IC in a Sunflower

IC in a Sunflower (集積回路のヒマワリ, Shūsekikairo no Himawari) is a josei manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara. It is a collection of seven, unrelated short stories which appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Feel Young from 1994 to 1997.

Plot
IC in a Sunflower consists of seven short stories, a format that Mitsukazu Mihara frequently uses for her narrative. The stories are unrelated to each other, each featuring a different protagonist. The stories of IC in a Sunflower sometimes incorporate a twist ending.

"Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" (ゴムのいらない子供たち "Gomu no Iranai Kodomo-tachi") revolves around a future in which teenagers do not have a desire for sex, as a result of an AIDS vaccine. The story focuses on Irori, who is taught about sex in school and encouraged by his parents, but ultimately neither understands nor has a desire for sex.

"The Iron Maiden" (リッサの鉄の柩) focuses on a woman who struggles to create a happy life for herself despite the childhood sexual abuse done to her by her older brother. In her backstory, her parents refused to believe her as a child about her brother's abuse towards her, and upset, she bites her doll and develops a compulsive habit of biting. Later, as an adult, she settles down with a husband and child, but after discovering her battered doll which triggers memories of her unhappy childhood, she bites her child.

"The Sunflower Quality Of An Integrated Circuit" (集積回路のヒマワリ) centers on Vanilla, an android who keeps house for an old man married to a younger, unfaithful woman. The man treats Vanilla well, seeing her as a daughter, and the two have tea in the garden; his wife, in contrast, abuses her and allows her lover to do the same. After the old man reveals his plans for divorce, his wife murders him and orders Vanilla to bury the remains. Vanilla obeys, although she recognizes that the remains were of the old man. The story ends with Vanilla in the garden, keeping her promise to the man by having tea when the sunflowers bloom.

In "The Other Side Of The Rose Wire" (バラ鉄線のむこう側), a boy falls in love from afar with a girl taking care of her elderly father. After she fails to appear with her father one day, he finds her dressed in mourning clothes with a smile on her face and burning the basket she kept with her.

"Fish Out Of Water" (籠の魚) focuses on a captured mermaid and her refusal to speak. Her captor attempts to pull her out of the bathtub where she had been living, and she remembers that she was a girl whose mother had tried to drown her and herself in a lake years ago. Her mother died, but she survived and imagined herself as a mermaid. She then wakes up from her delusion, finding herself in a hospital instead of a bathtub, and can begin to recover.

"Mister Mineral" (鉱物君) revolves around a college student, who collects rocks and is tormented by his memories of dissecting a frog. After learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, he becomes upset and tosses her into a busy highway.

Set in a future where human cloning is practiced, "Alive" (あなたは生きている) focuses on Tou, a clone sent to live in an orphanage of humans as part of an assignment. There, he meets a cheerful girl named Riika and after some time, she is taken to be killed for her organs. It is then revealed that Tou only thought he was a clone.