The Story of Ai and Makoto: Love and Sincerity

Ai Saotome is a high school girl from a well-to-do family. When she was kid, she was in an accident that resulted in a young boy being permanently scarred between his eyes while she emerged unscathed. Although she never knew who he was, she never forgot him.

Makoto Taiga ' a young man with a scar between his eyes, has had a rough life, but has emerged as a bancho, rough and tough bully - a thug and a brawler and about as rude as they come - all of which he blames on the incident that gave him his scar. When Ai and Makoto run into each other again, Ai feels guilt for what Makoto has become and decides to intervene and rehabilitate him. Is he a diamond in the rough, or just a bully?

NOTE: Volume count based on the bunkoban.

• Won the 6th Kodansha Publishing Culture Award for Children's Manga in 1975