I’ve just finished catching up with the currently published volumes of 光が死んだ夏 | L27. It’s been pretty good so far, and not quite what I was expecting, so I wanted to type up a bit here. I didn’t originally post a review since it has a few already, but maybe I will after this.
(Quick rough summary for those who haven’t heard of the series: one day main character Yoshiki finds out that his best friend Hikaru has been replaced by “something” that looks and acts just like his friend. The story that follows examines the mystery of the “something” and Yoshiki’s thoughts and feelings regarding his original friend vs. this new one.)
This series was originally sold to me as “cosmic horror BL written almost entirely in 関西弁” (hence my recent push to learn more of it and find more resources for it, haha. Colloquial Kansai Japanese―まいど! おおきに! 関西弁 (Tuttle language library) | L15 is excellent for this purpose, by the way), and I wanted to expand on those particular points, as they’ve been on my mind while I read.
(Posting my thoughts under a dropdown; there’s nothing necessarily spoiler-y about them, mostly just my thoughts and impressions thus far, and if I do talk about actual spoilers I’ll blur them. Note: for clarity’s sake, I’ll be writing Yoshiki’s friend’s Hikaru’s name as 光 to refer to the original and ヒカル to refer to the replacement, as per the manga.)
Thoughts
The first claim I’d say isn’t quite true, insofar as it’s not what I typically think of of “cosmic horror”, where I tend to think more of Lovecraft’s style of unknowability. The “something” introduced in volume one and the later expanded upon later in the series feel very Japanese-folklore influenced, to the point where as I read I get more Fatal Frame vibes than anything else. That of course makes sense given this is a Japanese series set in a very rural Japanese town, but it’s a big cognitive leap from something like, say, The Color Out of Space.
The second descriptor, “BL”, is also a surprisingly interesting one. (Minor story spoilers) Though it’s never said outright, Yoshiki’s actions and thoughts definitely lead to the conclusion that he was in love with 光, and while we’re still in the midst of figuring things out with ヒカル, (a slight step up story spoilers), the author seems to be adhering pretty well to the fact that ヒカル is not human, and thus does not seem to posses the typical human concept/capacity of “romantic love”. Introducing a seemingly asexual character in this kind of situation is a fun one, and I hope the author stays true to what they’ve been building so far. (Tagging @monace for that previous spoiler; I don’t know if there’s a Korean translation of this book, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was.) Based on the bonus short story at the end of volume five, things seem promising.
And finally, all that darn 関西弁. Yep, we’ve got it in droves here. Feels like I’m reading through a foggy glass, haha. I even bought volume 1 in English to re-check myself the first time, then re-read through the whole thing again in Japanese to try to solidify it all. If this series were not written in 関西弁, it would be graded four or five levels easier, guaranteed. The language is not difficult, but the 関西弁 raises it for a lot of people simply because it’s not 標準語.
Bonus: while not actually slice of life or anything, that’s the kind of pace I feel like the story has sometimes. Could just be an artifact of being set out in the middle of nowhere, or done intentionally by the author, but I definitely don’t get a traditional sense of dread from reading this; I wish I did, though, I feel like it would really elevate the whole experience.
Anyway, that’s all I had at the moment. The story is still very much in full swing, and of course volume five had to end on a cliffhanger… I’m looking forward to reading more, and I definitely encourage anyone interested to give it a try!
(seems to be a yuri trope)
Probably going to take a week of mostly Ni No Kuni then get back to novels after that.
