Aoi Hana

Aoi Hana (or Sweet Blue Flowers) is a Manga by Shimura Takako about girls in love. Aoi Hana eschews both silliness and overt melodrama and instead settles on Slice of Life. The anime adaptation debuted July 2009.

Aoi Hana initially focuses on four high school girls:

Manjoume Fumi -- A Shrinking Violet and crybaby in her first year of high school. She was a childhood friend of Akira, with whom she had been very close when they were younger.
Okudaira Akira -- A fairly level-headed first-year student to the prestigious Fujigaya Girls' High School. A childhood friend of Fumi.
Sugimoto Yasuko -- Captain of the basketball team at Fumi's school. She's a fairly masculine Tomboy and Casanova.
Ikumi Kyouko -- Another first-year student at Fujigaya. She has a strong unrequited love for Yasuko, despite having her own fiancé (although in name only).

The plot begins with Fumi and Akira meeting each other after many years apart, and going to their first day of high school together.

Tropes used in Aoi Hana include:

Adaptation Distillation: Some extraneous details were cut for the anime adaptation.
Bait and Switch Credits: Sure, Akira and Fumi are extremely close friends, but they have not become the lovey-dovey couple depicted in the opening as of the end of the anime series.
Bait and Switch Lesbians: It becomes clear that for most of the girls in the series having feelings for another girl is merely a phase in life.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the anime's opening credits.
Bathing Beauty: Fumi is this to the audience and, in-universe, to Akira.
Beta Couple: Orie and Hinako. Fumi comes to look to them as an example of what she herself wants in a relationship.
Bifauxnen: Yasuko in many of her outfits.
Big Brother Instinct: Akira's brother Shinobu. Even more pronounced in the manga than in the anime.
Big Fancy House: The Sugimoto household as well as the Ikumi household.
Bi the Way: Shinako. It's been revealed that she has had relationships with both men and women.
Butch Lesbian: Yasuko, who even wears a suit to her sister's wedding. Played with in that she's actually bisexual and dislikes the "prince" role that was actually forced on her by everyone's expectations. She grows out her hair and takes on a more feminine appearance after being Put on a Bus.
Brother-Sister Incest: Akira's older brother actively crushes on her which squicks Akira quite a bit. This is far more overt in the Manga. He crawls into her bed while she sleeps and follows her around every chance he gets. Thank God he eventually gets a girlfriend and quits this.
Casanova: Yasuko. Truthfully, she is not seen with anybody else, boy or girl, aside from Fumi, but she is extremely flirtatious.
- Yasuko's sister Shinako actually fits this more, as she seemingly has dated a great number of men and women already. At one time she even brags about how many girlfriends she has.
Character Development: Could be said to be the whole plot of the story. Also a Coming of Age Story for many cast members.
Christmas Episode: Well, half an episode, but still...
Comic Trio: Easily Mogi, Pon-chan and Yassan. They provide the series with some of its best comedy. The poor Matsuoka drama club is made up of a bunch of clowns.
- Members of the Sugimoto family can be seen as such, teasing Yasuko about her fickleness. Though interestingly, this trio is not made up of the three elder sisters, but of Kuri, Shinako and their (considerably for her age) Hot Mom.
Coming Out Story
Cool Big Sis: Sugimoyo Shinako. Despite her seeming nonchalance towards people, she seems to know a lot more about human nature than her younger sisters. She drops words of wisdom every now and then. Plus, she just likes to have fun.
- Orie. More so in later chapters when she agrees to supervise Haruka and her friends during their trip to the onsen.
Elevator School: Fujigaya
Eleven Episode Anime
Even the Girls Want Her: Yasuko. Her fangirls are shown meeting up to trade photos of her during the Wuthering Heights story arc.
Expressive Hair: Akira, sometimes.
Extreme Doormat: Fumi. She gets better.
Eyes Always Shut: Shinako.
Fan Service: Generally mild, although Shimura seems to have a thing for drawing girls bathing in the nude.
First Kiss: Akira gets hers from Fumi.
Furo Scene
Gayngst: Poor Fumi, losing two love interests in a row to men. She begs Akira not think of her as disgusting after she first comes out, and brings this up again after she confesses to her at the end of volume 4. Ramped up considerably starting about the end of volume 3.
Genki Girl: A trio of them, in Fumi's school friends Youko, Misako and Miwa. Akira is repeatedly called genki by other characters. Haruka also counts.
Girly Run
Hopeless Suitor: Kyouko with regard to Yasuko, which gets milked for all it's worth.
- And of course, Yasuko with regard to Kagami.
- Kou also has some of this with regard to Kyouko. Things appear to be looking up for him, though.
Hot for Teacher: Yasuko has a crush on her former teacher, Kagami, who just to make things worse is engaged. To Yasuko's older sister.
- In the manga's extra section "Little Women", it is seen that one of Hinako's students harboured deep affection for her. Hinako turns her down of course, but the student seems thrilled that she is rejected for ethical reasons rather than her gender.
Huge Schoolgirl: Fumi. Ueda qualifies as well and Yasuko is taller than Fumi.
If It's You It's Okay: This might be the reason why Akira decides to try going out with Fumi after all.
Important Haircut: Yasuko gets one in a flashback. It is revealed that Kyoko's hair is short now because she tried to imitate Yasuko in the past.
Intertwined Fingers: Part of the Ship Tease between Fumi and Akira.
- See the final shot of the anime's opening sequence.
- This also happens in a movie theatre between Akira and Fumi, after Fumi is dumped by Yasuko.
In Vino Veritas: Invoked by Fumi, who uses the courage of being drunk to confess to Akira. Since she has already done so several times, and they are currently dating, an exasperated Akira can only exclaim "I already know that!"
Jerkass: Yasuko. Her bratty nature and the way she treats Kyoko might just be a defence mechanism or her own warped idea of kindness, but it doesn't erase the fact that she is kind of a jerk. Curiously, only to girls.
Joshikousei: The uniforms at Akira's school are classical seifuku.
Kissing Cousins: Implied heavily so between Fumi and her cousin Chizu. In fact we see them naked in silhouette.
- Relationship Reveal: At the end of volume four of the Manga, Fumi confesses to Akira the extent of her relationship with Chizu.
Kissing Discretion Shot
- Subverted in the anime, when they show the kiss after all in the next episode.
Kudzu Plot: Gradually getting there. Let's just say Shimura is not making it a high priority to keep track of plot points.
Lighthouse Point
Like Brother and Sister: How Yasuko views Kyouko. And probably how Kyoko views Kou.
Local Hangout: The café near the train station.
Love Dodecahedron
Luminescent Blush: Fumi is particularly prone to this, rivaled perhaps only by Haruka.
Meganekko: Fumi
The Messiah: Akira, to some extent. Also Haruka, even though she's not the main character.
Ojou: Fujigaya is filled with them, apparently. Yasuko and Kyouko certainly qualify, with Kyouko acting more the part.
Onee-Sama: The elementary schoolers are adorable.
One-Gender School: Two of them, in fact.
One Head Taller: Turned on its head--it's the tall, cool-looking Fumi who's the quiet, feminine, crybaby other half to the much shorter Akira.
Pillow Fight
Plucky Comic Relief: Haruka.
Potty Failure: From a rather embarrassing memory that Fumi has from childhood.
Real Place Background: Shimura really studied Kamakura, and it shows.
Put on a Bus: Yasuko starts studying in England.
- The same seems to happen with Kyouko, after she gets back together with Kou.
Say My Name: Misako and Miwa poke fun at this with their 'reenactment' of one of Kyouko's childhood memories ("Kyouko! Kou-chan!").
Scenery Porn: Being set in lovely Kamakura naturally invokes this.
Schoolgirl Lesbians: A significant portion of the cast, at some point in their lives.
School Play: The main plot revolves around several of them.
Sempai-Kohai: Yasuko and Fumi, and later Akira and Kyouko to Haruka.
Shrines and Temples: It's hard to avoid these in Kamakura.
Shrinking Violet: Fumi
Situational Sexuality: In the manga, it's talked about how a lot of these romances developed because the characters go to all girls' schools.
Slice of Life
Slumber Party
Snow Means Love: In the anime Fumi and Akira share a very important moment in the snow.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Kyouko and Kou get an overly long story arc about their engagement that has no relevance to the main story whatsoever.
Tareme Eyes: Ryouko, which curiously gets more pronounced as the series progresses.
Team Mom: Funny enough, it's Kyouko. Fumi and Akira seem to run to her whenever they need advice and she also carries herself quite maturely. Except when she's around a certain Sugimoto, who just makes her lose all sense of dignity.
- Ueda Ryouko fits this trope a lot more, especially since she becomes somewhat motherly towards Akira and Haruka.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Yasuko and Fumi as well as Akira and Fumi. Also, Kaoruko and Shinako.
The Thing That Goes Doink
Those Two Guys: Kou and Shinobu, to some degree, on the girls' first summer vacation. They literally are the only two guys in a gaggle of young teen girls, and they... bonded to a certain extend. If one considers Shinobu's Big Brother Instinct rearing its irksome head around Kou to be "bonding".
Tsurime Eyes: Kyouko and a few of the Sugimoto sisters.
Victorious Childhood Friend: Fumi with regard to Akira. At least, for now.
- Also Kou with regard to Kyouko, since Kyouko's feelings for another girl seem to have been nothing but a phase.
Wholesome Crossdresser: Yasuko wears slacks and a tie for her sister's wedding.
Will They or Won't They?: Akira and Fumi.
- They do. After a long period of confusion, Akira asks Fumi to go out with her.
- To a lesser degree, Kyoko and Kou, as a portion of the fanbase actually prefers that she gets together with him rather than Yasuko.
Yuri Fangirl: In the Manga, a lot of the girls get very excited about Kawasaki and Yasuko living together as exchange students, which even gets mentioned on the front-page of Fujigaya's news paper.
- And this happens again when Fujigaya's news club publishes rumors about a Fujigaya student dating a girl from another school. Which is clearly about Fumi and Akira, much to Akira's chagrin.
Yuri Genre