You know, I'm kind of a little bit of a bumbling mess, still, after just having finished this, but I really want to get my incoherent ramblings that dare call themselves "thoughts" in my head out into the world for others to read.
Because I think this deserves even more recognition than it is getting at the moment. Much more in fact.
Instead of an actual, "structured", review that tells you what this story is about - cuz, honestly, who in their right mind reading a review wants to know what something is about (well, at least I don't and am looking more for the emotional aspect), read the synospis for that - I am here to tell you, how it made me feel.
Or more accurately
I’ve touched upon this in my ongoing activity updates that you can find here already, but the way this manga manages to combine so many powerful, delicate and sensitive themes, and implements them into what is essentially a pairing of just two major characters with such an intricate sense of care and passion - like you will find in almost no other anime or manga done like this - without feeling overbearing, or overwhelming (well, it’s certainly emotionally overwhelming), without overstaying its welcome, never feeling like it tries to do too much, all while building up and maintaining a (mostly) healthy romantic relationship steadily progressing forward in the background, strikes me as something of incredible beauty.
I am
IN AWE
of every single page of this manga, that - alongside all this - has such a powerful way to convey these themes and emotions in its art and paneling that I haven’t seen in a very long time in ~~romance~~ manga. Especially when it comes to the facial expressions and little details that make a character feel more human.
I genuinely think that there is no better portrayal (that I have seen) of ACTUAL realistic anxiety and insecurity in animanga than Shizuku Hoshikawa, and that alone makes her a contender for a spot in a list of top 5 animanga protagonists, IF NOT even higher than that.
(yes I have seen - and read - Bocchi the Rock, yes it is one of my favorites, but while Bocchi is more of an accurate portrayal of how it FEELS, Shizuku is one of how it ACTUALLY IS.)
Kaori Asaka, her counterpart in the relationship, hiding behind a mask of an energetic and lively personality, while her real feelings - that she can only talk about with no one else but Shizuku, but even then not even to their full extent, until the end, that is - slowly gnaw and eat away at her from the inside, in this intense portrayal of a struggle that I imagine not many of us can actually relate to, nonetheless manages to be a powerful way of showing how a situation like hers can affect the people involved, be it the one actually inflicted with it or the people around them, that everyone can take away at least SOMETHING from it, no matter how small.
But that is not to say these two main characters are the only strengths this story has, no on the contrary, every single one of the side characters - which admittedly aren’t that many - has a specific role that they fulfill in exactly the way they need (what would Shizuku ever do if she didn’t have Seri and Ruri to handle Kaori’s condition, because she sure as hell wouldn’t be able to on her own.) and they serve as an incredibly nice addition into an already powerful narrative, making it clear that the mangaka had all of this planned out from even before the first second they started to draw the manga - which kinda should be obvious when looking at the title
Speaking of
Obviously, I have to address the elephant in the room here, that being the title of the manga itself:
The Summer You WERE There
is exactly what it promises to be. Since the moment I started this, I knew how this was gonna end, YOU reading this probably know how this is gonna end, but that is besides the point. The point is the journey of how it eventually gets there, and how it impacts the other characters - and you as a reader - and for that I can very confidently say that I can’t think of many, if any, that handle it as well as this one.
Saved each other.
And saved me.
Barring the Aria Series, Kumiko in Sound Euphonium and maybe, JUST MAYBE, the Requiem for Innocence prequel VN for The House in Fata Morgana, I don’t think I’ve experienced ANYthing that has hit me on such a personal level as The Summer You Were There has in, dare I say, probably the last 5 YEARS. Which is HUGE, because I’ve only really started to watch anime 6 years ago, and read manga or LNs 4 years ago, meaning this includes pretty much 90% of what is in my lists.
When it comes to
emotions
this does NOT hold back.
It goes all in into the depths of your heart and digs its way ever further until it reaches the deepest point that even you yourself couldn’t have ever imagined existing, and
Rips it all to shreds.
Giving the most satisfying feeling of
CLOSURE
I have seen ever since reading the final chapter of Girls Last Tour all those years ago.
So please, if you’ve come this far in my little review, PLEASE do yourself the favor of reading this story. By the time I reached chapter 9, I was 100% convinced that this is gonna end up with a full score on my list, and that sentiment hasn’t dwindled a single bit over the course of me reading this.
If anything, it just got cemented further and further with every single chapter, all the way into the last.
____
At this point, though, considering the actual themes the story portrays and how raw and real it goes about it, I’m going to give out a little content warning for things like
Depression, trauma, guilt, anxiety, bullying, su*cidal tendencies, mental health, atonement and forgiveness, loneliness, escapism, and most importantly: loss, denial and grief.
Because this story is NOT for the faint of heart, and you should not go into this having a negative mindset and should only dive into it when you know you will be able to handle it.
No. I’d rather say I ADVISE you not to go into this if you are not sure if you are able to handle it.
I do consider myself quite an emotional person, which I think should be pretty apparent already when you read through all my activities and reviews and stuff on here, but even then there is only a small hand of things that not only made me cry but that made me bawl. And when I say „bawl“, I mean
Like a little bitch.
This is one of those.
There is not a single chapter after chapter 5, where I haven’t cried, and I’m not talking about simply tearing up a little bit, no, I mean a full stream running down my face, and I can say one thing for certain after having now gone through this experience of the final chapter:
I am an empty, broken man.
And I wouldn’t want to have it any other way right now.
____
10/10
This needs more recognition,
and an anime adaptation.
That would be pretty cool, too.
This is not (just) a yuri manga, this is art.
It is
catharsis
in the truest possible sense of the word.
I might even prefer this over Bloom Into You
Not because of its romance, but because of its drama aspect and the way it weaves these powerful themes into these powerful characters.
I‘m looking at a potential number 2 in my Animanga 7x7 for the end of this year already this early on. (look at my profile bio if you want to know more about that.)
Something that surpassed even my own highest expectations, in a way that I wouldn’t have thought possible until now.
____
I’m still crying.
In fact
I don’t think I have EVER cried as much with something fictitious, or media related as today.
Maybe not even Aria. Maybe not even Torchwood season 2 (those who know, know.)
That’s how much this means to me right now.
I don’t think I have ever taken breaks
INBETWEEN PAGES OF A SINGLE CHAPTER.
Today
I did.
Never before have I uttered the words
„I don’t want to read these final pages“
in my life.
Today
I did.
I have never started to laugh uncontrollably because of how hard I was crying, making me look like I’m a complete and utter psychotic maniac.
Today
I did.
____
To reiterate, or rather correct my earlier statement above:
I am not an empty, broken man.
I am but a mere shell of an empty, broken man, drifting along in the winds of this world‘s indescribable loneliness.
That….. hurt…
a lot….
But I think it also saved me, in a way.
And I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
I do, too, Shizuku.
And I also want to believe that this story is real, at least that way I can justify crying myself to sleep because of this last night.
I want to ask the author of this, just once, if what they wrote here comes from personal experience, because this gets almost TOO real at times.