Ao Haru Ride


Ao Haru Ride is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka. It began serialization in the February 2011 issue of Shueisha's Bessatsu Margaret and ended in February 2015.
Ao Haru Ride received several adaptations during its run. A novelization by Akiko Abe ran in Cobalt. In 2014, a limited edition drama CD adaptation was released to promote the then-upcoming anime television series by Production I.G, which aired in July 2014. A live-action film adaptation was later released in December 2014.
Ao Haru Ride was critically acclaimed in Japan and was consistently named one of the best shōjo series of 2014 by several manga industry professionals. The series achieved popularity with teenagers and young women who strongly identified with Futaba's personal growth. Ao Haru Ride was also one of the best-selling manga series in 2013 and 2014.

Plot

Futaba Yoshioka is a 16-year-old high school student who attempts to fit in with her female friends by acting "unfeminine", due to a history her female classmates ostracizing her out of jealousy. As a result, she feels her life is uninteresting. One day, she reunites with Kou Tanaka, her first love who had previously moved to Nagasaki in middle school. Kou, who now uses the surname "Mabuchi", has become a completely different person than she knew back then, as he is now cold and indifferent. When the new school year starts, Futaba decides to make a positive change for herself and volunteers to become the class representative. She is joined by Kou and her classmates, Yuri Makita, Shuko Murao, and Aya Kominato, who all form a bond together.
Futaba learns that Kou's mother had died after he moved away, and as she helps him process his grief, she falls in love with him again. However, just when Kou is about to move on from his past, Yui Narumi, his friend from Nagasaki, moves to his town, and he stays with her to help her through her father's death. When Futaba realizes that she cannot change Kou, she decides to move on. When she begins a relationship with Toma Kikuchi, Kou realizes that his relationship with Yui is holding him back and preventing him from accepting positive changes in his life. After he removes himself for good, he begins actively pursuing Futaba. Futaba's lingering feelings for him complicates her relationship with Toma, and they amicably break up.
During Christmas, Futaba agrees to meet Kou in the same place where they promised to meet years before until his transfer, but it is cut short when Kou is involved in a minor accident. At the hospital, Futaba and Kou admit to each other that they are in love. At the end of the series, the two, along with their friends, move on with their lives as they establish new relationships and accept new changes within each other. Kou changes his surname back to Tanaka, and Futaba believes that something interesting has finally started for her.

Characters

Development

Io Sakisaka wanted to draw a story about growing up, and for Ao Haru Ride, she wanted to focus on the characters' self-journey and discovering who they truly were. Futaba and Kou's accidental kiss was based on a real-life experience Sakisaka had in the past.
The title consisted of individual readings for the characters used for the word "youth", which were "blue" and "spring". The phrase was then followed by the word "ride" because Sakisaka envisioned the image of "riding on youth." Sakisaka had decided to have the title read "Aoharide" instead of "Ao Haru Ride" because the sounds flowed better. The logo was designed by Yasuhisa Kawatani. The bottom of the original Japanese logo contained the English text, "The scent of air after the rain. I heard your pulse. I saw the light." Kawatani drew inspiration from the song "I Saw the Light" by Todd Rundgren while designing the logo. In Viz Media's English translation, the subtitle was reworded into, "The scent of air after the rain... In the light around us, I felt your heartbeat."

Characters

Out of all the characters, Sakisaka felt that Shuko was the most "manga-like." She also wrote Yui as a contrast to Futaba's personality, where Yui is able to be honest about her thoughts. Speculations of Sakisaka basing Toma's image on South Korean singer Taemin became a trending topic in South Korea, especially as Sakisaka was a fan of his; she responded by denying Toma had a specific model.

Media

Manga

Ao Haru Ride is written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka. The series' prologue, "Unwritten", was released as a magazine gift in the February 2011 issue of Bessatsu Margaret released in January 2011. The series was officially serialized beginning from the March 2011 issue released in February 2011, until the March 2015 issue released on 13 February 2015. The chapters were later released in 13 bound volumes by Shueisha under the Margaret Comics imprint.
Shuko's side story, "Ao Haru Ride: The Affinity of the Stars", was serialized in the September 2011 issue of Bessatsu Margaret Sister, and was later compiled in volume 4. "Sono Omokage o Shitteru", Sakisaka's first original short story in six years, was serialized in the July 2013 issue of Bessatsu Margaret and later compiled into volume 8. A drama CD was bundled with the limited edition of volume 10 to promote the anime's then-upcoming release, starring the anime cast and featuring an original scenario written by Sakisaka. The limited editions of volume 11 and 12 were bundled with original anime DVDs containing unaired episodes of the anime series.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Margaret, Sakisaka collaborated with Kazune Kawahara and Aruko, the creators of My Love Story!!, to create a crossover comic called My Ride!!, which was released in the July 2013 issue of Bessatsu Margaret.
Viz Media announced during their Anime Boston 2018 panel that they were publishing the manga in English under the manga's original title, Ao Haru Ride. The manga has also been released in German, French, Italian, Chinese, and Polish.

Novel

Ao Haru Ride received a novelization written by Akiko Abe and illustrated by Io Sakisaka, which ran in the magazine Cobalt. The chapters were later compiled by Shueisha and released under the Cobalt Bunko imprint.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was first announced in the February 2014 issue of Bessatsu Margaret. The series was produced by Production I.G and directed by Ai Yoshimura. A drama CD bundled with the limited edition of volume 10 starring the anime cast was released on 23 May 2014, to promote the anime, which featured an original scenario written by Sakisaka.
The anime series later premiered in Japan on 7 July 2014, with weekly broadcasts at 12 AM on Tokyo MX. The opening theme for the series is "Sekai wa Koi ni Ochiteiru", a collaboration song between Vocaloid producers CHiCO and HoneyWorks, while the ending theme is "Blue" by Fujifabric. In addition, the insert song "I Will" was performed by Chelsy. Episode 0 was released as an original anime DVD bundled with the limited edition of volume 11 of the manga. A second original anime DVD containing episode 14 was bundled with the limited edition of volume 12 of the manga. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in English under the title Blue Spring Ride, and the series was streamed on Crunchyroll. Several exclusive comics drawn by Sakisaka were also released in the limited editions of the anime's home releases in Japan.
During the run of the series, Maaya Uchida and Yuki Kaji, the voice actors of Futaba and Kou, hosted an hourly online radio show titled Aoharadio, which aired every two weeks for six sessions. The guests featured on the radio show included Mikako Komatsu, Shuko's voice actress, in the third session; Ai Kayano, Yuri's voice actress, in the fourth session; Daisuke Hirakawa, Mr. Tanaka's voice actor, in the fifth session, and KENN, Kominato's voice actor, in the sixth session. A CD compiling all sessions was released on 24 December 2014, with an unaired seventh session featuring Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Toma's voice actor, as a guest.
The anime had an endorsement deal with cosmetics brand Ettusais, whose products appeared in the series, while in real-life, the items were released with limited edition themed packaging. The anime also had a tie-in promotional campaign with Lumine stores in Japan.

Film

A live action film directed by Takahiro Miki was released on 13 December 2014, starring Tsubasa Honda as Futaba Yoshioka and Masahiro Higashide as Kou Mabuchi. Additional cast members included Izumi Fujimoto as Yuri Makita, Yua Shinkawa as Shuko Murao, Ryō Yoshizawa as Aya Kominato, and Yū Koyanagi as Mr. Tanaka. Yudai Chiba and Mitsuki Takahata later joined the cast as Toma Kikuchi and Yui Narumi. The film was first announced in March 2014 through Bessatsu Margaret. To prepare for the role, Honda received hair extensions about 20 cms long in order to look more like Futaba.
The film opened at #1 at box office during its opening weekend, selling 210,000 tickets and earning. By the end of 2015, the film grossed at the Japanese box office. In her review of the film, Yuri Horibe from Asahi Shimbun praised Higashide's performance, stating that she was "swayed" by his speech and actions just like Futaba, and felt that "Kirari", the theme song, highlighted the story's overall theme of "struggling with youth" and "moving forward." She also noted that while she had expected that the film would portray some of the manga's iconic scenes, such as Futaba sleeping on her desk and when Futaba and Kou hold hands through a window, she felt it was "not just a romance film" in regards to the second half, where the characters help Kou overcome his past trauma. On the other hand, Melanie Leung from South China Morning Post gave the film three out of five stars, claiming that the acting and Higashide weren't "charming", while praising the cinematography, the supporting characters, the film's conclusion, and the friendship theme.
The film's theme song is "Kirari" by Ikimono-gakari. The film's soundtrack was released on 10 December 2014, featuring other artists including Rina Sumioka, Silent Siren, and Negoto.

Reception

Ao Haru Ride was a best-selling manga series in Japan, achieving popularity within teenagers and women between 20-30 years old, most of them who identified with Futaba's struggles. The magazine Da Vinci ranked Ao Haru Ride as one of the top 5 best female-oriented comics in 2013. The 2014 edition Kono Manga ga Sugoi! published a survey from 400 industry professionals, who listed Ao Haru Ride as one of the top 20 female-oriented manga of the year. The first two volumes were included in the 2019 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens produced by American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association.
Since 2014, the manga sold over 5.84 million copies. Overall, Ao Haru Ride was the 21st best-selling manga in 2013. Volume 6 was the 31st top-selling volume during that year. In 2014, Ao Haru Ride was one of the most-printed comics of the year, with 660,000 copies printed.
Kono Manga ga Sugoi! listed Ao Haru Ride as one of the top 10 shojo manga series with the best kabedon when the trope was at the height of its popularity in 2014. Ao Haru Ride was also featured in a kabedon-themed Cup Noodle commercial, along with other shojo manga series.