In the early 1970s, a young Japanese woman wrote a massive, breathlessly romantic love story.

Set in an all-boys boarding school.

In Germany.

If it sounds like a nervy thing to do today, it was practically unheard of then. Moto Hagio was a member of a new generation writing shojo manga ("comics for girls") who were determined to bring a less formulaic, more grounded sensibility to the form. In the decades since her manga opus The Heart of Thomas