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ARGH my Tivo is now hooked up to a cable box, and it changed channels improperly and thereby IS NOT RECORDING SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.

This is a tragedy of epic proportions, especially considering how much hair-pulling and swearing went on yesterday when I tried to set it up.

Stupid cable box. I HATE YOU.

Ashihara Hinako - Sand Chronicles, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)

Twenty-something Uekusa Ann is packing up to move with her boyfriend when she finds an old hourglass in her boxes, prompting her to remember her childhood move from Tokyo to rural Shimane. We're taken through her memories at 12, 14, and 16 in these three volumes, and the overall frame of the story as flashback works to give the series a sense of nostalgia and bittersweetness. It's incredibly effective, much like the framing narrative of Nana.

I actually read volume 1 almost a year ago, on David Welsh's rec, but I ended up being underwhelmed. Rereading, I can see why—in the first volume, you don't know that the first time skip is coming up (from age 12 to 14), or that that's how the structure of the series will go. But on a reread, it takes on added weight and significance, and I'm guessing the rest of the series will only get better over time and rereading. Which is not to damn by faint praise, because it's very good already.

I keep comparing this to Nana, even though the cast of characters is much smaller and the issues dealt with are much less thorny. A lot of it is the story structure, but some is that Ashihara has a similar feel and empathy for her characters that Yazawa does. Not only that, but the way the plot arises from the characters and their growth reminds me a lot of how Yazawa's series work.

It has me rooting for Ann and Daigo's relationship, even though I know that most relationships that start when two people are twelve rarely end up working, but even so, I want to know what happens to Ann and Daigo's best friends, siblings Fuji and Shika. I love how it's not just romance, but family and friends and community, the difficulties of moving and finding new friends, dealing with parents, dealing with adolescence and puberty and somehow ending up as the twenty-some woman we meet in the beginning.

( Spoilers )

In conclusion: I really love this and am glad I picked it up again after dismissing it a while ago. Highly recced, especially for people who like character-driven shoujo.