I finished reading this manga months ago. I have held writing a proper review about it until now because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Every time I thought I had finally gathered my thoughts enough to write something I would stumble across another way of approaching things, and so I was right back to square one. Let me just get this out of the way; The Day Before Summer became one of my favorite manga from the second I finished it. The protagonist Aoki Tetsuo is perhaps the most well realized character that I’ve ever come across in an anime or manga. It took me a while to fully understand why is it that this manga has so intensely captured my attention. I am going to try and articulate as best as I can why I have been so enamored by it. What I’m about to say is something obvious that really doesn’t need to be said at all, though I’m going to say it regardless, so please forgive my shallow ramblings filled with pseudo psychology. Anyone who thinks that they in any way have life figured out is either willingly lying to themselves or are simply an idiot. In reality everyone is just doing their best as they awkwardly stumble through life while doing the best that they can and, quite frankly, that’s the way it should be. What matters is whether we can accept who we are as individuals while we do so.

At the beginning of The Day Before Summer the protagonist, art student Aoki Tetsuo meets and enters a relationship with Aizawa Akira, an older woman who runs an art gallery. What follows is the story of two people coming to better understand one another and themselves whilst they make their way through life with all its hectic moments. Their relationship is portrayed in what I think are quite genuine ways, making for a plethora of satisfying moments of connection. Particularly the portrayal of the ways in which relationships can spontaneously occur; immediate chemistry, fumbling your way through things, the ambiguity of connection, and the often unseen falling outs. The characters have an extraordinary amount of depth; Aizawa is multi-faceted, and Tetsuo has various internalized issues/shortcomings that manifest themselves in his art. Aoki is someone who is stumbling through the end of his college life, trying to find what kind of person it is he wants to become. He is hyper critical of himself, never seeming to be satisfied with anything that his artistic efforts produce. The classic dilemma faced by anyone who fancies themselves a creative, which forms the basis of his character arc. It is through the lens of his art that we can come to understand why ultimately things end the way they do. Tetsuo's identity first and foremost is that of an artist. It is often said that to create and make something worthwhile, one must go through some suffering. Aizawa is at a rather stable point in life and legitimately wishes for Tetsuo to be happy, but critically she lacks what Aoki needs for his artistic identity. She is not someone who creates. She collects and deals art, only watching him paint, observing from a distance. Right from the outset of the story, this is established as their relationship. Aizawa is not an artist, and therefore cannot create something that inspires Aoki and his art. This creates an issue when Tetsuo needs to either be suffering or have a source of inspiration to perfect his craft.

Here we have the central conflict that I find to be so very compelling. Aoki and Aizawa are on the surface the image of an ideal couple. They have electric chemistry, are sexually compatible, and are not overly demanding of one another. But there is a disconnect, despite how well they get on together she cannot give him what he ultimately needs, that being support for his artistic expression. Aoki’s identity is firmly rooted within his artistic expression, yet he truly loves and cares for Aizawa. What do you do when those you love are directly, though not purposefully, opposing fundamental aspects of your identity? It’s a question that is impossible to answer with 100% certainty. It is not even something that Aoki fully comprehends, yet he still feels the effects wearing on him throughout the manga. Other questions are relevant to this discussion as well: how much of who are is defined by those you hold dear? What defines you more as person, those around you or the ways in which you express yourself? As stated earlier, anyone who thinks they have this all figured out is either lying to themselves or an idiot. I don’t have it figured out, you don’t have it figured out, and neither does Aoki. He does his best with what he knows and believes, and you know what, I think that is good enough. When he does eventually reach a conclusion on what it is he should do, it is a moment unlike any other that I’ve experienced thus far in manga. The Day Before Summer took me by storm, it gave me so much to think about, it made me smile, it made me cry, it’s a manga I won’t forget any time soon. After spending all this time thinking about it, trying to iron out what exactly made me enjoy it so much, there’s still the possibility that I have yet to figure it out exactly. And that’s okay, what I do know is that I love this manga and I hope that if you choose to read it that you will come to love it as well.