haruka.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Its title tells the reader that this is a love story.
- Just Friends: Sugita tries to only be this with Haruka, who would prefer things to stay that way. He's not all that cool with the idea.
- Love Confession: Multiple throughout the series.
- Haruka admits her feelings of liking Shinichi in the first chapter. Shinichi eventually admits his own feelings for her several years later.
- Sugita has confessed his feelings for Haruka at least once per school-arc, to date.
- Utako confesses her feelings of Oogaki when she's a child. During the middleschool arc, she confesses her feelings to Sugita.
- Love Epiphany: Mixed with Rescue Romance. Shinichi finally realizes he's in love with Haruka when she saves him after part of his house catches on fire.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: Despite this being a love story, Shinichi and Haruka do not engage in any overtly romantic gestures. Mostly due to the age-gap between the two. As the story progresses, Shinichi is seen hugging Haruka and they even kiss, but beyond a vague Relationship Upgrade of admitting their mutual feelings, nothing really does progress.
- The Runaway: During the highschool arc, Haruka and Sugita run away for one night. Due to lack of funds and no real plan, they just wander around the town for hours on end, then half-return-half-get-dragged back home.
- Spin-Off: Kore wa mo Koi no Hanashi (This is also a love story) is a spin-off, with chapters focusing on various sidestories, including one about Satomi's time in highschool before she transitioned or one that follows Oogaki and his wife.
- Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: Utako initially made Haruka go through these, in particular hiding her bag that had her gym clothes in it or scribbling on and ripping apart her exercise book.
- Story Within a Story: The series revolves around the love story between Shinichi and Haruka, while the novel he begins to write at the beginning of the series revolves around a love story that includes a large age gap.
- Sudden Name Change: The first few scanlated chapters had different names for the characters, before the furigana for the kanji in their name was revealed, resulting in our leads being Makuzu and Akio instead of Shinichi and Haruka.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
- The entire series is a rather realistic take on what such a large age-gap would mean for the two people involved and those around them. Aside from Haruka being underage for majority of the series, everyone hearing about the potential romance is disgusted and points out how difficult it would be to have a relationship.
- When Shinichi admits to Haruka's father that he does love her, her father is furious about it. This is a stranger, whom he eventually entrusted his daughter to and even made a legal guardian of her because he knew that he wasn't able to be much of a father to her. And this guy tells him that he's romantically interested in her. It takes him a while before he does give his blessing.
- Sugita and Haruka decide to run away from their homes together. But neither of them had any concrete plan on where to run off to and don't even have enough funds to really go anywhere, much less even rent a hotel room. As such, their little 'running away' consists of staying in the city until late at night and spending time at fast food joints, then going back home when morning arrives.
- Time Skip: Small year-skips between the end of one arc to the beginning of another. The elementary school skips to the second middle school year and the high school arc begins after a two year skip, too.
- Those Two Guys: Oogaki and Satomi in highschool, Shinichi's two childhood friends. (Satomi is actually a woman, but didn't realize she was transgender until after highschool.)
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Turns out that Satomi is a transgender woman.
- When It All Began: The series starts off by saying its events started, when Shinichi met Haruka.
