Sand Chronicles is a Japanese shōjomanga series written and illustrated by Hinako Ashihara. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Betsucomi magazine from the May 2003 issue to the July 2006 issue. Shogakukan collected the individual chapters into 10 bound volumes from August 2003 to August 2006. The series won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōjomanga category in 2005. Viz Media licensed the manga for an English-language release in North America, first serialized in their Shojo Beat magazine in 2007 and later published in ten print volumes from January 2008 to January 2011. The manga is also licensed by Kana in France and by Planet Manga in Germany. In 2007, Sand Chronicles inspired a live-actionJapanese television drama series which aired during the half-hour Love Theatre time-slot on TBS. In 2008, the manga was adapted into a live-action Japanese feature film directed by Shinsuke Sato, starring Kaho and Nao Matsushita as the main character Ann during different stages of her life.
Plot
Twelve-year-old Ann Uekusa and her mother move to the small town of Shimane, where Ann's grandparents live and everyone seems to be familiar with everyone else. Ann soon becomes friends with Daigo, a young boy who lives in Shimane, as well as Fuji and Shika, Fuji's younger sister and her best friend in Shimane. When Ann's mother, Miwako, commits suicide, Daigo helps Ann cope with the sudden change in her life. They fall in love, but Ann's life can only become more complicated when her estranged father suddenly arrives from Tokyo. After greatly contemplating going to Tokyo to live with her father after he asks her, she decides to stay. Ann tells Daigo about her decision but makes her go anyway. Ann and Fuji both live in Tokyo but hardly ever talk because Fuji goes to an elite high school, K High. Ann reunites with the friends she had before moving to Shimane and they continue their friendships. In Tokyo, she ends up becoming closer to Fuji, which causes conflict between her and Daigo. In Shimane, Shika learns the truth about her parentage; in her confusion, she begins to fall in love with Daigo. When Ann returns to Shimane, Shika upsets Ann's fragile emotional state so that Ann and Daigo will break up. In the end, Ann breaks up with Daigo for fear that her own sadness will weigh him down. Ann returns to Tokyo and starts a relationship with Fuji; however, because she does not love him, the relationship does not last. Daigo refuses Shika and rumors begin to circulate that he is interested in his middle school classmate Ayumu, who has been helping him studying to get into university and become a teacher. Nearing graduation, Ann learns that her father and his friend Kaede Kuroki have been dating and she is pregnant with Ann's half-sister. After attending her middle school reunion, Ann spends some time with Daigo, where he tells her to find her own happiness. Six years later, Ann meets a young businessman named Keiichiro Sakura and they become engaged shortly after. After Ann learns that he only uses people for his own gain, she confronts him about his insensitivity, but he is disappointed in her and breaks off the engagement. Almost a week afterward, she takes a train to Okayama, where Daigo teaches elementary school. Ann's grandmother, meanwhile, believes Ann will suffer the same fate as her mother. After a suicide attempton the beach, Ann is taken to the hospital and later meets Daigo, who asks her to marry him. She says yes, and at the very end, the two are shown to be happily married with an infant son named Ryo. Meanwhile, Fuji decides to marry his cousin Mariko and Shiika decides to work for her uncle in America.
