#Agawa Seichiro

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI BRACKET ROUND 1

Propaganda:

Ilya Tchaiko/Seichirou Agawa:

DEAR GOD BRO. you don't actually learn about the two of them until later in the manga but tchaiko is always talking about his record player that "an old friend" gave him and how much he loves music. in volume three we get some of their backstory and we find out it was seichirou that gave him the record player!!! we see them go on a few record buying dates and dancing together and it is truly unbearably sweet. i believe they are somewhere between 60 and 70? they met in college and have been together for 30 years, but seichirou got married and had a kid before then. in present day though seichirou is sick in the hospital. tchaiko visits him everyday though he makes sure he only visits when seichirou's son won't be there. this means he gets less time to spend with him :( finally, on the day of the main lesbian couple's wedding, tchaiko gets a text from seichirou's son saying he's in critical condition. tchaiko hesitates to go because he's scared but a mutual friend of theirs pushes him to go. when he gets there we get a sort of dream like visual where seichiro floats out of bed to hold tchaiko, looking how he did before he got sick, and they tell each other they loved spending their lives together. and then seichirou dies. it's soooooooooo sad that shit makes me cry every fucking time bro i cried getting the pictures but it's also soooooooo sweet love is so beautiful. AYUGH.

The manga has alot of different characters going through different things in their life, but all of these are different LGBTQ+ issues. These two are husbands who have spent most of their life together, and now have to accept that death will do them part. They often exchange classical music reccomandations that Tchaiko will play while Seichirou is in hospital and vice versa. Seichirou also has a son from a previous marriage so the manga touches on their relationship aswell. And (spoiler warning) but Seichirou dies from old age at the end of the manga and the scene is, while sad, also very heartwarming, as his son kind of realises the relationship the two of them have and tells him that "his favourite person is here"

Heavy/Medic:

They are referred to as boyfriends in an achievement (Beaux and Arrows) and on the official page for the End of the Line sfm it's described as "an action packed cinematic romp full of comedy action, romance action*, drama action, and actioney-type action.", there are no women in the sfm.

pretty sure they're both over 50 judging by some lines in the comic and their appearances (when the medic is asking satan to be put back on earth he says "another 50 years", implying he already lived for 50 years before he died). these two are typically seen together in canon as an unstoppable duo, and they are the KINGS of romanticizing surgery.

[tomoyoo]

[tanenigiri]

Review #29: Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare (Volume 4)

Japanese title: しまなみ誰そ彼 (Shimanami Tasogare)

Story and art: Yuhki Kamatani

English publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment

Number of volumes: 4 (complete)

A glimpse of several futures.

[CW: Mentions of homophobia]

(This review contains story spoilers.)

When I got my physical copies of Our Dreams at Dusk, one of the first things I noticed was how much thicker Volume 4 was compared to all the others. As I began reading the series though, I realized that this last volume was much longer because it had the very lofty task of wrapping up quite a number of plotlines brought up in the first three volumes. And when I realized that this volume was introducing new plot arcs on top of that, I almost wondered why it wasn’t even thicker than it already was.

That said, this does mean that there’s a lot I want to talk about in this volume, but since I don’t want this review to be too lengthy, I figured I’d just focus on the three couples that get the spotlight here. With two of them already in the front cover and the third in the back, I figured it’d feel right to give them the focus, as most of the smaller plot arcs revolve around one of them anyway.

And of course, I should start with the women of the hour - Daichi and Saki, who go through quite a lot before their wedding at Triangle House. With the volume starting out by reminding us that Saki has yet to come out to her parents, you can already sense that the story is building up to that moment. Saki’s been in the background for the past two volumes, so we don’t really get the sense that she’s more willing to face the situation now than she was in the first volume, but with a wedding on the horizon, she definitely finds it more urgent than ever before.

Unfortunately, the way Saki’s parents find out is less than ideal - someone outs her to them. While it’s definitely realistic, I can’t help but feel incredibly sorry for her, as she already had a lot of hesitation about coming out to her parents, so someone else ripping off that bandage from her must’ve stung a lot. Daichi is also at a loss with what to do, as we found out back in Volume 1 that when she came out to her own parents, it was less than ideal.

Thankfully, the couple’s confrontation with Saki’s parents turn out to go quite well. We get a really great speech from Saki’s father here, where he admits that he was very much against the idea when he first heard it. But immediately after, he said that he hated himself for even thinking that when his priority should be his daughter’s happiness. We get a funny interjection from Saki’s mother here, saying that she would’ve been furious with her husband if he didn’t take it the right way. She seems to have already made her peace with her daughter’s sexuality quite some time ago, as she said that she “had a feeling about it.” It might not be the sheer open-mindedness of Tomoko, but it’s pretty much the best possible outcome Saki could’ve gotten.

This ended up a lot more optimistic than I thought it was going to go, but both Daichi and Saki deserve it. Their wedding happens with both of their parents attending, and they finally get to be their true selves in front of their families. It’s the most definitively happy ending out of all the characters in this series, and while I wish we got a bit more build-up for it - especially from Saki’s perspective - I do think it’s a great note to end their plotline on.

Moving back a bit, the person who ends up outing Saki to her parents is Tsubaki’s father, who we know from previous volumes has a pretty warped view of the LGBT community as a whole. So when he visits the drop-in center to apologize to Saki (though he doesn’t find her there as this happens around the same time as Saki’s conversation with her parents), Tsubaki is understandably mad at his father’s insensitivity. The dad is taken aback by his son’s attitude, but he then connects the dots and asks Tsubaki who “dragged him into homosexuality.” We know from the previous volume that Tsubaki is still confused about his identity, so he understandably becomes very defensive at his dad’s assumptions.

Who ends up saving the day, though, is Tasuku, who not only makes the bold decision of coming out to Tsubaki’s father, but also tells him why such an action is important for any LGBT individual. It’s a really great scene for Tasuku, as not only does it show how much he’s learned about the LGBT community across the past volumes, but it also shows how much more comfortable he is about his sexuality. He’s spent the past volumes learning from everyone in the drop-in center while also dealing with his own issues, so to see Tasuku be a lot more confident in this volume is really nice.

This more confident Tasuku isn’t lost on Tsubaki either, who’s own feelings about his sexuality were already in a flux and were only made worse after that exchange with his father. It leads to this great scene between them where Tsubaki acknowledges Tasuku’s feelings for him but admits that he isn’t ready to face them just yet. This is probably my favorite ending out of all the characters in this series, as instead of treating Tsubaki’s uncertainty about his sexuality as an issue that needs to be solved, the story simply acknowledges it as something he’s continuously working on. I praised Utsumi’s character in Volume 3 for having a different approach to his sexuality, and I can say the same for Tsubaki here - even if we can make all the assumptions we can about it (especially after the epilogue), the fact that the story leaves Tsubaki’s identity open-ended is a great way to show that he himself isn’t ready to put a label on it just yet.

Admirably, Tasuku isn’t heartbroken about this admission, and he even reassures Tsubaki that being confused about his feelings is fine and that he should take all the time he needs to sort them out. Not only is Tasuku using his personal experiences here, but he’s also putting what he learned from Misora and Utsumi in the previous volumes to good use. It only adds to his character development I mentioned earlier, as the Tasuku from three volumes ago wouldn’t have had the same reaction as the Tasuku here. He seems to be heading toward his own happy ending, though, as the epilogue shows Tsubaki telling Tasuku that he can call him by his first name.

(I also have to briefly mention that Tsubaki gets quite touchy with Tasuku throughout this volume, and I find it hilarious that Tasuku’s reaction to these gestures is very mixed. He calls Tsubaki out on it in the epilogue but they don’t really address it, and I think Tsubaki knows that Tasuku likes it anyway.)

Shifting the good mood a bit is Tchaiko, who I don’t think I’ve mentioned in my previous reviews but has been one of the constant presences in the drop-in center since Volume 1. He’s the eldest among the regulars in the center, but we don’t really get much from him in the first three volumes apart from his love of classical music. He gets a full on arc here, though, when we find out that he’s been in a 30-year relationship with his partner, Seichiro, and Tchaiko constantly visits him in the hospital as Seichiro is dealing with a grave illness.

I already had a bad feeling about where this was going from the start, but the conflict of this plot arc doesn’t actually come from Seichiro’s numbered days - it actually sounds like they’ve both quietly accepted it and are only waiting for the inevitable. Instead, it revolves around how Tchaiko hasn’t come clean about his relationship with Seichiro’s son, Akira, and we find out that Tchaiko times his hospital visits so that he’s there when Akira isn’t watching over his father. I was pleasantly surprised that the story went this route, and it even makes for a nice parallel with the two other main conflicts I talked about above - what with all three of them dealing with family complications.

These two largely stay in the background for the middle part of the volume, but on the day of Daichi and Saki’s wedding, Tchaiko gets a text from Akira saying that Seichiro is in a critical condition. This definitely catches Tchaiko off-guard, as not only does he have to deal with the imminent death of the love of his life, but he also has to contend with the fact that Seichiro had apparently told Akira about him. He then has a great scene with Someone-San, who we find out earlier in the volume have been friends for quite some time even before the drop-in center existed. Tchaiko relays all of his worries and indecision to Someone-San, but all she does in the face of those doubts is to push Tchaiko and tell him to go. True enough, when he gets to the hospital, Akira only smiles in acknowledgment and gives Tchaiko the opportunity to say goodbye to Seichiro.

Even if I initially found it odd that the story would introduce a brand new plotline when it still had to wrap up quite a number of them, I really appreciated its inclusion in the end, as it has a really unique vibe when compared to all the other plot arcs of the series. I’m not sure if it’s because this deals with a more seasoned couple, but the sense of satisfaction I got from seeing this plotline resolved is a lot different from the other two I talked about above.

And, really, that’s what makes Our Dreams at Dusk such a standout title for me - how it’s able to handle all of these stories and give them the depth they deserve. I was a bit worried that this volume was biting off more than it could chew, but in the end I found myself liking where all of the characters ended up. Sure, I may have wanted more out of some characters, but that’s really just another way of saying that I didn’t want this series to end at all.

Random thoughts that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

Apart from Tchaiko, the other Cat Clutter member that finally gets the spotlight in this volume is Someone-San, who has really only spent the last three volumes being this mysterious presence that’s both critical to the plot and in the background. We find out here that she considers herself aromantic and asexual, but she doesn’t like putting a label on herself at all, with the name “Someone-San” even being given to her by Tchaiko and Seichiro. We also get a really great line from her about how her asexuality isn’t what defines her, and how it’s only one part of her entire identity. As much as I want to talk about her monologue about who she is, I honestly haven’t wrapped my head around it all that well and I feel like I’m still missing certain pieces about that chapter. I will say that it was a great set of panels though.

One of the other plotlines that gets wrapped up in this volume is Misora's, as Tasuku wants to invite him to Daichi and Saki’s wedding. It goes a lot better than I expected, as Tasuku simply goes through all of the things that he did wrong and asks for Misora’s forgiveness, which he gives almost nonchalantly, but you can tell that he appreciates the gesture. (Also his look in the wedding is his best one in the series.)

I’m kinda surprised that we didn’t get more from Tasuku and Tsubaki’s school life here, as I would’ve expected more people to point out the changed dynamic between the two of them considering that Tsubaki’s fairly popular and Tasuku isn’t. The only one who does point it out is Tachibana, Tasuku’s closest friend in school and teammate in the table tennis club, and all he really says is how he wants to join in on the fun too. I wonder if he’ll notice that there’s more going on between them?

Thanks for reading! You can read my review of the first two volumes here, and my review of the third volume here. Our Dreams at Dusk has really gone up my personal rankings the more I reread it, as there’s really nothing quite like it among the manga I’ve read so far. It’s a really emotional and fulfilling series, and I highly recommend it.

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

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im a simple bitch, tchaiko says “ agawa seichiro-san. the love of my life.” and i BAWL

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]