I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (Novel)

## *I Want to Eat Your Pancreas*

* JP
* EN

***I Want to Eat Your Pancreas*** (君 (きみ) の膵 (すい) 臓 (ぞう) をたべたい, *Kimi no Suizō o Tabetai*?) is a novel written by Yoru Sumino.

Originally released as a web novel on the site Shosetsuka ni Naro in 2014, it was picked up and republished by Futabasha in 2015 featuring a cover illustration by freelance artist loundraw.

Seven Seas Entertainment announced their license to the novel on March 15, 2018, and later published a full English translation of the novel in November of the same year.

## Synopsis

Also known as *Let Me Eat Your Pancreas*, the coming-of-age tearjerker that inspired two films!

A high school boy finds the diary of his classmate―only to discover that she’s dying. Sakura Yamauchi has been silently suffering from a pancreatic disease, and now exactly one person outside her family knows. He swears to her that he won’t tell anyone what he learned, and the shared secret brings them closer together in this deeply moving, first-person story that traces their developing relationship in Sakura’s final months of life.

## Characters

### "Me"

One of the series' deuteragonists. He doesn't like to involve himself with other people nor spend time forming relationships. Instead, he enjoys reading novels, and is a fan of Osamu Dazai.

One day, he picks up Sakura Yamauchi's *Living with Dying* at the hospital. Through his time spent with Sakura as a result of this, he comes to appreciate others and begins to make an effort to interact with them.

### Sakura Yamauchi

One of the series' deuteragonists. She's a lively and expressive girl who laughs a lot.

She has a pancreatic illness and had been told she only had one year left to live when she first met "Me". She decides not to resent her fate when she gets sick, so she names her diary "*Living with Dying*" instead of "*Fighting my Illness*" or something of a similar sort.

### Kyoko Takimoto

Sakura's best friend. She immediately notices the closeness of "Me" and Sakura's relationship after they begin talking, and, as someone who's protective of her best friend, doesn't always approve.

She often comes across as scary and sharp, but, according to Sakura, she's quite a crybaby deep down and has a sensitive side. She becomes "Me"'s first friend after Sakura's death.

### Gum Boy

A boy "Me" met through class. He's laid-back in nature, but pretty obedient when set to do something. He always carries gum with him and likes to offer it around to his friends.

He becomes a friend of "Me" after "Me" begins to open up to people, and he has something of a crush on Kyoko.

### Takahiro

The class representative and Sakura's ex-boyfriend. Despite his popularity and the pleasant mask he wears, he's actually a jealous, insidious and childish boy.

Sakura broke up with him due to him being too pushy, which leads to him, not quite having gotten over this, becoming suspicious of her new friendship with "Me". He taunts "Me" as a result until Sakura finally witnesses his jealous acts and rejects him face to face.

### My Mother

She doesn't interfere with "Me" and his life, but she knows enough to realize he didn't have any friends until he became close to Sakura, and is grateful to her for taking care of her son.

After Sakura's death, she senses that "Me" wants to pay respects at Sakura's house and gives him ¥10,000 as an offering. Once he returns home, she looks him in the face and tells him "You did your best".

### Sakura's Mother

A woman who shares Sakura's eyes and her love of laughter. She's gentle in nature, but often a little overprotective of Sakura due to her illness, which leads her to become awkward as she tries to pretend everything is normal.

After Sakura's death, she gives *Living with Dying* to "Me" when he visits. She says, "I'm sure Sakura really wanted you to read it."

## Adaptations

### Manga

On August 25, 2016, about a year after the novel was professionally republished, Idumi Kirihara began serializing a manga adaptation that followed the novel's original plotline. It spanned ten chapters across two tankobon volumes, and ended the following year on February 10, 2017.

### Live Action

A Japanese live action film based on the novel and directed by Sho Tsukikawa was released on July 28, 2017. The movie followed the novel's plot less faithfully than the manga, setting the story 12 years after Sakura's death and telling her story through flashbacks.

### Anime

The novel's anime movie adaptation was announced on August 2017, releasing the following year on September 1. The movie's story followed that of the manga in terms of plot and character designs, and was also released in English dub on February 10, 2019.

## References

1. ↑ *I Want to Eat Your Pancreas* Novel on Amazon (EN)