I found out what I think is a little off with this.

As much as it portrays various realistic LGBT situations, all the people involved are like ideals.

The lesbian couple is gorgeous, Misora is cute as a button, whether as a boy or as a girl, Touma and Tasuku are handsome, the transgender man looks like a handsome man, Anonymous is bewitchingly ambiguous, even the older gay couple looks nice.

As if average (or even ugly) looking LGBT people don't exist. Lesbians are all lipstick lesbians. LGBT people are all nice people who'd never hurt anyone, cross-dressers are perfect looking and puberty has no effect yet. This manga painfully tries to portray LGBT (or every variation of it) as beautiful, inside and outside, people, nice, caring, struggling within an hostile society, but becoming better for it, etc, etc...

That's cool and all, but pretty unrealistic. Gays and lesbians can be nasty, unhinged, manipulative, cheating, average, butch, imperfect. Like everyone else.

This manga idealizes us a bit, so I actually can't take it really seriously because it doesn't match reality that much. And I find it counter productive at some point. It's cool to be supportive and sensitive, but come on: lesbian bitches and nasty gays exist. We are people too, not gods.

This is a problem with representation in general, don't you think?

The "token XXX-character" is mostly portrayed in some sort of extreme - either extremely bad or extremely good. Nuance eventually comes as soon as people from the own community start to write "everyday-life-stories" instead of the "we-struggle-stories" as well as with a steadily growing library in the genre/representational medium.

I personally am not and never really was a fan of the classic Class-S stories, 404: no men found, all girls high school setting that were prevelant in the oddies, and which are still a genre staple in today's vastly wider library of yuri which has fortunatelly grown since the 2010s. A world in which love between girls is written off as "pure" and "innocent" without the theat of marginalisation through society or the "threat" of heteronormativity and eventually setteling for a man always seemed odd and inplausable to me.
On the other hand the ALWAYS-fated-to-be-doomed vibes of even earlier works of the 80s and 90s also seemed unrealistic to me, because homosexual love has historically sometimes, somehow prevailed despite of its surrounding hostile environment.
Now we are in a time of blooming Lillies of all shapes and colours, which I personally more than appreciate.

There are dull works, autobiographical works, overly dreary works, overly joyful works, works obviously written by straight men and works written by queer folks - for good and for ill.

I masochistically love the gritty and dirty, ugly and despicable people and situations portrayed in Gunjo or Boku no Hentai.
I adore the quircky and hilarious antics of those fucking dorks in Bright And Cheery Amnesia or Kase-san.
I'm awestruck by the beauty and mastery of the sequencial art form in Beloved L.
I can't help but roll my eyes at the melodramatic and contrived obstacles put in place before the protagonists of Citrus.
I feel a deep connection and great appreciation for every single one of Nishi Uko's or Shimura Takako's works.
I am intruiged by the little insights autobiographical works give us into LGBTQ+ living in Japan like in Honey & Honey, Our Journey To Lesbian Motherhood or Hanayome wa Motodanshi.
I'm excited about learning more about other cultures and ways of story-telling in non-japanese works such as Their Story, Lily Love or Fluttering Feelings or even western comics such as Skim, Lumberjanes, Gunnerkrigg Court or Go Get a Roomie.
I laugh my ass off while reading Is My Hobby Weird.

Well, what I'm trying to say, I think, is that there is a lot of stuff to appreciate nowadays in yuri, isn't there? And that small steps of progress are made towards satisfying every single yuri-need there is out there.
Maybe one day I'll also finally read a well thought out and researched realistic sci-fi story with an intruiging plot and a believable and diverse cast of characters which have bigger goals in life than getting with the person they like but still portraying individual forms of love and respect for another person through emotional more than physical intimacy.
I'm glad to be part of this exciting journey until then :)

I found out what I think is a little off with this.

As much as it portrays various realistic LGBT situations, all the people involved are like ideals.

The lesbian couple is gorgeous, Misora is cute as a button, whether as a boy or as a girl, Touma and Tasuku are handsome, the transgender man looks like a handsome man, Anonymous is bewitchingly ambiguous, even the older gay couple looks nice.

As if average (or even ugly) looking LGBT people don't exist. Lesbians are all lipstick lesbians. LGBT people are all nice people who'd never hurt anyone, cross-dressers are perfect looking and puberty has no effect yet. This manga painfully tries to portray LGBT (or every variation of it) as beautiful, inside and outside, people, nice, caring, struggling within an hostile society, but becoming better for it, etc, etc...

That's cool and all, but pretty unrealistic. Gays and lesbians can be nasty, unhinged, manipulative, cheating, average, butch, imperfect. Like everyone else.

This manga idealizes us a bit, so I actually can't take it really seriously because it doesn't match reality that much. And I find it counter productive at some point. It's cool to be supportive and sensitive, but come on: lesbian bitches and nasty gays exist. We are people too, not gods.

an older gay couple as a main and a trans man is already really rare tho for a manga. the fact that the author chose to depict them all as nice looking i don't think you can really fault them for doing what every single author does with their main characters. if the cast was a bit bigger, or if they showed more of the LGBT community then i'd see that criticism valid, but the fact that the author is obviously really into LGBT issues makes me really doubt they're the type to not show LGBT people of all appearances.

i think all the characters are depicted as good people, not perfect or gods, the lesbian couple say they bicker all the time, and daichi-san has a temper, misora calls kaname slurs, tsubaki lashes out at kaname, kaname pries too deep into misora's life at the beginning, etc. these are all pretty average flaws im actually surprised you'd call them perfect people, but maybe you're wanting something like actually terrible that they do?. but given all the themes this story has brought up so far i think it's likely kaname meeting really nasty people in the LGBT community and dealing with that will happen in the future.

Omg is this the end?? Such a beautiful manga.

that was a good ending.

Anonymous is like the deity of queer people. <3

last edited at May 23, 2018 9:06PM

A really rather "Well, okay" ending, but everything that needed to happen in this series did for the most part. If I had to critique anything, it would be that Misora had a load of initial development, then conflict, then a really nothing resolution. But, it's fine.

Fine ending, superb series.

OH NO IT ENDED.
but actually i don't feel too sad? more like satisfied but with a touch of melancholy.... It felt right y'know?

Again, this would make an amazing anime
and yeah, I don't feel that sad either, it feels complete but not complete at the same time

I....... I dont get it........
Is there going to be a second season or something? This ending feels really incomplete...

I'm also disappointed with how quickly this ended. A lot of things still feel unfinished. What was the point in having the fall out with Misora if it's not going to be addressed afterwards

Well, it started strong, went on to be amazing, but then kind of petered out at the end.

As if the author wanted to leave a "perfect picture" in the end and didn't want reality to intrude.

And come on: https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/shimanami_tasogare_ch23#23 this pose is, like, screaming "I'M GAY AND I'M AN UKE!"

At this point, all the characters were some kind of archetypes. Just, the "not-so-consensual" ones were missing.

last edited at May 24, 2018 4:11AM

How come it says completed? All volumes have 5 chapters each and this only has 3, it can't be the end!

Symphogeah posted:

How come it says completed? All volumes have 5 chapters each and this only has 3, it can't be the end!

Maybe some extras are planned to complete the last volume.

the main m/m teased couple was super boring but i almost teared up a little at that hospital scene

What? FINAL CHAPTER? THAT'S THE END?

I really enjoyed it, especially the great artwork, but I feel like a lot of things are left unfinished, like rushed...although I'm happy for a few things (that hospital scene is inevitable, sweet and saddening at the same time).

I'll miss this manga greatly...

last edited at May 25, 2018 5:25AM

I really love this manga, but I hope this really isn't the ending! Everyone had like some sort of resolution in the end...but this ending is wrong, maybe I'm being greedy, call me selfish I don't care, but I want the story to develop further. On another note, I hope KyoAni has the chance to make the anime & make it longer than 12-13 episodes! They're so good in writing about family and it would be so amazing if they focused on lgbtq content too!

last edited at May 25, 2018 7:03PM

I really love this manga, but I hope this really isn't the ending! Everyone had like some sort of resolution in the end...but this ending is wrong, maybe I'm being greedy, call me selfish I don't care, but I want the story to develop further. On another note, I hope KyoAni has the chance to make the anime & make it longer than 12-13 episodes! They're so good in writing about family and it would be so amazing if they focused on lgbtq content too!

What are you talking about? Kyoani will just remove all kisses and real LGBT and turns it all to teasing and bait. :)

FUCK YOU MEAN FINAL CHAPTER

IM CRYING

that was great.

Quite an interesting read. The series is not at all subtle with its messages or with its mise-en-scène, but it doesn't need to, really. And it makes a point of showing that prejudice doesn't always come from ill intent, just an unfortunate social conditionning. It also shows that being gay, trans or whatever doesn't instantly make you an expert on those issues (as shown in the Tasuku & Misora arc); there can be prejudice even between LGBT+ people, and not everyone fits neatly into a specific box.

The ending felt… a tad lackluster, but on the other end I'm not sure what more there was to say. Except maybe for Misora, whose character arc is just kinda left up in the air. It's an almost unrealistically happy ending where every homophobic character ends up seeing the light, and in the end the drama that did happen throughout the series was always resolved fairly quickly. Hell, even the death of Mr. Tchaiko's husband was depicted in a happy way (and the scene was beautiful).

Did the author insist too much on the hopeful and positive aspects? Not necessarily. Not every story has to be gritty and filled with tragedy, and considering how badly a lot of LGBT-centered manga ended until not so long ago, you can't blame them for wanting to overcompensate. It also gives some representation to trans men through Utsumi, which is inexplicably rare in manga or in media in general (seriously, even on Youtube the trans podcasters I've seen are all trans women).

My favorite characters were probably Haruko and Mr. Tchaiko. The former for her loud and assertive personality that made her a good foil to Tasuku in the early parts, and the latter because Tchaikosvky of course. :þ Tasuku was… okay? I found him a bit annoying and whiny at first, but he learned from his mistakes. Tôma I never really managed to like. I don't know, even when he acted nice I felt like punching him, and his epiphany at the end of volume 3 was a bit hard to swallow.

I also have mixed feelings about the Host. She was this mysteriously beautiful figure that didn't seem to live in the same reality, and that made her kind of appealing… but if I met someone like that in real life she'd probably get on my nerves rather quickly. >.> Though I did find a bit of myself in her at times. That's also why I find this page absolutely beautiful.

That brief moment where her façade of indifference cracks and you realize that, yes, she's human after all. She's incapable of love, but not of affection.

So yeah, a nice read. It put a smile on my face while making me reflect on some things, and that's cool. Plus the art's beautiful. It would definitely make a good anime.

PS: By the way, I noticed that every main character has a name that's composed of two first names, one male and one female (Kaname Tasuku, Daichi Haruko, Misora Shuuji, Tsubaki Touma…) That's quite fitting.

The official French translation of the title (yeah, it's being published in France) is "Eclat(s) d’âme"

Which is a wordplay between multiple meanings of the word "éclat", which, without s, means brightness, but also shattered/burst/flare. But with an s, "éclats" means shards.

So, the title evokes "bright/flaring souls" as well "small pieces of soul"

Oooh… I wondered why they chose this title, but the double meaning had flown over my head. Shame on me.

last edited at Jan 24, 2019 8:55AM

I read for the lesbian side couple but there's a lot to like about this manga's approach to LGBT themes just in general that you don't get in most other manga

This is still one of my favorites. It's much more realistic than a lot of the stories on this site. It's one of the better coming of age/slice of life stories. Not everyone is able to be self-aware enough to accept their identity at a young age (I liked how Tsubaki-kun's story was handled, in re-reading it, you can see some of his worse behavior is gay panic), and not everyone pairs up immediately, even if compatible.

I found out what I think is a little off with this.

As much as it portrays various realistic LGBT situations, all the people involved are like ideals.

The lesbian couple is gorgeous, Misora is cute as a button, whether as a boy or as a girl, Touma and Tasuku are handsome, the transgender man looks like a handsome man, Anonymous is bewitchingly ambiguous, even the older gay couple looks nice.

As if average (or even ugly) looking LGBT people don't exist. Lesbians are all lipstick lesbians. LGBT people are all nice people who'd never hurt anyone, cross-dressers are perfect looking and puberty has no effect yet. This manga painfully tries to portray LGBT (or every variation of it) as beautiful, inside and outside, people, nice, caring, struggling within an hostile society, but becoming better for it, etc, etc...

That's cool and all, but pretty unrealistic. Gays and lesbians can be nasty, unhinged, manipulative, cheating, average, butch, imperfect. Like everyone else.

This manga idealizes us a bit, so I actually can't take it really seriously because it doesn't match reality that much. And I find it counter productive at some point. It's cool to be supportive and sensitive, but come on: lesbian bitches and nasty gays exist. We are people too, not gods.

couple years late but this isn't really true at all? Tasuku starts in a very bad place, and repeatedly lashes out at people around him, and Touma has a shit ton of internalized homophobia that causes him to also lash out and repeatedly hurt the people around him even more than Tasuku.

One of the defining character moments for both Tasuku and Misora is that night at the festival when Tasuku says Misora got groped because he was cute, and then Misora went off on a tirade about how disgusting and gay Tasuku is. Neither is blameless in the situation but nothing about that says "perfect ideal" to me.

Haru is extroverted and outgoing, but she also hurts Saki by outting her to people without thinking about the consequences of her actions. In the story it turns out okay, but Haru outting Saki to Touma's dad, and then Touma's dad outting Saki to her own father could have gone really badly.

Anonymous has successfully dedicated their life to living as best they can outside of the confines of labels (and society) but this can also make them aloof. When Tasuku ends up opening up to them, he ends up feeling more lost than he did before talking to them.

Tchaiko is held back by his own fears and insecurities from meeting his husband's son, and almost lets his fear of confronting his husband's other family stop him from being by his side when he's on his deathbed (lots of he/him pronouns wow).

point is, these are all people. They cry, they make mistakes, and they're all trying to do their best in their own ways. I never felt like they were too perfect, except for the magical realism parts where anonymous walks on clouds but I'm pretty sure that's the intended feeling.

Holy fuck. What a good series. I’m so glad this manga exists.

Re-read again and again. It is still a masterpiece. I still cannot find anything on this level. The one scene that I really like is when Tasuku victim blaming to Misora. Tasuku completely violated the trust Misora put on him. It is to Misora's credit that he forgave Tasuku. I find it surprising that there are readers here did not get it. I'm sure most of us would nod our heads and say to ourselves, yeah, I have been there (including me, which is why I understand Misora). Actually that kind of things are "normal" in a patriarchy society, with the women always take the blame..