A Lingering Summer

[MangaDex]

 

[Painasbread]

The art is pretty unique. It can be unsettling as well as beautiful.
Story is bad, but I had to comment on the art. I guess overall the art isn't great because it isn't consistent, anyway it's pretty cool to see something different for once, even if not that well done.

 

[treewithleaves]

The art is pretty unique. It can be unsettling as well as beautiful.
Story is bad, but I had to comment on the art. I guess overall the art isn't great because it isn't consistent, anyway it's pretty cool to see something different for once, even if not that well done.

I would have to disagree that the "story" is bad because we don't even know what the story will be like yet. :') We only get introduced to our main characters in this chapter. Perhaps if you read more carefully, you'll see that there are many interesting details being set up in the first chapter. For example, Suo Mei's character. Why did she choose to study law if she struggles to feel interested in anything? Was she always that way?

I'd say the setup is pretty unique. Immortal x human stories aren't rare, but it's not often that we see it done in such a traditional art style (oil pastel influences). It adds a lot to the tone and mood of the series. It's also neat to get so much introspective internal monologue from the FL, so it's not just two pretty people paired together and checking off all the trope boxes, but two people with rich inner worlds, worldviews, and personalities.

In terms of color palette and character design, the art style is actually rather consistent. Suo Mei always looks like Suo Mei, and Ye Feng always looks like Ye Feng. It's easy to say something is bad, but unless you have details and concrete points to back it up, it just sounds like hating on something for no reason. Of course, you can say that the art style isn't to your taste.

 

[Painasbread]

It's easy to say something is bad, but unless you have details and concrete points to back it up, it just sounds like hating on something for no reason. Of course, you can say that the art style isn't to your taste.

Did I say the art style is bad ? No. I didn't even talk about the notion of it being "to my taste" or not. I said it's inconsistent.
Why ? I'll take three examples when the use of art isn't making sense :

1. Below the bubble "forget to take this with you ?", when mc's friend gives her her phone she forgot to pack, at the beginning of the story.
-Why blur the phone you're trying to show to the reader ? Obviously when we read "this" we wonder what she forgot to take. Why make it blurry ? This feels weird honestly, I could even argue it's a bad choice having done that.

2. Just after that, "a place someone I met last summer once yearned for" with the church in the background and the field of flowers.
-Look at the difference between mc and the background. Mc has a clearer shape than what we are supposed to be looking at, "the place" from the previous quote, which then feels more blurry. Based on the text, we should direct our gaze on the church and the field but it's made more blurry, which is creating this weird feeling again.

3. The girl with the purple hair saying "Then we're all set now, Ye Feng." further down below.
-She is darker in colors than Ye Feng, but she is talking to us so she should be highlighted instead of the fraction of Ye Feng turning his back on us. This literaly is not well done and makes no sense imo, but again that's just an example.

Three examples where the art is very nice :

1. The pannel where mc is shighting, smoking by the window with lush and green tree branches.
-The background is clean and clear, very different from the art used on the girl and the trees, highlighting the vegetation very well, with still an easily recognisable character and what she is doing, which is what the reader should focus on when reading this pannel.

2. A little further down, when Ye Feng looks at mc saying "Coming." by the window.
-Characters easily recognisable + vegetation, same thing.

3. Pannels where Ye Feng is on his own with red tints at the end (there are three).
-They're all more or less gorgeous honesly, nothing bad to note about them .

Why such differences ? Such subpar drawings where what we should focus on is blurred and such gorgeous drawings - notice how what I depicted as "well done" (no notions of me liking it here) always has a semblance of linear background, walls with squares or rectangles on their surface for example ?

Anyway the use of art in this manua is clearly being inconsistent, sometime art is done with only a lot of brush touches, sometime with a linear backgroung added to what's drawn with brush touches, sometime with almost only a linear background.
It's not bad to have multiple ways to tell the story, it's good even. They're just not all mastered and used at the same level, which feels bad (even very bad) sometimes and very good some other time. Inconsistent, could say not good enough yet too, but not bad.

I would have to disagree that the "story" is bad because we don't even know what the story will be like yet. :')

A predestined love type of trope is so common that I'm not interested in the story, hence "bad" because it's always the same thing you can find everywhere just with slight variations.

If this manhua is starting with a handicap called an extremely unoriginal or simply boring plot, making it work well when the art style isn't even mastered to tell the story, how is that going to be possible ? What's keeping me interested and keeping me reading then ?

Again, there is no hate in anything I said. I didn't have to justify that either, I only answered because I'm debating with you whether this manhua gets a passing mark or not.
It's got it's qualities, but it's not enough to keep me interested. Maybe if the art had matured later on, another work of this author could be nice to read imo.

It's also very fine that you disagree with me on this. If you think this manhua is good enough for you, then that's good too !
Everyone should have a different reading experience, this is definitely not a bad thing.

 

[treewithleaves]

Did I say the art style is bad ? No. I didn't even talk about the notion of it being "to my taste" or not. I said it's inconsistent.
Why ? I'll take three examples when the use of art isn't making sense :

1. Below the bubble "forget to take this with you ?", when mc's friend gives her her phone she forgot to pack, at the beginning of the story.
-Why blur the phone you're trying to show to the reader ? Obviously when we read "this" we wonder what she forgot to take. Why make it blurry ? This feels weird honestly, I could even argue it's a bad choice having done that.

2. Just after that, "a place someone I met last summer once yearned for" with the church in the background and the field of flowers.
-Look at the difference between mc and the background. Mc has a clearer shape than what we are supposed to be looking at, "the place" from the previous quote, which then feels more blurry. Based on the text, we should direct our gaze on the church and the field but it's made more blurry, which is creating this weird feeling again.

3. The girl with the purple hair saying "Then we're all set now, Ye Feng." further down below.
-She is darker in colors than Ye Feng, but she is talking to us so she should be highlighted instead of the fraction of Ye Feng turning his back on us. This literaly is not well done and makes no sense imo, but again that's just an example.

Three examples where the art is very nice :

1. The pannel where mc is shighting, smoking by the window with lush and green tree branches.
-The background is clean and clear, very different from the art used on the girl and the trees, highlighting the vegetation very well, with still an easily recognisable character and what she is doing, which is what the reader should focus on when reading this pannel.

2. A little further down, when Ye Feng looks at mc saying "Coming." by the window.
-Characters easily recognisable + vegetation, same thing.

3. Pannels where Ye Feng is on his own with red tints at the end (there are three).
-They're all more or less gorgeous honesly, nothing bad to note about them .

Why such differences ? Such subpar drawings where what we should focus on is blurred and such gorgeous drawings - notice how what I depicted as "well done" (no notions of me liking it here) always has a semblance of linear background, walls with squares or rectangles on their surface for example ?

Anyway the use of art in this manua is clearly being inconsistent, sometime art is done with only a lot of brush touches, sometime with a linear backgroung added to what's drawn with brush touches, sometime with almost only a linear background.
It's not bad to have multiple ways to tell the story, it's good even. They're just not all mastered and used at the same level, which feels bad (even very bad) sometimes and very good some other time. Inconsistent, could say not good enough yet too, but not bad.


A predestined love type of trope is so common that I'm not interested in the story, hence "bad" because it's always the same thing you can find everywhere just with slight variations.

If this manhua is starting with a handicap called an extremely unoriginal or simply boring plot, making it work well when the art style isn't even mastered to tell the story, how is that going to be possible ? What's keeping me interested and keeping me reading then ?

Again, there is no hate in anything I said. I didn't have to justify that either, I only answered because I'm debating with you whether this manhua gets a passing mark or not.
It's got it's qualities, but it's not enough to keep me interested. Maybe if the art had matured later on, another work of this author could be nice to read imo.

It's also very fine that you disagree with me on this. If you think this manhua is good enough for you, then that's good too !
Everyone should have a different reading experience, this is definitely not a bad thing.

Ah, I see. You interpreted the artist's narrative decision to focus different foregrounds/backgrounds in different panels as being inconsistent.

I hope you'll find more series that satisfy you in the future! :')

 

[Painasbread]

Ah, I see. You interpreted the artist's narrative decision to focus different foregrounds/backgrounds in different panels as being inconsistent.

Yes.

I simply judged the way artist chose to do things not ideal for a comic.
When you tell a story, you illustrate what you are talking about and not just draw random pretty things not correlating to your text, or any reader would get confused, lost and become uninterested in the storyline.
It's like author wants to draw the main characters more than explain the story or draw other characters, which will then feel lacking and not interesting.