The end of summer

If only summers could be as beautiful as the story you write yourself. If only summers could last forever by reading the story made specially for you over and over. This story about Shizuku and Kaori was one filled with so much pain and so much beauty at the same time. The writing of this story is amazing and the characters are made very well and even with how predictable the plot was, it still got me in the end.

We start off this story with our first main character named Shizuku. This story starts very dark right from the start. Shizuku struggles with major depression and seems to finally have come to terms with taking her own life. The story gets a very dark setting from the very start because of this but it will fit the rest of the story amazingly later on. At the start we see Shizuku finishing the novel she was writing, stating that she needs to get rid of the final paper manuscript and disappear together with her story; however before she can do that, she gets saved. I will have to be honest that at the very start I was not too fond of Shizuku. She meets an amazingly sweet girl named Kaori who proposes to be her pretend girlfriend. The reason for this is when Kaori bumped into Shizuku trying to throw away the final manuscript of the novel she takes it home and reads it. Kaori’s hunch was right, the text written was not just something, it was Shizuku’s suicide letter conveyed in a story.

After Kaori found out about this she set her mind to one thing, try to save Shizuku. Soon into the story after Shizuku and Kaori hang out for a bit we get the first important reveal done by Shizuku. She explains why she distances herself from everyone and the past that haunts her. The action in question here was the bullying she has done in the past. She tells Kaori and runs off when Kaori tells her she already knew about it since they attended the same school back then. I will have to admit that this, at least at this moment in the story, felt a bit hollow. At some point Kaori tells Shizuku that no matter what she should not give up living her life. This is when it got painfully clear to me where this story was going. It made me continue reading, thinking the tells are there, Kaori won’t be with us anymore but here we are worrying about something bad you did before as a kid. At this part I felt a bit frustrated by it but it was also the reason I couldn’t stop reading, I wanted to know what comes next.

Kaori conveniently knows the girl in question, the one that was bullied by Shizuku. She helps Shizuku to set up her apology so that she can get over this traumatic experience for her. In the meetup we see two girls named Ruri and Seri. Ruri, the girl that was bullied by Shizuku was still scared by her meanwhile Seri is the one that has been supporting Ruri all this time. The apology situation felt like it was the main progress of this story until the end, when just as Ruri and Seri left, Kaori suddenly collapsed. My suspicion sadly got confirmed, Kaori is sick and there won’t be any possibilities to save her at this point. Even with this being the saddest thing in this manga, it is the place where the story really took off. Shizuku obviously struggles with what she learned now and has a hard time accepting reality as it is. This sweet girl named Kaori, the one that saved her, is dying? Even with how expectable it was it still hits you when it becomes reality.

At this point in the story we arrive at the part that makes us realize the real thing this story tries to tell us. This story is a story of inevitability and a story about treasuring life while you can, don’t just take it for granted. In these coming chapters we see Shizuku trying her hardest to fulfil any wishes Kaori might have but the one truly important here is the story she writes. A love story about Shizuku and Kaori but one where she never got sick. I feel like this part of the manga kept telling us a very important lesson. Even in times of pain and struggle, in times where old issues keep holding you back today, you need to learn how to move on. You need to appreciate those that are next to you and you shouldn’t take kindness and good times for granted because in the end, you never know when it might be the last moment that will feel this good. Throughout the manga I stayed strong reading it, obviously the situations were sad and it hurt reading it but there was one moment that just got to me. I really really liked Kaori, she tried so hard to leave her mark on the world in the most positive way she could, save Shizuku, make her little sister connect with others and make sure Ruri and Shizuku make up with each other. She did everything she could and she succeeded in it all but then she spoke the words, the words that are not weird for anyone to say, worded in the most simple way, hit me like nothing else has in this manga: ‘I don’t want to die’.

Kaori, who always was the strongest person, finally spoke up, saying what we all were thinking, I don’t want Kaori to die. Why is this world so unfair, why did she deserve to die? Well it's simple, she didn’t deserve it. It is cruel but sadly we can’t do anything about it and that is how the world works at times. At the end of the story we learn so many things. The real reason why Shizuku fell back into depression again, which gave it so much more meaning. At this point we also learn that Kaori back in one of her lowest points in life was a fan of Shizuku’s novel. The story that saved Kaori was written by the same person she ends up saving too. I just love to see how this played out and I am so glad that Kaori in the end still could read the ending of their love story. If I’m being honest I was scared throughout the whole thing that she would not make it to the end of the story so her reading it did make me very happy.

One final thing I really want to note about this manga is that while yes, this is a very sad story. It is super painful and no matter how badly you want Kaori to survive, that's just not a reality that exists. Even with all this, in my opinion this is not a heartbreaking story. This ending doesn't feel like an ending to make you feel stuck but more as an ending to encourage you to keep going. I feel like this was perfectly shown through Seri picking up Shizuku and telling her to accept reality already. Kaori wouldn't want us to sit down and cry all day for how it ended but to get up and get it done with her message in mind. And that’s what makes the end of this story, while it's still very sad, very beautiful in its own way.

The Summer You Were There was a beautiful manga, filled with a lot of pain while holding an extremely beautiful message at the same time. I am happy I experienced this manga and I would recommend this to others too for sure! This is a story I won’t be forgetting and I’ll take the messages within with me, just as Kaori would’ve wanted. My final rating is a 9.2, for now! I want to reread this at some point and I feel like that would bring the score up even more because the more I think about this story, the more I appreciate it.