The Fall 2019 Manga Guide

A Tropical Fish Yearns For Snow

What's It About? 

Konatsu has just moved to a rural seaside town while her father is transferred overseas. She's trying very hard to convince herself that she's fine with it, but it isn't quite working, and she feels like she's hiding her emotions. As she tours her new school, however, she stumbles upon the Aquarium Club's open house, where she meets Koyuki. Instantly fascinated, Konatsu quickly finds herself seeking Koyuki out and joining the Aquarium Club. Koyuki is also attracted to Konatsu, although she's afraid to say anything. As the two girls slowly begin to grow closer, will either one be able to admit her feelings?

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is written and illustrated by Makoto Hagino. Viz will release it in paperback ($9.99) in November.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow does a beautiful job of very subtly indicating the growing feelings of its main couple. When Konatsu meets Koyuki, she's fascinated by her, but Koyuki becomes instantly infatuated with the new student to the point where any interaction with her can send her off into a silent tizzy. Neither of them ever explicitly voices their emotions, though – it's all inferred through their actions, thoughts, and body language. That makes this volume a charming read, because not only is it largely devoid of authorial telegraphing, but it also feels a bit more stable and realistic than other romances about a similar age group and it also lacks the undercurrent of melodrama that Our Wonderful Days (also coming out within the months covered by this Guide), which is nice.

The story mostly relies on the unspoken thoughts of both girls. Konatsu is all about convincing herself that she's totally happy and upbeat about her move from Tokyo to her grandmother's rural seaside town and that she isn't a nervous wreck trying to put on a brave face. She's a major worrywart, not so much that you'd call her anxious in the medical sense, but she's definitely prone to fretting about her circumstances and how people around her see her. While this is best shown when she spends basically two chapters worrying about joining Koyuki's aquarium club instead of her classmate's home ec club only to find out that the other girl doesn't even remember inviting her to join, her repeated efforts to smile and her general overthinking how to become closer with Koyuki also do a good job of showing this. On Koyuki's side of things, she's constantly trying to think of how to subtly let Konatsu know that she likes her, mostly by playing scenarios where she casually hugs the other girl or touches her hand over and over again in her mind…and then not being able to do it.

Presumably part of this anxiety is concern that Konatsu only sees Koyuki as a friend, when Koyuki has made it clear to the readers that she's a lesbian attracted to the other girl. The fear that she'll be not just rejected, but actively repel the object of her affection is real, and Konatsu just doesn't seem to even be aware of romantic feelings, such as when she can't figure out why Koyuki's all flustered over an indirect kiss. However this turns out, the delicacy of the art, the unusual aquarium angle, and the skill with which Hagio shows us what's going on without actively telling it makes me want to keep reading.

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Faye Hopper

Rating:

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is a sharply written, though small in scale, story of blooming affection and invaluable connection. To some, it might be uneventful, but when a story is this genuinely sweet and full of rich characterization, dolled out sparingly as it might be, I can't help but be taken by it. It's just fundamentally nice, and a lovely reminder of the small, quiet beauty of forming new relationships.

The thing that really sells A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is its understanding of our leads' psychology and smart, though slowly-paced, storytelling. Konatsu and Koyuki are both lacking things in their life. Koyuki is straight-laced, but to the point where she is so reserved and diligent that she has no fun, nothing to entertain her, and no friends, only obligations she must fulfill. Konatsu, by contrast in a fish out of water. She recently has moved to a new school after her father was transferred outside of Japan for work. Both are lacking things in their life and find what they're looking for in their Aquarium Club and in each other. This core premise is wonderfully embodied by various plot situations and symbols. For instance: One of the centerpieces of the club is a salamander who refuses to exit their cave (named Koyuki, if you didn't get it). There's a reason why the salamander doesn't come out at the festival until Konatsu reminders a factoid about it. It's because the salamander is Koyuki, and getting to know someone, to learn what they know and appreciate, is the key to getting close to them, getting them out of their shell. It's these smart symbolic devices that let you know how attuned A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is to its characters and core themes.

I don't quite know if A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow will end in our two leads dating, though I do know the queer subtext here is strong and unignorable. Konatsu and Koyuki fill the holes in each other's lives, after all. Konatsu starts to end Koyuki's isolation by joining the club she ran alone for so long, and Koyuki becomes a solid anchor for Konatsu to attach to in the new environment of her new school. At its core, it's a story about coming out of your cave, like the salamander, to embrace the warmth and beauty of connection, as scary as it might be to do. And as a pleasant and intelligently composed reminder of the beauty of getting to know someone and falling in love, opening new sides of yourself and dimensions you didn't even know you had, I can't help but really appreciate A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow.