Mizuiro Jidai

 is manga series which was serialized in 1991 by Shogakukan. in the shōjo manga magazine "Ciao". A 47-episode anime television series based on the manga was produced by NAS and TV Tokyo and animated by Studio Comet; it aired on TV Tokyo from 1996 to 1997. During the run of the anime a continuation of the story called "Shin Mizuiro Jidai" was run in Ciao Magazine. The series was made into a musical in 2001 and a cast recording was released.
Plot.
The story of the anime follows Yuko Kawai, a junior highschool student, as she faces the challenges of growing up and overcoming her shyness as she comes of age. She begins seeing her best friend Hiroshi Naganuma, the boy next door, in a different light.
Characters.
When he confessed to her, at first he didn't get a straight answer. 
She has a pretty strong will and had a crush on Hiroshi Naganuma.
Episode list.
Love is in the air! Classmates are giving chocolates to each other left and right. Yuko wants to give some to Hiroshi-kun. Will she be able to give them to him? And what's this? Oh no! THE CHOCOLATE HAVE GONE MISSING?! How can Yuko give some to Hiroshi-kun now? She even skipped her council meeting, just so she can hand-make the Chocolates. Even though Hiroshi-kun is receiving quite a few Chocolates, why doesn't he seem happy? 
Yuko's grades have dropped considerably. If she doesn't do something about it soon, she will fail. Yuko would have loved for Hiroshi-kun to help her, but since he, too, is studying for his own exams, he drew up a study guide schedule that he thought would help her to some extent. Of course, he also thought that she would come to him anyway. Yuko felt like she was being a burden for Hiroshi-kun, so, she decided to study hard all by herself. When she couldn't understand, she tried going to her sister for help. Her sister, on the other hand, got Yuko to play video games one day. A couple days left until the exam, and Hiroshi-kun discovered that Yuko hasn't even really studied at all! Shocked, he thought she should have been fine if she was following the schedule. Yuko, upset that Hiroshi-kun couldn't understand, runs to the roof. A classmate of Hiroshi-kun told him what was wrong, and Takako tells him, "She told me that 'smarter girls would probably be better suited for you.'" Wanting to makes things right with Yuko, Hiroshi-kun runs in panic to find her. Once he does, he first apologises to her for not considering her feelings. Then, he also declares, "I don't care weather your grades are good or not, I love you!"
After that, Hiroshi-kun and Yuko were able to study peacefully and they both pass their exams. 
Yuko is relieved when she notices that Hiroshi-kun and herself were in the same class together again. The problem is: none of her other friends are also not in the same class. So for the first couple of days of the new classes, Yuko finds herself very lonely. One day, she bumps into Takako-chan in the hall and they have a chat. Yuko asks her if they would like to have lunch the next day, Takako-chan refuses. Then, she also bumps into her other friends who really misses her. They decided to have a lunch reunion. Hiroshi-kun stumbles upon them and tells them that Takako-chan also was eating by herself. Wondering what was up, Yuko heads over to Takako-chan's classroom. There, by the door, she watches as Takako-chan keeps asking her classmates if they would like to have lunch with her. After being turned down more than once, finally, a girl (who was already done with her lunch) agreed to keep eating lunch with Takako-chan the next day and so on. Getting the idea, in her own classroom, of course, Yuko sums up all her courage and goes and asks a group of girls if she can eat with them and they agree, much to her delight. 