Reviews for Adachi and Shimamura

My decision to start reading this novel was after I started reading the manga adaptation (Moke's version), as a friend's recommendation, she said I was missing a lot of the point of view of the two MCs. She was completely right. It is from the perspectives of Adachi and Shimamura, two friends who met at the start of the high school year. The first volume starts about a month after that. The premise is relatively simple but the way it is executed is simply magnificent. This is not like in other books. In other Japanese romance books, both sides are usually at least a little interested ineach other by the third volume. I'll just say that this one is a bit slow. It may sound like a negative characteristic, but is exactly the opposite, the story is extremely well written and realistic.

We have two extremely different main characters, with their own worldviews, personalities and tastes.

Both Adachi and Shimamura are exceptionally well-written characters, they have depth, sometimes I feel like both are real people. It really is a delight to enter the minds of these two, the alternation between the two points of view is something that makes the reader captivated, excited, begging for the next chapter to know what's going on in their minds.

(Hougetsu is my favorite, the chapters from her point of view are great)

AdaShima is a masterpiece that I recommend to everyone.

Well, this is my first review and I am not fluent in English so please forgive my typos.

Story: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Art: 7/10

Enjoyment: 10/10

Overall: 10/10

Honestly, Adachi and Shimamura’s story is one of the best out there in the yuri/lesbian media. It’s not your typical slow burn, angst-romance story. Something I really get annoyed with is that 90% of female characters in shoujo act like genuinely good people. I know that’s something weird to get annoyed with, but it just doesn’t feel real or human. Everyone has selfish desires, everyone goes through this limbo of not knowing what to do with their lives, we question our existence and we wonder whether we are good people despite our flaws. Adachi and Shimamura's story not only takes time to build the mostbeautiful love story ever, it also takes time to build up the ugly tears and the thoughts of any teenager who doesn’t really understand why we have to interact with other people to keep ourselves sane. I’ve never related more to a couple of characters, even when they are so different. Adachi's gay disaster tendencies, Shimamura's existential crisis, and their fear of loss. What a great story Hituma Iroma has written.

So I have just finished reading all 9 volumes of this series, as my first Light Novel series ever I feel like it's worth writing a review. I read this series at a furious pace, I finished volumes 3-9 in less than a week, that's 1 volume a day or so. The first thing I have to say is that of all the Yuri media I've ever seen (not a lot), this has absolutely been the best. However hailing this series as a 10/10 masterpiece just seems wrong, I want to explore why in this review. Minor spoilers ahead! I will be as non-specific asI can!

The first time I heard of Adachi and Shimamura it was from browsing the list of anime that would be airing in the winter 2020 season. I watched it every week and gave it a 7/10, I enjoyed it a lot and I was hungry for more, so I leapt on the chance to read the light novels. I started from the beginning and it was well worth it, Volumes 1-4 which the anime adapts are simply not the same without the extended inner monologue of both deuteragonists. These volumes also have slightly weird pacing, where one chapter is almost entirely setup for another chapter where an event like Christmas or Valentines is taking place. Now to be fair, the event chapters never disappointed, but once you arrive at Volume 4, things really start looking up and the series starts getting more interesting to read as more things happen than just: Adachi wants to say a normal thing but says a weird thing and her face turns red. It's under the blossoming sakura trees that set the scene for the beginning of their second year of high school where there is a noticeable increase in momentum.

So let's talk about the good.

THE GOOD

___________________

First of all, Adachi and Shimamura are both good characters. They both noticably develop as the series progresses and their perspectives can sometimes really have great emotional impact. Adachi's story is one of breaking out of one's shell and trying her absolute best for the one thing she has found that she is not entirely indifferent towards. She isn't braindead and indecisive, she's super driven and on the flip-side, also super awkward. It's hard not to find yourself rooting for her, and the experience of seeing her triumphs and failures is a joy. Shimamura's story is similar to Adachi's, in that she is finding something in the world that she is not entirely apathetic towards, unlike Adachi, she wasn't always an apathetic, asocial person, it's constantly hinted that she underwent a major personality shift in middle school. She has only recently started to see most things in life as bothersome. Her inner monologue about the pains of living with the memories of your past self as well as becoming jaded with the world will be relatable to many readers.

Second of all, the interactions between our characters are interesting, hilarious and adorable. I've heard many series be described as 'cute girls do cute things', but to quote a video essay I watched on this series, this series is 'awkward girls do awkward things', and it works brilliantly. It captures the cringy enthusiasm of young love in a way that so many other series totally fail to do.

Third, our supporting cast is interesting and has a lot of potential, I enjoyed Hino and Nagafuji's interactions, and while at the start I totally hated Yashiro, by the end I had grown to love her as a fun and simple character who can easily bring a smile to your face. Where you might expect her to cause friction in the story, she often has the effect of being a positive and funny addition to scenes and doesn't end up getting in the way.

Four, its a very entertaining series and once you get to about Volume 4, you probably will not want to stop reading. It's pleasant and keeps drama on the minimum, its nice and relaxing and will have you smiling, laughing and cheering for the awkward romance of these two girls. There are also some really touching scenes that are quite beautiful, I have a lot of praise for Shimamura's bit in Volume 6 that did quite the job of developing her character. I didn't cry but I could certainly understand if you did.

Now, onto the bad things about this series. As much as I would like to say there's nothing wrong with this series, there is a fair amount to talk about.

THE BAD

___________________

First of all, the biggest issue of the series. Imagine a batter playing baseball, the ball goes flying towards them at high speed, its a fastball, a perfect pitch. But the batter is ready, they were prepared for this kind of pitch, their form is on point, the swing is textbook. It looks like it's gonna be a home run! The ball looks like its about to go flying out of the park. The bat hits the ball right in the sweet spot ...but the ball just fell on the floor and barely moved? Well, thanks for indulging my gratuitous metaphor, now how about I explain what I'm talking about.

That fastball is any kind of possible drama or issue in this series, its well set up, it builds up for a while and comes hurtling into view. Similarly, the actual problem occurring is on point …the issue is, there is entirely no follow-through! The perfect example for this is what occurs in Volume 6 in the chapter 'Shimamura's Sword'. The long monologue in this chapter was absolutely heart-breaking, in a way, it was actually haunting. While reading it I was actually reminded of 'broken Emilia' from Re: Zero season 2, like I could hear the 'Call of the Witch' creepy sound in my head, or the strangling scene in Evangelion. A well written, total meltdown. Surely this was going to cause some huge drama? Well, no. This incident has close to 0 consequences for the story and for their relationship, because, apparently, the person on the receiving end of this monologue zoned out and wasn't paying attention. Yeah... That person doesn't even recognise a conflict has taken place. If the author didn't want to deal with the drama, why did they go through the effort of writing it?

This issue doesn't just occur once, remember Tarumi? Despite being a character created almost for the sole purpose of creating drama and adding a love triangle element to the story, after the events of Volume 5 where it really seemed like her relationship with Shimamura was going to go somewhere, she becomes totally irrelevant! Another rapid fire conflict with no follow through, Adachi's intense and overbearing jealousy, again, major conflict that is just glossed over and swept under the rug. Remember Adachi's resolution to change? Well after taking a bath one time, she certainly doesn't! Why is Shima the way she is now? What major transformation did she go through? Take this chapter that does not explain that properly! It's frustrating and is most certainly to the series detriment.

Second major issue, nothing is done with the supporting cast. Hino and Nagafuji, I'm looking at you two! First of all they are wasted as they don't get a lot of chances to interact with our deuteragonists, I would have really loved to see them used as a vehicle to develop Adachi's character but nope, nothing ends up being done with them. Also, after reading so many bonus chapters, even dedicated side story chapters with these two, basically nothing has happened with their relationship, they have airhead conversation and Hino talks about Nagafuji's boobs a whole lot, and they think of staying together long into the future, so at the very least, it seems to be pseudo shoujo ai stuff. But their only major character development chapters were in Volume 4 and Volume 9, its frustrating that their story does not seem to be going anywhere given how many pages it is taking up in the later volumes. There are also random side stories that are like what ifs, as well as random perspectives that are teased at becoming relevant but never do. You're eager to dive into Volume 6, but the first chapter you get is a what if story about what if Adachi and Shimamura met in Kindergarten, at first you feel enraged that the author is going to wheel out a trope that they met each other but just didnt remember, then all of a sudden it is ended by telling you that what you just read never happened. Awesome! It was from this side story onwards that the amount of side (filler) content started ramping up too. Yashiro is also a big offender, while I initially read the first few volumes I was always wondering what big story purpose she was going to build up to, well, she hasn't done that, instead she has just been a quirky and quite enjoyable side character who occupies the latter half of filler.

Third issue, the author, Hitoma Iruma, seems to be growing tired of the series or running out of ideas. Non, the illustrator who did Volumes 1-8, has also left the project. After Volume 6, filler content started increasing in frequency and size, where they used to be 'bonus chapters' tacked onto the end of normal chapters, now they make up the majority of chapters in the book, then in the newest volume, the side content makes up most of the text too. In the latest volume, the word count has fallen to around 40,000 words from where it was previously around 50-60 thousand. Worth mentioning that the latest release, Volume 9, also has a really ugly cover and features no illustrations. The biggest blunder in my opinion is the 'insurance ending' that Iruma has prepared as of Volume 8. I was really let down by this as the story was still continuing and the actual ending itself was rather unclear and lacking detail, you actually have to go read the Anime Special Novel 2 to flesh it out to any reasonable degree. It seems like a careless way to go around ending a piece of work, and seems rather devoid of any passion. It is a shame too because the present day chapters in Volume 8 were actually great, maybe some of the best in the series. Unfortunately, I found Volume 9 to be severely lacking and it is probably the weakest entry in the series so far, one of the huge moments for the main relationship here takes place at a random table in a non-descript mall with not a lot of build up, once again failing to resolve an issue in a satisfying way.

CONCLUSION

___________________

Adachi and Shimamura is not the 10/10 masterpiece I have seen it praised as. There is plenty to complain about with it, and the series does not seem to be getting better at this current time. However! It is still a very enjoyable series, so much so that I read all of it in around a week or so (volumes 1-2 in Dec-Jan and 3-9 this week). The romance is pretty good, and of all the yuri series I have talked with others about or watched it is by far the most normal and respectful depiction of a yuri relationship. The overall story is nothing to write home about, but the characters are well written enough to make up for it most of the time. Most important of all to a *true romance fan*, this series will make you feel warm and fuzzy and put a smile on your face, which is a great indicator of well-executed romantic feelings. Don't go into this series expecting any kind of conflict or drama, its gonna be awkward girls do awkward things and its not aspiring to be more than that. I think this series overall is a 6/10 from me, lacking in story, but with good characters and great illustrations by Non, manages to be very enjoyable.

SUMMARY

___________________

+Good characters

+Good romance (with W.A.F.F.)

+Funny, cringy and cute

+Touching, emotional moments

~Overall story quality is decent slice-of-life

~Cliched moments

-Conflicts remain totally unresolved

-Too much filler content that never goes anywhere

-Downward trend for the series

-Given an ending devoid of passion

6/10

Adachi and Shimamura is, simply put, yuri's masterpiece - if not perhaps one of the greatest romance series to grace light novels as a medium. It is a shame that it remains little known and that most people come to the series by way of the incomplete anime and manga adaptations, which fail to grasp most of the nuance and introspection from the novels. Do yourself a favour and read this, even if light novels aren't usually what you opt for. It's just that good. -Characters- 10/10 The main duo are the highlight of this series, and certainly some of the best written and most relatable outof all the yuri I have read. Both are extremes of emotional states all of us have felt at one time or another, and both are fundamentally flawed human beings, an improvement over the contrast of plain and perfect that makes up the usual leads in romantic fiction. Both main characters are delinquents (in their own words) at the beginning of the story. It is their gradual emotional development, both in general and towards one another, that makes up the substance of the series.

First, we have Shimamura. Shimamura is a reasonably functional and sociable teenage girl who just has no real attachment to life. Relationships with others, hobbies, school - she is unwilling to put in anything beyond the bare minimum effort towards them, being herself completely disinterested in all things. She is passive, never taking initiative, never voicing any preference or resistance about where the flow of time carries her. If you had to sum her up in a word, she is listless. It is this listlessness which causes her to skip class, and it is her indifference which initially causes her to accept Adachi's own flaws and behaviour without a fuss.

Adachi, on the other hand, is Shimamura's opposite. She is painfully unsociable, and aware of it. She finds herself totally incapable of connecting with others or even conversing with them smoothly, the entire experience of it is grating and difficult to her. She is a loner in every sense of the word, without a single substantial relationship in her life, even with her own family. It is this suffocating loneliness which causes her to skip class, causing her to encounter the indifferent and all-accepting Shimamura, the first person she ever truly wants to interact with.

The main pair are complemented by a suite of minor characters, who appear both in their own self-contained mini-stories and in the main chapters. Namely, there are the main pair's classmates who attempt to befriend Shimamura: the cheery and petite Hino, and her childhood friend the busty and airheaded Nagafuji. These two are very entertaining and often the source of comedy in the series, and their grounded and open natures are the perfect foil to the main characters.

On top of those two, recurring characters are both main characters' mothers (who are decidedly present in the series and have characterization of their own, against light novel norm); Shimamura's estranged childhood friend Tarumi, Shimamura's shy but energetic little sister; as well as Yashiro, an enigmatic being who proclaims herself to be an alien that seems to be possessed of supernatural powers. While the latter might seem out of place in the series, her presence is oddly fitting. Yashiro is given a fairly large amount of the series' text and at one point or another forms bonds or interferes with every character in the series. Her guileless attitude and honesty often serves as contrast to the emotional deficits of other characters, to their benefit and to the benefit of the story.

-Story- 8/10

Fundamentally a slice-of-life series, there isn't much plot to speak of to the series besides the slow but steady advance of the relationship between the main characters as the months and seasons come to pass. The story is told primarily in the form of alternating moments of day-to-day life from either Adachi's perspective or Shimamura's. Almost all of the text itself is made up of the two's inner thoughts and dialogue, giving you an idea of how character-driven rather than plot-driven the story is. For people who don't normally enjoy slice-of-life, they may initially find this lack of anything substantial occurring to be dull. They may also find the rate at which the romance progresses to be painfully slow - whole volumes can pass without any sort of major development. However, though drawn out, there is substantial character progression in this series to make up for the lack of more dramatic plot.

Though it is slow-going, the romantic development in the series is painfully good. By that, I mean it is very realistic for a couple of awkward teenagers going through the unease of gay romance. Adachi especially spends page after page agonizing over her feelings, testing herself, trying to decide what it is she actually feels and how to communicate it. She is ashamed and unsure, and you can sympathize. Adachi is aware that she isn't very good at her romantic overtures, but she persists through all discomfort regardless. The result is both endearing and hilarious in various doses. Shimamura in turn is hard to hate, she wonders what it is she wants from Adachi, or from others more broadly, and how to react to Adachi's intense feelings and actions. Both make plenty of mistakes in these efforts along the way. You can find yourself laughing and having your heartstrings pulled in the same chapter, with both humour and heartache generally being caused by the aloof Shimamura's reactions to Adachi's angst.

There is also the subplot of Tarumi, Shimamura's best friend in elementary school. Tarumi and Shimamura try to awkwardly bridge the years they've spent apart, and both want to grow close to one another again - to the detriment of the jealous Adachi. She seems poised to play the roll of the rival-in-love to Adachi, but since the story is still ongoing at the time of this review, she has yet to play a major role.

Additionally, those larger chapters are usually interspersed by brief 2-3 page vignettes from the lives and perspectives of other minor characters, such as their classmates Hino and Nagafuji, Shimamura's little sister Shou, or the mysterious blue-haired alien girl Yashiro. And yes, you did just read "alien girl" again, there is some subtle and unique magical realism to this series in the form of not only Yashiro but also seemingly genuinely powerful fortune tellers, none of which is elaborated on to an extent that you'd call it a subplot. Like the main characters do, you are supposed to accept their existence at face value as a part of the scenery.

-Overall- 9/10

To summarize, of the dozens of yuri series I have read or watched, this is by far my favourite. It's been quite a few years since any novel made me laugh aloud and then nearly brought me to tears the way this one has. I wholeheartedly recommend it and can barely wait for translation of it to continue.

A good yuri slice of life. It justifies both of those genres. It's rare to see true slow burn yuri. Most of these usually end up being yuri-bait. But this series feels like a yuri even without the need to interject makeout scenes. The character are realistically dense. Within the first volume both characters have a thought of the other/themselves potentially being gay (though they try not to give much thought to it as that'll cause problems). It's rare for characters to have this kind of awareness. Finishing each volume, you can always feel a step of progress, however slow it may be. This is avery slow romance yet you can feel a satisfactory level of progress, and it feels like the author will actually eventually go all the way. With most slow yuri romances at a certain point you feel a lost of hope for the pair reaching true romance but this series progresses towards it so naturally that it's easy to continue rooting.

Plot wise. It is a rather dull concept, but it is entertaining how the author develops this concept as much as they can. Most slice of life are pretty much just pure comedy, which is not the tone I'm looking for in slice of life. This series has a more relaxing feel more it, perfect for a slice of life. The two main pair have an interesting relationship, their friendship was barely established and they haven't been friends for long. At times they mostly just say what they feel like and then just rest in silence. It's like they have a silent agreement with each other? Well their interactions make for a nice slice of life feel.

Can I also say how relatable this is? This book is pretty good at describing what first romances are like. Even the part where you can even be a little creepy about it lol.

How the author writes the characters are great too. They all feel realistic with their own unique values. They always do things that line up with their natural values. Though they can be out of character which just adds onto the realism. They also seem like teenagers, not like some mature adults or little girls. They seem like fully aware teenagers, maybe a tad bit philosophical at times but fully natural otherwise.

Though if I had some complaints, there is one certain out of place character that, in the first volume they seemed too involved. But they aren't as much of a problem past that point.

Now I'm going to compare the Seven Seas translation and the Fan Translation. I prefer the Seven Seas translation for the voices of the characters. The fan translation makes them read kind of too stiff and formal and the air can be kind of stuck-up. The Seven Seas translation makes them feel more like proper teenagers, using proper slag that somehow isn't obnoxious but feels natural.

ABSOLUTELY WORTH A READ IT IS THE CUTEST ROMANCE EVER NOT JUST FOR GL BUT FOR ROMANCE GENRE IN GENERAL. The characters are so cute and relatable and the novels are just so well written and realistic, and their relationship grows so well it makes reading every novel worth it. Definitely a slowburn but all the development does happen it just takes some time. There will be a total of 12 volumes and the manga has covered up to 5 as of now. If you like bloom into you and citrus (apart from the step sister part it was adorable) you will definitely like this theres also nothing controversialin here and everything is entirely wholesome (though there may be some spice in volumes 11/12 not to spoil).

Adachi and Shimamura is what results in a blend between two sets of rather opposite ingredients with their own special effects and preferable gourmet utilization, which unexpectedly coalesce so smoothly and naturally by the support of destiny and fate into a compound of pure, wholesome romance between two girls. The primary sensation I have of reading Adachi and Shimamura for the past 3-4 months is one that one might feel on a journey on the boundless bodies of water, where the mode of transportation constantly changes, ranging from a relaxing afternoon on a lifebuoy as I feel the waves moving me so and so, to andfro, an experience on a cruise ship with minimal personnel, and to a deep underwater dive as I transform into a purebred marine creature exploring the sensibilities of human persons in the likes of our main characters--where in every expedition, a shore is present, perfectly allocated in the most appropriate coordinates such that the reader would experience comfortable pacing and feel a sort of longing on both terrestrial and aquatic territories as they travel from one place to another, thus an appreciation for both the yin and the yang and the two pairs of ingredients arises.

I mention the abundance of travel, but truly, the momentum is that of a casual stroll to the gardens most of the time, as one carefully appreciates each and every species of flower present. You cannot feel seasick reading the light novel--on the contrary, actually. The passage of time progresses with grace, and you are inclined to embrace nature and its elements.

To talk about the series more concretely, I heavily adore how the guide leads us uphill even after the supposed peak of majority of romance stories--the confession and the getting-together. In Adachi to Shimamura, it only gets better in the succeeding events as the payoff from several volumes of the developmental stage provides much more substance to itself and its previous parts, the satisfaction coming from the realization of Adachi's dreams as the cherry blossom tree finally blooms affectionate, love-filled leaves following a whole youth's worth in the cryosphere, and the understanding of Shimamura and her own efforts to actually start to care about other people, shaving away the ice she's incased in, rendering her feet incapable of motion. The acknowledgment of dates, hand-holdings, sleepovers, bicycle rides, ping-pong matches, weird boomerang usages, a long, long time of overthinking, sleepless nights, self-loathing, inertia, listlessness, and meaninglessness, all efforts of the two girls are rewarded, and continue to be, by the hard work of our two protagonists.

The prose is consistent and is written in a style which develops the centralized characters individually, and then the execution weaves the many subtle and clear metaphors together to form a cast filled with tranquil chemistry. The characters are usually likened using the elements of nature: animals, non-living entities, temperature, and so forth. Hence, the unity brought by their many interactions produces thoughts of "Man, these pairs are so perfect together, they complement each other so well that it always leaves me content," and "Man, these pairs are so perfect together, I wish I have my own significant someone soon." I felt the latter a great deal throughout the 10 volumes thus far, and it's a testament to the power of Iruma's penwork on romance. He awakens the poet within me.

Diverging slightly, Yashiro is such an interesting concept character. I love it every time she appears. Her being the embodiment of weirdness, mystery, and surprise in the vessel of a silly little child is always pleasurably entertaining to read. That is not to disregard her value within the context of the story. Yashiro as a younger version of Shimamura enhances the latter's characterization tremendously.

Staying on this tangent a bit, Adachi is so precious to me. Her character was something I absolutely needed in this phase of my transient life. Adachi lives her life to the fullest. She is so incredibly honest and expressive with her words and essentially her body gestures all over exposes so much about her personality that she literally becomes an open book. She is straightforward and moves one way only: forwards. A headstrong girl similar to a newborn chick, basically, she is a painful reminder of what I was, what I could be, what I should be, and what I shouldn't be, as a human being with a different deck of cards on hand. Adachi makes me cringe. She makes me feel itchy, exposed, and embarrassed. Yet, she makes me awestruck at how hardworking she is to achieve her dreams--to reach Shimamura and make her think about her a lot that in the end, Shimamura's closet of ice cracked and she became genuinely in love with Adachi.

It feels good when Shimamura initiates for Adachi. It feels good when Adachi is rewarded and she is granted the affection she seeks. I was honestly caught off guard with the approach Iruma took with their relationship and Adachi's character especially, how Adachi being all about Shimamura is tolerated despite its potential to be a full-on toxic potion. Still, they were able to work it out, and they became functional adults in the end even able to travel abroad. So it all worked out. Adachi still does not need any friends, whereas Shimamura still values her family and everything else to fill the hole of her heart.

It put me in contemplation: greed is perceived to be different in this case. Shimamura was represented as the one greedy for needing many things to complete her, but is that not the most common progression for society? Is not the epitome of greed Adachi, what with her galactic love for Shimamura, actually neglecting everything else? And so I arrived at a conclusion of how greed is actually not an objective scale, for even Adachi was able to make her own greed reasonable with her and her mother's conclusion.

What hinders this to break a 9 and above is perhaps the lack of fireworks conjured within me. Adachi to Shimamura, as I said, is more "moderate" in its writing, and I think that it wasn't enough to elicit strong feelings for me as I was reading (except for Shimamura's Sword though, that was SOMETHING). Additionally, perhaps I limited its impact myself by the unintended confines of relatability. I am moving on from such era of my life, and so the efficacy of the novel was enfeebled.

I did enjoy traversing the world of Adachi and Shimamura, and the time I spent reading this was definitely one I would not regret, as I have made a newfound appreciation of my own identity, and the fact of my puny existence.

This is my first review but I really want to write down how I feel about AdaShima. I picked up the novel after the first episodes of the anime and the main reason was obviously the yuri. It looked decent and I just needed something new. However, I didn't expect I would read all the 9 volumes in a single week. The way it is written just made it so easy. It's a big slow burn, especially the romance part, but the development paid off so much. There isn't any huge drama, the best way to describe it is that it's quite down to earth, despitethe obvious supernatural elements. The two main leads are very realistic and while being similar, they both have unique personalities. The reader spends a great amount of time in their heads and gets to know them pretty well. Both have their flaws, however, they are slowly developing what brought me huge joy. The novel also deals with various topics like meaning of kindness, grief, fate, etc., and personally I am no longer sure whether I'm still reading it for yuri or for the characters and their thoughts. It's probably both.

I would really recommend it to people who like coming-of-age stories with big focus on character development. Truly a great read. And the BD volumes are also a must-read (after the main novels).

Being somewhat related to psychological realism with minor (probably one detail that may be very meaningful to readers) magical/fantastical elements, this light novel develops the narrative and plot in such a way that not only brings rich detail to the characters' thoughts (being a narrative in first person), but it also plays perfectly with one of the main characteristics of psychological realism, by having lifelike portrayals of decisions and reflexions (confuse, introspective, often irrational) that happen before, between and after each choice. The plot, for most of the time, has a "physical" part that doesn't feel that meaningful, comparable to a slice-of-life, whatthey do usually offer is support and scenarios for the "mental" part to work its way through the situation. There are the times in which the physical aspect makes consequential contact with the mental one, creating bigger dynamic on the plot.

The characters' decisions and thought processes may frustrate you to no end, as you read, the light novel subtly teaches you an often overlooked lesson: The importance of perspective and relativization. Sometimes there is no way to understand why people do what they do, why they don't share the same common sense as you do, all of that probably because you're simply not them, be that by defaut or by their experiences and origins. The LN really plays with the concept that sometimes there really is no one and nothing to blame for certain bad exchanges or relationships and that the traits that people sometimes consider as negative vices are just intrinsic to who they are.

All in all, it's a LN that has some surprisingly complex parts, the amount of detail in each thought (that often pushes to another topic), the flashbacks and recalls, the overall feeling of subconscious in each of the characters' POVs, it all makes for a very good psycho-realism LN. One thing that may rub some folks off is probably the somewhat minor elements and tones of magic and mystical stuff (that includes a major-ish part of the story), for some, it may be bothersome, or just out of place/useless, personally, i just take it as a fun little plot gadget, but again, it's understandable if you feel like it's an incongruency.

9/10

I picked up this light novel a few months after watching the anime. This is my first light novel and I enjoy it! I love the art style for Adachi to Shimamura, that was actually the reason why I started it. The characters are good but I don't really understand the astronaut girl. It's a good yuri story. Overall I've enjoyed reading it so far and would recommended reading it. Also If you enjoyed the light novel you will also enjoy the anime and vise versa. Apparently my review isn't long enough so I'll say random stuff. Adachi and Shimamura is one of my favorite ships.I wish Shimamura could take hints lol

I can't wait for season 2 of the anime.

Adachi to Shimamura- “possessiveness” is freedom/ Japanese literature in the modern city Introduction/Refute The light novel series Adachi to Shimamura is an excellent Yuri story from Iruma Hitoma (いるまひとま). Serializing since 2013, Hitoma proves his ability to catch the delicate transition of the feelings inside the heart of humans with the main characters Adachi and Shimamura born under his keyboard. Hitoma, despite his position in the modern otaku culture, didn’t really follow the norms and established traditions of the fandom. His work didn’t have a complex background or a catchy setting that was set to become the markof raising the desire by catering to the reaction system in people. He has the guts to throw this supposed-necessary factor away, it means he has the confidence to maintain the fanbase in his own way. By leaning toward the so-called “formal literature”, Hitoma shows people can be touched with genuine words. The love story between these two girls progressed at a slow pace, but Hitoma managed to keep the attention of the readers with the change of the focus point in the consciousness of humans. Aside from that, he didn’t put too much effort into the methods of rhetoric. Since his focus is on showing the inner feelings of Adachi and Shimamura, he only used “necessary expressions” when it comes to conveying the loneliness and romantic emotions of girls. Thus, the existence of a work without the traits of human modification exudes its own sincere light.

However, as the series gradually revealed the possessive emotions of Adachi Sakura and the rather passive and dispassionate reactions of Shimamura, some people try to take the position of an outsider with self-proclaimed righteousness to criticize the relationship between the main characters as “toxic” since they are not “independent” enough. Even though I am not meant to point fingers at a specific group, the type of opinion I mentioned above tends to come from Western audiences and readers.

Being the main focus of the series, it is not a surprise people would turn their eyes and give their opinions on it. However, as Ango Sakaguchi points out in his essay “On Farce”, the field of art has another “world” of feelings, the ability to feel the existence of this world is the requirement to put your opinions on artworks. Based on how he expands this discourse with the idea of farce and art, this world has its own rules. In this case, Ango already gives you the idea that forcing the rules of reality on art might just prove one has zero qualifications to say anything about art. But in his other articles, he provides another perspective to tell people the moralist perspective on art is wrong. Coming from the context of the post-war era, Ango used his whole life to reveal the nature of hypocrisy in the traditional moral rules of Japan. As his fight against the nationalist ideology continues, he gives his famous line “It’s time to be degenerate/I degenerate, thus I am free”. His idea of degeneration is to admit what you want and tell what you desire. People don’t have to force themselves not to tell others how they felt, because it will hurt their mental health of people and stop a genuine relationship from developing.

In the case of the series we are discussing, possessive emotion is in all aspects a desire. The thought of taking Shimamura all to herself is something quite normal among lovers even in the context of reality. Expressing it didn’t mean it will get fulfilled, but forcing yourself not to tell what you want is something anti-human. And to force the character writing into something “correct” (self-proclaimed) is no different than forcing human modifications on it. In other words, presenting human nature in the story is important to turn the series into something genuine and beautiful. Then, thinking it shouldn’t be expressed is an idea that doesn’t have any humanity in it. Just because one defines possessive emotion as bad in their own context, it didn’t mean people have the obligation to oppress their own emotions to suit their preference.

In the first aspect, you should already have your position on the relationship between people deconstructed. But, nullifying morality is not enough to reverse the impression of people regarding the series. In my opinion, “possessiveness” is not a bad thing among lovers at all. Every people presents it as bad, but Hitoma Iruma didn’t. In his writing, he acknowledged this kind of emotion as the story progressed into volume 6. He has his own freedom to define what he thinks but is it just due to “freedom” that he thinks it's okay to say positive things about “possessiveness”? Maybe not. To understand it, people may have to learn from space, tho in a metaphorical way.

Double meanings of “space”-physical and metaphorical

Just like how the dictionary of Merriam-Webster presents it, the term "space” has multiple definitions. And in our common way of recognizing things, we tend to suppose the term “space” refers to the physical space independent of what occupies it. In the case of the series, the first “space” is the second floor of the stadium in the school of Adachi and Shimamura. The two of them use this space to play table tennis when they skip class. Before they come to occupy it, the second floor of the stadium is a space that existed before them, thus we may say it’s a physical and “independent” space. However, this place has more meaning than just a space. Just like how Shimamura tells from the first-person perspective, Adachi and she are not old friends, they only knew each other with a basic understanding after meeting in senior high.

However, one shouldn’t be tricked by this narrative from Shimamura. After this very introduction of how she thinks Adachi and her are not close friends, people will leave the impression of how she is not familiar with Adachi. Even though Shimamura indeed doesn’t know about her personal life, the descriptive depictions of how Shimamura catches every detail of Adachi and her actual character of being gentle under the cool appearance show she already makes an incredible amount of progress on “understanding her”. Shimamura didn’t know anything about her personal life is actually an important thing to pay attention to. Exactly because she knew nothing about Adachi's personal life, she will not use the language system of the established values to define her. Instead, she will view Adachi as what she sees in her eyes. Combined with the traits of the stadium, which are “unrelated” to most of their personal life, the space of the second floor actually means it’s a place for them to discard the established signifier they were given previously. Not to mention the only symbol this stadium hinted at is “student”, and the two of them already discarded it by skipping class. In this place that is not related to most of the symbols they possessed, they will have to rely on their own eyes and judgment to see who the other girl actually is.

In short, the encounter between Adachi and Shimamura in the stadium has nothing to do with the established language system. After breaking the rules of the school by skipping class, they cut off their connection with the regulatory system of the school and remove the last bit of meaning regarding this stadium to turn it into a “pure space”. The trait of pure space is “having no language to rely on” when describing it. Thus, the two encounters in this space mean they only have their eyes and judgment to rely on. Being framed by the space, the relationship between Adachi and Shimamura is their own which can’t be generalized to another language system. This chapter in Volume 1 is about the nature of their relationship in the future volume. And the stadium as a space revealed ambiguity I try to point out in the literary works.

Volume 1 is the basis of all the other volumes. After defining the relationship between Adachi and Shimamura as having their own language and being specific toward each other, I want to provide the idea that the special nature of the relationship they built in the stadium was correlated with the story in volumes 5 and 6.

It’s pretty normal that Adachi would react indifferently during the first encounter. After having some dreams in which she and Shimamura are about to kiss, Adachi gradually realized she has fallen in love with her, we can make the same inference with both the Freud theory and the idea that the background of her dream is the “blanked space”, which further implied that the desire of Adachi was framed by the space in two aspects. First, she doesn’t need other values to define her feelings. In other words, she is unwilling to yield her discourse to other kinds of value systems, the first hint of possessiveness is here. The other aspect is she loves Shimamura as a person, she didn’t need anything to serve as the reason.

With feelings this profound and deep, Adachi is pretty easy to be influenced by other factors. In volume 5, after witnessing Shimamura joining the festival with her childhood friend Tarumi, Adachi fell into extreme jealousy because she didn’t know Shimamura went to the event with another girl. After delivering the famous 2500 words confession which turned into a nightmare for the translators, Shimamura didn’t really get affected by it and suggested Adachi broaden her social circle instead. In this case, another meaning of “space” which is referring to the distance of hearts between people in other words mental/social space comes in. In short, Adachi always keeps her social space within herself. Just like how Soseki described people in the Meiji era, Adachi is just like a single house that has no intersections with other apartments. Even after knowing Shimamura, the only change of hers is to allow Shimamura as the only visitor to her single house. Now, she is suggested to transform the design of her house and open her social circle. She’s afraid that Shimamura will dislike her, so she tries her best in volume 5, but the results didn’t turn out well. In the end, Adachi comes to the conclusion that she has to insist on her belief:

I am clearly aware that is the only way for me to obtain happiness. So, the thing I ought to do is to struggle toward the direction of attaining happiness without caring for my image. I shouldn’t dig a hole and bury myself in the community. Even the cicadas will come out from the hole, what is the point for me to bury myself then?

Thing like digging holes and burying myself is something I should do before I die.

Even if there are 100 unrelated people, Shimamura can’t be replaced. Putting them together still won’t be able to reach the height of Shimamura inside my heart. Don’t be joking, those people are not seaweeds that can be stacked. I finally realized the “correct concept” Shimamura suggest I take is unnecessary.

For me, Shimamura is a different creature.

This is absolutely fine. Exactly because of this, I am attracted to her.

According to her inner monologue, it can be seen that Adachi make up her mind to follow what she actually wants. No matter how hard she tried, it is impossible for her to fit into the common social circle. This should be fine since everyone has their own suitable way to live. The thing that needs to pay attention to here is the idea of possessiveness takes its root from here. In addition to that, Adachi also accepts her position of being heterogeneous in society and even compare to Shimamura. In future volumes, she tries her best to control her jealousy, but she didn’t actually hide her “possessiveness”, specifically in volume 10. When Shimamura is going to meet with Tarumi, she has to ask for an agreement from Adachi. She didn’t come to meet Tarumi because Adachi couldn’t contain her “freedom”, she rather gives Adachi conditions she would agree to persuade her. In short, “possessiveness” is an established trait since Volume 5. Based on the information Shimamura gets, she also realized Adachi has this character:

Based on the rumors I heard, I could make up such imagination: Even if Adachi walked on the road, she probably won’t encounter a person she knew from the past to make conversation with her. The world of Adachi is pretty narrow, but that is not a flaw, to be honest. Having a narrow world means it is easy to rectify. Also, there won’t have that many barriers inside the vision. For some types of people, this is just perfect.

If there is only one irreplaceable thing in her world, that one, and only thing---

Definitely is me.

Shimamura contained a bit of humor in her words, but she is correct in the description when it comes to the character of Adachi. Just like how she boasted, she herself occupies all the space of Adachi. According to how she interacts with Adachi in volume 10, it can be inferred that she rather enjoy this. Inheriting the same ideology from the character Daisuke Nagai from the novel And then by Natsume Soseki, Shimamura is also fine with cutting off most of the human interrelationships among this earthliness, and there’s one person that pulls her back to the human side. For Daisuke, it’s the wife of his friend he had a crush on. For Shimamura, it’s Adachi.

Basically, the two of them enjoy the small world they have. Ever since volume 5, not only Shimamura rarely went to unnecessary places, but Adachi also constantly went to her place multiple times. This kind of moving route reveals the truth that they recreate another space on the surface of the region they lived. The modern city nowadays is a gigantic public space, but literature will only give meaning to the place the character has been to. With the arrangement of the routes they went, it’s suitable to say they were always at the margin side of the city. But since they were not really many specific place names given in the series, I would rather say their attitude towards people or just the amounts of humans they encounter shows that they put themselves on the margin side of the human community.

Due to this fact, it’s now the time to focus on the “possessiveness” of Adachi specifically. The social group of the human community is another kind of city that formed its appearance on the surface of the physical modern city. Thus, it’s fine to say that the choice of living in a small group means one chose to live on the margin of the city indeed.

Dated back to the Edo era, the margin of the city, I mean Tokyo nowadays, is where the government doesn’t want to show others. The margin of the city is also the inner side of the city, it’s where the ぶらくみん (the low-status social group) and brothel live as a collective group. The government didn’t have the intention to fundamentally solve the problem of these people, so they cut the city into two parts. One is the normal and daily side of common people, the public space, the other is the inner side of the city, the place of darkness and crimes. The two parts of the city represent the daily life of people and the abnormal life which is meant to serve as the counter-example of what is normal. This is the order of the city and surprisingly also how modern cities actually functioned. The government just close the region of the inner city and set up laws to forbid people from entering it.

The Edo government itself already built the city with an ideology in mind, it makes us able to take the city order they create as the metaphor. Had we taken the human community itself as a type of “city space", then which side is the public and daily life of normal people is absolutely clear, which is the common social circle people always stay in but Adachi and Shimamura have no interest in. On the other hand, the inner side where the darkness and crimes dwelled is then led to the lonely party and people with special living styles. Adachi pulling Shimamura to her side is like pulling her to the dark side of the city, I believe this is why many people dislike her “possessiveness”. However, these kinds of thoughts left a very important aspect of the modern city, it’s also where I am about to launch a counter-attack.

According to the accusations that living in common social circles is more normal, I discover that people in fact forgot the truth that the public side and daily life of the modern city are formed by the government, or at least Japan is like this. The city of Edo and modern Tokyo is designed by the national country. They divided the side of normal and abnormal with the arrangement of the city, thus creating the daily life Japanese experienced with a normal city lifestyle. Living on the normal side of the city means being under the regulations of the government. And just like many literature authors reflects this environment in society, the normal city lifestyle creates the normal social norms of how people should react in society. In short, the normal social lifestyle in Japan took its roots from the original city design in the Edo era.

But then, since the inner side of the city was just closed and forbid the normal side of people to enter, this inner part of the city has its own rules. People who lived in it are free from the interference of the common social norms outside. The extreme case of this inner city is actually the image of prison. When we stand on the point of the city design to look into the inner side of the city, we can only see the distributed symbol of crimes and darkness on it, just like how we tend to judge people in smaller social groups or lonely people. But in their case, staying in a different place without the common norms probably means freedom of not being confined by the regulations.

Deriving a little bit. The uninhabited island often used to throw bad people in. But one may also realize the fact that this island is free from the observation of the norms in the world. The answer to the article is near. Yes, the discarded side of the city is no different from the concept of utopia, a place often present with the image of having no common social rules. Adachi pulled Shimamura into her small world and shared the narrow social circle seems like her “possessiveness” is confining Shimamura, but turned out it was not.

Not to mention Shimamura herself is fine with it, being pulled into the world of Adachi means she won’t have to force herself into having interactions with the common social circles she’s tired to face, staying by the side of Adachi is enough for her. Being possessed by Adachi means she can enjoy freedom and their own custom in the small world. The most important thing is, Adachi is her utopia. At the very least, possessiveness in the context of Japanese literature means staying in the little circle. Compare to the normal city space and its norms, possessiveness is freedom after all.

Work cited:

Adachi to Shimamura. Hitoma Iruma.

On degeneration. Ango Sakaguchi.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space

And then. Natsume Soseki.

都市空間のなかの文学. 前田 愛.

If you're searching for a good light novel to binge, this is THE best you will get and I wholeheartedly stand by that. The progression between Adachi to Shimamura is honestly one of the best-paced couples I've seen yet, there's no random sex scene implementation to signify a new height that the characters have reached, it's just the bond they've built up which SHOWS you just from their interactions how close they are. The world-building done is absolutely superb as well. Yashiro for example, has introduced a whole entire other species living on various planets, some even living amongst the humans. You could literally create numeroustheories about Yashiro ALONE. This directly ties into my next statement, the characters in the show are done so wonderfully. One thing I can appreciate is the minimum amount of side characters in this show, most scenes are focused on Adachi and Shimamura together, or the two individually. The times we do see important things involving side characters they usually get their own volumes (Hino and Nagafuji along with Tarumi at times.) This is something that plenty of series mess up, too many POVs CAN ruin the main couple's experience. I'm thankful they avoided that.

My last and final thing to add. Since this is a spoiler, I will clarify this. Shimamura loves Adachi, PERIOD. Sometimes it's hard to tell, it really is, but Shimamura's love for Adachi is one thing that I don't want any of you to doubt. Shimamura is a character that I truly love so when I see her get hated on by speed readers it certainly does upset me. Shimamura's personality in this show is all over the place, especially as a child. But deep down she really loves Adachi and would do anything for her, as you read you will experience this firsthand. That's all from me, enjoy reading <3

This story isn't very interesting. It's aiming to be a slow-burn romance, but it ends up being so slow that the central relationship appears to simply not be progressing at all, despite how many interactions Adachi and Shimamura have with one another. The most glaring issue with this series is that the central characters lack intrigue. When either character is narrating, they directly state that they have no hobbies, and they generally seem to have very little personality to speak of. The only characteristics they seem to have in common are that they skip class sometimes and they have little interest in social interactions. Because ofthis, the characters really don't seem to have much of a genuine connection outside of Adachi being concerningly obsessed with Shimamura, and when they speak to each other, it generally ends up being uninteresting (the number of times either character will respond to a question that could easily start an entire conversation with one word is genuinely frustrating). There's a difference between trying to depict something realistically and bending what would be realistic slightly so that the story is enjoyable to read.

Besides the protagonists, the other characters are either equally uninteresting or straight-up annoying. The worst example of this is Chikama Yashiro, the 670-something-year-old alien girl whose only purpose in the story seems to be interrupting Adachi and Shimamura's hangouts or annoying Shimamura when she's not with Adachi. Besides the fact that this character basically only serves to be a mild hindrance to the central relationship, she's wildly out of place in a story that's supposed to take place in real-world Japan. The inclusion of this character only really serves to break the immersion of this story's world and generally make it less enjoyable to read.

Additionally, a large portion of dialogue and interactions between characters, as well as some of Adachi and Shimamura's narration, seem unnatural. This applies to pretty much all of Hino and Nagafuji's interactions, as well as when Shimamura talks with Adachi's mother in the sauna scene.

Overall, this series seems to have failed at telling a compelling romance story, with a lack of an intriguing plot or progression, forgettable characters, and a decent few scenes that were plainly difficult to read or take seriously.

This LN series is very easy to read, I read 9 volumes in 2 and a half days so it was really good enough to binge it. The characters are very likeable and grow on you during a very cute story. The yuri side of the story did not bother me. It projected rather pure teenage feelings and doubts that go together with being a teenager. In this series the only thing I found that was missing was something like an act of god, a hurdle imposed on the couple or something similar from outside for them to overcome to make them grow asa couple. something that has nothing to do with the fact of them being both girls... Relationships do not really deepen if all you got are first world problems.

In the end, like it is now after 9 novels, I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a light feel-good story.

Yup I'm writing a review because of how pissed I am at this dogshit. Am I bothering with writing a synopsis? Nope, just read the one MAL provided. The problem with writing a story were one of the two characters doesn't feel the same way about the other character is that you still have to make the two characters have good chemestry. Adachi and Shimamura utterly fails at this. Why are they friends? Because they both skip school together and that's it... Shimamura is the most bland character I've ever read and is a detriment to a potentially interesting story with Adachi. Lets go over Shimamurascharacter as of volume 1:

Hobbies: none.

Likes: Not really anything. Hangs out with friends cause it's better than being alone, not because she actually enjoys it.

Characteristics: Has colored hair and skips school, yep that's it. (you could probably scrape of more personality from my greasy ass computer chair)

Also don't even get me started on the dogshit creature that randomly spawns in from time to time. Alright so there is this middle schooler typ space alien that just randomly appears from time to time and completely eviscerates any sort of vibe established. You'd think I was making this shit up if you hadn't already read the LN but no. This child that randomly appears does NOT get the hint and even worse Shimamura for some reason does not tell it to fuck off. It just pretends like it's Shimamuras friend and by being with shimamura blocks any sort of character development for Shimamura and any sort of positive story development for Adachi and Shimamura.

I warn you, DO NOT READ THIS ONE. It seems cozy in the beginning but then it shanks you in the back when you think you're safe.