Adachi & Shimamura is a light novel series by Hitoma Iruma and Non that follows a slow-burn romance between two high school girls, Sakura Adachi and Hougetsu Shimamura. The light novel series is up to Vol. 10 in Japan and has been adapted into both anime and manga.
While yuri may be the focus of the series, it does a lot more than just depict the budding romance between two adolescent girls still trying to make sense of their lives. It also meaningfully explores the relationships the two girls have with their mothers and how that shapes their relationships with themselves and other people. But what really stands out about their portrayal is how surprisingly true to life their experiences are, which makes each of the characters feel life-like rather than stand-ins for readers.
Adachi and Shimamura Explores Adolescent Mental Health
In the beginning of Adachi & Shimamura Vol.1, readers spend a considerable amount of time with Hougetsu Shimamura, as most of the first novel is told from her point of view. It's immediately known that Shimamura doesn't think highly of herself and especially struggles with interpersonal relationships. She expresses lacking the mental capacity to concentrate on her school work, which is a major reason she tends to skip class. It was on one of her skipping days that she met Sakura Adachi, another girl from her class who was also skipping.
Adachi and Shimamura immediately bond over their shared experiences. Adachi, like Shimamura, also doesn't think highly of herself and struggles tremendously with forming relationships. There is, however, a significant difference in the way both girls view relationships and especially in how they perceive themselves. Adachi, for example, experiences paralyzing social anxiety, which causes her to freeze in the presence of others and she tends to socially withdraw. Despite this, however, she still sees value in relationships and yearns for a meaningful human connection. She finds this with Shimamura but not necessarily in the capacity she wants.
Shimamura by contrast appears to have symptoms of Persistent Depressive Disorder, which is a mild form of depression that usually starts in childhood or adolescence and tends to last for two or more years. Throughout the first novel, Shimamura struggles with low energy and low self-esteem, as well poor concentration and dislikes having to make decisions. While she does value her friendship with Adachi and cares for her a lot, she also tends to keep her emotional investment in Adachi at arm's length. When she thinks about why that is in the novel, she reasons that she's been that way since junior high school and because she finds relationships emotionally draining.
Looking at how Adachi and Shimamura can be so similar, yet different at the same time, it's worth examining the relationships they have with their parents, especially their mothers.
Shimamura's Mother Is Involved But Far From Nurturing
The first time Shimamura's family appears the light novel, it's when they go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant Adachi works at. Though the chapter is told from Adachi's point of view and she perceives the family to be close and functional, the way Shimamura's mother interacts with both Adachi and her own daughter says otherwise.
One thing that immediately stands out about their relationship is that Shimamura's mother is not at all respectful of her daughter's boundaries. When she meets Adachi for the first time, Shimamura confirms she's a friend from school, but then her mother doesn't leave it at that. Instead, she starts prying Adachi for answers about her own daughter, which makes both her and Shimamura uncomfortable. When Shimamura tells her mother to stop bombarding Adachi with questions, she completely ignores her daughter's request and keeps going until Adachi departs, reminding the family she's an employee with a job to do.
Shimamura's mother not being respectful of personal boundaries is telling as it's a clear indicator that she doesn't think of Shimamura as an autonomous individual, but as an extension of herself. This becomes more evident when Shimamura herself thinks about her relationship with her mother, most notably in the first chapter of Vol. 2 . During her narration, Shimamura brings to light her mother's critical nature and especially her inability to validate her daughter in any capacity.
Consistently throughout her childhood, Shimamura was told by her mother not to be a burden on other people and that she wasn't going to be allowed to live at home past the age of 18. When she talks about her daughter with other people, Shimamura's mother only talks about her flaws and never her accomplishments. On top of that, when Shimamura goes to the gym with her mother, the latter uses the opportunity to subtly bully her daughter by reminding her how unaccomplished she is compared to her.
Between constant invalidation and having her personal boundaries violated, Shimamura thinking poorly of herself and finding relationships bothersome are natural consequences of this harmful dynamic with her mother. Part of the reason Shimamura is emotionally unavailable to Adachi is the fact she hasn't learned how to validate herself nor does she know how to define her own self-worth. Ironically, this may be the thing that's attracting Adachi to her.
Adachi's Mother Is Emotionally Unavailable And Neglectful
Adachi's relationship with her mother isn't any better and is in some ways worse. The first time her mother appears in the light novels, it's in Chapter 1 of Vol. 2 and her debut is somewhat similar to Shimamura's mother. For example, Adachi's mother is also highly critical of her daughter and only talks about her flaws with other people. But the difference -- at least as observed by Shimamura -- is that she's completely uninvolved in her daughter's life, having seemingly given up on her when she was just five years old.
At best, Adachi's mother is physically present in that she provides Adachi with food, clothes and shelter, but that's the bare minimum. There's no real affection towards her, there is no emotional investment in her daughter's life and she doesn't nurture any of her daughter's interests. The impact this has on Adachi is that it leaves her feeling starved for love, acceptance and affection, but she also doesn't know how to respond to it when she actually does receive it. Since she learned as a child that she cannot depend on her mother for any of those things, she has no real attachment to her. When her mother does take Shimamura's advice and tries being affectionate towards her for once, it weirds Adachi out because she's not used to it.
The other major consequence of Adachi's mother being emotionally unavailable and neglectful is that Adachi's self-esteem was never built up through consistent validation. As such, she has no idea who she is as a person and doesn't know how to begin to love herself. This actually informs her extreme attachment to Shimamura. Because Shimamura has similar life experiences and is also the first person to show her affection, Adachi finds herself pursuing Shimamura's love based on feelings of inadequacy. While Shimamura never turns down any of Adachi's requests for physical intimacy, there are times when she does find Adachi's behavior a bit overwhelming.
