Niina Aoyagi is a 10-year-old girl with a crush on her handsome neighbour Atsurou Itami, who works as a nutritionist at her school. This wouldn't be nothing more than a sweet Precocious Crush... if it wasn't for Niina being the reincarnation of Chitose Amamiya, a 16-year-old girl who died 10 years ago and Atsurou's best friend, whom she had a crush in. Niina will have to deal with both Chitose's lingering wishes and her own feelings.
A sweet shoujo manga by Koyomi Miyamori, Hajimari no Niina (lit. Start of Niina) was originally planned as a collection of four related one-shots serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume, but eventually was expanded to more chapters, running from 2010 to 2012 and compiled into 4 volumes.
This series has examples of:
- Adorably Precocious Child: How Niina comes across at first.
- Age-Gap Romance: Between Niina and Atsurou there's a 16 year difference. By the time Niina is 18, Atsurou is already on his thirties.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Initially, Chitose and Atsurou.
- Cool Big Sis: Niina's older sister.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Niina having to move to Hokkaido and everyone's opposal, eventually things go right for Niina and Atsuro. They get married when she comes of age and have two children.
- Happily Married: Niina and Atsurou.
- The Lost Lenore: Chitose for Atsurou.
- Precocious Crush: Niina on Atsurou.
- The Mourning After: Atsurou really had it rough after Chitose's death. He stopped eating and it's very implied he eventually developed an eating disorder. His job as a nutricionist was a consequence of how he started to study about how many nutrients he needed on each food to keep surviving. And of course, he doesn't date anyone since Chitose's death until Niina comes along.
- Posthumous Character: Chitose only appears through flashbacks lived by Niina or through the memories other people have of her.
- Reincarnation: Of sorts. Niina isn't exactly the same person as Chitose, but has her memories and shares some of her feelings (like feeling melancholic when meeting her family and such)
- Reincarnation Romance: Chitose had a crush on Atsurou before dying. Niina also has this crush.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Atsurou. In his high school days he wasn't as dark, though.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Chitose was kind of tomboyish, wearing trousers and a Tomboyish Ponytail while Niina is much more feminine, wears pink clothes and skirts and has longer, wavier hair.
