Who are you at the blue hour?
| Manga | |
|---|---|
| title | Who are you at the blue hour? |
| Original title | し ま な み 誰 そ 彼 |
| transcription | Shimanami Tasogare |
| country |
 Japan
|
| author | Yūki Kamatani |
| publishing company | Shogakukan |
| magazine | Hibana |
| First publication | March 2015 - May 2018 |
| expenditure | 4th |
Who are you at the blue hour? ( Japanese し ま な み 誰 そ 彼 , Shimanami Tasogare ) is a manga series by Yūki Kamatani that was published in Japan from 2015 to 2018. The work can be classified into the genres of drama and romanticism and is aimed at an adult male readership ( his own ).
content
Tasuku Kaname finds it difficult to make friends at his school, only in the table tennis club does he have a friend with Tachibana. Then his classmates discover gay porn on his cell phone and start bullying him. Tasuku denies his homosexuality and is shortly afterwards so desperate that he wants to kill himself. Then he sees a woman falling down a slope and runs to the house on which she fell. There he finds her unharmed and is invited by this "woman someone". Your lounge is open to everyone who wants to die. Here Tasuku can finally express himself and also get to know other homosexuals and their similar problems - like the lesbian couple Haruko and Saki. They help him while Tasuku continues to be bullied at school and denies himself to Tachibana, who doesn't like the gay either. As the summer vacation begins, Tasuku helps the people from the lounge who are doing voluntary work to renovate dilapidated houses. He learns Tasuku that Saki is similar to him and that she cannot stand by their relationship, while Haruko is more open about it. But secretly, Saki would also like to stand by her love for her family and friends. Finally, Tasuku finds the courage to at least stand up for his sexuality towards the people in the lounge. He meets the boy Shuuji Misora, who is a few years younger than Tasuku. Misora comes into the lounge because he can only dress as a girl here, and initially dismissive of Tasuku. He is unsure of his identity. Tasuku decides to help Misora with his problems and to be the older support he would have long wanted himself to be. Just like Misora Tasuku tries to get Tasuku to stand by his sexuality and to confess his love to Tsubaki, his crush at the school.
Meanwhile, Tasuku should also decide what should become of the next house to be renovated. Here, too, the decision is difficult for him. When he manages to get Misora to go outside in women's clothes during fireworks, he is harassed by a stranger. The two boys argue and yell at each other, Tsubaki witnesses the argument and saves a goldfish that fell down. At home, Tsubaki learns from his father that Tasuku is probably gay. He started pondering and has since come to the lounge and especially to their houses more often to help with the renovations. He and Tasuku witness how Uchikai from their group meets an acquaintance from earlier times. She knows him from before his gender reassignment and wants to accept him for who he is now, and she joins the lounge activities. But she is intrusive, often hurts others and eventually urges Uchikai to come to an alumni reunion. Eventually it becomes too much for Uchikai when she tries to push him to become more activist and he rejects her. Tsubaki also invites Tasuku to work with him on a photo project for the school. They see each other more and more in their free time, but every now and then Tsukaki expresses disapproval of the lounge and the people there or teases Tasuku that he may be in love with him. Tasuku becomes insecure and is afraid of Tsubaki's reaction to a confession of love, but he too is feeling insecure, especially after someone suggested to him that he could be gay himself. Finally, Tasuku overcomes himself and confesses his love to Tsubaki. Tsubaki is surprised and admires Tasuku's courage.
Tasuku decides what to do with the house: Haruko and Saki should celebrate their wedding here. They agree, but soon afterwards they have to face Saki's parents, who have found out about their relationship. The father accepts his daughter's sexuality, even if it is actually negative, while her mother is enthusiastic about coming out and suspected it for a long time. Tsubaki's father, who inadvertently revealed the relationship between the two women to his parents, is also accused by his son. When he then suspects that his son is also gay and offends the people in the lounge, Tasuku stands protectively in front of his friend. Even though both have continued to spend a lot of time together, Tsubaki is still not sure of his feelings. He now admits that to Tasuku, but doesn't want to lose him either. While the preparations for the wedding are in progress, Tasuku finds out about Chaiko from his partner. The old man who always plays old records in the lounge has lived for decades with his partner, who is now dying with cancer. Tchaiko visits him regularly, but avoids meeting his son from the marriage that was separated from them before their partnership, because he does not want to disturb the family peace. Tasuku also learns from Chaiko that the couple met Frau Jemand many years ago and gave her their nickname while searching for identity. She is asexual and does not seek any closer ties to other people and has no need for a fixed identity. On the day of Haruko and Saki's wedding, all of their acquaintances from around the lounge come, except for Ms. Somebody. Chaiko has to leave the celebration early because his partner is dying. He can be with him when he dies because his son has called him. From now on, Tschaiko keeps in touch with him occasionally, as his partner had wished.
Creation and conception
Yūki Kamatani had wanted to create a serious story about sexual and gender minorities for a long time. Kamatani identifies himself as asexual and not as a man or woman , so the topic has a special meaning for Kamatani. For a long time, however, it was not clear how it could be implemented satisfactorily, for example without defining the characters solely by belonging to a minority. The series should not tell about minorities, but rather convey that all people are individual. With the experience gained in other series, Kamatani then dared to implement the idea in 2015 in the form of Shimanami Tasogare .
The series was based on the idea of the lounge, which serves as a stage for meeting different people and telling their personal dramas, all of which revolve around the chosen topic. The mysterious woman Somebody represents people of unknown or intangible sexuality or gender. After developing this stage, Kamatani designed the characters and then wrote the stories based on their characteristics. These often tell of personal experiences that Kamatani had, especially when he was in his early 20s, but also experiences of other people with whom Kamatani spoke to show more diverse points of view in the series. This is especially true for depicting romantic relationships. Since Kamatani is asexual, they did not appear in earlier works and were now a new challenge due to a lack of personal experience.
publication
The series will initially appear from March 2015 in individual chapters in the Hibana magazine published by Shogakukan . In August 2017, the series moved to the online magazine Manga One, where it was completed in May 2018. The same publisher later brought out the manga in four edited volumes.
A German translation was published by Carlsen Manga from July 2019 to May 2020 as part of an LGBTQ focus, which also included My Brother's Man and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness . The publisher Seven Seas Entertainment brings the series out in English, Ediciones Tomodomo in Spanish and J-Pop in Italian.
reception
On the occasion of the English edition, the publisher and activist Erica Friedman praised the manga for its realistic depiction of the situation of homosexuals in Japan and the everyday discrimination. In addition to this rare glimpse into Japanese society, the series also provides insight into the Japanese LGBTQ scene, its activism and how it is organized. Even Rachel Matt Thorn praises the more realistic picture of LGBTQ, as it was the case in other manga. On the occasion of its German edition, the German website Queer.de calls the series a special coming-of-age manga, which “gives [[]] moving insights into Tasuku's teenage life, which is often associated with his growing and deviating sexuality Abyss feels ”.
Web links
- Entry in the Incomplete Manga Guide
- Entry at Anime News Network (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Interview with Yūki Kamatani in Quarterly S Vol. 57/2017 Spring April (English translation online). Retrieved September 10, 2019 .
- ↑ a b The fears of the gay teenager Tasuku. Queer.de, July 31, 2019, accessed on August 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Erica Friedman: LGBTQ Manga: Shimanami Tasogare, Volume August 1 , 2017, accessed August 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Chatty AF 21: Wandering Son Retrospective. September 3, 2017, accessed August 14, 2019 .