Set in Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, this love story incorporates elements of the classic Japanese ukiyo-e art style, while concealing all kinds of detailed references to the local culture in its brightly-colored backdrops. These thoughtful choices only serve to make the book feel even more warm and accessible to its readers. By a twist of fate, a young woman comes across a puppet in a Kyoto storefront, and plants a cherry blossom branch inside his empty heart. She does not yet know that this carefree gesture will inadvertently bring the puppet to life – and just like his new vitality, the puppet’s attachment to her only grows stronger and stronger. At the same time, however, the girl is falling in love with a mysterious boy who calls himself Poison… When a chance meeting becomes a destined encounter, will the girl’s love go to the silently blooming flower of hope, or the brilliant sun who already burned her once before? Love and death, youth and obsession, fantasies and gentle breezes…When love this pure happens in a place as romantic as the old capital of Kyoto, it’s as if to say, ‘There once was a love like this, flowering like the cherry blossoms; there once was person like this, who loved you more than life itself...’