Ao Haru Ride (or Blue Spring Ride) is a romantic and comedic manga series by Io Sakisaka that ran from 2011 to 2015 and earned itself a one season anime along with two OVAs.  This series, with its surprisingly realistic plot line, fits into the romance, comedy, and slice-of-life genres and comes in at my personal favorite romantic anime and manga series!  Ao Haru Ride follows the story of two first year high schoolers, Futaba Yoshioka, a young girl whose goal is to be unattractive to the male gender, and Kou Mabuchi, who is a “solo player” in his own right.  The series describes their relationship starting in middle school where they first met and fell in love with each other.  At the time, Kou’s last name had been Tanaka and he had been the only boy that Futaba got along with.  After a misunderstanding, in which Futaba had been shouting that she hated boys and Kou had overheard, the two lost contact and Kou moved away with his mother after his parents divorced, never informing Futaba and leaving her heartbroken.  Three years later they meet again, and it’s more than difficult to rekindle what they had… or so you would think.  Although the pacing is a bit slow, and in the anime it is never fully expressed that the two confess and are mutually in love, it really is a great series through and through that deals with the real side of high school, teenage romance, friendships, choices, and family issues.  The anime (although personally I thought the manga series was better) has great animations and the art done for the flashbacks to Futaba and Kou’s relationship and memories in middle school, done in a style that appears like it was done in watercolor, sets the mood that the series is romantic even without all of the relationship romance that a romance series implies.  It is absolutely a great series that should get a gold star.  The manga series is not printed in English, but the anime can be found on Amazon for a reasonable price.  I highly recommend this series!