BARAKAMON

A week after coming to the island, Handa is trying to focus on improving his calligraphy. However, he keeps getting interrupted by Naru and her friends, including middle-school girls Miwa and Tama, who want their old base back!

Tama hides a deep, dark secret, and meeting Handa may have led her to reveal it. Is it too late for her to save her reputation? Meanwhile, Handa is suffering his own angst after not placing first in a calligraphy competition. Maybe a friendly mochi-picking session with the villagers will cheer him up...

After his computer and cell phone break, Handa's only link to the outside world is the phone at the general store. He decides to focus on his entry for the upcoming Naruka Institute competition, but hits a wall. Can a job from Miwa's gangsterish dad help him break through it?

After the job from Miwa's dad breaks his artist's block, Handa's ready to get writing! But some distractions come up, in the form of the girls demanding penmanship help, a day taking the kids to the beach, and Naru's Grampa's addictive pickled daikon...

Handa's only friend, Kawafuji, arrives with a kid named Kanzaki Kousuke in tow, but their trip to Handa's house ends up being very roundabout. Why does Kousuke want to meet Handa so badly, and why did Kawafuji agree to bring him?

To make up for the turmoil of the previous two days, the village kids and Handa treat his guests to a fun day of fishing before bidding them farewell.

It's Naru's birthday, and Handa wants to present her with a new rhinoceros beetle. However, Kenta not only refuses to help him catch one, but also declares a battle to get Naru the best bug! Later, Handa is invited along for a visit to the Kotoishi family gravesite, but finds the local Obon customs unusually cheerful.

It's only two weeks until the Naruka Exhibition. Handa waits for inspiration as he deals with a broken bath heater and various scuffles with the kids. Unfortunately, not long after inspiration falls, so does Handa...

After Handa submits his "Star" calligraphy despite some trepidation, he gets roped into helping to build a stone wall and then into taking the girls to the summer festival. Meanwhile, Kawafuji gets the exhibition hall director to agree to welcome Handa back to Tokyo. How will he bid farewell to the kind islanders who've taught him so much?

Handa has returned to Tokyo, to show his new "STAR" calligraphy to the gallery director he had punched and ask for forgiveness. However, Handa doesn't feel quite right about the work, and ends up smearing it before the director can. Could some inspiration from his time at the island help him create an even better work before the deadline?

With his calligraphy exhibition entry finished, Handa wants to return to the island and the people he cares about there. Unfortunately, his mom is dead set against it. How will he convince her to let him go?