Yuunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni

Synopsis

Yuunagi no Machi (Town of Evening Calm) The 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima ravaged the land and its populace, leaving behind a devastating aftermath. In the recovering city a decade later, Minami Hirano and her mother strive to save enough money to reunite with Minami's younger brother, who was separated from the family during the crisis. While Minami's hard work and tenacity have taken her this far, she is constantly tormented by traumatizing visions of the past, which are amplified by the persisting effects of the bombing. Mustering the courage to face her grief, Minami wishes to find solace and move on to a brighter future. Sakura no Kuni (Country of Cherry Blossoms) Fifth-grade student Nanami Ishikawa has settled into a daily routine: she walks home with her best friend and next-door neighbor Touko Tone, attends baseball practice, and visits her sickly younger brother at the hospital. Even 17 years later, her life remains uneventful. However, things change when Nanami's father begins to disappear for entire days, only to claim he merely went on a walk. Motivated by suspicion and concern for his safety, Nanami follows him to his true destination—Hiroshima, a place she has more significant ties to than she ever realized. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Background

Yuunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni won the Grand Prize in the manga category at the eighth Japan Media Arts Festival in 2004. In 2005, it received the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Creative Award. Futabasha made available a bunkoban edition, and Coamix later re-issued the series under the Xenon Comics label. The manga was published in English as Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Last Gasp in February 2007. It was published in French by Kana on April 21, 2006; in Spanish by Glenat in 2007; in Italian by Kappa Edizioni under the Ronin Manga label in May 2010; in Brazilian Portuguese by Editora JBC on August 2010; in Russian by Alt Graph on November 11, 2019; and in Polish by Waneko on June 14, 2024. The English and French editions have received a reprint by the same publishers. Meanwhile, the Spanish edition was re-released by Kodai Editorial. Ten translated editions were featured in an exhibition at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima's Chuo Ward on July 3, 2022. The manga received two award-winning adaptations, a radio drama in 2006 and a live-action movie in 2007; it was also adapted into a novel in 2017 and a TV drama in 2018.

Characters

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