The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Welcome Back, Aureole

What's It About? 

Outgoing and popular Kazu and shy and serious Moto grew up together as childhood best friends. But something changes during junior high, and the familiar, easy rhythm of their friendship begins to break apart as Kazu starts nursing deeper feelings for his oblivious friend. When Kazu's troubled home life and Moto's budding romantic forays create a clash of misunderstandings, secrets, and hurt feelings, will their relationship be able to survive these growing pains?

Welcome Back, Aureole has a story and art by Takatsu, with English translation by Christine Dashiell. This volume was retouched and lettered by Vibrraant Publishing Studio. Tokyopop released this single volume manga both digitally and physically on March 28.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

In their afterword, creator Takatsu says that their idea was to come up with a story about two ordinary boys you could find anywhere. That's exactly what Welcome Back, Aureole is: a quiet, bittersweet book about two guys growing up, apart, and then finally together. It's slow and only really hits you in the final quarter, and ultimately it's one of those stories that get better the longer you think about it.

Part of what works about it is the way that time flows. We start with Kazu and Moto on the latter's eighteenth birthday, then go backward in time to their first year of middle school. As the story proceeds chronologically, we see Kazu realize his feelings for Moto, and then his life falls apart. While Moto's a little freaked out (or a lot freaked out) by realizing his best friend is in love with him, the driving factors in Kazu's life really have nothing to do with him. It's more a terrible confluence of events, and Kazu simply adds his unrequited love to the pile, convincing himself that after he made Moto uncomfortable the other boy won't want to be his friend anymore.

Since Kazu stops speaking to Moto, he attributes Kazu's actions to their falling out, and he begins to blame himself for his reaction to Kazu's confession. It's an understated study of the ways we can convince ourselves of something and seek outside help that is anything but that, and the boys spend years hurting. Kazu's pain is more obvious to the outside world, and Moto blames himself, especially when his mom mentions something about Kazu's parents. All of a sudden Moto starts to realize what's actually been going on. The strength of this volume is in the way the two characters' perspectives are mingled and separated, allowing us to see where things went wrong and all of their missed chances to make them right again even as Kazu and Moto themselves aren't aware of it. These two earn their happy ending, and even if there's nothing “special” or “new” about their pain and struggles, the story makes us care about them.

The art is just okay, and I could see the timeline shifts being confusing. But this is a story that makes its characters work through things without easy shortcuts, and Kazu's hair is used very well as symbolic of his emotional state. Takatsu is right, this is an ordinary story about two boys you could find anywhere. But that's what makes it special.