Tasuku is starting to feel at home at the drop-in center―just in time for him to help a younger student who also hangs out there. Misora Shuji likes to wear girls’ clothing but is unsure about their gender identity. Will Tasuku’s guidance offer Shuji some clarity or just make things harder?
This cover is one of the most striking and gorgeous cover I have ever seen.
Yuhki has a flair of visual storytelling expressing the emotions with surreal imagery.
Like some of the panels are so beautiful I want to print them and stick them on my wall.
In this volume we finally got to know the stort of Mizora. He is more confused than anyone else and people trying to assign him an identity was not good. I agree with the way he reacted but saying gay slurs is not accepted. Both of them were wrong. Fair warning, some of the content will probably make you uncomfortable-- they don't hold anything back when it comes to the realism of the homophobia and transphobia some of the characters experience.
"So you don't want to be a girl?" "I don't know." "You don't know? But you said you dress like that because you want to!" "I know what I said! But I don't even understand anything about myself. No one understands anything about me."
Non-binary writer/artist Yuhki Kamatani’s glbtq coming-out-and-growing-up manga series, volume two, focused on Tasuku, who gets support from a neighborhood drop-in center. A central relationship between Tasu (16) and Misora (11, who likes to wear girls’ clothes) is interesting. Lots of complexity and fluidity as one might expect from this artist. Not all queer folks agree on everything, or get along, this makes clear and should be no surprise. You need to be listened to, you need others, but you are in charge of figuring out your own identity.
This volume was even more crushing than the first, this book is difficult to read because so many people are having problems with discrimination or problems trying to figure out their identity. So many people hurt the characters of this book, intentionally or not and it breaks my heart. The art is so beautiful I can't describe. Amazing!
I love the focus on differences between gender and sexuality, I love the focus of how hard it is to figure things out for yourself and I love that it's clear that being gay yourself doesn't make you an expert on all things lgbtq+.
The relationship between Tasuku and Misora is complex and interesting to read. I'm excited to see what will happen in the next volume. It's a rare thing to see friendship between two queer kids of different age (Tasuku is 16ish, Masora is 11ish) in fiction.
The visual part is as stunning as before.
CW: gropping
Original review
Heart-breaking and beautiful.
I don't know what else to say. All that I said in my review of vol.1 is still true. The difference is that this volume is bittersweet. (Also a+ for calling out shit people say.)
This volume was more focused on trans issues but since it's still from a gay cis MS's POV the impact was kind of not the same.
I still loved the community though and trying to understand other people even though it's not always possible because you need to give them time to understand themselves first.
There's also a prevalent theme of putting off making a decision in fear that this will be final and you will have to settle for whatever your choice is. Like every choice is closing a certain door instead of making a room for experimentation.
I enjoyed that bit because I also have a hard time making choices and treat them as something that must lead to this perfect outcome and not a part of my journey.
Anyway, the next time you hear someone being homophobic attack them with a cat.
**Read for #buzzwordathon. January prompt: "Dream"**
TW/CW: Use of the "f" slur; molestation of minor; grating overuse of the word "homo" like homosexual or gay are that hard
Diverse YA coming-of-age. LGBTQ+ characters of all ages
In this volume, Tasuku-san gets to know another character, Misora Shuji, better. Misora, assigned male at birth, enjoys wearing "girl's" clothing, and is still exploring their identity.
Yes, you read correctly! A questioning character, how cool is that? Being unsure and going through self-discovery is a big part of life in general, but especially for LGBTQ+ folks, when we are trained from infancy to function and divide by binaries. You could come into your identity in adulthood.
Non consensual help and its arrogance is also partly addressed here, for further exploration in future volumes, which I found really insightful of the mangaka.
4 stars. With a thoughtful exploration of gender and a narrative told through gorgeous illustration, Our Dreams at Dusk, Vol 2. continues to be one of my favorite manga series.
Increíble. Este manga es maravilloso, de verdad. No me puedo creer que ahors tenga que esperar mil hasta tener conmigo el tercer tomo 😢💔 ya lo estoy deseando!
The visual metaphors in this series...unparalleled.
Yuhki Kamatani continues to make beautiful art and their characters continue to be wonderful and authentically queer and relatable, but the plot in this volume gets a lot messier and it was a lot harder for me to read than the first volume. It's really difficult to see young queer people being this mean to each other. Within the story everything that happened made sense and it's clear that they're lashing out at each other from a place of confusion and anxiety about their identities and it's really well written but...it hurts man.
I'm loving the nuanced portrayal of a character who doesn't yet understand their relationship to their own gender, though, especially since it's coming from a nonbinary writer. Very anxious for vol. 3 to come out!
Figuring out who you are is hard, but when you don't fit any of the allowed boxes, things are so much tougher. In this installment, there is a very young kid, a boy, who likes to dress as a girl. But, that doesn't make him gay or trans or really whatever. I love that this story showcases that there is no one-size-fits all, and the questions asked explore some of what makes humans so interesting. Can we give people a safe space to figure out who they are?
I will never tire of saying that the drawing style is really beautiful💚.
I feel that the drawing style transports you directly into the story, as well as conveying a lot of emotions. There are many scenes that I loved how they are structured and how the drawing depicts them. And I also say it again, I love that this manga has so much lgbtq+ rep, I really love this.
I feel like the character (on the front cover) is the harshest to Tasuku. They are also harsh on themselves, from what I can tell.
The story is sort of sad but laid out in a hopeful tone. I hope it gets even better and even more compelling than it already is! I’m looking forward to it.
As always, the art is fabulous. It’s a certain aesthetic and I’m digging it. It suits the story quite well.
This outing is a bit of tough going due to the heaviness of one character's gender identity crisis, laden with self-loathing, homophobia, slurs, well-intentioned plans gone awry, and many hurt feelings. But there are people who care and moments of light breaking through between the dark clouds. Well done and moving.
Dieser Manga ging viel zu schnell vorbei. Die Zeichnungen sind einfach wunderschön, die Thematik packt mich total - die Bildsprache ist einfach gewaltig. Leider ist der Band wirklich etwas kurz, der Preis hart an der Grenze. Aber der Inhalt kann es Gott sei Dank rausreißen. Ich kann den nächsten Band kaum erwarten. Noch einen Monat warten :/
Si el tomo 1 se centra en cómo empieza a aceptarse a sí mismo Tasu gracias a Daichi y Saki, en el tomo 2 ponen el foco en Misora, miembro también de El Consultorio, que aún está en primaria y cuyo conflicto principal está relacionado con la identidad de género. Una vez Tasu se decide a salir del armario como gay ante sus nuevos amigos, Misora (que ya estaba allí cuando él llegó, junto a Daichi, Utsumi y Tchaiko) empieza a fijarse más en él, por tener una edad más similar. Y poco a poco van ganando confianza, hasta el punto de que Tasu siente que tal vez podría ser para Misora esa persona que a él le habría gustado tener a su lado en los primeros días de confusión, cuando era pequeño y no terminaba de comprender lo que sentía.
Este tomo me ha parecido mucho más complejo, porque creo que el tema de la identidad de género en Japón tiene ramificaciones propias que no se entienden igual en occidente, y parte de esa complejidad se ha reflejado en el personaje de Misora. Para Misora, El Consultorio es el refugio en el que puede vestirse de forma femenina y ser una chica con libertad durante un rato, porque para el resto del mundo es un chico. La cuestión es que ni siquiera Misora tiene del todo claro qué es, o tiene demasiado miedo como para enfrentarse a ello de forma directa, y oscila entre ambas identidades de tal forma que le genera una enorme inestabilidad emocional. Estando ya a las puertas de la pubertad, donde su cuerpo empieza a cambiar y la "neutralidad" de la infancia comienza a difuminarse, la presión añadida por los latigazos de disforia es cada vez mayor. Es una persona muy frágil, en un momento muy delicado; y, aunque Tasu intenta darle su apoyo con la mejor intención, las cosas no salen bien.
La confusión de Misora da pie a tocar varios palos, desde la transexualidad, el no-binarismo y el género fluido, hasta (muy de pasada) la asexualidad y el arromanticismo, porque en un momento dado da a entender que no siente ningún tipo de atracción hacia los demás, que tampoco entiende la atracción meramente física y que lo suyo no tiene nada que ver con orientaciones. Ha sido doloroso ir encontrando en su historia ciertos puntos en los que Tasu metía la pata hasta el fondo, por alosexual, por cis y por tío. De hecho, el quiebre final de Misora se debe en parte a que Tasu decide por su cuenta asumir que es una chica y encima soltarle un micromachismo bien guapo en un momento súper delicado. Declararse mujer trans para Misora no es solo tener que enfrentarse a toda la transfobia que eso acarrearía, sino también a esa asfixiante misoginia japonesa que, como chaval, nunca ha tenido que sufrir. Y eso termina siendo demasiado. Su momento todavía no había llegado, retomando (esta vez con un sabor mucho más amargo) el mensaje de que cada persona tiene su ritmo en el proceso de autodescubrimiento y aceptación.
Igual que en el primer tomo se empleó el tema de las reformas de casas como metáfora de fondo sobre los muros que Tasu necesitaba derribar, en este caso la imagen recurrente han sido los peces, como símil de esa "vida en una pecera" que lleva Misora, siempre encerrada y siempre con riesgo de ahogarse. Casi lloro cuando, en la discusión final, se le cae la bolsa con los pececitos que había pescado en el festival y estos están a punto de morirse, como un reflejo de cómo todos los avances se fueron a la mierda con solo dos palabras.
I think this is the perfect series to hand young people who are not all that keen on reading books or long articles, but still want to start learning about LGTB+ issues. The characters (who are all over the queer spectrum) are all incredibly human, looking for their place in the world or already having found it, but having to fight for it every single day. Everyone has flaws and problems, but they (try to) support each other in every way they can and explain to each other how they feel and why.
The major topics of this volume were labels (Do we need them? Do we want them? Are they helpful? What if you yourself don't know?) and crushes on people who'd very likely never like you back due to incompatible orientation. That means the focus is of course on our main-main character (the gay guy Tasuku) and Misora (The guy who crossdresses, but doesn't know exactly why). Their similarities and differences get explored (Does crossdressing mean you are/want to be a girl? Does it mean you're gay? Had the fact that you live in a house with only girls any influence?) and there are some very painful and some very heartwarming scenes.
i liked the first one, but i loved this one! it continues with all of the aspects that make the first one great (beautiful art & symbolism, gay people found family, exploration of the experience of being an LGBT kid and the absolute unfairness of how hard you have it compared to your cishet peers), but also hits especially hard at the trans misery of questioning your gender and wanting things but also dreading them and never really knowing who you are. plus just. hot takes. so many good hot takes. from "no one else can decide your identity for you" to "i dress femininely for myself, not because i grew up around women" to "labels can help you find people like you, but over reliance on them is harmful," like, there was not a bad take to be seen here.