#nagisa furuya | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

neonscandal · 4 months

Note

This is BL challenge for you (if you choose to accept them).

1.a) Please write your top 3 or top 5 favorite tropes in BL.

b) From each trope, write at least 3 BL that you love.

(Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them).

2. a) What is the first BL that make you want to know more about and eventually love BL?

b) What is that one BL that have a special place in your heart (for whatever reason)?

The BL can be in in the form of manga, manhwa, manhua, books, tv series or movies.

Thanks so much if you want to answer this long ask.

Okay, this one feels a bit more like homework. Very minutely in the air of dudebro asking if a girl has ever seen anything other than shojo or something, though I doubt that's where this comes from. Mostly in the sense that I don't think I confidently remember the difference between a trope and a plot device? Let's hope for the best as I certainly never mind length. *gestures vaguely to both solicited and unsolicited rants*

I will include a disclaimer that I don't just read BL? I know that's the subject of the ask and that I definitely pontificate on MLM ships a ton but I won't say that I've read enough stories that didn't, in some way, give me an ick with toxicity, coercion or straight up assault to, in good faith, recommend them. There were probably more tropes I could have listed out but this should suffice. I tried to avoid things I've recommended before but such things can't always be helped.

TROPES (probably?)

Opposites Attract (specifically Sunshine/Grumpy, extrovert/introvert)

Naked Color by Amamiya 🌶️ (manga, complete) - to be fair, considering they are friends with benefits on the front end, it kind of feels more yaoi-territory but at the same time, navigating the awkwardness of a physical relationship when you want more without jeopardizing what you've already got? Valid. There's a few panels that get a bit dicey but, otherwise, you've got self sufficient rich guy x laissez-faire can barely be bothered to care for himself artist.

This Wonderful Season With You by Atsuko Yusen (manga, complete) - wholesome and endearing story of acceptance between a nerd and a former jock with a sprinkle of healing. Love to see it.

Enemies to Lovers (specifically Hero/Villain, Work Adversaries, etc.)

Contradict by Ohshima Kamome 🌶️ (manga, complete) - rivals, seemingly with the same role model, are locked in competition for years and unknowingly making each other better firefighters. Does this sound like anyone else we know? In BL in particular, the way they go from enemies to suddenly sleeping together is always whip lash inducing but here we are.

Ibitsu na Koi no Seesaw Game by Chiaki Kashima 🌶️ (manga, complete) - so this one is on the fence of problematic but, if you commit objectively funny crimes, you should not see jail time. Such is the case in this game of stray cat and mouse between a talented thief and police inspector with a unique arrangement.

Second Chance Romance

Kimi wa Natsu no Naka by Nagisa Furuya (manga, complete) - talk about the long game, this series (and the subsequent continuation) follows two high school students who seemingly share a love of movies. While it creates an impetus to get to know one another, it's not the only thing that bonds them.

There Are Things I Can't Tell You by Edako Mofumofu 🌶️ (manga, complete) - Probably the angstiest piece on the list but overall a tender story of how two childhood friends take the long way round to finally understanding their feelings and one another. Both characters are imperfect despite appearances and I think the care around developing their back stories and the impact it has on their ability to accept love is ultimately what I really like about it. Plus the fact that you can know someone for so long and so intimately and still not understand them.

Stuck Together

Keep Holding On by Kom (manhwa, complete) - okay, kind of a stretch and this more hits unrequited love, friends to lovers, etc. but I suppose when your moms were friends before you were born and you're forced to be friends from toddlers to high school, some aspect of that is "stuck together". One of the characters chalks it up to fate but you can decide.

Fukouchuu no Shiawase by Enzou 🌶️ (manga, complete) - A guy can't be lucky all the time so, when the universe demands balance, it pairs him with the God of Disaster. Somewhat domestic bliss ensues? Honestly, this was just a really funny read. Picture Noragami except Yato's love interest isn't a literal child. Also, take all the angst over his past and identity and shave it down to like.. 1/16th.

Idiot(s) in Love

Kimi ni Koisuru Hazu ga Nai by Shina Suzaka 🌶️ (manga, complete) - Pretty boy otaku with an embarrassing secret gets discovered by a coworker who seemed to be a bit cold toward him initially. Excited to have a friend to share his interest with, he doesn't even see the feelings his new friend so obviously has for him. Or recognize that the shojo romance he's been idealizing is right in front of him.

Sonna Me de Mite Kure by Icchokusen Moukon (manga, complete) - This is what would happen if Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma 1/2 was ever humbled, even once. Popular school president whose inner and outer monologue convinces us he's the shit happens to notice a background character that he becomes increasingly more aware of. Like, it's a BL, sure? But really, it's just silly and a bit over the top which makes it a funny read.

Atarashii Joushi wa Dotennen by Dan Ichikawa (manga, complete) - One, this story is funny even though it's not quite a BL? Like, affection is expressed but not acted on and I really like that this is a story about care or intimacy without being entirely centered around confession, angst, sex, etc. It's not a coming out story, it's just about the working relationships between a pod of dudes that have a silly appreciation for one another. Also, I think this has been recently animated which I'll for sure have to check out as I think I'd only gotten to like chapter 12?

Emotional Scars

Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida (anime, complete) - Immediately, this is not a BL story and the person who tells you it is hates you and wants you to suffer. There's a laundry list of trigger warnings which, going in, if you think it'll be a silly goofy love story, you will be sorely disappointed and probably traumatized. But, even so, the connection that Ash and Eiji have is and will always be love. Soulmates. Despite everything Ash had been through, the sins he burdened himself with, Eiji never shied away from him and welcomed him with open arms. Despite the overall violence of the show, there was never any present between them which is integral to why I will still stand by the pairing. Additionally, in real life, terrible things happen to people that are outside of their control. There should be love stories that heal/forgive that, too.

NEONSCANDAL LORE

That's actually pretty recently with the Sasaki to Miyano anime which turned into reading the entire manga and, subsequently, opened the floodgates for other stories.

Honorable Mention: When Yuri on Ice crossed from sports anime to BL. You could definitely argue that that was the spark.

Back during my initial anime era, I think there weren't as many BL or MLM stories that were accessible, although a lot of anime wasn't accessible back then. You still had queer characters with Sailor Moon (main and side characters), Fushigi Yugi, Inuyasha (side characters), Ranma 1/2, etc. though I can't say it was always positive. The whole Junjo Romantica universe comes to mind and, I think, was reminiscent of yaoi back then which I wasn't into. BL wasn't really a thing. I think it should also be said that, back then, I also wasn't particularly seeking it out.

Subsequently, I think Sasaki to Miyano has a special place in my heart. Like, the whole conflict of the series is Miyano reconciling his feelings toward a very straightforward Sasaki without the angst of unsupportive or bigoted friends/side characters. Good for them. The whole story was just delicately rendered, I really enjoyed it. I circle back on this idea of engaging with queer content as a means of coming into your own identity (which Sasaki to Miyano demonstrates) because it resonates and the series created the path for that, in a way.

5 notes · View notes

hatsumishinogu · 11 months

Photo

Long Period [Last Volume]

#long period #nagisa furuya #boys love #manga

6 notes · View notes

otaku-republic · 9 months

Text

<Article> 【This Week's New BL Manga】Douagaitemo Ai, Marriage Game, Long Period and MORE!

#Douagaitemo Ai #Marriage Game #Long Period #yaoi manga #bl manga #yaoi comics #yaoi comic #bl comic #bl comics #Yatano Haruchika #nagisa furuya #haruchika yatano

2 notes · View notes

loafkingdom · 10 months

Text

ふたりのライオン/The Two Lions by Nagisa Furuya

Shishido Junpei x Onizuka Leo

Leo moved to a far away place for college because he want to start a brand new chapter for himself. He didn't make any friends during high school because people spreader rumors about him being a delinquent. His hair is naturally light due to the fact that his grandfather is only half Japanese. So he started dying his hair black once he graduated high school.

With limited or basically no social experience, Leo struggles to make friends at his new school. That's not the worst part. The worst part is that he found out Junpei, someone who attended the same high school as he did, is also a student at his current college.

No matter how hard he tried to avoid direct contact with Junpei, Leo got busted at the library. But Junpei is not at all what Leo assumed. He is a gentle giant. (that's what I called him.) Junpei became Leo's first friend, and insisted on helping Leo make more friends in this school.

Of course later one of them falls in love~

Nagisa Furuya sensei is also the creator of "My Summer of You". Sensei specializes in soft school romance that's very age appropriate. So if you don't like stories with any seggs scenes then maybe try Nagisa sensei's work. The stories all have very smooth emotional development, and reading along the text will make you feel like you are the character that's currently experiencing this scene. OwO

#Nagisa Furuya #bl manga #lgbtq #yaoi #yaoi manga #the two lions

5 notes · View notes

illuminatedpopcorn · 1 year

Text

I'm REALLY proud of this one, I love how it turned out <3

#mypostekc #myartekc #my art #thetwolions #the two lions #more than friends #nagisa #anime #manga #bl manga #nagisa furuya #<3 #love #copic #copicmarkers

5 notes · View notes

tanenigiri · 2 years

Text

Review #10: My Summer of You (Volume 2: The Summer with You)

Japanese title: 君と夏のなか (Kimi to Natsu no Naka)

Story and art: Nagisa Furuya

English publisher: Kodansha Comics

Number of volumes: 2 (complete)

A summery sequel with a surprising amount of introspection.

(This review contains story spoilers.)

I went into this volume with pretty high hopes, as after I read its prequel, I really wanted to see Wataru and Saeki’s dynamic now that they’re officially a couple. A lot of My Summer of You’s first volume was spent with their relationship up in the air - and sometimes even battered to the ground - so I was looking forward to how the story would expand their relationship while still keeping with the story’s usual level of emotional weight.

At the same time, I was a bit nervous since there are so many ways that the story can add conflict that would be, quite frankly, annoying to read. Saeki was repeatedly shown in the early chapters as being popular with the ladies, so this could have easily gone down the jealousy route, especially with this volume adding a few new side characters in the mix. And since this volume takes place after Saeki gets back from his last year of high school, the two of them have spent quite a significant time apart - further exacerbated by the fact that they don’t really see each other that much since they go to different universities and have their own jobs - which could have been used to put a thorn in their relationship.

Thankfully, My Summer of You’s second volume gives us a main conflict that, in my opinion, is leagues better than what I expected - and that’s doubling down on Wataru’s low self-esteem and seeing him become very nervous with how he handles his new relationship.

One thing that we get a clear picture of in the first volume is how Wataru doesn’t really think highly of himself. While we mostly see this in the context of how he is compared to Saeki - the very first chapter has someone point out that they might as well be different species - we also get a sense of this with how he doesn’t really do well in class without Sekiguchi’s help, and in how he says “It doesn’t have to be me” when he’s thinking about Saeki’s initial confession.

We get a lot more of that introspection in this volume, extending even to aspects beyond his relationship. Saeki is shown to have taken interest in pursuing being a translator, while Wataru remarks that his plans about his future are nowhere near as solid. This is interlaced with Wataru’s doubts about how he isn’t really putting any effort in the relationship, as he recognizes that most of the advances come from Saeki, and he even has several moments where he feels like the constant nervousness and uncertainty of the situation only ever comes from him. Wataru even says that Saeki is “out of his league,” which recontextualizes all the times where he points out that Saeki’s this hotshot who knows all the right moves - though, of course, it’s nice to know that Wataru does think his boyfriend is hot.

But while this sounds like an exhausting premise for the story to revolve around, My Summer of You is able to avoid making this a drag by constantly proving Wataru wrong - although it’s more to the reader rather than to Wataru himself. Probably the most blatant example of this is when Wataru gets invited by Niimi - one of the people he works with - to a movie premiere. He initially accepts the invite as it would include an appearance of one of his favorite actresses. But after thinking about it, he eventually turns down the offer, telling his workmate that he’d rather see the movie first with someone else. Niimi immediately picks up that Wataru is referring to a significant other, and he makes the surprising decision of giving Wataru both of his tickets so that he can go to the premiere with Saeki.

Wataru being Wataru, he doesn’t really think much of this decision, and certain things that happened around the premiere actually leave him in a more dejected state than usual. But when he tells Saeki over the phone about what happened with Niimi, Saeki is visibly overwhelmed with what Wataru did and immediately asks him when they can see each other again. Like I allude to above, Wataru himself doesn’t realize what Saeki’s reaction means, but we as readers know that Wataru’s doubts about him not pulling any weight in the relationship are not true at all.

And then there’s the jealousy, which leads to the closest thing to a climactic scene that this volume has to offer. There’s an almost throwaway line right at the start of the story where Saeki teases Wataru in saying that he wished that the latter would get more jealous when women hit on him. You can almost read it as simply light-hearted teasing, which goes well with Saeki’s bravado - and it’s also a nice callback to the second bonus chapter in the first volume - but then Wataru revisits these thoughts later in the story, coming to the conclusion that the reason he doesn’t really feel the way is because he trusts Saeki enough to know that he only has his eyes on him.

That’s a nice and sweet note to end it on, but the story pulls the rug under us and revisits this bit again in less-than-ideal circumstances. Early on we’re introduced to Akiyoshi, one of Saeki’s close friends in his university, who at first doesn’t really do much and is just there to add some color to Saeki’s scenes at school. But he shows up again later in the story and bumps into Wataru, who finds himself lost in a huge crowd and unable to contact Saeki as he doesn’t have his phone. It’s here where Wataru finds out that Akiyoshi calls Saeki by his first name, which suddenly ignites an unfamiliar feeling within him. When he confronts Saeki about it, he’s surprised that instead of Saeki ridiculing him for it, it leads to the two of them taking their relationship a step further.

It’s here when I realized that the whole scene about Wataru realizing that he doesn’t feel jealous about the girls hitting on Saeki has a much sadder undertone to it. While I could easily read it as Wataru being completely trusting of Saeki - and I’m sure that’s still true - I can also read it as Wataru thinking that there’s something wrong with how he sees the relationship if he can’t even bring himself to be jealous when someone is hitting on his boyfriend. You can easily relate this to all of his other moments of self-doubt, so that final scene where he does realize he’s jealous was just as much of an overwhelming feeling for Wataru as it was for Saeki. That the fact that Wataru feels jealous has to be told to him by Saeki isn’t lost on me either - it’s a good reminder that this is Wataru’s first relationship, and it’s with someone who’s been in several since middle school.

It’s also important to note that Saeki does recognize his boyfriend’s insecurities. We get bits and pieces of it throughout the main story - especially in the end when Wataru finally gets told that Saeki is just as nervous about the relationship as he is - but once again, this volume makes good use of its bonus chapter to give a bit more insight on Saeki's perspective of the relationship. Here, he recognizes that Wataru is pretty clueless about how to handle the relationship, but he doesn’t think less of him for it - in fact, Saeki appreciates that despite his confusion, Wataru still makes the effort to be a good boyfriend. While I would’ve appreciated this to actually be vocalized, I just chalked it up as something that they’re working towards, and you definitely get a sense of that by the end of the story.

And I think that’s what makes this second volume such an interesting read, right down to the wordplay in its title. The original Japanese title changes My Summer of You to My Summer with You, which the English translations preserve through the subtitles. Of course, there’re a lot of great ways to interpret this, but for me, the most important one is how this is a relationship that both Wataru and Saeki are putting a lot of effort into, no matter how much the former doesn’t believe it.

Random thoughts that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

I’m glad that they didn’t make Akiyoshi a third party to the relationship, and he’s even shown to get along well with Wataru. He even ends up indirectly reaffirming to Saeki why his feelings for Wataru are genuine, as his boyfriend is someone who’s willing to “run after him.” As much as I wanted to know more about him, I think the way Akiyoshi was used in the story was pretty nice, showing up enough to see why he’s a good friend to Saeki but not taking too much of the limelight from the main dynamic.

I couldn’t say the same for Sekiguchi, though, who I absolutely wanted more scenes of since he’s such a bro. I liked how we got some closure from the first volume about what Sekiguchi thinks of the whole Saeki situation, and while he’s rightfully still mad at Saeki about that, he does respect Wataru’s decision to still hang out with him. Once again, he has a very mature take on the situation, so I’m glad that we at least got this scene from him.

I’m still making sense of that last scene in the main story, where they go to Wataru’s choice for their summer pilgrimage - a “deserted island” that ends up being a popular tourist spot. I know that they bring up the parallel of the park in Volume 1, but I do think there’s more to it than that. Maybe it’s to show that Wataru’s finally on track with his thoughts about the relationship, which is why we see them in a place that he decided on? Seems like a weak connection, but that’s all I’ve got.

Thanks for reading! You can read my review of My Summer of You’s first volume here. During my first read, I found myself liking the first volume more than the second one, but after rereading both of them for this project, I ended up appreciating the second volume a lot more. I thought this had a more solid execution of what it was trying to do, and there were a lot of little plot bits I picked up that I previously didn’t.

#My Summer of You #My Summer With You #Kimi to Natsu no Naka #Nagisa Furuya #Wataru Toda #Chiharu Saeki #bl manga #manga review #manga

7 notes · View notes

geekyliteracy · 2 months

Text

NEW ARC Review!!!

Nagisa Furuya stands out amongst her BL contemporaries, see where that begins in her debut, Number Call, finally in English by KodanshaUSA

Release Date: March 12, 2024

Full Review below:

#manga #lgbtq #manga reader #literary blog #nagisa furuya #bl manga #boys love manga #debut manga

0 notes

birdiereviews · 3 months

Text

Number Call by Nagisa Furuya, reviewed by Jay Sapinski

Nagisa Furuya’s newest manga volume, Number Call (Kodansha Comics, 2024) is a sweet high school meet-cute romance. The story centers around Eito Tachibana who despises how his name is associated with the number eight meeting Tomoya Hatta whose nickname is Hachi, the Japanese word for the number eight. Initially drawn together by their names having a connection, they eventually find themselves chasing after each other. The story is certainly cute and heartwarming, but the plot delivers the elements of a romance in a way that is almost too straightforward. Although there is romantic tension between Eito and Hachi, it never really felt like there was a threat to their bond. Even in a wholesome story, there should still be stakes for the choices that the characters make. Nevertheless, I found myself turning to the next page to discover how they would grow closer.

Additionally, unlike many other BL manga, this one features a story that stays far from depicting toxic relationships and the fetishization of gay people that plague the genre. Eito and Hachi meet when Eito’s test papers are knocked out of his hand and float out the window where Hachi picks them up. After Eito runs down to get them, they have a short exchange:

Hachi: You got an 88 in Japanese history. Eito Tachibana. Eito (thinking): Why’d he read that out loud? Hachi: Haha. You got an 88 and you’re [sic] name’s Eito? It’s like a pun. Eito: I guess… Eito (thinking): Uh, did he stick around to just say that? Is he making fun of me? Hachi: I thought it might blow away again if I put it down. Eito: Okay… Hachi: Plus, I can kind of relate.

From chapter 1: Call 1

The interaction between the two sounds completely natural for two high schoolers who don’t really know each other. There is no stalker behavior, coercion, or bizarre pairings for the sake of reader fetishes. It’s all very cute, wholesome, and heartwarming. It’s great to see more BL manga representing gay love as being completely normal.

That being said, the story would have been taken to the next level had there been more build towards their relationship. It’s difficult to tell why Eito or Hachi hold affection for each other or how their shared experiences contribute to them liking each other. Show us a date, a stolen moment in a classroom—anything that would solidify the reasons why they like each other beyond their names relate to the number eight. The times when they are alone together don’t give readers enough information about what makes Eito or Hachi interesting and attractive in the eyes of the other.

Number Call is an excellent addition to BL manga as a whole. Steering away from the problems of the BL genre, it highlights how cute and sweet romance can be. Hopefully, this isn’t the last wholesome BL meet-cute to grace our shelves.

An advance copy of this volume was provided in return for an honest review.

Number Call becomes available on March 12th, 2024. Pre-order Number Call here.

Jay Sapinski (they/them) is a college student studying English. They are an editor of their college's literary magazine as well as a fiction editor of miniskirt magazine. Jay loves Japanese culture and Japanese style media and consumes it whenever possible.

#reviews #number call #nagisa furuya #manga #recommended #review #jay sapinski #slice of life #romance #school life #stories #story #completed #one shot

0 notes

neonscandal · 2 years

Text

Manga Recs: Short & Sweet Shonen Ai

This June's feeling a little stressful incredibly disheartening (ftr, I'm in the US) so here are some short, soft and wholesome BL recommendations to maybe put a smile on your face provide a brief respite from this hell-scape.

Happy Pride bbs!

The Two Lions by Nagisa Furuya*, completed

Well liked sunshine boy Junpei unexpectedly crosses paths with delinquent outcast Leo who is hoping to put distance between his old reputation and the person he wants to be in university. Upon realizing he might be the only person on campus who knows how fearsome the Leo is, Junpei decides to keep his secret and befriend him anyway which proves to be challenging since Leo isn't exactly well practiced at being social.

Atarashii Joushi wa Dotennen by Dan Ichikawa, ongoing

A comedy where the main character, having just changed jobs to get away from a denigrating and abusive boss finds himself working under the nicest (although sometimes dimwitted) boss ever. Nothing confirmed between any of the characters so far but this series is endearing and silly and light so it may be just what you need.

Hirano to Kagiura by Kotoko Hachijou, ongoing

I promised short and wholesome and this spin off from Sasaki to Miyano fits the bill. It's a slow burn (just like STM) and is currently only releasing every 3 months so prepare yourself for a long wait.. Basically, this is the budding romance between high schooler Hirano and his kohai roommate that Miyano kept hinting toward in the main story. Kagiura is unabashedly in love and forthright with his feelings and Hirano never completely shuts him down unable to break from his tendency to coddle.

#neon recs #happy pride 🌈#lgbt manga #lgbtq+ manga #manga recommendation #shonen ai #wholesome romance #romance manga #nagisa furuya #dan ichikawa #kotoko hachijou #the two lions #my new boss is goofy #atarashii joushi wa dotennen #hirano to kagiura #Sasaki to miyano #Sasaki and Miyano

39 notes · View notes

hatsumishinogu · 11 months

Photo

Long Period [First Volume]

#long period #nagisa furuya #boys love #manga

5 notes · View notes

cvrsndstff · 4 months

Text

My Summer of You Volume 1 (Story & Art by Nagisa Furuya)

#my summer of you #nagisa furuya #manga volume #volume cover #book cover

0 notes

tanenigiri · 2 years

Text

Review #3 - My Summer of You (Volume 1: The Summer of You)

Japanese title: 君は夏のなか (Kimi wa Natsu no Naka)

Story and art: Nagisa Furuya

English publisher: Kodansha Comics

Number of volumes: 2 (complete)

Turning a simple summer romance into a cinematic experience.

(This review contains story spoilers.)

One of the big reasons why I gravitated toward slice-of-life as a genre was how these kinds of stories deal with their conflicts. Instead of something grand or world-ending, these conflicts are often emotional and internal, relying mostly on character dynamics to keep the narrative going. As a fan of character-driven stories, these quieter scenes do a lot more for me than the louder action sequences or edge-of-your-seat performances.

So it’s a bit surprising that, whenever I think of My Summer of You’s first volume, the scene that most often pops into my head is the one where Wataru punches Saeki near the end of the story.

That’s not to diminish the emotional beats of the story, as I do find them impactful. (Maybe not as impactful as that punch was to Saeki.) However, my thoughts immediately go to this scene since this punch, brutal as it may be when presented as a stand-alone, took quite a while to work towards, both in the puncher’s and receiver’s end. And it’s the buildup to it - and what happens after - that makes this story quite the charming read.

My Summer of You follows the story of Saeki, a high school student who’s popular with the ladies, and Wataru, a batchmate from another class who isn’t. Thanks to a chance meeting, they soon learn that they both love movies, and it’s through these movie meetups that they form an unexpected but strong bond. In what was a very surprising move for me at the time since this was one of the first series I'd read, Saeki confesses his feelings to Wataru at the very first chapter, and the rest of the story deals with Wataru reconciling with these feelings and ultimately realizing that he reciprocates them.

While that seems straightforward, there are two major plot points that complicate things. The first is the film pilgrimage, which surrounds quite a hefty chunk of the narrative’s middle part. Playing with the story’s focus on movies, Saeki and Wataru’s relationship develops quite cinematically, with the places they visit serving as backdrops to the movie they’ve watched as well as to the key moments that build up to Wataru’s response - which is, of course, held in a very important setting of the movie they’re doing a pilgrimage of. It’s a great thread that ties the story together, and the fact that their own relationship develops “within a movie” is fun to think about.

The second, and the one I still have mixed feelings about even as I write this review, is Saeki suddenly leaving and transferring schools right before the film pilgrimage ends. Wataru finds out from one of Saeki’s classmates and later from a teacher that the move had been planned for several months, and he understandably goes into a spiral about it. Saeki later explains his actions as a way of personal closure and subsequent moving on from Wataru, as he is still convinced that the latter won’t be able to return his feelings. This was a running thread for the whole story so it doesn’t come out of nowhere, but there’s a part of me that thinks how Saeki dealt with it was way too drastic and abrupt - an opinion that Wataru definitely shares.

And that’s what leads to the punch above - one that I believe is very much deserved. Wataru quickly disproves Saeki’s notions about him not being able to return his feelings, and the main story ends with them reconciling and Saeki promising that he’ll move back once he finishes high school.

If the volume ended there, I would’ve left it as is and thought of it as just a simple love story that had a slightly rushed ending. But breaking off from most of the manga I’ve read, My Summer of You features three bonus stories that could essentially pass as their own chapters. And it’s these bonus chapters that fill in quite a number of blanks for me and make me appreciate what this story was going for a whole lot more.

Perhaps most importantly, the first bonus chapter features Saeki giving a more thorough explanation of his actions and acknowledging that what he did was wrong, especially as he didn’t consider Wataru’s feelings on the matter at all. That was in the back of my mind the entire time, so I’m glad that Saeki does end up realizing that he was selfish and apologizing for it. It makes Wataru’s own acceptance of the situation a lot easier to swallow, and it puts their relationship in a great starting point as they’re already realizing the importance of communicating their issues with each other.

The other two bonus chapters are more on the lighter side, but they both do a good job of fleshing out things from Saeki’s perspective. In the same way that the story does a great job in humanizing Wataru and slowly disproving his own view of himself as some average nobody, these bonus chapters humanize Saeki in a way that removes him from the image of a perfect guy who has everything figured out and shows him second-guessing himself and being nervous around Wataru. It’s a nice way of showing that they really are equals, despite what everyone else thinks.

And it’s a great note to end My Summer of You on. It's a lot simpler than most of the manga I'm covering here, but I think it uses that simplicity to its advantage - it has one story that it delivers very well. I may have some misgivings, but by the end of the day, there's a certain charm to My Summer of You that's hard to find in other stories, and for me, that's what makes it worth the read.

Random thoughts that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

I wish Wataru’s classmates played a bigger role, as they were always funny whenever they showed up. Sekiguchi in particular was a really great character, especially when he suddenly shows this maturity in the end where he tells the others not to bring up Saeki whenever Wataru is around. It would’ve been nice to see a scene of them consoling Wataru after Saeki transferred schools.

I'm not a movie buff, so there are probably a lot of movie references that flew over my head, especially when they were in the pilgrimage sites. Like I mentioned above, though, I think it's a great image that ties the story together, and the parallels between their relationship and the movies they were watching were nice to see.

I also very much have to point out that all except one of the scenes - the second bonus chapter - takes place across multiple summers. The story does have a certain brightness to it, so it’s a fitting setting.

Thanks for reading! This is a bit less optimistic than the previous two reviews I’ve posted, but I still had fun writing it as it helped me concretize what I thought about the story as a whole. Despite my misgivings, I do think My Summer of You is worth the read if you’re into the very familiar dynamic of “popular-with-the-ladies boy falls in love with less-popular boy” as it is a charming take on that type of relationship. I also have a review lined up for its sequel, though it’ll be a while before I post that.

#My Summer of You #Kimi Wa Natsu no Naka #Nagisa Furuya #Wataru Toda #Chiharu Saeki #BL manga #manga review #manga

6 notes · View notes