Solanin

Solanin
Cover of VIZ's release of the manga Solanin
ソラニン (Soranin)
Genre	Romance, Music, Slice of life
Manga
Written by	Inio Asano
Published by	Shogakukan
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Weekly Young Sunday
Original run	June 30, 2005 – April 6, 2006
Volumes	2
Live-action film
Directed by	Takahiro Miki
Written by	Takahashi Izumi
Music by	Asian Kung-Fu Generation
Released	April 3, 2010
Runtime	126 minutes

Solanin (ソラニン, Soranin^?) is a Japanese slice of life romance music manga series written and illustrated by Inio Asano. It was serialised in Shogakukan's Weekly Young Sunday from 2005 to 2006. The manga is licensed and published in English by Viz Media, in French by Kana, in Germany by Tokyopop, in Italy by Planet Manga and in Chinese by Taiwan Tohan. The manga was nominated for the 2009 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan.

The manga was made into a live-action film directed by Takahiro Miki and starring Aoi Miyazaki as the female protagonist. It was released in Japan in April 2010. In the same year the band Asian Kung-Fu Generation released the single "Solanin", with lyrics written by Inio Asano, author of the manga. The song was featured in the movie version. The band also provided the ending theme to the movie.

Meiko and Taneda graduated from university two years ago. Having no real goals or direction, they step into society, clueless. Meiko works as an Office Lady to pay the rent for her apartment, while Taneda works as an illustrator in a press company, earning just enough to take some of Meiko's burden. While Taneda often meets up with his bandmates from their University days to jam, he still feels something is missing. His bandmates know what it is: they need to step out, promote themselves and let their songs be heard by a larger crowd; which has been their dream since their first meeting in their university's "Pop Music Club".