is a Japanese romance anime television series produced by

Feel Feel may refer to: *Feeling Music Bands *Feel (New York band), a dance and R&B band *Feel (Polish band), a pop rock band Songs * "Feel" (Kendrick Lamar song), 2017 * "Feel", by Phora, 2018 *"Feel", by Mahmut Orhan, 2016 * "Feel" (Kumi Koda song), ...

. It originally aired from April 6 to June 29, 2017.

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

has licensed the series in North America. As a

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

contemporary romance Contemporary romance is a subgenre of romance novels, generally set contemporaneously with the time of its writing. The largest of the romance novel subgenres, contemporary romance novels usually reflect the mores of their time. Heroines in the co ...

, the story follows the lives of two

junior high school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

students, Akane and Kotarō, who fall in love for the first time and struggle to maintain their relationship.

Plot

Kotaro Azumi and Akane Mizuno become third year students at junior high school and are classmates for the first time. They are put in charge of the equipment for a sports festival and slowly grow closer via

LINE Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

. These two, along with fellow students Chinatsu Nishio and Takumi Hira, relate to their peers through mutual understandings and feelings. As their final year at junior high school progresses, the group overcome their challenges to mature and become aware of changes in themselves.

Characters

Main

; : :Student of class 3-1 who belongs to the literature club. He's aiming to become a novelist and respects

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as '' The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...

. He generally has a calm and composed attitude. He initially is too embarrassed to show his novels to other people, but upon learning Akane's love for running and openness to use embarrassment as a method of improving oneself, he begins to open up to that prospect. From early childhood, Kotarō has received instruction in the performance of traditional dance and festival music accompaniment,

Hayashi Hayashi (wikt:林, 林, literally "forest, woods"), is the 19th most common Japanese surname. It shares the same character as the Chinese surname Lin (surname), Lin. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese synchronized swimmer *, Ja ...

, at a local

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

. He secretly starts dating Akane, but later reveals this to Takumi. :When Akane is forced to move to

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

due to her father's work, Kotarō tries to get into the same school as her, despite his parents' objections, but is unsuccessful. He is unable to see Akane off on her moving day, but publishes an online story promising to love her forever. Despite their long-distance relationship, they are shown to still get in contact and visit each other. The final shot at the end of the anime shows them married with a child years later. ; : :Student of class 3-1 who belongs to the track and field club. She's an easy going character, but can be self-conscious and timid at times. When feeling nervous, she would squeeze her potato mascot

plushie A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be cal ...

. Akane moved to

Kawagoe, Saitama is a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 353,214 in 162,210 households and a population density of 3200 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The city is known locally as after the old name ...

when she was a fifth grader in

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. She secretly starts dating Kotarō, but later reveals this to Chinatsu and Takumi, who inform the class about that. :When she is forced to move to Chiba due to her father's work, she becomes anxious over her future relationship with Kotarō, but cheers him on as he tries to get into the same school as her. When Kotarō fails to get in, she again becomes anxious, but finds new hope when she reads his online story, which is a promise to love her forever. The final shot at the end of the anime shows them married with a child years later. ; : :The president of track and field club. He's been in love with Akane since first year. ; : :One of Akane's best friends in track and field club who's easy going. She begins to catch feelings for Azumi.

Class 3-1

;Daichi Ogasawara : :One of Kotarō's best friends who is in the school's judo club. He laments his lack of popularity with girls which he attributes to the membership of the judo club. ;Roman Yamashina : :One of Kotarō's best friends who has easy going personality and constantly wanting to read Kotarō's novel, despite of the latter's rejection. He's in love with his homeroom teacher Ryōko and won't hesitate to show it. ;Aira Miyamoto : :Akane's friend in class 3-1 who's belonged in the tennis club. She falls for Kaneko and dates him. ;Setsuko Satō : :Akane's friend in class 3-1 who is dating Nagahara. She constantly pays for the fees whenever her boyfriend brings her to a love hotel, even during their school trip to Kyoto. ;Miu Imazu : :Akane's friend in class 3-1. She has a somewhat black-hearted personality and always henpecks Inaba. ;Sakura Tanaka : :A bespectacled girl in class 3-1 who always fantasizes about being popular with the boys, despite her plain looks. ;Shō Nagahara : :Setsuko's boyfriend. A flashy boy who always brings his girlfriend to a love hotel and makes her pay. ;Yasuhito Inaba : :Miu's "boyfriend", the status of which is often questioned by Inaba himself because of Miu's henpecking. ;Aoi Takizawa : :A member of the school's track team. She is popular with both girls and boys, but she adopts a hostile attitude towards boys in general and displays no interest in romance. ;Tsubasa Kaneko : :A member of the school's baseball team in class 3-1 who manages to make Aira fall for him. He is skilled in dealing with his girlfriend's jealousy. ;Daisuke Tachibana : :The employee of a bookshop that Kotarou frequents. He reads Kotarou's novels and gives helpful advice on both novel writing and romance. ;Ryōko Sonoda : :Class 3-1's homeroom teacher. She is in love with Roman and struggles to wait until his graduation to express her love. She is also the target of affection of Hidaka-sensei.

Others

;Ryūnosuke Azumi : :Kotarou's father. Supports his son's novel writing aspirations. ;Junko Azumi : :Kotarou's mother. Does not want Kotarou to write novels or take Akane's high school entrance examination. ;Hiroshi Mizuno : :Akane and Ayane's father, who is protective of his daughters, but he is also shown to be accepting of their boyfriends once he gets to know them better. ;Saori Mizuno : :Akane and Ayane's mother. ;Ayane Mizuno : :Akane's elder sister who is currently in high school. She is dating Kasai, an aspiring carpenter.

Production and development

An original

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series produced by

was announced in January 2017.

Seiji Kishi is a Japanese director of anime. Works Anime television series *'' Yugo the Negotiator: Pakistan Chapter'' (2004) - Director *'' Ragnarok the Animation'' (2004) - Director, Storyboard *''Magikano'' (2006) - Director, Storyboard *'' Galaxy Ang ...

directed the anime while Yūko Kakihara penned and supervised the series' scripts, and Kazuaki Morita adapted Loundraw's original character designs. Takurō Iga and FlyingDog composed and produced the music, respectively, while Nagano served as the series' producer. It aired on April 6, 2017 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

with further broadcasts on

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepalese politician Places * MBS International Airport (IATA code: MBS), Freeland, Michigan, US * Mari ...

, BS11 and

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...

then ended on June 29, 2017.

Nao Tōyama is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with the agency Intention. Before joining Intention, she was affiliated with Arts Vision. She debuted as a voice actress in 2010, and played her first leading role as Kanon Nakagawa in ''The Worl ...

sung both the opening and ending theme titled and , respectively. Tōyama also performed the insert song for episode 3, .

licensed the series and streamed it outside of Asia, and Funimation dubbed the series and released it on home video in North America as part of their partnership with Crunchyroll.

Episode list

All episodes are named after notable works in

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...