Shimanami Tasogare
Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare

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For most of the western world today, tolerance towards homosexuality is almost unquestionable, with gay marriage being written into law with nary a controversy. But for Japan, a country that has traditionally isolated itself from the rest of the globe, attitudes towards homosexuality are noticeably different. Though a 2017 NHK poll indicates that a majority of Japanese people are supportive of gay marriage, two years later even civil partnerships remain non-existent, and people remain heavily closeted in fear of standing out in a fiercely homogeneous culture.

It is important to keep this in mind while reading Shimanami no Tasogare. Those familiar with anime, manga, or ... Japanese media as a whole will be well aware that homosexuality is almost entirely ignored, or, if homosexual characters do exist, they are treated as a one-note running-gag-- tee-he, this character is gay/lesbian: so funny. Even Japanese television, which attempts to manufacture a vaguely tolerant image towards LGBT people by having a small handful of transgender hosts on variety shows, treats said hosts almost exclusively as comedy material. Matsuko Deluxe, most famously, for example-- most Japanese people would believe her cross-dressing and usage of female language to be a part of her character, a part of the joke rather than her actual identity. The general attitude towards LGBT people, among the younger Japanese populace, is to act tolerant on the outside, while shutting them out inside and avoiding their company so as to not stick out. For older Japanese people, outright discrimination is as ordinary to them as their hostility towards foreigners. And for children and teenagers, it is of course a reason to bully.

Shimanami no Tasogare is a statement about the reality of LGBT people in Japan. It is a touching and personal story about a wide array of people finding, and coming to terms with who they are, but it is equally the question of why these same people aren't allowed to behave themselves on the outside. Why must they stay closeted? Why can't people be free to love who they choose? They simply wish to live their life in peace without being harassed. Doesn't everyone?

The story begins with the protagonist being driven to the brink of suicide for being potentially ousted as gay by his classmates. He chooses instead to live, and eventually finds company among a volunteer group comprised of other gay people, of lesbians, cross-dressers, transgender and closeted/confused people. Nobody in this group is hostile towards society for not accepting them: they are content merely having found a space where they can make friends and be accepted for who they are. But even this is put into jeopardy by society, with regular and targeted harassment towards the group throughout the series. Sadly, such things had already been a daily occurrence in their lives before they had even joined the group. A shrug and a step forward is their only recourse.

Shimanami no Tasogare's writing is considerably subtle. There is a transgender character whose identity is never outright stated for the majority of the series, but by the time the dialogue explicitly reveals what they are, the reader has already known for quite some time due to their bittersweet conversations with old friends, hinting and nudging towards their past. There is as well a cross-dresser, though whether they truly fit somewhere in the LGBT spectrum, or are merely a puberty-stricken child fascinated by beauty, remains unanswered. It is not of much relevance. In the protagonist's own words, he wants "to live in a world where we don't have to understand each other." And that's quite fair enough.

There is some touching romance throughout the story-- particularly between the protagonist and another boy at school whom he has a crush on-- but this plays a secondary role to the two coming to terms with and accepting who they are, or even who they might be. There isn't necessarily an "and so they got together" ending, as whether or not they do was never really the point of the story. Much can instead be inferred from the manga's often symbolic imagery, with the art, stylistically simple as it may be, both figuratively and literally gouging at the characters with their fears and unrequited loves.

As somebody who is straight and even engaged to someone of the opposite sex, Shimanami no Tasogare comes recommended without reservation, a touching and courageous story despite its brevity. It is not just a story for LGBT readers to relate to, but for anyone who has ever felt alienated, or can empathise with those that have.

Because why should anyone ever be bullied for loving another?

They shouldn't.

I do realize this is going to be more of a rant, but bear with me.

From time to time, I check top 100 manga to see what's new. And Shimanami Tasogare kind of appeared out of nowhere. The cover art looked nice, so I gave it a try without even reading the synopsis.

Boy was I dissapointed. But no, not because it turned out to be unexpected shounen ai (though not reflected in MAL genres), but because it failed to be interesting, even despite the quite high mean score. The story can be summed up by "gay protagonist meets other non-straight people and sometimes also people ... who are maybe straight". Of course, there are plenty manga that have simple idea, but are entertaining. But in case of Shimanami Tasogare that's it. There's not really more to it. It seems to have a reputation of "realistic depiction of lgbt folks" and "their struggles in society". Yet it all falls flat. It might be realistic but well, real life can get boring too. The characters are just thrown at the reader without really trying to make you like them, and most of the "exciting events and turns" consist of the characters turning out to be *insert not-straight gender/identity/whatever*. Mostly in form of those characters saying "Btw I'm this and that."

Shimanami Tasogare tackles the theme of not understanding yourself, searching for the true you and so on. But tackling an interesting theme doesn't warrant it being done in an interesting way. For example there is an arc about a crossdresing boy. *slight spoilers of said arc ahead, but just to show how plain it is* He reveals he's crossdressing to mc after mc doesn't notice, later proceeds to have to have mental breakdown how nobody doesn't uderstand him, not even he himself (basically he screams exacly that and again, that's it), later goes outside crosdressed, seemingly happy with himself, some guy at festival touches his butt mistaking him for a girl and when mc tries to comfort him, mc gets shouted gay slurs at by the one being comforted. Crosdresser (or whatever his identity is) runs away and that's the last time we hear about him. So what? What purpose did this serve and why should we as a reader care? Those questions are left unanswered. "And nothing of value was found."

I can't really say the story is bad though. It's not *bad*, it's just not interesting. It's... mediocre. What I can say is good is the art. It's pleasant to the eye, there aren't any out of model derps (and thanks god no yaoi fingers or similar) and some moments have a nice visual take to them. Unfortunately, those moments are quite rare. I wish the author would make better use of the visual medium that manga is. To work more with "Show, not tell" in mind. Less infodumping and more visuals would certainly do this manga good.

I don't seek validation in fictional characters, I just want to read a good fiction. And before you're going to say I'm just whatever-phobic, I don't dislike it because it deals with issues - give me a good manga about that and I'll like it. I dislike Shimanami Tasogare because it's not good. In fact, I could give you exaples of other manga that does it better. Still not masterpieces, but certainly not bad - try My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and A Fine Day.

In conclusion, Shimanami Tasogare is the perfect manga to praise if you want to look like you're just sooo accepting, tolerant and supporting of LGBT issues. If you want an entertaining read, go look somewhere else. Althrought there still is a chance that Shimanami Tasogare will get better with more chapters.

Edit: Now that the manga is finished and I've finished reading it, I have to say that was one unsatisfying ending. The finale was just a conclusion to side character arc and it felt like rest of the story was cut of/mangaka has given up on finishing it. This manga certainly doesn't deserve the rating it currently has.

(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)
(Minor spoilers marked)

This must single-handedly be one of the dumbest stories I have come across so far in manga.

Let's get into the foundation of things and understand why. Japan isn't the most LGBT friendly country in the world, there are still some issues. Having looked up information whilst doing this review, you can find that no anti-discrimination laws are protecting LGBT people as well as no same-sex marriage allowed. Having said this, however, through my simple search it is clear as day that most people in Japan do not have a problem with LGBT people. Of ... course, not everyone is the same, but I would imagine that with Japan's progressive nature, like participating in acknowledging social issues, some including BLM, it isn't far fetched to say that being part of the LGBT community in Japan is going to be the worst thing that could happen to you given that you live in Japan and are part of the community.

So then what is the problem with Our Dreams at Dusk? The problem is that it takes this idea to the extreme unnecessarily and unrealistic. It tries to play off as something bigger than it shows with characters changing faster than Lightning McQueen and flawed logic that can't hold hydrogen nuclei. At this point, I am not sure if this is an excuse for a story to promote the message, "Hey LGBT people in Japan exist, please be nice to us" even though society caught onto this before this manga was even published. Or if this was actually a genuine story that I have completed missed this point in (with good reason). Either way, I will break down how this story is way worse than it seems to be and quite frankly, very overrated.


Narrative:
The start of the manga will really draw you in and everything kinda gets dashed onto your face and your left thinking what the hell just happened. After that, however, you can expect to not see something similar happen again, it goes on a steady decline downhill. It sets out the story pretty well, showing each other characters and their struggles with being part of the LGBT community, not just that too, people questioning gender, pressures from other people. It sucks, it genuinely sucks. But the story is way too extreme with this, this is where the dumb logic part comes in. You see the outside members of drop-in centre think that: if a person is associated with this centre, then said person is gay. I don't know why they didn't consider any other options, consider that this is a flawed idea to go by, and this doesn't just happen once, it happens so many times to the point where outside characters are just made to look like idiots in the face of this group. Which to some respect would make sense, given that anyone thinking this would give off a bad impression of themselves in how much they think about things. I don't think anyone is this dumb in real life and whilst these characters make this assumption, it is only an assumption (however last few chapters debunk this). Maybe I am being ironic in that being a homosexual in Japan is this bad, but it doesn't come across as believable. I don't know what to believe from this, it seems too far fetched and given real-life accomplishments it is hard to say whether or not the feelings conveyed are accurate or exaggerated. But that isn't the only issue with the story, another strong issue is melodrama. When the term "melodramatic" is used, it is usually thrown in a quick way for some easy criticism of something that tries to pull your heartstrings, but using melodrama as a way to describe this story is probably one of the correct terms to use in the instance. I will take a scene from chapter 9 to explain what I mean, this is the part where some minor spoilers come in, viewer discretion is also advised, kinda NSFW:

------[Spoilers!]------
Person 1: "They went after you because you're so cute, Person 2"
*Person 2 slaps away Person 1's hand, then shoves Person 1*
Person 2: You are the absolute worst, you homo!
Person 2: Go get pounded in ass and die!
Person 1: Shut up, keep your voice down
Person 2: You shut up, go to hell, homo!
Person 1: You… little queen!!
Person 2: You don't really get it! I mean, seriously!
Person 2: Because you're an idiot Person 1! You're so stupid!
*irrelevant stuff happens*
Person 2: Drop dead f****t!
------[Spoilers!]------

I really had no clue as to why that happened when I first saw it myself. It just happened. I guess Person 2 did have that aura that they would do something like that, but not something to this extent, the author decided to just switch this person from who they were presented to be, to some other guy in about 2 seconds. Understandably, the ending of the story featured the character of this person completely different to what I have shown you, though, the publisher went bankrupt so the author didn't really have a chance to fix up the character, very sad that no honest redemption was made to fix these errors. However, this isn't the only character who switches up to anger in an instant, another does the same but the development throughout from anger to regular personality was made well. Still, there are unnecessary switch-ups that just happen for the sake of drama.

I really can't tell if this is a mockery to how LGBT people in Japan live, or if this is the cold and undesirable truth of these people. I want to believe that this is far-fetched and that the author decided that it would be better to show extreme cases rather than that of a more realistic story. But it seems more of a joke, this doesn't feel any different from a shoujo manga if anything, it is only darker and dramatic that is what separates it really. At the end of the day, I just don't know what to believe with this as a base if I never understood how LGBT people in Japan suffer.

I have explained characters somewhat, but the most interesting one has to be Anonymous. They are probably one of the best that this story has to offer, and one of the best characters I have seen in manga. They are the perfect mystery, everything about them is shrouded in some metaphorical mist, and even when they reveal themselves of who they are in truth, they still have the ability to retain their mysterious aura, very well written character. Didn't have much time to be focused on, which is even better given their behaviour. You are just left there with this interesting fellow who makes you question yourself as well. You can talk about things with them, but they won't listen. Other side characters are actually better than most MCs, such as Haruko and Saki, especially with their relationship. It comes out as the most realistic one out of all the main relationships in the story. Nothing too exaggerated, but not something that pokes a little bit into the situation. It understands full well where their placement is and does a good effort in not trying to boast itself to a higher, delusional standard if you understand what I mean. Ilya, another genuine character in the story that has his over side of things that are shown later on in the story, not much about him is of any actual relevance, but he is a decent character nonetheless. I haven't explained the MC Tasuku that much, but he does fall into the melodramatic character this manga has given, I felt though, he used other people in the manga to get to where he wants to be in his life, I guess that is what every medium does with someone lost in life looking to seek a place to belong, but as Anonymous says "being gay isn't what makes you Tasuku". So then, where is the other part of him? I guess his love of scary stories may be something, but that isn't adapted to much. It wasn't clearly shown to my vision about who the dude was behind his curtains behind those curtains, but I think it is clear that the guy is open-minded and acts as that go-to person when you want to talk with someone. But he also comes off as constantly self-conscious of himself. I really don't know how this guy comes out as very human. Take away gay factor and you are left with a run-of-the-mill protagonist. All in all, only one very interesting character this story had to give.


Art:
The art is amazing and is timed well. Every time there is some deep thought process at play the art suddenly becomes abstract and gives an explosion of bright detail to view upon. I felt that I was used as an effect to strongly enforce the expression or emotion the characters put on, with zoomed-in detail of the character's face when the style came on to aid it. Whenever Anonymous comes on the art style uses the same effect too, it adds on to their character and how mysterious and unearthly they are. It is also used to show what seems to be transcendency where characters are literally flying through the air, or up in the clouds in some representation. I honestly have no clue if this style had some secret message behind it, but considering the story at hand, I would like to think that there isn't one. It is just pure art. The character designs are pretty good too, every character looked shiny and polished. You could tell time was well spent in that. Saying this, however, you would probably find the same style in some relatively new shoujo manga. It does feel like something out of one but it does give some distinction from the generic standard, which gives it its own style.


Enjoyment:
Meh. How could I enjoy something with so many dumb characters and dumb logic that made no sense? I won't lie though, characters like Anonymous made this worth the while with their trademarked "you can tell me anything, I won't listen though". Gets me every time. Other than that, I can't really say I liked it a lot. I guess Haruko and Saki's relationship was interesting though. Can't say the same for others.


Overall - 4.21 (4)



TLDR Review:
Story - 3: Very unrealistic and forced drama.
Art - 8: Abstract art in the form of pure art, simply transcendence if it were art.
Characters - 4: Personality changes faster than you can expect, for most important characters. Anonymous is the best character given, other side characters are decent.
Enjoyment - 4: I couldn't say I enjoyed such a forced story that had parts which made no sense.
Overall - 4.21 (4)
(Since Art was an outlier, I lowered its significance to overall score)



Having read three stories reloving around same-sex relationships as of this review's post time, I would not like to say that the theme is overrated, since I don't generalise, but it is easily exploitable to make things seem worse than they are. Though I really enjoyed My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, that was actually very good. I made a review for that you can find here (https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=348820) if you are interested to read it. Would still go on and read stories from the theme, but right now I can only say so far, it seems very disappointing. Would still recommend this to people, however, you just need to witness the greatness of Anonymous as well as the interesting art style used. Apart from that, the story isn't one I can take seriously and is probably not the best representation of the real world.