Amane Sakaguchi is cursed. Born from old-time conception—a.k.a. intercourse—her mother has condemned her to a life of falling in love and having sex in a world where romantic love and sexual desire are fast diminishing. From a young age, she has known she “had to leave the walled garden my mother created” and compel her body and mind to find comfort in being ordinary in a world that was changing fast. And for a long time, she succeeds. Like her school friends, she falls in love with a fictional character from a cartoon show and develops a dizzyingly intense relationship with him. She spends her nights talking to him and carries cut-out keychains of his likeness during the day. Through Amane’s cartoon crush, she builds friendships with other students: “When you and a friend were both in love with the same character, it brought you closer together.”