LGBT+ Manga Spotlight: Shimanami Tasogare - Tray

 Many people have probably seen or heard of gay couples appearing in Japanese media. While  Japan is renowned for its “Yaoi” and “Yuri” manga and anime, pieces of media that portray gay male or female partners, these genres are actually marketed toward straight men and women, often telling a story of  unrealistic scenarios and relationships. Japan’s tolerance for gay individuals is actually not as inviting as the mangas make you think. On occasion, however, a manga will be published specifically for the LGBT community. Enter Shimanami Tasogare. 

Shimanami Tasogare, also known as Our Dreams at Dusk, is written and illustrated by Yuhki Kamatani. They are openly x-gendered, which translates to nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns. In the story, main character Tasuku Kaname didn’t clear his phone’s search history and some of his “friends” found some evidence that he might not be straight. He attempts suicide, thinking that his life was over, but got interrupted by someone known as “Anonymous”. Due to this, he discovers a lounge full of people like himself, and a sort of slice-of-life adventure begins. 

There is a bit of romance in the story, but the prime focus of the plot was to flesh out the different identities of each character, the troubles they go through, and the successes as well. The romance ties into the focus on identity well since the main character goes through doubts about himself because of his romantic interest.

You can really tell that the story was written by someone in the LGBT+ community. The characters in the story were believable and had their own thoughts and goals, and none of them were made of classic stereotypes you find so often in the media. After I read the manga, I went through the reviews to see what the overall consensus for the quality of it was, and to no surprise, a majority of the audience was quite pleased. There was a minority who talked about how they didn’t “get” the manga. Shimanami Tasogare is one of those rare pieces of literature that is written for the LGBT+ audience, so people without much experience in the community might not fully understand it. 

While I enjoyed many of the characters, they weren’t iconic in the way that you might draw fanart for them.  That might not be a bad thing. In fact, you could argue that designing the characters to look normal could help someone realize that people in real life can also be LGBT. Even if they’re designs aren’t especially notable, I still felt a connection with each of them, and the story lingered with me long after the last page. 

Overall, I would give this manga an 8.5/10. The art was beautiful and the story well-written, but at the finale it just sort of . . . ends. I found myself disappointed because it just didn’t feel like the story should end there, as there were still a few loose ends to tie up, and I found myself really wanting to know what happens next. For instance, one mystery throughout the whole book was why Anonymous could fly. Was she some sort of god? Or maybe it was a metaphor for something? We’ll never know. There was also one scene where I wasn’t sure why one of the characters was angry, but other than that, the rest of the story was relatively clear. 

I would definitely recommend this story to anyone who identifies as LGBT+, or even if you’re not in the community and want an eyeful of beautiful art. 

Warnings: This story would probably be classified as PG-13, as there are some colorful slurs mixed in (most commonly the f slur for homosexual people), mentions of pornographic content, and suicide. People who have experienced disagreeable situations because of their identity might feel uncomfortable reading some parts of it. Nothing in the manga is too intense, but Shimanami Tasogare doesn’t try to censor some of the harsh truths of being LGBT+. 

Also, if you decide to read this on an online website, make sure to download an effective ad blocker, because my eyes still have not been cleansed from the degeneracy that is internet advertisements.