I read My Summer of You thanks to a drag queen

 

A little while ago, I made a post on a BL manga that I found out about because of drag queen Evah Destruction. Well today I’m talking about another BL manga that I found out about because of that same Evah Destruction tweet, My Summer of You by Nasiga Furuya. Basically, I went back to that same tweet because I was in the mood to read another BL manga. There’s nothing special and no cute little story, I literally just wanted to consume some gay media and it seemed like this one was a complete story in two volumes. However, after doing a little research, it’s not done and there’s a third volume coming out in November.

There isn’t really a blurb as such, so I’m just jacking what’s on the Amazon listing for the first volume. And that is that 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 favourite movies. But the more time he spends with Chiharu, Wataru realises that he may not only be as unaffected by Chiharu’s confession as he claimed to be, but those feelings may also be mutual… Then the second volume, I’m not going to do the blurb for that one, but it’s after a little time skip, and the two have graduated high school and life is different for them.

So straight up in the first chapter, you see Wataru watching a girl ask Chiharu out from a classroom window and he turns the girl down, saying that he likes someone else. You also get to see that the two are actually friends and that they met through the lovely cliché crash into each other at a DVD store and the two got talking. But then after seeing a movie, back in the present time, Chiharu tells Wataru he likes him when Wataru realises the two of them never really talk about anything other than movies. I really didn’t expect it to come so early, but then on the other hand, when I realise the whole thing is only two volumes, it makes sense. But then in the second chapter, that’s when the suggestion of the movie pilgrimage happens. The two go to this unused train station as the first spot, and you get to see the idea of liking Chiharu is perhaps on Wataru’s mind.

There was nothing, and I mean nothing, in the way of plot. Then again, that’s something that I’ve noticed with the BL manga I’ve read – and occasionally with BL series too. I think it’s just something that comes with the realm of the genre, so I’m not criticising it. And given that, again, this is only two volumes, the fact that there was no plot was actually beneficial to the manga. Had there been some kind of plot, then it would have just gotten in the way of the relationship between the two. Because there was no plot, and it was more or less just Chiharu and Wataru going around to different places and talking, you got to see the progression of their relationship and how Chiharu’s confession to Wataru was actually affecting the both of them, which I really appreciated.

Since the blurb of the first volume does say that the feelings might be mutual between the two, I feel like I’m not spoiling anything if I were to talk about that bit. Basically, the bit where you actually see Wataru realise that the feelings are mutual was so good! Conceptually, the whole first volume wasn’t anything that I hadn’t already seen, but it was just well done and my god did I like it. It’s the whole you don’t have to reinvent the wheel thing. I don’t care that the romantic tropes that were in this are things I’ve consumed in other forms. It’s literally just that if they’re done well, I’m more than happy to consume them again – and that’s exactly how I felt about this.

I think one thing I often feel when it comes to these mangas that are over and done in a few volumes is that, yes, they tell a story, but you don’t always get the chance to expand on the characters all that much. Granted, I like being able to see them react to things like you don’t get in longer novels, but the longer novels have the space to expand and really flesh out the characters that you don’t always get in manga. I think I’ve mentioned this exact point in every other manga I’ve talked about, and this one is no exception. If maybe there was another volume (because I’m greedy and want more content), then there’d be more time and chance to expand on the characters. They definitely both got more expansion in the second volume, which I appreciated… That was that point.

Something I have appreciated about reading the two volumes that are out is that even though the characters do obviously keep going between volumes, everything is contained in each volume. Like the events of volume one stay in one, and then the same can be said for two. They never really overlap, so it’s like each volume is its own, complete, thing. And at first, I was worried when I found out there was a third volume coming out, because I thought it meant the story wouldn’t be complete, but as I read them, it was almost like each volume was its own short story in a way and that you didn’t actually need either of the other volumes to enjoy one on their own.

The cast of characters was really small as well. Besides the two leads, Wataru has a sister and mother, and a couple of friends that pop up occasionally, and then Chiharu really only has one friend that turns up. I know it’s pretty typical for these BLs to have a small cast of characters, and because of the nature of these mangas, they don’t get that expanded upon. That’s very much the case in this manga as well. You see one of Wataru’s friends turning up a few times that gets a bit of expanse, but other than that, it follows the trend that you don’t really get much of anything about anyone outside of the leads.

There’s a little afterword in each of the volumes, mentioning about how the both of them are set over summer and that they’re meant to feel like summer when you read them. And they do. I read the first volume over the course of one evening and then the next morning, simply because I would have fallen asleep with it in my hands had I not stopped, and then the second one in one sitting that same day as I finished the first. It was really easy to read, and even the stuff that came close to tension and drama, it was never that bad.

Overall, I really don’t think I have anything negative to say about this manga. It was a nice easy read that I breezed through that got me smiling to myself a few times while I was reading it. It was really refreshing to read, and honestly could end up on my top reads of the year.