At the end, I still hate that Ruri got actually traumatized by being shoved over in primary school. Most kids have at least a brawl around that time, along with bullying.

Also, I found it very funny that Seri's tough love with Shizuku in the last chapter helped Shizuku a great deal in the end, when her coddling of Ruri is very likely a big reason Ruri is still stuck in the past.

One could argue that it's a bit over-the-top, but it's the incident the two of them remember most- for Ruri, it was the first time Shizuku laid a hand on her, and for Shizuku, it was when she was confronted with the reality that she was bullying Ruri..

It also effectively sums up Shizuku's treatment of Ruri- if you look closely, Shizuku appeared to just give Ruri a light slap on the back, only for her to actually fall over, and Shizuku's expression was clearly surprised, horrified and/or guilty as that happened (even if she brushed it off when Seri confronted her).

That's an interesting take on Seri. She was also the first person who explicitly called Shizuku's treatment of Ruri bullying, hence Shizuku's shock; even the people who complained about Shizuku blaming Ruri for their loss in the volleyball game didn't use that word. One could also use that reasoning to conclude that while Seri was right that meeting Shizuku again was painful in the short term, in the long term, it actually helped her see how much Shizuku had changed and get her to take steps to change herself..

I personally think the decision to make it unintentional bullying weakens the plot. It makes everything feel like an over exaggeration. I would have preferred it if her bullying was a bit more intentional. Maybe not like super intense, but if she had been confronted with how she was affecting Ruri but kept up her treatment anyway "for her own good", it would have been more effective for me.

You are totally right. Shizuku has a really good, emotionally charged and deep redemption arc for something that does not warrant it. Heck, I have read stories about characters that killed people and had less of a redemption than Shizuku.
I guess the author thought that having Shizuku be an actual bully would turn the readers against her, but it would serve the story, imo. For comparisons sake, I thought Koe not Katachi did a good job of an actual bully getting redemption,

Looks like we'll be getting a newly drawn extra chapter in volume 6.

https://twitter.com/maymaymay7523/status/1752617715926483333

https://twitter.com/maymaymay7523/status/1752618128939573511

We'll get on it once the volume is out. See you next month!

At the end, I still hate that Ruri got actually traumatized by being shoved over in primary school. Most kids have at least a brawl around that time, along with bullying.

Also, I found it very funny that Seri's tough love with Shizuku in the last chapter helped Shizuku a great deal in the end, when her coddling of Ruri is very likely a big reason Ruri is still stuck in the past.

One could argue that it's a bit over-the-top, but it's the incident the two of them remember most- for Ruri, it was the first time Shizuku laid a hand on her, and for Shizuku, it was when she was confronted with the reality that she was bullying Ruri..

It also effectively sums up Shizuku's treatment of Ruri- if you look closely, Shizuku appeared to just give Ruri a light slap on the back, only for her to actually fall over, and Shizuku's expression was clearly surprised, horrified and/or guilty as that happened (even if she brushed it off when Seri confronted her).

That's an interesting take on Seri. She was also the first person who explicitly called Shizuku's treatment of Ruri bullying, hence Shizuku's shock; even the people who complained about Shizuku blaming Ruri for their loss in the volleyball game didn't use that word. One could also use that reasoning to conclude that while Seri was right that meeting Shizuku again was painful in the short term, in the long term, it actually helped her see how much Shizuku had changed and get her to take steps to change herself..

I personally think the decision to make it unintentional bullying weakens the plot. It makes everything feel like an over exaggeration. I would have preferred it if her bullying was a bit more intentional. Maybe not like super intense, but if she had been confronted with how she was affecting Ruri but kept up her treatment anyway "for her own good", it would have been more effective for me.

You are totally right. Shizuku has a really good, emotionally charged and deep redemption arc for something that does not warrant it. Heck, I have read stories about characters that killed people and had less of a redemption than Shizuku.
I guess the author thought that having Shizuku be an actual bully would turn the readers against her, but it would serve the story, imo. For comparisons sake, I thought Koe not Katachi did a good job of an actual bully getting redemption,

As good as Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice was, Shoya's bullying was a lot worse than Shizuku's, to the point that some people were turned against him from the start. He went out of his way to make Shoko's life miserable, ruined 1.7 million yen worth of hearing aids (well over $14,000 US), got the rest of the class to join in and ultimately caused her to become suicidal, all for no better reason than to kill his boredom.

In Shizuku's case, the fact that she hurt Ruri without realizing it ties in to what we learn about her in Chapter 29- she unintentionally made "Girls Lovers Suicide" resemble a real tragedy and thus unwittingly caused pain to those involved in it. This fear that well-intentioned actions can only hurt others is central to Shizuku's character, and it's also part of the reason why she was nervous about apologizing to Ruri, and her first assumption as to why Kaori tries to break up with her in Chapter 16- she thinks she did something that offended Kaori (who has a habit of hiding her pain and other negative emotions) without realizing it. Because of it, I'd argue that good intentions yielding bad results fits the story better.

On another topic, in Volume 4, the localization actually translates what Shizuku's writing at the start of Chapter 19. After writing some incomplete sentences that are implied to talk about the first time Kaori came over to Shizuku's house and the library date from what we can see, Shizuku writes "(sum)mer together as a," and after struggling with the sentence for a page, concludes, "But Kaori and I aren't really a couple," then writes "fake couple" to finish that sentence.

Last hope for this manga to have an anime
https://anime-japan.jp/en/activities/ajranking/
Vote number 13
Also, is there any way to see the rankings from previous years?
Edit: For example, if there are 3 sisters in the house with 3 different e-mails but only 1 computer, can they vote 3 times (using an anonymous tab)?

last edited at Feb 2, 2024 5:41AM

As good as Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice was, Shoya's bullying was a lot worse than Shizuku's, to the point that some people were turned against him from the start. He went out of his way to make Shoko's life miserable, ruined 1.7 million yen worth of hearing aids (well over $14,000 US), got the rest of the class to join in and ultimately caused her to become suicidal, all for no better reason than to kill his boredom.

that´s the thing tho, kids can be extremely cruel without a real reason, shoya´s actions are not unrealistic at all. I guess the point is that the whole ruri incident could be solved by with just a bit of communication and was definetly blown out of proportions while shoya´s long and hard fought redemption feels apropiate to the amount of hurt he did

Will you upload the last extra chapter?

As good as Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice was, Shoya's bullying was a lot worse than Shizuku's, to the point that some people were turned against him from the start. He went out of his way to make Shoko's life miserable, ruined 1.7 million yen worth of hearing aids (well over $14,000 US), got the rest of the class to join in and ultimately caused her to become suicidal, all for no better reason than to kill his boredom.

that´s the thing tho, kids can be extremely cruel without a real reason, shoya´s actions are not unrealistic at all. I guess the point is that the whole ruri incident could be solved by with just a bit of communication and was definetly blown out of proportions while shoya´s long and hard fought redemption feels apropiate to the amount of hurt he did

My point wasn't that his actions were unrealistic- it's that they were so petty and cruel that people understandably concluded that there was nothing he could possibly do to make up for them, to say nothing of characters like Ueno who were similarly cruel but much less remorseful for their actions. It's kind of like how, after Bakugo casually suggested that Midoriya jump off the roof in the first chapter of My Hero Academia, people held that one remark against him hundreds of chapters later even after he actually apologized to Midoriya- if a character's actions are bad enough, the audience becomes unwilling to accept that character being forgiven or redeemed. In fact, some people on this thread felt this way about Shizuku.

"The Summer You Were There" got 8th place in the "Manga We Want Made into Anime" ranking from AnimeJapan 2024! Here the the author's post

And why is the English title of this series "The summer you were there", while the Japanese title "君と綴るうたかた", if translated word for word, means "A song spelled with you"

"The Summer You Were There" got 8th place in the "Manga We Want Made into Anime" ranking from AnimeJapan 2024! Here the the author's post

And why is the English title of this series "The summer you were there", while the Japanese title "君と綴るうたかた", if translated word for word, means "A song spelled with you"

probably bc word for word translations sound awkward and that sentence barely makes any sense as is

And why is the English title of this series "The summer you were there", while the Japanese title "君と綴るうたかた"

Both titles are Japanese (you can see the former on the covers and next to chapter titles). It's trendy to have a secondary or tertiary Latin alphabet title on the cover, be it a mere romanization, a clumsy literal translation, or a wholly unique subtitle, with a chance of it sounding natural.
The English publisher probably just chose one over the other, with a small chance of the licensor pushing for it..

That said, it's a standard practice to localize titles to fit the target language, culture or publisher's market research better, with no requirement to preserve anything from the original title.

And why is the English title of this series "The summer you were there", while the Japanese title "君と綴るうたかた"

Both titles are Japanese (you can see the former on the covers and next to chapter titles). It's trendy to have a secondary or tertiary Latin alphabet title on the cover, be it a mere romanization, a clumsy literal translation, or a wholly unique subtitle, with a chance of it sounding natural.
The English publisher probably just chose one over the other, with a small chance of the licensor pushing for it..

That said, it's a standard practice to localize titles to fit the target language, culture or publisher's market research better, with no requirement to preserve anything from the original title.

Thank you for your explanation, I keep wondering if the Japanese title has "Utakata", but the English version doesn't have the word "Singing", or the English word "Summer" but the Japanese version doesn't have "Natsu", so are two titles with different meanings

last edited at Mar 23, 2024 11:05AM

Man this end really destroyed me

I need an anime of this... the story is incredible, the character design is gorgeous... the clothes they wear, especially Kaori, are just beautiful. Her moles are also so iconic and cute.

In 2022 they made a voiced manga PV and it only makes me want an anime even more, with Ueda Reina as Shizuku and Waki Azumi as Kaori.

(Heavy spoilers): I couldn't believe that she died, I wished that they had at least kissed or confessed face-to-face prior to her death, that hand kiss is all that we get... which is great but also, you know. The page that showed the deathbed made me cry. The whole manga feels SO bitter sweet... I wish we had something else that shows Shizuku's life a little more. Or well, not have Kaori die.

At first I thought Shizuku was in a dream, since it was all about "waking up and hearing the news", because I was really hoping for her to stay alive...

When Kaori messaged Shizuku about "Me too", ugh... this manga is so good.

I have a lot more thoughts about it, something for every chapter... I only finished it now after having read it in 2022 (up to Vol.3 during that time). It would have been better to post my thoughts as each chapter came out, so I'll keep this short.

I thought it would be a longer manga, specifically, I think it was in Chapter 25 where Shizuku is writing her novel, then Kaori collapses "already", so to speak... I thought it was too fast there. Same goes for the end of Chapter 30, but I guess it needs to come at some point, right? Do I dislike it because it's sad...

sigh, I just feel empty now that I finished it. Have I said that I wanted Kaori to not die yet? Yep. Well... I just feel like repeating that over and over...

I look forward to re-reading this later down the road and crying again.

last edited at Apr 7, 2024 10:06AM