Title	Hakuji
Credit	Satoshi Morie
Media	Japanese Manga
Genre	Shoujo, Romance, Tragedy, Psychological
Year	2008
Character Type	1 Yandere (Minor)

A genius painter who had been kept away from the society came across a gentle and cheerful high school student by chance. Entranced by her, she was asked to become his model for his artwork.

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

Manabe Akiharu is a 24-year-old painter who was painting the cherry blossom one day when he came across 15-year-old Ichijou Seika. He became enamored by her soon after, and couldn’t progress in his work. To resolve this issue, his childhood friend and art dealer Koushi decided to help out and get Seika to be his model for painting.

Seika agreed, and from then on the two slowly developed feelings for each other. While Ichijou was straight-forward with her feelings, Akiharu was much more conflicted. Eventually, they managed to work it out with Seika’s endless patience and understanding for Akiharu.

However, tragedy struck when Seika lost her sight due to a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. As she learns to adapt to her new condition, Akiharu tries his best to help her, and at the same time cope with his unusual sentiments on the situation.

As Akiharu had been pulled out of school since young and largely deprived of human interactions, his mentality was closer to that of a young child despite being a grown adult. Each with their own predicaments, Akiharu and Seika found strength from each other and helped each other grow through their ordeals.

I found the story abstract. It is not as easy to digest, so with each page I will have to linger longer. Nevertheless, the art is pretty, and the story is unique. The yandere in this story is quite mild, but it is there. Do bear in mind that there is a 9-year age gap between the couple, and the girl is only 15-year-old. If you do mind, then steer clear. Otherwise, the story is worth a read.

CHARACTER SPOILERS