Nasu

*Nasu* is an anthology of interconnected stories built around a recurring cast of characters, including the farmer Takama and a young girl named Aya Takashi. Aya is introduced as a child abandoned by her father, living in Tokyo with her two younger siblings. By the series' second volume, she leaves the city to live with relatives in the countryside, settling near Takama's farm. Interspersed with the ongoing narratives of Takama and Aya are a diverse range of standalone tales. These include a chronicle of Edo-period samurai on a hunt for forbidden eggplant, a futuristic story set atop Mount Fuji, a vignette following a truck driver, and *Summer in Andalusia*, which centers on the professional Spanish cyclist Pepe Benengeli—the story that would later serve as the basis for the film adaptation.