Shimanami Tasogare

[808bee]

It's been licensed by Seven Seas and should be out May 2019. Volume 4 (in Japan) is out now.

 

[Swifft]

Wrote a review on this, here it is:
https://terrenceswiff.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/shimanami-tasogare/

For a lot of reasons, I really dig this series, but I am reluctant to explain in great detail WHY because part of the series' appeal for me was reading it and figuring things out. It's honestly smashing good and super enthralling. I wrote this fairly long review trying to explain why exactly I like it, but since I avoided what I consider to be "spoilers" it was tough. Anyway, I can say for certain if this is the sort of thing you like to read about, this manga is a MUST-read.

 

[A-tan]

I loved it, but I'm saddened it ended so abruptly like that (It looked like It could have easily kept going). Makes me wonder If it got axed.

 

[mug3n]

Probably one of the best things this manga does is portraiting the sheer terror of being outed during teenage years in a enviroment that can put anyone in the chopping block without hesitation for not being "normal". The other cases were also interesting but this one is a first for me in manga form. A pity it lasted for so little time, this is a great work in every aspect.

 

[snowman41]

If for some reason you are looking at the comment section not having read this manga yet, I strongly recommend you read it. It was hard to read at parts, but it is 1000% worth reading through to the end.

In regards to its ending being abrupt, in my opinion the story could've been prolonged, but I don't think it would've improved the story if it had been stretched out longer. I think the manga had explored the themes that it intended, and any more would've lessened the impact of what was already written.

 

[elefantine97]

I finished this last year, but newcomers..
READ IT, IT'S FUCKING GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL AND GAY.
gay as in happy and handsome
Just read it.

 

[Pen3]

Very good read and my favorite character is Haruko. I wouldn't mind a side story on her and Saki.

 

[Demonhearts]

How much gay in this series..... I dont kno... If more than 30% I'll leave it right after I kno how much

 

[sugawarakush]

my favourite manga of all time. literal perfection

 

[continuum25]

Finally, a yaoi manga that a guy can relate to.
Most of the other yaoi shit is made by women for women.

 

[Ashi]

@continuum25 This is not a yaoi manga. Have you seen any sex scenes? It's seinen, so no wonder a guy can relate, since they are marketed towards young men. Real yaoi is also not always made by women and certainly not for all women - mostly teenagers and housewives.

 

[Orhunaa]

@Ashi However the vast majority of BL mangaka ARE women. In fact I cannot think of a male mangaka whose work had BL elements other than the author of Shimanami. I googled it but no results there either.

Also, Wikipedia article for Yaoi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoi#Demographics) says that about 80-85% of the fans are indeed women.

 

[Ashi]

@Orhunaa I wrote "not always made by women" as in "mostly women, but not always", which means practically the same thing as "the vast majority". Also I meant real yaoi, not manga with BL elements. Quite a lot of hardcore ones are targeted towards gay men. As for the mangakas, there's for example Kisaragi Hirotaka. Most of them publish under female pen names, so we'll never know for sure.
Also linking a wikipedia article as a source... 😅 The sources for their information are surveys in the USA and yaoi convention attendance (also in USA). There's a world outside of the USA and most readers are located in Japan, not counting the ones that don't care about surveys and conventions or are hiding that they enjoy BL.

Also your message is out of context. This manga is seinen, not BL, so this convo shouldn't even happen here.

 

[Orhunaa]

@Ashi It's not out of context. The comment section doesn't have to be strictly about Shimanami. If you were more clear by saying "mostly but not always" I wouldn't have responded to it.

I think you mean "bara" but that's basically pornography. I'm talking about works with narrative.

You do know Wikipedia has plethora of sources below right? There are surveys for US, Thailand and 2 online surveys for english-speaking people in general. Anonymity gets rid of the risk of being found so they wouldn't have to refrain from taking the survey, yet the results are similar.

 

[Ashi]

@Orhunaa Yes, it's out of context. You misunderstood my comment – I was writing about intended audience based on the demographics. Well, sorry that my comment wasn't clear enough, though I don't get what's so unclear about "not always".
And no, I don't mean bara. Bara is porn, yaoi is porn, just with a different audience. I've read a bara manga with a well developed plot (it was bad, but that's not the point) and yaoi that was just porn.

You mean the sources, that sometimes are just articles without a source? I've checked one of these about my country and apparently ~85% of yaoi readers are females based on online manga sales. Some people don't buy it online, others don't buy it at all, so how's that at all reliable? I also have quite a lot of fudanshi friends that never went to any convention. Also have you ever heard of any surveys? I've been in this fandom for ~15 years and never seen any, my friends also said that they haven't heard anything about it. The wikipedia article talks about three surveys (not counting the one about sexuality) and apparently they were conducted on a specific group of people for articles, not something most people care about.

 

[Zephyr247]

I really felt this manga. It was just...so familiar. I related to it. It reminded me of myself in high school and college. The messiness of each character's relationships, unintentionally hurting each other, taking the time to learn about each other and themselves, grappling with their gender and their sexualities and what it all means....ugh, I just love it. When I first discovered it I just sat there reading chapter one with a big smile on my face. No fetishizing, no over simplifying, just a bunch of very different people struggling with how to live their truth and learning how to support each other.

Everybody should read this manga. This is one of the best manga I've ever read, and I've read way too much manga.

 

[tubular]

Holy shit, I just realized why Tchaikovsky's music is featured so prevalently throughout this manga! It's because Tchaikovsky was gay! Holy shit! I hope they didnt mention that in the story and I'm just bad at reading, lol.

 

[watercourseway]

It's so rare to see an asexual character in a Manga and it made me really happy I loved all the different orientations and how real the struggles and insecurities and "not knowing who you are and what you want" were described <3

 

[No_tears_only_dreams]

Okay I am really wondering how anonymous did all that stuff?? Like looking like she was jumping of the cliff but floating? I was very confused with that and its not like magic is a Part of this manga right? Or was it supposed to be in their minds that she did that?

 

[smolbaka]

Great read. I'm glad they made misora stay a cross-dresser. But I really wanted clarification he really just liked putting on pretty frilly clothing.

I felt like his struggles from societal gender norms was set aside. He was absent for almost the entire story and I wish we got to see him more.

I guess I'm just to assume he was battling it out off camera.