Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 1

This manga, the first installment of a two-part collected edition, follows a group of high school students in Matsumoto, a city in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, as they attempt to prevent the death of a friend using letters sent from the future.

On April 6, the first day of her second year of high school, 16-year-old Naho Takamiya receives a letter claiming to be from herself ten years in the future. It accurately predicts she will oversleep and that a transfer student from Tokyo named Naruse Kakeru will join her class. As these predictions prove true, Naho begins taking the letter seriously. It warns her not to invite Kakeru to walk home with her group of friends, but she dismisses this and invites him anyway. Her friends include Suwa Hiroto, a tall and easygoing athlete; Chino Takako, a loyal, tough-talking girl; Murasaka Azusa (Azu), a cheerful and energetic girl; and Hagita Saku, a serious boy with a dry sense of humor.

Kakeru is absent for two weeks after the entrance ceremony. When he returns on April 20 for a school ballgame tournament, the letter's predictions hold. It says Naho was asked to pinch-hit during a softball match but declined, and that her future self regrets this. Naho agrees to bat despite her injured foot and hits a home run. Kakeru notices her injury afterward and tends to it. The letter delivers a devastating revelation: Kakeru will die in the winter of his 17th year. Naho resolves to save him.

The letter next instructs Naho to make Kakeru lunch, since his mother does not prepare one. That afternoon, Kakeru walks Naho home alone and reveals that his mother died by suicide on April 6. He had promised to accompany her to the hospital that day but chose to walk home with his new friends instead. He was absent for two weeks to attend her funeral. Naho realizes the letter's warning not to invite Kakeru was meant to prevent him from breaking this promise, sparing him the crushing guilt he now carries. When Naho gives him the lunch, he accepts with visible emotion, admitting he had hoped she would make it.

The narrative periodically shifts to ten years in the future, where the five surviving friends reunite and dig up a high school time capsule. Kakeru's death, initially reported as a traffic accident, has fractured the group. His letter from the capsule, addressed to his friends rather than himself, expresses gratitude and hopes they remain close but says nothing about his own future, implying he knew he would not have one.

In the present, Naho's actions begin changing the timeline. On May 1, Kakeru officially joins the soccer team rather than quitting. The next day, however, Ueda, a popular upperclassman, confesses her feelings to Kakeru. The letter instructs Naho to confess her own feelings to prevent him from accepting, but she cannot speak, and Kakeru begins dating Ueda. When Ueda becomes jealous and forbids Kakeru from talking to other girls, Naho stops speaking to him entirely. Suwa and Takako confront her, arguing that her withdrawal only hurts Kakeru, who has been skipping soccer practice. Naho chases after Kakeru and apologizes, and he reveals he plans to break up with Ueda because he could not stand being unable to talk to Naho. He gives Naho a hair pin as a thank-you for the lunches she made him.

A classroom lecture on time travel introduces the parallel-worlds theory, which helps Naho understand the letter's mechanics. As the letter's predictions grow less accurate, she realizes she and her future self now occupy diverging timelines. Even if she saves Kakeru, her future self's world cannot be changed, but Naho resolves to press forward.

During the school's cultural festival, Suwa repeatedly arranges for Naho to spend time alone with Kakeru, quietly supporting her. On the closing night, Naho invites Kakeru to watch fireworks together. In the darkness, Naho tells Kakeru she would choose him if she could date any of her male friends, and he says he would choose her. They hold hands, and Kakeru says he is glad he came to Matsumoto.

The full truth about Kakeru's death emerges in the future timeline when his grandmother reveals it was not an accident. A note Kakeru left behind asked her to "please tell everyone it was an accident" if something happened to him (321). In it, he expressed his intention to apologize to his mother and thanked his grandmother for everything. In the present, Naho reads ahead and learns the exact date: February 15. The letter warns that preventing this single incident would not be enough, because "if it hadn't been the truck, it would have been something else" (330). It urges Naho to lighten his emotional burden and never leave him alone.

At the Matsumoto Bon-Bon, a summer street festival, on August 4, Kakeru confides in Naho about his guilt. On the day of the entrance ceremony, he found his emotionally unstable mother's dependency burdensome and texted that he was too busy to accompany her to the hospital. She died by suicide before replying. Naho tells him his mother understands.

Suwa then reveals that he, too, received a letter from his future self. The letter instructs him to help bring Kakeru and Naho together, revealing that Suwa was in love with Naho throughout high school but regretted never stepping aside for Kakeru. It asks him to find a way for them to be "smiling together, ten years from now" (410). Together, Naho and Suwa organize a birthday celebration for Kakeru on September 14. Suwa's letter also reveals that Kakeru wanted a flower bouquet as his birthday gift, not for himself but to give to Naho. Suwa buys the flowers and ensures they reach her from Kakeru.

As September 23 approaches, the letters warn that Kakeru attempted suicide on that date. The friends convince him to spend the day with them and push him to open up. After resisting, Kakeru breaks down and admits he thinks about dying every day because of his guilt over his mother's death. Suwa tells him that feeling frustrated with a parent is normal and that he did nothing wrong. Naho tells Kakeru she likes him and begs him not to die.

When Kakeru is selected as anchor for the class relay at the sports festival, the letter warns he will twist his ankle and instructs Naho to remove him from the race. But Kakeru says he is looking forward to running. Rather than following the letter, all five friends volunteer to run alongside him. This marks a shift: The group resolves to stop following the letters blindly and instead trust their own judgment.

As the timeline continues to diverge, Kakeru collapses at school, possibly from overexerting himself in soccer practice, and Naho struggles without clear guidance. Suwa encourages her to confide in their other friends. When Takako, Azu, and Hagita confront Naho, she reveals the letter. They then disclose that they, too, received letters from their future selves. All five friends in the future sent letters back, united by their shared regret over Kakeru's death. The volume ends with all six friends committed to a single goal, declaring: "Let's save Kakeru."