With the Light


is a josei drama manga by Keiko Tobe. It began serialization in 2000 in For Mrs., and serial chapters were collected in 15 tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. The series depicts the struggles of a young mother, Sachiko Azuma, raising her autistic son Hikaru in modern Japan. The series is licensed in English in North America by Yen Press, with eight volumes published as of September 2011.
In January 2009, the series went on hiatus due to Tobe's illness and remained uncompleted when she died in January 2010. Her works during her illness were collected and published with some of her earlier works as volume 15 in June 2010.
The series received an Excellence Prize for manga at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival. It was adapted as a television drama, airing on NTV from April 14, 2004 to June 23, 2004, which won several awards at Japan's 41st Television Drama Academy Awards, including "Best Drama". The theme song was performed by Rythem.

Plot

The manga series begins with Hikaru's birth. Sachiko, Hikaru's mother, realizes that her son is a little bit different from the other babies. When Hikaru is diagnosed with autism at one and a half years old, Sachiko faces the ignorance towards autism from others around her. However, gradually, Sachiko meets more people who are accepting of Hikaru and his autism, and she regains her determination to raise Hikaru into a "cheerful, working adult" in society.

Characters

Azuma Family

;Sachiko Azuma
;Masato Azuma
;Hikaru Azuma
;Kanon Azuma

Teachers

;Shigeru Aoki
;Noriko Wakabayashi
;Gunji

Others

;Miyu Honda
;Moe Nakajima
;Daisuke Ishida
;Takuya Oki
;Kanata Tanaka
;Hisako Nakajima
;Katakura
;Tanaka
;Takako Azuma
;Mr. & Mrs. Nishiyama

Manga

The manga began serialization in For Mrs. in 2000. Serial chapters have been collected in 15 tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. The series is licensed in English by Yen Press for North America, which is collecting two tankōbon volumes in each English volume.