The Spring 2021 Manga Guide

My Summer of You

What's It About? 

Chiharu Saeki and Wataru Toda are two high school students who share a common hobby: They love to watch movies. After they meet, they become fast friends, until one day, when Chiharu confesses his love for Wataru. Wataru says that Chiharu's confession doesn't bother him, and the boys continue throughout their summer, going to pilgrimages to see film spots from their favorite movies. But the more time he spends with Chiharu, Wataru realizes he may not only be as unaffected by Chiharu's confession as he claimed to be, but those feels may also be mutual.

My Summer of You is drawn and scripted by Nagisa Furuya and Kodansha Comics released the first volume in print for $14.99

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If I had to pick a favorite subgenre of BL, it would be the slow and sweet stories like this one. I like that in any romance, really, but titles like this and I Hear the Sunspot seem to outdo many competing titles in how they handle the quiet, slow build of the protagonists' relationship and the emphasis on emotions and, to a degree, repressing them and grappling with them. That makes the moment when the characters finally admit their feelings particularly rewarding. It is a bit disturbing to think that BL may do this especially well because the characters are still inhabiting a largely homophobic world that makes them feel like they can't express their attraction to each other in public, or to themselves for that matter, but hopefully that piece of the equation will change sooner than later.

In the case of this piece, Saeki never has a problem saying out loud that he likes Wataru. It is, in fact, that emotion which guides his every move over the course of the story – the two met as children and Saeki nursed his feelings for the other boy until they met again in high school, something he never anticipated. That certainly means that he had plenty of time to come to terms with how he felt, which isn't the case for Wataru. Wataru doesn't seem to have ever had a romantic relationship, or even particularly romantic feelings, before, and when Saeki confesses to him he's thrown completely off guard. Not, he stresses, because Saeki's a guy, but because he just never saw it coming. That Saeki wants to maintain their friendship with no pressure also throws him, but since he genuinely enjoys spending time with him, he agrees, and the two grow closer over the course of the summer of their second year in high school.

If at this point you're sensing something major looming in the future, you're not wrong. It's not tragic, which is nice, and certainly not irreparable either, but it does force Wataru to more fully confront his own emotions and to realize that while Saeki may have said he didn't expect anything to come of his crush, Wataru himself now wants their relationship to change. He's worried, because Saeki really is a good friend, but the rest of it doesn't matter, and that's lovely to see. It's especially nice because of the way that the art shows us how both boys are feeling – Saeki gives the impression of holding himself very tightly, while Wataru slowly begins to incline towards Saeki, both in his feelings and in the way his body language changes over the course of the book. By the time the confession comes, we're expecting it, but that doesn't cheat it of any of its impact.

If I have any real complaints it's simply that the book could have taken its time more. Drawing things out would have really worked for this particular story, and I'm sorry that it wasn't done. There is, however, a second volume slated for July. I'm looking forward to seeing what it does to further develop their relationship.