is a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 shōjo manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series by Ema Tōyama

Ema Toyama

is a female Japanese manga artist. She made her debut in September 2003 in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi with her story, Tenshi no Tamago . Tokyopop has licenced it under the title Pixie Pop...

. The series was serialized in the shōjo

Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...

 manga magazine, Nakayoshi

Nakayoshi

is a shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First published in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 50 years worth of manga publication history. The target demographic for Nakayoshi is aimed at young girls between...

. The series ended with 5 volumes released by Kodansha

Kodansha

, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

 under the imprint, Kodansha Comics.

It was announced in the New York Anime Festival

New York Anime Festival

The New York Anime Festival is an anime and manga convention held annually since 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City...

 2009 that the series will be licensed in English by Del Rey Manga

Del Rey Manga

was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...

 and the release for the first volume will be November 23, 2010. They titled it "I Am Here!".

Story

The series centers around a girl named Hikage who describes herself as "plain". She is a very shy and insecure child. Because of her unassertive attitude and unappreciated beauty, she finds herself constantly ignored by her classmates and has a difficult time making friends at school.

In the first chapter of the manga, Hikage begins middle school, vowing to overcome her loneliness and find companionship. Then Hinata starts to notice her in the first volume. She is supported in her ambitions by two online friends, Black Rabbit and MegaPIG, who read her blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 about the sunflower shes been nurturing. A romantic and sad plot soon develops involving Hikage and the two most popular boys in her class, Hinata and Teru, who have more to them than meets the eye.

A few bumps occur along the way as Hikage grows closer to Hinata, such as bullying and gossip. When she later sticks up for herself she gains recognition and friendliness from the class, but most importantly she obtains confidence in herself.

Characters

Hikage has brown hair and blue eyes, and is a shy, plain 8th grader. The only friends she has at the beginning of the series are the people who visit her blog. They are "MegaPIG" and "Black Rabbit". Ever since she was little she has never been noticed (she appears to be practically invisible in her class) as we see in a game of hide and seek. She doesn't seem to know that Teru is Black Rabbit in her blog until later on when he tells her the whole truth about him being Black Rabbit. She later starts to date Hinata in the final volume.

A popular boy who likes Hikage. He is considered to be more serious than Teru, and ranks high in exams. He is also on the Kendo team. Hinata states he has always been watching Hikage since the very start of the year and tells her about how he felt when he first saw her. He felt jealous when Hikage started talking about her friends in the blog, Black Rabbit and MegaPIG. In chapter 13, it's revealed when Hinata was a child he used to be a lonely person, Later he said if Teru was like a Black rabbit (Populars against the white, but actually just a lonely rabbit). He warns Teru that he will not lose Hikage and he doesn't want to be Teru's love rival.

Another of Hinata's friends, who is also popular. Known for his jokes and charming personality. Teru speaks bluntly and seems to care for Hikage. He always cares about Hikage's change and supports her in her blog. After when Hikage and Hinata got together, Teru said goodbye to Hikage in her blog because he felt that Sumino no longer needs him since she already has Hinata by her side. Later on, Teru tells Hikage that he is Black Rabbit. When he was a child he never had a true friend until Hinata who compared him to a lonely black rabbit. His parents had fought very much and believed it was his fault the marriage didn't work out. He is currently the love rival of Hinata. He later gives up on Hikage and tries to support the relationship between her and Hinata.

A guy who is under the alias as MegaPIG in Hikage's blog. He speaks in a Kansai

Kansai

The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...

 accent. Even though he says if he was 200 kg, in truth he isn't. He just afraid of telling Hikage about his real appearance. Appears in a one-shot following the conclusion of the manga.

The first girl in Hikage's class to greet her. In school she was the first to warm up to Hikage. Even though her test scores are bad, she worked hard to see the fireworks with Hikage. "Suminon" is the name she calls Hikage by, as adding an n to the end of someone's name in Japanese culture is a form of friendly affection.

Reception

Volume 2 of the manga ranked number 10 on The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

s manga best sellers list for the week of July 24–30.

External links

• Koko ni Iru yo! @ Kodansha Comics